The Cliffster trolling us again via Twitter or actual something coming up? Stop playing with our hearts, man!

Thursday is going to be Jazzy.

@therealcliffyb

...might even be rabbity...

@therealcliffyb

Personally hoping for at least some Holiday Hare action. What say you all?

CliffyB cleverly dodging the J2O twitter panel!

Hopefully this is genuine for once. I don't want to live in a world where games like Splatterhouse can get a revival but good ol' Jazz Jackrabbit can't.

The word is out that UDK with iOS support lands today. There's more. Epic made an iOS tutorial with a "classic" character... Any guesses?

@danacowly
Pretty sure this is what CliffyB was hinting at.

Mixed feelings, from "!#$@#%$^% it's not a new game/free release! " to "hey, at least they're still acknowledging that he exists! ".

Well, I doubt anybody seriously expected JJ3 anyway.

Confirmed! Jazz "returns" in UDK iOS example.

You guys are pretty good. "@aaronlinde: @danacowley Jazz Jackrabbit? Please say it's Jazz Jackrabbit."

@danacowley

Not sure if she was meant to spoil it before UDK release, but hey! News!

Just don't let him to see the JDC page. Logo is very good.

Do note that Epic generally does not use demos with assets they don't plan to use for a real game.

Remember the original UE3 demos, with Gears of War assets? GoW wasn't even announced back then, and I remember reading an interview where Tim Sweeney basically said they never make stuff just for a demo.

Of course, this was years ago, so things might have changed since then.

Indeed, if you receive the UDK newsletter from Epic, you can clearly see that all assets in the comparison screenshots contain characters/foliage/stuff from existing, and upcoming games. This could mean that Jazz will eventually get a remake on PC/iOS.

Originally Posted by Slaz

This could mean that Jazz will eventually get a remake on PC/iOS.

Because it obviously can't be a new game?

As long as it's not an iPhone exclusive.

Whatever this is, I am overly hyped to see our favourite rabbit back on track, even if it is something minor like this. If what Slaz says turns out to be true, I would be very happy; this series should not die, not even after 16 years.

And yes, I really hope it is for the PC. I wouldn't mind it being a remake either. I really can't see the game going full 3D, so I think it will be 3D from a fixed perspective.

just take a look at this:
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/16/ud...zz-jackrabbit/

Man oh man, Im so happy to control Blocky the Green Bunny in this Radtastic Twin Stick Shooter. Its a Snake eat Snake game in Jungler 2 I I mean Jazz Jackrabbit iOs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BYQWN2th1I (Djazz posted me on msn, the linke before was posted me by Fraesh D)

I am a liiittle bit disappointed by the screenshots, but it's better than nothing. I am still very excited, and as long as it plays well, that would be okay.

Don't like how there is no resemblance to anything we've seen before. If you replace Jazz with someone else there would be absolutely nothing in common with the series.

Still, this is a demo and I'm sure there will be many changes. Looking forward to something familiar! *still hopes for 3D with fixed perspective*

Originally Posted by GoldRabbit

I am a liiittle bit disappointed by the screenshots, but it's better than nothing.

I don't see how this is any different than the usual Jazz reference like Cliffy pointing at the framed cover art for Jazz 1 in a Studio tour, or Cliffy going "Hey Jazz would be cool for XBLA". Its better than nothing, I guess, but its same level of barely something we've always gotten.

You don't even fight turtles! The simplest thing, and its not even there. Something tells me this was completely unrelated to Jazz and someone went "Well its sort of cartoony, lets just toss him in"

That's the weirdest Jazz model I've ever seen.

EDIT: Relevant question; did the UE3 demo using GOW assets actually have anything that looked like GOW's gameplay? Because if not, then the "they're just using art assets they have lying around" theory still stands.

So I tried looking for an already compiled version of this game that I could just stick on my phone and I found this which is just the assets.
Apparently the music chosen for the menu was the JJ2 ending theme. What the what
Gameplay music was also a perfect choice for a twinstick shooter: The Jazz 2 Castle level

Well, atleast they reuse good music.

FI><0RS TEH JAZZ JACKRABBIT!!!!!!!

Am currently waiting for downloading the assets.

Shouldn't this establish a new world record or something? 12 and so years until a full fledged sequel? (curse you duke nukem!)

Originally Posted by cooba

FI><0RS TEH JAZZ JACKRABBIT!!!!!!!

Oh boy, here we go again!

Seriously, I'm willing to bet a few factors went into this. Not only is Jazz a recognizable character people still associate with Epic Games but by plopping him into one of their products (even if it's just an SDK) they handily re-affirm their trademark.

I mean, when was the last time you saw the words "Jazz" and "Jackrabbit" mentioned in a trademark disclaimer? See attachment for Epic lulz, if you know what I'm saying.

Originally Posted by GoldRabbit

Shouldn't this establish a new world record or something? 12 and so years until a full fledged sequel? (curse you duke nukem!)

There's absolutely no way of knowing if there will be a "full fledged sequel" made out of this 15 minutes UDK tutorial. All you see here is speculation.

Sorry to shoot your hopes down but there's not much to be excited about.

Originally Posted by Jake

Well, atleast they reuse good music.

Yeah I guess, but if you're going to reuse music why you would not just reuse the menu music for the menu.
Thats baffling.

Well, even if it turns out to be nothing (which I hope not), it's still awesome that Epic remembered about Jazz. Maybe they acknowledge the fact that we are still here.

I lol'd at Haze's comment.

Originally Posted by n00b

Yeah I guess, but if you're going to reuse music why you would not just reuse the menu music for the menu.
Thats baffling.

nah, man, that'd be just boring and predictable

I'm going to try compiling it in a bit and see how it plays.
EDIT- Oh I need to be an iOS developer to put it on my phone. Ehhhhh

EDITEDIT-Played it in the editor. Was kinda hard since I could only use one stick at a time.
The music labelled "Menu" shows up when you die, it works. Im still iffy on the castle stage being used in game.
Gameplay is a standard twinstick shooter, enemies keep respawning until you die. One dropped a laser gun upgrade which gave me rapid fire. I don't know if theres any others.
Jazz talks ****ing constantly. Its annoying. Basically Bubsy 3d but with Jazz.
*shooting at snakes* "WHATAYA WAITIN FOR??"
EDIT- Also I was wrong, there are Turtles. I'll try to get a decent pic of them
EDITEDIT-

Their death animation is hilarious

That's just ugly.

Eh, models that are designed to be viewed from the top aren't going to look their best when viewed from the front. Facts of life. I, personally, am excited for this, even though I have absolutely no way to play it; he's got the right clothes again, y'all! That's good news! Can we learn a lesson from JJA and not be too critical, lest our reaction is perceived to be "we don't want any more Jazz at all because nothing could ever be perfect"? Epic has noticed us -- let's not scare them away like we did GameTitan.

Originally Posted by F quist of j2lc

That's just ugly.

I think if it wasn't for the Art Clokey cubes comin out of their heads, the snakes and turtles would actually be a little adorable.
Jazz is just plain ugly from any angle though, and has the least personality in his animations out of the tiny cast.

Fquist's right, they are ugly. Why on earth did they make the heads cube-shaped??

If a full version based on this will ever see the light of day, I hope the dev's will base their actions on our reactions towards the demo or possibly any upcomming early builds. At least, from the looks of it, it's going to be more 'Jazzy' than the GBA game.

I'd say it's too early for FI><0RS to be needed at this moment. After all, Jazz's early 'preview' sprites from JJ1 prerelease screenshots were looking strange as well.

I keep expecting Jazz to scream "HAAAAAAAAX!!!11"

From Mark Rein:

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.

Its not actually bad to play, its a bit like Jazz Jackrabbit meets Geometry Wars, just not as fun as either of the original games.

I've made a short video of it anyway for anyone who doesn't want to go through the bother of setting up the Unreal Development Kit just to check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ZpYxuWbcc

It is a shame Epic has no interest in creating another Jazz game, something 2D on XBLA / PSN would make Epic a fair bit of extra pocket money i'm sure. (not that epic really short of money)

I honestly don't know why they don't actually make a Jazz 3.

EDIT: By that I mean, I see plenty of excitement about this around the internet, followed by disappointment that there's not actually a new Jazz game. Anyone know of a good way we could get Epic's attention?

Originally Posted by ThunderPX

EDIT: By that I mean, I see plenty of excitement about this around the internet, followed by disappointment that there's not actually a new Jazz game. Anyone know of a good way we could get Epic's attention?

I'm pretty sure Epic knows exactly what the public reaction to this is, I highly doubt they need us to tell them.

There's a myriad of reasons Epic could have not to make another Jazz Jackrabbit game. I personally think it's just not the kind of game they want to make; they have been in the muscular-dudes-with-guns business since Unreal Tournament (1999) and a relatively childish game like Jazz Jackrabbit simply doesn't fit in with that. Or maybe it's because people who liked Jazz in their childhood are now grown up and are no longer likely to buy games like that.

(Yes, Titan Studios, but it could very well be that they adapt to the Epic Games style as well)

All right, I managed to play it following the installation instructions (warning: site contains large quantities of illegal software, don't click around). It's pretty, but yeah, there's not much too it, and for a game series that's always been about pushing technological/genre boundaries, it doesn't try very hard to be a particularly interesting game. It's good to know they remember the franchise exists, though, if nothing else.

Originally Posted by cooba

From Mark Rein:

From CliffyB

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