Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (Game Boy Advance)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 4.3 (2.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Joe Fielder
• Reviewed on: 06/05/2001
• Updated on: 06/07/2001
• Released on: 06/10/2001
• Originally published on GameSpot: Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (Game Boy Advance) Review

Many game players seem to fear that the Game Boy Advance will be overrun with ports of Super Nintendo games and that it won't get its fair share of new and original titles. When you look at the portable system's June 11th launch lineup, this concern seems largely unfounded since there are only a couple of SNES ports among them: Majesco's Earthworm Jim, and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure. Of the two, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure received a more lukewarm reception when it was originally released in the early '90s. And it looks like history is set to repeat itself on June 11th, as the game has all the problems of the old one--plus a few new scrapes.

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure puts you in the role of the son of Pitfall Harry, the star of the Atari 2600-age protoplatform games Pitfall and Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns. The spirit of a malevolent Mayan warrior has kidnapped your father, and the task falls to you--Pitfall Harry Jr.--to save him. The game is much of what you'd expect from a 2D Super Nintendo update to the Pitfall series. As in the other Pitfall games before, you swing on vines, leap over pits, jump onto crocodile heads as stepping-stones, and avoid creatures like snakes and scorpions as best you can. But now you can also throw boomerangs, sling rocks, ride ziplines, bungee-jump up to higher ground, and bounce off of super-resilient spider webs.

The graphics for the Super Nintendo version of the game were a significant upgrade from the earlier forays, with its detailed backgrounds and excellent character animations. These visual elements remain strong in the Game Boy Advance edition of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, but they are severely undercut by the game's transition to the small screen. Dark environments might work well at establishing mood when the game is being played on a television screen, but on the nonbacklit Game Boy Advance, they're a nightmare: Most of the backgrounds exhibit darker colors, and the enemies that inhabit these environments are often painted in similar murky hues. You'll often find your character dying seemingly out of the blue because you weren't able to see that you were being attacked. Most of the time your best clue for finding foes is simply to look for the part of the background that seems to be moving. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time distinguishing your opponents, and this makes the game almost unplayable.

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