What a name. I wish my first name was Jazz.
"Hey, look over there, it's Jazz! His green skin is blinding! I love it!" *Insert insane fan girl screams*
Anyways, Chameleons must have thought Jazz was so handsome, his green skin rivaling their own skin color, that they thought of him as a delicious treat. Who wouldn't? If I ever met someone so beautiful as Jazz, the first thing that would come to my mind is "food". Seems reasonable. The love of your life, in your stomach.

----------------------
Graphics: 8/10
----------------------
The graphics seem to be on the edge of 2D and 3D, more specifically, 2.5D. I haven't played many 2.5D games, but the ones I do are rather impressive. Jazz Jackrabbit doesn't really fall too much into that impressive category. In 2.5D games, along with the story and game play, it's fun to always point at what's actually 3D and what's 2D, like a 3D character on a 2D backround. They don't seem to blend too well together, like oil and water, but it's fun to just stare at the mechanics of the game.
Going back to the game, the graphics are pretty blurry. It's easy enough to distinguish what's what, but a little harder than a game with clean and crisp graphics.
Some positives are (inconsistent) attention to detail. The rocky platforms in the beginning are finely detailed, cracks and holes all over the place, as they usually would be. The stellar back round is also nice attention to detail, the shooting stars, the nebulae, etc. I feel this inconsistency helped give the graphics section a little more than what it originally deserved. Well done.

-2.5D

-Blurry

-Inconsistent, but fine detail

--------------------
Sound: 10/10
--------------------
The sound track is intense to start. Well, you've just been captured by seemingly extra-terrestrial giant talking chameleons with poor grammar and low technological cages/prisons, but high tech weapons. What better music accompanies 'escape from kidnap' than some Beethoven Intense espionage-like music? Music is a wonderful attribute for this game, the last thing on someone's mind when it comes to negativity about this game.
The SFX sounds are not bothersome either. They do drag on a bit, but that's how it works. A gun shot from the same gun isn't going to be sounding different all the time. In real life, you hear the 'bang bang', and if there was some (minuscule) difference in sound, you don't hear it. Yes, sound varies, no matter how big or small the difference is, but hey, it's a game, not acoustic science.
In the end, there's nothing to fret about over music/sfx in Jazz Jackrabbit - all is good.

-Sound track varies from level to level

-Sound track accompanies the mood of the game play

-SFX not perfect, but not a bore either

------------------
Story: 10/10
------------------
I feel big emphasis for this game is the story itself. "Well, why wouldn't it be?" you ask. I agree, of course there's going to be a story, but there's much more dialogue between Jazz and even insignificant characters, like your average Chameleon guard who has no idea what he's doing. This is a platform game, and one would not normally see so much dialogue and focus on the story bit-by-bit (look at Mario. How many times does that little red plumber talk to a fellow Goomba? Who knows.), but in Jazz Jackrabbit, Jazz is constantly talking about the situation, giving you tips, telling you what's going on, and plot twists and attempts at humor to lighten the mood. The story is full of action, and again, attempts at humor. I wouldn't be so sure to say that's a negative to the game now, would I?

-Much more 'interactive' story

-Action, and attempts at humor

------------------
Depth: 8/10
------------------
The depth to Jazz Jackrabbit is...okay. One thing that really "ooofed" me off at this game was the camera during game play. I didn't see an option for changing the camera settings in the menu, so I couldn't change it. But during the whole game play, the camera was dynamic. It wasn't your typical static camera, like in Mario, where you have a steady screen. Nosirree. Instead, it moved with your arrow keys. Press the left arrow key, Jazz moves left AND the camera moves left much more than it would with a static camera. It's like in a sporting event, more specifically, (american) football. A cameraman is watching the quarterback hand off to a running back, who in turn throws the football back, but didn't see that little action, and follows the running back, resulting in not seeing a huge sack for a loss of 17 yards. Sure, not much action like that happens in Jazz Jackrabbit during that camera 'mishap', but it potentially can. Stuck in between to enemies, and your camera messes you up...Jazz ends up dead.
However, a positive in depth is the weaponry. There are different weapons you can obtain through your perilous adventures. The first weapon you get when escaping your low tech "prison" seems to have unlimited ammo. However, the next available weapon you can get,m a machine gun, has a set amount of ammo. Jazz tells you to be careful of how much ammo you have, and how much you use. He's right. You use all your ammo, you have no means of defending yourself. That may be a pain, a HUGE pain, but is very thoughtful and crafty of the game developers, and shows you some of the depth of this game.

-Funky camera

-Don't use all your ammo!

------------------------------
Addictiveness: 7/10
------------------------------
Now that we know the iffs and oofs of the game, what role do they play in addictiveness? The two aspects covered in the depth category play a HUGE role in addictiveness. If the camera bothers you in the beginning of the game, it's not going to be a pleasant ride the rest of the game. If you are constantly running out of ammo before getting more or getting a new gun, that'll bother you, since you will have to restart many times.
However, the story is what would pull you back into the game. The wonderful, intense story and narration by multiple characters, no matter how insignificant, along with the added humor, really offers you entertainment. Along with a story that reels you in, in comes the sound track. Give a story some music that appropriately follows the tone and style of game play, and those oofs, the camera and ammo, will not even bother you.

-Anything bothering you in the beginning? Don't plan on a smooth ride.

-Wonderful story and music, may outweigh negatives.

--------------------------------------------------
Difficulty: 5/10 (or rather, up to you!)
--------------------------------------------------
In the beginning, when starting a new game, the difficulty is absolutely up to you! The default setting is Normal, but above Normal is 'Cakewalk', the equivalent of Easy. Below Normal is 'Pretty Hard'. I have absolutely no idea what the equivalent of Pretty Normal would be. And finally, below 'Pretty Hard' is 'Way Too Hard', a heavy favorite of mine. But man, I really can't decide what the equivalent of 'Way Too Hard' is...can you? Anyways, difficulty shouldn't be an issue if you have the power to change it.

-Up to you!

In the end, this game was an enjoyable game, one that I would play in my free time. Even with the intense story, it just made my free time much more intense. Eating a doughnut...while being captured by Chameleons with poor sentence structure...my heart's beating so hard already!
There are some negatives, mainly opinionated actually, but positives of the game will surely out weigh them, resulting in you still hooked to the game.
Hope you enjoyed.



**The highlights at the end of each category, I got the idea from someone else's fine example of a review. It's a great idea - use what works well.