I do see what you’re saying but how I see it, and thinking of all the awful movie tie in games from NES era, ET felt better than average in theme. He had to find the phone pieces and avoid the government agents while wandering in the woods. Not too too different from the movie theme in overall thinking.

Now I’m not saying gameplay was good or anything but think of all the cheesy tie in movie games of the NES era, they’re all some random platformer which sometimes alluded to they had a movie name. Of course there were good ones but best ones I can think of were Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers, not tied to a specific movie or episode. Then you get your Back to the Future has little to do with the actual movie.

It wasn’t so bad if you were a young kid in the 80s. Least my experience. Like what, I supposed to kill the shield of yars revenge again? Well that was more fun but still, needed variety.

That said would I play it again? Fuck no. Course I wouldn’t frost my hair tips again either, or willingly wear neon either.

I had fun playing it in the mid 80s but I didn’t have a ton of games at the time either. Have a fond memory of it overall (maybe because I liked the movie), and still enjoying video games these days. Don’t think I played the Indiana Jones one to compare though.