PlayStation 2

Pitfall: The Lost Expedition

Before Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, a guy named Harry??Pitfall? Harry?was the king of the adventurers in search of fortune and glory. Pitfall Harry is back for another rumble in the jungle in Pitfall: The Lost Expedition, a great action/platform game in the tradition of the classic series. Pitfall Harry returns to the South American bush, naturally, and he has about 50 levels in which to find a vanished scientific research team.

Does this game need an introduction? I think most of you would expect me to talk about the past and what the original Pitfall was like. But that's old news. There's a good chance that you've played it at least once even if you weren't born when it was originally released.

Pity poor Pitfall Harry. After starting life without clothing, face, or indeed any semblance of form in the seminal Pitfall! 22 years ago, he was then forced to wear a large red miner's hat in his attempted comeback, Pitfall 2: Lost Caverns. Then, after a 15-year lull came his last insult; Pitfall 3D Beyond the Jungle, cruelly nicknamed "Pitiful 3D," which makes Harry's triumphant return all the more shocking, then satisfying, and then shocking again, followed by a sense of supreme gratification.

If you're old enough to recognize the word 'Atari' as something more than a brand printed on trendy T-shirts then you almost certainly also remember Activision's classic Pitfall adventure. The title, which debuted in 1982 for the gone, but not forgotten 2600, pioneered the-then-underdeveloped adventure genre and left a whole slew of budding gamers daydreaming about scorpion-filled tunnels and platform-ready crocodiles. Since then, the Pitfall franchise has been reborn again and again in sequels across a wide spectrum of consoles.

If you're on the lookout for a solid platformer for a weekend rental, then Pitfall: The Lost Expedition is right up your alley. In many ways, the original Pitfall! for the Atari 2600 can be held primarily responsible for inventing the modern platforming genre. Without that seminal game, we would have never experienced the trials and tribulations of Pitfall Harry, jumping over pits, climbing up and down ladders, and swinging from vine to vine across the dense jungles--or, at least as dense as the 2600 was capable of rendering.

Pitfall Harry has been into the adventuring thing since the days of the Atari 2600, back before we even had graphics. In any sane universe, he'd be out of the bush-beating by now, perhaps running a safe, successful business enterprise somewhere -- Pitfall Harry Wireless Tycoon, or something along similar lines. But in fact, he's Indiana Jones-ing harder than ever for excitement, and while Activision's Pitfall: The Lost Expedition has a new look, mechanic, and sense of humor, it still manages an old-school sheen.

Behold the dashing jungle hero! Swift swinging butt-kicker of naughty natives perfectly at home with a broad in one hand and a vine in the other! He doesn’t need a gun not when he’s got his mighty sling! He’s just like Robin Hood, except that he steals from natives and gives to museums.