Jungle Hunt - a good name for a game, right? It obviously was, and the original arcade game was well-made, especially for its time. But, like almost every other successful arcade game that came out around that time period, there was a port to the Atari 2600. How well did this port do? Let's see...
The graphics are top-notch for the Atari, especially because there were no extra chips in this cartridge. You see, Pitfall 2 - The Lost Caverns is so great mainly due to the fact that there's a special chip in it that gives the developers more to work with. This game managed to have excellent graphics, even without the chip! There's actual scrolling, the animation is fluid, and sprites are well-done, and everything which is meant to be portrayed by the graphics is portrayed perfectly - they couldn't be much better.
The sound is also great. The sound effects are easy on the ears, and the little tunes that do play are pretty good, as well...
The storyline is that this man's wife has been captured by cannibals, who would love to have her over for dinner, and it's his job to stop them and recover his beauty. It's a simple premise, but it works pretty well.
Enough of that, let's get on to the gameplay, which meets the high expectations set by the other aspects of the game. One of the biggest things - it's actually a lot of fun to play! You can just keep playing over, and over, and over again, and it's hard to get tired of it!
Moving on, there are four levels to go through, and when you clear them, they repeat with higher difficulty. Let's go through them in order:
Jungle Vines - You swing from vines above the trees, and your goal is to reach the end without falling into the trees. The trick is to swing when the vines are as close together as possible. And, to give it a bit more challenge, the vines swing at different speeds, making it more difficult to time your jumps.
Crocodile River - As you could've guessed by the title, you swim through a river while making sure that the crocodiles don't hit you. You can only stay underwater for a very short amount of time, as shown by the DIVING meter (which depletes very quickly). Of course, they can't let you just swim and avoid the crocodiles, so you have a knife with which to slaughter the crocodiles. This, of course, earns you points, but it's difficult to do, because the knife has a very short range. What is it with knives in video games and having a ridiculously small attack range?
Boulder Run - You have to dash to save your wife while boulders are being rolled towards you, and no, you can't stab them. But you CAN jump and duck to avoid the boulders. They follow multiple movement patterns, and you have to respond accordingly by either jumping or ducking at the appropriate time, and mistiming it or picking the wrong option will result it you getting killed. You only have about five lives, and you can't seem to earn extras, so this stage will probably be the one which most people will have the most trouble with.
Cannibal Jumping - This one is barely even a level, but it still counts. You just have to go through a few screens, jumping over cannibals along the way. With the way the jumping works, it's made a bit more difficult, but it's still the easiest level in the game, and the shortest as well. When you finish this one, you can rescue your wife and receive a massive point bonus, after which she is immediately kidnapped again. You can just keep repeating this cycle over and over and over and over again till either you run out of lives or the power goes out while you mutter curses under your breath...
In conclusion, the game's easily worth playing, and is one of the best on the Atari. It's really worth a play, if you're into these kinds of games, and even if you aren't, it's nice to see exactly how much gaming has evolved over the decades...
Rating - A+(If you have to play an Atari 2600 game, this is one of the best choices) Jungle Hunt - a good name for a game, right? It obviously was, and the original arcade game was well-made, especially for its time. But, like almost every other successful arcade game that came out around that time period, there was a port to the Atari 2600. How well did this port do? Let's see...
The graphics are top-notch for the Atari, especially because there were no extra chips in this cartridge. You see, Pitfall 2 - The Lost Caverns is so great mainly due to the fact that there's a special chip in it that gives the developers more to work with. This game managed to have excellent graphics, even without the chip! There's actual scrolling, the animation is fluid, and sprites are well-done, and everything which is meant to be portrayed by the graphics is portrayed perfectly - they couldn't be much better.
The sound is also great. The sound effects are easy on the ears, and the little tunes that do play are pretty good, as well...
The storyline is that this man's wife has been captured by cannibals, who would love to have her over for dinner, and it's his job to stop them and recover his beauty. It's a simple premise, but it works pretty well.
Enough of that, let's get on to the gameplay, which meets the high expectations set by the other aspects of the game. One of the biggest things - it's actually a lot of fun to play! You can just keep playing over, and over, and over again, and it's hard to get tired of it!
Moving on, there are four levels to go through, and when you clear them, they repeat with higher difficulty. Let's go through them in order:
Jungle Vines - You swing from vines above the trees, and your goal is to reach the end without falling into the trees. The trick is to swing when the vines are as close together as possible. And, to give it a bit more challenge, the vines swing at different speeds, making it more difficult to time your jumps.
Crocodile River - As you could've guessed by the title, you swim through a river while making sure that the crocodiles don't hit you. You can only stay underwater for a very short amount of time, as shown by the DIVING meter (which depletes very quickly). Of course, they can't let you just swim and avoid the crocodiles, so you have a knife with which to slaughter the crocodiles. This, of course, earns you points, but it's difficult to do, because the knife has a very short range. What is it with knives in video games and having a ridiculously small attack range?
Boulder Run - You have to dash to save your wife while boulders are being rolled towards you, and no, you can't stab them. But you CAN jump and duck to avoid the boulders. They follow multiple movement patterns, and you have to respond accordingly by either jumping or ducking at the appropriate time, and mistiming it or picking the wrong option will result it you getting killed. You only have about five lives, and you can't seem to earn extras, so this stage will probably be the one which most people will have the most trouble with.
Cannibal Jumping - This one is barely even a level, but it still counts. You just have to go through a few screens, jumping over cannibals along the way. With the way the jumping works, it's made a bit more difficult, but it's still the easiest level in the game, and the shortest as well. When you finish this one, you can rescue your wife and receive a massive point bonus, after which she is immediately kidnapped again. You can just keep repeating this cycle over and over and over and over again till either you run out of lives or the power goes out while you mutter curses under your breath...
In conclusion, the game's easily worth playing, and is one of the best on the Atari. It's really worth a play, if you're into these kinds of games, and even if you aren't, it's nice to see exactly how much gaming has evolved over the decades...
Rating - A+(If you have to play an Atari 2600 game, this is one of the best choices) |
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