Jungle Hunt
Released: 1982
Pitch: Swing and swim through the jungle to save your sweetheart.
This game consists of four distinct parts. First, you swing from vine to vine to get to the river (though there appears to be nothing dangerous on the ground). Then you swim through crocodile-infested waters. You can kill them with your knife but the timing is tricky. After that you climb a hill while jumping over rolling and bouncing boulders. Finally, you have to jump over a couple of spear-happy cannibals to rescue your girlfriend. None of it is very complicated or refined and manages to be frustrating despite its simplicity.
That guy takes a real leap of faith when jumping with no vine on the screen.
I remember Jungle Hunt being super popular in arcades when I was a kid. I saw it everywhere! But did you know there are three different versions of that game? The first is Jungle King, and starred a Tarzan lookalike. The Edgar Rice Burroughs family got wind of this and threated to sue Taito for using a character way too similar to Tarzan, so Taito changed the hero to the pith helmet wearing explorer and the game became Jungle Hunt. While I've seen Jungle Hunt everywhere, I've only seen Jungle King at the National Videogames Museum. The third version of the game I've never seen, though. They reworked it again with a pirate theme and called it Pirate Pete! Crazy, huh?
I'm surprised the game was so popular! I mean, we have come a long way in game design since 1982 lol
Yeah, I had this for my Atari 7800. I even remember the day I bought it from Kaybee Toys. Pretty disappointing game.