Jazz Jackrabbit Collection

Well the child's closure is closed. In my child's time this game was quite difficult for me. I wasn't able to finish this game at that time, and this unfulfillment hanged over me for years. And today I finished it. I think this game quite good even today, but my advice is to play only main campaign (1-6 episodes) the rest watch walkthrough on YouTube.

Jack jackrabbit is one of the most notorious clones of sonic the hedgehog that brings to the table action-packed gameplay with a beautiful soundtrack that really rocks. However, the game has aged poorly and now it just feels old, and that without taking into consideration camera controls, stiff controls and whatnot. still, it should be worth buying since is one of the most famous platformers on pc, and even today, if you can overlook all its problems, it can be still fun and enjoyable.

Jazz Jackrabbit was one of the earliest games that I can recall playing, aside from the then standard early 90's titles by ID Software (Doom), Apogee (Duke Nukem II, Wacky Wheels), and Epic (Epic Pinball) and countless other companies that have unfortunately been forgotten; their titles lost to time except for those that remember them. I grew up with a PC and didn't get a console until my fifth birthday, so my Dad's PC back then was more or less treated like a 3DO or one of the other competing CD based consoles until the PS1 came along. And games like Jazz Jackrabbit helped with that, by adding a furiously fast home console experience on the PC. While Jazz seems to be, on the surface at least, of the "mascot platformer generation", he's a cut above. Being more akin to Battletoads or Earthworm Jim. I can best describe it as "a run n' gun game with sporadic platforming elements" that makes something like Sonic seem incredibly dated by comparison. With Sonic there's raw speed and meandering platforming that you have to do to get back to the "speedy bits". While I've heard and often agreed with the whole "donkey/carrot" analogy, there's still something about Sonic that's always felt off to me that I've never quite been able to put my finger on when compared to say Mario. And with Jazz being kind of a more "lovingly made" copy/paste of Sonic, he also kind of inherits some of the problems that come with "blazing fast speed"; colliding head on with your enemies and taking damage. With It's sequel, Epic improved the game somewhat by moving the camera back a little so you were able to see more of what's going on in the world. While it can be a deal breaker for some, I feel that Jazz has so much audio/visual charm going for him, that these problems are very easy to ignore

On a warm summer evening of 1997, the 5 years old me found a disk forgotten at a bench in a park. I couldn't read the label, but my dad had lots of them, so I figured it was something valuable. So I took it home. That was the Shareware version, which only had the intro levels. And while the disk is long gone, I still have the files on my PC. This game was the PC's finest platformer in an era where such a thing was found mostly in Consoles. Dean Dodrill (AKA Noogy) took great inspiration from both Sonic and Mario (Which is blatantly obvious, I mean, just look at Devon ''Dr. King Robowsernik'' Shell....), but he did not just wanted it to imitate them, he wanted to RIVAL them, and it did so, masterfully. Brightly colored graphics, smooth yet fast paced movements, epic soundtrack, plenty of weapons, a metric ton of secret areas and bonuses, challenging (but fair, in an era of NINTENDO HARD) bosses, and enough levels to last you for a summer vacation. And now, this timeless masterpiece can be played and enjoyed by the new generations!

Meet Jazz Jackrabbit, a green bunny with a red bandana, a massive gun and, most importantly of all, an overload of attitude ! Eva, Jazz' beloved blue bunny girlfriend has been kidnapped by Devan Shell and his army of turtle terrorists and Jazz is having none of it. A journey starts that takes our furry protagonist to dozens of diverse planets, each with their own themes, like jungles, factories and castles. At first glance this game does have some clear similarities to other platformers of its era. After a few minutes, however, it becomes clear the developers really thought about what elements they had to borrow from their competitors to make something unique. It's one of those titles that blends elements from other games into something that not only works well, but also feels like a totally unique and valid experience in its own right. The best way to describe this game is as a blend between SEGA's console-based Sonic the Hedgehog series and the PC-based platformers of the time like Duke Nukem. The fast-paced running gameplay and cool-yet-furry protagonist are reminiscent of Sonic. The 80's action hero-esque focus on weapons and shooting enemies, on the other hand, resembles Apogee's DOS classics like Duke Nukem, Bio Menace and Alien Carnage. Its this blend of gameplay styles that makes the game so engaging to this day. Add in an amazing soundtrack, colourful VGA graphics and a whole host of bizarre and creative enemies and you have one of the best DOS-era platformers. This version is easily the best, most complete version of the game, finally bringing all of the original episodes and the various expansions together in a single release. This includes not only the original six episodes, but also three episodes exclusive to the CD-ROM version and the two rather quirky 'Holiday Hare' episodes released for the Christmas seasons of 1994 and 1995. There's a lot whole lot of levels and a whole lot of attitude in this long-overdue GoG release. Get it !