Many of the Sonic staples are present, a host of player characters, Jazz, Spaz and a new addition, Lori, as well as many game design concepts that again, Sonic popularized: circular loops, areas where you speed up, long drops where you collect loop and avoid scenery etc. However, the speed of playing through each level is key in this adventure, as you have lots of enticements to do so. The game plays, as you would expect, as a side scroller platformer. The DOS platform response to the fast paced shenanigans of the Sega Sonic Franchise was Jazz the Jackrabbit, of which Jazz Jackrabbit 2: Holiday Hare is a second installment in the series. Fast paced Sonic the Sonic the Hedgehog like As far as platformers go, this is actually decent stuff as long as your reactions are up to the job and while you might have a headache afterwards, it's fun for long enough. Visually, the game is gloriously over-the-top and while it might melt the eyes are playing for too long, there is a lot of character on display here and which again contributes to Jazz's appeal. And it's here that the game really scores as the levels on display here are well designed and allow for some truly fast-paced and exhilarating sessions to be experienced, recreating the spirit of Sonic in all its glory only with some really fun weapons to experiment with as well. There is something of a story to back up the action but it's a bit contrived and most players are likely to ignore it in favour of the gameplay. Of course, there are the usual secrets to discover, items to collect and highly inventive weapons to make use of and it's this latter aspect which helps Jazz stand out somewhat from his rivals.

For those unaware, the game is a sort of platform shooter when the focus is on simply blasting your way through each visually over-the-top level as quickly as possible, while taking out as many enemies as possible as you go in a bid to rack up the points.

This special edition of the second game in the series adds in several all-new holiday-themed levels and a couple of new enemies to what was already a clever and inventive platformer so if you haven't played it before, this is the perfect version to try. While Jazz Jackrabbit might be somewhat lacking in the personality department when compared to other platforming heroes like Mario and Sonic, there's no denying that his adventures challenge even the speed obsessed hedgehog for sheer manic thrills.

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