Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Apparently, the community waited on this level pack for a very long time. In 2024, it finally came out… and it was well worth the wait. I had a really great time playing these levels! It was a big challenge for me, but I enjoyed playing the pack a lot. It is a carefully crafted adventure consisting of about 10 levels. Most of them have a fair difficulty level.

The first level, From Here To…, already looked promising for what was to come. And something special already appeared in the second level: a race against time to escape! It was so cool to see everything blowing up and collapsing around you while trying to get out quickly.

Then we had the Dark World level. Here I had my first struggles, as I was lost for about 15 minutes at the entrance before I finally found my way into the rest of the level. The rest was great, with a very creative sub-boss battle!

After that, we had a double level set in hell. Maybe not very special and a bit monotone, especially since this tileset is used very often in this pack.

In The Quest, I really struggled with the bottom part, where I was unlucky with the timing of the platforms coming my way and moving back. I missed the jumps very often before I finally made it across.

I really enjoyed playing Rine! It was more linear, but that was fine with me. It actually helped me avoid getting lost. This level also had some cool mechanics, allowing you to enter doorways and explore rooms.

Then I got lost in the Realm of Shades level after finding 4 of the 5 Trigger Crates, but I couldn’t find the last one even after more than 15 minutes of searching. There were no hints to look at, no maps, no clear arrows… I just couldn’t find it!

I had another rough moment with the Bubba Boss in Realm of Flames, which was too difficult for my playing skills to properly master. I was clever enough to save an invincibility and the maximum of three carrots, so I could stay alive just long enough to defeat Bubba and move on.

Then we were back in hell, which—as mentioned earlier—was starting to feel a bit monotone. I also had a very bad moment in the Tricks and Traps level. I just couldn’t get through it without using cheats! This level was simply too difficult for my playing skills. I lost about 100,000 points due to all my deaths in the platform and Spike Balls section until I finally used jjfly to get past it.

The final boss in Hour of Justice felt a bit anticlimactic to me, since it was “just” Bilsy, even though he was joined by many other bad guys. Still, I was hoping for a more epic custom boss, especially considering the previously mentioned sub-bosses.

What I haven’t mentioned yet—but really liked—is that this episode has quite a lot of replay value. Some levels offer an extra challenge by requiring you to find enough purple gems for a score bonus. You will definitely not find them all on your first run, so that can be a good motivation to give it another shot. You can also try to beat your personal best score! When the episode ends, you get an overview of all your stats, and it’s up to you to improve them—maybe on a higher difficulty.

Although this episode is far from perfect, it was a real pleasure to play. I think advanced JJ2 players are going to have a great time with this pack. Have fun, everybody!!

Necropolis is a perfectly fine level that doesn't have an obvious major appeal, and so suffers a bit in a landscape of levels that show off a bit more. Yes, there are neat touches here… I like the named areas, the Tomb Rabbit mummies, the cool way that the background clouds avoid the moon. None of them are necessary but it's neat that they were done anyway. The enemies in the background have been done several times before but they're still executed just fine, especially getting to see the black raven flying in front of the moon. The layout is actually quite distinct, though I think it's too flat at the bottom. The big open top is good for copter ears, although some fastfire pickups wouldn't go amiss. The weapon choices are odd—bouncers AND rollers, rfs AND nails, with only one obvious place that the nails are even useful—but they do generally fit the layout, filled with big open spaces instead of walls for the long-distance weapons to smash into. Everything is perfectly nice, just not quite exciting.

Such a pleasant surprise to receive another Heroes 3 themed level from SJ! I have to admit that this one leaves me a little underwhelmed, unfortunately, since I’m so used to the original Necro town being very dark and gloomy, while this level settles for rather standard usage of Blade’s Fortress tileset. The little extras – the Tomb Rabbit coffins AND mummies especially – are nice, but I think the additions from Castle and Inferno (funnily enough, both of those are also Heroes 3 towns) clash with the “main” artwork a little, and the background, though multilayered, is a little flat. Would have been nice to see some more layers with more creature dwellings.

SJ claims that the original CTF layout has mostly been replaced, but this level still feels like a CTF to me – the middle is symmetrical and the side areas feel like they’re missing a CTF base each. What’s there is kind of interesting, but also feels like a lot of platforms floating mid-air. I do always say that it doesn’t take much to make a Battle level fun – and this level was fun – but this feels a little purposeless. I don’t think there is a single good use case for the Nail Gun in this level – a weapon specifically designed for vertical climbing – aside from the theme.

Not my favorite, but still enjoyable.

Bonus points: In 1.23, what should be a Pacman Ghost in the background is replaced with Sparks, which looks really funny to me.

Some hiatus that is. My condolences for all the community members that died in between, waiting for the release :P

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An amazing, lengthy SP level pack that surprisingly flew under most people's radars. Give it a shot!

Gud SP episode; interesting story, cutscenes dun rly well. Fun lvls & bossfites. Bossfites 2 ez (in ez mode) w/ toast PU. Annoyin pits, 2 many of `em: myb mo` baddies insteada pits … Zelda-tier block puzzles; luv when blox freeze w/ ice & not defrost w/ toast. Now curious Wizard Character's full story. Imprisonment w/o explanation = hyper-realism

Hi WaterRabbit! Thanks for reporting your findings!

I'm not sure what the graphical glitches could be that you are talking about. Unless it is the same case what one of my betatesters managed to trigger after dying repetitively at the final boss of the same level, in which case the layers seemed to mess up completely (but I have no idea how to reproduce that or what could be behind it), which could also be a bug with JJ2 itself. I wonder if you would be able to post a screenshot on our JJ2 Discord Server? https://discord.gg/MUqr84tp

The spring issue you mentioned in The Prisoner is almost certainly a bug with object activation/deactivation behavior in JJ2 itself. I was able to reproduce it, although it was quite random. However, I realized that it was possible to force the spring crate to spawn by going far enough to the left, so basically by climbing up the stairs and all the way to the upper fire pit and back. Anyway, I realized that not all players may realize this, so I added some extra trigger blocks to work around the issue, since I most likely don't have too much control over the object activation mechanisms.

EDIT: Thanks for the review Blij and others! I can totally relate on your detailed feedback, especially regarding the difficulty as this episode was designed to be relatively challenging on all, except Easy difficulty. If I ever find the time and inspiration to make a sequel (or a completely different story/context), I'll take your feedback into account and try to make the episode more balanced in terms of gameplay and difficulty. The feedback definitely encourages me to create more, but have to see about my time resources.

I have only played the first few levels, but so far what I've seen has been great. The only issues I saw were minor grammatical errors and what seemed to be graphical glitches in "The Dark Land" when dying after the checkpoint with the weapon shop.

Edit: Found another bug, in "The Prisoner'. I died at one point and respawned but the box with the spring now fails to appear.

sei ef, sei zirou, sei ARRRRR, sei es, en ou ou zii ei

F0R SN00ZE

Really really nice, very fun to play

Erathia brings a new dimension to nature themed maps. The background is eyepleasing – there could possibly be a tad more contrast, the background/sprite soil look quite similar. The gameplay is where this level stands out. It has an unique layout and quite the campy carrot placement. However, the +1 carrot makes up for it. Fun to Play. DL(Y)

Can’t stop being surprised by the realism of the levels based on beta-diamondus tileset. Those winding caverns look fantastic!

I normally don’t approve of symmetrical levels, but this is symmetry done well; it works well with this level.
The Rocket pu/bouncer pu are inset(accessible only by electroblaster and maybe bouncer) but those inset pu’s is ok because of easily accessible electroblaster and well balanced by the two well placed full c.
The sweet elevator in the middle also adds to the fighting experience, its a tough level fight or die. a bit too fast paced, you just gotta be good.
The egg cases are real nice too, normal cases would be way too distracting. but the eggs are almost invisible(I don’t wonna see that ** there!)

I have a few comments:
1) Love the layout, especially the immediate areas above bases and towards Cs.
2) Fairly small, but plays fast (and fun).
3) Small complaint in that I really don’t think this gameplay suits PUs being in walls, despite there being plenty of ammo to compensate for it.
4) Mostly I’m just pleased about the set and usage.

While the level isn’t quite as well polished as Stronghold, it still offers some fun gameplay and some unique aspects in its own right – for example the omission of seekers is a refreshing change. The layout facilitates tactical play, although matches can be quite chaotic at times as the path between the bases is fairly open and quick to traverse.

This level has got all that is required in a good CTF level: paths, well placed ammunitions, powerups, eyecandy, a background, and that egg crate addition.
It’s rather small for a CTF arena, but still, it’d be fun to see 32 players challenging eachother in this arena.

The concept is well executed and results in a level totally unlike anything else you’ll play this year. It can appeal to both casual players and “hardcore” JJ2ers alike. While this virtual version of monopoly doesn’t quite have the same staying power as the original board game, just the fact that it can be played online is enough of a niche. D/L!

DOM: Far too many CPs and start positions immediately next to them. I like seeker PU placement but even that can’t protect a CP from hordes of players spawning just next to you.
CTF: Blue base has 3 PUs including seeker. Red base has one that is risky to get. 2 blue-biased full NRG carrots. Full of random warps. This level is practically bblair.

EDIT 30th April 2020 I wanted to come back to this as well to try to try to justify my rating a bit more.

What probably stands out the most in this level is the bird cage, which is a rare find in multiplayer levels these days. The tunnel layout lets you utilize them in an interesting way, The powerup choices also work well with the layout and I like how all of them are relatively evenely spaced out from the center of the level. Not a huge fan of the eyecandy, but it’s not distracting. If I recall correctly the contest did not have much emphasis on eyecandy, so that’s okay.

greak, COOL