Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Wow. This was a nice level to play. Crimiclown’s Devil’s March level [perhaps it should be marsh, instead of march? Oh well. They both work.] is a DOM level, with pits, points, and position. Good eye candy used in manageable amounts. A nice, serene audio song. Not to say that it’s completely without a blemish, but there are few indeed of those. With a working and well-used tileset, this area delivers the goods and more. But allow me to elaborate…

STRUCTURE

The structure was solid. No dead ends, no ill-placed items, no stupid little traps. As I went through and played it, I couldn’t help but notice how remarkably unsloppy the level was. Each event belonged. Every tile seemed to belong.

The tileset picked was a good one, too. Omen Woods: Swamps is a unique and quite usable tileset, and clearly it has been used well here. Masking is good, no real anomalous mistakes here.

GRADE: great

EYECANDY

This level has some nice eye candy. From ghoulish gargoyles randomly littered, to dark caves and open plains, to a misty, fluidic miasma of purple goo at the bottom, DM contains notable detailing. I would have maybe appreciated a little more eyecandy in layers 5-7, but the netting of leaves adds a wee bit of flavor back there. The occasional canopy of fall-thru leaves is nice. The on-and-off addin of a flower here and a tuft of grass there lends March a certain natural “outdoors” feeling. Good work!

GRADE: nice

COLORS

The red and purple background only serves to help the level, as it gives it a scary sort of feel. When combined with the teal-greenish shade of the terrain, and the dark blue cave walls, the tileset and level carry a powerful punch. It works in the level’s favor that everything fits so well. Not to say that it’s 100% perfect. No, it has its shortcomings, which I will elaborate on in one of the next couple sections of my review. But for now, colors are good, and that makes me happy.

GRADE: great

BUGGAGE/SIZE

Buggage was not something I could find in the map. This obviously means that our Crimi has done a good number on weeding out bugs. This definitely increases my approval of it.

Size, however, was not entirely perfect. While it wasn’t extremely small, I felt it could have been just a wee bit larger. Don’t confuse me, it was almost perfectly scaled. It was certainly high enough. And actually the size was pretty close to what I felt it needed. My bigger beef is that 2 out of 3 control points were towards the right of the screen. The other was in the middle. Why? There could have maybe been a point or two over leftwards. There was surely room for that. But they weren’t right next to each other, which is good to hear.

GRADE: great

USABILITY/LIKABILITY

This level is for sure an attention grabber. With its brusque naturey theme, its minimal buggage and practibility, Devil’s March is a very well-to-do stage. Perfect for a level pack, or even just by itself [as it is here]. It has some noticable ideas.

I liked how the warp wasn’t a central part of the level [like soo many designers make it…], or easy to find [which even more designers make them]. The reward was a worthwile one, although it could in theory be possible to just sit in there and camp all day long :(. But hey! It was nice.

GRADE: sweet

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

Well, now we come to problems and there don’t seem to be any major ones. That is why this section is not called “problems”, but “things I didn’t like”. The right-handed control points weren’t very outstanding. No singleplayer start position, although this is only a downside if you actually test levels out in singleplayer. The low number of points is also sad.
There’s not much for me to harp on in this place, but there are plenty of good things to say as well.

GRADE: nice

MUSIC

I liked how the music fit the level so well. Most people would think that a creepy song would befit this level, but really this is just not the case. A watery, boggy song fits just as neatly as does a scary one, if not even better. Great work on the audio selection, and also not using annoying ambient sounds.
Ambient sounds can be tricky to use. Use exactly the right ones, and your level can become alive in a completely new sense. Use them wrong, and the level can seem totally ridiculous. You chose not to risk using bad ones, and did not put them in. While it certainly would have been nice to have some of them, having none is better than having awful-sounding ones. At the peril of sounding like a busted record, sweet job!

GRADE: cool

STRAIGHT TALK 2 DA READERS

To say it again, this level is a wonderfully designed one. From the nice eyecandy, to the good structure, to the appropriate music, to even the few blemishes, this level fails to fail. A refreshing reprieve to other areas of its own kin, Devil’s March by Crimiclown is a very enjoyable level. Download this very instant, before I call the Exterminator!

DL REC: well, duh….

YES!!!

RATING:

9.4