Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This level manages to stay relatively true to a traditional JJ2 single player level while introducing plenty of new twists on top of it. There are the usual enemies (with a black coat of paint), coins and gems (ehh skulls) to collect, and crates to stomp in order to progress. On the other hand there are sticky swinging platforms on rails, black blobs a.k.a. void that hurts you, rewarding praying spots, bombs that make the ground act like a springcord, and more.

Overall the level design is linear with some secrets and small detours here and there. Not very difficult but enough challenge to keep you alert at all times. The environmental hazards are definitely going to hit you more than the enemies. Especially those blobs placed right above springs were tedious to avoid with proper timing.

The aesthetics stand out with visual props everywhere. The repetitive music is not really a problem since this level took me just a bit longer to complete than the original JJ2 levels.

I did experience some FPS drops to around 15 – 20 in a few places when a lot of void blobs were on the screen at once. Different computers and OSes perform better or worse, but it shows that scripted levels can be CPU heavy at times!

And at last, the boss is original in that it doesn’t have it’s head as the weak spot. Video games quickly make you learn that heads are what you’d hit for the biggest damage. Not here! It’s innovative and makes you use different parts of your brain to beat it. Also, it’s weak spot is also it’s safe spot at times.

Thanks for reading this drunk nighttime review, now go and play this!