NintendoLife writes:
"While we have nothing to fault with the game's graphics, the music, however, is a bit of a mixed bag. Although it's true that the audio captures the feeling of every stage pretty well, there is a major problem… it's from the Mega Drive, so sound is very gritty! What's most frustrating about this is that it could've been avoided if the Super Nintendo version was released instead – sadly, Activision did not think that way.
The only other thing that's a bit disappointing is the game's bosses: each one except from the last sees you facing off against one or two jaguars – a massive missed opportunity. Surely Activision could've thought up some other bosses for a game set in the jungle!? To make up for this somewhat, the jaguars do have a few new attacks in every encounter – but it still feels a bit lame."
The idea of bringing classic franchises back into the modern age is ironically not a new concept. Many beloved arcade games have been rebooted for the fifth generation of consoles, with their appeal being that they’ve been re-imagined in state-of-the-art 3D graphics. However, companies like Activision tried to make old IPs relevant again even before the era …
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, a 16-bit update of the Atari 2600 breakthrough platformer, will never be considered a classic. Every once in a while it gets reissued, on a handheld or on a virtual arcade platform, and it gets the same middling to dismissive reviews it always got. It will never be canonized. But it has something players aren't usually looking for in a platformer, something to which music was a huge component. Something no subsequent game in the Pitfall series has. Atmosphere.
AlienLion writes:
"Video game music is its’ own genre, wouldn’t you say? It’s always had a rather unique sound and mood, usually only fit for video games (as awesome as it is, you rarely see anyone moshing to Sonic 2 soundtrack, for example). Even outside of the NES/Genesis era, there is just something about the melodies that says “you’re on a very important mission and spilling epic blood is okay.” So where does it come from? A lot is simply licensed but are there some glimpses and samples, in the ‘original’ game music, that are not immediately apparent?"
