Pitfall: The Lost Expedition

"Should have been an X Box exclusive"

This game is now appearing on all systems, but from what I have seen, they only concentrated on the X Box version. I started with the Game Cube version, and the problems were unbelievable, as Harry would walk or run or tip toe by his own whim, and not mine. I was lucky enough to be able to return it for the X Box version, and have found that the differences don't just stop there. As for the PS2 version, it can't compete at all.

GRAPHICS: 8/10 By far, the game looks best on X Box. The environments are lush and richly colored. There are no annoying hiccups, or for that fact, anything negative. All the animations are perfect.

MUSIC/SOUND: 8/10 The music is rather decent and fits the tone of each area. Sound effects are excellent. Voice acting is pretty good, which is important because this is a pretty funny game. Sometimes, though, the words are hard to hear over the sound effects. The X Box version is amazingly better than the Game Cube one, and is the first time I have been able to notice a difference in Dolby Digital 5.1 over non digital.

CAMERA/CONTROL: 7/10 For the most part the camera does an admirable job of following Harry, which is good because the right stick is used for Harry's hand, thus, you can only turn the camera with the shoulder buttons, but you do get used to it after a while. The controls are spot on, though some of the special moves require some practice since they are not that well explained. There are also plenty of vines to swing on, and you can forget about what you may have read elsewhere, as Harry always catches them, and if you miss, it is always your fault.

GAME PLAY: 7/10 This score would have been slightly higher except for the incessant backtracking. You have quite a bit to do here and to find, including 138 idols and 18 shaman, as well as special moves. You need to use the map to show you where you are and where you have to go, and then you can follow the right path to get there, but there is no fast way to do this. The game is extremely linear, as you can't go to most places until later in the game, and you will be wasting your time to even try. The game is composed of 42 extremely short levels, which generally just require you to do one thing and move on; however, you will be revisiting these levels several times. You can have 4 items equipped to Harry's hand at one time and access them by the d pad. You can increase your amount of health and canteen water, and can get notes for the areas, as well as moves, by buying them from the shaman for idols. Once you buy something, that shaman then disappears. Explorers that you rescue count as 5 idols.

VALUE: 6/10 While this game looks and sounds fantastic, and is certainly fun to play, it is extremely short. If you know what you are doing, after less than an hour you will be 20% done, but that is only less than 10% of the collectibles. The game is over far too quickly, in 5-10 hours without finding everything, or around 15 hours for 100%. This is one of the few games I recommend renting over buying.

FINAL COMMENTS: This was a nice try to bring Harry up to date, and maybe the sequel will take a page from the ''Sly Cooper'' book, and be twice as long or longer, and a lot harder, as this game is fairly easy.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/04