Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

"One major reason I miss my old Atari... *sniff*"

Maybe it's the sick infatuation that many have with game heroes or maybe it was the fact that people had suddenly become addicted to this Indiana Jones kind of guy. Who knows, maybe it was aliens that took Activision over and demanded a sequel be made. It doesn't matter much, but what really does is that somewhere along the line, the game classic Pitfall gave birth to a sequel, Pitfall 2: Lost Caverns. It was a bouncy baby with better graphics that was actually much more completable. Eventually, one copy of such a game made its way to my room and into my Atari. Our savage love affair lasted for many a weeks until I completed the game. Yes, it was my first, and thus I was devirginized as a gamer. It made me so happy to be one of the few kids in my second grade class that actually finished a game.

What little attention to detail that was put into this game was incredible for its time. Not only did Activision sell this game off as an epic adventure, they made the instruction manual look authentically like a journal from an eccentric adventurer who had the crazy idea of going into the vast jungles and caverns to search for a diamond that was stolen so long ago. The adventurer, of course, is Pitfall Harry. For some odd reason or another, he enlisted the help of his niece and her annoying cat, but they were all separated. Harry could have just left her there and said she was eaten by an anaconda or something like that, but being the good uncle that he is and not wanting his sibling back home to kill him in his sleep, he decided to set out for his niece, the diamond, her cat, and is even willing to take the time to capture a prehistoric rodent contained there in the caverns.

Harry starts his adventure in the dense jungles. Just look at the gorgeous background. A beautiful, multi-colored horizon is probably the first thing to catch the eye of the player, unless someone nearby is shooting a nailgun (ignore that, it's a bad joke). Unlike many other Atari games as well, the area looks more detailed (as detailed as Atari can be). We are not just seeing a one color condor flying at us, but a multi-colored birdy of death. We aren't just seeing a green background, but individual trees and a romantic sky. I'm sure you could sit your wife down to enjoy the beautiful sunset in the game, then she'd look at you funny and say, ''The hell is the matter with you?''

Wait a minute... Did I mention something about a birdy of death? Why, yes indeed! I did! You think this is just going to be a quick and clean adventure towards the goal? Ha! Harry not only has to reach his ultimate goal, but he must travel his way through the many perils that the game throws at him. Massive pitfalls (hence the name), killer animals thirsty for his old school blood- Everything except pygmy clowns out to eviscerate on his journey. How can Harry survive? By using his skill, speed, and strength by jumping around and dodging the enemies, that's how.

There is a problem with this, though. While Harry is trying to dodge, for some reason, his controls are rather clunky and stiff. His adventure has been made eternally frustrating, as he gets hit a lot. You may say, ''Big deal! You've got infinite lives!'' This is more than just a ''big deal'' for anyone trying to get a perfect game, that is, pick up everything without being touched. You see, after you get hit, you lose points. Which means getting hit just once equates you losing the perfect game. What good does a perfect game do you? You could take a snapshot of those points and send it in for a free patch saying you are 1337... About 20 years ago.

Harry still has to make his way downward into the caverns. This place is much more menacing than the jungles, but not as colorful. This isn't a problem, as huge caverns really aren't that colorful to begin with. That's not so bad. However, by this time you may have noticed one thing: The music hasn't changed. It's been the same song over and over and it's driving you nuts! The only other sound you've heard is either the ''ding'' that is made when you pick up an item or the sound of Harry jumping. This brings me to one question in particular. Why did everyone in old school gaming- heck, even today- make a weird sound when they jump. I've jumped several times in my life and haven't once heard that pleasant WOOP! or BOING! or even the annoying, distorted BERRRRRI-EEET!

Finally, you do get to a point where the music changes and there is much rejoicing. YAAAY! It's brief though. BOOOO! But at this point, you're close to the end. YAAAY! And the hardest point of the game. BOOOO! So hard, in fact, that it could cause anyone playing for the first time to give up almost instantly. As you can guess, for an old school game, this has somewhat of a steep learning curve. Now, not as steep in comparison to more complex games, but for an Atari game, it can take a long while, a lot of swearing, and maybe some gin or rum, to get used to the control setting and effective ways to dodge around enemies.

Many would say that Activision didn't do as good on this one as they did the first. Take a look at this game. It's quite an improvement. For one thing, there's much more depth to this game. You aren't stuck running around on randomly generated platforms trying to survive, you actually have a goal. The game had a definite programmed end. That means this game was quite a bit before it's time. Sure, there were other games before that had definite ends, but not many. Games like this eventually became the norm. There aren't many games released anymore that don't bear the mark of a definite end.

Pitfall 2 also carried the banner of graphical evolution of the Atari 2600. We saw Atari take steps slowly from single colored block images to multi-colored ones. In the process, game characters over time have become less and less abstract and more representation in form. While we are a long way still from games that look fully representational, with each new generation the character designs are breaking more and more barriers. The only real downsides that come into play here are the repetitive music and the stiff controls that gave way to highly frustrating gameplay. It is difficult to finish this game without dying a lot, much less not dying at all. That does add greatly to the difficulty, but it also makes the prospect of getting a perfect score. Many who have played this may be incredulous to the idea, but some people have indeed scored perfect scores. Yes kids, it is okay to laugh. Pitfall 2, in short, is a great sequel with very light flaws that bears the marks that show us the future of gaming... Well, okay... So we're in that future now, but... um... Hey, is that George Kennedy?

[runs away really fast]

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Unbridled glamour that burns your retinas with sweet loving and yummy multi-colored objects. Way to work them pixels! 10/10
Sounds: We've heard this track many times before, but considering that there weren't many games that had very expansive soundtracks back then, I'll be lenient. 8/10
Controls: Curse of the stiffness. No, I'm not making allusions to Viagra. 6/10
Plot/Storyline: Activision went a long way to sell a great story here in the journal/manual 9/10
Gameplay: Frustrating, but loads of fun. Adventure surely has a new name- Er, rather it did until Super Mario Bros. 10/10
All Together: 10/10

Perks
*Great Graphics
*Went the extra distance to sell the drama
*Fun and adventurous

Downers
*High frustration

Recommendations
For those of you looking into old school gaming, do not pass this up. It does give you not only a good sense of the progression of games through time, but also a good contribution to a definitive look at adventure games. This one set some standards that weren't met for a while, kiddies.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/01, Updated 03/07/03