Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

BIG!Huh…quite Cool[This review has been edited by FlameWitch aka BunnyCr]

The evil reviewer strikes back…finally a review after months of only watcging others rating levels :).

Project Black Battle: if this is a battle level, it misses powerups. The eyecandy is honestly very bad. The background hurts the eye, and there is nothing you can say “wow, cool”.

Project Electroman: This level reminds me of a singleplayer levels. There are several upgrades, but it is plenty of dead ends and it seems to me as if the level goes straight to a certain direction. The foreground eyecandy also is not good here.

Project Blaster (ow heck, get rid of that “project” in the levelname!): Not much to say. Few weapons, no eyecandy, slow and bad gameplay.

Project Deathmatch: There is a typo in your levelname, you typed “poryect”, a y instead of the j :D. Finally some pups here. They respawn WAY too fast though. The background is nice here, but the foreground is actually NASTY. Also, the level is very Jazz unfriendly and has a bad overall gameplay.

Project Big War: This level has a farily good eyecandy. The gameplay is quite ok as well, but the weapon placement sucks. There are several upgrades next to each other, and then you won’t find one for hours.

Project Jumpinthefier: I like the idea of this level, but the gameplay is very bad. Awful is e.g. that there are NO one ways. This fact makes the level extremely Jazz unfriendly and also bad to play for Spaz.

Project Goodbye: I like the foreground you used here. But the level overall is empty. And Agama’s tilesets offer so much eyecandy you can us…it is just kind of a misuse of the tileset, a more simple one would have been enough for the level…

Project Cobra: This level misses one ways, and it has that single player structure again.

Project Space Man: You should not use dark lighting in a tileset that is dark already. This makes the level quite hard to play, and also, it is so empty again…

Project Gun Fire: The rain is interesting, lol. Rain that moves only in x-direction and not y, and even on the x-direction, it moves in the completely wrong direction!!! The level’s structure is again like a SP level, and the weapon placement is bad.

Project Blue War: Though this level finally has the structure of a battle level, it is very boring, and the flashs are annyoing.

Project Boomerang: You seem to be a fan of Disguise’s tilesets. But please. If you use them, USE THEM CORRECT! You did not make use of the places to hide which Space Warbase offers so well. That makes the level quite stupid in some parts. Also, you only used the soil tiles and no base tiles. That’s again a bad use of the tileset.

Here we are…time for an overall rating, or what I did not like in most levels:

Level Structure:
Most level’s structures remind on singleplayer levels. You come back on your old patch only seldom, except on dead ends.

—> 3.5

Tileset Usage:
You used many very good tilesets. But you did not use them at their full cost. I already said that in the reviews about the single levels, use all tiles the tilesets offer, if possible! And it was possible in your levels.

—> 4.0

Eyecandy:
I have to differ here. If you mean that eyecandy is that the tiles fit good to each other and there is no single water block in the middle of land, the eyecandy is good. But if you think that eyecandy is making usage of the several layers, it is mostly not good.

—> 4.5

Weapon Placement:
I am sorry to say that, but the weapon placement just sucks. In all levels. See, you walk around for years, and finally find 5 powerups next to each other. But before you find the next powerups, you will need to walk through the whole level again.

—> 3.0

Gameplay:
Not good. See level structure.

—> 3.0

Overall: ==> 3.6 = 3.5 . I will though give a bonus because it is a pack and you probably spent a lot of time in it.

===> 4.2

It is nice if these are your first levels. You should watch levels by, e.g. Cell or Evilmike. Just play them and let them enspire you.

Ow, and FlameWitch, please do not rate the level just because Blackkiller is your friend. Also, you can’t review a whole levelpack with only one sentence!

Level 1: Project Black Battle
I’m not sure what Unhit meant about a lack of powerups. There are three of them that I found, in fact. The level is mostly a connected network of the big 3 tile wide tubes Metal Mania has, though they don’t use layer 3. There’s also a small outside area with an annoying background, and that’s where the powerups are.
Level 2: Project Electroman
Sadly, this level had nothing to do with the “Electroman” game by Apogee. Instead it was a battle level using Mez02. The main feature is a few tube things you see here and there which take you up and down. There are like three powerups and a fire shield. The seeker powerup is especially interesting, because there’s nothing to stop you from shooting it through the wall, and if you warp into it, there appears to be no way out unless maybe if you’re Spaz. The whole level needs more oneways. Too much ammo, but other then that, this is a decent level.
Level 3: Project Blaster
Why do people make so many maze like levels using Mez01’s white bricks and only that? Anyway, this is a mazish battle level with some pockets of ammo (so I’m not sure why it’s called what it is) and quite a few carrots. The eyecandy consists of rainbow blocks flying by. Ok, but not enough gameplay, as it’s hard to get around. Oh, and there are those annoying \ (or /) tiles on top of solid tiles, so you can get stuck (sometimes)..
Level 4: Proyect Deathmatch (that’s how it’s spelled!)
Yay. This one actually uses the tileset semi-well (except for the annoying background effect) and the design is ok. There are too many deadends, though, and all the ammo is powerups (which is I guess why Unhit found powerups here), so there could be a lot of deaths here.
Level 5: Project Big war
This level attempts to be big. Yes, attempts. Most of it is trees (which can be hard to get by), almost all the ammo is powerups (again). There are deadends, eyecandy bugs, etc. Still, this one has some good points.
Level 84! YES YOU HEARD ME!: Project Jumpinthefier (fier?)
There is no fire in this level. I just thought I’d say that straight away. You start out with a few powerups you can’t get back to afterwards (unless you die). You jump down into the main area, which is a linear place with lots of powerups. It can take a while to get somewhere, but there’s nothing there. You should have stayed back with the powerups. Tileset use is ok, though.
Project 7: Project Goodbye (not the last level)
Never make a Heaven level unless you know that the key and lock tiles aren’t supposed to be hung around on the wall randomly (and not do anything), and you can make good eyecandy with it. People who see the Heaven tileset want levels with good eyecandy. This one’s eyecandy falls under “ok”. The design is nothing spectacular, and the author needs to use some transparency and one ways. Too many powerups, not enough ammo, and a platform flying through the air with statues on it round off this not so spectacular level.
Level 8: Project Kobra
This level is saved by the tileset, which is decent looking and easy to use enough that it’s hard to be bad in the eyecandy factor. That said, this level actually has decent eyecandy. Nothing special, but nothing terrible. And he shows off that the author (Jaws, I think) put a sea creature in a tileset where water doesn’t work. Enough about the tileset. The level’s design could use some work. It’s basically a flat (well, there are slopes, but you know what I mean) area with a platform or two up above. You also can jump in the water and swim right to the bottom of the level! Is that not enough? Ok.. you can get easily stuck at the top right corner.
Level 9: Project Spaceman
The fact that stands out in this level is that it is hard to see what is solid and what isn’t. The wall and layer 3 are the same tiles often (and sometimes you think the Real walls aren’t solid), and the design isn’t that great. Run around in small passages and get powerups. It’s kind of linear, too, never a good sign. However, tileset use is fair, though admittedly it doesn’t use all that much other then the basic walls.
Level 10: Project Gunfire (I sense a trend in the level names)
I thought Unhit talking about the rain would prepare me. I was wrong. The rain, which is in the foreground but not transparent, actually moves the opposite X direction it faces, as well as not moving Y at all. The design’s ok, though. Tileset use would be good except for the fact that the masking of the sand in Temple sucks, so you should have put it in layer 3 over more normal walls or something. Too many carrots and powerups, and too much ammo sometimes.
Level 11: Project Blue War
A smallish level which feels bigger then it really is. Uses the tileset rather well, except the lightning effect, but the design isn’t incredible. Still, this level has good points, and is IMHO one of the better levels in the pack.
Level 12: Project Boomerang
I’m sorry, but this needs some lighting effects to feel right for me. Its a level set in the caves of the Space Warbase tileset (and it would use them well if not for the fact that the insides of the walls are all repetitive.. repetitive.. repetitive…), and tries to feel like a cave. As in, it’s a bunch of narrow passages, most of which are deadends. Too many powerups, not enough of anything else.

I had a lot of bad comments about the levels, but they have good points sometimes, too..[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]