So parents can relax: While there’s violence aplenty, it’s all of the harmless cartoon variety. Jazz and Spaz seem to be geared more toward the teen and younger market than to hard-core players. The graphics are vivid and charming, the sound effects are cool, the music is upbeat - it’s addictive fun.

OK, so it’s a sidescroller, and these days that seems old fashioned. You can avoid going back to the start when you die by touching checkpoints along the way to save your progress. You get plenty of weapons - electro blasters, pepper spray, flamethrowers, missile launchers, and even an icy frostbiter. A heart monitor in the upper right displays your status, and power-ups keep you healthy as you shoot bad guys and rack up points by col- lecting coins, gems, and edibles. There are also several multiplay options: Up to four people can play via split screen on the same Mac, and as many as 32 can join an Internet game. The harder the setting, the more villains you face. This makes for entertaining play, as do the three levels of difficulty.

Both have unique abilities: Jazz’s rotating ears help him hover like a helicopter, and Spaz’s wicked side kick can knock down walls. To stop this hare-razing plan, you can dive into the past as either Jazz or Spaz. Jazz and his wacky brother Spaz combat the terrible terrapin, who has stolen a 12-carrot diamond ring and plans to use it to concoct a time machine and wipe out all rabbit civilization by bumping off a few ancestors before the birth of Jazz and Spaz. Jazz is back, and so is the vile turtle king Devan Shell. Just when you thought it was safe to go into the carrot patch, that wascally wabbit Jazz is on the prowl again, shooting at every creepy turtle, poisonous goon, and evil ghost that twitches. Update it and forward your ports to properly play online. The DMG may say it's corrupted but honestly it's fine. Seriously, the DMG also has a bunch of freeware demos and other things. Think of Super Mario Brothers with a dash of Sonic and a taste of Contra, leaving you dying to use the level editor that's only on Windows.

This is one of the best games you could honestly play on an old Mac.

Download jazz jackrabbit online