Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Review for Personal Park.

Sacrush, the creator of this level, didn’t get a review for his level. It took quite some time to make, so I’ll give him a review so he won’t be sad. There really needs to be reviewed more in my opinion.

Introduction to Personal Park: Sacrush, an IC member, made this level for r3p’s contest. This contest has ended already, and this level didn’t get a prize. Probably because it was too big for duels. For 2on2s the level worked fine in my opinion. I had a few games in this level already, and I enjoyed it. Now it’s time to go to the actual review! I’m trying some different reviewing style again.

Layout and flow

The level is pretty big for a CTF level. Although it doesn’t have much platforms. The layout is symmetrical and thus it’s balanced too. The flow is good, but you can bump against walls sometimes. There are one ways and tubes to make the flow better, and there are warps in the left and right corners. The spring placement is pretty good as well.

Other gameplay

In a 2on2 it’s pretty easy to be ready to score because you can see when your opponent is coming. The way to the base is pretty much run left and run right, which isn’t a big problem here. Defending can be easy too, but if you want to kill an opponent before he/she can capture the flag you need some skill. You need to defend at the right time and chase opponents, or something.

Eye candy

While there is no real eye candy in the background and foreground layers, the sprite layer eye candy is excellent. I found this tileset pretty hard to use when I tried it, and Sacrush really put some effort into it when he made this level. There are lots of trees in this park, and combined with the other stuff in this tileset I really like the eye candy here. Almost every layer is used, only layer 1 isn’t but layer 1 isn’t used a lot.

Ammo and Power-Up placement

I almost never say the ammo placement is bad, and it isn’t in this level as well. The ammo placement is just how it should be, with some nice shapes of ammo and a good Power-Up placement. There is a Seek PU in the middle of the level, there is a Bounce PU in the left corner of the level and there is a Toast PU in the right corner of the level. There are some Fast Fires throughout the level, they can be helpful for Bouncer or something. Most weapons that are used often don’t work with Fast Fire, like RF(be glad it doesn’t work) and Seekers. RFs are very good in this level. You can easily shoot RFs at your opponent if he/she is at low health and waits for the carrot to kill him/her.

Carrot placement

There is only one carrot in this level. A second Full Energy probably won’t work with this layout, but 2 +1s could work instead. The Full Energy can be shot down by RF if you have enough skill. You can also just camp it and hope you kill your opponent before he/she gets to you and grabs the carrot.

Overall I think this is a very nice level. If it was smaller it could have won a price in the J2MC contest. The winners of the contest had more than 1 carrot, because it makes duels not so campy. But now that tournament isn’t a duel tournament anymore. Anyway, I think this is one of Sacrush’s best levels. I give this level a big fat 8.2 and of course it gets a download recommendation.

-DS