Introduction
Some video game franchises are great choices for making sequels. As you know, there are plenty of game series that are not. Pitfall is a strange choice for a Game Boy Advance port for many reasons. One of the big reasons is that the game that is being ported was not so hot when it was first released to begin with. It was a mediocre game that could be described as the game in the series that destroyed the franchise. After it was released the series has had an endless string of bad luck ranging from a horrible 3D incarnation and a horrible set of ports to other systems. The game was sloppy then and it is worse now. The game that once gained lukewarm reviews now gets slapped with a stay away sticker.

Gameplay
The graphics are even worse than playing the game itself. The graphics used to be a great model of what an ancient forest used to look like. In this port you will be luck to even make out your own character let alone the background. The environments have become so muddy and disgusting that it may make some people look on an auction website to find an original copy of the game just to see what it looks like. Ok, it is not that dark but you can understand what I mean especially if you already have a tough enough time of finding a light source. The animations are stiff and choppy and the graphics on a whole are a complete mess.

Story
The game play is riddled with an endless amount of lame puzzles and choppy action that can best be seen in a horrible cheaply produced action movie. The level design is so plain, dull and boring, it makes you feel as if you have seen the many environments too many times over. The enemy AI is so dumb that it will make gamers bite their nails while trying to hold laughter in. The enemies simple come at you and hack away until they make you perish. All you have to do is attack them a few times and they are gone. This simple yet dull approach to the action genre ruins the experience in many ways. That is another point I need to stress. The game doesn’t seem to have a set genre. It is in everyway an action game but it seems as if it was intended to be an adventure game. They tried to incorporate adventure elements but all of them fall flat and the mediocre action alone would not save the game. Pitfall is quite short and after you play through it, there will never be a reason to touch or even look at it again. There is a story in place but it seems like an essay outline more than it does a plot. Overall the game play is riddled with mediocrity that will never allow any game to achieve success.

Graphics
The sound on the other hand is not as bad as the game play or even the visuals but it could have been better. The music sounds light and represents an ancient mood. They do become repetitive but never so much as too annoy the gamer. The sound effects are simple but get the job done. They are clear and there is an abundance of them but they do not stand out as much as they would if this were a better game.

Sound
Overall this game is the number one example of how not to ruin an already mediocre game. I highly recommend that everyone stay away from this game, unless you are a hardcore fan of the original. If you do wish to play a decent version of the game, then look on the web and you may be luck. There was so much room for improvement, but it was all thrown down the drain. Such a shame, I pray there will not be a sequel. So should you.