Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I think I should review this. Some levels in here are HUGE and encouraged me to make larger SP levels myself, so in turn I’ll give this a rating and review as a little thank you present ;P.

At first, the pack starts out rather…unimpressive. The intro level gives off a feeling of amateurness and experimentation with the tileset. Pandemonium has average (maybe even below) eyecandy and subpar pickup/enemy placement, and even tilebugs (although they were in out of the way areas I’m not sure I was even supposed to reach).
The level was also pretty easy except for a few areas (like the place filled with spike platforms and spike balls). It’s also possible to run off from the level into places youre not supposed to be by simple double jumping. This can get you stuck in spots and having to cheat to get out.

Easter level was significantly better, but still suffered from a lot of problems. It had way too much pickups (food in particular) because I got 3 sugar rushes through the course of playing through it. You don’t have to pile up so much of it in areas, and if anything there’s a lot of other pickups you can put to replace some of the food. It was slightly confusing in the start, I had no idea where to go (I thought you had to go into the coinwarp at first >O). EC was better but still containing layer 3 tilebugs in places (the long distached tunnel in the start, far left of it) and backround tilebugs (pumpkin patch vines at 273,11 are an example), as well as it overused easter eggs in the ground, among other things.. After running around pretty much everywhere in the start and not knowing where to go I got annoyed and just looked in JCS because it was either doing that, or jjnexting….and only to find out i missed a near invisible trigger crate hidden in an easter egg basket ;-;. You also used destruct blocks for stomp scenery, and buttstomp blocks for destruct blocks…confusing?

Carrotus level also came with a whole bunch of easy to fix tilebugs (even more than in the previous levels), but I liked the layout of the level a lot more then the previous levels.

Wonderland was…average =P. Apparently everyone in the level hated me for no reason, despite the big sign in the previous level saying i would find wonders and ADVENTURE here :(. Regenerating enemies are annoying as hell too. It takes the point away from killing them (and the fun). There are less tilebugs here then the carrotus levels, which is unexpected since psych is more prone to those, but some tiles are used in ways that make it easy for you to get stuck in walls. Putting crates in completely hidden spots (like in hats) is a cheap trick when you’re forced to find them. Thank god for sugar rushes and suspicions, I guess. And then, I accidentally shot a morph and turned into LORI! the horror :(. The large vines in the foreground constantly moving in front of your face is annoying too. The level overall was pretty average though (jumping cats at the end was pretty fun though =P).

Next level is a boss level. You get credit for trying, but the levelname in a game like this just comes out sounding either funny or weird. The arrow/sucker tubes remind me of jj1’s tubelectric >O.

The level after that, THE DARKENING, is actually really cool. It tries to set a mood and does a nice job at it, in my opinion. Maybe too many places to get hurt though. I finally died here and lost all my fastfires >O.

Next level starts off with a rather amusing text string. Rust in peace indeed. And girlfriend of both spaz AND jazz? Wow, lori must’ve been busy. And what’s this? Someone hid ammo in jazz’s grave? Looks like the grave robbers arent doing their jobs :(. I don’t know if I’m supposed to be able to double jump up to the blue bridge at the start or not, but I can. And uh, that’s a lot of skeletons in one long passage >O. I actually got through it all alive hoping I’d find a huge stash of pickups or something like that :( (before the water, rather). The whole march of the skeletons underwater was rather cool though. Then soon after I found the part of the level that impressed me the most. The houses in the backround and the whole rooftop climbing scene was probably the first area in the whole pack so far where I stopped to take a look around at the nice eyecandy. The house interior part that follows doesn’t look bad at all either. Overall, while the level isn’t great, it’s a definite improvement over the past few levels. You begin to think you’ve finally reached the better levels in this pack.

…and you might be right \m/. New-Jazz City isn’t a bad level at all and was actually pretty fun to play. Maybe a bit short compared to some of the other levels, though. Interesting idea of portraying Eva as a hooker with the witch =P. The second level actually uses some interesting ideas such as avoiding ravens as chuck and blowing up whole buildings. Both are always fun.

The next level, titled Balls of Evil (No comment >O) is actually quite confusing. Stuff is exploding everywhere, foreground stuff used in the backround everywhere. At least it feels more alive then the previous levels. Sometime later in the level i got thrown in a place i kept getting constantly warped back and forth in. I double jumped out and got stuck in some pit I’m not sure I’m even supposed to be in (It looks unfinished). I’m guessing this is an overlooked bug =\. The level has a bunch of tilebugs which i can’t tell if they were intentional or not, but it feels pretty big and at least it seems like a lot more effort was put into it then the previous levels. The tube maze with the crates at the end was also fun.

Next level starts off with another funny text string. Am I supposed to find the powerhouse and f**k it or something? what? The level does make interesting use of tubelectric however. Some parts were annoying like the warp part at the beginning, which is too akin to test levels and could do without the sucker tubes. Making you guess which warp out of like…over 20 to take (although there is a slight hint in differentiating animations, however) is interesting, but extremely annoying, since i don’t want to redo the entire test level part several times over :(. Pickups are clumped again (especially the gems), and whats with all the regenerating skeletons? Tileset use is meh, and nothing really stands out in this level. I’m going to make the assumption that youre a christian with this level. On a side note, why did I go through an entire random town to destroy it? I kinda lost track of the storyline after all these random long levels.

…Electric Death. another tubelectric level >O. Playing all these (and reviewing them, to a lesser extent) has begun to get very tedious indeed. Same usual problems (subpar or average eyecandy, clumped items). However, all this is cut short as soon as I reach a text string that tells me to f**k bolly. How nice ;). All this is made easy with a few carrots and an extended time shield. At last I finally get to know why I went through like 5 or 6 long levels to destroy some random town, all in one text string.

Daddy’s Birthday. Apparently Santa gave me presents and I have to find them. Or something. Except it looks more like he’s trying to kill me. As with previous levels, the gem amount found in barrels or crates could be…toned down a little. It looks as if you just set everything to 15. The level actually looks pretty nice though. love xmas enemies. Might be the best level in the pack so far, at least definately the best looking. Feels pretty linear though, and isn’t difficult at all and not very long either.

…now comes a castle level (Whispers of Ghosts). I’ve lost track of the story again :(. Pickups are…weird. You put a seeker powerup right out in the open? The level tries to set a mood again, but text strings arent really enough imo. The level isn’t as visually pleasing as the previous, but compared to the earlier levels its somewhere up there. The level layout is actually really good. However, apparently I died somewhere into the level and respawned at the 3rd crate (the one inbetween all the long spike paths with boll platforms). The second crate was reset or soemthing (the one on top of the slide pillar), and I was barricaded in the area and had to cheat to get out. No idea why this happend since I know I hit the crate before touching the savepoint, but whatever. Dying in big levels = not fun :(. You shouldn’t put many spike balls in the path. Players get tempted to shoot them down to avoid injury (especially when they’re placed in narrow areas which make them virtually unavoidable) and shooting too many of them gives an app. error. The altar was pretty neat (which is good since getting to it was rather long and tedious D;). Soon after you fight a queen in some cool looking dungeon (Using the queen as a sort of midway boss is an awesome idea i’ve always wanted to use in a level and never had time >O). However, whenever I try to go into the lower tunnels i get randomly warped into a wall, and jjfly up to get out and discover the queen respawned and i have to face her again. What the hell? I’m not sure why this happens but :(. After this happend the…third? time I just noclipped and made a detour around that area to be able to get to the passages after. Soon after, ending boss followed and level ended. This level was LONG, not surprising since it’s an astounding 64kb(!!!!). I need to make something bigger than this >:(. Anyways, this is by far the best level in the pack, even with the weird queen glitch which i’m not sure who/what is responsible for. A truly great level.

I thought that would be the end, since the filename was finalfight and the level was a huge work of art, but I guess not =P. Next level is a jungle level called…Bananas Smash Face? Right. If anything, the level further proves that the authors have been improving through the course of the levelpack since the levels are improving too. This one has some nice eyecandy and doesn’t clump pickups or throw tilebugs at the player’s face like some of the earlier levels. And…it uses a CTF base as a coinwarp. The only thing that comes to mind when thinking about this is “What the fuck?”. There’s being creative, and there’s….doing that, I guess. Soon after seeing that amidst all the confusing and contemplating about why on earth someone would use a CTF base as a coinwarp i fell into some large pit behind a tree with no visible way out. I very nearly RF climbed out of it but messed up near the top and couldn’t go at it again since my former RF supply of 70+ ammo was depleted in just a few tries. Looking in JCS, there’s no way at all out of the pit, that means BAD >:(. There’s also a lot of powerups placed out in the open (including freezer, in a jungle) for no explicable reason. Again, your love for rapidly regenerating skeletons shows no end :’(. You’ve also made a sucker tube shoot me out right into some spikes near the end. I’d imagine if I was at 1h when that happend I’d be rather upset. Overall, the level has nice eyecandy, albeit confusing in some parts with the branches in the backround, but its pretty average and doesnt have much to keep the player’s attention or anything.

A Diamondus level (Kill this Rabbit, taken from the posters in the tileset I assume?) follows. Right in the start I’m rewarded with Chuck, only to lose him right after as an H-pole swings me right into a bee. Is there no justice? ;-;. The level looks very barren, and reminds me of the older levels in this pack with bunches of blue gems placed right out in the open. The gems in the walls could be made to look a lot better. Suddenly, there are random caterpillars and pinball events in the level, only followed by the shocking revelation that UTERUS IS BACK!! oh no :’(. I think the caterpillars were trying to touch me or something too, or at least the text string implies it…O.o. No further comment on the issue. You could’ve just used the bees event on the ceiling spikes instead of putting them in layer 3 and doing what you did, btw. Then there’s a whole shitload of coins followed by a warp to a room above the caterpillars where I am constantly bombarded by smoke rings and have to look in JCS to figure out what to do. After that comes a part where I am told I can now drink my cup of tea! Where would I be without my tea. This would all be better if some springs had keep placed on them so they’d bounce me into the next h-pole instead of into the wall ;). It was still fun to watch though, and reminded me of running rabbit. Once I had finished drinking my wonderful tea, I progressed to the next area, which consisted of a whole pyramid of random assorted destruct blocks which i didn’t realise were destructable until i looked in JCS and found out that the star block needed to be hit with a toaster….and soon i realised that the weapon pictured on the destruct block had no connection to which weapon needs to destroy them. Confusing? yes. I just switched to TNT and blew the whole place up instead of playing “guess the magic weapon” :(. The part after that with the pinballs and spikes actually looks really cool, though. You can get stuck at pos 180,121. The level actually improves as you get further into it, although imo it still is a step backwards.

Next is a colonius level (I thought I was going to fight uterus again? ;\) which I actually quite like since it makes nice use of the tileset and seems quite multirouted. You still kinda overused the gems, though. One waying stuff like the hanging signboards would’ve been nice, too. Text signs are placed too close in a few areas, but at least they give insight to why the hell youre running around back and forth across the level (makes it almost seem like an rpg, even :o). Sewage waterfalls are creative. This level took a long while to beat, and despite getting stuck in a few places and having to look at JCS a few times to find out what to do, I really like it. It uses regenerating enemies but is large and multirouted enough not to yell out that it does and stick it into your face, and also requires it since you go back and forth through most the level quite a few times. It also feels slightly RPGish since you interact with NPCs and are given a bunch of tasks to do, etc. One of the best levels in the pack so far, imo.

Like (an?) Angel at the Dark River. Not sure if the levelname is missing “an” or if its referring to Angel as in the vampire, but k. First, rain looks…weird. When I look closely I get the impression that rain in the backround is frozen/hardly moving at all. Again, things could use one ways. Accidentally shooting down psych poles sucks ;\. And uh…I like how you spelt doughnut in russian ;). Level has a bunch of passages deviating from the main route, which is good, and a bunch of secrets and stuff. Overall, another one of the better levels in the pack, with great eyecandy and a nice ending.

I’ll start off by saying that song14 does NOT fit inferno, especially in the mood youre trying to put it in. At least now the rapidly regenerating skeletons make sense to why they’re here ;). The tree in the middle of the level is pretty cool, but why are there random warps placed in it? Would be better if warps in some places were a little more pointed out instead of just placed, imo. The level is also one of the huge ones in this pack (just under 50kb) and since it’s late and i think i already played through over 20 sp levels so far, I used JCS as my guide to get through this. Somehow, saying “Its cold in the world like in a refridgerator” just doesn’t scare people..;P. I think i’d find this level quite hard if I wasnt stocked on fastfires and random powerups left out in the open from previous levels. Eyecandy in this level looks really awesome, btw, despite the tiling problems. I love that huge tree in the middle (despite it having warps to annoying places containing more hidden warps back). The level took a while to beat for me since i pretty much explored all of it, but I quite like it >O. The last savepoint is buggy since you start in a solid trigger block. The robot boss is actually slightly harder now because of the one way “roots” and the layout of the arena.

The essence of destruction…You get a nice wake up call here from another rapid regenerating skeleton horde this pack has come to be known for ;P (they can actually make areas EASIER since you can keep stomping on them to get across and avoid the hurt events). Backround fade color is nice, but tileset use kinda sucks. I hit over 2000000 in scores in this level too, and I’m not even trying to pick stuff up >O. Music is interesting. The level is pretty short and mostly a boss level. I guess the author got exhausted after making the huge Tree of Pain. The boss battle is actually pretty hard and powered seekers quickly become your best friend. Could this finally be the end of the pack?

Soon there is another meh mez cutscene. Interesting text though, and I’m glad to know that after nearly 30 levels I finally killed someone important. Huzzah. As for the level with the angel, i think jungle music is hardly appropriate for the situation ;P. It would be nice if my highscore could count instead of the pack just looping to itself.

Anyways, wow. I know I was looking to kill some time, but jesus h. christ that took HOURS. I got completely suckered out by the pack =P. I can’t believe how long that was though, ugh. Some of the levels were HUGE >O, and apparently unlike most people who reviewd this I didn’t jjnext once. Anyways, it’s quite hard to review this (I know I probably skipped a secret level or two but too bad >O). Not because there’s so many levels, but because of the contrast between them. The authors themselves stated their skills have improved while making this and it is clearly visible from that. Some levels kinda suck while others are pretty good. The sheer number of them is just O.o though. The levels mostly have several things in common though. Especially in the earlier levels, stuff was put together in clumps way too much (emphasis on this). The pickup placement is usually pretty subpar through most the pack (except in the latter levels where it actually hits average and even above in some cases), and the enemies is a mixed bag (generally a lot better then the pickup placement, however). Eyecandy is pretty bad in some levels but above average in others. There are numerous tilebugs everywhere throughout though, and I don’t mean ones like in Tree of Pain where they actually added to the atmosphere at times, but simple easy to fix tilebugs which completely infest the early levels and continue to plague throughout the pack. The levels feature interesting things from time to time, and some of them are pretty cool. This isn’t limited to events but level layouts as well. Some levels are also extremely huge and look like a lot of work was put into them, so that will be taken into consideration.
The story is…weird. You’re russian so I’m assuming english isnt your first language, but you could’ve got someone to fix up the typos for you who is better at english. I lost track of the storyline and what the hell I was doing somewhere in the middle of the level. It just seemed like you made levels with every official tileset (and mez sets) and stuck them together.

The pack has a lot of pros to it, though. It has some of the biggest (maybe even THE biggest) levels, a lot of levels are above average and enjoyable to play, although you have to get through a myriad of subpar levels to get to them. I really enjoyed some of them though (to name a few, Whispers of Ghosts, Tree of Pain, the colonius level which i don’t even remember the name of ;P). The amount of levels is astounding as well. This is such a mixed bag of stuff that it is very difficult on thinking of a rating. I’m giving this a 7.8 for now. It has a few gems in it, but they’re sparce and far apart. A lot of earlier works bring down the rating since they’re quite poor in comparison to the later stuff. You could’ve went back and redone them after or something.

Anyways, this might have been the longest time it took me to write a review ever, even longer then the time it took to write Shellion’s Extreme Revenge. It’s nearly 5am now and I’ve been writing this for a while, and I probably came off sounding like a jerk or something in some parts of the review because of the huge amount of stuff I was reviewing and the state of tiredness and sleepbakedness I’m in right now, so apologies for that (hell, I bet you won’t read this anyways. If you even see it the lenght of the review will probably make you think twice).

Well, that was fun. I think next time I feel like killing some time however, I might pick a smaller pack to play. If anything, be happy I played the pack from beginning to end without skipping anything, and provided a nice long review that nobody will ever read.

~a very tired and sleep deprived Blacky

[HTML fix which caused chunks of text to disappear ~Cooba]