Steve Cartwright’s attempt to introduce proper dental hygiene to youngsters may not have been the most effective method, but damn if it isn’t fun. Plaque Attack was released for the Atari 2600 in 1983 and is a shoot ‘em up where players control a tube of toothpaste and destroy junk food before they rot a person’s teeth.

Positioned between the junk food and the pearly whites, players shoot their toothpaste at the junk food as it attacks in waves. Every “stage” sees an alteration to the wave pattern and type of junk food. The game’s difficulty picks up pretty quickly but it makes for a good score attack game. Another novel premise coupled with great gameplay and some pretty visuals makes Plaque Attack a highly recommendable Atari 2600 game.

Scoring 7,500 and 10,000 points in the Activision Anthology version unlocks a new gameplay mode (whirl mode) and the “No Plaque Attack” badge. The original requirement was 35,000 points, so like most games in this compilation, it’s much more attainable.