Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This level would be probably more popular if it wasn’t for TSF only. Anyway, it seems to be a quite decent piece of work, using the JJ1 Deserto tileset conversion.

In ‘Desert Trench-Warfare’ the gameplay is mostly molesting narrow tunnels or fighting above large sand dunes. The flow of course in a level like this wouldn’t be the easiest. The fact that there isn’t a certain spring or float up assisting you with moving might make you wonder; “how the heck am I able to move in a level this large then?” Well, the level only feels large because of it’s width. There isn’t really a lot of heighth in it. But even in the tunnels you will be needing your jump all the time, because stone bricks and other scenery slow down your movement. As well, there are triggered tunnels that give a nice twist to the layout. Outside, you instead are able to move easier, but then you are already in a dangerously open area, especially if you are chased. Bases lie in the very edges of the level obviously, meaning you come to a dead end when capturing or scoring. Technical problems are the lack of complete mask on the edges of the levels, causing capture-bug, as well badly masked walls that are easy to get stuck into.

Eyecandy is appreciateable, but could be improved a lot. There isn’t a textured background, which doesn’t matter everyone though. The default mountains are in the background as well. Solid wall seems often just bland plain sand, although there are dunes here and there. More waterfalls could probably enhance the looks of the black tunnels, but perhaps that wouldn’t fit to the theme.

Healing yourself here seems to be quite a hard task with a lot of players. There are 3 PowerUps for Toaster, Bouncer, and RF-missiles. Also those are the only ammo you will find from the level. Mostly from your path in the tunnels, but also basements contain ammo wisely for defending. As ammo can be that effective, you will find it really difficult to heal yourself with just two minor carrots, eventhough they spawn during ten seconds.

After all, this level could work for real games and stuff, would be just have to be made sure that no player touches the edges with flag. Luckily that is unlikely to happen accidentally. I would probably like this level much if the technical bugs were removed, eyecandy was boosted majorly and the tactical side of the level was more balanced. So far this good. I would say it is worth it for fun-gaming anyway, so download it this once. Keep up progressing Valco!

SJ

Gameplay

This small level allows you not to move up easily by yourself. To do that efficiently, you need to use vertical vines or springs. You could make your level a bit less straight and blocky and make less platforms, in order to increase the flow. Your foregroundlayer-titlescreen is nice but also makes you not able to see the entire level and makes it harder to play.

Eyecandy

Apart from some titlebugs you used your layer4-eyecandy well, however you made the titles of the background the same of those of the foreground which is very confusing. You didn’t had to, as there are more titles you could have used.

Originality

You used the vertical vines well, it was an original idea, though this level has no more original things apart from that. This level is just of a too low level to play it online intensively.

Gameplay: 4,5
Eyecandy: 5,5
Originality: 5

Final Grade: 5

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These rules were last changed on October 1, 2006. If any rules are added, or changed in a significant way, it will be announced on the news.

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[Umm… yes. Rating (10) clearance. ~cooba]

Fronteir Battle Spire uses Aztec tileset by Blade. But now for the review. (It’s gona be short by the way)

Gameplay? Well it’s not very good. Gameplay could be improved a lot! First of all this level is way too small and there are just ammos and small platforms. Level is not strategical at all. Don’t do levels in this size. You have to do bigger levels.

I can’t say much about the eyecandy.Well, it’s ok because you have used tiles correctly. There are no tilebugs and that’s good.

You can do better levels. That’s all what I want to say.

Rating: 3
Download Recommendation: No

-TripleJ

…

I’ll go back and fix that then…

PS: Just what ‘Extra details’ might you expect?

“An odd battle in Aztec ruins, how exciting…”

LEVEL 11/20
Works well, but is too small. Actually the things where you can walk on, would be even a bit more different than the backround.

EYECANDY 8/20
As the tiles were used correctly, it is good, but could have more visual and layerwork.

GAMEPLAY 4/20
This is awful!
“Looks like you just died! Wait until this round is over, then rejoin the server.”
REJOIN THE SERVER? Are you crazy?!
Why couldn’t there be used third party prog, just like Carrotade, to restart the level?

BUGS 7/20
The suckertube-junction-start-controller, or whatever, isn’t very well made, if you are Spaz it is possible to “die”. Just if you doublejump under the warp-randomizer-thing. (Darn, using these-strange-wordie-thingies…)

PICKUPS 14/20
There’s a little plenty of them, good…

TOTAL 44/100 = 4.5
Albeit good but a little buggy battle-survivor-level (crap, again the you-know-what…) No download recommendation…

A note before I get started with the review itself: the zip file includes the levels within its own subfolder. I do not recommend doing this, since it makes it inconvenient to unzip.

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This is an interesting level. The layout and theme here is pretty original, and I can see a fair amount of potential in the authour here. The level seems like it was put together with care. A couple of things, such as the usage of trigger zones inthis level, show a level of complexety rarely seen in levels such as this. Unfortunately, a few critical flaws bring the score down.

Most of the level takes place within a series of narrow tunnels underneath the sand. Navigation through them is slow, but safe. Above them on the surface one may move much faster, but will also be open to attack. The bases are out in the open, near entrances to the caverns. The level is asymmetrical, but seemingly balanced.

I like the look of this level. A lot of detail was put into the eyecandy, without allowing it to become distracting or excessive. The background inside the caves is a bit bland, but not ugly.

Despite all this, the level suffers from a number of mistakes. The most striking one is that all of the ammunition is in crates. Ammo crates are problematic, since after a while they tend to create large dumps of ammo which lag players. It is generally recommended that floating ammo pickups are used instead.

Another problem is that this level has no carrots (that I could find, at least). The level has only one powerup, but even then, there should be AT LEAST one carrot in the level, even if it’s a +1. Without health pickups, CTF games are not not very interesting.

Finally, this level uses a large number of hurt events. These events will ONLY hurt the server. Other players will never take damage from them. This is rather awkward and disadvantageous for the person hosting the server.

The mistakes in this level strike me as “newbie mistakes”. Errors that are made from a lack of experience more than anything. If I had to guess, this level is one of the authour’s first CTF levels.

This level tells me that the person who made it is actually quite talented, and knows how to use JCS with some degree of proficiency. My recommendation to the authour is that he remake this level, fixing the errors in it and improving it where he sees fit. Learn the vital elements of a good CTF level by examining what is popular, and have other people play the level and give feedback in a server. Follow their advice if they seem to know what they are talking about, and it’s impossible to go wrong.

I’m giving this a 6 because of the problems I encountered in this level. With fixing, I could easily see this level as being worth a 7, or possibly even an 8 if the improvements are big enough. Don’t let the rating discourage you: beneath all of the problems, there is actually a very good level here!

Im not trying to say that your totally wrong, but the reason for so many tunnels was so that people would have to crawl through them in unsuspecting routes to try to get to the other teams base. Note also, this level can also be played as capture the flag, but the CTF flag is in multiplayer mode only.

PS: Very true EvilMike. It’s my first CTF level.

A very good battle level, I’d say. Not reminiscent of the original deserto levels, but made way for an original concept of level design. I’m reminded of the background when saying this.

The only problems I had:

1) This isn’t entirely the fault of the level creator, but it is difficult to flow from one part to the next. This is the fault of the tileset, but if some flatter tiles were used and some sprite-foreground tiles placed over them to make it look better, the entire level might have been easier to get around.

2) There’s some lack of interconnectivity between the chambers of the level. It just takes too long to get from one place to another, most likely causing combat to occur in a single place.

Besides that, I’d definately recommend this battle level.

[Rating (8.7) clearance. Pointing out two of the level’s flaws doesn’t explain the high rating. ~Cooba]