Super Pitfall retrospective: Super pitiful | NES Works  

Mike Ronics strikes again. That guy was just the worst.

There's a cool hack... 30th anniversary edition or something. It fixes the vast majority of the issues with this game and makes it genuinely decent in my experience. Playing the vanilla game is not a great idea at this point, by any stretch.

11:33 What you're looking for is Super Pitfall 30th Anniersary Edition. It's a romhack of Super Pitfall that makes the game actually fun to play!

This show is sincerely such a delight. My day brightens every morning you upload. Its great to hear you be brutal every once in a while, and I always hear Super Pitfall desrves it! Keep it up hon!

1:14 Introducing: Jack Black No for real, this is sincerely and legitimately Jack Black.

Gaming community: Micronics, your games have enraged us and left irreparable harm on our hearts, do you have anything to say? Micronics: Our games shipped on time.

Oh geez. OF COURSE it was Micronics! I had no idea, but it makes so much sense now.

Saying you'd prefer to play Atlantis no Nazo specifically is one of the harsher condemnations of this game. It's a deserved one, though.

when I was like 4 or 5 back in the days, I had a blast with this game. I was a huge (Atari's) Pitfall fan, and when I got it for the NES, I was blown away... I can see the flaws and stuff, but I also have fond memories playing this awful game when I was a little kid. and it might trigger even more people -- but I also enjoyed the Predator game back when it was released as well... two awful games that I hold dear to this day...

As a kid who didn't fully understand the goal of Pitfall!, I just wandered around the world. When I played this, I also didn't understand the goal(s), and found it similarly interesting to just kind of meander around the first area on a rental, as though it were some kind of proto-sandbox. I've made the conscious decision to keep that nostalgia to itself, as I'm almost positive that revisiting the game now would leave me finding it... well, as everyone else does.

This game reminded me a lot of games like Legacy of The Wizard, and A Boy And His Blob both on the NES. No idea of what to do, or where to go back then, without the internet or Nintendo Power.

(Yes, that was a young Jack Black in that Pitfall commercial at 1:12.)

Around 5:03 I was thinking "ah nuts, my internet connection is lagging" until I realized that it was just the game's frame rate.

That Mega Man episode feels like a distant tower on the hill.

What do you think about the super pitfall 30th anniversary rom hack? I haven't played it myself but from what I've seen it looks really really good.

One of my strongest gaming memories of playing with my dad is him getting excited at a Pitfall sequel and then being so bummed out when he rented this game.

Sega's Pitfall is so fun. I can't remember when was the last time I had good times with an early 80s game like that.

That's the second Seanbaby reference you've made (that I've seen). Is this your new Tower of Duraga? Where you realize that 90% of internet culture originated from seanbaby.com - because you wouldn't be entirely wrong.

By the way, I'm not sure if this was mentioned in the earlier Pitfall II review, but the characters Quickclaw and Rhonda, plus part of the soundtrack, was taken from the Pitfall segment of Saturday Supercade. If you were wondering who the heck they were, well, that's your answer!

Thanks for reminding me just how great the dynamic music in “PItfall II” was. I remember feeling like I could run through a wall each time Harry picked up another treasure and it shifted from dirge to peppy.

There are a few Micronics games with credits (most of them hidden behind secret codes), and they indicate that Micronics games were usually made by a team of 4 people. The "one Micronics guy in his bedroom" rumour is most likely just a rumour

I clicked on this video again after not having seen it for a while, and was greeted immediately where I left off. The line "An epic disaster on every conceivable level". If that's not indictive of Super Pitfall, I don't know what is.

Wonder if all the invisible items are inspired by Tower of Druaga...

Atlantis no Nazo would have been an improvement.

That's funny that you subtly mentioned Angry Video Game Nerd because I definitely thought back to his episode on this game as soon as this one started. Looking back, I need to play this game again because I had a friend who had it and I don't remember it being THAT bad, but I was also a child at the time.

Just 10 seconds in and I'm already angry. All it takes is 13 notes.

By the way...the birds that takesyou to Quick Claw and the otherf that takes you to a bonus stage can't be killed by your bullets, that is the way I found those places, yet, a leap of faith given the lack of continues.

I own and enjoy a lot of questionable quality Micronics-developed NES games, but even I won't poison my NES collection with this game. I say this as somebody that poisoned their collection with Athena and Victory Road willingly.

I think this is the only time I've ever seen someone wish we got Atlantis No Nazo over another game

This is one of the first NES games I ever rented. It wasn't good. Lol

I never knew about Micronics...but I always hated their games...they all have that same chunky choppy style...it all makes sense now!

I got to 8:34 and said aloud "what the hell?" and sincerely felt like I was experiencing something out of a modern-day kaizo-esque troll game. What the hell, Super Pitfall? Why?

Loved the 8-Bit rendition of the Evangelion "next episode" theme at the end. Also, your channel is awesome. Love the videos

On the title screen, the player select icon is a sprite of Pitfall Harry pointing the gun at himself. Tells you all you need to know about the rest of the game...

I traded this game for the promise of a game that I never recieved. I didn't really mind getting nothing in return. While the game was really frustrating and not fun, I have fond memories of laughing at this with my brothers and cousins. It might be a "so bad it's good" game. It's great for comedy.

I am just dropping this message to tell you how much I appreciate you doing this, and how glad I am when a new video turns up! You do this better than I could, and I am loathe to admit that!

it's a shame they couldn't have just adapted the rights to the Pitfall 2 arcade game, or gotten a European game like Rick Dangerous to slap the license on.

I kinda liked this game when I was a kid. As for the bird you jump into: the way we found that out was because you couldn't kill the bird. Your bullets would go right through it. I haven't played it in 30 years, but I also thought it was a one chance thing... if the bird flew off the screen, he didn't come back like other enemies. Might be mis-remembering; maybe it came back if you died.

Micronics? ....... You’re SURE this isn’t an Action 52 game?

I was waiting for this! There was a hack intended to overhaul the game, but despite improved graphics, the stench of the design still seeps through. Steven King was right... you just can't polish a turd.

At least your video is pleasant to watch! Also, I totally agree with the "unnecessarily hyperbolic" comment. Even as a child I doubt I would have found that "humor" funny but hey apparently we are the only two. 😉

Happy to see the footage and discussion of the PC88 version here -- I've played it and it is, in essence, the NES game but playable. It's not a great game by any stretch, but it's reasonably designed and plays well enough. Playing them side-by-side is a fascinating experience in "oh, so *that's* what that was supposed to be for!"

Pony Canyon did not develop the MSX version. It was a port of the Colecovision version distributed on tape by Activision themselves in other parts of the world. Pony Canyon released it on cartridge in Japan. Sega did a different (inferior) version on SG 1000 (basically very similar hardware to a Colecovision / MSX)

Not gonna lie… this game was one of my favorite NES games growing up. I loved the open world exploration. Despite its problems, the thrill of the open world adventuring made up for it for me. I did have to call the Nintendo game counselors for help beating it… but I eventually did complete the game. Another favorite of mine that is very underrated is Legacy of the Wizard. Fantastic puzzle solving and exploration in that one. Both of these games were some of the early open world games on NES that paved the way for much greater things.

Yeah ima stop you with the "there is not single worst game on the NES" because Action 52 exists : P

It takes a special king of incompetence to have an error on the title screen. That shows that, not only did they never playtest it, they never even turned the game on at any point during development, even once.

When I saw the "next epsiode" preview, I got very excited (though a bit confused) being that Soldier Blade is one of my all time favorites. Then I immediately understood what you meant by the "planting the seeds" comment and know what's coming next.

It kind of makes sense - this game looks like Mario's box art. Looks like they were intentionally copying an art style.

I always loved how the giant tarantulas were designed in such a way that they look like they're crawling backwards, abdomen-first.

Kid: Can we have Pitfall? Mom: We have Pitfall at home. Pitfall at home:

I gotta say, I enjoy this video series. While I would content that, somewhere in this spectrum of NES games, there MUST be s "worst" game somewhere... that will remain largely up for debate. Usually the crown is awarded to unliscensed illegal works like those of Wisdom Tree / Color Dreams, or the infamous Action 52, which is not content with being the worst NES game ever, but in fact, a whopping half-hundred collection of the worst unplayable messy garbage ever to torture the NES's poor beleaguered Ricoh 2A03 Processor. This game in particular though, with it's greased ladders and vines (what other explanation could there be) and invisible keys with no context to provide any meaningful input that such things even exist? Baffling. A good exploratory game gives clues to how it's secrets are found. EG like Zelda hides it's first weapon in plain sight, where the first thing you see besides yourself is a cave to obtain it, leading you to want to enter every available black squarish cave you see in hopes of more loot. Even encouraging you to discover new ones. Metroid stonewalls your right-scrolling progress with, well.. a stone wall too low to walk under. Only by turning around and going left do you discover the item that lets you tuck and roll beneath it, and that same item comes in handy when peeking into item rooms, which contain a conveniently shaped tube beneath the item statue, which begs to be rolled through, the wall within bombed open to reveal new chambers. The first Mega Man game, a game not noted for it's exploration, has a hidden vital item in the Elec Man stage, guarded by three unassuming blocks which can only be lifted away with the Super Arm, or shattered with the Thunder Beam. Without this item, it's virtually impossible (save for a glitch or two) to scale the vertically zig-zagging first of the 4 Wily Castle stages, but savvy players will notice the item in plain sight on the screen layout behind the three bricks which are impassable by default, but coming back with new weapons opens the way.

You know a game is bad when it makes someone acknowledge Spelunker for its mercy

The DARK WORLD sections are hilarious!

Quit holding back.ntell us what you really think of it

we actually got a good version of this game in the states. on the trs 80 color computer, of all things.

Haha Super Pitiful sums this mess up perfectly.

"Sigh. Micronics."

The main sprite looks like it is based on Jack Black on the old ad, so that counts as an Easter egg of sorts. I guess.....

Episode S-I-X-T-Y F-O-U-R! OOOOOOH my God! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!

Even as a child, Jack Black could hype anything.

Just that this game is related to Pitfall in any way hurts my soul.

Whatever that game was at the end looks fucking amazing

Pitfall! for C64 it was one of the first games I had, however I never wanted to buy the NES Super Pitfall but I would like to have it as part of the franchise collection 😧

This game looks like it would be amazing/nightmarish as a speedrun game.

Awesome video as usual. I played this game a few years back after watching AVGN and it is awful, but like you mentioned in the video, there is something about it that does grab you to a certain degree. It certainly isn't enough to keep you coming back of course, but the feeling is still there. I feel like this game would've been a solid adventure game if the many many flaws were ironed out.

I borrowed and beat this game long ago. No guides. It was… ehhhhh. I recall there were patterns to exploration. But, the godawful music, the jerky scrolling, the “slipping” on ladders that the instruction book described like a feature, and the vine chain to escape the dark world. I felt really good when I beat it. Then it presented a second quest. As much as I wanted to see if anything different happened when you beat the second quest, I was not about to torture myself that way.

I can't not watch NES Works... Too enjoyable

10:30 not random, not same birds. These fly differently, and it's not the altitude, they fly in a full wavy motion, while the regular vultures fly in a straight line and do dives sometimes. In a game that's all about jumping in thin air to find items, this is enough of a hint that you should jump into it.

I remember this game, and it was garbage. Activision published this NES game after they took over from the Atari 2600 era. During the Atari era, Activision made a ton of excellent games like “Pitfall”, “Ice Hockey”, “Kaboom”, “Boxing”, “Baseball”, “Freeway”, “Dolphin”, “Starmaster”, and tons more. Activision games were great during the Atari 2600 era, but when the company moved into published games for the NES, it was downright terrible. Look at what other NES games that Activision made including “Ghostbusters”, “Ghostbusters 2”, and “The Three Stooges”. Those were complete garbage. I should stick to the Atari 2600 games from Activision which were great.

Great video. Justified brutality in your summary of this game. I love that the Castlevania footage you showed was from loop 2.

I was more excited to finally experience Atlantis no Nazo than any other addition in the most recent NES/Famicom Switch app update, tbh

As a kid, when this came out, I was endlessly fascinated with this game. All the secrets, hidden knowledge, and difficulty in playing it, somehow put it on a level, where the hardships in playing it frustrated me more than anything else in the world. I just wanted to figure it out, and without the internet, and guides, there was just no satisfaction to be had. I think someone ought to rework this game, and release it for emulators.

I have never played it, but I have known of it's infamy. It's amazing how many technical problems with it, I'd rather be playing Spelunker. That's a cruel game, but if you take it, it's can be rewarding.

back in ye olden days, renting this, even the shoddy shop that they rented gave us a swap for a different game next weekend after he heard my low-iq-kid brain complain about it, so it was not money totally wasted

Cool, Soldier Blade! Are Turbografx-16 games next after the NES series is done?

As a kid, I had Super Pitfall on the Tandy, but I did not yet have an NES to get Mario. My dad had gotten the Tandy from an uncle who liked to own a lot of novel things. Their Tandy had Super Pitfall, Rad Warrior, Dungeons of Daggorath, Color Baseball, and Math Bingo. The latter two not really bring memorable games. I had completed Rad Warrior as a kid, but I never solved Super Pitfall. The Tandy versions doesn't have you jumping into vultures, there are brick cave arches you jump into it. I came back as an adult and solved Super Pitfall on the NES and Dungeons of Daggorath as free abandoned ware. Super Pitfall obviously was flawed but because it was one of my first video games and a substitute for Mario, which I didn't have access to until the end of 1991, I liked Super Pitfall.

I feel like the guy who designed this game should apologize to us. I wasted so many weekends on this turd. There was a charm to it, mainly because of the happy go lucky version . And I loved Pitfall 2 so figured maybe I was just missing something. Nope. Many years later the internet would confirm that we all hate it.

I remember the AVGN episode on this game and yeah it looks pretty bad

There are many games that I don’t enjoy, but nes super pitfall is a game that I really dislike. As someone who grew up with the Atari computer and arcade versions, it was a huge disappointment specially considering how good super Mario was. Pitfall seemed like a downgraded rip off of that game (similar character sprite and copied jump animation).

I'm sure that I'm in the minority, but I love this game. I did beat it on the Tandy color computer 3.

Just... That music. No.

Algorithm Gods!

This was a crappy game sandwiched in-between 2 great games and was overall pretty sad to see Pitfall be relegated to this.

Algorithm Gods!

I could never beat Super Pitfall as a Kid. But Super Pitfall 30th Anniversary Hack I have beaten many times. I don't normally rebeat games...but 30th Anniversary is just so so good. It takes such a terrible design game with genuine potential...and makes it one of my favorite games on NES. Now thats a great hack.

Not to mention you have no idea HOW TO ACTUALLY BEAT THE GAME 😅😅. Where do I go, guess I'll keep wondering around until I see the exit 😪

Garbage such as color a dinosaur, othello, caesars palace, puzznic, etc are far worse than the worst action games on nes . I’d rather bump into things in hydlide or try to figure out super shitfall than pretend gamble or find that Waldo guy. That said my nominee for worst action nes game would be ghostbusters

I never played this one back in the day and, if it was truly worse than Athena (my own pick for 'worst NES platformer') then I definitely never want to play it.

The history of bad game sequels goes far back, sadly

Ok. I bought it when it first came out. I liked the addition of the gun and I did enjoy the sprawling world it showcased. While it was a fun suprise to discover warp zones in the vultures ( there are more than one) it was odd using them as the way to do so. I have the ROM hack of the 30th anniversary edition of it, which did fix a lot of the dum dums put in the original. Hey, I did find it fun back then, as there were not many exploratory NES games back then, but it did have issues. I love the Sega Pitfall II arcade game out of the Pitfall games ever released. It was very well done. :)

There were much worse games in the 80s, like Adventure Island. I got plenty of play out of this one, although the win screen was certainly pathetic.

So their plan for a sequel to this trainwreck was to localize one of the *_worst_* Japanese NES games ever? This story just keeps on giving. 😂

I still have fond memories of this game even if it is just horrible. The music is just catchy and exploring is neat. Except it's a nightmare.

Total missed opportunity at 11:52 to say Good Nintentions

Haha the echo with dark world

*D A R K W O R L D*

1:14 Jack Black 🤔

RU-vid's compression really doesn't like the PC88.

My brother and I would play this game two player all the time. We would set off in seperate directions and see who could get the highest score before we ultimately got a game over. Slowly we would find new things with each subsequent playthrough. We really felt like adventurers. All that time we were having so much fun, it's hard to admit the game is complete trash. I went back to it after forgetting about it for years, Sheesh is it rough.

The music is so much worse than the Atari 2600 music of Pitfall II!!! What they did to such a classic game tune is EVIL!