Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/jaz...bit-remastered < info
https://juliusbrussee.github.io/jazz...it-remastered/ < play online

This is a fascinating one! A remake of JJ1 made by the son of Arjan Brussee, the guy who programmed JJ1 in the first place.

But when I say "made by," I mean:
So it's still sweet that Arjan's son wanted to make this--unless you're sufficiently anti-AI that even the impulse isn't sweet--but I'm more interested in the game. It doesn't play super well, let's be real. Ammo's sparse, enemies are a bit repetitive, level design is too horizontal. I've definitely played worse, but it's not going to surpass JJ1.

I'm just fascinated by what Claude knows about Jazz Jackrabbit, which is an indirect way of measuring what the internet knows about Jazz Jackrabbit. It's a 2D platformer! It has planets! You're a green rabbit with a gun and a headband! You can shoot blaster/bouncer/rf/toaster! You can copter ear by pressing jump in midair! You want to beat Devan! There are gems and food pickups, and the food gives you a working sugar rush!

On the other hand, it's clear what it doesn't know. It knows the names of JJ1's planets, and it has rough descriptions of some of them, but it does not know what they look like. It doesn't know their palettes, and most memorably, it thinks Letni is a desert. It gets the missile colors of RFs and seekers confused (although maybe it's just guessing, because red&white are common cartoon rocket colors). It has no idea what Devan looks like, and is clearly making things up for Tubelectric's spark enemies.

Level layouts are something I always wonder how AI can handle, and this is closer to a Mario, horizontal platforming over pits, but specifically made up of premade chunks grafted into full levels, which is an interesting take (but obviously not how JJ1 did it).

Whatever your take on AI, I think it's absolutely wild that more or less "one prompt" can spit out an entire playable video game like this, and one with a more than passing resemblance to Jazz Jackrabbit no less. Again, it's not stellar, but I've played plenty of much worse games that were made by hand. Everything about this would have been inconceivable in the very, very recent past! Heck, you could absolutely take this as a basis and make something better if you wanted to.

Anyway if you want to play a platforming fangame not made with AI, there's Rabbit's Revenge, or Bun & Gun. This one is interesting for what it says about AI, if you ask me anyway.