This year marks the 30th anniversary of E.T., which hit theaters during the incredible genre summer of 1982.
The anniversary is being celebrated with the film’s Blu-ray release, and E.T. was an incredible phenomenon that seemingly came out of nowhere. Yes, Steven Spielberg had a great track record, but E.T. was the little movie that could. It cost $10 million dollars, and it became the biggest grossing film of its time that moved moviegoers all over the world.
Yet when the news hit that there’s a new E.T. game in the works, the first thought that would come to mind to anybody is, “Is this a good idea?”
Anyone who knows their gaming history can tell you that the E.T. video game was a huge disaster, and it helped hasten the demise of Atari.
How could this have happened? E.T. made hundreds of millions of dollars, Atari had their biggest year ever, and there were tons of kids playing games then. How could this lose?
As it turned out, the E.T. game was rushed to make a Christmas release date, the gaming market had peaked, the E.T. game wasn’t that well made, and as one pundit put it, E.T. wasn’t a smart idea for a video game because gamers love to kill things. A cute and cuddly alien completely went against that.
These days, the E.T. game disaster is a distant memory, and the public indeed has very short recall. So now as MCV reports, the powers that be are going to give another game a try, E.T. The Green Planet. You can get the game for free at Apple’s App Store.
Unlike E.T.’s adventure on earth, this game takes place on the alien’s home planet, and the game is environmentally conscious.
Here E.T. tries to save nature on his own turf, and as an executive involved in the game told MCV:
“ET the Extra-Terrestrial is one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made and conjures up nostalgia for countless fans around the world. We are excited commemorate this global cultural phenomenon by publishing an amazing new game.”
Yet as MCV jokes, “you can’t bury digital games in the desert!” referring to the fact that tons of the original E.T. games were dumped in a landfill in New Mexico and tarred over.
So here’s to hoping the new game fares much better, because it sure can’t do any worse.
