"Exceeds Keen as a shareware retro classic"

While ZZT was the game that made Epic MegaGames, Jill of the Jungle was the game that proved that the Maryland company had the muscle to hang with the big boys at Apogee. It was actually one of the first games to take advantage of 256-color VGA graphics, and while the results aren't quite up to par with games of today, it was breakthrough for its time, and harkens to the old days of shareware quite nicely.

STORY: (7/10) The story was a minor twist to a classic plot: as Jill of the Jungle, your mission is to save the prince. Of course, making Jill a leggy blonde didn't hurt its fanbase either.

GAMEPLAY: (9/10) As simplistic as any platform title of its time. As Jill you basically ran around, collected weapons (a knife, a spinning blade, and firebombs were among the selections) and threw them at villians. There were also various transformations that Jill could change into (a frog and a firebird were among them) to help her get through some tricky spots. More nostalgic than anything.

CONTROL: (7/10) Maneuvering Jill was a bit tough, as her control was a bit blocky, but it sufficed.

GRAPHICS: (10/10). In the days of VESA and million-color artwork, JotJ seems outdated, but in its time the graphics were amazing. Few games were able to do the job of incorporating acceptable 256-color graphics into a game and have it run at an acceptable speed, but Jill runs just fine on a 286. Besides, Jill and her enemies are animated very fluidly. The firebirds especially are notable.

SOUND: (8/10). The music is top notch, and I think it's some of the best music ever put into a video game. The sound effects, while recorded well, tend to be somewhat abrupt and interrupt the atmosphere.

EASE OF USE: (5/10). Unfortunately, Jill had some limitations on higher level systems. It wouldn't work if you had a compressed disk drive - you had to move it to the uncompressed portions. Also, there was a bug that made Jill not work at all on a Pentium, hindering it from ever being enjoyed in this day and age. (I'm not sure if this bug has been fixed.)

OVERALL: (8/10). An amazing game in its time, and worth a look now, if you can dig up a 486 somewhere. Epic made a big mistake in dropping this game from its lineup. Jill of the Jungle deserved a sequel.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/12/99, Updated 12/12/99