Can a game suck no matter how technically well-made it is?

[SpiceWare]

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Atari 2600)
...
The game was ruined by overly-complex controls, and poor screen layouts. :/

Main issue was the pixel perfect hardware collision detection of the 2600 made the wells the pits as they were so easy to fall into that it rapidly became annoying. Once I learned this trick I found the game to be quite fun.

How to Handle the Wells

Never let E.T. drop fast and smack hard into the bottom of a well (you'll lose around 270 energy units). You can save a lot of energy by releasing the joystick and pressing the fire button to catch yourself in mid air as soon as you start to fall. You can then gently lower yourself to the bottom (or float out if you didn't mean to fall in).

I was also very impressed with the sound effects, especially when the ship lands. They must be heard on real hardware though, emulation's a poor imitation (Stella has improved a lot since this video, but is still off).

You may like to check the ROM out from this site - Fixing E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600. Main thing they did was revise the collision detection so only E.T.'s feet are used for collision detection. Makes a huge difference - you can now safely stand like this without falling in!

figure4.png (5.84 KiB) Viewed 1041 times

[Voor]

Didn't NMS get a massive patch to fix a lot of things and add some of the gameplay elements it advertised? Wonder how well that went over...

[pacman000]

I've read RandomTerrain's review, & I enjoyed E.T. the first time I played it. Just trying to figure out why it's generally poorly received, so I listed a few things I found frustrating which other reviews also found frustrating.

I am afraid some reviews who bash on E.T. have a poor understanding of Atari 2600 games in general; on a technical level it's not that bad, just frustrating.

Hardcore Gaming 101 also has a good article on E.T. http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/extraterrestrial/et.htm
They seem to have a good understanding of games across multiple systems & generations, & they admit the game isn't the worst ever.

It was a best seller, even after Atari dumped all those carts.

[Atariboy]

I'm not saying these two games suck since it's quite evident that they don't, but they just don't work for me for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. And those two games are Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends.

I love 2D platformers (Although I'm not crazy for the original Rayman) and I love the beautiful level environments of both games, but I just find myself annoyed. I don't like the character designs and even the audio gets on my nerves. As a fan of 2D platformers that is fast running out of them on the Wii U, I took another look at both of these recently thinking I'd finally buy them on the Wii/Wii U after perhaps being too hasty when they were new.

So far, no such luck. I wish they'd click with me and sometimes that happens when I revisit something I dismissed in the past, but for me, these are two games that seem destined to not ever mesh with me despite the praise they get, the high production values and my love for 2D platformers.

Did anyone else not fall head over heels with these at first glance, yet end up loving both games after a few hours? Maybe I need to spend more than 20-30 minutes with them, if so.