Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

You may want to obtain a copy of 1.23 and test the levels in that before releasing levels under a 1.23 label. Most of your releases cause Jazz to ‘run out of animations’, and as such we can’t all play them. It might also be why you constantly get very few reviews.

Huh. Well, maybe.

I guess I’ll change the label, just to be on the safe side.

Well, this was the only level I didn’t play that was nominated for JCS awards, lets see if it’s worth the title.

Eyecandy
I’m not sure what the theme is supposed to be, and some of the ec style has tilebugs (incomplete tiles), making it look wierd. Using tiles that were meant for layer 4 being used in layer 3 in some places is somewhat annoying when you play the level for the first time. Hint: Don’t use layer 4 solid masks for EC on other layers, it’s confusing, unless you use contrast. Most of the ec functioned alright, despite being nothing special. I guess it’s supposed to feel post acopalyptic, though the background doesn’t suggest much. In a nutshell it feels random for me.

Gameplay

It’s somewhat unique, though a shame it doesn’t make any use of the frogs ability at all. This then basically makes the entire level a handicap gimmick. Gimmicks can be great, though having nearly no interaction with the environment or enemies, makes it feel a bit lacking. I could see it having more potential if it wasn’t just about dodging. Interaction is possible as a frog, just more limited. On the postive side, this level isn’t all that linear and provides an interesting challenge for a while.

There’s also the layout, which bothers me. You may die because of having no idea what is down below, and no clear indication of pits. And once you have finished it at least once, you can skip some parts of the level by falling at the right places, specifically, near the start of the level where you go down. There’s also some useless maze deadends. Gems are useless if you don’t want to aim for a high score, and even so, you’re more likely to get a high score from a sp pack than a single level.

The boss arena is a little too time consuming, though quite creative. To win this, I practically stayed in the bottom right corner, and jumped when he used his attack. It seemed hard until I used this strategy. Though admittedly, I had easy mode on.

Music
For a start, the volume of the samples is too high when it has led into the main thing, and the backing feels overdone. It starts off okay then BNNBBMBMBBNBFFBFBNBNBMFF-F-F-F. It eventually irritated me so much (and slightly ached my ears) that I had to change the music. I don’t really know if it fits, because if I had to change it, then I’d rather not listen to it. The boss music is good, though.

Other
What’s with the ambient sounds? To be blunt, they were overused because they were everywhere. They distracted as well as annoyed me so much I had to mute the sound, which I have never had to do before. Why does it sound like I’m in the middle of a noisy factory? I thought I was out in nature.

Conclusion
For a little different kind of sp challenge, you may want to try this. Completing it before will give you a significant advantages of playing the level. Some stuff is annoying, but fortunately, you can mute or change it.