After the first game (and it's Christmas shareware episode) I can not say this is a franchise that started on the right foot with me. Between being way too zoomed in to run at the speeds the game wants you to and "clever" level design that served more either bounce the player around to take damage or send them a ways backwards, it just did not feel like a good game. However, it seems Epic Megagames learned from their mistakes the first time and released something that, while not spectacular, is certainly MUCH better this time around. Come on in.
Story: Fresh off his victory against Devan Shell and rescuing Princess Eva Longear, Jazz Jackrabbit returns to Carrotus as a hero and is rewarded for his efforts by being married to Princess Eva and welcomed into the royal family. Unfortunately for him, Devan isn't the type to stay down for long, and he crashed the wedding, kidnapping the bride to be. Suffice it to say the queen was furious that Jazz did not finish the job and now her daughter was once again missing. In retaliation, she ordered him thrown into the dungeon. Time to break out, take revenge against this dastardly turtle, and make everything right.
But this will not be a simple "find the villain and kick his ass" mission as Devan has a trick up his sleeve. In his time away, he has made himself a time machine and will now be trying to change the past so the Rabbit Kingdom will not be in his way for galactic domination. Jazz has an ass to kick once and for all... although this time he will not be going at it alone since his brother Spazz is coming for the ride.
Yes, this really is about all there is to the plot, yet somehow manages to be worse then it sounds.... because the game never explains even this, instead choosing to offer no way in game to explain anything at all before you are dropped into the first level. The only way you can find out any of this is to basically read a small burb before the "installation instructions" in the manual itself. But it gets even worse since the game is broken into 4 episodes which are all treated the same way! Completing all but the last mission will only show you the title picture of the next and say "press a key to start it." Once again the only description as to what is going on between them is in a page with a blurb for each one. In fact the ONLY story you get is an end cutscene of (I don't care about spoilers here) when you finally kill Devan Shell and the following wedding between the lucky rabbits.
This is literally a nothing story, which I would be a lot more forgiving of if at LEAST they took the effort to put what happens between episodes BETWEEN THE EPISODES instead of literally just typing up a short 2-3 sentence description of each one on page 18 of the manual (at least the international version included in the gog copy).
4/10
Graphics: This is NOT a game that is going to make a good first impression graphically. It opens up with the a cartoon introduction of Jazz and Spazz kicking turtle ass that looks primative.. enough so I have seen it compared to being animated with MS Paint and I can kinda see why. No I don't believe it's that bad, but it does look like Epic Games cheaped out when making it.
The game itself fairs a bit better, though. This is a side scrolling game where it seems every character is hand drawn. Each of them is bright and vibrant colored with a descent artwork and color scheme to keep everything really looking pretty good once you get in the game. Admittedly though this is not without a wrinkle in the form of the resolution the game runs at.
To look back, the first game ran like most DOS games at a low resolution which required the game to be zoomed in to show off how good it could look, which for a game about a rabbit who runs around at breakneck speed, is a real detriment for the game. With a few years time and higher standards, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 did away with this limit... but hit the reverse issue. Most people would have been expected to run the game at a comfortable 640x480 or so of the time, but the game didn't limit you to that, which means you could run at a resolution where things are so small you can't really get a good look at what's here. And as time has marched on, these resolutions are going to be the most popular. (the mod pre-installed that I used, JJ2+, expands the options further, allowing for some wide-screen support as well!) The plus side, you can see so much of the game speed just cant be an issue, but the downside, as I said, everything is so tiny on the screen.
But the worlds you play in will also carry the same colorful playfulness, and that will display whatever resolution you choose. If the days of 2D console gaming were sharpened and make to feel like you were sitting in front of the TV with a big sugary bowl of cereal on a Saturday morning, you would get something that looks like this.
Overall, it really does look pretty good, despite its less than stellar introduction video. (Or end video... or lack of any other videos at all.)
8/10
Sound: Do not expect this game to push the limits of your ears because it wont. Rather this is a game made in the late 90s for Windows PCs, and it wears a lot of the platform and the era on it's sleave. Sound effects are no longer just blips and bloops but full on recorded effects which while they sound nice, sometimes feel like they are there not because the devs needed the game to have them, but because there was room for it. Literally everything you do has a sound to it, whether its picking up gems, shooting your weapons (and each will have it's own sound) it's just a very busy sounding game. It won't annoy you or anything, but it will remind you what era it was made in.
Music backing this, however, is actually very good. Usually high energy working with the speed and strength of your rabbit of choice, the overall package just sounds good if very retro styled.
I do not mention voices because really there isn't a lot here. You might get a yelp from your character when hit or even a few when shooting others, but really the only spoken words in this entire game are in the main menu's theme song and a single "thank you" from Princess Eva in the end cutscene. Nothing else is said anywhere in this game at all.
8/10
Gameplay: Sadly this is a weak spot of the game. It's not THE weak spot (as that is blatantly the writing... or lack there of) but this isn't a game that is going to wow so much as scratch that nostalgia itch. As noted in the graphic section, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a side-scrolling action game where you will have to guide your chosen rabbit through each map as you run, jump, and shoot your way to victory against Derek and his army of evil turtles.
The maps you will do this in are frankly vast, expansive, and varied as hell, so you will have plenty to explore and enjoy on your adventure. It seems the devs learned between games as really this one doesn't try to be clever and trap the player in annoying ways nearly as much or as badly, opting for just descent level design and enemy placement to mostly carry you through the game. No, nothing is going to be outstanding in this outing, but most of it works nicely and if you are a fan of side scrolling shooters, I can think of far worse ones then this.
However, you will miss the "clever" point when you face off with the bosses at the end of each episode. These are definitely the low points as they all basically have the same main pattern: run at you, stop and shoot or swing some melee attack your way, rinse and repeat. Keep shooting until they die with the only differences for most of them being how fast they move and shoot (and in the case of the last boss, having a second flying phase). But allow me to take some time to point to that last boss as the absolute low-point of the game. Simply put I do no think he had a discernable pattern while being the fastest moving enemy in the game, making him a perfect example of the kind of encounter that would have been acceptable back in the day to give you one last challenge before the game is over, but really hasn't aged well. Still I can't shoot down the whole game for this one detail.
The only real exception to the run at you and shoot bosses, however is the first. Due to how she fights, I don't think she will try to approach you (although I'm not entirely sure). Overall though this is a solid little shooter that overall is still pretty solid and satisfying.
7/10
Bugs: While I can not say the game ran badly, I also can not say I ran the base game. When you pick up this game on gog, the extras include installations with different versions of a mod called JJ2+ pre-installed. This mod adds quality of life updates, and somehow seems to add performance that for a game that needs a Pentium running at 90 Mghz to run should have from the start. THIS version worked great, and really the only issue I had on a tech side was that I needed to update what button you use to run (I playe d on an Xbox One controller)
Digital Rights Management: This is a completely DRM free game.
Overall: While I can not say I loved this game, I can say it was a VAST improvement over game 1. Where that one felt claustrophobic for how fast you move, this title was able to zoom out and even have places designed for the speed to be enjoyed! It plays it safe, but does so with the style of it's time and still overall feels pretty good to play.
Still this is a game that sadly the boss battles that should be highlights are really the low-points between being relatively nondescript enemies that you realize are bosses only because the screen locks you in and that guy over there wasn't seen before and behaviors that usually feel like you did this at the last boss for the most part. Even the last boss really only increases the difficulty by letting him run really fast (ironic for a turtle) so he's always ready to run full speed into you... not a design that would stand up today.
If you are here for solid levels and a 90s nostalgia hit, this game is or you. If you are here for showcase boss battles, it just is not.
Score:
System Requirements:
- Anything 1.8 Ghz or faster
- Anything that supports Direct X 9.0c
- 2 GB RAM
- Windows 10
- 100 MB hard drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 5 5600G running at 3.9 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Windows 11
- PDP DX Wired Controller (Crimson)
Source: gog.com
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