LGR - Jazz Jackrabbit History and Review
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Detailed review and history of the classic DOS PC game, Jazz Jackrabbit. Covers the creation of the game, different versions, and of course the gameplay itself!
● Watch my Jazz Jackrabbit 2 review: • LGR - Jazz Jackrabbit ...
● Chat with other Jazz Jackrabbit fans at the excellent Jazz2Online Forums: www.jazz2online...
● Please consider supporting LGR on Patreon!
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No evil clones were harmed in the making of this video. Scared off perhaps, but not harmed.
I still can't help but laugh at how the "lazy" guy tends to have some of the more detailed reviews of things I see online. lol
And I love that about the channel.
Almost 2025 and still watching it.
This game is such an important milestone in PC history. This was the first PC platformer that had real 1 pixel smooth scrolling. If you had been playing PC platformers at the time you'd really notice the difference and it was a game changer. Suddenly you felt like you was playing a console. I remember Amiga users commenting on how their systems have smooth scrolling and smooth sprites, well Jazz Jackrabiit was the day the PC overtook the Amiga.
But didn't Commander Keen already have smooth scrolling?
But it was just 1 game, after that the PC wasn't exactly flooded with 2D platformers, those were still being made for the Amiga, the day the PC really overtook the Amiga was the day Doom came out.
Jazz was way after Commander Keen games, Wolfenstein and Doom as well. Needless to say, Amiga was already pushed into the shadows by the games available on the PC around the time when Jazz was out.
Can we all agree that the theme song to "Medivo" was absolutely incredible? Man, it wasn't a level it was an experience.
Hard agree
I used to select that stage just to hear the music.
Bro how was this made 12 years ago? The editing is so good
I have _finally_ reviewed Jazz Jackrabbit 2! LGR - Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - PC Game Review
+Lazy Game Reviews Have you played Fury of the Furries? If not, I highly recommend it! A very cool (one of teh very best, in my opinion) 1993 platformer for PC DOS, Amiga and Macintosh from Kalisto with great tracker music (made by Frederic Motte aka Moby from Amiga demoscene). Also Namco later hired Kalisto to remake the game into Pac-In-Time (they just changed the character on PC, but made a very different (inferior, imho) version of the game for the SNES).
Nostalgia overload, I miss the 90's
Same here. Same here. The 90s were a great time to be alive all-around.
@@Acuepk yeah. Movies like Aliens and Terminator were new for us. TV shows like Alf, Step by Step, Friends. When we dressed as kids and not like hoes or weirdos. Old good cars with no many options, but durable. When men act like men and women like women. People were more friendly. Command&conquer, half life and old games. Today people act not very friendly everybody looking their idol in the bad characters, because there are lack of tv shows with good characters and even the on the good side are arrogant, egoist, calculative etc... miss those old days where the most badass character was Al Bundy from married with children, but even he was funny
I wish I was older than 2 by the time 2000 came around lmao
This game premiered in my country in mid 2000s, so I got to play it on a soviet bootleg console called Pegasus. I always thought this game came only on cardridges and not on cd-roms as well
So many memories from this game!!!! My old Win 3.1 machine hypnotized me with it for many many hours back in the day!
I've been watching your videos for about a week now, and I've got to say I'm pretty impressed. High quality, high nostalgia value. Instant subscribe, Kudos for your hard work!
I live in Belgium, and at the time it was a pain in the ass to get a full version of a Shareware. But thanks to the trusty BBS system with a 56kbps modem, and sometimes specialized French magazines (Tilt, Joystick and Gen4 comes to mind) you could still play pretty much every Apogee game in shareware version.
But Jazz Jackrabbit... It was one of the first games I played when I got my soundblaster card, and the Gravis Gamepad I've been annoying my parents with on and on for weeks. I have very fond memories playing this game, alongside Halloween Harry, Monster Bash, Bio Menace, Commander Keen... Man... Good times :)
Thank you for releasing such high quality, informative and nostalgia-inducing videos! \m/>.
Happy to hear it, I hope you continue to enjoy :)
One of the first PC games I ever played on my Uncle's computer back in 1994
It's great to finally see someone who loves jazz as much as I do.
i love that you took the music for that level, that game bring me so much memories :) awesome video game review ! :)
@OZZTYE Hehe, that's awesome. Thanks to whoever pointed this video out to him!
I adore this game. I got this as only the first part back in the day. I later got the full game with all 3 add-ons(Holiday Hare and all), and beat both this and Jazz Jackrabbit 2. And I have no idea why they thought it'd be a good idea to make the sprites so tiny in the sequel. Damn shame there was no official Jazz Jackrabbit 3.
They made them tiny so you could see what enemy was up ahead if you decided to go Fast
Indeed it was! Originally came out for IBM-compatible PCs, and then later was used in a slightly-altered variation for the Philips CDi.
Zoonic sounds like something the weirdos from DeviantArt would come up with.
"Original character, do not steal!!1"
I had an emerald green Acer Aspire I got back in 1995, which came with the shareware version of this game along with Descent. So much fun.
1 PC, 6 kids?
No problem!
Each one takes a job.
Shooter
Weapon changer
Walker (left)
Walker (right)
jumper!
And a sub for when someone has to take a piss.
Yes this was my life as a child hahahah teamwork :)
***** I remember back in late 90s we used to play Wings, Molez, Tapa Kaikki or the like with 3 to 5 guys sharing 1 keyboard. :) Back then it wasn't weard at all. haha
***** Yeah good old times. I really miss my childhood playing all these awesome games on the family's 486 PC with my brother and classmates.
Last year we managed to play a game with my 3 brothers on two keyboards attached to one PC.. so we managed to do it not that long ago.. Also, the first game i played on PC was either Captain Comic or maybe Tyrian on the 386 when i was 5 or 6..
Dude, did you just invent IRL Twitch Plays?
Yep, this is how I played Halo in 2002, as I was not allowed to play a PC alone and everyone wanted a turn.
Me: Run
Cousin: Shoot
Other Cousin: Grenades
Brother: Aim
My brother, sister and I used to play Jazz Jackrabbit 2 all the time!!! That and Coldshadow were my absolute favorites... and bomberman was up there too ❤
This game shaped my childhood.
I always chose the Turbo difficulty because I liked how it made Jazz look. I had no idea that it made the game harder 🤣
Never played the 1st one, but the 2nd one... Man, good times. But you know what? You convinced me, this game looks pretty rad as well!
This might be my favourite LGR video sofar! I still remember getting the cd-rom edition for my birthday, that was a glorious day! *proudly looks at cd-rom. Also Cliff tweeting about this is pretty 'epic' to say the least!!
Sir, there is nothing lazy about your reviews.
Good work on your always insightful reviews. I just watched over a dozen of them, and you rank in with the best in your content. I love your focus on vintage PC games and devices. It is uncommon to find a show that does. It really brings back the nostalgia for my many beige boxes of the past.
Just downloaded the Shareware version of the game while watching, can't wait to play it myself! Been watching LGR videos a while now, and have always had an interest in the little green bunny game.
Jazz Jackrabbit is my very first Videogame and this is even to this day still cool and awsome.
I like in this Game the simple, but very funny gameplay, the colorful leveldesign and the cool music and soundeffects.
It is very interessting to see, how much backstory is behind in this awsome game and I have still the Jazz Jackrabbit CD-version and this the best Version of the Ports, because in this Version are all Episodes in it and I grow up of this Version.
And thank you for the very good Review and this Review is also one of the best Reviews that I ever see.
Thanks - I really love it when someone else shares my love for this series :D
Wow i just randomly had this game pop in my head while I was at work. Me and my older sister used to play this game religiously! May have been my first video game I ever played. Man what a long lost memory
When I was a kid (3-7) my dad had this old dos computer, along with doom, this was my first game ever (apart from conflict: desert storm but you young wippersnappers won't know it) I got caught up with ps2 Xbox pc and totally forgot about good Ol' jazz, and because of this video, I'm going to get the old pc fixed again,relive my childhood (lol)
Thanks
DOSBox is also an option as well :D
@@GoldieMethrans not the same thing but i see ur point :P
@@styxzero1675 I'm regularly using it just for this game, so yeah. But hey, to each our own. ☺️
@onetruepurple Awesome, happy to hear! And no problem, J2O was an invaluable resource when doing research for this video.
I remember when I was in grade 7 (which was in 2007), I knew this kid in school who played a lot of pc games and he had one of the full jazz jackrabbit games. I think it was the second, because there was a red rabbit named spazz (I think).
longt story short, it was actually a sick game for such an old pc game
Awesome video!! I'm already looking forward to an overview of Jazz 2! :)
GOG needs to remake this game so we can play on modern OSs with no problem.
It's worth noting that GOG never remakes games. For most early windows games they release rebuilt ports, made by the original developers, or publishers. Otherwise they slap on their own sleek compatibility patches. Then there's the old stuff where they just package DOS games with DOSBox. Any graphical updates, or the like are done by the developer, publisher, or like in the case of Double Fine games, by the current copyright holders. In the case of groups like Tell Tale and Double Fine those are companies often composed of the original developers.
twitter.com/GOGcom/status/936226080150745089 ;)
They finally did it
UPDATE: The Jazz Jackrabbit Complete Collection is now available on GOG!
If anyone wants another game very similar to jazz jazzrabbit (and sonic, seeing as it's made by a Brazilian guy who previously built his own engines from the ground up to create new sonic games, much like the guys who went on to make sonic mania), then try Spark The Electric Jester. It's one of the best sonic clones I've ever played, I like it even more than Freedom Planet, and yeah the similarities to Jazz Jackrabbit are obvious once you see gameplay footage. Look up the game on UA-cam. I know it's on steam, I'm not sure if the consoles have the game too
I used to play this on our first family computer back in 96 (a green Acer with a phone connected to it haha). I never got the full version but really enjoyed what was given.
Unfortunately, getting an original copy is quite hard to do, especially for any kind of decent price. Really hoping the release it on GOG or Steam or something someday.
@LooseLimbedLiquid Agreed. Which is why I included Keen on my Best PC Games of the 90's video and not Jazz! It's a close second place in my eyes though.
That game pad....
That game pad.....
That is... from the Philips CDI also.... ? Mind Blown
Yes, you are correct!
Great video! I love how you go into so much detail and still manage to keep the video fresh and fun to watch!
"But unlike Tails, he actually has a use." Why you gotta do Tails like this bro?
I have no clue what he means anyway. Having a second person play Tails on genesis Sonic games was the easiest way to beat the game.
Tails could shred bosses in seconds with his immortality as P2.
I think he means Tails in Sonic 2 specifically, likely how in that game (MD original and most emulation "ports" there of) he only flew when respawning and that the player couldn't control it, which meant no helicopter rides in co-op.
He didn't have a control 2 to play as Tails. lol
Watching this seven years after publishing, you're so close to one million subs! Hopefully that happens! I've been following for quite some time, and I never thought this day would come. So close!
OMG, just thank you that you uploaded this video, I had much fun to watch this and in my opinion Jazz is much cooler than Sonic.
The creator of Lori Jackrabbit, who's appears in Jazz Jachrabbit 2 Secret Files and in Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Holiday Hare 98 is working on a new computer game called 'Dust an elysian Tail'. It reminds me much on Jazz, cause it's in 2D either and also a kind of cartoon game.
Aw I just love games like that.
Awesome review man, very enlightening.... thank you. I want to see you review Heretic and Hexen someday!
This game was my childhood. I still have my gravis gamepad! When I was a kid, my dad took me to Kensington (the company that bought Gravis) on a business trip. The employees ate me up and gave me a bunch of free Gravis gamepads! Ahh... sweet childhood...
Just got this on GOG, full CD version with holiday hare. So good!
It's sad that company which did this colorfoul and bright game, later started trend of makeing games without any colours (Gears of War......)
I don't get the whole complain about lack of color in some shooters. If it's a war game of course it'll have less colorful and gritty graphics
Obscure Media problem is that the grit never ages well
Colorfoul? Color+foul
But they also made the UT series and the Unreal Engine is still incredible.
haha they got sick of those rainbows
Great review, you actually had me sit down and watch the whole 20 minutes of it (and enjoy it!). Thanks for the Jazz2Online plug too!
@rastaxp I loved the first Unreal. The gameplay was awesome, the atmosphere was great, the music was fantastic, and the graphics were incredible. Unreal has become a bit dated today though, in both graphics and gameplay, but I still find myself going to back to Na Pali every so often. But I enjoyed the multiplayer version, Unreal Tournament, even more, and still play that rather often! Just an amazing game for a LAN party, as the frantic gameplay still holds up.
This review was soooo not lazy! You put in a lot of work this time. And we thank you!
I like your voice! Really good speaker :)
My dad and I always had fun with this game on our AST DX 486 66mhz ^^
I remembered this game but couldn't recall its name for years. I finally came across a copy of it at my parents' place over the holidays. Talk about a nostalgia overload. This was one of the first games, and I remember enjoying it greatly.
"Somebody get my lawyers on the phone"
This was pretty much every Sonic butthurt fan reaction to this game.
Popcioslav - Sonic has nothing on Jazz, did sonic have a gun? Could Sonic change bullet types?
ihave7sacks Thank god we got Shadow the Hedgehog to address that issue, making it the best Sonic game ever made. We also got Rise of the Triad which was basically Shadow in first person, especially the remake. If/when Shadow finally gets a pen Uncensored/Uncut remaster on PC, I hope one of the first mods for it is a first person mod that controls like ROTT 2013 with Shadow's move set (triangle jumps, vehicles, dark spin dash etc.)
The Turbo/Borland Pascal bug was caused by an arithmetic overflow in a routine to calculate the delay cycle (delay function in the CRT module). If you had the code, you could recompile it with the patched libraries or you could avoid using the CRT module. If you only had a binary, as LGR said, you could either patch it or slow down your computer (basically most of the Pentiums from MMX era and later would cause the bug).
Holy shit that censor sound scared the piss out of me. That's the "MY PC IS ON FIRE" sound, man.
@SuperLightHorse I didn't mention it because I had no idea about it. I also can't seem to find any videos about it either, only the Jazz Jackrabbit theme song in the beta.
3:18 "A bunny with an attitude." Didn't Bucky O'Hare already do that? And didn't he have the same skin color as Bucky?
As well as the red garments, and the goggles Jazz wore in the beta...
Fml bucky o'hare blast from the past
“Who the hell is Bucky o Hare?”
“The guy who got killed by Star Fox”
“Oh.”
Fun fact: Jazz was my fav game rabbit and Bucky my fave cartoon rabbit. Also fav characters all in all. Both green rabbits. ODD THAT
Yes! I still have my CD-ROM version of this game, I loved the comic book/manual that came with it as well as the music and graphics. Nostalgia!
It's kinda awkward when you realize that the company behind Fortnite once made Jazz Jackrabbit...times really change.
yea idd.. once upon a time they made quality games.
Fortnite is a quality game - it's just, like many other things, populated with a completely insufferable fanbase.
Actually in some of fornite’s houses you can see posters of Jazz Jackrabbit, when i saw it it was awesome as fuck 🤣🐰
Jazz Jackrabbit is a stolen idea of Sonic and other games and Fortnite is made up off of stolen ideas. Just like how One Must Fall stole ideas from Mortal Kombat. Some things never ever change.
@@MyFanMadeFilms Jazz Jackrabbit, while having a similar speed to Sonic, plays much different. At the core of both games is 'hold right, get to the end of the level', sure, but to say they're the same is stupid. You're better off comparing Great Giana Sister's original C64 version to Super Mario Brothers if you want to talk about 'stolen ideas'. You seem to not understand inspiration versus plagiarism.
@krkanification I also didn't really talk about Jazz 2, or Jazz The Secret Files, or Jazz on the Gameboy Advance, or the Jazz demo on the iPhone. This video only covered the first game, not the sequels, spin-offs, and canceled projects. The other games will be covered in later videos.
I think his games would do wonderful on the Nintendo switch
Agreed
Agreed but I doubt it'll ever happen, not when the Fortnite money printer is around
@@SamSquids Unga Bunga back in me day
Yeah, I'd probably buy that, it'd be good, but I can play the game on the go, on my laptop. Still, since Rise Of The Triad will be released on the Switch this year, it's not beyond the realms of possibility.
Wow I haven't thought of this game in years! It was one of my favorites as well..tho I'm pretty sure we only ever had the shareware version. I was about 12 at the time and loved this game..all of the little quirky things about it flooded back to me as you went over them 😊 I love your reviews especially for games during this era . Thanks!
For like 30 seconds, I thought I was watching "Did you know gaming".
Amazing quality, will subscribe!
Awesome! I always try to include stuff like that in my reviews, so I hope you find more to enjoy :)
LGR makes awesome videos! When he's not loo lazy that is.
I love your videos! Great choice of topics, wonderfully narrated and your voice is great... keep it up
16:34 - I begged my mom to buy me the CD version your holding (from Kmart as well, lol) thinking it was the complete version of the game. I remember getting it home, tearing it open, installing it, only to discover it was the same damn shareware version of Jazz Jackrabbit I already had, smh lol. I was heartbroken but luckily Kmart let us return it with no fuss (even though it was open) but I'm sure lots of people weren't so lucky and got stuck with this useless version of Jazz Jackrabbit.
To be fair sounds like it's not *just* the shareware version, but rather it's the first three episodes. Shareware is just the first one.
Very cool recap. I really missed these games, and I love Jazz 2. I can't wait to see you cover that one.
i LOVE! the jazz jackrabbit theme!
Obviously a lot of love went into this video/review, and it shows. Thanks for sharing.
12 years - damn...
Superb animation and artwork. Anthro style can look great if done well. ✨👍🏻
Is it just me or do I feel like this is a coincidence that Spyro went through a color change from green to purple while jazz was meant to be purple but switch to green.
Exactly my thoughts lol
One of my favourite games :) Thx for this review! - best I've ever watched.
This is a series that is long overdue for a release on GOG
out now on GOG :D
Absolutely A-class review! Your gameplay footage is incredibly good quality, too. Looking forward to coverage of Jazz Jackrabbit 2... you just got a new fan.
If we can get duke on steam we can get Jazz Jackrabit......... its long overdue epic
+Zombeek Dragmire Epic stopped caring about jazz ever since JJ3, they just canceled it and moved on to other "more important" stuff like gears of shit
UPDATE: The Jazz Jackrabbit Complete Collection is now available on GOG!
Another game I got introduced to through Game Empire. Absolutely loved it. The music is burnt into my soul, and his sarcastic little face still makes me smile. It's a great game, I also wish they'd rerelease it.
right in the childhood!
I remember being 10 years old playing this game back in the 90s. Man does time fly because im 38 now.
My god how much I loved this game, especially the 2nd one.
One of the first games i played, along with Army Men, Deer Advenger, and Outlaw. Man those were the days
How could epic fall so low with its history
Epic is pretty important nowadays, most games are made with the unreal engine, they also have a store to rival steam.
@@souljastation5463 lol the epic store is worse than the ms store
@@thebiglich Not at all, the MS Store is a mess while the Epic store is just a barebone version of Steam.
Entertaining ms dos reviews, lazy. And a pleasent voice too. Cheers and keep em comming.
They started selling this game on GOG!!
Thanks for letting me know. :)
Blew my mind when I realized where the "Bouncer" from Ratchet and Clank 2 came from.
OK so i've paused the vid at the intro and one thing comes to mind about this, Bucky O Hare. anyone else?
RetroResto OMGi'm not the only one who thought this! Back when i played alot of Jazz Jackrabbit in the 90's, Bucky O'Hare was one of the lunchtime cartoons i enjoyed watching every day.
Hey Clint hope you had a good week off. Good to have you back!
When are you reviewing Jazz 2?
As soon as I get a complete copy of The Secret Files add-on for it, so I can cover the game thoroughly!
Lazy Game Reviews
Good idea, the Secret Files addon is pretty sweet. Good luck!
What a great review!!! I remember back when I played this game with my friends....only the shareware version, of course. We didn't have money to buy this game and didn't have internet either. All we had was a copy on 3,50'' floppy disk to share. Thank you so much for this nostalgic time.
Make sure to vote for the game on the GOG.com wishlist!
www.gog.com/wishlist/games/jazz_jackrabbit_1
UPDATE: The Jazz Jackrabbit Complete Collection is now available on GOG!
Ahh right in the childhood nostalgia. Loved this as a kid. Outstanding graphics and I fondly remember just how awesome the CD version's soundtrack was! Great review.
hilarious to watch this video in 2019 seeing as EPIC games is known for one very specific game these days
Riiight... i was so confused when i found out they made Fortnite
Holy crap. That OMF2097 reference went WAY over my head as a kid.
I used to love both that and Jazz as a kid.
Imagine Jazz Jackrabbit appearing in Fortnite.
So many memories of this game and gamepad....
Awesome that the folks I knew nothing about back then but adored still make games I love today.
Epic has fallen since then
@jwaffe The only puzzle game I know by that name is a Lemmings-style game by Psygnosis. There is no relation to Jazz that I can tell, not in developers or artists. I wouldn't be surprised to see some similarities though, as I think the graphics to both were designed using some version of the program Deluxe Paint.
I know that I've played this game sometime as a kid! I remember this rabbit so well!
And (I know it's a joke, but anyway) I find it funny when people see anthropomorphic animals and goes like: THEY'VE GOT BOOBS?! OMG! WHAT AN OUTRAGE!
Yes.. And it's NORMAL... Every female species that doesn't lay eggs has boobs... Boobs are for feeding milk to the offsprings when they're small and not to sexualize any species...
And no, I don't say it's normal because I draw anthropomorphic animals (a.k.a Furrys, if you want to call it that).. I say it because it's a normal thing that animals and humans have. Since we don't lay eggs, the female always has boobs.
But, if you want to be realistic, the bunny should have like, 6 sets of boobs. But that both creeps and gross me out on a high level, so we shouldn't go there....
Your history videos are by far the best.
9:41 The official prayer of PornHub.
This is out on GOG!!! Excited to replay. I am glad you reviewed it.
Too bad Epic lost source code for both games :/
They don't really need them to make a JJ Game...it's not hard to make a Jazz Jackrabbit game...they just don't want to make newer ones cuz they're afraid they won't sell
Wouldn't need the source code to re-release them though, the majority of games tweaked to run on GOG are done so from the final, retail releases of those games. It's still very possible we could see the game head to GOG.com in the future.
AssaulteedOne I seriously hope that happens. I'd assume there are reasons why it's not on GOG right now, but hopefully it will eventually happen.
Proof?
UPDATE: The Jazz Jackrabbit Complete Collection is now available on GOG!
@AsafSchnider Because this is a video about the first game. The sequel will have its own video.
Back when epic made good games lmao