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The manual includes a small comic explaining the plot, where it admits that yes, it is completely and utterly ripping off Sonic the Hedgehog. Not really the most creative plot, but it sure beats an environmental message. It’s up to the rabbit mercenary Jazz Jackrabbit to travel the galaxy, destroy Devan’s forces, and eventually rescue the princess. The evil turtle terrorist Devan Shell has kidnapped the princess of the planet Carrotus, and starts trying to conquer the rest of the galaxy, as well. Their attempt was Jazz Jackrabbit, and while it couldn’t really stand up to the games it was inspired by, it ended up becoming a pretty big hit on the PC, and for good reason. That was when Epic Megagames, who had previously created DOS hits like Epic Pinball and Jill of the Jungle, started work on the first attempt to make a high-speed platformer for the PC. Sure, there were a lot of great side-scrollers at the time, such as Duke Nukem, but nothing that could match up to the speed of Sega’s series.
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But the one system that never had its own Sonic-style game was the PC.
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Even before then, pretty much every major game company was making their own Sonic rip-off for every console at the time, some with more success than others.
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In early 1994, the Sonic the Hedehog series was a worldwide phenomenon, especially with its recently released third game.
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