Easter9th.j2l | Easter The 9th | 17.02 kB | 09 Apr 2023 |
Here’s the usual vanilla level made using the Easter99 set. So traditional it should’ve been released in ’99, but instead it’s released this year on easter the 9th!
Don’t expect anything special. It’s just something for you to play this easter.. Or not, then I suggest you to at least enjoy the warmth of spring! :D
It’s a fine level if you like the kind of levels that Slaz makes. A bit claustrophobic and lacking in enemy variety though.
Is this a vanilla, traditional level? Well, sort of, yes. Enemies are the most basic available—thematically, if not mechanically—it’s an official tileset with the standard music, there’s nothing wild about the background use. Slaz even sacrifices an entire background layer just to controlling the speeds of the textured background, rather than let a single line of scripting take care of it. There’s not a lot to describe on these fronts because yes, this is in fact how Carrotus (or Easter) tiles go together—though, to be clear, a very strong example of the form.
But sort of, at the same time, no, tradition is being bucked here. There’s a question that lived me with the whole time I went through the level: what are all these coins for? I got to the end of the level, beat the perfunctory boss battle, and still didn’t know. I had to go in a second time to discover that there was a coin warp I simply missed the first time. Even if you do better than me and manage to notice the warp right away, I think you’re still unlikely to have enough coins the first time you encounter it. Especially because you can’t really know in advance what the target number is.
So you go back and play the level again, this time maybe somehow doing enough exploring to collect all the coins. But why? What’s the reward? Nothing too much. The reward does speed things up a bit, but if you’re replaying the level, you’ve probably already beaten it. You don’t actually need the reward to beat it. You could make a completionist argument, sure, but is it possible—and bear me with me here—the goal of playing the video game is simply to have fun?
Because this makes a lot of things about the layout make sense. This level trusts completely that you want to collect goodies and find secrets. Sometimes you even have to find secrets to progress, unless there’s yet another alternate route that I missed that would work as an alternative. But also there are large areas that aren’t necessary at all. Sometimes because they’re alternate routes to the next stage in the journey, but sometimes large areas that don’t go anywhere, that just loop in on themselves and contain goodies and secrets and things. The goal of playing these sections is playing these sections.
And collecting coins in them, I guess.
Anyway, those were the thoughts going through my head, deprived of sleep as it is this weekend. I can’t promise they have anything to do with Slaz’s actual intent with this level, which has a lot to recommend it even if you don’t stop and get confused about the meaning of coins or whatever. Slaz’s levels tend to have lots of little microsecrets and these are in full force here: some are little holes in walls, some are in the floor, some are more complicated. But they tend to be signaled. There tends to be some visual sign "secret here! try to find it!" on the wall. It’s something I associate with Slaz a lot and it works well here.
In general, this level is filled with moment-to-moment stuff. You enter a new room and suddenly you could climb those eggs, you could go up that slope, you could stomp that block. At least one of those options will probably help you progress. There’s a whole lot of use of vertical space, including clever uses of springs, and even some swinging platforms that it’s actually worth paying attention to. There’s very little flat ground, there are not dull rooms where you walk to the right while shooting lizards, there are not moments where you purely turn your brain off because it takes no work to decide what to do next.
And in that regard, this is not a usual traditional level.
Finally, a new single player level I can check out :)
This is a really fun, well crafted level. If you like secret hunting, then there’s plenty to find here, you’ll also get a large percentage of your coins in secrets, though other than for being a completionist (which luckily I am, or at least try to be) the reward is not that big of a deal, plus it’s put right at the end, before the boss room. It also gives a 1Up powerup, which is usefull I guess, but the boss and the level overall isn’t difficult.
Enemies are standard turtles and lizards, but their placement is pretty well thought out, meaning you can’t just rush through the level. Tileset is the standard Easter tileset from Secret Files, which is fine since it’s an easter themed carrotus which is already a pretty varied and userfriendly tileset, though I wouldn’t have minded something else when it comes to the music, though that’s mostly a personal thing.
It’s too bad JJ2 never incorporated the end level score for enemies and pickups like JJ1 did, because 100%-ing this level is a lot of fun, there are a ton of side areas which aren’t even necessary to finish the level, all full of mini secrets. I actually managed to find enough coins for the coin warp on my first time, since I always try to explore everything I can, when I’m enjoying a level, which in this case I certainly was.
I don’t think there’s much more to add, it’s a tightly crafted fun level, which is definitely worth playing through.
A fun level! Nothing too revolutionary, but it does a good job of throwing new things at you often enough to stay interesting, and manages to be both not completely linear and not confusing, which is no small feat.
There are some neat ideas too, like the crate you destroy by hitting it from the bottom. One of the text signs even got a laugh out of me. Overall just a nice level that’s worth playing.
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Eat your lima beans, Johnny.
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