''Jazz Jackrabbit'' is a series of platform games 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 solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The ge ...

, who fights with his nemesis, Devan Shell, in a science fiction parody of the fable, '' The Tortoise and the Hare''. Created by

Arjan Brussee Arjan Brussee (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 credited with being the first succ ...

and Cliff Bleszinski and developed by

Epic Games 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, M ...

, the series debuted on MS-DOS 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 MS-DOS. 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.

''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 original

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

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 Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

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

was unable to find a publisher. Since then, the

alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

has been leaked onto the internet. Spaz and Lori, both of whom were from the preceding game, were also intended to be playable, but only Jazz is playable in the alpha. Following the events of ''

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 ''Jazz Jackrabbit 2'' is a 1998 platform game produced by Epic MegaGames. It was released for Windows, and later for Macintosh. Like the first game, ''Jazz Jackrabbit'', ''Jazz Jackrabbit 2'' is a side-scrolling platform game but features addit ...

'', 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 the time machine from the previous game. ''Jazz Jackrabbit 3'' is a third-person shooter 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 video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

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 * Musi ...

moves Jazz around the world. Jazz can fire his weapon, or charge up a more powerful shot. Jazz's 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 alpha, 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 Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *Canal pound or level *Regr ...

. Instead, it is divided into sections, similar to '' Super Metroid''. At specific points in a 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 renam ...

under license from Epic Games, was released for the Game Boy Advance 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 multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

. Jazz was redesigned to resemble Han Solo. Eva 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 on iOS. One of the tutorials for these devkits features ''Jazz Jackrabbit'' as a top down twin-stick shooter game. A ''Jazz Jackrabbit'' easter egg appears in '' Fortnite''.

References

External links

Jazz Jackrabbit Series at MobyGames
* {{The Tortoise and the Hare Video game franchises Video game franchises introduced in 1994 The Tortoise and the Hare