Jazz Jackrabbit

Moby ID: 902
See Also

Description official descriptions

Jazz Jackrabbit is the PC world's answer to Sonic the Hedgehog. In this platform game, Jazz, the hero of the rabbit planet Carrotus, must rescue the beloved rabbit princess, Eva Earlong, and defeat the leader of the turtle terrorists, Devan Shell, traveling to different planets to gather clues concerning Eva's whereabouts while liberating them from Shell's tyranny.

The similarity to Sonic the Hedgehog manifests itself in Jazz's uncanny speed, and the fact it increases the more he runs. However, the rest of the gameplay mechanics are different. The game is primarily a shooter, meaning that in order to defeat his enemies, it's not enough for Jazz to jump over their heads. Jazz starts with a blaster, but during the course of the game acquires other weapons, such as grenade launcher, flamethrower, TNT, etc. Jazz can also pick up various power-ups, including a force shield, a hoverboard that allows him to float in the air, a bird that will fight on Jazz's side, and others.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

13 People

Design
Lead Programming
Animation
Additional Graphics / Artwork
Music
Sound
German Translations
  • ROMWARE
Producer
Manual Artwork, Cover and Comic Book
Manual Design and Typesetting
Beta Test Leader

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 10 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 61 ratings with 6 reviews)

Very fun and very hard platformer

The Good
This game has a TONS of levels: to beat the game, you must fight in 57 levels in 28 different planets (of course in CD version). Not to mention secret levels and 3D bonus levels, where you have to collect gems to receive extra life. You will fight in medieval castles, jungle, cities and finally in Twin Battleships. Of course, you aren't unarmed: you can use blaster with infinite ammo, rockets, flamethrower, grenades and TNT, but it's better to conserve your arsenal for bosses and killing enemies by blaster. By the way, there are many different creatures to destroy, such as bees, turtles, scorpions, snowmen and big flowers. Technically, it looks wonderful. Lovely backgrounds, animals, sprites for 3D bonus levels and cinematics. Music is written for Sound Blaster with large amount of samples. And it changes very often, you won't get bored. Sounds are just good - there isn't anything brilliant.

The Bad
Unfortunately, there are some bad things in Jazz Jackrabbit. First, when you save your game, and you will load it later, you will be only warped to level, where you saved. Game "forgets" about your ammo, lifes, score... heck, it even forgets about your progress in level! Second, game is sometimes a way too hard. If you tried to beat Orbitus levels or this moment in Raneforus, where apes fall from the sky, you know what am I talking about. And finally, it's hard to run under Windows XP. If you will optimize DOSbox to run Jazz, it will be unplayable for other games. Personally, I use VDMSound, but it isn't perfect too. I can't select ultra-high quality sound, like I was used to in Windows ME, because game will slow down... I don't know, what problems are under Vista, but I just don't want to know...

The Bottom Line
If you're looking for a good platform game for DOS, "Jazz Jackrabbit" is something for you. There wasn't anything better than Jazz... until "Jazz 2" came out. By the way, you can freely download a shareware episode and two Christmas-themed episodes, which gives you 13 levels of fun. Get them immediately!

DOS · by Sir Gofermajster (485) · 2008

Goodie!

The Good
A cute shareware which was proof of Epic Megagames's clear interest in demo scene talents, Jazz Jackrabbit is a cute and fun platform game which wasn't really competing with Sonic the Hedgehog, but merely showed that the PC is a capable arcade platform.

This game has really good graphics, excellent music and sound effects and great replayability value (it's easy to just play it again and again as you never tire of it). The programming is amongst the best ever witnessed on the PC (demo power to the masses) and truly showed the capability of a mere 386.

And it was damn fun too!

The Bad
A bit repetitive, but then it's a platform game so no biggie.

The Bottom Line
A great platform game for the PC. Way to go!

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2000

The best of the console-wannabe platformers for the PC.

The Good
Wow, I didn't think I'd ever see a PC game with such a speedy console feel. This would be right at home on the Super Nintendo or Genesis.

The Bad
The main character is so large, and the view around him is so small, that the game tends to play itself. The features are a conglomeration of bits from other platform games featuring animals with attitude. If you've played through Sonic the Hedgehod, you'll find yourself saying "Hey! I've seen this before!"

The Bottom Line
If you don't have access to a Genesis, then this is your best bet for a standard platformer on the PC.

DOS · by James Hague (10) · 2000

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Characters

CHARACTER PROFILES -- WHO'S WHO

==========================

Jazz Jackrabbit:

Height: 3'1"

Weight: 90 lbs.

Favorite Food: Carrot Pizza

Favorite Book: Watership Down

Motto: "When you're a little rabbit, carry a BIG gun!"

Devan Shell:

Height: 2'4"

Weight: 163 lbs.

Favorite Food: Asparagus

Favorite Book: How to Make Friends and Kill Rabbits

Motto: "Rabbits are lousy!"

Eva Earlong:

Height: 3'9"

Weight: Won't tell

Favorite Food: Turnip Ice Cream

Favorite Book: My Secret Carrot Garden

Motto: "Take your time, Jazz."

Arjan Brussee, programmer of Jazz:

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 150 lbs.

Favorite Food: Any Pizza and Beer

Favorite Book: Neuromancer

Motto: "Owww...What a headache. I hate hangovers."

Cliff Bleszinski, designer of Jazz:

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 135 lbs.

Favorite Food: McDonald's

Favorite Book: Games and how to make them. (By him, coming soon!)

Motto: "Wake me at 4 PM, will you?"

Nick Stadler, Jazz animator:

Height: 5'11"

Weight: One Hundred and something

Favorite Food: Anything in a cardboard container

Favorite Book: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Motto: "What?"

Robert Allen, musician:

Height: 6'2"

Weight: 165 lbs.

Favorite Food: If it's processed, he'll eat it.

Favorite Book: None. Prefers music to reading.

Motto: "Well, it HAS to be! No one likes my music!"

--- from "The Jazz Jackrabbit Manual".

Christmas

If you play the game during the Christmas period (September to early January) the game gets a Christmas theme, with snowflakes falling on the main menu and several new backgrounds.

References

  • The cheat codes have a few references: apogee (16 bit colour mode) and doom (harder enemies). The Apogee code is not available in version 1.3.
  • One of the game's weapons is the LFG-2000, which is obviously a spoof of DOOM's BFG-9000 weapon.

Release

Jazz Jackrabbit has six episodes with only the first episode in shareware version. You could buy Episodes 1-3 or Episodes 4-6 and both together. Registered versions has a color Jazz manual. Some also included a comic book and free bonus disk.

Those episode and stage titles:

Episode 1: Turtle Terror!

Stages - Diamondus, Tubelectric and Medivo.

Episode 2: Ballistic Bunny

Stages - Letni, Technoir and Orbitus.

Episode 3: Rabbit's Revenge

Stages - Fanolint, Scraparap and Devan's Megairbase.

Episode 4: Gene Machine

Stages - TurTemple, Nippius and JungRock.

Episode 5: The Chase is On!

Stages - Marbelara, Slugion and Dreempipes.

Episode 6: The Final Clash

Stages - Pez-Rox, Crysilis and Twin Mega Battleships.

Information also contributed by Fangusu, Garcia and Maw

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Related Games

Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Released 1998 on Windows, 1999 on Macintosh
Jazz Jackrabbit Collection
Released 2017 on Macintosh, Linux, Windows
Jazz Jackrabbit Trilogy
Released 1996 on DOS
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection
Released 2017 on Windows
Jazz Jackrabbit CD-ROM
Released 1994 on DOS

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 902
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Derrick 'Knight' Steele.

Additional contributors: Itay Brenner, Pseudo_Intellectual, Patrick Bregger.

Game added February 24, 2000. Last modified August 27, 2023.