Twelve years after its founding in 1966, Japanese media company Pony Canyon decided to enter the video game business in 1982, and for the first few years it exclusively released PC games for the main computers of the era, i.e. the NEC PC-88, the Fujitsu FM-7, the Sharp X1, & the MSX line. Though it had its own original titles, Pony Canyon's main focus came in two forms: Licensed IP & Western games. For the former the company's earlier releases included games based on properties like Spy Daisakusen (the Japanese name for Mission: Impossible), The Cannonball Run II, Genma Taisen (a.k.a. Harmageddon), Xabungle, Golgo 13, Locke the Superman, & Back to the Future; over time they'd focus less on this, however. In comparison, the latter is what would truly define Pony Canyon as a game developer/publisher as in 1984 they started releasing MSX ports of various games from Activision, while in later years they'd also release ports of games from series like Ultima, The Bard's Tale, Test Drive, Ballblazer, & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The Activision partnership was especially notable, in particular, as while Pony Canyon more or less stopped making ports after 1988 (Space Shuttle for the MSX looks to be the last one) they would still occasionally act as the Japanese publisher for Activision games all the way through the 90s, mostly notably for entries in the iconic Pitfall series... and that's where one of those infamous NES games I brought up comes into play.
In 1984 Pony Canyon released an MSX port of Pitfall! & in 1985 this was followed up with an MSX port of Pitfall II: Lost Caverns. Now, to be fair, some of these MSX ports also saw release outside of Japan (the line did see some success in Europe & South America), so those ports may not have originated in Japan, but for Pony Canyon's next Pitfall release there was no doubt that it was 100% a Japanese interpretation of a Western IP. Released on September 5, 1986 for the Nintendo Famicom, Super Pitfall was a brand new entry in Activision's platformer-defining franchise, and was the first entry to have not been designed & developed by creator David Crane. Instead, Pony Canyon hired Micronics to develop the game... and the end result was a mess, with even Family Computer Magazine (a.k.a. Famimaga, not to be confused with Famicom Tsushin, i.e. Famitsu) scoring it a mere 17.06/40. Activision would later release Super Pitfall for the NES in North America in November of 1987, where it would gain even more infamy for its poor quality.... well, everything. The visuals were glitchy, the hit detection was inconsistent, the music was repetitive, and the gameplay was simultaneously buggy & way too cryptic for its own good. There would later be a port of the game to the Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer 3 by Steve & Monique Bjork of SRB Software in 1988 which, despite a lower frame rate & a reduced gameplay window, looks to be the superior version in all ways. There was also the fan made Super Pitfall': 30th Anniversary Edition by Mário "nesrocks" Azevedo in 2016 that's just a straight-up, massively improved remake. Activision had even planned on releasing Sunsoft's Atlantis no Nazo internationally as "Super Pitfall II", though the release was cancelled; a prototype ROM for Super Pitfall II would surface in 2010.
But there's one final version of Super Pitfall out there that never left Japan. In November of 1986, only two months after the original Famicom release in Japan, Pony Canyon released Super Pitfall for the PC-88mkII SR. While it's similar in concept to what Micronics made for Nintendo's hardware, the PC-88 game is a wholly unique version, one seemingly developed in-house at Pony Canyon & designed by Makoto Ichinoseki, so let's see if this Japan-only take might possibly be capable of redeeming the name "Super Pitfall" in any way.
Much like the Famicom/NES/CoCo game, Super Pitfall for the PC-88 is best described as a complete reimagining of Pitfall II: Lost Caverns. Similar to that game the goal is for Pitfall Harry to make his way through a massively large environment in order to rescue both his niece Rhonda & pet mountain lion Quickclaw (who were both first introduced via the Saturday Supercade cartoon), or "Ronda & Quick Crow" as the PC-88 version says, from the Underground Kingdom while also finding the Raj Diamond (or "Large Diamond" for the PC-88 version), before making your back to where you started the adventure & escaping via balloon. The main difference from Pitfall II is that where Harry could only avoid enemies on the field by jumping over them in that game he has access to a gun in Super Pitfall, and while it has a limited amount of bullets (you start with 20) extra ammo can be found during the adventure, & you can carry up to 99. You also find bars of gold, as well as various "key items" required for either opening certain pathways (marked by card deck suits, i.e. Diamond, Club, Heart, & Spade) or simply finishing the game. While Rhonda, Quickclaw, & the Raj Diamond are the three "items" needed to spawn the balloon the allow you to finish, you also need to find the Blue Crystal Rod & Heart Pendant in order to "acquire" Rhonda, while the Golden Key is necessary for you to enter the "Underground World" that marks the final stretch of the game that leads to finding Rhonda.
So far this sounds very much like Super Pitfall for the NES, doesn't it? However, there's one major difference between that OG version & this one... The PC-88 version of Super Pitfall is actually really damn good! First of all is the map layout, which is a marked improvement over the relative "Where the hell do I go?" madness of the original version. While the first couple of screens do relatively match the NES version, it almost immediately differs into something much more interesting & structured. Hell, that ladder going down that's seen right at the start of the game that leads to an instant death trap in the NES version? In the PC-88 version it's instead a single screen room that awards you with a shield pickup, which increases your health by one!! Yeah, whereas Micronics seemingly trolled inquisitive players with their NES version, Pony Canton instead decided to actually reward exploration. Also, where the NES version very quickly branches out into multiple paths for the player to take right away, the PC-88 version instead starts off more like a linear platformer that allows the player to get acquainted with the two-button control scheme (Shift for jumping, while Z/Space shoots your gun), as well as figure out how to deal with enemies (either jumping over them or shooting them) & discover another aspect of Super Pitfall: Secret Items.
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| The full layout of Super Pitfall for the PC-88, plus the Underground World in the bottom left, complete with blank spots filled in. |
For those unfamiliar, Super Pitfall for the NES was notorious for how it hid away various items (including the card suit keys) in places that require the player to literally just jump around randomly, hoping that they'll hit a trigger that'll make a secret item appear nearby. The PC-88 version does also feature this kind of secret item, but by & large the spots that trigger their appearances are nowhere near as cryptic as they are on NES. More often than not they'll be spots where you'll naturally jump into (like going up a raised cliff), are simply activated by regular traversal (that often will just require you to backtrack ever so slightly to retrieve the now-uncovered item), or honestly stick out like a sore thumb if you pay attention just a little. For example, sometimes you'll see a part of area that's literally just an empty section of space, so eventually you'll realize that maybe if you start jumping in that area you'll uncover a secret item. There still are some secret items that do require a little bit of random jumping here & there (the Heart & both Diamond keys, especially), but for the most part it's easy to see that Makoto Ichinoseki likely saw what Micronics was doing & thought "You know, maybe those secret items should be easier to come across & discover, thereby enticing players to maybe explore areas they otherwise normally wouldn't".
While it's not quite as large as the NES map, totaling just shy of 100 explorable screens (compared to the 270 that the NES game claims to have), the simple fact of the matter is that the PC-88 version of Super Pitfall just has a better & more logical layout to it, one that makes exploring it fun & rewarding rather than confusing & repetitive. It's comprised a four main areas that combine together for the majority of the game's world, which technically fits in a 15x8 grid of screens (though all but eight don't go further down than six screens deep, while the length is technically only 14 screens, at most), and the Underground World itself is simply just three screens going left, followed by a five-screen door maze, & one optional bonus screen before you go back to the main map for the final two screens that lead back to the start; look at the map above for a full layout of every screen in the game. Honestly, when you compare the layout in this PC-88 game to the layouts seen in all other versions of both Super Pitfall & even Pitfall II (the map for the Atari 2600 game, & its ports, can be forgiven due to technical limitations... but even the arcade game made by Sega?) it's easy to see that Super Pitfall for the PC-88 is really the first one to truly feel like there was actual design work put into it, and while it's the smallest of the lot from a sheer size perspective it's also the most interesting & fun to explore & discover its secrets.
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| Hey, a girl's got to find work anywhere she can... even if it's underground. |
However, it's not just the map layout that makes this PC-88 version superior to the NES game, as the gameplay itself is just better executed in every single way. Movement is surprisingly snappy & responsive, especially for a PC-88 game (remember, Super Mario Bros. Special came out the very same year), with Harry even having the ability to adjust himself while in mid-jump. In fact, there's at least one jump that requires you to move forward slightly before moving back, so as to jump down to a lower platform, and it's shockingly easy to do; you can even jump onto ladders & walk off of them at any point. The only bit that's a little awkward is vine/rope swinging (as is required for a Pitfall game), as the only spot with any hit detection is the very bottom of the rope, but even that can be gotten used to, for the most part, with timing & experience. Shooting the gun is also very versatile, as Harry can shoot while standing, crouching, & jumping, so no enemy is impossible to kill (at least due to a lack of reach), unlike the NES version's infamous restriction of only shooting while standing. You can also take more than a single hit in this game before losing a life, as Harry starts with three hit points & by grabbing shield icons you can earn up to another three hit points. There are also three upgrades you can find which allow you to shoot more rapidly (two shots at a time, instead of one), shoot while underwater, & finally a dagger that doubles your bullet damage, though that last one goes away the moment you take a hit.
However, as seen above, easily the coolest unique element of Super Pitfall for PC-88 is the trio of Item Shops you can come across (two on the main map, & one hidden away in the Underground World), which gives the various gold pieces you come across actual value now, rather than simply be for the sake of points & a high score; points here only really play a factor in awarding 1-Ups (20,000, 50,000, etc.). Outside of recovering a single hit point, everything that's sold in an Item Shop (20 extra bullets, shield, dagger, full-heal potion, & 1-Up) can be found on the map as a secret item, but the bullets & dagger will easily be the things you'll be purchasing the most; gold (& enemies) respawn over time, so you're never left helpless. That's because, unlike in the NES version where there's really no need to actually fire your gun (unless an enemy is unavoidably in your way), the PC-88 version has four bosses that need to be defeated in order to beat the game. The first three are those giant Moai head statues seen in the NES game, which you need to shoot in the mouth repeatedly to defeat, while the final boss is a giant bird that shoots fireballs. The Moai heads guard Quickclaw, the Raj Diamond, & the Spade key to unlock the screen that leads to the Underground World, while the final boss guards Rhonda. However, by & large, the bosses can be tackled in any order you want (minus the Moai head that guards the way to the final area, which naturally must be defeated before the final boss), and the first time I beat the game I actually defeated the Moai head that guarded the Raj Diamond last, since I still hadn't found the Heart key that gave me access to that fight yet. In comparison, the Moai head that guards the Spade key can easily be fought first, since it's located in the second main area you'll explore & has nothing blocking your way to it. There's just this awesome, (mostly) open-ended nature to this version of Super Pitfall that, once you realize what you need to do, allows one to plan out future playthroughs in the most efficient way possible; in other words, it's the perfect game to speedrun.
In terms of visuals, Super Pitfall on the PC-88 definitely looks a bit odd in some small ways (Harry himself is seemingly based on how he looks on the Famicom box art, blond hair & all), but overall it's actually pretty good looking. The different environments that make up the overall map look wildly different from each other, which in turn helps make navigation easy (even without a do-it-yourself map), and there's an excellent use of color when you consider the limitations of the hardware. This game uses the PC-88's "V2" display mode, which allows for only eight on-screen colors out of a total of 512 at a resolution of 640x200, and this game makes very good use of those limitations; one could maybe say it's a little garish, but it's leagues better looking than the NES version. The sprite work for Harry & all of the usual grunt monsters are also a vast improvement over the NES game, though the Moai heads still don't animate in any way as they move around, while the final boss is admittedly really simple in terms of sprite work. This game doesn't rely on scrolling at all (which the PC-88 wasn't really suited for, though many developers more or less forced it to), instead relying on screen-by-screen traversal. However, the benefit is that this version doesn't have any of the bizarre visual glitches that the NES version is notorious for, and the map layout makes it so that there's never any need to rely on leaps of faith from one screen to another. There can admittedly be some slowdown at points when playing at 4 MHz, usually if a screen simply has a lot of action going on at once, but overall it still runs a hell of a lot more consistently than the NES version, & it's still notably faster than the TRS-80 CoCo 3 version that came later. If you play at 8 MHz then the game runs pretty much without any slowdown whatsoever & character sprites all move at a noticeably quicker pace, though it can sometimes feel a bit more "twitchy", gameplay-wise. Most may honestly prefer the game at 8 MHz because how much smoother it all feels, & 8 MHz PC-88 models did exist when this game came out, but the packaging specifically states that it was meant for the PC-88mkII SR, which only ran at 4 MHz; just something to consider, should you give it a play.
As for sound we have the Yamaha YM2203 delivering an FM mono audio rendition of the same three songs you hear in the NES version (one of the main map, one for the Underground World, & the ending theme), but they all sound much better here. Yes, the main song you'll hear for the vast majority of the game is a repetitive one, but the arrangement heard here on PC-88 is a vast improvement over what you hear on the NES, giving the song almost a harpsichord-like sound that I actually really like; the Underground World theme is still a bit lackluster, though. Notably the Tandy CoCo version of Super Pitfall actually doesn't use the same songs as its NES & PC-88 brethren, instead using truncated portions of the song from Pitfall II, namely the slower, sad version that plays when you take damage & reset back to a checkpoint; I just though it'd be neat to point it out here.
Make no mistake, this review won't do a single thing to redeem the "Super Pitfall" name in any way, simply because the NES original is such a terrible game & its infamy online that exploded after the Angry Video Game Nerd made it more widely known in 2011 will forever tarnish that very title. However, after I had first seen footage of the PC-88 version back when Jeremy Parish acknowledged its existence in his own Super Pitfall video from back in 2020 I had always been curious about it, since it looked so radically different. Having now played through it I can now say that I truly wish that this PC-88 version was more known about, because it is not just a superior version of Super Pitfall but simply a damn good game, one that also outshines Hudson's own infamous port of Super Mario Bros. from that same year, showing what can truly be done on the PC-88 in terms of platformers when given the right care & attention.
Astonishingly enough, though, this version looks to be absurdly rare nowadays as all you can find in terms of the physical release itself is simply the cover art above, with there being no images of the actual packaging or the 5.25" floppy disk itself; you can't even find a listing for it being sold off at places like Yahoo Auctions Japan or Suruga-ya. However, the rom itself is out there & there are PC-88 emulators that work really well nowadays, so definitely give it a go yourself. It's a shame that this version could very well never see an official re-release, even if only via something like Project EGG, because this would be an ideal candidate for such a situation. I mean, come on... a forgotten Japanese PC version of a notoriously bad NES game that's in fact the true & ideal realization of the entire concept in the first place while effectively being a totally different game? It sounds too good to be true, & not simply fan-made, yet Super Pitfall for the PC-88 is just indeed that & it truly deserves to be more well known.
Game © 1983 1986 Activision, Programmed by Pony Inc.
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