Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I’m afraid I have to disagree with Thex. While the level is not perfect, there is no reason to prepare for a sucky level when you download this. Also, it’s not as small as his description initially led me to believe. It would probably be best with maybe 6 people on it, and would feel rather large for a duel.

Eyecandy: 7/10
The eyecandy is generally good. The background looks good, and the foreground is fairly interesting. It’s even snowing. Basically what you’d expect from a level made with WTFBorealis. I can’t say there was anything unique that caught my eye. The one big way the eyecandy could be improved on this level would be extending stuff on layer 3. For example, when Jazz is in the pools of water at the bottom of the level, you can sometimes see his feet sticking out the bottom, which just looks ugly.

Gameplay: 5/10
Two words: Beta Test. Thex, this level shows great potential, especially for a first time levelmaker. However, it also has many problems which I believe you would have been able to discover and fix, had you gotten other people to play through and critique the level beforehand. The two main problems I found with this level’s gameplay is confusing tiles, and too many carrots. By confusing tiles, I mean there are several tiles which you place on different layers in different places in the level. For example, the hooks are on layer 4 with a vine event somewhere, but other hooks are merely scenery in another portion of the level. Also, in the top right hand section of the level, near one of the start points, there are some blue tiles one layer 4 which are directly next to some of the same blue tiles on layer 5. This makes it impossible for someone playing the level to know which is which, and can be very frustrating. Don’t get me wrong, it’s OK to use some tiles on multiple layers (like the path to the bouncer power-up hidden behind a wall), just be sure someone playing the level will generally be able to figure out what is what. The other main thing you could fix with the level’s gameplay would be to reduce the number of carrots. Why in the world are there four full health carrots on this level? In a standard battle, where everyone has 5 health, no one would ever die. Each time they lose health, they can run to one of the carrots and heal. And with so many different choices, there’s almost always going to be some route they can take to a carrot without any people in the way. I would suggest changing most if not all of the carrots to 1 health, and maybe getting rid of some all together. It could also improve the level if you made the carrots harder/more dangerous to get. For example, you could put one full health carrot in the sucker tube and no other carrots on the level. This way, if someone knows their opponent is low on health, they will be able to guard the entrance or exit to the tube, and prevent their foe from being able to heal. This would add a strategic element to the level, as well as making scoring much easier.

Miscellanious:
1. You uploaded a folder zipped in a folder, containing a level and another folder with the tileset. This was just confusing. However, it doesn’t have anything to do with the level, so I won’t factor it into my rating.
2. Go into JCS. Click the “Tools” menu (Next to “File” and “Help”). Select “Level Properties.” Use them. As it is, your level has no music, no text, and is called “Untitled”. Most importantly, it has no “Next Level” setting. This means the game will crash as soon as the level ends (Unless you have JJ2+(http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=17567)). For crashing the game, you lose half a rating point.

Overall: 5+7/20=60%=6/10
6-0.5=5.5
While this level is fairly good, it still needs some tweaking before I’d be willing to give it a download recommendation. Continue to work on making levels, and learn from your mistakes, and I could imagine you creating some really amazing levels in the future, Thex.

Thanks for the review troglobite, I made some changes in the things you were talking about. :)
About the wierd way of packaging: I’m don’t know how that happend either, I guess it’s just my computer being wierd…

Vista, I geuss?