Jazz Jackrabbit 2

Psycho-freakout wabbit wace

Three years after the Jazz Jackrabbit shareware stormed the PC action scene, g.o.d. has spoken-and for classic 2D sidescroller fans, the words are gospel.

g.o.d.'s first release, Jazz 2, is a more-than-worthy successor to the original, a platformer praised for its fast action and numerous item-packed levels. Once again, the story-Jazz and his psycho bro Spaz (you can play either) hunting the villainous Devan Shell-is irrelevant. It's all about hyperspastic, escape-velocity action, and plenty of it.

In single-play you race, blast, and leap your way through over 30 differently themed levels: the old-fashioned Colonial Chaos, the trippy Purple Haze, the mechanical Loose Screws, and so on. In 640-by-480, it looks great, with colorful backgrounds and nifty character animations.

The gameplay-running around, grabbing power-ups, fighting not-so-tough bosses-does get repetitive. Thankfully, you can switch among 12 weapons (including an ice blaster, rocket launcher, and pellet gun), and Jazz and Spaz have unique special moves (Jazz's Rayman-ish hover-flight, Spaz's karate kick). Clever level-design helps, too, offering plenty of secret areas. And a built-in level designer lets you make your own scenarios.

To top it off, there are excellent multiplayer options, allowing up to four players on one PC, eight players on two via modem, or 32 players on eight via LAN or Internet. Finding and connecting to online games is easy-it's on WON.net, and there's an automatic server-lookup feature within the game. I logged onto a four-person battle-mode game and was blasting away in no time. There are also CTF, treasure hunt, and race modes.

It all makes for solid old-school sidescrolling with modern graphics and multiplay. For platform-game fans, Jazz is the man.

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