Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Future by Biggles

So, this is your first J2O submission huh? Let’s see what you’ve done. The zip file includes 6 files, of which two tilesets, two music files and two levels. I won’t go detailed into the levels because it’s all about the tileset.

Overall, this tileset is above average but I was not hugely impressed and I think most ratings (10, 9) are overrated. The semi-3d environment you drew was one of the things that made me decide this rating (7.2). It is something that makes it a lot nicer and you don’t see it very often in a regular tileset. There are some missing tiles (e.g. vines or hooks) and water or snow events are incompatible.

@Labratkid:

There are no VPOLES, which are the horizontal poles that let you swing vertically with. You only included HPOLES.

This is not true. In the set you can find both. The ships are nice, but it doesn’t include anything extraordinary. One major thing of why to use this tileset is because it is extremely easy to use.

Rating:
7.2

Looks spiffy![This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

Meztempel

ZIP FILE:
It extracts in the folder rxm/Jazz2. This sucks! You can’t run it that way, because it doesn’t show up in the homecooked levels list and since it’s passworded you can’t launch it via JCS. After some annoying copy & paste actions, I managed to open this level.

GENERAL:
The author refers to this level as a ‘temple’ (or tempel, staying at the same level as the author.. ;), but I don’t particularly see this as a temple, more like a blocky level without a real concept. But hey.. This is Mez01!

The level involves some new ideas and they’re OK

BACKGROUND:
Textured, but no other background layers used.

EYECANDY:
None to speak of.

ENEMY PLACEMENT:
Bad. There are very few enemies which makes the level really easy to rush through. The level ends with a Devan Boss which is really easy to beat because of the respawning carrots and the seeker powerup.

MUSIC:
Fits with the level, it’s OK.

GRAMMAR:
You should seriously learn how to spell, it’s awful! The levelname contains one spelling mistake, the description counts six mistakes and the text strings in your level contain even more.

RATING:
3.7[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

hi hi hi hi hi (Hotel Expansion)

The level name is disturbing and the description doesn’t make sence either. Let’s see if this level’s good though. The actual level name is grazz kid dc’s hotel.

ZIP FILE:
The zip file contains 2 (!) music files, the author appears to not know which files he used. Clever. It also contains the level and a tileset.

GENERAL:
This level starts somewhere where you can choose different parts of the hotel: Casino, Vlinders and Food. The main navigation is by using warps, you can’t really walk freely through the level.

GRAMMAR:
It makes use of the orbitus remix track, so weirdpersonalities shouldn’t have to be included. The author appears to have a problem with spelling (“WELKOM”). A lot of other text signs are in Dutch, or a mixture of Dutch-English.

EYECANDY:
None to speak of. Background is flawless, but I suspect it’s ripped.

AMMO PLACEMENT:
Extremely bad. At some areas it’s really overused, while in others there is none.

CONCEPT:
Just a plain hotel. No original ideas involved, except for the Idols show maybe.

RATING:
2.0.

[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

I had a really big review but suddenly my computer froze. However, it concludes that I give this level a big 1.0.
[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

Empire of dark bunny

The author included three files in the ZIP File: two tilesets and a word file called ‘WOW!.doc’. I didn’t get the ‘WOW!’ amazement when I opened the document. The author probably likes making use of WORDART and also calls his levels ‘VERY COOL’ and ‘GOOD!”. He even offers to give people one of his made tilesets. Heh, I don’t think anyone would want one.

The tileset has pretty much everything ripped, e.g. the spike balls from Medivo and poles. There is a lack of eyecandy and it looks pretty boring. I don’t think anyone would want to make a level with this one. The masking is average.

PROS:
The author put some effort into making this.

CONS:
Ripped tiles, boring, lack of eyecandy.

VERDICT:
You might want to download this if you like red tilesets with ripped tiles. A normal person wouldn’t want to download this though.
RATING:
3.0

Raymanworld

The author tells us this is ‘maked’ with Kitfond.pcx. Now, we don’t mind you tell us which file extention your set was at first, but since we rate the tileset, not the level it’s rather inappropriate to tell what the level uses.

The general idea was OK, but the outcome is really bad. The tileset basically lacks everything: platforms, poles, scenery blocks, vines, masking, eyecandy, a background, and fails on every other aspect of a tileset.

If the author would’ve spent more time on it, it might’ve gotten a better rating.

CONS:
Basically lacks anything you expect of a set.

PROS:
The author used an original theme.

VERDICT:
Despite the original thought behind it, it doesn’t make the tileset better. A 1.2. For the effort. Or something.

Technoir Remix Deluxe (6:11 long!)

6:11 long! Is that a good thing? I’m not sure. After listening to this file, I still didn’t make up my mind.

It all starts nicely. The instruments build up and a rhytm with some odd instrument starts. It doesn’t sound particularly bad, but a little freaky and it might get on your nerves.

On 3:30 there’s a break in between and all instruments slowly build up again, together with the weird instrument and some fuzzy sound effect. It all ends from 5:00 till 6:11.

CONCLUSION:
It’s quite a long one and therefore it might get boring after a while. It has some weird effects and instruments, but it’s an OK remix.

RATING:
5.0.

Shellion Bites Back

It starts off with some trumpets, like there’s some idiot in the street hitting his car’s claxon. It’s followed by a beat with an extremely weird tune.

This remix makes me want to scream. Graaahh. You get really nervous of it after a while. From like 2:20 you get weird ‘fast motorcycle passing by’ sounds (lol, sorry for the weird expression). Then, the noise starts again and the ending is all of a sudden.

I understand you need to take a break now, I would’ve done the same thing. At least I need to buy a new pair of speakers. g

RATING:
4[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

(Little) Jazz2 Theme pack

This could’ve been far more interesting if the author put more effort into it. The idea was nice but the outcome is bad.

The zip file contains 8 items, of which each consists of a Jazz, Spaz and Lori. On each picture they’re in the same pose, you could’ve had more poses and so it would be more interesting, unfortunately you didn’t. The small versions are way too small for your desktop and might only fit on a notebook. But hey, like there’s any function for a wallpaper.

Also, the chosen poses are rather weird. Lori is turned away from all that’s happening, Jazz looks demonish with his red eyes and Spaz is falling to the left. Choose better poses next time.

Conclusion: Interesting idea but lack of effort and graphical quality.

RATING:
3.5

Devans Factory

(Un)fortunately, this file was not found on the server.

Devans Factory Gooder

Uh.. Gooder? The correct tense is “Better”. However, you’re not supposed to rate somebody’s grammar and spelling but the file. The zip file contains no readme file so I just randomly started with a level. All levels, except for censored 2 (ripped) show up in the Home Cooked Level list, so that doesn’t give any clues either.

• Level 1: Colon Cluster *
  The beginning seems ripped from the official Epic levels, it even gives clues to some copied stuff. However, this level is full of tile bugs, overused ammo, enemies and events. Colon might be a hard set to use, but this level is just bad.

• Level 2: Bad Pitt *
  The author obviously edited this official level or added the wrong file to the zip. No rating. But look! The next level setting obviously works. This means the author just tried to fake us with who actually created the level.

• Level 3: Crazy for Christmas*
  You forgot to include Xmas1.j2t in the ZIP file, so I had to copy it from my TSF folder to the 1.23 folder.. Annoying!

It has disturbing foreground scenery (the lamp poles). And again an overuse of enemies. There is no background scenery, the author obviously found this too hard to manage. It again has some serious tile bugs. If Project One would ever see this, they would awake from the death!

• Level 4: Devan’s Factory*
  Bad choice of background and music (censored.j2b!?). The foreground chains look pretty dumb. The level also has text strings making comments about the level. ‘Devan must love seeing that every day!” and “What is this thing”, for example. Well, that thing was just a can with a chemical fluid. The level has no eyecandy and guess what? Even more tile bugs.. The level ends with a Devan Robot Boss.

Well, and that’s pretty much it. These levels keep on looping. It doesn’t matter where you start. Probably the author couldn’t make up his mind or something.

OVERALL:
The colon level is plain bad, there are many tile bugs. The censored level is fake and the author didn’t make this (probably only edited it) and the Xmas level doesn’t give a ‘merry xmas’ feel at all. No download recommendation.

RATING:
3.5[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

Ed’s 15th Symphony

I wonder why nobody else reviewed Captain Spam aka Nicholas Killewald’s level, so I do it now.

It sadly uses the overused Diamondus set. There’s no background scenery.
A good thing is that it’s treasure hunt: you don’t see TH levels very often. The exit idea is original and in the level are some hidden gem places. There are no tile bugs.

- CONS:
A bit boring, could use a little more eyecandy.

+ PROS:
It’s treasure hunt and it shows interesting ideas.

VERDICT:
This level is not very recent at all but worth playing. It even has one funny text string.

RATING:
7.0.

JCS.ini

Although the other reviews state the download is unavailable, this is not true. The ZIP file contains 3 files, an example level of how to use the new JCS events, a readme file and the JCS.ini update.

It works fine, although I saw one weird thing in the JCS.ini.

; Search & Replace Events Profiles
;
1=“Amazon forest.j2t”, “Amazon forest”, “Jnglmas1.anm”, “Jungle2.anm”, Yes
2=“jaws.j2t”, “JAWS”, “”, “Jaws.pcx”, Yes
3=“lwt12s1.j2t”, “Lost World 1.22(small)”, “Lw13s2ma.anm”, “Lw13s2.anm”, Yes
4=“lwt12s2.j2t”, “Lost World 1.22(smaller)”, “Lw13s1ms.anm”, “Lw13s1.anm”, Yes
5=“lwt13a.j2t”, “Lost World 1.3 alpha”, “Lwt13mas.anm”, “Lwt13.anm”, Yes
6=“mirror.j2t”, “mirror”, “”, “Spiegel.pcx”, Yes
7=“paint.j2t”, “paint”, “Paintmas.anm”, “Paint.anm”, Yes
8=“pokemon.j2t”, “pokemon”, “Pokemas.anm”, “Pokemon.anm”, Yes

Heh. Apparently this shows the tilesets Ninja Dodo made.

RATING:
Because this is not officially made by Ninja Dodo I don’t give a rating.

Battle In The City!

The level is not actually called ‘Battle In The City!” but ‘Battle en Ville’. I know, this means exactly the same but it’s still different.

There aer lots of tile bugs, there’s an overuse of ammo and the gameplay is bad. Besides, it’s edited.

- CONS:
Bad ammo placement, unoriginal, edited

+ PROS:
One original idea, the ‘jumping crates’.

VERDICT:
Don’t download this unless you are really really bored.

RATING:
3.2[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

Nighty Battle Pack

This file has been uploaded almost a year ago and still nobody bothered to review this one, so I do so now. I think every download should get at least some reviews. This zipfile contains 9 files, of which 3 are levels, 3 are tilesets and 3 are music files. It doesn’t contain a readme file saying which one you should start with, but I suppose that’s Wolf Battle.j2l.

• Level 1: Temple of the Night *
  There’s a moving background and some clouds passing you by. In my opinion, this is not enough background scenery; you could’ve added some more. The music doesn’t fit the level at all and even if I would’ve listened to it seperately I would dislike it.

You forgot to make the water translucent, so it looks pretty odd. There could’ve been a bit more springs, for example on (3,45). Although it uses Agama’s Heaven set, it doesn’t have a single tile bug so far I have seen.

• Level 2: Night Forest*

Despite the unoriginal title, the music is better than the other level. The gameplay is average, the ammo placement OK. There are no tile bugs spotted, even though it uses the extremely hard to use Swamps set.

• Level 3: Planet of Night *
  With a terrific music choice and a good textured background (+ bg scenery) this level has nice ideas, but is too small and I counted three dead ends. However, it’s not bad for its size.

- CONS:
The levels are a bit too small and the first one has a bad music choice.

+ PROS:
There are no tile bugs and the last two levels have nice musical support.

VERDICT:
The author proves that he can work with JCS but should mind the size of the levels. Nevertheless, if you want to download a small levelpack consisting of three small levels, download it.

RATING:
6.2

Cracco Warfare

The zip file contains 4 files, of which one is the level. The three others are a readme file, a music file and a tileset. The tileset is one of Cracco’s ripped tiles sets.

The level has a textured background, but there’s no background scenery. The concept is interesting, and the start is OK. In one of the areas you can get warped there’s an overdose of ammo.

There are no serious tile bugs, but that’s basically impossible with all those blocks and stuff. This is not really a good level because the tileset that is used is average.

- CONS:
No eyecandy or background scenery

+ PROS:
Interesting game mode

VERDICT:
The author obviously tried to make something original, but due to the limitations of the tileset and the lack of eyecandy I’m not really satisfied with this release.

RATING:
5.0.

cooldude’s upgrade pack

This file was not found on server. I don’t know whether this is a good or a bad thing, but I think I wouldn’t want to have an upgrade of Battle 2 or 3. They’re good enough already.

Blue Jazz

The author categorized this as ‘Multiple’, so I wonder what’s in this ZIP package. Now, what seems to be the case: this is just a Battle Level. Please choose the correct filetype next time.

The level makes use of Pavlik’s Blue World tileset. There is no textured background, background scenery or eyecandy. Sometimes you had really weird tile placement, e.g. the construction next to the fire shield.
There is no real gameplay and all of a sudden the screen gets a blue mask in the foreground, which looks dull.

- CONS:
No eyecandy, some minor tile bugs, overuse of ammo, no textured background, bad gameplay, no eyecandy.

+ PROS:
The author shows some original things like the transparent blue screen covering the foreground for a while.

VERDICT:
This is below average and I really can’t make more of it.

RATING:
4.5

Nasty race

The zip file contains a level, no readme file. It luckily shows up in the Homecooked Levels List, this is essential for a local splitscreen race game.

You can start on two positions, one lower than the other and its placement is fair. I spotted some minor tile bugs, especially the corners and places like (31,15). You can climb over obstacles in different ways. There are also several paths and ways to finish a lap, depending on which basket you take.

Not every basket is handy to take, some paths take a long time to complete, some include very slow sucker tubes.

- CONS:
Not too big, some minor tile bugs and no real eyecandy.

+ PROS:
Several pathways.

VERDICT:
The author thought of strategyful ideas and several pathways are nice. The only thing is that this level is fairly small.

RATING:
5.5. [This review has been edited by Electric Ir]