Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This tileset greatly reminds me of Mega Megatropolis and to some extent Disguise’s other sets. Gus’s tilesets are in a colourful style that heavily depends on Paint Shop Pro’s effects, and while his level isn’t quite the same as Disguise’s yet his tilesets certainly do have some quality.

Roger Lake comes with 4 different versions, each with its own palette. Apart from the palette nothing is changed though. The theme seems to be a park-like environment with giant trees and all sorts of plants and bushes, which is not terribly original but not really overused either. Some tiles are really nice, and I especially liked the big tree tiles and the animations, which are well done. There’s plenty of tiles for background eyecandy with mountains and water tiles in which these mountains are mirrored, lots of leaves, clouds and a nice flying bird.

The masking is a little awkward though. Some leaves are solid, while others aren’t; the general convention in JJ2 sets is that leaves can be walked through, so doing it different here can lead to confusing situations. Furthermore, the set lacks tiles for use in the “caves” (parts with layer 4 background eyecandy); there are no slopes with this background, for example, so you’ll have to resort to layer 5 for this. Another complaint of mine is that the rain is far too dense. Especially when used in the foreground, such as in the example level, this can become annoying rather than eye-pleasing.

All in all this is a nice, though not overly original, tileset, with a few drawbacks such as the masking and lack of some tile varieties. Downloading recommended though; it looks nice and it’s apparent that Gus is improving quickly.