''Jazz Jackrabbit'' is a series of

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

s featuring the eponymous character, Jazz Jackrabbit, a green anthropomorphic

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores and live Solitary animal, solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are precociality, able to fend for themselves ...

who fights with his nemesis, Devan Shell, in a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

parody of the fable ''

The Tortoise and the Hare "The Tortoise and the Hare" is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations. The fable itself is a variant of a common folktale theme in w ...

''. Created by

Arjan Brussee Arjan Brussee (pronounced ar-yan broo-zhay) (born 1972) is a Dutch video game programmer and entrepreneur. He was the main coder of the first two ''Jazz Jackrabbit'' games and co-founded Guerrilla Games and Boss Key Productions. He is often cred ...

and

Cliff Bleszinski Cliff Bleszinski (; born February 12, 1975), popularly known as CliffyB, is an American video game designer, known for his work on the '' Unreal'' and ''Gears of War'' series while at Epic Games. After leaving Epic in 2012, he co-founded Boss K ...

and developed by

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

, the series debuted on

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

in 1994 with ''

Jazz Jackrabbit ''Jazz Jackrabbit'' is a series of platform games featuring the eponymous character, Jazz Jackrabbit, a green anthropomorphic hare who fights with his nemesis, Devan Shell, in a science fiction parody of the fable ''The Tortoise and the Hare''. ...

''. The series consists of two PC games and a handheld game.

Games

''Jazz Jackrabbit'' (1994)

The first ''Jazz Jackrabbit'' game was developed and published by Epic MegaGames and released in 1994 for

. Jazz had to rescue Carrotus princess Eva Earlong, who was kidnapped by his nemesis, Devan Shell. The

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

edition was extremely popular and the game was named Arcade Game of the Year by

PC Format ''PC Format'' was a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future plc, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication between 1991 and 2015, it was part of Future plc's ''Format'' series of magazines ...

''Jazz Jackrabbit 2'' (1998)

''Jazz Jackrabbit 2'' was developed by Orange Games and

Epic MegaGames Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Ma ...

, and published by

Gathering of Developers Gathering of Developers, Inc. (shortened as G.O.D. or GodGames, and branded as Gathering between 2003 and 2004) was an American video game publisher based in New York City. Founded by Mike Wilson and associates in January 1998 and originally b ...

in the United States, Project 2 Interactive in Europe and P&A in Japan. Jazz and his siblings, Spaz and Lori, attempt to retrieve Eva's stolen wedding ring from Devan. Despite moderate success in Europe, the game was a commercial failure for Gathering of Developers.

''Jazz Jackrabbit 3''

''Jazz Jackrabbit 3'' (alternatively called ''Jazz Jackrabbit 3D: Adventures of a Mean Green Hare'') is the cancelled game of the series. Spearheaded by Dean "Noogy" Dodrill (an animator for ''Jazz Jackrabbit 2'') and coded by World Tree Games, it was being developed for the

Unreal Engine 1 Unreal Engine 1 (UE1, originally just Unreal Engine) is the first version of the Unreal Engine series of game engines. It was initially developed in 1995 by Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney for ''Unreal (1998 video game), Unreal''. Epic Games late ...

in 1999. As the game's alternate name implies, it would have been rendered in 3D. The game was planned for release on PC and

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

. Development of the game was ceased part way through in May 2000 as

was unable to find a publisher; an unfinished demo was subsequently leaked online. While only Jazz is playable in the demo, Spaz and Lori were intended to return as additional playable characters. Following the events of the preceding game, Jazz Jackrabbit and Eva Earlong settle down in Carrotus Castle and become parents. Devan Shell kidnaps their children, taking them into an alternate universe via a modified time machine. ''Jazz Jackrabbit 3'' is a

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

with platforming and

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

elements. The

mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

is used to aim and shoot, while the

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...

moves one around the world. The player can fire their weapon, or charge up for a more powerful shot. The arsenal can be expanded using coins collected to purchase new weapons and combine them with Elemental "Dream Cells" to create various weapon effects. In the demo, only Fire and Ice Dream Cells can be acquired, and usable with two guns (the standard Blaster and the Gizmo Gun). Unlike the previous installments, ''Jazz Jackrabbit 3'' has no levels. It is instead divided into sections, similar to ''

Super Metroid is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy g ...

''. At specific points in the map, the player can travel back and forth between these sections. Each new area that is visited is prefaced by its name.

''Jazz Jackrabbit'' (2002)

''Jazz Jackrabbit'', developed by Game Titan and published by

Jaleco was a corporate brand name that was used by two previously connected video game developers and publishers based in Japan. The original Jaleco company was founded in 1974 as Japan Leisure Company, founded by Yoshiaki Kanazawa, before being renamed ...

under license from Epic Games, was released for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

in 2002. As a reboot to the series, several changes were done in overall design, oriented towards cosmic science fiction inspired by

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

. Jazz was redesigned to resemble

Han Solo Han Solo () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was introduced in the 1977 film ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'', and later appeared in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), ''Star Wars: The F ...

. Eva, Spaz and Lori are missing from the game while Devan Shell has been replaced by Dark Shell.

Other appearances

Jazz, Devan and Eva make guest appearances in '' One Must Fall: 2097'' in single-player tournament mode. Each character pilots a fighting mech that is suited to their individual personalities. At one point, Epic MegaGames was considering an animated series based on ''Jazz Jackrabbit'', as evidenced by Epic filing a trademark registration for the name "Jazz Jackrabbit" on March 28, 1997. The application contains a description for goods and services which says "entertainment in the nature of animated TV series". In December 2010,

released development kits for the

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. One of the tutorials for these devkits features ''Jazz Jackrabbit'' as a top down twin-stick shooter game. In 2017, a ''Jazz Jackrabbit'' easter egg appeared in ''

Fortnite ''Fortnite'' is an online video game and game platform developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in seven distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: '' Fortnite Battle Roy ...

''. In August 2022, ''Jazz Jackrabbit Doom TC'', a fan conversion mod for ''

Doom II ''Doom II'', also known as ''Doom II: Hell on Earth'', is a 1994 first-person shooter game developed and published by id Software for MS-DOS. It was also released on Mac OS the following year. Unlike the original '' Doom'', which was initi ...

'', was released. It runs through '' GZDoom'' or ''LZDoom''.

References

External links

''Jazz Jackrabbit'' series at MobyGames
*
''Jazz Jackrabbit'' in a web browser
{{The Tortoise and the Hare Video game franchises Video game franchises introduced in 1994 The Tortoise and the Hare Unreal Engine 1 games Cancelled Windows games Cancelled PlayStation 2 games