Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Electro Jazz

It’s been a few days now since I reviewed the first three levels of fearofdark, which were not really good levels. I see he uploaded a new level, and I hope he really improved his skills, because the last levels just were bad. Ah, let us see this!

EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
When I first started the level I was expecting something that looked like the previous three levels he made (Candy Christmas Chronicles, Chilly Breeze and Freak-E) but when the level was done with loading I saw that the creator really made better eyecandy this time! This time, the level is made with the Mez’ tileset, which I don’t really like, but there is some quite good eyecandy here. This level has a parallaxing stars background in layer 8 that moves around and there is good eyecandy in layer 6 and 7. Perhaps the eyecandy would be better if you used something layers 5 or 3, not the level looks a little bit empty. There are not much bugs visible, so I won’t distract points for that. Overall, I can say that the eyecandy is better then what the author made in previous levels, but it is still far from perfect.

ENEMIES: 0.5 out of 1.0
Now let’s check out the enemy placement around here… I must say that the enemy placement is not so bad, because there are a lot of enemies moving around…. In the beginning the placement is even really good, there are just enough enemies walking around to make it funny. When you get further in the level, you will see that the enemies are a little bit overused, and that there are too much of them when you reach the end. There’s fortunately no boss in this level, but You could have beaten him better then in previous levels because there are enough powerups to pick up. Finally, I can say that the enemy placement is good in the beginning, but coming near the end there are too much enemies to keep the level funny. Next time lessen your enemies, or make the level bigger with just as much enemies and less carrots.

PLACEMENT: 1.0 of 1.5
In previous level of fearofdark, the placement wasn’t so good. Here I can say that there is better placement. With the ammo is not some much wrong, but don’t you think it is a little bit a stupid idea to place about 10 powerups in a level that is so small? Maybe next time you put less powerups in it (about 1 or 2) and some more individual ammo. I found something original in this level, a bird morph, which is something you don’t see much in levels. It’s required to take a golden coin at the top (you really need to watch out here, there are everywhere mods that morph you back and which make you fall on hurting things if you’re not Jazz!) About the coins, there are 10 of them needed for a bonus game which leads you to a secret room with two P’s/ About other things this level is also OK, there’s a lot of food and diamonds around. Overall, I can say that there’s mostly good placement around here, but next time lessen the PU’s and add some more other stuff.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.25 out of 2.0
Next point: the structure. Well, When I walked through the level at first I noticed that there’s a lot of diversity around the level in structure (there are warps, conveyor belts, sucker tubes, bird morphs et cetera) which makes the level diverse and funny to play. I don’t like the ending of the level however, because the exit is not well placed and the level goes on behind it a little bit further. In my opinion, you really need to place the end of the level at the end of the level. Also some bugs here: the level is not closed. I know it sounds a little bit dumb to say that, because you almost can’t jump over the walls, but please fix these minor bugs next time. And another point, like all your levels: they are too small! I easily can beat those levels in a minute or two, which is really too less. I don’t say that the levels need to be as big as those singleplayer levels of Evil Clones, but something like the singleplayer missions would be fine.

GAMEPLAY: 1.75 out of 3.0
Always the most important thing in a level for me, that’s why it gets the highest scores around. The gameplay here is often fine, but there a some small problems. The flow is good enough, you can move around easily, but sometimes it just doesn’t feel right. An example is the warp at the beginning: you jump in it, get into some tunnel and you try to hit the toaster PU. You miss it of course the first time, and you get pushed against a floating eye, which costs you a heart. This is not really funny. Another point of confusion was the warp when I ran through a tunnel of enemies, after the first saving point. I accidentally ran into a warp, got warped away and ended up somewhere else on a lab mouse. Could be a lot better, maybe next time mark your warps better, About the music in this level: it is OK, nothing special.

RATINGS:
As you can read, I think this is your best level till so far. Thde first three levels were mediocre, sometimes bad, like the third level. This level really shows some improvements, especially on eyecandy, and it keeps the good placement of your second level. The structure is mostly fine, but it could use some improvements. Same thing for the gameplay. Overall, I won’t give this really high, but here’s a 6.2. Good luck, I hope you make more levels in the future. I will surely rate them.

Score: 1.75+0.5+1.0+1.25+1.75 = 6.25 = 6.2
Download: Yeah, it is a nice singleplayer if you are very bored a few minutes.
Host: No, as said before, there are way better levels to host in Co-Op.

Ciao,
ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM (as level group)

Let me review :-)

CHECKLIST
[x] Single player mode available
[x] Multiplayer mode available (Co-Op)
[x] playable with Jazz
[x] playable with Spaz
[x] playable with Lori
[x] easy/medium/hard setting

LVL DESIGN, EYECANDY AND…STUFF
Lvl Design was nothing special, you are in something like a lab, without a reason, and it seems that you have to find the exit. Eyecandy seems to be a bit empty, could have used more sprite and foreground stuff.

GAMEPLAY
Like I said before, there was nothing that surprised me too much, there is a bunch of enemies in your way, that you have to kill, and some very easy to find goodies (a warp that you can easily see, shouldn’t give you a powerup, if you want to make a powerup warp hide it and make it harder to reach). Size was ok.

AMMO AND OTHER WEAPONS STUFF
There was enough ammo, but sometimes really too easy to get (toaster powerup). The coin warp had two powerups (seeker and 3way), but I missed 2 coins and so I never got in. Overall, ok ammo placement.

BADDIES
Baddies fit well into the place, except those ravens (ravens in a lab??). They are ok placed, but on some parts too much turtles. Also you should use the event Stop Enemy (Gameplay/Modifier/Stop Enemy) to prevent turtles from walking over spikes. Looks weird because the spikes do not hurt them, but even you..

HURT EVENTS AND OTHER OBSTACLES
There are some spikes, that was it. Could have used more variety.

TILESETS
Mez03 was used (and NOT the totally overused Mez01). Hmm…ok choice, but not my favourite tileset.

USE OF TILESETS
The tileset use was…hmm….it has two sides..Good thing: No tilebugs
Bad thing: Sadly it looks too empty and there is too less in the foreground.

CONCLUSION
Because this is nothing too special I can sadly give nothing higher than a 6.5
Have fun.

PHT