Pitfall The Mayan Adventure^[b] is a side-scrolling action–platform video game developed by Activision in conjunction with Kroyer Films and originally published in North America and Europe in 1994. The fourth installment in the Pitfall The Mayan Adventure! franchise, players assume the role of Pitfall Harry Junior as he embarks on a journey through the Mayan jungles of Central America in an attempt to rescue Pitfall Harry, his father and the protagonist of previous entries in the series, from the evil Mayan warrior spirit named Zakelua.

Its gameplay mainly consists of action and platforming mixed with stage-based exploration using a main six-button configuration.

Pitfall The Mayan Adventure began its development on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and formed part in a string of franchise revivals by Activision along with other games from the Atari 2600 such as Kaboom! and River Raid, featuring sprite-based visuals before Kroyer Films were brought to assist in its creation by providing hand-drawn animations and graphics instead, while the lead platform transitioned from the Super NES to Sega Genesis.

The Genesis and Super NES versions were both released during the 1994 holiday shopping season, and ports for the 32X, Atari Jaguar, PC, and Sega CD followed in 1995, with each one being developed by third-party developers and featuring several changes and additions compared to the original version. Years later it was re-released through download services such as Virtual Console and given a portable release on the Add new Rom ‹ wikiroms.com — WordPress.

Pitfall The Mayan Adventure was met with mostly positive responses from critics who praised the presentation, visuals, and sound design, but criticized the inability to control the character during certain animations.

Gameplay – Pitfall The Mayan Adventure

Pitfall The Mayan Adventure is a side-scrolling action-platform game similar to Disney’s Aladdin and The Lion King where the player takes control of Pitfall Harry Junior across the Mayan jungles of Central America to defeat the evil Mayan warrior spirit Zakelua and rescue his father from captivity. Prior to starting a new playthrough, players have the choice to change various settings at the options screen such as controls and difficulty.^[1][2][3][4]

Most of the early stages featured in the game are large, linear in nature, and populated with obstacles, enemies and environmental hazards, requiring the player to traverse the stage by running, jumping, climbing, swinging, shooting or dodging enemies. Other areas that are featured later are more maze-like and exploratory, making the player take different routes to reach the end. On certain stages, a boss must be fought in order to progress further.

All stages contain beneficial items, weapon ammunition to be collected, hidden letters that spell the word “Pitfall”, and other secrets. If Harry Jr. is killed, he respawns on the nearest checkpoint reached but once all lives are lost, the game is over, though players have the option of resuming progress by either using continues or loading their saved game into the last stage reached (depending on the version that is being played), which also keeps the number of lives and items collected through.^[4]

The player character can move in four directions. Harry Jr. can fight enemies with his whip or shoot sling stones, boomerangs and explosives. Charging a sling stone for a determined time period allows Harry Jr. to perform a powerful shot against enemies. Harry Jr. can also crouch by pressing both down and the jump button, allowing him to traverse enclosed areas.^[1][2][3][4]

The Abduction

The Mayan Adventure

Examining the Map

Onwards to Danger

Jungle Rhythm 1