A playthrough of Activision's 1987 action-platformer for the NES, Super Pitfall. This video shows the "perfect" ending, earned by collecting all of the gold in the game. Super Pitfall is quite a departure from the seminal classic Pitfall on the Atari 2600. Billed more as a reimagining of Pitfall 2, Super Pitfall places you in a wide-open cave and lets you figure things out on your own. In order to finish, you must find the Raj diamond, free Quickfall, save Rhonda from a stone curse, and make it back to the entrance intact. Simple, right? It would be, if only the mechanics were a bit more conducive to such a quest. Super Pitfall's notoriety is a result of just how difficult the game makes it to do even the simplest of tasks. Harry has a gun, but he rarely gets to use it because the enemies tend to avoid his line of fire - many only give a split-second window in which you can attack before they suddenly launch an attack at you. Even though dying puts you right back where you left off, death can feel pretty cheap when a single hit wipes you out. The same can be said for the sheer number of blind jumps required - many of these will land you straight on a bed of spikes if you don't already know what lies below. The other major cause of frustration lies with how the items are all hidden from view unless you make Harry jump at a *very* precise spot in the background. This might not be too bad if it was easier to trigger an item's appearance, but even when you know where an item is, you may have to jump several times to find it. Obviously, this is the opposite of ideal when the entire game relies on you finding these items. Mapping out Super Pitfall became an excruciatingly laborious process because of this. I mean, Milon's Secret Castle worked the same way, but the items would consistently appear without much trouble if you hit the right spot - it can be difficult, but it doesn't feel punishing like Super Pitfall does. Apparently the Tandy PC version of the game fixes this by flashing an area of the wall when an item is nearby. If only the NES version did this, the game would be far more satisfying to play, and far less frustratingly difficult. I did find it funny that, though this is Activision's first NES game, the 1-ups all take the shape of the FCI logo's eyeball. FCI was the Japanese publisher of the game under license by Activision, so it seems odd that they wouldn't have changed the icon to reflect this. I also found it funny that while the game went to great lengths to graphically resemble a Mario title, the developer seemed completely unable to replicate any of Mario's mechanics. But then again, it was made by Micronics, the company that specialized in awful games. Super Pitfall is not as rough as the likes of Athena or Ikari Warriors, but it's not very good, either. My advice? If you want the freedom to explore a new world on the NES, play Metroid. If you want a Pitfall game, buy an Atari 2600. _ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete (
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