Let's give Pitfall a respectable showing!

[tiggerthehun]

True, it's no big deal in the grand sceme of things, and I think it's somewhat silly that gamefaqs.com even has a best game ever contest every year, since the majority of the folks who go there are somewhat out of touch with the videogaming scene - blinded by Final Fantasy.

Anyway, please go vote for Pitfall at gamefaqs.com today. I'd like to see it have a somewhat respectable showing.

[Voch]

Sigh. Looks like FF is creaming Pitfall. These are the same morons who voted for Metroid over Pac-Man...

 

Voch

[Stingray]

I've never even played Final Fantasy. I voted for Pitfall, although I would have written in Adventure given the chance. Pitfall would be a close second.

 

-S

[NovaXpress]

Final Fantasy IS a better game than Pitfall.

 

Why should anyone expect young people to give a shit about old games? I love the classics because I remember when they are new. I don't expect a 10-year old to get excited about these simple old games. They are historically important, but lacking in depth, graphics and complexity when compared to what we have today. I like seeing young people take an interest in their history and enjoy the simple quality of these old titles, but the new games are on a whole other level.

 

It's like those people who say "the 2600 is a better system than the PS2" It is not, not in any way shape or form. But is an extremely important part of our cultural heritage. Us fanboys have to keep some perspective about this.

[Ze_ro]

There's no point. FF7 is guaranteed to win this competition. I can't stand the series myself, but it seems that GameFAQs is chock-full of Final Fantasy fanboys, which completely ruins any hope of an unbiased contest.

 

(Having an unbiased, fair competition anywhere on in the internet is probably unrealistic in the first place, but if there were to be one, it certainly wouldn't be on GameFAQs)

 

--Zero

[liquid_sky]

ff people always show up and flood gamefaqs contests be it games characters.. you name it. Its quite annoying, as FF fanboys (for the most part) are obnoxious little cretins.

 

[NovaXpress]

I don't think any FF game rates in the top 100 RPGs, but that's not the point. The majority of voters on those polls are kids, whether us oldsters like it or not. How can any of us expect a 12-year old to play a game of FF, then a game of Pitfall and then choose Pitfall as the better game? Pitfall is far more IMPORTANT to gaming history, but if it was released in the 90s we would have laughed our asses off. Like the kids are doing.

[Saikyo]

Maybe pitfall should'nt win the contest but its a shame that pitfall 2 isnt in it!

That was much better and there was more screens, stuff to interact with etc...

 

PS While i absolutely love the classics i do think that FF will beat pitfall

even if every one in the world likes the classics honestly

 

If there is a game that can beat FF its something like space invaders or dig-dug

easy to get into hard to get out of!

 

(seems i was right! just looked didn't know it was over!)

[Starman]

Seriously...Pitfall over FF?

 

No.

 

Mike

[Whisper]

Just to show how much of a hardcore gamer I am: I don't like Pitfall! and I have never even played FF...

[Voch]

Why should anyone expect young people to give a shit about old games? I love the classics because I remember when they are new.  I don't expect a 10-year old to get excited about these simple old games.

 

I forgot a smiley on my reply. I've noticed that I am starting to sound a lot like my father ("Damn kids with their loud music and fast cars..."). I play the games *I* like and occasionally branch out into newer stuff (I really like Halo, for instance).

 

Voch

[Room 34]

I voted for Pitfall! (having never played Final Fantasy)... but I do think Metroid's a better game than Pac-Man. That assessment might be skewed somewhat by my current obsession with Metroid Prime on the 'Cube.

 

(I guess I'm not stodgy enough to consider the NES a "modern" console anymore. Once it crossed into "vintage" in my mind, it beat out just about everything that came before it. [Frankly, the NES and the 5200 are the only classic systems I really get enjoyment out of playing anymore, but that's a different discussion.])

[tantone56]

id vote for gta3. That game changed everything.

[Stingray]

Pitfall! changed everything. GTA3, while I agree is a very good game, only enhanced what had come before.

 

-S

[Starman]

What exactly did Pitfall change?

 

Mike

[Stingray]

It was the first scrolling run and jump platform game that I ever remember seeing on a home gaming system. A zillion and one platform games that came after it were influenced by it. I don't know if there were others before it or not, but this was the first one that I remember everyone either having or at least having played it. Okay, it seems really blah by today's standards, but in the days when the 2600 ruled the home gameing scene it was nothing short of incredible.

 

-S

[ziggystar]

You have to put the games into context. Try to remember what it was like playing Pit fall for the first time, in the old days. Remeber the feeling you got, and how cool it was.

 

Now play Final Fantasy today. Do you get the same feeling you got back then?

 

It's not fair to compare them for their graphics, sound or otherwise, it's only fair to compare them in their day. Of course modern games are going to be "better" but when you are talking about a 100 best games of all time etc.. then it needs to be based on the competition of the day.

 

Pitfall was a great game, I think Pitfall II was even better but Pitfall beats Pitfall II because Pitfall was first and it was original.

 

Final Fantasy is a great game too, does it belong on the top 100 of all time, Yes. It's one of those games. Does it beat PitFall, In my opinion no, but that's just me.

[NovaXpress]

No sense of reality here at all. Again, it's a fucking poll for kids. They don't have any historical perspective and they shouldn't be expected to. They logically assume that they should rate the games based on their own merits.

 

Was Pitfall really so innovative? A little man jumping over rolling brown cylinders? Never seen that before! It wasn't the first multi-screen game either. Really, it was just Donkey Kong stretched out horizontally. Pitfall didn't invent anything.

 

Pitfall also didn't mean anything to those of us who had moved on to the 5200 or C64. Pitfall was just a pretty little game for the kids who couldn't afford a better system. All my friends would drop their game of Pitfall immediately to have a crack at my Colecovision.

 

Pifall wasn't that great a game anyway. It offered almost no challenge, extremely repetitive enemies, and shitty sound. The only challenge to the game was figuring out the tunnels and for me that wasn't fun at all.

 

So I say that Pifall wasn't important to anyone who could afford a better system in 1982. It didn't innovate and it was totally outclassed by other multiscreen adventures such as Hero and Pitfall 2.

[ubersaurus]

Final Fantasy 1 was terrible. Even compared to other rpgs of the time, the battle system was clunky, the story almost nonexistant, and the engine clunky. It's one of the only games I stopped playing out of sheer boredom.

[Blackbird]

What's interesting is that Final Fantasy, for some reason, a lot of people today just group every Final Fantasy game into one category and say it's awesome/it stinks. How many people do you think voted for Final Fantasy just because they liked one out of the entire series?

 

Had I voted, I probably would've gone for Pitfall!. More revolutionary than the original Final Fantasy in my opinion, I wouldn't even consider graphics and sound since they're both classic games, I've played them both and I loved Pitfall! more. Comparing it to something newer, I'd probably be less inclined to vote Pitfall!... depends on what you can play and enjoy longer, I guess.

[NovaXpress]

As far as what the kids think, let's put it this way.

 

If you were a teenager in 1982 voting on this same topic, how much respect would you have shown for the classics? Would you have voted that Pong was BETTER than Pac-Man? Would you have voted that Tank was BETTER than Battlezone? Would you have voted that Spacewar was BETTER than Tempest? hell no, you wouldn't have. But at that time, those hot new games like Zaxxon were just building on the older games.

 

Pitfall didn't take any play mechanics from games like Space Panic and Donkey Kong? As a kid you would have been voting for Pitfall because it was exciting and new and you wouldn't want to hear from old-timers telling you that you should show more respect for any random Fairchild game just because it was older.

 

Perspective.

[tantone56]

Im eith the david crane theory on video games which is you cant compare games from different systems cause its just not viable.

[scogey]

yes. its true final fantasy is a better game than pitfall. of course the viper is a better car than the camero. barry bonds is a better athelete than babe ruth. i think im making my point...as technology advances, so do products...ill leave ya with this one...using your type of thought...king kong (1976) is a better movie than king kong (1933).

[tantone56]

scogey for your first post I dont think your looking to make many friends here

[NovaXpress]

scogey for your first post I dont think your looking to make many friends here

What? He made a good point, what is your problem?

 

He's saying that technology improves over time. Cars get better, steroids get better, games get better. Appreciating the historical significance of anything is a different issue than judging total quality.