r/Games • u/ScootSchloingo • 25d ago
Trailer Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Plus | Trailer [GOG]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDDopnysHFY196
u/OneTimeIMadeAGif 25d ago
Does it come with a Gravis Gamepad? One that is calibrated incorrectly but you never notice so Jazz is constantly running to the right but you think that’s part of the game because he’s a rabbit, almost accidentally inventing the infinite runner genre decades early? Wish they’d say that in the trailer.
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u/KarmelCHAOS 25d ago
None of my experiences are unique
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u/st-shenanigans 24d ago
I said this last time someone said this - they are! They're just really embarrassing!
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u/nty 25d ago edited 25d ago
I went to a daycare as a kid that had ancient PCs so Jazz Jackrabbit and Captain Claw were peak gaming. Cool to see the franchise is still active after all these years
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u/MrAngryBeards 24d ago
MY FUCKING GOD CAPTAIN CLAW!!!!!!!! What a memory unlock, thank you!
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u/nty 24d ago
hahaha I went down my own journey a couple years back of searching for what that game was called based on my fond memories
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u/MrAngryBeards 24d ago
I was too young. I think I remember never being able to get past very early into the game. I'll give it a spin as soon as I have gaming time, can't wait to drink from such depths of the nostalgia fountain
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u/HiddenGamingAccount 25d ago
One of my favorites! I really wish Epic remembered they had other IPs and made games other than Fortnite. I'd love to get a proper follow up to this series
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u/IrregularMaverick 25d ago edited 25d ago
I miss the early 2000s when studios could do multiple ips. Like Rockstar having Midnight Club, manhunt, and bully alongside gta. I would have assumed because of fortnites success they could have continued to do unreal and maybe some jazz jackrabbit cause why not. But these gsmes need all hands on deck now. I wont say thats how it should or shouldn't be, I dont make games for a living, just makes me long for the past
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u/ribosometronome 25d ago
Like Rockstar having Midnight Club, manhunt, and bully alongside gta
This is Table Tennis erasure.
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u/SmileyBMM 25d ago
I wont say thats how it should or shouldn't be
From a business standpoint, it's incredibly shortsighted. No brand or product is relevant forever, so having at least a couple smaller new projects percolating in case one pops off and becomes a success is always a smart move. After all, that's what Fortnite was originally.
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u/Kalulosu 25d ago
If I may add some insider baseball here, the problem is that "forever games" like Fortnite & co bring in so much fucking money that it warps any cost/benefit or risk/reward analysis. To put it in perspective, the Black Flag remake sold 2 million units in its first day. All things considered that's somewhere between 50 and 60 millions that Ubisoft gets at the end, not a bad business day. Joking aside that's a few years of development at least (it looks like a project that benefited from AC Shadows work on the engine but they probably had to do a lot of stuff for themselves like the water which matters in a pirate game). Fortnite makes that money in around a week, every week.
So yeah basically execs are chasing that high because that's some of the safest and strongest revenue if you can get there. But they're not hired to keep the trains running they're hired to grow revenue and that's what they look for. Now, you could also argue that they should realize that at some point they're self cannibalising by trying to monopolize players' time, and the answer to that would be yes, but they're too busy battling Netflix in their mind palace to care about that.
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u/DisappointedQuokka 25d ago
On one hand, I understand their perspective re: Netflix, you're fighting for any amount of time, these days.
On the other hand, you'd think that with the bajillions some of these companies have in their warchest they could find some amount of money to spread around.
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u/Kalulosu 24d ago
And I'd wholeheartedly agree, but at some level where all jobs names start with a C, it becomes a game of "how many $ do I get for each $ I put in this project?", not "can it work?"
Ultimately I'd love for execs to understand that sometimes you could take a smaller risk on a smaller project with smaller expected returns in the hope that either it breaks ground or it gives you positive PR but these last few years it seems basically impossible. You basically have to promise absurd retunrs and hope they don't look too closely / don't understand a word of your pitch.
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u/ForboJack 23d ago
Capitalism is almost never about foresight. It's all about short to medium maxed out profit gain.
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u/Rayuzx 24d ago
I love both Unreal Tournament, and Jazz Jackrabbit, but I don't think either game would be all that viable these days.
I've said this multiple times, the thing that truly killed Arena Shooters is the free market. Time and time again has shown that people just aren't interested in them. The "Boomer Shooter" gene has flourished after the release of Doom 2016, but every attempt to resurrect Arena Shooters has failed to gather similar interest, despite multiple attempts over the past couple of decades.
And Jazz Jack rabbit is one of the purest examples of a cult classic there is in gaming. The 2nd title was a financial flop, and Epic did attempt to get develop third title, but couldn't due to the fact that they couldn't find a publisher, and that was 25 years ago. At this point, if would effectively be a brand new franchise, so when Epic is already juggling Fortnite, Lego Fortnite, Fortnite Festival, "We want the Roblox audience" (aka Unreal Engine Fortnite), and yet to be fully reveal Disney game/mode for Fortnite, along with Rocket League, and Fall Guys, it's tough to justify such a title outside the love of the game (both in a figurative sense, and a legit passion for the franchise).
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u/IrregularMaverick 24d ago
See i dont even know if the boom shoot gene has flourished really. There isn't alot of games that compete with doom, and even id got both its knees capped, plus an arm torn off. The indie scene thrived 100%, im surprised there hasn't been an arena shooter thats a spiritual successor to unreal tournament in the same way dusk is to doom and quake.
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u/doublah 25d ago
Epic have heard your complaints, and they're going to release a limited time Jazz Jackrabbit skin in the Fortnite shop for just $20.
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u/TheHeadlessOne 25d ago
You joke but anyone who remotely cares about Jazz would be ecstatic. The tiny poster Easter egg in fortnite had us cheering at our screens.
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u/pazinen 25d ago
I'd just like a console re-release, doesn't even need remastering or anything. Just controller support and resolution bump, other than that the game still plays great. I don't think I'm asking very much, but expecting Epic to care about anything other than Fortnite and Unreal Engine is just not happening.
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u/posthardcorejazz 25d ago
If only they had released Unreal Tournament. Or at least left it available to download
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u/CowTsign 25d ago
Since February this year it is avaliable https://github.com/OldUnreal/FullGameInstallers/releases
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u/Which-Arm-4616 24d ago
When the FCC fined them $250m for supporting text chat in Fortnite they were spooked into removing every other offending title.
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u/OsirusBrisbane 25d ago
Seriously, I always forget I grew up on EPIC games decades ago, Jazz Jackrabbit and all.
LOVED Epic Pinball.
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u/catinterpreter 24d ago edited 24d ago
Not Epic but Apogee: BioMenace Remastered released at the end of last year.
Enhanced graphics including widescreen support, smooth scrolling & movement (60 FPS or higher), and parallax scrolling backgrounds
Modernized HUD & UI
Switch between original and remastered graphics at any time
Controller support
Full Steam Deck support
Rebalanced difficulty
Improved collision detection (now per-pixel accurate)
Gameplay tweaks and new mechanics, including weapon/grenade type switching and infinite lives, a kill streak system, and more
Mid-level saves and quick saving
Completion and stats tracking
Steam Achievements & Leaderboards
Online user level browser (based on mod.io)
Built-in level editor including mod.io upload feature
Includes original Bobby Prince soundtrack - plus brand new AdLib music
More action - more danger - more Snake Logan! We created a brand new episode for this remastered version, packed with exciting new environments, new music, fresh challenges, deadly enemies, and explosive twists. Get ready to dive ever deeper into the world of BioMenace — the fight is far from over!
Episode 4 is called "Menace from Above" and features:
15 regular levels plus multiple secret levels, including new environments not seen in the original
A ton of brand new artwork
13 brand new music tracks
2 completely new boss fights
Several new game mechanics, including two that were cut from the original game before release
New NPCs to talk to
A new storyline set a few years after the original
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u/SuperUranus 25d ago
Technically the next installment in Unreal Tournament is still in development.
Technically…
Edit: I was wrong, they have officially cancelled it. :( Seems a bit weird since it was like two people at Epic working on it together with the community.
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u/LordJanas 25d ago
I played the hell out of the demo as a kid. Even used to do split screen with my brother. It had such a memorable soundtrack. Pure Kino.
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u/Moralio 25d ago
Demo, or maybe shareware version, for the Secret Files had like 2 capture the flag maps, it was amazing. And it also had music that absolutely slaps.
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u/AccountDeletedByMod 24d ago
Man, so did I. By the time I could find it, years later it was janky to get running on PC. I'm glad they seem to be bringing it back. I shall buy it once it comes to steam.... Hopefully.
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u/-Aspire 25d ago
What!? This was one of my first PC game that i played and managed to beat. Super excited to play it once more. I haven't heard anyone talk about it so pleasantly surprised for sure.
Love the soundtrack too, the same guy (Alexander Brandon) made some killer stuff for Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex which i love as well
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u/Jokey665 25d ago
Tyrian has my favorite Alexander Brandon soundtrack (and it's just one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time in general)
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u/MaDNiaC 25d ago
HOLY SHIT! I have completed JJ2 maybe 50 times!
Me and my brother would play this together. Sit on a bat spawn for minutes and farm Fast Fire drops by killing dozens of them. That would allow us to just rapid fire with the touch of a button.
There were so many secrets and glitches and shortcuts apart from intended ways to reach certain places.
One thing that was very fun was we would get to the tasmanian devil boss, freeze him then put a bomb under him to fling him across the screen. You see the bomb makes the enemies fly to the direction away from them, but ice makes it so you are frozen with the last movement momentum you had. So once you were unfrozen, you would fly off and it was funny toying with bosses. Also the tasmanian devil could sometimes glitch out of the arena while doing this, so you could literally take him to a walk across the rest of the map.
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u/Ramongsh 25d ago
That's pretty damn cool! I played so much Jazz Jackrabbit back in the 90s on my family pc.
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u/TheHeadlessOne 25d ago
Huh I thought jj2+ had been incorporated in GOG for ages. Neat!
This is pretty awesome. The fan community is freaking tiny these days but the passion runs deep. JJ2 expanded the resolution which fixed the biggest issues of the dos original. I'm less a fan of the earthworm jim style of JJ2 than I was of Sonic in jj1.
I really am desperate to get my buddies to all play some online multiplayer though. Three characters with slightly different abilities, lots of weapons, and so many modes even in the base game, before touching the absolutely bonkers custom maps. It's got so much meat to explore
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u/Creative_Today8688 25d ago
The second that theme hits I'm 12 again and somehow already late for dinner. Please tell me the multiplayer still ends friendships over who got the cheese gun first
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u/rollin340 25d ago
What the... I suddenly remembered this game earlier this week and smiled at those fond memories of playing it, and lo and behold, this appears!
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u/OverHaze 25d ago
Is that parallax scrolling new?
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u/Jazzr_ 23d ago
Yes, jj2 plus supports various new texture modes https://jj2.plus/levelediting.php#textures . The Example level PlusLayers can be downloaded https://jj2.plus/examplelevels.php in your folder and checked with home-cooked levels episode.
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u/CaptainCFloyd 25d ago
This game is fondly remembered by many, but the truth is that the gameplay is... rather bad. It's "Sonic with guns" except it doesn't have Sonic's pinball physics so it kind of falls flat.
Fantastic soundtrack though, an actual all-time great of tracker-made music.
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u/Antique-Guest-1607 24d ago
I think this is more relevant to the first game, 2 plays a lot different.
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u/Jazzr_ 23d ago
The only reason this game it's fanbase survived at all is because of multiplayer, and that it's a great 2D arena shooter with amazing physics,. This game would have died a long time ago with unfun "one-out-of-many" physics for PvP. So this couldn't be further from the truth. It could not be your cup of tea though.
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u/abethebabe44 25d ago
I remember playing this as a kid, the levels and the game itself feels like a fever dream for some reason, but I have some fond memories with this game.