Best games

The best of Atari Games

The 5 best games from Atari Games, ranked from 300 critic and player ratings.

The best game from Atari Games is Gauntlet (1985), with a critic score of 77/100. Updated October 2026.

Ranked releases span 1984 to 1994.
Average critic score across the 5 ranked games: 68/100.
300 critic and player ratings behind this ranking.

How this ranking is built

Games are ranked on the aggregated critic score out of 100 imported from IGDB and Metacritic, never on Tier's own grades.
A game only enters the ranking with at least 30 external ratings, so a single enthusiastic review never outranks a proven classic.
Community grades from F to S are shown next to every game, and only stated as a fact above 5 Tier ratings.
Release window covered: 1970 to 2026.
5 games are listed on this page, carrying 300 ratings between them.
Rankings are recomputed hourly; this one was last rebuilt on 12 October 2026.

Top 5

Gauntlet (1985) 1985 · 48 ratings The players, up to four at once in the arcade version, select among four playable fantasy-based characters; Thor the Warrior, Merlin the Wizard, Thyra the Valkyrie, or Questor the Elf. Each character has his or her own unique strength and weaknesses. For example, the Warrior is strongest in hand-to-hand combat, the Wizard has the most powerful magic, the Valkyrie has the best armour and the Elf is the fastest in movement. Upon selecting a playable character, the gameplay is set within a series of top-down, third-person perspective mazes where the object is to find and touch the designated exit in every level. An assortment of special items can be located in each level that increase player's character's health, unlock doors, gain more points and magical potions that can destroy all of the enemies on screen. The enemies are an assortment of fantasy-based monsters, including ghosts, grunts, demons, lobbers, sorcerers and thieves. Each enters the level through specific generators, which can be destroyed. While there are no bosses in the game, the most dangerous enemy is "Death", who can not only drain a character's health, but is difficult to destroy. As the game progresses, higher levels of skill are needed to reach the exit, with success often depending on the willingness of the players to cooperate by sharing food and luring monsters into places where they can be engaged and slaughtered more conveniently. While contact with enemies reduces the player's health, it also slowly drains on its own, thus creating a time limit. When a character's health reaches zero, that character dies. The character can be revived in place with full health by spending a game credit (i.e. inserting a coin) within a certain short time window after it died. This allows even the least proficient players to keep playing indefinitely, if they are willing to keep inserting coins. 77 /100

Paperboy 1984 · 100 ratings Paperboy is a 1985 arcade game by Atari Games originally developed in 1984 . The players take the role of a paperboy who delivers newspapers along a suburban street on his bicycle. The game was ported to numerous video game consoles and personal computers. Paperboy was innovative for its theme and novel controls. The player controls a paperboy on a bicycle delivering newspapers along a suburban street which is displayed in a cabinet perspective (or oblique projection) view. The player attempts to deliver a week of daily newspapers to subscribing customers, attempts to vandalize non-subscribers' homes and must avoid hazards along the street. Subscribers are lost by missing a delivery or damaging a subscriber's house. 77 /100

Marble Madness 1984 · 73 ratings Marble Madness is an isometric platform game in which the player manipulates an onscreen marble from a third-person perspective. The player controls the marble's movements with a trackball, though most home versions use game controllers with directional pads. The aim of the game is for the player to complete six maze-like, isometric race courses before a set amount of time expires. When a player completes a race, the remaining time is added to the next race's allotted time. The game also allows two players to compete against each other. Courses are populated with various objects and enemies designed to obstruct the player. As the game progresses, the courses become increasingly difficult and introduce more enemies and obstacles. Each course has a distinct visual theme. For example, the first race, titled "Practice", is a simple course that is much shorter than the others, while the fifth race, named "Silly", features polka-dot patterns and is oriented in a direction opposite from the other courses 68 /100

Gauntlet II 1986 · 31 ratings The gameplay is very similar to the original Gauntlet, a topdown dungeon crawl supporting up to four players. The biggest difference from the original game is that players can choose identical classes, instead of being limited to a particular one for each joystick; each player is differentiated by color. Thus, instead of having a "warrior", "wizard", and "valkyrie" (for instance), in Gauntlet II there could be a "red wizard", a "blue elf" and a "green warrior". In addition to the new "class" system, new level designs were added, including the possibility of encountering them in altered ways by having the play-field turned in steps of 90°. Other new features included the enemy "It", which upon contact would make a player "It" and draw all enemies towards him/her. The only way to release this curse is by touching another player or entering the exit, turning any level containing "It" into a fantasy filled game of tag. Other notable additions include the ability to ricochet shots off walls by means of a special pick-up, acid puddles that caused large, predetermined amounts of damage and a large dragon which would occupy multiple squares and require multiple hits to destroy. New level elements were also added, adding more variety to the original game. These included "all walls are invisible", "magic walls" which changed into monsters or items when hit, "stun tiles" which stunned the player, and fake exits. Another challenge in the game is the possibility to find a "secret room". This can be found by completing specific achievements within the level (e.g., "don't be fooled", means that you must find the real exit first). The secret room contains items such as food and magic potions (extra shot power, extra shot speed, extra magic power, extra speed, extra armor and extra fight power). This sequel was also the first to feature what is now known as the Gauntlet theme tune, which resembles a simplified Baroque fugue. 68 /100

Primal Rage 1994 · 48 ratings Primal Rage is a one-on-one fighting game featuring dinosaurs and giant apes as the fighters. The graphics are done with digitized stop-motion animation. Gameplay is similar to Mortal Kombat in that it is viewed from a side perspective, and features deadly finishing moves at the end of the match. 50 /100

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What is the best game from Atari Games?

Gauntlet (1985) currently tops the ranking with a score of 77/100 across 48 ratings. Ranking updated October 2026.

How is this ranking built?

Games are ranked on their aggregated critic score out of 100, with a minimum vote threshold so a single glowing review never outranks a proven classic; the Tier community's own F-to-S grades are shown alongside each game.

The best of Atari Games

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