Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle

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Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle
Single-player

Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle is a

platform game developed by Activision's internal Console Development Group and published by Activision in 1998 for the PlayStation and by Crave Entertainment for the Game Boy Color known as Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle in 1998. The game is part of the Pitfall series, following the 1994 installment Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure. It was first unveiled in 1996, when 3D platform gaming was still in its infancy, making designing the game a challenge. The PlayStation version development team included staff from the Virtua Fighter
series, which was a pioneer in 3D gaming, but personnel changes led to Pitfall 3D being repeatedly delayed, and upon release critics sharply disagreed over whether it was a successful effort at bringing Pitfall into 3D.

Gameplay

Just as in its predecessor Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, the original Pitfall! for the Atari 2600 is available as an Easter Egg. Unlike The Mayan Adventure, however, the game is set in a 3D environment which allows the player character to move in any direction.[5] The player character also has a much wider range of attacks, some of which must be acquired through item pick-ups.[5]

Plot

In this adventure, Pitfall Harry Jr. meets a girl named Mira who enlists his aid in freeing her people from "The Scourge", an evil woman bent on controlling the world.[citation needed]

Development

The developers decided to set the game in a magical parallel universe because there were no genuinely unexplored lands in the real world, and because it provided a story explanation for gameplay elements such as morphing creatures and floating platforms.

Mario 64 was really open, but the structure we've chosen is somewhere in the middle. We have definite paths, but they're not as limited as those in Crash. They branch a lot, but we wanted to make sure the player always has a sense of where to go."[6]

The game's characters, creatures, and terrain were all modeled from concept sketches by

Christian Gossett. Gossett stated during development that coming up with designs that would be clear and not confusing in the game's environment was a challenge, since 3D gaming was a relatively new medium which he and the rest of the team were still learning how to work with.[7] Two key members of the development team had a background in the Virtua Fighter series; lead programmer Franscois-Yves Bertrand developed the camera and collision system for Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter 2, and lead modeler/animator Jeff Buchanan worked on the models and animations for Virtua Fighter.[8]

Pitfall Harry Jr. was voiced by Bruce Campbell. The developers, who were fans of the Evil Dead films which Campbell was most famous for starring in, included a number of lines referencing the films in the script, but Campbell objected that he was fed up with making Evil Dead references.[9]

The game was demonstrated at the September 1996 European Computer Trade Show. Electronic Gaming Monthly said it was "one of the biggest surprises of the show" and "one of the games that'll really test the PlayStation and push its hardware to the limit."[10] The release date was originally set for the second quarter of 1997, but slipped to the fourth quarter,[11] and was pushed back again to March 1998.[12][13] Causes for the delays included heavy personnel changes which occurred in early 1997.[9]

Reception

Upon its release for the PlayStation, Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle was met with divisive reviews. John Davison, Kraig Kujawa, and Crispin Boyer of Electronic Gaming Monthly all panned the game, saying that awkward camera angles make the task of jumping from platform to platform annoying and often require the player to make blind jumps, while their co-reviewer Kelly Rickards said every new level offers a fresh challenge, thereby maintaining an exciting pace, and that the game overall, while not perfect, is an enjoyable action-oriented adventure.[18] GameSpot's Joe Fielder outright contradicted the complaints about the camera, asserting that "the intelligent camera ensures your perspective is always perfect for what you need to accomplish", and while discussing the gameplay remarked, "This may sound like fairly standard fare for a platform game, and it is, but Activision's got the timing down to an art (you have just enough time to plan your move and make it - no more, no less) and there's a complete lack of blind jumps - a frustrating bit that plagues most platformers." He also praised the soundtrack and the way the non-linear levels encourage exploration, and concluded that the game is fresh, original, and fun.[25]

review aggregation website GameRankings based on six reviews.[14]

In Japan, the PlayStation version was ported and published by Victor Interactive Software under the name Pitfall 3D (ピットフォール3D, Pittofōru 3D) on December 10, 1998, and the Game Boy Color version was published by Pony Canyon under the name Pitfall GB (ピットフォールGB, Pittofōru GB) on May 28, 1999.[20][19]

Notes

  1. ^ Two critics of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the PlayStation version each a score of 4/10, one gave it 2/10, and the other gave it 7/10.
  2. ^ In GameFan's viewpoint of the PlayStation version, three critics gave it each a score of 78, 82, and 80.
  3. ^ GamePro gave the PlayStation version 4.0/5 for sound, 4.0/5 for control, 4.5/5 for fun factor, and 4.5/5 for graphics.

References

  1. ^ "Games New Releases". The Daily Telegraph. April 9, 1998. p. 17. Retrieved December 12, 2023. Pitfall 3-D - New £39.99
  2. ^ "videogames.com Calendar". GameSpot. Ziff Davis. March 27, 1998. Archived from the original on February 18, 1999. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  3. ^ "Out Now! Latest Releases". Daily Mirror. February 26, 1999. p. 22. Retrieved December 12, 2023. Game Boy - Pitfall 3-D - Out Today - Currys Price £24.99
  4. ^ "GameBoy Station - Archives | December 1998". Game Boy Station. Archived from the original on June 5, 2002. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Pitfall 3D: Activision's Rumble in the Jungle" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 89. Ziff Davis. December 1996. pp. 210–12. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  6. ^ a b "NG Alphas: Pitfall 3D". Next Generation. No. 24. Imagine Media. December 1996. pp. 149–50. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  7. ^ "The Man with the Plan". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 89. Ziff Davis. December 1996. p. 213.
  8. ^ "Pitfall's Virtual Fighters". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 89. Ziff Davis. December 1996. p. 211.
  9. ^ a b "Pitfall 3D (Preview)" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 106. Ziff Davis. May 1998. p. 49. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  10. ^ Rider, David; Semrad, Ed (November 1996). "ECTS: The European Game Show Sets London on Fire!" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 88. Ziff Davis. pp. 160–61. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  11. ^ "Protos: Pitfall" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 93. Ziff Davis. April 1997. p. 46. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  12. ^ "Inside Scoop". GamePro. No. 106. IDG. July 1997. p. 20. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  13. ^ Fielder, Joe (May 14, 1997). "Pitfall 3D Delayed Until '98". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on May 1, 1999. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  14. ^ a b "Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle for PlayStation". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  15. AllGame. Archived from the original
    on November 14, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  16. ^ Damattia, Nathan (April 10, 1998). "Pitfall 3D [Beyond the Jungle]". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on August 16, 2000. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  17. ^ Edge staff (June 1998). "Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle (PS)" (PDF). Edge. No. 59. Future Publishing. p. 95. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  18. ^ a b Davison, John; Kujawa, Kraig; Boyer, Crispin; Rickards, Kelly (June 1998). "Review Crew: Pitfall 3D" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 107. Ziff Davis. p. 116. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  19. ^ a b "ピットフォールGB". Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  20. ^ a b "ピットフォール3D". Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  21. ^ "Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle". Game Informer. No. 71. FuncoLand. March 1999. p. 59. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  22. ^ "Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle". Game Informer. No. 61. FuncoLand. May 1998. Archived from the original on September 11, 1999. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  23. ^ Ngo, George "Eggo"; Chau, Anthony "Dangohead"; Higgins, Geoff "El Nino" (May 1998). "Pitfall 3D [Beyond the Jungle]". GameFan. Vol. 6, no. 5. Metropolis Media. p. 10. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  24. CraveOnline. Archived
    from the original on June 13, 1998. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  25. ^ a b Fielder, Joe (March 31, 1998). "Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle Review". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on January 4, 2005. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  26. ^ Averett, Steve (June 16, 1999). "Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on July 26, 2019. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  27. ^ a b IGN staff (March 27, 1998). "Pitfall 3D". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  28. ^ a b "Pitfall 3D". Next Generation. No. 42. Imagine Media. June 1998. pp. 136, 142. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  29. ^ Kujawa, Kraig (June 1998). "Pitfall 3D [Beyond the Jungle]". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. Vol. 1, no. 9. Ziff Davis. p. 92. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  30. ^ Walk, Gary Eng (April 17, 1998). "Pitfall 3D [Beyond the Jungle]". Entertainment Weekly. No. 427. Dotdash Meredith. Archived from the original on November 6, 2015. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  31. ^ Scary Larry (May 1998). "PlayStation ProReview: Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle". GamePro. No. 116. IDG. p. 90. Archived from the original on November 14, 2004. Retrieved July 3, 2023.

External links

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