I've been reading a lot of worst of lists as far as video games and this one pops up on said list a lot. I can agree that it deserves its spot on such a list; however, I generally think it absurd when it appears in the top spot. Superman on the Nintendo 64 is another game I see a lot of and have seen it number one and that one I think is a better contender for the spot as I do not even think this is the worst playing Atari 2600 game. With that being the case, then no, it absolutely is not the worst video game of all time.
The story, well you are E.T. and I give them props for making you control E.T. rather than Elliot. You wander the landscape looking for things so that you may piece them together to make a device to call the mothership and head home. That is about all there is to it and it is repetitious and gets old quick. I may think it is unfairly ranked as the worst game of all time, but I didn't say it was good; however, how many games for the Atari were not overpriced boring games where you did little beyond one simple task? The designer had only five weeks to program this and, frankly, Atari most likely felt the need to get this game ready in time for Christmas due to the fact they paid the absurd price of 25 million to Steven Spielberg for the rights, yikes!
In the end, the developer probably did as well as he could in the limited time frame. The dude also made the very fun Yar's Revenge, but then he made the overly complicated Raiders of the Lost Ark too. Honestly, Atari should have given Steven the finger instead of 25 million, because honestly, E.T. was not a action movie, it had very little going on and is more known for its comedy moments and pulling at the heartstrings. There is really nothing to make a game about in there, unless you perhaps adapt the bike chase at the end and make it much longer than it was, then it would be like the other half of the Atari library, where you speed around doing something as the enemy gets progressively faster until you die.
E.T. has not been in too many things since the movie. No more movies, which considering how they make sequels to stuff these days I am surprised it has not happened, no more anything really. He has appeared in like two other games, but I couldn't tell you if they are computer games or console games so it isn't like they were big hits either. I believe his most memorable apperance was for being in that horrible Universal Studios game which is another game I consider worse than this thing and does include the bike scene! In the end, I just do not think it is a property that would work all that well in a video game and apparently in nothing else except the one movie, though it is nice that they accepted this and have not tried to dig him out of the attic like they do to another alien all the time, I'm looking at you ALF!
