Kids join Elliott and Gertie in playing a board game to help winsome E.T. find items so he can “phone home.”
Children can play alone or with a friend as they roll virtual dice to move through three different game boards. At first, the game board is the layout of the upstairs of the house. Once all the items are found there, E.T. and the kids search for items downstairs and eventually outside.
Certain squares on the board flash to indicate that they lead to mini-games which, if won, can earn a needed item for E.T. There are 15 different games. Kids will sort petals to make flowers, unscramble pictures, move falling stuffed animals into a position to hide E.T., and even arrange the planets in order from the sun. The mini-games are a mixture of arcade and thinking.
The graphics are excellent—particularly E.T.’s expressions. The wide variety of mini-games makes the board game fun to play. If playing with a friend, the two players cooperate together instead of competing—a refreshing innovation.
Minor flaws in the game include negative feedback in some of the mini-games (“You aren’t very good”), no control on difficulty levels, and a cumbersome die-rolling sequence.
Bottom line: A good (but not great) way to extend the magic of E.T.
All tech products are judged on a five star scale by looking at the following factors: fun, education, ease of use, value, and technical.
