Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

"My favorite B.M. (Before Mario)-period game..."

While the Atari 2600 isn't exactly an amazing piece of hardware (especially considering today's consoles), the fancy programming for it sure is. Especially by Activision - they did all they could with 2K of ROM and 128 bytes (yes, single BYTES) of RAM in creating excellent and memorable games.

One of them is Pitfall II by Activision, a quasi-side scrolling game where you have Pitfall Harry collect as many gold bars as he can... all while also searching for the Raj Diamond, as well as rescuing his niece Rhonda and his lion Quickclaw. And there's a rare rat to find as a bonus. Aren't fetch quests fun? At least you can explore the whole world with almost no restrictions.

However, the ultimate goal (like the first Pitfall) is to get a perfect score (or close to one), and it is not long but hard to do so, so you have a whole lotta reply goin' on. Oh yeah, don't worry about dying; you actually have unlimited lives, though if you die, you lose points based on how far you are from the last checkpoint. Okay, you want the high score, so DO worry about dying. In a way.

The graphics aren't great, especially by today's standards, but you have to really give the programmers credit for doing neat tricks to compress as many features on only a couple thousand bytes' worth of ROM. One interesting graphic feature is that Pitfall Harry has very smooth animation when he runs. Take that, ya choppy-moving Mario.

And you don't just run around like many other games of that era, even in the early A.M. (After Mario) period. You swim, take leaps of faith down deep canyons, and even ride a balloon! (Yes, really.)

The controls are really the only weakness. It is a little hard to climb ladders, and if you fall, you have virtually no control in your movement, letting fate take you where it wants you to go. But otherwise, you have full control when you try to dodge all those nasties in your quest. Too bad you can't duck.

This is one of the rare Atari 2600 games to have music. And boy, is the music fun to hear, making me almost forget that there are almost no other sounds besides jumping, the chime for getting a points item, and hitting ground when you fall. The tune isn't too repetitive due to its uplifting and dirge-like remixes. Get a gold bar, for example, and you get the former; get hit by an enemy, you get the latter.

So, either snag an old 2600 cheap, or grab one of those ''Activision Anthology'' series games for one of the next-gen systems. You'll be surprised.

The Good:
Variety of amazing things to do and to see
Great semi-freeform gameplay (for a 1983 game, at least)
Surprisingly good replay value
GREAT music

The Bad:
Control is a little off
''New-schoolers'' might not have the feel for the game

The Most Ridiculous:
You can't do jack squat to the enemies. Not even stomp them. At least Harry fixes that problem in a little sequel called ''Super Pitfall''. If you can stomach it, that is...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/04