Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Sand Ocean is Chazz (now Wazz) Jackrabbit’s second level and I’m not feeling it as much as the first. That is not to say that its a bad level, but it doesn’t have the same level of polish that Castle Manor did.

It has some clever ideas in it, for example it implements a few speedy QTE-esque areas. I would have liked to see these bits in the level a bit more, honestly. It also is split up into two core segments. Segment 1 is essentially a proper continuation of Castle Manor, and the design doesn’t really mesh well with the Beach tileset. Of the two segments, its my favorite, but it doesn’t feel “Beach-y”, and would do much better in an indoors tileset. The second segment is your average CliffyB styled JJ2 level with a clever bit where a player must properly navigate V-poles to find a secret, and a not so clever bit where the player is subjected to V-poles with no gameplay (A redux of the earlier Freezer-spring QTE-esque bit would have been perfect here). The Bubba boss fight takes place in a clever arena thats marred by JJ2’s quirks (the hurt events need to be moved up one tile each for them to work).

The gameplay creates a rather fun experience, but compared to Castle Manor (especially when its right after it) Sand Ocean’s flaws start to show. The action doesn’t feel as tight as it did in Castle Manor, and some of the areas in the second segment just seem to be there to fill up a bunch of empty tiles without any real gameplay in mind. Despite this, I still recommend to download Sand Ocean, even if you’ve already played its superior cohort Castle Manor.

Starting Comments
It’s been a while since I’ve last reviewed something. I’ve installed my old JJ2 cd again and started playing right away.

Gameplay:
This is your average single player level. Bad guys, platforming, treasure and no story whatsoever. The level has quite a number of flaws (like the Hurt events not working during the boss fight) and also a very boring part where the player must sit and watch how he’s poled to a new position. Also, Epic’s awful masking jobs make this level an awful experience, getting stuck and being able to shoot the checkpoints before you get on the other side of the wall.

Atmosphere:
The Beach tileset and music fit together perfectly, of course, but in my opinion, that combo got old. The level is very bland and open and barely gives twinkles to the eye. The simple layer 7 and fast moving background make this even worse.

Eventing:
Lots of food and gems all across the game make you feel like you’re stuck in the old Epic episodes. A few quirks and flaws in the eventing may lead to unwanted effects, such as crabs who are stuck, hurts that don’t work and a V-pole where an H-pole is needed. Also, here’s a tip. Never put events on the edges of the level, most of them won’t work. Also, in my opinion, you shouldn’t let the player move to the absolute top of the level. Weapons will stop to function there and enemies will fly out of the level. Leave some space on all sides of the level and build a wall, that’s what I recommend.

Overall
It’s not a bad level, but it’s certainly not great either. If you want to make good SP levels, think of an interesting story, keep the player wanting to play more. If you need good examples (read: awesome examples), try EvilMike’s “Invasion of Deserto” episode and its sequels. They pack quite the punch.

Download Recommentdation
No.

Further Comments
Keep trying. You’ll get the hang of the many bugs JJ2 has soon enough and then you’ll be able to make awesome levels in no time.

Well, it needs work. That was the first thing that crossed my mind. Allow me to explain…
The quality was…Average. Gameplay was all right, items and enemies were ok, but some of the baddies were stuck in 2-tile ruts, which seemed very annoying. There were a lot of places where I got lost and had to use the editor [which is never good], only to find the path was a 1-tile gap, or not even in that area, or hinging on 1 little coin I missed somewhere in the level. Not very good! The boss at the end didn’t work properly, it clashed with the set [in my opinion, Bubba doesn’t fit with the Beach tileset], and vanished almost right away! The thorns at the end didn’t work, try moving them up one row. Tiles were mediocre. Still, you could’ve used one of the more interesting versions of the Beach tileset, instead of the standard one. Same with the music, too. A little creativity goes a long way.There were bugs, bugs bugs everywhere! good grief, did you even have a beta tester?! There were logs the I got stuck in scattered everywhere, the baddies tended to get stuck, the boss and his thorns didn’t work, you need to fix this. I didn’t like the eye candy that much, either. Once again, you used the standard stuff. :( You could’ve at least invented your own style, instead of copying the base version. Did you do anything with the set that the Epic folks didn’t It’s hard to tell. At least you included some. But make your own, please!

And now, a bright spot at last! Works in TSF, and 1.23, at least there’s that good news. Thank goodness. However, the readme didn’t make much sense to me, about connecting level 1 with level 2, until I read the tiny hald-sentence at the end:
“If you didn’t download so-and-so, oh well”. At least, that’s the gist of it. Frustrating, because you could have easily included the other level, instead of forcing me to have to find the other one. Not appreciated!

To sum it all up, I think that you gotta go back and fix this level. Immediately. A little creativity may go a long way, but there was little to speak of here. I beg you to go back and fix it, for the dl’ers’ sakes. Readers, I would not recommend downloading this, unless you want a singleplayer level in slight need of work (I am not insulting Wazz, I just don’t enjoy this level). Wait for him to fix it up a bit.