It would be an understatement to say Atari did nothing but flop after the 2600. One after the other they released lackluster consoles or decent consoles that couldn't stand up next to their competitors of the time. The Atari 5200 is widely considered their most miserable blunder amongst those failed consoles. It was humongous, confusing to set up, and came with one of the worst, most fragile controllers ever to grace the homes of gamers. With the 5200 and the ET game releasing within a month of each other, it's safe to say this was the beginning of Atari's downfall as a gaming colossus.
In spite of its infamous hardware, the 5200 did have a solid library of games. If you're interested in delving into the obscure world of Atari's least popular consoles you can't go wrong with any of the titles on this list.
10 Rescue On Fractalus!
This little-known game is wildly innovative for its time. If all you know about Atari games is the extremely simplistic looks of the 2600 games, you may be surprised to see that just one console generation later they already had games with imitation 3D graphics like Rescue On Fractalus.
It's a first-person game (Another rarity for 1985) about piloting a spacecraft and attempting to rescue your fellow pilots. It hasn't aged terribly well, but that's the price many games pay for being boundary pushers that led to the amazing 3D technology we have today.
9 Gremlins
This might be the only case where anyone can say "The 5200 does it better than the 2600". Gremlins for 5200 is a completely different experience to the 2600 game based on the same hit holiday movie from 1984. The 5200's Gremlins involves rescuing the adorable Mogwais while using a sword to chop down their devilish Gremlin counterparts.
It's a fun concept and one of the few licensed video games that isn't regarded as a dumpster fire. Looking at the graphics of the 5200 version versus the 2600 version is a great example of how much potential the 5200 could have had were it not for its other major problems.
8 H.E.R.O.
H.E.R.O. (Which stands for Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation) almost feels like a precursor to Mega Man, a game that debuted on the NES three years later. The game involves moving through a level and shooting down enemies to make it to an extraction point.
It's a very early example of a game that brings a sense of scale and adventure through its level design and graphics. The game was originally released for the Atari 2600, but the 5200 version notably runs faster and looks moderately nicer.
7 Megamania
Megamania takes ideas presented in Space Invaders and Galaga, and runs off in new and creative directions. Instead of the same patterns being repeated over and over again like the games that inspired it, the patterns are unpredictable and make each playthrough different, reducing fatigue.
On top of great gameplay, the game makes great use of the expanded color palette available on the 5200 and looks great. Any fans of Space Invaders or Galaga need to check out Megamania.
6 Moon Patrol
This is a side-scrolling shooting game, and one of the better-looking fully 2D games on the 5200. The game involves driving a tank across the moon while shooting and dodging various enemies and obstacles to reach the end of the level.
Not exactly a "reinventing the wheel" type of idea for gameplay, but it's fun and addictive nonetheless. It's also one of the early adopters of checkpoints in a video game, something that didn't become commonplace in video games until some years after this game came out.
5 Space Dungeon
Space Dungeon is a twin-stick shooter that any fan of the genre should pick up if they're interested in one of the earliest console games in this style. It holds up fairly well considering how much it pushed the limits of what was possible on home consoles at the time, and has a beautiful art style to boot.
If you're playing with a default Atari 5200 controller, you'll probably wish you weren't. But if you can find an alternative, you should have a really great time with Space Dungeon.
4 Ballblazer
Ballblazer is the other Lucasfilm-developed game (Like Rescue On Fractalus!) that has imitation 3D graphics from long before that type of look became popularized with games like Doom and Quake. It's a sports-style game that involves scoring points by shooting a ball into your opponent's goal.
The look of this game is absolutely mind-blowing for the time it came out, and to this day you can sit down with a friend and get very competitive about scoring the most points to win the match.
3 Pengo
Pengo can be best classified as an action-puzzle game. It's a game all about positioning yourself and being forward-thinking in order to eliminate your enemies. You play as Pengo the penguin and can only take out the "Sno-Bees" coming for you by crushing them between blocks found around the level.
This requires a lot of attention to the way you're moving and the blocks you're using, and as a result, Pengo is one of those games you can sink hours and hours into and barely notice any time has gone by.
2 The Dreadnaught Factor
The Dreadnaught Factor wins the award of having the coolest name of any Atari 5200 game. On top of that, it's also another highly innovative game on this list, being one of the first top-down space shooters (or shoot 'em ups) from before the genre exploded with popularity in the later 80s and early 90s.
It looks fantastic and is as fun as it is challenging, as you'd expect from any game of its style.
1 Qix
Qix should be considered the all-time classic of the Atari 5200. It has a unique style that to this day has seldom been replicated by any other game. It's a very artistic puzzle game, involving quarantining parts of an empty, rectangular playing field while avoiding the touch of two colorful lines (The "Qix") that move in unpredictable yet beautiful patterns.
Where many 5200 games went under the radar because of how poorly the console was received, Qix is regarded to this day as a puzzle game classic, and is a must-buy if you're curious enough to get an Atari 5200.