Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I felt like reviewing again, so I review this level called ’7k CTF’ which is a funny coincidence because the level size is a bit more than 7 kb. And that’s actually weird with this level size. Oh well, let’s start.

Layout

The first thing you notice when playing this level is that the level is very long but not that high. Birdie explained why in the level description, and levels with this kind of layout are usually a bit linear. It’s not a big problem, but it can annoy people sometimes. If you look at the level in JCS you’ll also notice that the level only has a few platforms. There are 5 platforms in the sky and the rest is just one platform that’s extremely big. It’s not like it’s a bad thing, though. The level is balanced and symmetrical, which is always a good thing in my opinion.

Other gameplay

The level plays pretty fast, even with this size. The flow isn’t perfect, but you don’t bump against walls all the time. The level has some open spaces, and also some cramped/closed ones. RFs and Seekers are really good in the open spaces, like left and right from the carrot. The carrot can’t be camped, but it can be moved and shot down. Even when it’s shot down it’s impossible to camp it, which is a good thing. In other places of the level you can camp though. But it’s almost impossible to prevent people from camping, so I won’t distract it from the rating.

Eye candy and tileset use

The tileset used is Space by Blade, which has pretty good eye candy. Too bad CelL already used a lot of things of the tileset in his levels(Like All Your Base CTF and ToXaNi-StArWaVe CTF or something) but Birdie tried to be original and succeeded.. sort of. He put lots of black tiles in the walls, and I haven’t seen them a lot in levels with this tileset. However, if you play this level you get a divide by zero error sometimes. I don’t know why it happens, but it happens in levels like Quasar Quandary and The Chasm as well. Maybe there is too much sprite layer eye candy or something.. meh. The amount of eye candy tiles used isn’t that much, but it’s decent. Birdie could have used layer 5 more and put other stuff in the sprite layer though. The eye candy is decent, but not like the eye candy in All Your Base CTF where CelL put lots of stuff in layer 4 too but it was more randomized and there was much stuff in the walls.

Ammo and Power-Up placement

The ammo is placed in some creative shapes which is always good to see. There is enough ammo for everyone, and the choices of ammo are nice as well. About the Power-Ups.. there are four of them, which is acceptable in a level of this size. The Power-Ups in the level are, in my opinion, the best Power-Ups of the game(Toaster, Bouncer, RF, Seek) and every Power-Up has his own room which is actually pretty cool. There is no Fast Fire in the level which is actually pretty good because Bouncers are powerful with Fast Fires in this level.

Carrot placement

Only one Full Energy that’s impossible to camp here. I think 2 +1 carrots and a Full Energy would have been nice too, but at least you don’t get people who camp at the carrot because they can’t. They can still guard the carrot and kill the opponent if the person who guards the carrot has enough skill. You get shot up if you try to camp it, and that’s a nice method that prevents people from camping it.

Overall, I think this is a nice level with some ideas but unfortunately the level hasn’t got a very creative layout which is a con. I think this level was underrated so that’s why I felt like I wanted to review it, so be happy I did it ;)

Anyway, I give this level a 7.5 and a download recommendation. You can host it if you want. In my server I host all kinds of CTF/Battle levels so this level might be hosted as well.