Burying E.T. (2024)
a FREEWARE game by ‘Florent Deloison’ for the Atari VCS
Written for BrewOtaku #001 by Syed Raza
Occasionally we stumble upon a release that is based on an actual historical event. Burying E.T. is inspired by a real event that took place in 1983.
Dump it!
Back in the days, Atari performed a legendary mass burial of a specific unsold video game, in the deserts of New Mexico, USA. According to certain sources, the decision was taken by Atari, after the nerve-wracking failure of “E.T.” E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial, is a 1982 American science fiction film by Steven Spielberg, a masterpiece of its time, but the video game for the Atari VCS however, failed badly. Critics labelled it as the ‘biggest video game failure of history’ as the company was forced to dump nearly 700,000 copies of the game! E.T. is also not the only game you will find on the dump, but this is possibly material for another time.
Enough stories and history: How well does ‘Burying E.T.’ actually work? The gameplay takes you back in time. Copies of E.T. are not selling well, and you are responsible for dumping them.
Using a bulldozer, you must drag every pile that pops up to the hole before time runs out. If you’re short on time, frequent power-ups might help you to buy a few seconds, if you want to. The game lacks any levels, so it’s more of a casual game, where you play as much as you please.
The graphics are pretty average, nothing but heavily pixelated objects. Controls are up to the mark. We really wish a little more of the energy could have flown into the visuals. Music, on the other hand, genuinely hits the right spot!
Conclusion
Every game that has history is always a special release, however, what we have as today, makes just an average casual game. The idea is excellent, the execution lost a chance for something much better.
