Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

The Packy Pack
Since a few months, DarkSonic declared that he was working on a CTF-pack. Now, at the dawn of 2005, he finished his pack and uploaded it J2O. I promised to give him a good and long review, so I will. Here you go.

Street Pass nr. 1
EYECANDY: 1.9 out of 2.5
The levels is made with the famous War Torn Night tileset, and the links with Distopia are automatically established in the beginning. If you look better, you’ll notice this level isn’t very similar too EvilMike’s classic, but I’ll explain later. The eyecandy itself is nicely made, I especially the transparent platforms. It’s not really wonderful, but good enough for the tileset.
AMMO: 2.1 out of 2.5
The first level of the Packy Pack has a three PU system, with Toaster as central Powerup, and a RF and Bouncie as minors. It’s balanced well since the level is symmetrical. The Toaster can be grabbed inside a few sucker tubes, which makes it easily accessible for campers. The others Powerups are in walls and they can be taken by uppercut or Toaster. This seems a little Jazz-biased, but I like it. The carrot is placed in a central spot and the platform prevents it from being shot down, but now it can be camped a bit. The smaller amounts are OK and original, but they could be placed more to the ground.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 4.2 out of 5.0
The level has a really good flow, since the platforms are well placed for a good flow. It takes a while before you know the entire level, but it’s really worth it. The system with the opening doors is a nice idea and it brings a lot of extra strategy to the gameplay (base defender can open the doors when the flag carrier comes from the other base etc.) The bases itself are accessible from three different places, which is a good thing. It appears that CelL selected the music files, and the music for this level fits good. Overall, a nice and interesting structure and nice gameplay.
RATINGS:
Street Pass nr.1 is a nice level with some really original things (like the opening doors and toastable Powerups, which I will probably use myself in later levels). This level is a good opening for the pack, let’s see if the rest is just as good.
RATING = 8.2

Overheated and Freaky World
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Where would a good pack be these days without a level with one of the Diamondus β sets? I don’t know, so here is one. This time it’s luck for the lava edition, which isn’t used earlier in a CTF level I believe. The eyecandy here is quite good for the set, it has nice back and foregrounds and everything looks good. I told you to put a little more eyecandy on the platforms, and you did, but still not enough. The blocks could look a lot better if you added more eyecandy to them, and so would be the whole level. The eyecandy still gets 2 points, however.
AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
This level is slightly smaller then the first one in the pack, and DS has chosen for a different PU-style here: just two Powerups, a Bouncie and a RF, each one near a base. This is a balanced enough, and if you die you have directly access to a Powerup when you respawn. The powerups itself are placed a little bit annoying, because they block the roads. The smaller ammo amounts are placed OK, and so is the Full NRG carrot in the middle.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.5 out of 5.0
The level is smaller than Street Pass nr. 1, as said before, and the structure is a lot more narrow. The general flow in the level is OK since the objects are very soft and not too bumpy, but the spring placement could be a lot better. You bump too many and the location near the Toaster can be described as rather irritating. The music fits too the level perfectly, and I like it much.
RATINGS:
In the first place I would say that OaFW would be the level I liked most, but after a while testing I realized it was not as good as I expected. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong, in fact, it’s still one of the better levels DS made till now. It could have been more, however.
RATING = 7.5

40 Meters In the Air
EYECANDY: 1.7 out of 2.5
Another level with the best new tileset of 2004 (Windstorm Fortress by BlurredD). The eyecandy this set features is really good, and this level has quite a bunch of it. Some places look really good (especially the part in the upper-left corner which I liked very much) but other parts are rather dull (like many of the stony platforms) I didn’t notice any tiling bugs, so I can say the eyecandy is over decent, but not that good. SuperJazz did a better job with the WSF level he uploaded in his pack a few days ago.
AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
The minor PU placement is generally the same as in the second level of the pack (both bases have a Powerup near it – yet again the Toaster and the Bouncer) but this time we’re speaking of a big level, so we have another Powerup: a precious Seeker. This one can be reached by two warps in the upper corners of the level. Sometimes you directly fall down to the Seeker and you can take it, other times you’re stuck in a small block and you have to jump up. The Full NRG carrot is placed on a balanced spot, and the other smaller amounts of ammo are OK.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.6 out of 5.0
As the other two levels in the pack, this level has a nice flow and the other forms of gameplay are also fine. The music file used is a little bit too slow for the level in my opinion. The best PU in this level is fixed around the triggers that make you fall down, but I couldn’t figure out how these triggers work. The ones in Street Pass nr. 1 were pretty simple and you knew directly how to use them, but it will take time before I figure these out. This was about the only (big) thing that annoyed me about structure and gameplay, so you still get 3.6 points from me.
RATINGS:
This level was a little less then the two previous ones, I hope the next ones will be better so we have a good ending. If the eyecandy was better and the trigger system would be a little easier to use, this level would get a higher rating. For now, it’s over decent, but not good.
RATING = 7.3

Punished In Space
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Another Odyssey level, yay! This set features a lot of good eyecandy, but not all of it is used in this level. For the platform eyecandy, this level is almost the opposite of Overheated and Freaky World: the eyecandy on the platforms itself is very good but between the platforms it looks rather empty. The background layers are a bit boring, but decent. Perhaps it would be better if layer 8 was more visible.
AMMO: 1.8 out of 2.5
Let’s go on with the placement. As you enter the level, you end up at the bases, which both have one powerup in the beginning: a Blaster and a Bouncer, which isn’t perfectly balanced but good enough. The most important smaller amounts of ammo (RF and Seeker) are all in the upper part of the level, but to make the action more spread around the whole level, the author added some interesting objects in the lower half (RF PU, Full NRG carrot, Bouncie Ammo) which makes the level more balanced.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.2 out of 5.0
The structure of this level is kind of original: the two bases are both placed in the top half of the level (next to each other, but separated by warps) This seems like an interesting idea, especially because the two bases are both no-fire-zones (prevents killing) but I’m not really fond of the idea. The flags are not easily grabbed because you have to buttstomp to get them, and there’s only one entrance to the bases: the bases itself are impossible to camp on, but the warps to it are not. The same thing goes for the base exits, there’s only one exit which is also a good thing for camping. The music file fits to the level, and I like it.
RATINGS:
This level has fairly good eyecandy, and the ammo placement also seems OK. I don’t really like the Base Placement and the entrances and exits to the bases, and I think the lower half of the level isn’t anything special. More base entries/exits would make the level much more interesting.
RATING = 7.0

Plastic Surgery CTF
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Time to go for the last level of DarkSonic’s Pack: Plastic Surgery CTF. The name promises much, but once I play the level I end up in an ancient castle so I can’t really find it what the name of the level is about. Anyway, time for the eyecandy ratings. The eyecandy in this level is pretty good, I like all the stuff in the sprite background layers and the platforms, however they are a bit boring, don’t look too bad. The rain effects in the foreground are also nice. The layer 8 background could be better, though.
AMMO: 1.8 out of 2.5
Yet another two-PU-system, with Toaster and Bouncer! This is starting to become a little bit unoriginal after 5 levels, but at least it’s a decent solution. They’re placed in walls again, and this time you have to reach them by Electro Blaster. The Full NRG carrot (also as usual) is placed in the centre of the level again, which makes it balanced for all players. The smaller amounts of ammo are OK too, they’re placed in semi-original forms and at the right places.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.8 out of 5.0
The flow in this level is good as always, and I like it. There are multiple pathways you can choose from, and I guess this is one of the better levels of the pack. There’s not much to say more about the gameplay of this level, it’s just a good as it is. In the beginning I thought the music file sucked but once I listened longer to it, I could validate it more.
RATINGS:
Plastic Surgery is a quite normal, not so special CTF level, but good enough to make it nice to play in. A little more originality would be welcome, however, since the level is a little bit boring. After Street Pass nr. 1 I guess this is the best level in the pack, and a good closing one.

Final comments
After a long period of waiting DarkSonic finally released his Packy Pack and after about 2 hours of reviewing I finished this piece of text. DarkSonic made with his Packy Pack a nice CTF pack which combines the best of DarkSonic in a pack of 5 CTF levels. Not every level is as good as the others, the first one was truly a good CTF level but later the levels became a little more unoriginal and boring. The final level however was pretty good and a nice closing level. Overall, this pack is one of the best packs this year so far (stupid comment) and it’s worth to be played online.
Score: 8.2 + 7.5 + 7.3 + 7.0 + 7.6 / 5 = 7.52 + 0.2 (pack bonus) = 7.7
Download: Yeah, this is a bunch of good CTF levels.
Host: Just a few times.

Greetings,
~ ChippieBW of [si] and XLM.