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Pitfall : The Lost Expedition

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    Pitfall : The Lost Expedition

    Just picked this up as i am quite a fan of the Pitfall series, and it was released for ?28.99 .

    Playing the Gamecube version and am really impressed so far, the game opens with you fighting a jaguar in a flaming ring with some rather impressive graphics, before Harry starts to narate and the games intro begins. The characters are done in a cartoony super deformed style and look and animate excellent. Once into the jungle their is no visible pop up or clipping , and the jungle looks very alive with lots of neat touches such as the sun bristling through trees, foliage waving int he wind and sleeping monkeys, inca statues e.t.c, all done very well. Music is also very good with an Indy style overture and tribal beats.

    Controls are good for the most part, only problem i had was swinging from vine to vine it's hard to get the momentum to swing sometimes, and also a little difficult to judge jump distances. You can alter the camera though so this does make up for this shortcoming. The usual Double Jump and Punch-Kick combos make up the rest of the repotoire. 2 things that make the game stand out though are is how the C-stick is used especially for the control of Harry's arm. For example, if a switch is to the right, you move the stick right to grab it, then snap it left to pull it. If your holding an empty canteen above a watering hole, you pull the stick down to fill it, then pull the stick up to drink from it when equipped. I'd image it's used for lots of other things due to the inventory screen spaces, but i haven;t got far enough to see them yet. The other interesting this is the use of a Metroid Prime style roll, holding Y makes Harry curl up in a ball, which you then roll around with the Analog stick, and again similar to metroid, this is for rolling under rocks and small gaps as such, and used in conjuction with the attack button lets you do a spin kick , needed to bring down upperbody armoured enemies.

    Surprisingly the game uses the Havok physics engine which results in some realistic looking crumbling of buildings, cages, statues so on.

    Loading times are very fast which is surprising for a multiplatform release.

    All in all first impressions are very good and is another good platformer worth a look. Also of note is that it includes the Atari 2600 version of both Pitfall! and Pitfall 2 the Lost Cavers as unlockable extras.

    #2
    How is the camera and the jumping difficulty? Those are the only bad things I have read in reviews yet it has got marked down to a 5/6 in most places.

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      #3
      Only had a few problems with the camera really, well a damn site better than any of the Sonic 3D games anyway. Jumping can be a little tricky but if you use the manual cam you should be able to get a good idea. Also, shimmying to the bottom of the vines by holding the c-stick down also helps you get a lot more momentum.

      Personally i'd rate it at about a solid 7 so far.

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        #4
        I picked this up this morning (GC) and it doesn't seem too bad. At the moment I'm lost, despite looking at the map I can t seem to backtrace my steps.
        One minor annoyance is the bloke's lack of stopping power. When you release the stick he sort of slides to a halt. Mostly slides off a ledge.

        The swinging on vines is just tricky enough to make you pay attention to what your doing. Unlike POP which only allows 4 directions to swing in Pitfall allows you to swing to any direction and is dynamic at the same time. ie if when lining up a swing (you have to move the stick up/down to gain momentum) to the next vine you nudge the control stick or L or R you'll miss the jump.

        Jumping on alligator's back is also a bit hit 'n' miss so far.

        [Edit] Think of the swing as per Tiger Wood's fade and slice. Probably.

        [Edit #2] 51 soddin' blocks for a save! They're having a giraffe!

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          #5
          yeah, i exchanged my GC copy for an XB copy because of the save game size.

          This is a really great game folks, i'm about 35% through and couldn't recommend it enough.

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            #6
            I agree with Plissken. It's a jolly good game indeed. I am currently 80% through using 51 blocks on my GC mem-card. It gets really worthwhile at about 20%.
            Control is not as iffy as I first indicated once you get used to it.

            There are still issues with the map system.

            By way of an apology IGN has re-reviewed this game and upped it to a 7.8 or something liek that.

            The risk and reward system is jolly good too. Any collectables are usually stuffed away up high somewhere and you decide whether to go for them or just finish the level.

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