Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

New Ages II

After months of hard work, the second part of New Ages has been released. I have hosted these levels very often in my server(except the last one) and I’m going to give this a fair review.

Friendship

This level uses the Twilight Park tileset, which is an underused tileset because it’s pretty hard to use. The level is pretty big, but it’s not so high. Just very wide. The layout might be a bit weird at first, but after playing this it won’t be as weird. It’s balanced although it’s unsymmetrical. The flow is good, but some sucker tubes are hard to find if you play this for the first time.

Eye candy is just as good as it is. This tileset is hard to use, but Snooze placed the stones in the walls how you should put them. The layers have been used well, and the background is good. Some nice effects have been made, like the water blocks at the left and right sides. Not much to complain about here.

Then the placement. Because this level is big, it has 3 Power-Ups. They’re placed well. There is also some food to fill up the level with events. The groups of ammo are pretty good, and Snooze didn’t place the same ammo at both sides. That’s something not everyone tries, but it works here. The Full NRG is a bit closer to the red base. But the Seek PU is a bit closer to the blue base. It balances the level.

While this is not something very special, this is still a pretty nice level. Therefore I give it an 8.3.

Gloriania

This name doesn’t say much, except that it might have something to do with glory. It’s Snooze’s second level of the pack using Mystic Isle.

Hmm.. yeah. The layout is something completely different. Pretty hard to learn at first. The author has taken some risks with this layout, but he succeeded. It has alot of warps and some tubes. The level is also pretty big, which is not a bad thing. The flow is good enough with those warps and tubes. The bases are placed at the left and right-middle of the level, and the way to the base is pretty long. There is a warp that takes you to the base, pretty handy. There are tubes to the bases with Freeze Enemies, which is pretty fun and makes it harder to capture if you take that tube. There is also a normal way to the base though.

Then the eye candy. The author has made something original with this tileset: The green things in the walls. Layer 5 eye candy has lots of caves, but the special thing is the FISHTANK VOL 2 at the bottom-middle. In Radiation there was also a fishtank, but that was vol. 1. The interesting part of this level’s eye candy is the fishtank, and the green things are pretty nice too. With a limiting tileset, this has good eye candy.

Placement is something different. The level has groups with different types of ammo, it has 2 Power-Ups but it also has 2 Full NRGs and 1 +1 carrot. Some food has been added too, as well as Fast Fires. The groups of ammo are good. I have noticed that placing different ammo at both sides doesn’t matter that much, this level proves that. The Full NRG carrots are placed well, not just on a random place. The +1 carrot is only reachable by a warp, and that warp is placed fairly.

Overall this is something that’s better than Friendship. Bonus points are given for the weird layout, because this level has a weird layout ;P. Therefore, I give this level an 8.5.

Saint Zipcode

We’re up to the third level of the pack, using Jungle 2.0 while it has stars in the background. Thus, it’s a space jungle. This one has interesting things as well.

What makes this one interesting is the base placement. The level was inspired by One Spot, like you can see if you see the bases. That makes this more a duel level. It’s one of the smallest levels of the pack. Although the bases are both more to the left of the level, this is balanced. This level again has warps. The flow is just good and this level is more cramped than Gloriania. There are also some secret passages and tubes somewhere.

Like I said in the beginning, this is a space jungle. Something that noone tried to make so far. This tileset has stars, and the author used them. It’s original and it’s nice to see. There are lots of leaves in layer 5, and layer 4 has some nice stuff (like waterfalls) as well as the foreground which has a few things. Again there is nothing to complain about.

Then comes the placement. The Power-Ups are in walls, and might be hard to find at first. However, you should see them if you know where they are. They’re at the left corners of the level The level has 1 Full NRG carrot and a +1 carrot and they’re a bit close to each other. With the weird base placement that doesn’t matter much. Ammo placement is just good, and there is some food(again)

Overall, this is an original unsymmetrical level with weird base placement and an original background with stars. Therefore, I give this an 8.5.

Will of Fame

A level that changed name several times. First was ‘Trademark’ then ‘Memories’ and now ‘Will of Fame’ It’s another unsymmetrical level in the style of ‘Friendship’ so not very high but pretty wide.

The flow in this level was a bit bad because of some bad masking, but now those bugs are fixed and the flow is much better. The level is pretty cramped but the layout is still pretty good. It doesn’t have many platforms. The base placement is good, although the way to the base is a straight line. But that doesn’t matter much. Some Float Ups have been used too. This time the level has no warps and only one tube with two ways.

This is one of those underused tilesets. But after I saw this level I wanted to use this too. The level has some original eye candy. While layer 5 is pretty standard which mostly has some black tiles, the foreground has some original stuff. Layer 6 is nice, and layer 7 has translucent stars which makes a nice effect with layer 8. But the green tiles at the right side in layer 4 are also special. The walls have some standard things to fill it up a bit.

The level has 3 different Power-Ups, while you can only get 2 different ones. The reason why this was called ‘Trademark’ first is because of the 4 Toaster Power-Ups in the middle. You can’t get them unless you cheat :P. The level has 2 +1 carrots that are close to each other. It’s something experimental, but it seems to work. The 2 Power-Ups are placed where they should be. Ammo placement is good. This level doesn’t have that much ammo, but there is still enough.

Overall this is something that’s a bit worse than the other 3 levels. But still a pretty nice level. Therefore, I give it an 8.2.

Durance of Hate

The fifth level of the pack uses D*mn+ Cold. This is a pretty big level with big platforms. The filesize is also insane(over 27 kb)

The level is pretty linear, but linearity is not always bad. There are still alternative ways. The bottom area of the level is probably called the ‘Chamber of Torment’ and a textstring also says ‘OBLIVION AWAITS!’ but anyway. The bottom has some warps at both sides. In the middle of the upper area there are copters. The level is not completely linear, just a bit. Putting walls in the middle didn’t help either.

Now comes the interesting part: the eye candy. The level is over 27 kb which is insane for a CTF level. The layers have lots of stuff, especially the bottom. It looks a bit scary at the bottom, but it actually looks pretty nice. All stuff that’s added here looks very nice, and there is not much to say about it. The EC is almost perfect in my opinion, because the level is not flooded with EC(the upper part has not that much as the lower part) The backgrounds are also nice.

The level is big, so it should have a lot of ammo. It also has 3 Power-Ups and 2 Full NRG carrots. It’s enough for this size. Ammo placement is again pretty nice. There is not really much to say here, because I keep saying the same all the time. Oh, there is also some food. Didn’t say that yet. ;D

Overall this is a pretty big level with very nice EC. In my server people liked this level a lot, and I like it a lot as well. Therefore, I give this an 8.6.

Tainted Heaven

The sixth level of the pack is made with Heaven, but the level doesn’t look like a heaven. Anyway, up to the review!

The level has a pretty normal size, it’s a bit higher than 01, 03 and 04 and lower than 02. But size doesn’t matter much. Anyway, the level has some tubes and such. There is also a SECRET CHAMBER OF DURANCE OF HATE. So this level might have something to do with the previous one. The bases are a bit close to each other, but the way to the base is longer than you might expect.

This tileset has the same kind of stones as Twilight Park, they are pretty hard to place. This level has lots of those stones in the walls. The layers have been used well, every layer is used. The backgrounds are not very original, but this tileset is not a tileset where you make original backgrounds with. The eye candy is not as good as in Heavenly Havoc, but it’s almost as good as that.

The level has 3 Power-Ups. The Bouncer Power-Up is closer to the red base, the Toaster Power-Up is closer to the blue base and the Seeker Power-Up is pretty far away from both bases. That’s balanced enough. The Full NRG carrot is closer to the red base. The ammo placement is pretty good (it’s getting boring to say that all the time) but it’s true. The level also has a few apples(only 2)

Overall this is one of the best levels from the pack. Therefore, I give it an 8.7(and that’s almost the highest I give for a single level ;O)

Dreaming..

Another level that changed name several times. While it was ‘Around the World’ first, it got other names as well and ‘Dreaming..’ is the final name of the level.

This level’s layout inspired me a bit. It doesn’t have much platforms but it’s good. It has tubes and warps like almost all levels. The bases are placed pretty well, and the level has a good and a bad side. The right side is the bad side and the left side is the good side. That might explain the name. Anyway, the level has a good layout.

The tileset used is one of those underused ones that I find pretty hard to use. The good side of the level has normal EC for the tileset, and the bad side has some original things. The level’s good side probably has better EC, but the bad side is also good. The backgrounds are nice as well, and I like the storm.

The level has 1 Power-Up, one +1 carrot that’s in a warp and 1 Full NRG that’s balanced. Ammo placement is again pretty good, this level has no RF ammo. That’s something that other levels didn’t have. The only Power-Up, the Bouncy Power-Up, is in the middle.

Overall this is another nice level. Worse than 05 and 06, but better than 01 and 04. Therefore, I give this an 8.4.

Cliffhanger Ending

This level is the end of the pack. It uses Spacey Universe, which is not really overused but you can still do some nice things with it. The name is pretty weird, like almost all other levels of the pack ;P.

So, this is a duel level with lots of warps. The blue base has only one real way to it, that explains that this is for duels. I like the fact that you can RF climb in the level. It’s fun. The flow is good but the level might be hard to learn because of those warps.

Now comes the eye candy. This time layer 5 hasn’t been used for eye candy, because there is some kind of ‘sea’ in the foreground. So the eye candy is a bit different compared to other levels of this pack. Layer 6 has been used for eye candy though. But layer 4 has the most. The foreground has some stuff as well. The spring at 51,46 has been used for eye candy as well.

Placement now. The most interesting thing is that this level has 2 Full NRGs while it’s not that big. The level is made for duels, but duels might take long here. 2 Power-Ups as well. There are Fast Fires(4 at each side) so you can run out of ammo pretty easily as well. The ammo placement is just fine, in other levels it was better I think. This level has less ammo than other levels. I haven’t really tested this level, because it’s the last level of the pack.

Overall this is a nice last level of the pack. Nothing very special, still pretty good. Therefore, I give this an 8.2.

One thing I haven’t said yet is that most levels use lighting effects and they look nice.

Now it’s finally time to calculate ratings.

8.3 + 8.5 + 8.5 + 8.2 + 8.6 + 8.7 + 8.4 + 8.2 : 8 = 8.4.

Bonus:
0.2 for the musics that have been used.
0.2 for the ‘story’ behind the pack.
0.2 because it’s a pack with 8 levels.

So overall, I give this a 9! That’s very impressive, because it’s one point lower than a 10 which is perfect. And I don’t give that. Because I don’t give single levels much higher than an 8.7 it’s also very special. But this pack deserves it. Now I’m ready to upload my pack in a few days I hope. I think that’s not as good as this pack, but still pretty good. So go give my pack a review like the one I give here ;)

Download recommendation: Of course!
Host: Some of these levels are very nice so hosting them is a good idea.