Played as part of Atari 50... but I'm rating my experience with the game in other settings, with actual paddle controls and opponents.

Where else to start but here? I do think the controls of this game tend to give it a bit of a raw deal from those looking back on it--when playing via most modern control methods you're going to be screwed by the paddle speed most of the time, and it was very clearly designed with the dial controller in mind (or vice versa). If you can find a way to play this game like that (or at the very least with a mouse), and with another player, it's a pretty solid game and it's clear to see why it was a hit and games like Computer Space weren't. Doesn't beat actual table tennis or air hockey, but still definitely fun enough to come back to more than once, in the context of its release at the very least. Again, unfortunately most modern ports butcher the control methods, and Atari 50 is no exception (you can control the right paddle with the mouse, which is most of the way there, but no luck for the left paddle, but I imagine I'll be thankful for that for the single player ones later on lol), but it's a pretty solid ball and paddle game and it's obvious why it's the first game anyone remembers.

Attempting to seriously rate/review every single game I've played - Day 2:

Pong is a game whose claims to fame are mostly dubious nowadays. It's far from the first video game, heck it wasn't even Atari's first game. It wasn't the first coin-operated video game, being beaten out by both Galaxy Game and Bushnell's previous game, Computer Space, and Tennis for Two even predates it as a tennis game. That being said, it would be foolish to suggest that Pong is irrelevant to the history of video games.

For the time, Pong is actually surprisingly innovative. The way the ball interacts with the paddles is quite intuitive, and the sound design, while simple, evokes the sound of ping-pong effectively, and all of this on basic transistor-built logic. Its simplicity is also to Pong's credit; while many other early video games can be overly complex due to trying to do things the hardware of the time simply wasn't equipped to handle, Pong is something that anyone can immediately understand.

One thing Pong can absolutely lay claim to is being the first video game of any real notoriety. While previous games were seen mainly as novelties, Pong helped to cement that games were something people could keep coming back to, and even established the home video game market with the number of unofficial home ports it received. It propelled Atari to success, and it's arguable that without them, video games as we know them wouldn't exist.

You might notice that despite waffling on about this, I still only gave this game a single star, and that's not because I think it's bad. Mainly, this is just a consequence of how I rate games, while Pong is incredibly important and well made, it simply doesn't have many of the things I personally come to video games for. Despite its importance, the game is very much a relic of a bygone age, and modern players are likely to come away with the reaction of "well that was neat", and then move on after 5 minutes. It's like early cinema: there are aspects to appreciate, and its impact is undeniable, but it's also just going to be inaccessible to a modern audience.