Jazz Jackrabbit 3
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Jazz Jackrabbit 3 (alternatively called Jazz Jackrabbit 3D or simply Jazz3D) was to be the third installment of the popular PC game series, Jazz Jackrabbit. Spear-headed by Dean "Noogy" Dodrill (an animator for Jazz Jackrabbit 2) and coded by World Tree Games, it was developed for the original Unreal Engine technology in 1999. Like many other mascot characters of the late 90s, Jazz would venture into the realm of 3D for the first time.
Despite interest to develop the game, it never was released after Epic MegaGames failed to find a publisher, and it was canceled sometime in May 2000. Since then, the original proof-of-concept alpha has been leaked on to the internet.
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[edit] Storyline
After the events of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, and Jazz marries Eva Earlong, things begin to settle down. Jazz and Eva start a family, and have kids. One fateful day, Jazz's kids are playing around in an abandoned laboratory, only to stumble upon an old portal built by Jazz's nemesis, Devan Shell. They activate it and use it, only to discover it is in fact a Time Machine. Once their father, Jazz, learns of what the children have done, he dives through the time portal himself - to find he has been transported to the Future; a future where Devan Shell rules the world with an iron fist, and has taken the children hostage. To top it all off, Devan has been anticipating Jazz's arrival for many long years. Now Jazz must save his children, free his people, and get back to his own time!
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Singleplayer
The game is played as a standard third-person shooter with platforming and adventure game elements. The camera is firmly locked behind Jazz at all times. The mouse is used to aim and shoot, while the keyboard moves Jazz around the world. Jazz can fire his weapon, or charge a shot similar to games like Mega Man X. The game also contains platforming elements. Additionally, the player can purchase new guns using coins they collect (or find them within the levels themselves) and combine them with Elemental "Dream Cells" (colored jewels typically dropped by bosses) to create new weapon effects. In the alpha, only Fire and Ice Dream Cells can be acquired, and usable with two guns (the standard Blaster and the Gizmo Gun).
Rather than break the game up into levels as in previous games, Jazz Jackrabbit 3 is instead played section-by-section, similar to Half-Life. At specific points in a map, Jazz can travel back and forth between "sections" of the game world. Each new area Jazz visits is prefaced by its name. The areas in the Alpha include:
- Carrotus Village BGM: Hopteego (hopteego.it), Shop (shop.it)
Where Jazz begins the game. Generally designed to fill the player in on the plot (via talking to NPCs), and allow as a resting point where they can purchase weapon upgrades.
- Tutorial/Mines BGM: Learning Curve (tutor.it)
Located at the center of Carrotus Village. Provides the player with a small area for learning how to play Jazz Jackrabbit 3.
- Razz Rocket BGM: Sky Gazer (rocket.it)
One of the most unfinished areas normally accessible in the alpha. Features a huge arena with a rocket ship in the center, which was built by Jazz's cousin, Razz (short for "Razzmatazz", originally meant to appear in Jazz Jackrabbit 2).
- Carrotus Pass BGM: Runabout (canyon.it)
A non-descript Lava-filled canyon area.
- Carrotus Forest BGM: Greenland (forest.it)
A huge forest with massive trees, a memorial shrine of Jazz, and lots of room to explore, leading up to the entrance of Carrotus Castle
- Carrotus Castle BGM: Castle City (castle.it), Deep Wanderer (basement.it), Green Target (tube.it)
Jazz and Eva's former home, now over-run with Devan's minions. Features three elemental versions of normal enemies as stand-in boss characters.
Additionally, a few more (clearly unfinished) levels were bundled with the Alpha that cannot accessed without first enabling the console and loading them manually. Often these levels are so unfinished that they cannot even be played at all, only viewed through UnrealEd.
It is unknown how many worlds and areas would have been featured in the final game, but it is thought Jazz would travel between different planets (as he did in previous games in the series), possibly using the Razz Rocket.
[edit] Multiplayer
Utilizing the Unreal Engine's strong network code, Jazz Jackrabbit 3 continued the tradition of having multiplayer gameplay (first introduced in Jazz Jackrabbit 2). The only mode featured in the Alpha was straight up Battle, and the interface for playing multiplayer was not yet finished.
[edit] Production Team
- Programming: Jason Emery, Devon Tackett
- Artwork: Dean Dodrill, Christian Bradley
- 3D Modeling: David Carter, Will Sweat
- Level Design: Dean Dodrill, Jason Emery, Anton Wiegert, John Falgate
- Music: Alexander Brandon
[edit] Alpha Origins
It is currently unknown when or how the Unreleased Alpha for Jazz Jackrabbit 3 found its way on to the internet. World Tree Games' website is defunct, and Dean Dodrill has taken his site back online but without any information, leaving the question of whether or not the Alpha was officially posted or unofficially leaked currently up in the air. It is, however, known that Cliff Bleszinski has mentioned in the past distributing the Proof-Of-Concept Alpha for free on the Internet; however, this would cost World Tree Games a very large sum of money in order to officially license the Unreal Engine for distribution purposes, even if non-commercial.
[edit] Revival
It was revealed at the end of the 2005-07-29 episode of G4TV.com that Cliff Bleszinski is still very interested in the idea of doing Jazz Jackrabbit 3, and is still actively pitching the concept to publishers [1]. Although Bleszinski would not reveal too many details about the game, he seemed to imply it involved Jazz getting into trouble with the Turtle Mafia, suggesting that his concept for Jazz Jackrabbit 3 is completely different from the version Dean Dodrill was working on in 1999.
[edit] Trivia
- Alexander Brandon has released the soundtrack he made for Jazz Jackrabbit 3, and while most music is used in the alpha, the following songs are not: Basement Boss (basebos.it, actually a fragment of the basement music), and Fanfare (fanfare.it).
- Although difficult to understand any of the plot just by playing the leaked Alpha normally, story details were eventually uncovered by digging around the game's files in the copy of UnrealEd packaged with Jazz Jackrabbit 3. In there, lost voice clips were found from an unfinished cutscene, revealing Jazz's children discovering Devan's old time portal.
- Other lost voice clips include Jazz himself vulgarly swearing.
- Many maps were packaged with Jazz Jackrabbit 3 that cannot be accessed normally. These maps include unfinished Battle arenas, Level Select hub-worlds, maps that might have possibly been used for cutscenes, and even a playable (but unfinished) singleplayer map originally seen in Jazz Jackrabbit 3 concept art (involving a cliff-side waterfall, a giant mine shaft, and undersea ruins). The music for this unfinished level is Sun Song (sunsong.it).
- Although the game only lets you acquire Fire and Ice Dream Cells, UnrealEd reveals many, many more Dream Cells including Water and Earth. The Water Dream Cell can even be picked up and used in the aforementioned unfinished singleplayer map, although its graphics do not display and it will, at times, crash the game.
- Earlier versions of Carrotus Village started the player from the Canyon entrance. Aside from being largely unfinished (NPCs had no dialogue, there was no carrot shop, you couldn't visit other levels) the entrance to the tutorial was originally going to lead to a different part of the Carrotus Forest.
