Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

My initial reaction to this pack was that it was yet another sloppy mash of gimmicks and Babelfish translations, but I was wrong – veeeeery wrong. Never underestimate the Polski.

You start out on a lava planet that seems pretty dangerous. The lava is the least of your worries, however. You’ll end up hurting yourself more by destroying the cleverly placed blocks that are there to help you avoid the lava! The eyecandy of this first level is pretty good. Overall, it’s very well thought-out. My only annoyance with the pack in general is the placement of ammo. It can be excessive at times, but I’m very conservative with my ammo, so maybe I’m just overreacting. This level has one major flaw: at the beginning it says you need to fine an invincibility carrot in order to enter the lava. I only found one, and it was out of reach. I ignored the lava for the entire level and there was no consequence for doing so. I didn’t miss any coins or important triggers. The lava was pretty to look at, though.

The next level is really cool, though short. You have to sneak past the guards and security system of a facility in the lava planet. I had the feeling of being very sneaky while playing this, and the music was a nice touch.

In the inner part of the facility, you have to get to the reactor and destroy it. There are all sorts of clever MCEs to help you accomplish this in ways you might not expect. The final battle is challenging, but you’re not likely to die from it.

After you escape the facility, you have to go throughout a city and disable bombs. At the beginning, you have to escape using the copter. It’s a big of a shock, because there are blocks in the way and the copter only lasts long enough to get past them. The city itself is beautiful. It’s a very nice tileset edit that combines Townhouse, Colony, and a photograph for the background. The level design is excellent. Everything is cleverly placed.

The next level…well…I’m working on that. The author forgot to include the Discofever tileset, so my game crashed =( !!

K, got the tileset now. The discofever level has a weird storyline that is introduced abruptly even though it fits in the plot of the pack. I didn’t really care for this level. It’s mostly there to add story.

Overall, I liked this pack – point being that I had FUN. It may not be a work of art like some things I’ve played, but it was very creative with its use of MCEs and event placement. The story made sense in the end, but with a little adjustment most of these levels could have been standalone. Ammo placement was decoration, at best. The only time I found it useful was fighting Devan (or whoever the turtle is at the end). The secret areas were good. Food placement could have been better. I never had a sugar rush – even when I could have used one. The text signs could use some cleaning up. Have someone who knows fluent English fix them for you, Speaktrap.

It’s fun. Download it.