Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This is certianly better than the levels you made in 2013 which I reviewed recently. But not by much.

When I jump to the bottom, there is at least a teleport there, but it still has the same problems Try-To-Survive this and Turtle Bowling.

In my other reviews I didn’t get into much detail as of why blank background is a bad idea, so I’m gonna explain now.

Because everything in the level itself gets to that background and it becomes painful to watch. I suggest having that background in the 7th layer and use the 8th layer to make sure there is something behind that. Yeah that can work.

As for what’s been improved, sadly the improvement is barely noticeable. There are a lot of enemies, but killing them requires no effort.

I’m sorry to say, even though this is an improvement over the other two levels you made it’s not by much. I’m gonna tell you the same thing people told me over 11 years ago. A level is not easy to make, a good level takes at least a day to make. And as much as I hate to say this, all three of your levels I have played so far are worse than any of the levels I made back in 2001-2004. And that’s saying a lot since the levels I made back then weren’t good at all.

I want to find TreyLina’s review a good review, but the button is missing.
Is there some kind of system to decide who can or cannot find reviews good or bad?

@TreyLina
Thank you for your review! :)
Well yes, I mostly agree with you, but there are a few things I have to explain. About the MP3 file…
I know it sounds so stupid, but I thought JJ2 uses only .it files to play music, and I didn’t find the Jazz Castle music (in .it format) in my JJ2 folder. But I fixed it to castle.j2b as you advised.
Oh, and I just marked the upload with TSF+ because I created the level in it. Now I changed the music file, you can use any JJ2 version to play it.
If you want to cheat, you can fly through the map, but its goal is to defeat all enemies. So I guess you will download this map to battle your way through it, not to fly.
Er…what tiles you mean meant to layer 4, but put in background layers? And what do you mean under ‘there are a lot of tilebugs’? Where?
About the bats…
Yeah, they look a bit strange. I changed them into other enemies, because I am not that good in JCS and making levels to put something there they can hang on. :P
But thank you for your advices, I will make your suggestions! :)

EDIT: Hm. I don’t really understand this version thing. I created ‘Try-to-survive-this’ in 1.23 JCS, and then remade it with TSF JCS. So it should work with 1.23, because I didn’t put anything in the level that would require TSF, isn’t?

Yes, it’s been two years, and I still haven’t learned to use JCS professionally. But I fixed everything you said (except the version marker), so what you still don’t like? It is a simple map, you shouldn’t deal with things like there should be some enemies in the air, too. Yes, it would improve the gameplay, but this is not a real mistake. It can be completed quickly, and that is the goal of this level, not to stuck on it for hours. I think I made a good job with my personal knowledge, and that is not a problem if this level won’t be your favourite map and you won’t play on it for hours. This is not created for that. I thought someone will download it, play on it, and then leave it. You might play it again sometimes. So I don’t think I should change a LOT more on this level.

EDIT: No, I was just exaggerating it, of course. I meant that this level doesn’t need to be longer and harder, I think. Anyway, I still fall down a few times when I play it, so it is more than one minute to complete it, but maybe it’s just for me. :)

Oh, thank you for explaining that. But if I convert a level from TSF to 1.23, will I be able to play it in TSF? And what if I want to use TSF? Do I have to download 1.23, too, to use its JCS?

Overview
A short level with a bunch of enemies placed into a row, and one tile platforms placed ahead.

Pros
Uhh…..it looks less tilebugged than your other levels.

Cons

You can use copter ears over the entire level skipping all of the enemies, completing the level in 4 seconds.

The level has a lot of tilebugs, like cut off floor edges and random shaded pillars. Layer 8 uses layer 4 windows which causes distracting sprite trails behind them in single player.

I’m not really fond of the EC style, which involves putting tiles meant for layer 4 in the background, which creates a clashy look.

The layout is just a long platform with a bunch of random short platforms placed ahead.

The enemy distribution is also poor, because they’re all on the floor. That partly contributes to the level being so quick to complete (other than being a short, empty horizontal path).

This thing in your description: “ The level works with:

- JJ2 1.23

- JJ2 TSF (1.24)

- JJ2+ 1.23

- JJ2+ TSF (1.24) “

But the version marked on your upload is TSF+, which makes that all a load of nonsense. But seriously though, you don’t need to tell what the level works with, as the version marking on Jazz2online already explains that.

Could Improve on

Theres an exit sign in the tileset. You can use that to indicate where the exit is.

Conclusion
This level is still half-baked. Sure it’s better than “Try to survive this”, though not by much. I could see potential in a level where you have to rush killing enemies, but some scripting is needed for that, otherwise you can simply disregard them and rush to the exit.

EDIT: “Oh, and I just marked the upload with TSF+ because I created the level in it” no, thats not what version marking is for. It’s for telling the minimum version supported. You don’t create something in plus, only the features you use define what makes it plus or not (i.e angelscript, pits, custom gamemodes like jb/dom, MP3s/OGGs). There’s no such thing as JCS +. Also, when you save a level in TSF JCS, it doesn’t work in vanilla 1.23.

It’s been two years and you’re still relying on the “I’m a beginner!” crutch, while I never did. It’s time to stop making excuses and learn to make more polished levels. No one cares how much time you spend on your levels, it is all about the end result.

EDIT: Made the rating a little higher after some things were fixed. And removed some no longer relevant stuff.

You really think a level either takes hours or 30 seconds to complete? Wowwww…very few levels are so hard that they take hours to complete. The bare minimum of finishing a level should take at least a minute, otherwise it feels unsatisfying. I don’t even like massive levels myself all that much, but the polar opposite isn’t any better.

And yes, saving a level in TSF JCS makes a level unopenable in 1.23 JCS. That’s why there is a TSF to 1.23 level converter in the first place. Go on, try opening the level in 1.23 JCS and tell me I’m wrong. Infact, I don’t recommend using TSF JCS at all unless you have to use it, as unlike TSF JCS, 1.23 JCS supports showing special tile types without you having to keep right clicking to check, and allows you to use the new plus tile effects like frozen, invisible and heat effect.

First of all this level doesn’t use Angel Script but you indicated it as TSF+. It’s a bit confusing. Additionally the game crushes each time you finish the level, as you forgot to enter the name of a next level or ending.

Layout 2/10
The level is small and simple, not challenging at all… You could place some boss here at least! The level’s properties are 300*64 but only a small part of this area is used, the greater part of a level is a pit you can easily fall in. Ugly square pieces of wall are hanged in the air instead of platforms. The enemies have random positions, the bats levitate in the air… The hard difficulty adds some bats to the level, wich is pretty useless.

Eyecandy 2/10
Have you ever played jigsaw puzzles in your childhood? The tiles are some kind of that, you should put them in a certain order to make a good-looking picture. The absence of this order ruins this level’s eyecandy. Houses are deprived of their frontal walls and look like huge flat cardboards… There is something looking like a colomn at the 1st layer-although this tileset has a normal colomn, you had built it with some random tiles! No background at all… I understand that Haunted tileset doesn’t have any proper background except for the sky, but even the sky isn’t used in this level.

Music 1/10
You’ve uploaded an original music file, but the JCS uses some “Halloween.mp3” so the game can’t load the music to this level.

Total rating: (2+2+1)/3=1.7

I don’t think it’s a good idea to upload levels to the site before you learn how to make them.
Probably you should open some original levels with JCS and analyse their structure, layers, events, music, properties, ect…

To be honest, this looks like a typical “my first level” that shouldn’t really have been uploaded here. Everyone starts out like this – trying out various way to build platforms and buildings with tilesets, maybe adding a few enemies to see how they work, no textured background because you don’t know how that works yet.

My first single player level probably looked similar. I’m glad I never uploaded it to this site, because it really wasn’t good, and maybe that should’ve happened to this one too: let it stay on your hard drive, learn from it, play some other highly-rated single player levels, take inspiration from those, and create your next level that is actually fun to play and looks good. Maybe ask a few friends to play the level and tell you what they think, so you can change it based on their feedback and make it better before putting it out there for others to download and review. I’m sure your next levels will be a lot better if you do it like that!

As it is, this one is really not playworthy, though.

Firstly thanks for reviewing.
I know that I build very simple and mostly bad levels :D
I’m really a beginner and I’m learning to build levels.
I just share them on J2O to get advices to make better levels. My plans are remaking those levels again later, using Your and other people’s advices.

Your map is simply bad.

Very simple, no details added.
Very few enemies.
Bat sleeping in the air.
You can get to the top of the house easier if you perform a double jump with Spaz or use Jazz’s special power.
No new music.
The tileset is matching, but you built it bad, with lots of errors.
You can fall off the map at the limit of the ground.
Nothing exciting about it, it’s just a map for 2 years old to complete.

I’ll give 8 for encouragement, but I’d really give it like 6.
Can’t reccomend it.

Edit: For being a jerk, I’ll go down to 7. Just because I made a honest review of your map (Which is way worse than mine, everybody can confirm that) that doesn’t mean you have to leave a bad review for my map. Face the truth, your vengence via rating my map doesn’t bother me.

Edit 2: Back to 8 since Stijn removed your nonsense review. If you feel offended, please download the map, give it a shot then write a serious review, as I did to yours.

Well..

block the Cllif is good idea for protect the player from the hell-(and..real hell was opened)-.

but I’d like to suggest some of these problems

1.Tilebugs : I’m kinda wondering that it was updated. it seems still broken and background pattern is.. not so fine. maybe it should be textured background or updated to another pattern I think.

2.‘Only one’ respawn area : Some battle maps only have one respawn area. but commonly, battle mode need various respawn area ‘a lot’.(for prevent the rude play)

3.BGM : this map uses official JJ2 music source. that is not problem but.. it doesn’t unmatched.. BGM City1g is pretty good music itself, but it’s not a good choice for this map. because main subject of this map is ‘Summer Beach’, not City. So probably, it should to replaced to another proper musics.

4.Water : There is no water level event on this map. I was imagine the swiming pool or beach as it titled, but my imagine was blown up :P

After that, it can be rated much higher than about 6 or more I guess.
I love your passion!

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot there’s generators now. I didn’t check in JCS, my bad.

You know you can just update an existing upload right? You don’t need to make a new one.

To be blunt, I don’t feel like reviewing this in detail anymore. It still has a lot of the same flaws as before (tilebugs everywhere, questionable layout, a giant bottom path of nothing), and I don’t want to repeat myself.

Fortunately, the screenshots are a lot more bearable. They’re saved as JPEG for some reason though. Stick to PNG.

However, there are a few improvements, with there being more pickups and another start pos and some more layout, albeit no effort to make it tile with the tileset, which is the main flaw of this level.

Also counting a level version as plus isn’t meant to be used that way on J2O. It’s whether the level requires plus to play it. However, saving a level on TSF JCS makes it require 1.24 unless you have 1.23+. However there is a TSF to 1.23 level converter (and yes, you can load 1.23 levels in tsf jcs).