This is the newest JJ2+ release since Jazz Jackrabbit 2 started being sold on GOG.com, so that lead to some of the improvements you'll see in today's release. Since GOG also included Jazz 2's LK Avalon and Christmas Chronicles releases, we wanted to be sure that JJ2+ offered you everything that those versions do. So now in addition to Jazz 2's original six languages, you can also play the game in Polish (upgraded from the LK Avalon translation) or a number of fan translations, several of which are packaged directly inside the JJ2+ installer. We've also imported the menu, logo, and splash screen from the Christmas Chronicles, although only in the months of December through February:
There are a number of other quality-of-life changes in here too. Jazz 2 has always supported XInput/DirectInput (i.e. Xbox-style) controllers to some extent, but controlling your rabbit with a joystick felt weird, so now you can use the directional pad instead. (Plus some other controller-related enhancements.) You're now allowed to choose which splash screen image you see when starting up the game, from a set of four or five different Jazzy illustrations both official and unofficial. And if you're playing in an online server, links are now given special formatting and are clickable ingame:
And of course it wouldn't be a JJ2+ release without bug fixes. Single player gameplay has been a hot topic recently after the Holiday Hare 2017 community project, so there's a fix here to prevent the game crashing after too many deaths on the Continue screen. Starry sky backgrounds work even at the highest resolution now. Playing single player levels online in the Race gamemode has a bug fixed. Objects that get too close to the edges of the level won't suddenly disappear anymore. And so on.
What's next for us? Well, Jazz 2's twentieth anniversary is in less than two months now, so it's a period of excitement... who knows?! But in the meantime the news for today is version 5.6. Check out the full changelog here, and download below!
