Epic to revive Jazz Jackrabbit franchise?

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:30

Here are some news that made me very excited!!! Apparently, Shane from Epic made a quick tutorial demo, showing some of the new features added to UDK for supporting iOS development.

Watch gameplay video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ZpYxuWbcc

Watch the UDK video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5IxyZ_hj54

The using of Jazz itself even for this tutorial is as excited as announcing a new Jazz game! The highest rated comment is by lollol654 with which I completely agree!

I am really amazed that you thought about our beloved green hare.

I think I speak in the nameï»¿ of everyone in this long-lived community when I ask you to revive the Jazz franchise.

Please, Epic games, revive it and show the world it can STILL be done!

Jazz Jackrabbit in a sidescroller 2.5D (fixed camera) would be an amazing way to start. PLEASE.

Unfortunately, Mark Rein said:

Just to be certain: this is not intended to be the start of a new Jazz Jackrabbit game from Epic. Shane wanted to make a tutorial to showing how you could use Unreal Kismet to whip up a quick little game prototype for iOS. He and Cliff thought it would be funny to use Jazz as the character for it. He did a great job on it and it turned out to be a fantastic tutorial on how to use Unreal Kismet, the powerful visual scripting tool in Unreal Engine 3.

But there's still hope, as Cliffy B said:

Think of this as a way of testing the waters for interest. You never know. Iâ€™m open to finding a right partner who could potentially bring Jazz back. Iâ€™ve been talking to some industry friends who are poking around.

So go to the channel, vote for the video and show some Jazzy love! They might consider developing new Jazz Jackrabbit after all!!!

Paramultart · Post by **Paramultart** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:43

I love Jazz Jackrabbit. Used to be my favorite game as a child.
Sadly, gaming is nothing more than business these days. Jazz wouldn't make a profitable game these days, and if they did somehow manage to make Jazz appeal to the gaming industry's target audience (brain-dead 14 year old emo foob) it would be an awful game.

For this reason I think DNF will be a minor success.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:44

Interesting.

However, if a new Jazz game was made that looks like that, I would put it right up there with Keen GBA.

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:47

Well, I guess they made Jazz so ugly because of the iphone and because it's a tech demo. But still... It's Jazz! Watch the gameplay video! The music brings back memories!

Dynamo · Post by **Dynamo** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 13:13

Paramultart wrote:Sadly, gaming is nothing more than business these days. Jazz wouldn't make a profitable game these days, and if they did somehow manage to make Jazz appeal to the gaming industry's target audience (brain-dead 14 year old emo foob) it would be an awful game.

100% agreed here. Although if they made it for the iphone or something then maybe...

Also, this is exactly why a new Keen game would suck.

Nospike · Post by **Nospike** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 13:15

Well, I guess they made Jazz so ugly because of the iphone

O rly? You haven't seen the newest iPhone games then.

I am deadly excited. A 2.5D sidescroller is something iPhone didn't have until now.
I hope it won't turn out like the Infinity Blade game and will run on an iPhone 3G.

VikingBoyBilly · Post by **VikingBoyBilly** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 14:34

Jazz isn't ugly. His head's just way too big for his tiny body.
It's nice his face went back to the gritty tough guy look he had in Jazz 1 instead of going further in the furry anime cuteness direction he was in jazz 2 and 3.

Grimson · Post by **Grimson** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 15:37

But why do they all have heads shaped like blocks?

Post by **tulip** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 15:56

where did you guys get the 2.5D idea from? the vid looked very much 3D to me, and it's interesting that Epic, now that there really is a small renaissance of 2D games, should do a crappy 3D demo.

DHeadshot · Post by **DHeadshot** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 16:57

Commander Spleen wrote:Interesting.

However, if a new Jazz game was made that looks like that, I would put it right up there with Keen GBA.

And other games that don't exist?

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 19:53

Like Grimson said, I dislike Jazz's design because his head is a giant cube, just like the other enemies. If that was an art schtick of the series, I could understand it, but it doesn't match the character design of the originals. However I loved the rest of the art, like the scenery, it looks very crisp, like a high-definition platformer should look.

In terms of gameplay, it didn't really seem like Jazz. When has Jazz fought swarms of enemies that just lunge at him? Plus the fact that their guts were spilled across the idyllic world was a bad mix (unless it was done for shock value). I also find it a shame that the camera was mostly looking top down, because it really doesn't show off the awesome scenery (like the 2nd video showed with the game dev stuff in the engine).

I liked the music, but it didn't fee like it fit Jazz either, I pictured it more in a Sonic game.

But meh, it was just a tech demo, haha.

Paramultart wrote:Sadly, gaming is nothing more than business these days. Jazz wouldn't make a profitable game these days, and if they did somehow manage to make Jazz appeal to the gaming industry's target audience (brain-dead 14 year old emo foob) it would be an awful game.

By your same reasoning the Wii, Mario Galaxy 1&2 and Sonic Colors would not have been a financial success. Lets also not forget Valve's steam network, or even GameTap where I'm sure lots of niche games have found success. The PC market has always helped the underdog, like indie developers, why not a major platform hero with a big budget behind both the development and marketing?

I don't see why Jazz or Keen couldn't be profitable. There's alot of stuff that could be really profitable but companies don't put enough effort into marketing the product. That's why I think Jazz 2 sunk sales-wise, Epic was ready to move on so they didn't put the effort into the marketing. I think alot of companies make self-fulfilling prophecies by only listening to one side of the gaming demographic (Sega tends to do that alot with Sonic).

However, the problem I would have with a new Jazz or Keen game is, would they sacrifice the spirit of the games to market it for only one type of gamer? That's what I fear the most.

VikingBoyBilly · Post by **VikingBoyBilly** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 21:56

Lava89 wrote:I liked the music, but it didn't fee like it fit Jazz either, I pictured it more in a Sonic game.

Wasn't that music taken directly from Jazz 1? I didn't care for it much even in Jazz 1, though.

speaking of sonic music

Dynamo · Post by **Dynamo** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 22:16

Epic just needs to hurry up and finish this!

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 22:43

VBB: Then I stand corrected. I guess the modern remixing \ instrumentation is what threw me off. Thanks!

Paramultart · Post by **Paramultart** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 22:56

The music is about the only Jazzy thing in this tech demo, although the whole point of Jazz Jackrabbit was to compete with Sonic the Hedgehog, so any similarities are not surprising.

Jazz 1 and all the expansions were fantastic... Jazz 2 was alright... The Jazz 3 alpha leak looks like it would have been pretty good. Jazz GBA was a horrible sh*tfest that destroyed the Jazz legacy.

But yeah... Jazz was great. I would love to see all these great characters make a comeback, preferably within the next few years to go alongside the release of Duke Nukem Forever.

If done faithfully, I would like to see the following characters poke their heads out of the grave and make video games fun again:

Johhny Dash (Monster Bash)
Commander Keen
Jazz Jackrabbit
Snake Logan (Bio-Menace)
Cosmo

Maybe even some of the lesserknowns like Skunny the Squirrel and Captain Comic.

Some of the classic Apogee titles might have a chance at being resurrected since 3DRealms doesn't have the rights to Duke Nukem anymore, and with the launch of Apogee LTD.