Pitfall!

"Well deserving of IGN's Top 100 list"

Having just seen IGN's top 100 games list and seeing Pitfall at #100, I decided to write a review on the game. I would always play Atari at my Grandma's house (she got one for her nephew), and my favorite game with Pitfall. And still when I got to her house today, my cousin and I will have matches in it.

Graphics 7/10
For Atari, the graphic are great. Your character actually has different colors how his pants, shirt, hair and face. The scorpion looks exaclty like a scorpion. There is very rarely any slowdown in framerate, you mght experience some slowdown when barrels are coming after you, but its not that bad.

Sound/Music 5/10
Well ... there are beeps and blips, not music to speak of. That's about it. The music and sounds effects are subpar even for Atari, other Atari games at lest had background music, not just sound effects. The music can get on your nerves very quickly. My cousin and I always turn on a stereo while playing Pitfall.

Gameplay 10/10
This game is the first platformer which was hugely popular. Your character can climb, jump, grap ropes and stand on alligators' heads. Yes it is dated by today's standards, but the game is still a lot of fun. There is a good amount strategy in the game, such as trying to jump barrels when the ground is opening up and trying to swallow you. There are two levels to the game. The upper and lower. The lower offers an easier route, but at the risk of a path being blocked off and facing the scorpion.

Replay Value 10/10
This game is still hard. You have only 20 minutes to collect all the treasures and return to screen 1. The game is also unmericful, so wall graps or wall jumps here, one little slip and your dead. Since you only have 3 lives, this can be quite difficult. It took me while to finally beat this game, and even though I am not a ''hardcore gamer'', I imagine it will take others a little while to.

Final say 8/10
This game is fun, even though seriously outdated. The music really drags the game down. I think I have been spoiled by the Zelda and Final Fantasy series. But hey, its one of the problems with playing older games. Its also interesting to see where the basics of the Mario series came from.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/03, Updated 07/17/03