News – Super Pitfall Returns With Fan-Made 30th Anniversary Edition

Pitfall Harry is one of the most iconic names from the early days of video gaming, and a staple of the Atari 2600. To many his jungle adventures allowed players feel like they were the hero in a major blockbuster movie. Sadly though, whilst his adventures on the Atari were the stuff of legends, his ill-fated 8-bit appearance on the NES became famous for all the wrong reasons.

Yes that’s right, I’m talking about Super Pitfall. First released on Famicom in 1986, Super Pitfall was a loose remake of Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, the sequel to the Atari masterpiece Pitfall!. However, unlike Pitfall II, which Retro Gamer once named the best Atari 2600 game of all time, Super Pitfall had so many problems that in many cases, being dumped in a rainforest for real would be seen by many as more appealing.

These issues include, but are not limited to; blind drops from ladders (most of which ended in your demise), useless weapons, and confusing level design. All in all, it led many to consider the game one of the very worst games to ever grace the Nintendo Entertainment System. Even worse, Pitfall creator David Crane was given zero credit for creating the series, although maybe that’s a good thing given he had nothing to do with this disaster.

Needless to say, 30 years on it doesn’t seem to have improved one bit. Nevertheless, there are some who are looking to change this, and have been hard at work on a 30th anniversary upgrade. This upgrade by professional game artist Mário Azevedo (also known as nesrocks), includes completely redesigned visuals, reworked stages, a newly composed soundtrack, and credit to the man who invented Pitfall!.

Known as the Super Pitfall 30th Anniversary Edition, this fan-made release has not only impressed those tormented by its predecessor, but even Pitfall! creator David Crane. You see, whilst not given credit for his creation when Super Pitfall first released, it seems Crane is not willing to see nesrocks not given the credit he deserves. As such, he reached out the man behind this remake and left the following message:

Truly an amazing and impressive effort! And to learn assembly language programming in order to pull it off is equally impressive.

I run into Super Pitfall haters all the time and I am quick to point out I had nothing to do with it. Now I can point them to your improved version.

Congratulations! – DC

So there you go, were you someone who met an untimely fate when you took a punt on Super Pitfall all those years ago? Does the game still feature in your collection? Well if so then there’s no need to torment yourself ever again, as you can now grab the 30th Anniversary modification from over here.

Better late than never eh?