Jazz Jackrabbit 2

Moby ID: 1348
Windows Specs

Description official descriptions

Jazz the jackrabbit was just about to marry his girlfriend Eva Earlong, when his arch-nemesis, the turtle Devan Shell, stole the wedding ring. To add insult to injury, Eva's hostile mother has locked Jazz and his brother Spaz in a dungeon. The two hares must escape, retrieve the precious jewel, and punish Devan for his evil deeds.

Like its predecessor, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a platform shooter. Unlike the previous installment, the sequel allows the player to control Spaz as well. Jazz retains his ability to hover in the air by using his ears, and Spaz can stomp and smash enemies. The hares use a default blaster gun with unlimited ammunition and can later acquire more powerful weapons, a few of which (e.g. a freezing gun) were not found in the first game. Coins can be found throughout the stages and then given to vendors to access bonus areas.

The party mode allows up to four players to use the same computer with split-screen, or up to eight players to compete on two screens via modem. The level editor JCS (Jazz Creation Station) is also included in the game.

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Credits (Windows version)

30 People (22 developers, 8 thanks) · View all

Lead Programming
Programming
Graphics / Artwork
Animation
Design
Level / Scenario Design
Additional Level / Scenario Design
Music
Additional Music
Sound
Sound Engine Programming
Cinematic Animation
Producer
Co-producer
Public Relations Manager
Marketing Manager
PR Manager
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Sales Manager
Server Meister
International Sales Director
Manual
Administration
Project Manager
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 72% (based on 30 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 48 ratings with 7 reviews)

THE PC platform game to play.

The Good
What's not to like? from the brightly colored, highly detailed graphics with gobs of animation and multiple background layers, to the spot on cartooney sound effects and cool music, Jazz 2 is truly THE platform game for the PC. You can blast right through the levels, or you can take your time and find all the secret nooks of treasure. The included level editor lets you create your own levels and is fairly easy to use. The multi-player mode is highly addictive, and the lag is(was) pretty tolerable, even on slower connections.

The Bad
It's not very difficult, even on the highest difficulty level. An extra episode or two would have been nice.

The Bottom Line
It's like being in an interactive cartoon, and once you have played it, it will make you forget about Sonic the Hedgehog for a while. Very good game in every aspect, I highly recommend picking it up.

Windows · by Ryu (50) · 2002

A truly magnificent game.

The Good
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is quite simply a quantum leap from the original Jazz Jackrabbit, a technicially magnificent game in its own right. Jazz Jackrabit 2 perfects the jump-'n-run style found in other classics (Sonic the Hedgehog comes to mind) with the following features:

  • Demo-coding power! Arjan Brussee, originally of the famous demo group Ultra Force, did such a great job on Jazz Jackrabbit - no matter the resolution, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 will run absolutely smooth and look great on any adequate computer (I could run it in just about any resolution on a Pentium 166 with a fast video card). Jazz 2's engine is a marvel of modern programming technique, and without a doubt the best game engine in any platform game to date.
  • The music in Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is absolutely marvelous. Written by one of my favorite trackers, Alexander Brandon of Straylight, Jazz 2 has some of the best music in any computer game to date, professionally tracked and with great quality samples. It creates the atmosphere for the whole game, and damn well too.
  • The graphics in Jazz Jackrabbit 2 are simply amazing (see screenshots): lighting effects, sprites, explosions and just about everything looks magnificent. Epic simply outdid themselves this time by creating the best-looking platform game ever.
  • The level design is great - a few touches of puzzles and generally thoroughly pleasing gameplay.
  • Coolest menu system in any game to date!
  • The controls in this game are excellent. 'nuff said.

In short - Jazz Jackrabbit 2 rules!

The Bad
Only a few complaints:

  • The introduction sequence is simply horrible. While the actual idea isn't a bad one, the execution is simply not befitting the quality of the game, with pretty bad drawings and non-smooth animation. The only spot of light in the intro is the wonderful music.
  • The game is unbelievably easy! Even in the toughest level, it's unlikely that you'll ever find yourself in a really bad situation where you're out of lives and have to rely on luck.



The Bottom Line
The best platform game on any platform to date. You can't beat Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - it's as close to perfect as it gets.

Windows · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2000

A good game for whole family

The Good
I really enjoyed playing this game. It contains many different locations and enemies, like first "Jazz Jackrabbit". There are also the same weapons, but Epic added some new ones, such as freezer, heat-seeker and pepper spray. But it's good to conserve ammo for bosses, and killing regular enemies with blaster. Blaster has once again unlimited ammo.

Game is much easier than it's prequel. There aren't insanely hard levels like Orbitus from "Jazz 1". But fights with bosses can be a real pain in a butt (especially queen, bolly boss and Devan himself, while other are fairly easy, like tuf turtle boss and robot).

You can select two completely different characters to play: Jazz or Spaz. Jazz, for example, use his "ear-copter", while Spaz can smash enemies by his feet.

Graphically it looks good, even today. Everything looks like taken from cartoon movie. "Jazz 2" also introduces more complicated backgrounds than "Jazz 1". I really enjoyed "psycho" and "jungle" levels design. Sound effects are brilliant. Music is like from first "Jazz" but in much better quality.

"Jazz 2" also contains multiplayer! You can play on split-screen, through LAN or Internet. Multi has five types of gameplay: cooperative (you're playing the same levels like in single player, but with friends), deathmatch, race (you've got to run through level several times), treasure hunt (collect 100 diamonds and run to the exit) and capture the flag (yes, CTF in platform game!). When you buy this game, you also get "Jazz Creation Station" (abbreviated to "JCS"), which let you create your own levels!

The Bad
When you want to play "Jazz 2" by LAN or Intenet, you can't play race and cooperative. I completely don't know why they aren't included.

Maximal screen size is 640x480. That's odd - other games released in 1998 had much bigger screen size. One episode contain levels based on three first planets from "Jazz 1": Diamondus, Tubelectric and Medivo. Designers were run out of ideas?

And the worst thing are walls - you can sometimes jump into walls and get stuck. You can see it in the end of "castle" levels, when you defeat queen. While in original episodes it only appears in this level, in some user-made levels it appears very often, especially in levels converted from "Jazz 1", which had many narrow tunnels, like in Diamondus.

The Bottom Line
Well, "the good" section is much longer than this "bad" section. Despite these bad things, you will probably enjoy this game. I always keep this game for parties - simple rules and split screen for max. 4 players make this game perfect for such things.

Windows · by Sir Gofermajster (485) · 2008

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Cover art LunarLoony (424) Feb 18, 2017
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Dan Zeal Oct 28, 2012

Trivia

Automatic hardware detection

The game detects your computer power and shows the intro in low or high res... You can't change this manually!

Cancelled sequel

A sequel to this game, entitled Jazz Jackrabbit 3D was to be released sometime in 2000. However, since Epic was unable to find a publisher, the project was cancelled.

Extra Games

The full UK CD version of this game installs as version 1.21. Also on the CD is a folder called 'Shareware' which contains shareware versions of the following games: * Fire Fight by Chaos Works * Jazz Jackrabbit Episode 1 plus Xmas * Tyrian Shareware version 2.0 * Extreme Pinball : the Rock Fantasy table * 7th Legion

Lori Jackrabbit

In the ending cutscene of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, there is a bucktoothed female rabbit who Spaz Jackrabbit has a crush on. She is actually Lori Jackrabbit in prototype form. Lori was initially supposed to be Spaz's love interest as well as Eva Earlong's distant cousin, but Project 2 Interactive accidentally described her as the lost sister of him and Jazz. Additionally, Lori's creator, Dean Dodrill, wanted her to be a playable character. Hence, for The Secret Files, Lori was changed into the Jackrabbit sister and was made playable.

References

The Dopefish (from id Software's Commander Keen series) is mentioned on a signpost in the stage "A Diamondus Forever". The sign reads "Spaz ate the Dopefish".

Spaz

Spaz, Jazz's younger brother in the game, was actually the result of a joke. During JJ2's development it was full of bugs, and one day artist Nick Stadler was so frustrated by the game that he sketched a parody of Jazz on paper, underlined with the words "SPAZ SLACKRABBIT." The drawing was so amusing to the JJ2 development team that Spaz was eventually added to the game as a full-blown character.

Additional information contributed by B14ck W01f, Fangusu, Maw, piltdown man and Satoshi Kunsai

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Related Games

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Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection
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Jazz Jackrabbit CD-ROM
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Related Sites +

  • Haze's Hideout
    Blog site containing extensive information on the Jazz Jackrabbit games, the second one in particular
  • JCSref
    Comprehensive site to the Jazz level editor; Jazz Creation Station
  • Jazz 2 Online
    Another site dedicated to Jazz2. Here you can download tilesets, custom levels (both battle and single player), and even full episodes that are made by Jazz2 fans. You can even download games not relating to the game itself.
  • Lori Central
    The first and only web site dedicated to Jazz's sister, Lori! And it is the only place on the net featuring all the music of Jazz 2!
  • Stronghold Jazz
    Level-editing help site for Jazz Jackrabbit 2

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1348
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Accatone.

Macintosh added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Itay Brenner, Katakis | カタキス, Maw, Fangusu, Patrick Bregger.

Game added April 17, 2000. Last modified September 8, 2023.