As me and my coworker skimmed through them, we saw that it was pretty much what we expected it to be. Classical music, burned CDS, and even a few karaoke DVDs. Really it didn't seem like much at all, but then two things caught my eye. The first was a Sonic and Knuckles collection for the PC (which I actually already own two copies of), but the other was a game that I normally would have just passed up. While the name seemed familiar to me for some reason, the artwork reminded me of one of them old quick cash in games random companies would release for kids. So, just what was this game? Well it was a lesser known game from the past; a little game called Jazz Jackrabbit 2.
Now like I said, the name seemed familiar to me for some reason, but the game's box art just reminded me of them old PC games for kids that you used to see around. That's when I noticed it. If you've already heard of the game, I'm sure you know what I'm about to say, or you may even have an idea from just looking at the above pictures. Even so, if you haven't noticed it for yourself; why not take a look at this close up?
Yep, that's right. The moment I saw that logo, it all came back to me. Jazz was one of EPIC's first game series, and was what they were actually well known for in the past. It was EPIC's attempt at making a sort of fusion between Sonic The Hedgehog and Mega Man, and the result was a "trilogy" of games. Back before EPIC was making games like Gears of War, they had a series where you played as a fast moving Jackrabbit with a gun. Who would have thought looking back on it now?
Although I haven't gotten around to playing the game yet (it was actually released for Windows 95 so I may have to change some settings around to get it to run); I have looked up quite a bit of info about the series. The game's are faster moving platforming games (a lot like Sonic), but the main character also shoots a gun (a lot like in Mega Man). While the original two Jazz games were released in the Arcades and on the PC, a 3rd game which served as a reboot was released on the Game Boy Advance as well. (You guys remember that? Yeah.... Me neither.)
Unlike the original Jazz, it seems that Jazz 2 also features some sort of multiplayer mode. While up to 4 players can play in split screen, up to 32 can take part in online play. The game apparently has co-op, a death match mode, a treasure hunting mode, a capture the flag mode, and a race mode. Although I'm sure I will not be able to try out the game's online, it is at least interesting to know a game this old included it.
So, has anyone else ever heard of Jazz or played the games?
