Product of its time for sure. Middle of the road 3D platformer that's perfectly serviceable but doesn't excel at anything. It wants you to collect upgrades and revisit old areas to collect more stuff, but I found the level design too linear to encourage doing so. Traversal isn't fun enough for me to want to run through all the areas the same way several times since none of the upgrades allow you to approach areas differently. The game already has me doing that enough anyway. Rewards for exploration are also always uninteresting and exactly what you expect.

I didn't find any of the characters very likeable, especially Harry. The jaguar was really annoying. The story in general is whatever but it's not like I expected much. Audio mixing in this game is terrible and sound effects vary wildly in quality.

This game is weird. Even though Pitfall is something Activision tries to bring back every once in a while, this one still feels like it came out of left field. It’s especially strange because it’s admittedly pretty good. The Lost Expedition is a 3D Metroidvania that takes place in a jungle with deep caverns, snowy mountains, ancient temples, and more. There’s a wide variety of tools you receive throughout the game and tons of useful collectibles to find for upgrades. The best part about it is arguably the movement. Harry’s animations are snappy, silly, and cartoonish. Combined with responsive controls, the animations make Harry feel smooth as butter to control. I don’t find the music very catchy or memorable, but it compliments the environments and actions really well. In terms of the design and gameplay, I think it aged pretty well.

The absolute worst things about this game are the writing and scenarios. The writing itself is pretty generic; I can barely even remember the plot. The primary issues are the sexism and racism. Pitfall Harry is a creep to women at almost every opportunity he can get. The ending culminates in Harry being the Prophetic White Guy Savior to the ancient civilization of El Dorado. Additionally, you’re going to be spending the majority of the game brutally beating animals and natives to death as they try to defend themselves. As a kid, I didn’t really think twice, but as an adult, it’s kind of awkward to kill them and just look at their lifeless bodies on the ground. I think an apt summary of this game is the penguin enemy you’ll encounter in the icy mountain areas. Each penguin has a nest that they leave very briefly to slide and lunge at you. If you destroy the egg in the nest while the penguin is gone, the penguin will start crying and it will no longer attack you. This game has all sorts of great attention to detail like this, but it feels wrong in lots of places.