Jungle Hunt Review

Traveling through the jungle is never easy. Whether you have to swing from vines, swim through shark-infested waters, jump over rolling rocks, or avoid spear-wielding cannibals, the hazards should never slow you down. But, if for some reason you don’t want to try this in real life, you always have Jungle Hunt from Atari to go back to to try it in a way that won’t kill you. Coming out in 1983, Jungle Hunt was among the last of the pre-crash releases. Is it a game worth playing? Read on to find out.

Jungle Hunt is a platformer. There’s no other way to describe it. It has scrolling-screen levels in which you try to get from one end of the level to the other. Actually, there are four levels, each with its own objective. Your little jungle hunter has to do all four of the things that I mentioned above, in that order. Why is he doing these things? According to the manual, he’s doing them because his wife was kidnapped and he wants her back.

In level one, the guy is swinging from vines. The way this level works is simply that you hit the button to jump from one vine to the next. If the vines are too far apart and you jump from too low a spot, you’ll fall and die. Otherwise, you’ll cling to the next vine and repeat the process. Where you cling to each vine will depend on where on it you land, and you cannot climb the vine before jumping to the next one. Eventually, you’ll reach the end of the vine section and be able to progress to the next level.

In level two, the guy is swimming through a shark-infested lake. Your objective in this level is to swim across the lake using the joystick. You can swim left, up, down, or right, but since you’re progressing to the left, swimming right would be counterproductive. If a shark touches you, not only will you die, but you’ll get to watch your dead corpse float to the surface of the water before you start over again on your next life (if you have one). There’s also a small red air meter that, if it is totally depleted, you will die, but you can refill it by coming up to the surface for air. You have a knife that you can attack the sharks with, but it’s much simpler just to avoid them unless you are desperate for the points you’d get for killing them. Once again, eventually you’ll reach the end of the lake and progress to the next level.

In level three, the guy is walking through the jungle floor and has to jump over rocks that come at him. There are two types of balls. Small ones just roll at you and can be jumped over fairly easily. The problem is the big ones which not only are bigger but also bounce, making them much harder to avoid. Eventually you’ll reach the end of the rock field and proceed to the final challenge.

In the fourth level, your objective is to get past the two spear-wielding savages who kidnapped your wife and get to her to rescue her. You do this by jumping over them. Obviously, as this is the last level, that’s not going to be nearly as easy as it sounds. When you reach the end of the level and rescue your wife, the typical Atari 2600 thing happens: you go back to the beginning and start over with the game being more difficult.

Aesthetically, the vines, the sharks, and the people are all fairly well-detailed for an Atari 2600 game. The backgrounds, like in most games of the era, are done in larger pixels, but they look jungleish anyway, so I can’t really complain. There are sound effects in this game, and they are done fairly well for the most part, but the game lacks any music. Overall, the aesthetics in this game are pretty good.

If you are a fan of platformers and are a fan of the Atari 2600, you should strongly consider giving this game a try if you can find it. There certainly are longer and more diverse platformers out today, but this game remains fun nonetheless. For an Atari 2600 game, this game will last a fair amount of time, but it isn’t one like Space Invaders that has the potential to last nearly forever. Overall, this game is easy to recommend for the Atari 2600 gamer.