Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

At first glance of this level: looks like this is going to look like EvilMike’s Cavern CTF level, won’t it?

GAMEPLAY:

I wasn’t too wrong about my assumption. It has the same feel of Cavern CTF, except this level is in more of a square shape. I can’t say I hate the flow, but it feels a little off in places like at the bottom left and right, and some places might be hard for Jazz players to reach without running. And in the way the passageways are designed at the bottom and middle, it’s easier to kill and get killed when trying to navigate the level. Aside from that, the level doesn’t leave much room to move in a lot of places, so gameplay is often limited.

EYE CANDY:

The eye candy is somewhere between decent and semi-original. It’s not exactly easy to come up with innovative eye candy in this set nowadays, and this level proves just that. I liked the lighting the least, though. Lighting normally doesn’t look too good with this tileset. Moreover, the top edge of the level seems too flat.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

There’s the one full energy carrot at the top middle, which I have nothing against. Powerup placement is fine, although typical. At least the seeker powerup is only accessible with EB’s. However, the ammo seems excessive and too close together especially at the bottom middle.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Not often, no. I can learn to like it, but I can’t see myself playing in this level on occasion. 7.2 will be my rating, so happy birthday.

yay.. got my internet browser working.

EYECANDY: 8
The points are down for the dull eyecandy in some places and for the ground tiles in layer 3. This is confusing enough but then there’s almost no eyecandy. HoRRaY! Confusing level with uncool eyecandy. Sux more than ever. Don’t use ground tiles in layer 3.

GAMEPLAY: 7
Easy but boring. The old run left, run right, left, right style is used again. You score and quick if the opponent is slow. This level also is 6 differently shaped platforms around with layer3 ground tiles. It’s easy to navigate, and the fun starts when both players have the flag. Then again, you can’t go down from up. You cannot go to the bases frop upper left or upper right. They are a nice dead end.

STUFF PLACEMENT: 6.0
The springs are awful. Most of the spawnpoints are up and the bases are down, then when you go to the centre, suddenly a green spring on green ground appears and you bounce up…. it slows down and much. The powerups are at the upper left, upper right and the centre. Bouncer in left, RF in right, how unfair. RF is more powerful than bouncies. Why are you using this unfair style? I see no reason to. The carrot is in the ground, which isn’t bad, but causes 3hk’s often. And the seek powerup. Like I said in my unedited review, it should not exist in levels with such a layout like this. It’s fine in open levels. Fast scoring also kills you if opponent has seek powerup and you don’t.

ORIGINALITY: 7.7
Pretty much… unoriginal in many ways. I am being tired of seeing the forest tileset getting used with a musicfile based on space. Evil.

FUN FACTOR: 6
Uncool. Boring. You run back and forth. You get roasted repeatedly if you happen to get roasted the first time. The forest tileset which is used in many levels. No.

OVERALL: 6.7
DOWNLOAD?: Only if you are going to review…
HOST?: Boring… read above.

EDITED: Trafton’s request of removing the seek powerup placement thing.[This review has been edited by the WINNER]

Good gameplay, I liked the jump parts etc. Good weapon placement (Just when you need a weapon, it’s there ;))
To bad it isn’t real fun as said before, a 7 from me.

Cavey Forest
DarkSonic, a friend of mine and co-leader of XLM has made another level, this time it it for our won XLM CTF Contest. Yay! Happy Birthday anyway (I think I already said it to you on MSN) Well, let’s check out if this level is worth DarkSonic’s 14th birthday party, and if it has a chance on the XLM CTF Contest. Prepare for a review!

EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
DarkSonic used the forest tileset of Blade, a quite good and nice to use tileset, but the eyecandy that is given in this set is a little bit below the average. Anyway, DS did a good job with the eyecandy, however it could be better in some places. The backgrounds are nice and the caves have a Dark Atmosphere. I didn’t see any tile errors, however, the eyecandy could be better. I think it’s more the fault of the tileset then of the creator, but it just doesn’t look so good, unless the author really took the maximum capacity of the tileset. Eyecandy can be a little bit confusing sometimes, if you look to the pathways at the floor or other parts, like when you need to take the carrot (it looks like it is in the ground, but it isn’t) and the part in the middle when you have to jump through two ledges in the foreground. Also, the top corner parts could have more EC, and the walls just look dull in the corners of the level.

AMMO: 1.75 out of 2.5
New let’s take a look at the ammo placement in this level. DS used a familiar three Powerup strategy (Seeker-Bouncer-RF) which is very unoriginal, but decent. However, the two secondary Powerups could have been placed in a more original way, they are now just flat at the ground. The Seeker PU looks hard to get in the first place, but it’s rather easy when you just run up the hill using Electro Blasters. Some ammo is placed at the ground or in other places, this could have been better, and sometimes the ammo looks a bit chaotic Also there a good points about the ammo, there is plenty of it, and most of the time it is easy to reach.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.5 out of 2.0
The structure of the level this time has it’s good and bad sides. Good side of the structure is the fact that there is a really decent flow, and you can move around not too hard. Bad sides are the flow are the fact that there is too less space sometimes, especially in the middle where you have to run through very narrow corridors. Another bad point of the level is the fact that the placement of the level is not matching with the rest of the level. You better had put the bases in corners of the level, now they are a bit too close to each other, and the worst thing is that’s it’s possible to run from the red base to the blue one and vice versa in a single, non-stop run, with just 1 jump! Could have been better, but the rest is OK. Not much diversity in movement however, but enough.

GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
Maybe I was a little bit hard in the first three points of the level, but the gameplay isn’t really that bad. It could have been better though, with a little bit more original eyecandy, more original placement, and a nicer level structure. You told me you tried to make your level a little less “squared-off” (a form of the level when all platforms are huge blocks) and you attempt has partially succeeded, but I still can see that you’re falling back in the same style sometimes, especially in the roofs and the corners of the level. About the flow; it’s quite nice, could have been a little bit better perhaps in some areas but still OK. I like the choice of the music, it’s some kind of dreamy-dark trance/techno, I like the flavour.

RATINGS:
At the end of this review I can say that DarkSonic made a level that is a little bit better then previous ones, but I guess the author ca still do better. It’s a little bit different then other levels of him who looked a lot like each other, but it’s still not different enough to be a complete new experience. Maybe you should get rid of the standard symmetrical structure in your levels, if you make something next time that is asymmetrical I think you could get higher votes (if they have the same quality) And now the answer of the question: is this level good enough to win the XLM CTF Contest? drums Well, I don’t really know it. The level is a bit better then the one of Dx, but I don’t know sure if it’s good enough to win. I guess it will be in the top 3 at least, depends on what Snooz has made. For now, here you have a 7.2.

Score: 2.0+1.75+1.5+2.0 = 7.25 = 7.2
Download: Yes, it is a little style change in DarkSonic’s level and it could be funny to download.
Host: I don’t think so, I think you’ll get too bored of the level when you host it online too often. However, it could be funny for a few times, but not more. I guess that few times are already over now.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

Ok, here comes my loooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggggg review:
Eye Candy: The eye candy is really good, nice work! You’re getting this!

Weapon placement: Many weapons, too many! That’s fun! Yeah, I love CTF levels with a lot of weapons!

Backround: Well, the texture backround rules, but it more happens in cave then outsite, so we can’t see it really much!

Diffuculy: Too easy, please have the flags longer ways to each others!

Layout: It’s great!

Springs: Many springs, that’s good!

Powerups: Yeah, there are some powerups! But they’re too few, some hidden somewhere! =D

Download recommand: Yes!!!

Host it to the Internet: Yes!!!!

Overall rating: 7.2

Have a nice day! ;D

~Bjarni Haraldur Sigfússon[This review has been edited by the real one Bjarni]