Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Point Bonuses: +4
[+4] Great arrangement! Flawless use of volume slides and samples!

Point Deductions: -0
[0] If anything, maybe it’s too catchy… XD

Final Score: 9/10
This is your last remix? That’s terrible news… But better to go out with a bang than a whimper, I say! And bang you did!

==================Introductions==================
It are a music pack. A music pack of four random tunes — Stonar, Carrotus Gardens, Tubelectric, Crysilis. These files are of mixed quality, but this does kind of leave me at a loss. I’m…never quite sure how to review packs of things, though… I mean, one really horrid entry could easily destroy the entire overall rating of the pack, or one really superb entry could raise the ranking of the entire pack far beyond where it needs to be! I guess the easiest way to go about this is to review the pack as a whole… So that’s what I’ll do.

==================Simple Review==================
Base Score: 5/10

Point Bonuses: +3
[+1] Starts out promising…
[+2] “Pools of Light & Shadow” by itself is worth two points.

Point Deductions: -2
[-1] But quickly leads to disappointment when you realize that two of the songs in his pack bear almost no resemblence to their intended counterparts.
[-1] Tying in with the above deduction, the rest of the songs, while not absolutely horrible, don’t really feel like Jazz Jackrabbit songs anymore.

Final Score: 6/10

=================Extended Review=================
Introduction:
Really… It’s a mixed bag. I’ll give my take on each song individually here, then give my overall opinions at the bottom.

Song Analysis:
Silent Valley
I’m not exactly sure I hear Stonar in there, though… Unfortunately for the author, I genuinely cannot hear much of the original song buried within the heavy drums, deep bass, and pan flutes. The only real similarities I hear between the two songs are Stonar’s bit of melody at 1:53 and this song’s similar melody around 0:51. Well…that and the authentic Jazz Jackrabbit samples reused for this tune. As an original song, though… Not too bad.

Carrotus (Carrotene Mix)
Rather than lead up with a cheerful rise as in the original, this song chooses to drone down deep in heavy guitars right from the start. Again, the similarities between this song and the source material, “Carrotus” from Jazz Jackrabbit 2, are far and wide. I’m not entirely sure if this uses any of the original samples. The song also kind of falls into chaos around 1:20, in which the chimes start to overpower the electric guitars, causing a headache-inducing rhythm that’s not real pleasant on the ears. If it wasn’t for that one part between 1:20 and 1:43, I’d say this is a pretty good rock song despite its lack of similarity to Carrotus. This particular tune was also made to be looped, and it does indeed loop flawlessly.

Eu4ria 2.1belectria
Tubelectric. Again. Has anyone really done anything different with Tubelectric yet? Not even my “Winter Thunderland” remix was all that different if you get right down to it. But I digress.
Loudness. That’s what this particular mix is. Loudness. It uses the original samples in a number of places as well as using a number of heavy drum samples among other things. It’s not as awful as some of the things I’ve heard, but there’s a part around 1:42, and the ending part, that aren’t at all pleasant. Once again, it just ends up being a disorganized mess of loud samples around these areas. The rest of the song? Well, as a change of pace, PT32 actually made the song sound like Tubelectric. A good portion of the song is actually a lot of fun to listen to, as well. It’s not terribly different from what you’d come to expect from Tubelectric, but it has a certain appeal to it.

Pools of Light & Shadow
This. This right here. This wins. If you were going to download this pack for just one song, it would be this one. Pools of Light & Shadow is the author’s best work from this pack without a single doubt. Maybe I’m just a fan of echoing melodies, but I genuinely love this song and what was done with it. It has a beautiful sense of drama and fine arrangement that makes it of the same quality as some professional grade music. This is a true joy to listen to. And just when you’re getting used to the beautiful melodies, at 1:48 comes a huge change! It gives an image of walking through the planet and admiring the crystal caves, then having them collapse right on your head. And yet, all is not lost. 2:19 brings a peaceful, yet forever-changed landscape of a single electric guitar with deep choir in the background, leading to a slow fade-out of the song. And finally, a beautiful reminder of what once was. If the author had submitted this song by itself, I would have absolutely no qualms about giving it the high rating I think it deserves.

Sample Analysis:
The samples are clean, clear, crisp, and don’t fuzz. I’d say about half the samples come from the source material while the other half comes from wherever they came from. For the most part, they’re used well, but as mentioned in the individual song reviews, sometimes they’re just too much for that area of the song. Not much else to say about the samples.

Final Analysis:
There aren’t enough good things I can say about “Pools of Light & Shadow”. The rest of the songs I can give or take, but Pools of Light & Shadow is the main reason you’re going to want this pack. A suggestion for you, PT32, might be to upload the songs individual for a more balanced review of each, or at the very least, upload Pools of Light & Shadow by itself if you’re aiming for a popular song.

Recommendation?:
If it wasn’t obvious, I recommend this music pack purely for the beauty that is “Pools of Light & Shadow”. The song title tells you exactly what to expect: light and shadow.

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“FawFul stole my tagline! I HAVE FURY!!!”
Your friendly neighborhood S3M/MIDI artist, Joseph “Doc Lithius” Collins

Eyecandy starts out mediocre and gets considerably worse. As for gameplay, there really isn’t much of any. This is one of the easiest packs I’ve ever played; there are way too many enemies, but they’re placed without any real thought, making them nonthreatening.
That said, it’s not horrible. Short, easy, and boring, but not horrible.

I liked the castle, carrotus, and sluggion level with the water, but the others were kinda meh.

Things I liked:
- Puzzles that required a bit of backtracking
- Difficult, but not impossible bosses (Bolly took me about 4 tries)
- Good eyecandy on the carrotus level – less so with the other levels
- Enough carrots to sooth my FIERCE ANGER AGAINST ANNOYING THINGS LIKE…

Things I didn’t like:
- Wasted space (eg: open areas with little to interest me
- Getting forcibly thrown into spikes or baddies. You can get away with it when the player is at full health, but at 1 heart it’s stupid and does not belong in the level. You may know they’re coming, but the PLAYER doesn’t.
- Regenerating enemies (a little warning would have been nice)
- Repetitive eyecandy (the swinging spike balls in the castle level)
- Did I mention spike balls? Use them sparingly, or at least be more creative at killing the player.
- No way out of the big spike pit on the carrotus level.

To make your levels better:
- Make better use of empty space
- Try not to annoy the player by killing him/her. You can make your levels challenging without putting baddies and spikes everywhere.

Otherwise, these levels were pretty good. I was hoping to gain a little inspiration by playing someone else’s levels but I didn’t encounter many new ideas here.

• Treasure Hunt? Nope, there are no gems.
• CTF? Nope, there are no bases.
• Battle? Maybe, but there are spikes and no generators events.
• Singleplayer? There’s no exit.
• Co-op, Race? The same reason.
• Ground Force? Of course not.
• Hotel? I don’t think so.
• Domination, Jailbreak, Team Battle, anything else? Probably not.

So tell me please, WHAT IS THIS, because I can’t rate it!

Improved a LOT.(for you) :D but also boring…

Now Im wondering, how did unfinished sp level pack without any story get 9.3? That’s strange…

Amazing level, funny and nice, this level will make you smile!

This is one of the best levels I ever played! Nice tileset, it gives me the sensation of calming down every-time I play one of your levels! All respect, man. Peace!

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

It’s a ‘decisive’ level, thus making look too linear. It could be better.

No Orbitus 2 fix?

Well,this level i do like and its really cool…The eyecandy is good :)
the gameplay is good too,erm…there are some open spots but i think archer edited it XD…and didnt upload it ok i give it an 9.7.
(For credit)

Sorry, but this level is an insult to beer.

‘‘Fatal Error in fileRead on file ‘‘MiniGolf.j2l’‘, error: Input past end of file.’‘

Please fix that.

It’s a nice level, but the tileset’s using could be better. The background was really good, but a little ‘wild’. The game-play is bad, even if you jump and do some smart moves you will ‘‘eat it’‘ easily. Some of the PU’s are hard to be founded and reach them in a short timing. I can’t say more now, I have to do smt. :D

I don’t know if I recommend this or not. It only cares about your ‘taste’.

The 4th level of the castle has some interesting gimmicks, but otherwise this is a frustrating level not worth the trouble.

The eyecandy is repetitive. You don’t have to have big open rooms on every floor. You could have made a tower a less linear layout.

The difficulty is annoying, but it’s not really hard. After running into one set of spikes, you can breeze through the rest. One room is a bunch of warps that you have to do in the correct order. Unfortunately, the warps send you straight into spike balls and there’s no way to avoid them. To add insult to injury, if you get hurt after going through a warp you get sent back because the entrance/exit is right beside it. This is where I gave up on the level. There are also coins that cannot be obtained because they’re at the edge of the level.

You might find it playable, pjshwa, but you should think of the person playing the level when you create it.

Okay, I decided to rate this when I saw it being marked as ‘Good File!’. This is a CTF level by tropiCCo made with the IC Sluggion-tileset, a set I don’t see that often.

Okay, the first thing I notice about this level is how tropiCCo used layer 3 A LOT. Really, it can get quite annoying at for instance the blue base or the Full NRG (and the spring @ 9,48). And I don’t like how the grass ‘hides’ most springs, especially when you’re not too familiar with the level. What I do like is the use of ambient lightning, especially in combination with the darker layer 5 tiles. You also used most eyecandy tiles, which is always good, and the eyecandy isn’t too repetitive or too .. let’s say uninspired.

Well, now about the gameplay. I didn’t actually play it, but it seems quite balanced. I like the left carrot placement, I’m not too sure about the right one, but having an alternative makes it less important anyway. And a warp that close to a base is asking for lag-troubles, I think.

Well, the ammo-placement is okay, it’s more the ammo-choice that might be questionable. At least the two main PU’s (Gun 4 and 6) are not directly in between both bases (so you’ll have to spend more time to get one or the other). Oh, the flow’s decent by the way, tho I don’t really like Float Up’s.

One more thing: I kinda like this background! ^ ^ Congratz on joining XLM.

This level is so, but so fun! All the messages are so funny and colored, and the pinball scene is really… engaging. You have to try this, even if it is for TSF!

Well well well this is very good remix. I like it very much, all samples are ok, but I like part 2:11-2:28 the best part :D. Also maybe you can join CT if Faw agree on that, and you want join.

This level is very small, bases reminds me on Golem Landscapes and I found 5 tilebugs on pos 31,42 ;under bouncer, under 48,40 ; 34,13 ; 88,39 ; 77,20. Nothing special with eyecandy, also nothing special with BG, textured without any color. Symmetrical CTFlvls are too bad because I think that you don’t have any idea,you just want upload sth :D