[Review] Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure

[[MC]Ronin[MC]]

The SEGA 32X was a failure, but certainly not a boring failure. The mushroom-shaped power booster for the Genesis was a fascinating experiment and IGN Retro is going through its catalog one game at a time, reviewing each and every one in a continuing series: 32X Review-a-Day.

There are few games as pixel perfect as David Crane's classic Pitfall!, a one of the very first platformers -- in fact, it's cited as one of the games that helped define the genre. The lone hero, Pitfall Harry, runs left to right while braving jungle hazards like croc-filled swamps and hissing snakes. The goal is to gather up as much treasure as possible before the clock runs out. It is a game with laser-like focus, a benefit from its original host console: Atari 2600. With limited tech, Crane drilled down on precision controls and a compelling task, and then dazzled gamers with some of the best visuals the 2600 had yet produced. Despite being topped in some respects by the epic Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns, Pitfall! remains one of the most beloved videogames ever.

So it was natural for Activision to want to revisit this well of good will when the retro-redux craze overtook the industry in the nineties. Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is rooted to its originator by only a few core elements such as Pitfall Harry's son as the new hero, the reappearance of some traps, and the collection of treasure that an appreciated nod to the original sparklies that caught our eyes. However, including a handful of cosmetic links to the past is worthless if the heart of the game is suspiciously absent. The fantastic control of the original Pitfall! has been replaced by loose jumping that will send gamers to their dentists with a bad case of gnashed teeth. Crane was efficient and deadly in his placement of hazards and creatures in his original adventure. Here, it seems as if a bag of jungle-themed obstacles and monsters have been shaken and dumped into the game with little care.

 

 

 

Because leaving well enough alone with the jumping just wasn't possible, you now have access to a slew of new moves that include projectile attacks. You can throw stones with a sling and toss a boomerang across the screen. There are new jump moves, such as bouncing off webs or a slingshot leap from a bungee-like vine. Mine carts race through ruins. Zip lines let you cross the scenery at a clip just a hair outside your control. Now, adding new gameplay elements isn't always a bad thing. Many sequels do so with excellent results. But the Mayan Adventure feels so slap-dash at times that you think these new moves and sequences are the result of a checklist than organic design. Take the bungee rope, for example. Bungee was cool in 1994, so bungee will make this new Pitfall cool, right? Not if controlling Harry's landing is a pain.

 

 

 

Whereas the original Pitfall was about the struggle between time versus skill, this Pitfall is a paint-by-number platformer with stages that have a start and an end, designated chiefly by the appearance of a boss monster or obstacle. At first, you simply need to jump over an angry jaguar and pelt it with rocks. But as you push deeper into the jungle ruins, you must avoid mine carts and stones, as well as face down a jaguar-man and a wrathful spirit. Absolutely nothing about this adventure feels fresh or innovative. Activision knew the established platformer formula and did little to step outside its boundaries.

Pitfall on the 32X does very little with the extra power. The colors are just a grim as they are on the Genesis or SNES. However, the animation is quite good. Harry's moves are full of expression, such as when he takes one of his bungee jumps.
 

 

Verdict
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is one of those retro revivals that really serves no purpose but remind you of the original game's genius. Whereas the first Pitfall was a trailblazer, this sequel takes care not to tread outside the footprints of 16-bit platformers before it. The addition of a zillion enemies with no thought toward pacing is especially frustrating. This 32X edition adds nothing more than an extra zip line stage. Otherwise the production values are on par with the other versions of the game. Build your 32X collection with other games.