This Lego E.T. Might Make Amends for the Infamously Horrible Atari Game

E.T. is a classic movie… and classically disastrous video game. You’re probably familiar with the story. In 1982, Atari, then the dominant force in home entertainment, secured the rights to the reigning No. 1 film of all time, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. But instead of delivering a game worthy of its namesake, the Atari adaptation was a rushed, buggy, blocky mess. The financial blow sent Atari reeling. So many cartridges went unsold that the company buried upwards of a million copies in a New Mexico landfill, unearthed years later in footage captured by the crew for the documentary Atari: Game Over.

Related: When Every Movie Was an Atari Game

Now, after decades as the poster creature for bad games (those Game Boy and PlayStation titles of the early aughts didn’t help), the irrepressible alien is back for another go-round, this time starring in an expansion set for Lego Dimensions. Based on a new teaser (watch at the top of this story), the E.T. “fun pack” will allow players to relive key plot points from the film — much more coherently than the Atari version, by the looks of it.

The alien can also interact with other licensed characters available in Dimensions, including those from Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Goonies, Mission: Impossible, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, DC superheroes, and The Simpsons.

Related: Tom Cruise, Harry Potty, E.T., Ghostbusters Team Up for Lego Game

While E.T. has been the subject of a few games, this is, surprisingly, the first time he has been morphed into Lego form. A few years ago, there was a cool proposal for an E.T.-based set on the the toy maker’s incubation site, which solicits ideas from fans and then promises to mass-produce the concepts if there’s enough community support (think of it as a Lego Kickstarter), but the project fell short of the vote threshold.

Meanwhile, the upcoming E.T. pack, containing a minifigure of the alien along with a transformable “phone home” accessory, will be on sale in mid-November for $11.99.