Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This is a pretty nice looking map small enough to be used for duels or 2vs2 matches. I actually played it with more people than this map is probably built for, but the size would accommodate at least 3 other players before it starts getting too crowded. The eyecandy is pretty standard for this tileset, but looks nice, so no real complaints there. Maybe I would’ve connected some of the floating pumpkins to some vines. The background is what looks like some mountains behind a lake, which gives the level its name.

There’s not much to be said about the layout. The bases are on opposite diagonals from each other, and the blue base is considerably more open. The red base is tucked away in a corner below a long narrow drop. It’s possible to escape upwards by RF climbing, but its not reccomended because of the lenght of the drop and the size of the map. My opponent shot me in the face as soon as I managed to get up :( I don’t like the spot around 19,30 too much since I kept running into it when trying to reach the base and it would bounce me up over it. The center of the map is fairly open so expect lots of confrontations to take place there. There are 3 powerups used here, which is a bit excessive, and especially the seeker powerup makes things really chaotic. Personally I think this could’ve gotten away with only needing 1 powerup, its small and they arent far away from one another. The ammo is placed in basic patterns but its balanced out well and there’s enough of it.

There’s two carrots in this, one full energy at the center of the map and a +1 in the top left corner. I have no problems with this and its good that there is more than a full energy that people just camp. With the abundance of 2h-dealing weaponry the extra carrot doesnt seem excessive at all.

Overall, this is a pretty nice level. It reminds me of a shrunken version of Martins Carrotus Squash (I think I spelt that right? I dont remember :<) It’s good for small matches but doesn’t hold a large amount of people. There also isnt really any innovation in it, and this makes it hard for the map to stand out against dozens of other decent carrotus levels. However, it’s not a bad effort at all, and I had fun playing it. Download reccomended.

-br

Thanks, Blacky. Thanks so much. Makes it awful hard to write a decent review when you point out almost everything I was going to say… =(

Oh, well. Guess I’ll try and point out some unique things (If that’s even gonna be possible here), since my fellow reviewer’s already covered most of the basics.

Like Blackraptor said, there are some upsides and some downsides to Carrotus Lake. The layout is small, but not too much so. The level isn’t 100% symmetric, but there’s enough similarities between each half to avoid giving one player an unfair terrain advantage. Powerups did seem a bit excessive, but I think only one PU really needs to be taken out (The seeker powerup, obviously).

One thing that I DID notice that I don’t think Blacky pointed out was that two out of the three powerups were over on the right side of the map, which means that the Blue team can get them much quicker than the Red team. There’s a few tall platforms in the middle of the map (Particularly one with a one-tile hole in it) that might be better places to stash stuff, although the limited size of CL does make this pretty gnarly.

I liked how the base positions were inverted, with the Blue base on the far right side of the map where 9 out of 10 JCSers would put the red one. Changed things up a little.

I didn’t download the music, so I won’t include it in my rating.

Eyecandy was standardized, but decent enough. No real gripes here.

Ammo was distributed well, as were the carrots (although, as somebody else already pointed out, it’s pretty easy to camp the upper left zone).

In the end, I think this is a solid level that’s good for a 3-4 person match (Dang you, Blackraptor, for stealing my thunder once again!), and it’s worth a download.