Pitfall: The Big Adventure

Pitfall was born on the Atari 2600 (ask your dad) and was a cross between Indiana Jones and an army obstacle course, with a little stickman named Pitfall Harry jumping over crocodiles and swinging on vines. This new game, the sixth in the occasional Pitfall series, offers the same thrills but with new Wii controls and modern graphics...Well, sort of.

In 1982, before Lara Croft raided tombs or Prince of Persia cut any rugs, there was a game called Pitfall, and it was good. What could be simpler and more addictive than a man running through the jungle avoiding crocs, scorpions, monkeys and quicksand? The Big Adventure really bears little resemblance to its debut, and Bruce Campbell gave up voicing Pitfall Harry after just the one performance (in Pitfall 3-D: Beyond The Jungle), but arguably these are both good things.

Campbell may well have seen the script and headed for the hills, because it's painfully unfunny. The graphics are also really poor - the opening scene where you fight a Jaguar in a ring of fire looks like it belongs back in the 80's. But if you can bear these cringeworthy first impressions, The Big Adventure turns out to be a darn good adventure.

Once Pitfall Harry's plane has crash landed in the jungle he sets out to find the expedition leader, Bittenbinder, and his sexy daughter Nicole. Your first mission is to find Bittenbinder and the plane wreckage - it's sort of like Lost, if it were a kid's cartoon with angry monkeys who throw poop at the main character. Monkeys, as with most of the animals and insects you come in contact with, can be stunned by kicking their legs out from under them and then punching their lights out, but when you stumble across a dozen of the sleeping fiends it's safer to tip-toe past them.

Mostly you'll be double-jumping over gaps or swinging back and forth on vines by tilting the Wii remote forward and back, as well as flicking it around to attack. Later on, shaking the nunchuk performs the Heroic Dash (useful for running very fast over hot coals). If you fall in the water, pumping the nunchuk and remote together lets you swim fast enough to escape hungry crocodiles or Piranha. Crocs also like to lurk in quicksand and jump out at you, so always look for an alternate route out of their reach.