Jazz, along with his wacky little brother Spaz, have made their first appearance on the Mac in Jazz Jackrabbit 2. This fast-paced, colorful side scroller is an excellent combination of graphical beauty and fun and addicting gameplay. With both an exhilarating single player game and varied multiplayer games, this is one cool game that should have made it to the Mac long ago.
In Jazz Jackrabbit 2, it's up to Jazz and Spaz to stop the maniacal turtle, Devan Shell, from going back in time and erasing the existence of rabbits. To do this, you'll need some serious firepower to out-gun the goons that get in your way. You venture through the heavily animated, 2D worlds and meet many level bosses on your way to stop Devan. To start, you begin with your trusty blaster. As you go along, you pick up additional weapons like the Toaster, a flame thrower that gives your opponents that brown, toasty smell. Another weapon you'll find is the missile launcher, which uses heat seeking technology to center in on your targets. These weapons are a blast to use and will provide you with the necessary equipment to finish off anyone crazy enough to challenge these two rabbits.
While the weapons are great, you can't just stand around and unload your ammo on the baddies. A lively soundtrack and cool sound effects keep your rabbit moving fast. Jazz and Spaz each have tremendous speed and agility, and you can use their special skills to navigate these treacherous worlds. To get through a stack of blocks, you can use a butt stomp to smash through them in a single move. 
Jazz has some unique special abilities -- helicopter ears that let him drift through the air and a super jump that can catapult him to new heights. Spaz has his own tricks up his sleeve, including a double jump and an explosive sidekick. These moves blur the rabbits across the screen and provide the fast and furious gameplay that you're looking for.
As you're speeding through these levels, don't forget some powerups along the way. In addition to those nifty weapons, powerups like carrots and gems provide you with health and extra bonuses. The absolute best powerup is a sugar rush which sends your rabbit into a frenzy, making you invincible to any enemy and eliminating them with a single touch. You'll also use hover boards and trampolines to help you on your journey, because these worlds don't come with any road maps. However, you can save your game at any time so you won't get frustrated constantly dying and starting a level completely over. This helps you progress and keeps younger players interested as well.
When you finish the single player game or just want something fresh to play, invite a friend to play multiplayer Jazz Jackrabbit 2. There are several multiplayer options available, letting up to 4 players compete or cooperate simultaneously either split-screen on one computer, over a LAN, or even over the 'net. Several different multiplayer game types add variety such as capture the flag, race, and battle. Each type of game has multiple maps to play on, but there isn't a map editor to create your own magical worlds. This shortens the life of the game, but it still remains a tremendous value that will provide a ton of entertainment. [Networking is disabled in the version shipping on CD, but there is currently a patch that enables you to join a PC-hosted game. Another patch to enable hosting will be released shortly by Logicware.]
With fun, addicting gameplay, wonderful graphics, a great soundtrack and a full assortment of multiplayer options, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is an excellent game for anyone with a desire for entertainment.
