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After a number of quiet years for the Jazz Jackrabbit franchise and the unfortunate demise of the third entry, a new game was announced. Though this time not on PC and not within the setting fans were expecting. This was Jazz Jackrabbit for Gameboy Advance.
Jazz Jackrabbit for Gameboy Advance was a controversial game. Jazz was not the bandana wearing, blue gun carrying rabbit who chases Devan Shell to save Eva Earlong anymore. Instead, leaning heavily on the Star Wars franchise, Jazz was wearing clothing, carried a blaster gun and had to fight Dark Shell, who is a cross between Devan Shell and Darth Vader. His love interest was now a character named Zoe Cottontail. The game consists of five worlds, each with three normal levels and one boss level. If you decide to play the game on easy, some levels would be skipped, giving you a shorter experience. The game would take some of its tiles directly from Jazz Jackrabbit 2, with the second level of world two taking the sewer tiles from Colon1.j2t and especially the fifth and final world taking tiles from both Castle1.j2t and Damn1.j2t. Interestingly, the third level of the first world is the only level in the game that uses a foreground layer. The weapon depot sublevels, which would appear between each world, are very similar to the world two boss level, likely being an edited version of it, or vice versa. The spaceship Jazz uses in this version seems to be a 3D sprite. It can be seen in multiple levels standing upright, as well as from another angle in the manual, where it is clearly shown as a rendered image.
The enemies were also new for this version, again leaning on Star Wars for the turtle troop enemies, who are basically turtle versions of stormtroopers. There is also a mech turtle enemy, though more reptiles were also used this time around, like Saurians, who are dinosaur-like creatures, and Chameleons. A slime enemy also exists in the game, though you would only see it in the second level of world two and only if you were playing on Pretty Hard or Way Too Hard difficulty. Enemy health is not set in stone in this game. Though most enemies do seem to have a default amount of health, with each difficulty increasing it, there are certain enemies that have their own setting entirely. This is especially the case with the turtle troop enemies, with health ranging greatly between enemies. Their colour does not matter here either, though the yellow variant does seem to have some more higher health versions placed.
A multiplayer mode also exists for this game, both in a single pak mode and a multi pak mode. The single pak setting would allow you to play with only one copy of the game required. This mode has four small maps with some tiles taken from various other single player levels and some not used before. The multi pak setting would require each player to own a copy of the game and had more maps available, though these were just some of the single player levels with their enemies removed and some object scattered around. Two modes could be chosen for multiplayer, battle and capture the flag, with a maximum of four players, each with a differently coloured Jazz sprite. Some of the multiplayer maps would be locked at the start of the game, being unlocked after defeating a boss. Unfortunately, because of a bug, the final level unlock after defeating Dark Shell would not unlock the last multiplayer map, leaving one map in the game that can never be played.
The game was released in both Europe and North America. Though the box art looks similar, the North American version is darker and has a green logo, while the European one is white. The cartridge itself also has different artwork, thought the game itself is exactly the same. Both versions come with a manual, which are basically the same, except for the European one also includes a German translation. Interestingly, the manual states a different way in which unlockables would work, saying "If a game has been won then a * (star) will appear at the top. The * let's you know that certain game codes and multi-player levels have been unlocked.". Also regarding the hardest difficulty: "Way Too Hard is locked until you complete a Pretty Hard game.". No * ever shows after beating the game, all the game codes seem to be working from the start and the Way Too Hard difficulty is already unlocked when starting the game for the first time.
To keep versions separate, artwork and manual for the US version of the game is included in the following reply.
Jazz Jackrabbit for Gameboy Advance was a controversial game. Jazz was not the bandana wearing, blue gun carrying rabbit who chases Devan Shell to save Eva Earlong anymore. Instead, leaning heavily on the Star Wars franchise, Jazz was wearing clothing, carried a blaster gun and had to fight Dark Shell, who is a cross between Devan Shell and Darth Vader. His love interest was now a character named Zoe Cottontail. The game consists of five worlds, each with three normal levels and one boss level. If you decide to play the game on easy, some levels would be skipped, giving you a shorter experience. The game would take some of its tiles directly from Jazz Jackrabbit 2, with the second level of world two taking the sewer tiles from Colon1.j2t and especially the fifth and final world taking tiles from both Castle1.j2t and Damn1.j2t. Interestingly, the third level of the first world is the only level in the game that uses a foreground layer. The weapon depot sublevels, which would appear between each world, are very similar to the world two boss level, likely being an edited version of it, or vice versa. The spaceship Jazz uses in this version seems to be a 3D sprite. It can be seen in multiple levels standing upright, as well as from another angle in the manual, where it is clearly shown as a rendered image.
The enemies were also new for this version, again leaning on Star Wars for the turtle troop enemies, who are basically turtle versions of stormtroopers. There is also a mech turtle enemy, though more reptiles were also used this time around, like Saurians, who are dinosaur-like creatures, and Chameleons. A slime enemy also exists in the game, though you would only see it in the second level of world two and only if you were playing on Pretty Hard or Way Too Hard difficulty. Enemy health is not set in stone in this game. Though most enemies do seem to have a default amount of health, with each difficulty increasing it, there are certain enemies that have their own setting entirely. This is especially the case with the turtle troop enemies, with health ranging greatly between enemies. Their colour does not matter here either, though the yellow variant does seem to have some more higher health versions placed.
A multiplayer mode also exists for this game, both in a single pak mode and a multi pak mode. The single pak setting would allow you to play with only one copy of the game required. This mode has four small maps with some tiles taken from various other single player levels and some not used before. The multi pak setting would require each player to own a copy of the game and had more maps available, though these were just some of the single player levels with their enemies removed and some object scattered around. Two modes could be chosen for multiplayer, battle and capture the flag, with a maximum of four players, each with a differently coloured Jazz sprite. Some of the multiplayer maps would be locked at the start of the game, being unlocked after defeating a boss. Unfortunately, because of a bug, the final level unlock after defeating Dark Shell would not unlock the last multiplayer map, leaving one map in the game that can never be played.
The game was released in both Europe and North America. Though the box art looks similar, the North American version is darker and has a green logo, while the European one is white. The cartridge itself also has different artwork, thought the game itself is exactly the same. Both versions come with a manual, which are basically the same, except for the European one also includes a German translation. Interestingly, the manual states a different way in which unlockables would work, saying "If a game has been won then a * (star) will appear at the top. The * let's you know that certain game codes and multi-player levels have been unlocked.". Also regarding the hardest difficulty: "Way Too Hard is locked until you complete a Pretty Hard game.". No * ever shows after beating the game, all the game codes seem to be working from the start and the Way Too Hard difficulty is already unlocked when starting the game for the first time.
To keep versions separate, artwork and manual for the US version of the game is included in the following reply.
