Jazz Jackrabbit Collection

Jazz Jackrabbit was a beacon of light for PC gamers who wanted to play Sonic the Hedgehog but didn't have a Genesis. As the creators themselves have said, the gameplay is Sonic with a gun: you run swiftly though levels and then leap from platforms all while shooting everything in sight. Its very simple but very enjoyable, having a similar feel to Sonic's running with the addition of firing various unique weaponry. Each level feels different from the last with its own style and dangers and plenty of cool secrets ranging from power-ups to whole new levels. The graphics and music are also of top quality, the sprite work is excellent and the music is probably some of the best music in a platformer I have ever heard! So why am I giving this a 3 outta 5? This game sounds extremely fun! And it is... Sometimes. More often than not though it is a test of patience and the worst of twitch reflexes. Jazz is a bit slippery and goes from 0 to 100 miles an hour way too quickly, so when the game decides to be more precise with its platforming (which is surprisingly often) it becomes a clunky nightmare. The game's biggest flaw though is its camera: it is WAAAY too zoomed in! I lost track of the amount of times I got hit by an enemy I could never have seen in time at the speed the game wants you to go at, forcing me to lightly tap the movement keys in order to avoid being destroyed by frequently cheap enemy placement. Also get ready for a sore hand, unless you find the rapid-fire item (which you lose when you die) you have to mash the fire button for every shot you take! I assure you Jazz Jackrabbit is a classic, but just like "2001: A Space Odyssey" its not a classic that has aged well at all. I do think the game is just good enough to overlook its severe shortcomings, but even then its not easy to do without a heavy amount of DOS nostalgia. Frankly: just get the sequel, It fixes all this game's problems and has a ton of epic new content from co-op to a level editor.

what can i say that hasn't already been said, this game kicks-ass, i used to play this game for hours after school on my windows 95, sadly it was the shareware version, on pc speaker. so no music, only sound effects. everytime i jump with alt and shoot with ctrl it always boot me out of the game. i beat episode 1 so many times i lost count, so many many years later i said to myself, i never played the full version of this game, why not now. for me it's so weird playing the cd version with cd quality audio but everthing else is just as i remember. my only grips i have with this game, is Jazz is so zoomed-in and since he moves so fast that i can't tell at times what im seeing up ahead without getting hit, because its a fast paced game that runs on DOSBox it has screen tearing and i can't find the vsync option to fix this, but i can get used to it, and of course one of the levels is almost impossible to beat, Episode 2: Level 2 ("Orbitus") in the middle section of the level that almost everything there is bouncy and super sensitive too, and there's a small narrow path right bitween all the bouncy platforms, it took me forever to pass that area. the only time i died from the time limit. anyway i did find out there's a patch that fixes that infamous level. overall a childhood classic. the sequel is much better

I have played this game in the mid-nineties. At that time it was considered to be a bright spot among the PC platformers. I think that the graphics and the music aged well and overall this can be a quite enjoyable game but the truth is that the gameplay can be really annoying (which was also true in the mid nineties). The main problem is the combination of Jazz moving fast and the camera being zoomed in way too much - sometimes there is simply not enough time to react to obstacles/enemies. The level design is also a bit meh, it happens more than a couple of times that you have to jump but you cannot see the landing area. Another typical problem is that you take some damage, but cannot really replenish your health because the carrots are not evenly distributed on the level - no carrots at all for a while and than suddenly four or even more. It can be also annoying that if a hit happens outside the screen it did not really happen - this can be problematic since enemies can shoot at you but you cannot shoot back unless you see them even if you know where they are. All that said I think it does worth a try even in 2023. Pros: - graphics & music - save option (not perfect, as you loose extra lives and weapons) - funny animations - lot of levels - "3D" bonus levels Cons: - gameplay can be tedious - level design could be better

Just bought it with JJ2 for the sake of nostalgia, and not gonna lie, DosBox is quite clunky with it's on-the-fly adjustments and scrolling, but hell, I love the game. Great soundtrack, enjoyable, quick mechanics (which get slower on higher difficulty levels), sympathetic designs, and the flashbacks. Would enjoy a new title / HD remake for current gen platforms, maybe with similar graphics to UbiSoft's Rayman Origins/Legends.

I've played Jazz Jackrabbit 2 with my little brother since we were in elementary school for HOURS on end. However, it's not until a year or so ago that I stumbled upon its predecessor, this amazing little gem. Both games still hold up very VERY well, even now in 2018. If you like fast platformers like Sonic or Turrican, this will be right up your alley because it's practically a mix between the two. The framerate is very smooth and fluid, the colors/graphics and animation are absolutely gorgeous, the platforming feels very satisfying, the music is very distinct, memorable, and catchy (as with all of Alexander Brandon's work, ie Unreal) and the game is pretty challenging. Not too hard to where you'd break your keyboard over (unless you type the doom cheat and play the game in nightmare mode), but the perfect amount of challenge. This game's replayability also gives it value in my opinion. I had to do some extra tweaking, but I managed to get an adapter to plug in my original Gravis Gamepad (the "official gamepad of Jazz Jackrabbit"), and I got it to work with this version of the game and it's an absolute blast to play with, no pun intended. That will, in my opinion, be the most enjoyable and definitive way to play this game. I don't want to ramble on for way too long, so I'm just going to cut to the chase and list the very few issues I had with this game; note that all of these issues were fixed in the sequel. If you've already played it and want to see a review on this GOG version itself, then definitely get it, it's a no-brainer. It's a DOSBox port, but it's flawless and perfectly emulates the game in the way it's supposed to run. Absolutely 0 issues. For the game itself though; - I think the camera is way too zoomed in on Jazz, and it makes it kind of hard to navigate. This can lead to some frustration and lead to getting hit by items before you can even realize what happened. - Jazz moves way too fast at times, and this can be somewhat irritating. I mean, there's even times when Jazz goes so fast, the camera just goes over Jazz and you can't even see him. This kind of goes hand in hand with the zoomed in complaint, but oh well. - Sometimes the controls mess up and aren't super responsive, at least on the keyboard. I had no issues using the Gravis Gamepad. This isn't an issue with the GOG release, it's an issue with the game itself because this happens in the DOS version too. These are more small issues with the game than anything that made me not want to play the game. It's still very fun to play, even with these little issues. Aside from that, this is amazing little gem that is well worth everyone's time and money.