The Best 2600 Game, Period

A spirited defense of my favorite game on the Atari 2600 video game cartridge. Nope, it's not Pitfall.

According to that thread I mentioned from Atari Age, here are the rankings:
1. Pitfall
2. Pitfall II
3. Adventure
4. River Raid
5. Missile Command
6. Space Invaders
7. Kaboom!
8. H.E.R.O.
9. Yars' Revenge
10. Asteroids
11. Ms. Pac-Man
12. Berzerk
13. Warlords
14. Enduro
15. Keystone Kapers
16. Demon Attack
17. Frogger
18. Solaris
19. Super Breakout
20. Frostbite
21. Phoenix
22. Seaquest
23. Dig Dug
23. Centipede
25. Megamania
26. Q*Bert
27. Galaxian
28. Joust
29. Circus Atari
30. Defender
31. Pac-Man
32. Combat
33. Beamrider
34. Jungle Hunt
35. Millipede
36. Defender II
37. Cosmic Ark
38. Moon Patrol
39. Jr. Pac-Man
40. Pressure Cooker
41. Tapper
41. Raiders of the Lost Ark
43. Pole Position
44. Montezuma's Revenge
45. California Games
46. Mario Bros.
47. Donkey Kong
48. Crystal Castles
49. Stampede
50. Dragonfire
51. Battlezone
51. Midnight Magic
53. Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
54. Haunted House
55. Atlantis
56. Starmaster
56. Superman
58. Indy 500
59. Chopper Command
60. Breakout
61. Vanguard
62. Mountain King
62. Robot Tank
62. Solar Fox
65. BMX Airmaster
66. Turmoil
67. Ice Hockey
68. E.T.
68. Video Pinball
70. Dark Cavern
71. Decathlon
71. Dragster
73. Bump N Jump
74. Tron: Deadly Discs
75. Subterranea
75. Tennis
77. Spider Fighter
78. Barnstorming
78. Dodge 'Em
80. Video Olympics
80. Freeway
82. Fast Food
82. Frankenstein's Monster
84. Adventures of Tron
84. Tunnel Runner
86. Double Dragon
86. Kangaroo
86. Star Wars: Arcade
89. Bowling
89. Tomcat: The F-14 Fighter Simulator
91. Boxing
91. Dark Chambers
91. Moonsweeper
91. Mr. Do
95. Gravitar
95. Smurfs: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle
95. Star Wars: Death Star Battle
98. Fathom
98. Klax
100. Fantastic Voyage
101. Reactor
101. Venture
103. Maze Craze
103. Pengo
103. Laser Gates
106. Dolphin
106. Frogs & Flies
106. Kung Fu Master
106. River Raid II
106. Secret Quest
106. Space Shuttle
106. Star Raiders
106. Track & Field
106. Tutankham
115. Desert Falcon
115. No Escape
115. Plaque Attack
115. Private Eye
115. Wizard of Wor
120. Fast Eddie
120. Fishing Derby
120. Popeye
120. Snoopy & the Red Baron
120. Super Cobra
120. Towering Inferno
126. Miner 2049er
126. Night Driver
128. Crazy Climber
128. Halloween
128. Lock N Chase
128. Jawbreaker
128. Spacemaster X-7
133. Air Raiders
133. Commando
133. Ghostbusters
133. Outlaw
133. Quadron
133. Rampage
133. Skiing
133. Spiderman
133. Taz
142. Donkey Kong Jr.
142. Frontline
142. Space Attack
142. Winter Games
146. Ghost Manor
146. Mousetrap
146. Realsports Tennis
149. Planet Patrol
149. Realsports Volleyball
149. Spy Hunter
152. Amidar

Link to that thread is here.
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#retrogaming #atari

[jessragan]

Megamania is a fantastic game for sure, but my favorite 2600 game (and a sure contender for the best of all time) is Solaris. It's deep! It's challenging! It looks incredible! It's the 2600 firing on all cylinders, and as a showpiece for the system it just doesn't get any better.

[jdunlap]

Thank you for defending THE best game on the 2600. When I started building my collection, it was the first game I intentionally sought out. As a kid, I spent hours playing it. Your points about its greatness are spot on, and I have never understood those who deride Megamania while upholding games like Space Invaders by saying that Megamania is repetitive. It is everything but.

[GamingTheSystems]

So yeah, this is another video that has been "moved" from my other channel to this one. I increased it to 60 FPS, altered the timing of some of the jokes, and did a few other things.

[wettuga]

Your wife participation was perfect, specially "breaking the 4th wall" when speaking to us about the text she read but knew nothing about the game. She should participate more often, it might help becoming more comfortable with the videos.

[rjc_]

Your wife's honest support is exactly how my wife would chime in to help me. That was a nice touch.

[rk]

Star Raiders. It was the one game Atari had that Colecovision couldn't beat.

[lawrencemcstephens]

Another great video, dude! Megamania was one of my favorite games, and I regret selling my Atari 2600 all those years ago. You're inspiring me to want to pick another one of those consoles up just so I can play in this one again, and also have a few others that I absolutely loved playing back then. River Raid, Burgertime, Missile Command, Jr./Ms. Pac-Man, Oink!, Jungle Hunt, Breakout, Space Invaders, Mario Bros., and Demon Attack, just to name a few. Also, not sure if you've ever played Dragonfire, but that was also one of my absolute favorites!

[tonycoffee]

Yes, Atari video!!!
Thank you for the good videos. This is my favorite channel. Simple and to the point. Keep up the good work !

[DisneyBatchman]

My love of Astro Blaster just adds to my love of Megamania!

[mrmojorisin]

All games are not derivative. Missile Command, for example, was completely original. Megamania was one more entry in the extremely crowded field of slide n shoots. That’s why it never received that attention it perhaps deserves.

[daviddahlstrom]

I never had Megamania back in the day, but for all the reasons you give, there is no reason why it shouldn't get a GOAT award by those who loved it. And while I personally would have put Phoenix, Space Invaders, and Demon Attack above it in the vertical shooter department, I must confess that it would be more for reasons of nostalgia since Megamania genuinely does offer a greater dimension of gameplay. If you love Megamania, and have access to MAME or the original machine, make sure you also give Astro Blaster a try which offers very similar gameplay, even better than Megamainia IMO, but of course, which had actual arcade machine tech to work with.

My personal GOAT award, for what its worth (while ignoring nostalgia), I think would go to Mountain King. This was one of the last (if not the last) cartridge I ever bought for my 2600 before moving on to the Colecovision, but despite its clunky jump control (that once you're used to, isn't too bad), brought forth one of the most original and deep platformers, combining the fantastic use of sound and music clues and cues, platforming skills, collect-the-dot maze runner attributes, both horizontal and vertical scrolling, randomly placed secret treasure hunt, and race-to-the-end mechanics all while remaining surprisingly spooky and mysterious. If you try it though, make sure you read the manual. It's a must.

[PapaBradsGaming]

What a great video. I need to play MEGAMANIA!

[markracer]

MEGAMANIA was and still is awesome to play to this day... Love your channel, dude!!!

[imaxjunior]

I have to admit, i didn't see it coming - 'Megamania'. Good video explaining why.

[Severius]

I've never played Megamania, but you made a strong case for it. I'll have to check it out. Great video!

[moshingsafely]

Great video, and hello to your wife! Megamania is definitely an impressive achievement, but I had a hard time getting into it because of its visual intensity. The enemies wrapping around from one side of the screen to the other makes them feel like an endless hoard, and when they started moving down and crashing into me I was just overwhelmed psychologically! Perhaps that inaccessibility keeps some people from ranking it higher.

[jnbloss]

Thanks for the very interesting and spirited celebration of Megamania. Will try it out! :)

[themidcentrist]

I enjoy Megamania but Spider Fighter, Demon Attack, and Atlantis are higher on my personal 2600 shooter list. Those games have a lot of atmosphere which is something difficult to pull off on the Atari 2600. I think the 5200 / 8-bit version of Megamania is the definitive version of the game since it easier to tell exactly what the strange objects you are shooting actually represent. As far as Laser Blast goes...I think it is one of the worst games on the 2600. Being able to kamikaze the cannons doesn't make up for how repetitive the game is even by 2600 standards.

[frankly]

Yay! He's back, missed seeing your videos, I saw the last one you recently came out with too. These are great. I never grew up with those, my first system was NES, but that game looks very innovative for the Atari, with all the points you made and such. Very interesting!

[andyauthor]

A friend of mine and I loved playing Megamania back in the day. In fact on the occasions we get together these days, we always pop it in and give it a shot for the nostalgia and for old times sake. H.E.R.O. is still the best Atari 2600 game of all time though.