I played Jazz Jackrabbit's shareware version as a kid, and I remember liking it very much, so I was excited to jump on the nostalgia train and play it again. But I have to say this was quite a frustrating experience. First, the music is freaking awesome ("Tubelectric's" beats are still engraved in my mind 22 years later). This is that kind of soundtrack that I can listen to all day, and you should too. Easily the best part of the game. The graphics is colorful and cute, and looks good for the time. But the gameplay is something else. Jazz is a wanna-be Sonic, so he runs fast as hell, but the only problem that I cannot see a feet from me, so its very hard to avoid enemies and projectiles. If I want to survive, I have to inch my way through the levels, and that's not very fun. Isn't that the whole point is to run like lightning, blasting my way through enemies? I simply cannot do that here, because I die very quickly - I have 4 health points, and I go back to the beginning of the level in case of a death (or to a checkpoint if I found one). And top of that, I lose all my weapons! So if I die (which happens in a matter of minutes), I am back to using my basic weapon, which seriously sucks rabbit balls. So I have less chance now to beat the level. Fucking great. The controls are slippery and very sensitive, so it's even harder to avoid getting hit by enemies. Speaking of enemies, most of them are annoying, but that would be fine, if I even see them! But no, because the camera is so zoomed on Jazz, so I have to be in the enemies face if I want to see them (therefore shoot them, because if an enemy is not on the screen, it doesn't exists... 90's video game logic). To give credit, where credit is due, GoG did a great job with this collection - it contains all official levels, and runs great. I got this game for a buck, so cannot complain about the price, either. So it's not terrible, but the sequel is much better. I recommend playing that game instead of this.
This is the fifth and final Blackwell game, which concludes the series with a great finale. You HAVE to play this game, if you've played the previous ones. The graphics is much better, the music is awesome, the story is just as enthralling as ever, and it's much longer. The gameplay is simple and intuitive - it definitely has the best interface of all. The story here is much more dark and moody, but explains everything well from the previous games. Get this!
This bundle contains 4 games of the Blackwell series, made by Wadjet Eye Games, redeemers of the 2D point & click genre. The story follows Rosangela, a common girl, who discovers that she is a medium, and can talk to ghosts. Her companion, Joey is a ghost too, and you can control them both to help lost spirits find their way into the light, and solve other misteries. The story is interesting, the characters are likeable, the voice acting is good, and - thankfully - the game avoids the common problem of point & click games: hoarding junk to combine them in twisted ways, to figure out a puzzle. The puzzles here are clues, what you can combine to get more info, but usually you only have to talk to other characters to progress, and your inverntory has only a few items. In the first game (Legacy) the graphics is quite basic, and I encountered quite a few bugs for this kind of game (most of them in conversations, where the voice didn't match the text). Every game in the series is an improvement from the last game regarding the graphics, the interface, the menu, the conversations, the puzzles etc. So I'd give Legacy 3,5/5, Unbound 4.0/5, Convergence 4.5/5, and Deception 4.5/5. All episodes can be finished under 2-3 hours, so this bundle is a good buy. And there is Epiphany...
