Well, the game was horribly unplayable.
No it isn't.
You'd keep falling in holes you can't get past, once you get out of the holes, you'd fall in more, and you couldn't beat the game.
The game was awkwardly programmed due to the short time frame Howard was given to finish the game in the first place. Yeah the pits are annoying and tedious as hell to get out of, but there is a way to get out of them and avoid them correctly and once you get that down packed completing the game will be easier.
It was so bad, it was buried in a landfill in Atlanta.
*New Mexico, also it wasn't only ET that was buried in the landfill, it was also accompanied by other unsold atari games, et just happened to be the game that was mostly buried in that landfill because they foolishly mass produced millions of copies of the game expecting it to be a huge success.
Now of course I'm not defending the game. ET's a bad game, but we've came a long way since then. Most of the games on the nominations list are miles worse and far more broken and unplayable than ET.
Poll