''Jazz Jackrabbit'' is a series of

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

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 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 Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

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 wh ...

''. 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 Cliff Bleszinski (; born February 12, 1975), popularly known as CliffyB, is an American video game designer, known for his work in the development of the ''Unreal'' and '' Gears of War'' series. After working at Epic Games from 1992 to 2012, he ...

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 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 ope ...

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 computer games and a 2002

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

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)

A sequel, ''Jazz Jackrabbit 2'' was developed by

Orange Games Guerrilla B.V. (trade name: Guerrilla Games) is a Dutch first-party video game developer based in Amsterdam and part of PlayStation Studios. The company was founded as Lost Boys Games in January 2000 through the merger of three smaller develo ...

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 ...

, published worldwide 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 ...

and released in 1998 by Project 2 Interactive in Europe and P&A in Japan. Jazz and his brother, Spaz, team up to get back Eva's stolen wedding ring. Despite moderate success in Europe, it was the first game Gathering of Developers ever lost money on.

''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, Jazz would have ventured into the realm of 3D for the first time. 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 his wife, Eva Earlong, settle down in Carrotus Castle and become parents. Devan Shell, the main antagonist of the series, 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 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 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). When Jazz moves around in a level, he leaves a trail of footprints on the ground. 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 is an action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy ...

''. 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 Game Titan was an American Video Game development studio that was founded in 1999 by Eric Kinkead. They were a small team primarily focused on making handheld games for the Game Boy Advance. The studio was shut down in 2005 for unknown reasons. ...

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

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's appearance was changed, losing his trademark bandana, backpack, and wristbands, and portraying now as similar looking to

Han Solo Han Solo is a fictional character in the '' Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. The character first appeared in the 1977 film '' Star Wars'' portrayed by Harrison Ford, who reprised his role in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) an ...

, with his blue large gun also being replaced by conventional weapons. Eva Earlong is missing from the game and Devan Shell, featuring a

Darth Vader Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...

-esque appearance, is now known as Dark Shell.

Other appearances

Jazz, along with Devan and Eva, made a cameo in '' One Must Fall: 2097'', which was developed by Diversions Entertainment and published by Epic MegaGames, in single-player tournament mode. Each character piloted a fighting mech that was suited to their individual personalities. ''

'' also has one cameo from '' One Must Fall: 2097''. 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 game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres ...

for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

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

Fortnite ''Fortnite'' is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ''Fortnite Battle Royale'', a free-to-p ...

'', a game released in 2017 by Epic Games.

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