And now for the full intro:
For September 2020, the retro games of the month shall be:
- Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure – 1994 – 2D platformer
- Beetle Adventure Racing – 1999 – racing
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a 2D platformer developed by Activision for various systems, first released for the Sega Genesis in 1994 (though it originally began its development as a Super Nintendo game). This is the fourth game in the Pitfall franchise – the original title was an Atari 2600 game in 1982 (and considered one of the most iconic titles of that era). The Mayan Adventure can be played on Genesis, SNES, Sega CD, 32X, Atari Jaguar, and Windows PC. Also, a Game Boy Advance port would arrive several years later in 2001. (The Genesis version would show up on the Wii’s Virtual Console as well.)
This game stands out first and foremost for its fluid animation. Similar to the popular Sega Genesis release of Aladdin, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure’s artwork was handled by film animators – in this case, a team from Kroyer Films (perhaps best-known for their work on the movie Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest).
You play as Pitfall Harry Jr, who needs to rescue his father from a Mayan warrior spirit. Obstacles include dangerous jungle beasts and hidden traps, and levels are more maze-like than your average side-scroller (so perhaps comparable to Earthworm Jim). You have several different abilities in this game, such as a whip attack for short-range and a slingshot for long-range. There are items such as boomerangs and bombs at your disposal too.
I’ll be interested to hear what people think about this one, as it seems like one of those games that pretty much everyone knew about back in the day, but isn’t really brought up much anymore when discussions arise regarding its genre and era. Does Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure do enough to stand out from the pack? And is anyone out there clamoring for more Pitfall in a post-Uncharted era? Howlongtobeat dot com says it should take 4 - 5 hours to finish this one, though it’s likely just the game’s difficulty being the key factor of its length. Good luck against those jaguars!
Beetle Adventure Racing is a racing game developed for the Nintendo 64 in 1999, by Paradigm Entertainment and EA Canada. The N64 is largely remembered for its 3D platformers, but I feel the system’s arcade racers are where it’s really at. Cruis’n USA, Hydro Thunder, Star Wars Ep 1 Racer, San Francisco Rush… and of course all the kart racing games (Mario, Diddy, etc). So in what way does Beetle Adventure Racing stand out?
Well, every car is a Volkswagen New Beetle.
And that’s it?
Despite the silly gimmick, the game itself seems well-worth checking out just for the quality of its tracks and car handling. Like most arcade racers of that era, this is what I’d call plain simple fun. You pick a car, and you race. There are shortcuts to find (and repeatedly fail to take advantage of, if you’re like me), and nitro boxes to assist you with speed boosts. There are three main circuits (plus a fourth that appears afterward), as well as special cars and even cheats you can unlock. Smash through point crates in order to earn continues, as well as new arenas for the battle mode (which I presume is comparable to Twisted Metal).
I picked this game as the “arcade-ier” title of the month (as you can always just dabble in a few tracks), but if you wish to work your way through everything the game has to offer Howlongtobeat dot com says to give it 6 - 10 hours.
Please feel free to share your thoughts on either (or both) of these games as you play them over the course of September. If you finish, you can give a mini-review if you’d like. Let us know if you think these games stand the test of time!