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User Rating: 7.6 | Pitfall: The Lost Expedition GC
I’m going to admit it. I liked Pitfall: The Lost Expedition. I’ve noticed that this isn’t a particularly overwhelming consensus within the GameSpot community. As of this writing, it’s received a shabby 6.7 overall score and there isn’t a single review posted before this one. Nevertheless, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and cast aside any and all fears of becoming typecast as “The Only Guy Who Liked Pitfall Enough To Review It” by telling you WHY I liked the game. I think part of it is that I am old enough to have enjoyed playing the original Pitfall on the Atari 2600 back in 1982. And as much as Mario and Sonic have become the mascots of many of you younger folks’ generation, Pitfall Harry was the mascot of my generation (for home consoles, even he couldn't hold a candle to Pac Man). 1982...Back when ET was just being released in the theaters…hell, even before Star Wars had yet to BECOME a trilogy!! Back when Frank Zappa helped spawn a million little valley girls with Moon Unit at the helm…and when Priest and Maiden and Sabbath were the closest things to “goth” we knew. And yes, it’s strange to say nowadays, but back when the greatest technological achievement within a video arcade was the ability to munch on a bunch of white dots while eluding multicolored ghosts…my friends, this was 1982. The same year in which Mario was nothing more than a little Italian plumber who could only hop over barrels or whack them with his hammer…I’m afraid to say it…even he bowed down to the King of Home Video Entertainment – Pitfall Harry!! Okay, so I tend to romanticize the past a little bit. Sue me. And if you’ve never played this game that I’ve yet to begin reviewing (Pitfall: The Lost Expedition, in case you’ve forgotten in all my reminiscing…) I shall state it now – you can unlock the original Pitfall in all its…glory? Okay, glory’s a little strong. In all its…two dimensional color! And for me, it was a blast to play it again (though technically it wasn’t the first time it was done – another Pitfall sequel came out for the SNES roughly a decade ago that also included it). Still, it was nice it was included here too. Now, I realize that I’ve just filled three lengthy paragraphs and I haven’t even begun to talk about the game I’m supposed to be reviewing, so with all this “reliving my youth at the expense of the GameSpot community” now completely out of my system, I’ll get to the reason you’re here. Pitfall: The Lost Expedition!! Well, there isn’t much to say, really. It’s pretty good. You play as Harry. The graphics are nice. It’s a colorful world set mostly in the jungle. There’s the obligatory ice area and such and all in all they look rather nice. The control is pretty tight. Well, it’s not so much tight as it is technically responsive. But it definitely gets the job done without ever being a burden…except, that is…when it becomes a burden. Unfortunately, the developers decided to try and be “different”. There are times where you’ll have to do things like use both control sticks to climb walls and such. And though this sounds nifty in theory, it didn’t play out as well as it should have. Did it make the game bad as a result? No. You’ll only have to do these sorts of things from time to time, but still, they shouldn’t have been included. The sound is decent enough. The effects of walking and running fit their actions just fine. The acting is good…Harry’s voice is perfectly suited to his facial expressions. The story is okay. However, I feel compelled to mention that there definitely is a talking jaguar in this game which wasn’t perhaps the greatest choice in plot development. But if you can overlook this, it shouldn’t grate on you too bad. And actually there are a couple of chuckles you might get from the scenes without the jaguar. In the end, I got what I’d hoped for – a few hours of fun. Nothing more. Therefore, should YOU play it? The odds are, no. You probably shouldn’t. Let’s face it, there are a TON of great games out there right now. There is no compelling reason for you to play this game over most of them. On the other hand, since this is such a unique time to be playing videogames (with the current generation of consoles in their waning years and sooo many older, yet still good games to pick up for ten, twenty bucks) it might be worth your while. If you’ve finished all your Halo 2s and your Jak 3s and your RE 4s and such and you’re looking to find an older, inexpensive game that’s not too difficult and is easy on the eyes, then maybe you’d get some fun out of playing this game. Let’s put it this way. In the current spectrum of older games, Pitfall has secured itself perfectly in the middle. It’s definitely not as first-rate as Beyond Good and Evil, but it’s nowhere near as wretched as the shameful Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, which, it should be mentioned, you should never, ever play as long as you live. Ever. Period. So, to sum up the highlights – 1982 was a good year and you should avoid Crash Bandicoot at all cost. End of review.
