After seeing and hearing about all the adventures his son, Harry Jr. was
having and being bored with his life since the Pitfall II:Lost Caverns days
on the Atari 2600. Pitfall Harry decides that his son Harry Jr. and him
should go on an adventure together to the ancient Mayan ruins in South
America. When they discover an ancient Mayan artifact a evil Mayan warrior
spirit kidnaps Pitfall Harry after Jr. ran into the cave to the artifact.
Pitfall Harry dropped his diary so its up to Pitfall harry Jr., with his
fathers diary with valuable information to rescue his father before its to
late. Also included in this cartridge is an emulated version of Pitfall from
the Atari 2600, but not Pitfall II which was a far better game? Read mini
review of 2600 Pitfall below.
Pitfall 2600 Review:
A milestone in 2600 history, Pitfall was an original design by David
Crane that had not been done before on the 2600. "I knew that there was
great potential in 'run, jump, and climb' adventure games, but the result
was beyond any expectations. It sold millions of copies, established a new
genre of adventure games and spawned hundreds of similar products. There are
now more sideview platform video games than any other category. I wanted to
do a game with a running man. I had designed one and I liked the effect, but
I had to make a game out of it. So, I thought, 'Well, he has to be running
somewhere...' so I drew a path. And then I had to put it into a place - so I
picked a jungle. The idea took all of ten minutes. It was a simple idea - a
man running in a jungle. But, it spawned a genre of side-scrolling games. It
was the beginning of a genre. Also, I guess people just remembered it as
being neat," stated Crane.
The object is to move your character, Pitfall Harry, through 255 screens and
collect gold and silver pieces, and money bags. There are 32 in total to
find in a 20 minute timeframe. One of the unique aspects of this game is
that it is not over in a matter of a few minutes. There are also many
obstacles in your way as well - rolling logs, campfires, snakes, scorpions,
tar pits, etc. There are crocodile heads to jump over as well. (You can only
jump on them when their mouths are closed.) Don't fall into any holes
either, or you lose points on your total score.
One of the most popular and probably the best-selling games for the 2600,
Pitfall Harry also became a signature character or icon for the 2600 system.
David later used the same "running man" character in Decathlon. Like
Megamania, Pitfall also has a subtitle: Pitfall Harry's Jungle Adventure.
The title would later appear on many popular systems including the
Colecovison, Atari 5200, and the Intellivision. There was also a horrible
Pitfall game for the Nes. Sadly the emulation used in Pitfall: the mayan
Adventure was less then perfect. The sounds seem muffled and the game is
just a lot better on the original 2600. Advice, go out and get a real Atari
2600!
Back in the 1980s, Activision used to give out embroidered game club patches
if you got a high score, took a picture of your TV screen, and mailed it to
them. Here is the high score to shoot for:
Pitfall Harry's Explorers' Club: 20,000
Graphics [9/10]:
The graphics in this game are great. Theres a ton of detail in just about
everything in the game. The animation of Harry Jr. is magnificent, as is his
enemies. The games graphics exhibit a very similar few to The Lion King, and
The Jungle Book.
Music & Sound [8/10]:
What can I say? Its great! Theres a ton of great tunes and sound effects
that make this stand out of from the Snes other platform games. But i still
wish there was a little more music in the game but I'm just fussy I think.
Game Play [6/10]:
I wonder whats wrong. Most of the platform games on the Snes that have
great graphics and sound just suffer in this category, as does The Jungle
Book and The Lion King. I can't quite figure out whats wrong here. At least
it doesn't suffer from the horrible slowdown that exist in The Lion King.
You do get several weapons including a wip, rocks, boomerang, and some kind
of bomb. And also includes a fun little bonus game.
I felt since the challenge and replay was so different in this game that
I should grade it separately. The challenge is immense. I couldn't get
through this game without the use of a Game Genie, which can make it very
frustrating for non GG and Pro Action Replay owners. Even though the
challenge is great you just don't really want to win, and once you do you
will never touch the cartridge again. But I got the game for my birthday on
December 21 and won it before Christmas(By cheating) and them got about 6
great Snes games on the 25 so I might not of gave this game a fare amount of
time.
Conclusion/Overall [7/10]:
Even though its a good game and a common one its not that great and once you
win it becomes a paper weight. And the inclusion of pitfall for the 2600
isn't all that great since its emulated poorly and I have the real thing.
