Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Brilliant level pack!
These levels are definitely worthy of being included in AB10.
GJ Snooze! =D
Download recommended!

Good level pack. I liked the level After Dark a lot, especially. Did you have to use the Sluggion theme, though? I hate that stupid song. Anyways, most of these levels were really good, a few of them I can’t say I loved. Download reccomendation, overall.

Let’s review!!

6 Hour Energy Drink
Wow. I love this level. Like, I’m not kidding. There’s just something about it. The layout is so simple and boring, but I just love the way this level plays. The tileset is used wonderfully, the level looks absolutely gorgeous. Really, this level is fairly small, but at the same time it’s not cramped, and you could have a decent chase in it. There are soda cans placed around for you to get a sugar rush on, or in this level’s case, energy drinks. Very clever. I like this level a lot. Gave me a really good first impression of the level pack.

Darker Remains
This level’s okay. I guess maybe I just had higher expectations because I liked the first level so much. Anyway though, I enjoyed this level. The layout’s nice, and there’s plenty of room in this level to fit a bunch of players in. I defiinitely give Dark Sonic props for using this tileset. It’s really, really hard to use. Overall the level is pretty, but some of the places look really, well, ugly. I dunno. This one tile is used in a lot of places that just doesn’t work at all. Look around 85, 15. That tile’s just really overdone. Overall, this level’s good, but nothing I’d host.

Scrap Brain
This level’s really great. The tileset is used really well, the level looks really pretty. But that’s not why it’s great! The layout is just awesome. Like, I dunno. Again, it’s nothing special. It’s just a basic layout. But it’s just done really well. There are a million and one places where you can suddenly stop short, change your path, and confuse your enemy who was chasing you. You can jump into a few walls to grab carrots, cut a jump short and climb down some wires, or just, like, I dunno. This level’s just really good. I’d love to have a duel here, I think it’d be really fun. The downfall of this level is the music. If you know me, you’ll know that I absolutely hate the Sluggion theme. I think one time I attempted to rate a level lower than it should’ve been because they used the Sluggion song, but I’ll let you off and just mute the music if I play this level online.

Mixxed Up
I dunno if we have two different versions of the tileset with different masking, or this level just wasn’t tested properly, but when I was trying to test this, I kept falling off the bottom of the level. I dunno. This level is nice and all, it’s pretty, but you fall off the bottom of the level, and that’s never a good thing. I’ll cut my review short on this one because obviously something’s going on here.

Unreal Surreality
I dunno, I really don’t like this level. It’s too cramped up, the eyecandy is confusing, and the layout is boring and symmetrical. I mean it’s not a terrible level but I just really don’t like it. I don’t think you could have a decent game in this level. The base placement is clever, but not pulled off too well, it’s just annoying. It’s too hard to get around the level. I don’t mean to bash it, but I just can’t find anything I enjoy about this level.

Colorful Compact
Another level I just can’t really bring myself to like. This one’s better, but I didn’t enjoy it. The layout seems very confusing, and the eyecandy, although it appears a lot of time was put into it, is just very ugly, to be honest. This level flows okay, but I really don’t like the layout all that much.

Street Pass no. 3
I’m not at all familiar with this gametype. In fact, I couldn’t figure out what the heck to do in this level, so it’s hard to write much about it. I dunno. Again, a very hard tileset was used so I give a lot of props for that, and the level looks really pretty. I particularly enjoyed the flow here a lot. Everything seems to go together nicely. I’ll cut the review there, though, since I have no idea with Flag Run is.

Overall, I enjoyed the battle levels that Dark Sonic made for this pack, but the CTF levels were very disappointing. I’d reccomend this for download.

This tileset is just really good. It’s super hard to build with, but if you put time into a level, it’ll look amazing. 9.5 works for this.

Ok, we’ll do a quick review here.

This level’s fairly solid, and has an interesting concept that I’m not sure if I’ve seen before, especially in a battle level like this. When you spawn, you are assigned a random class, rather than choosing your own. There are a few classes that are assigned. Great Ballz of Fire gives you bouncy ammo and a toaster powerup, wallhacker gives you RF missile ammo and a bouncy powerup, Rocket N00b gives you seekers and an RF missile powerup, and napalm gives you toaster ammo and a seeker powerup.

I’ll have to add that I am very satisified with the balance of the classes. The way the level is layed out, you may get a powered up weapon that works great with the level’s layout, but then your secondary weapon that you simply received ammo for will be fairly useless. Take the napalm class for example. Most people agree that powered seekers are pretty much the ultimate weapon in any level. However, along with the powered seekers, you get toaster ammo, which is pretty useless in this level because it’s so open, and there are so many slopes.

As for the overall gameplay and the layout, it’s not bad, but it’s not great, either. I was a little disappointed by the overall layout, I think all in all it seems a little too open and boring. Nothing too special going on with the layout. I mean, like I said, it’s not bad, but it could be better. The level flows nicely, overall. It’s more than milk, but not quite a milkshake, ya know what I mean?

Eyecandy.. Well, it’s certainly interesting. I didn’t design this tileset to be used this way, let’s put it that way, hah. I kinda like it. Anything wrong with the eyecandy in this level I take partial blame for. All in all, everything just looks really weird. Like funny shaped trees, and cave formations all over the place. It works, it looks kinda cool, to be honest.

Overall, this level plays pretty nicely, and I wish I got a chance to play it online. But I didn’t. So that’s really all I have to say on this. Overall, I give it a 7.3 out of 10. Slightly leaning towards 7.4, but we’ll do 7.3.

Mmmmm… this isn’t very good.
I played only the single player part with Jazz2 TSF.

Eyecandy
No, no, no. Awful. Gus’s Multiuse1 can offer lots and lots of opportunities, but you used a really very small part of it. The level is quite flat, even if the backgrounds aren’t so bad. The foregrounds are empty, except for the 3^rd^ layer, that has only technical stuff, like covering the entrance of the secrets. Right about this I noted that they aren’t made perfectly (you can see a part of Jazz’s feet). Also, the last part of the game is full of problems. First, and maybe it isn’t your fault, the villain doesn’t move well here. Second, in the pits you should have placed the CTF Base instead of the hurt event, because you would die immediately, without waiting you to lose all the energy. Third, the StopXscroll events aren’t placed well, because sometimes you may return back and remain exactly on the border, so you can’t move how you should. Only the first problem about the last part is considered in this section (the others have nothing to do with eyecandy, but here I keep them together).
Score: 3.5

Gameplay
Ok, let’s see what does the level contain. First, you start with a dialog between the miller and Jazz/Spaz, in which he says that a villain has stolen his windmill and you have to re-buy it for 100 € (coins); in the second part you start your search; in the last you have to chase the villain and take back the windmill.
Part n°1: I think you only let it go too fast; I would have left less space between the text events and reduced the speed. Nothing particular.
Part n°2: here you have to search 100 coins on your way. Notice that there isn’t any real secret, because you can always see where are the coins. There’s nothing particular until you reach the warp at (111, 46); here you have to zig-zag in order to reach some money and the warp. I don’t like how this part is made: I think you should have placed some rectangles of visible warps instead of walls and some walls at the begin and at the end of that part. After that there’s another interesting thing. Here you have to reach some money by disabling 5 doors: you might choose the right combination. Even if you need some time to realize what is all that stuff, I think it’s made well, except for the way you have to change the combination. Next, you return to the beginning and go in the warp on the villain.
Part n°3: now, you run after the villain without falling into the pits. Here’s another big problem, besides the others: after pos. (51, 9) there’s a sort of gorge to jump over; doing it with spaz is only a matter of luck, because after it there’s a fire column.
Score: 5.8

Originality
Maybe it’s the best thing of this level, even if there are some scratches. Very good the idea of a personal boss, of the tubes in the last part of the game and the “SAFE” in the middle part; also, the blue gem at the end of the level is a good idea. But, as I said, there are also some bad things; for example, it’s difficult that when you go to Holland the first person you meet asks you to re-buy his windmill; it’s difficult for the villain to become a haiku poet (whatever it is ;-) ) if you destroy him, it’s too easy to obtain the money, etc.
However I want to encourage you: I believe originality is the most important thing of an episode/level, and I think you are good in this sphere. If you continue to create levels, the eyecandy, the gameplay, etc. will be better and better; just keep on, don’t stop.
Score: 7.8

Ammo and goodies placement
The ammo is very bad, the goodies are quite good.
The only special weapon you have is the TNT, that helps you with the lots of dest sceneries you find. Nothing else.
The goodies, instead, aren’t bad, because the carrot are in a good number.
Score: 5.8

Enemy placement
It’s okay.
There is a generator for each enemy (and I don’t know why).
The pros are: the enemies are homogeneously placed in the level, and they aren’t in contrast with their evinronment
The cons are: there aren’t any skill settings, there are only two kinds of enemies in the whole level (except for the boss, of course).
Score: 6.0

FINAL SCORE: 5.7

Tip: try to modify your level with the suggestions in the reviews, so you can use it as a model for your future levels.

I think this is trying to be Running Rabbit but I’m afraid to say this is no where near the quality of that. The level was finished in like 10 seconds. Also, why have RF Blocks been used for Buttstomp scenery?? :O
The background is not good, it looks a mess.
No download recommendation, but don’t let it put you off making levels. Keep trying! :)

i don’t see what is wrong with this, i think it suits technoir very well, it’s a bit darker than the normal technoir music but that’s fine, the main instoment could have been a little lower pitched and the intro could have been less explody

[Review changed to quick review. For more information, see Review Rules. – cooba]

Really, this is a nice looking tileset, but it’s just not big enough! What’s here looks great, but I wanna see more stuff, like caves, mushrooms, birds’ nests, waterfalls, and some more gruesome trolls!!

I love the idea, and it’s pulled off pretty well too. I think this tileset could make a really nice looking level if used correctly. Some of the stuff gave me a good laugh, too, like the Shaney-torches. All in all, this is a pretty cool set.

This level would be probably more popular if it wasn’t for TSF only. Anyway, it seems to be a quite decent piece of work, using the JJ1 Deserto tileset conversion.

In ‘Desert Trench-Warfare’ the gameplay is mostly molesting narrow tunnels or fighting above large sand dunes. The flow of course in a level like this wouldn’t be the easiest. The fact that there isn’t a certain spring or float up assisting you with moving might make you wonder; “how the heck am I able to move in a level this large then?” Well, the level only feels large because of it’s width. There isn’t really a lot of heighth in it. But even in the tunnels you will be needing your jump all the time, because stone bricks and other scenery slow down your movement. As well, there are triggered tunnels that give a nice twist to the layout. Outside, you instead are able to move easier, but then you are already in a dangerously open area, especially if you are chased. Bases lie in the very edges of the level obviously, meaning you come to a dead end when capturing or scoring. Technical problems are the lack of complete mask on the edges of the levels, causing capture-bug, as well badly masked walls that are easy to get stuck into.

Eyecandy is appreciateable, but could be improved a lot. There isn’t a textured background, which doesn’t matter everyone though. The default mountains are in the background as well. Solid wall seems often just bland plain sand, although there are dunes here and there. More waterfalls could probably enhance the looks of the black tunnels, but perhaps that wouldn’t fit to the theme.

Healing yourself here seems to be quite a hard task with a lot of players. There are 3 PowerUps for Toaster, Bouncer, and RF-missiles. Also those are the only ammo you will find from the level. Mostly from your path in the tunnels, but also basements contain ammo wisely for defending. As ammo can be that effective, you will find it really difficult to heal yourself with just two minor carrots, eventhough they spawn during ten seconds.

After all, this level could work for real games and stuff, would be just have to be made sure that no player touches the edges with flag. Luckily that is unlikely to happen accidentally. I would probably like this level much if the technical bugs were removed, eyecandy was boosted majorly and the tactical side of the level was more balanced. So far this good. I would say it is worth it for fun-gaming anyway, so download it this once. Keep up progressing Valco!

SJ

i like it. a bit quiet (hmm that actually isn’t a problem as i play stuff loud) and short, but nevertheless nicely done.

wahhh…

Gameplay

Well, I must say this level has a good flow, it has no dead ends and no irritating things you bump into all the time. However, there are too many things which make you move, like sucer tubes, warps and poles. Too many warps cause that few people know where they are all leading to. You have to know this level well to get the maximum out of it, which is also a good point. Especially in the middle there are some floating platforms, you should have tried to stay to the pattern of the sides and attach more platforms to eachother to form bigger ones. Those were all the negative parts. The open spaces were nicely dealt with so that they did not form any problem.

Eyecandy

This level has great eyecandy, especially for a nature level. You gave it a lot of colours and movement, There are many things to see, also on the foreground, ammo is placed in nice shapes and layer four is also nicely decorated. You must have had a lot of work on the eyecandy.

Originality

In the bottom of the level are some gaps, you decided to not place pits there but to make sucer tubes which hold you down for a few seconds and then blow you up. Also there are falling apples in the top corners of the level and there are some nice ‘freeze enemy/sucer tube combinations’ which bump you all over the level and must have been made by a smart person.

Gameplay: 7.5
Eyecandy: 8.5
Originality: 8.5

Final Grade: 8.2

That looks great :D.. however jazz himself looks a bit ugly.. ;o.
but i am sure u pwn my artwork <3

This is a very good song!
Thank you! :D

Alike New Ages had it volume 3 recently, also Impressions-series continues on with a third level pack. The pack here is a bit smaller though, as well it is more focused on battle-levels. As the title says, there has been some sort of Evolution.

The pack kicks off with ’6 Hour Energy Drink’, a rather small and solid battle-level with it’s neat looks. DarkSonic has been creative to keep you interested to play here. ‘Energy Drinks’ that in the end will make you rush at your opponents. Flow seems good, as well the rest of the pickups. The layout though isn’t anything special and the level itself would be just another random level using this tileset if it wasn’t this solid, and if the background wasn’t as innovative.

‘Darker Remains’ is pretty good use of the fresh Castle-set by Blade. That one is probably the better battle-levels out there, cause it’s excellent visuality and limited enough gameplay. Positions for Pickups is suitable in overall as well.

In ‘Scrap Brain’, the thing is to use your brain. It is mostly about controlling the two MCE-carrots at the top-level, as there are PowerUps placed very close to them. The level is somewhat different compared to the previous level by DS using this tileset, ‘Panic!!!’. Still, the eyecandy is what makes this remind me about it.

‘Mixxed Up’ seems to be relative to ’6 Hour Energy Drink’ with it’s name. Using also a new, fresh, Waste Treatment Facility-tileset by Cooba, it goes far to the better side of battle-levels, because it’s nice eyecandy and more tactical layout. The level utilises pits. Just too bad they are only few. Pickups are where they should be, and I don’t see ice useless either, despite the pits aren’t that risky.

My favourite level in the pack is ‘Unreal Surreality’-CTF, that is very unconventional. You could imagine the top-area is the warground mainly here, and below are pits, but instead the bottom-area is what makes this so abnormal. The bottom-area is where the only PowerUps lie, and is also the fastest route to travel between the narrow bases with flying-ability. That way the gameplay is well spread around the space here. I would probably know a better name for this level, but guess I’ll save it for one of my own.

‘Colourful Compact’ is a more default CTF-level. The PowerUps are placed somewhat unwise, and I was already looking for some variety instead of the very usual Bouncer and Toaster. I’m not either sure if two minor carrots fit here. Eyecandy is colourful, only barely not too colourful to confuse your eyes. Unfortunately this one seems to be the worst level in the pack, not by a lot, but still.

What I was most interested about in this pack at first, was the Street Pass No. 3, using the new FlagRun-gametype, and fairly new Desolation-tileset both by BlurredD. After fixing the few minor glitches here, the level seems to work fine, probably in practical use as well. It is going to be sort of crowded here in big JDC-events for example, so I guess this suits 2vs2/3vs3 FR more. The flag-spot could be less campable though, and bad is that this level is just too much like all other flagrun-levels. I can’t either find any “street” here.

Yet another VIP (Very Important Pack) from this month, or something…Alike NA III, also Impressions 3 has gone through improving, just not as much as it could. Download the pack and have a try of each level. It might be after all more like taste with the Energy-drink concepts and all, but I’d say not all the levels here are evenly decent. All work out though, and definitely ‘Unreal Surreality’ is the big diamond of the pack that raises the pack’s worth even more. I would say this month is one of the greatest with that result of upload quantity-quality comparison. I believe this is promising for the whole year, and upcoming Anniversary Bash 10 as well. DS is one another we can thank for that.

SJ

Old computer meand windows 95, 98 and 2000. New is Windows vista.

Most certainly worth the trouble of downloading. Awesome levels in general.

You go, dude! You go!

I put in ‘The Fights of March’ to be a level for those, who thought the levels in my pack were way too big. However, I don’t myself consider it to be much related to the pack since it was finished so long time ago. You could possibly call it ‘a bonus’, yeah.

The New Ages-series seems to continue on from Snooze. This time the step of improving is long. The ‘story’ doesn’t apparently go ahead anymore though, but instead the levels themselves are epic alone. Which makes it much more entertaining for me at least.

‘Land of Kaamos’, that is probably supposed to be the first level of the pack, creates a very dark and cool atmosphere over the level, that the name stands for. You can barely see the background in fullscreen, windowed players might think it’s just plain black, until the effects of ‘northern lights.’ This level though has it’s fun moments with the gameplay. It might be a bit limiting, but isn’t too crowded at all. Luckily it doesn’t get too tactical since carrots are placed far away from each other.

‘Kurast Bazaar’ is my favorite battle-level of the pack, being another dark level with a mysterious and creepy spirit, enhanced by the good music choice. The level just looks neat everywhere, despite the darkness. I also like how the gameplay doesn’t just stick to the center of the level, but you are able to hide as well. Here you may indeed look out for secrets…secrets that contain PowerUps for instance!

One of the smaller levels in the pack is ‘Water.’ Perhaps the name means a Water Pumping Station, possibly something else. Eventhough it’s smaller, it isn’t much worse than the other battle-levels in the pack. The moving background is a nice effect, but might bore for a longer playing-session. Gameplay is solid, to say at the least. I consider the positions of carrots, PowerUps, and especially ammunition balanced.

‘Desolate Chemistry’ has a very similar concept to the previous level. The gameplay is entirely different though. PowerUps have been thought about well, but instead the carrots are both to the right side of the level. I would have liked another of them to be placed into the empty bottom-left room. For a change, it is nice that this level utilises pits as well.

‘Echo Isle’ is a good use of the Islands-tileset by Blade. Background is very original, though solid walls look bland mostly. The layout is simple, although so it was in WC3. Bonus is though the decent placement and the fact, that the level is only partly symmethric.

‘Northscar Needle’ is probably my favorite level in the whole pack. It is the only symmethric level, but with this gameplay it works. I haven’t seen this tileset used a lot before, especially not this well. This level should be the most practical from a player’s view. The tubes above bases could be easier to reach though.

‘microcrack’ has a more classical Snooze’s layout, that contains two full energies. It reminds me a bit about ‘Teacup’, although this one is just way more open and better-looking. Some electroblaster would be useful here, but it still works with more than 2 players.

At this point you would possibly start wondering, when is he starting to recycle his previous levels? Well, that would probably take a while, since the only unnamed level of the pack is completely different apart from the rest of the pack, and is still fun to play in. Never does the author bore to decorate the levels the way like this either. This level has the bases separated more in vertical dimensions, yet the layout is still horizontal. That explains the situation of the full energy in the somewhat “middle.”

The last level, that is named ‘After Dark’ is perhaps a bit too Eyecandy-focused. That doesn’t mean the level is bad by it’s layout nor that it would be practically useless. It is a more tunnely level of the pack and that way reminds me of ‘The Boneyard’ from NA I. This one is still much better than it. I feel a little unsure about what the name exactly means here, but since the previous levels were mostly dark or twilight, this must be the lighter side of the pack. Refreshing.

I quite much liked the eyecandy-side of this pack, giving a boost to the gameplay-side that wasn’t left unimportant, since the pack finally had some original concepts and stuff to bring with it. The way that pickups were put in satisfies me as well, because it is after all quite important that an imbalance or hard-to-pick-up stuff are sometimes things that ruin levels a bit, or a bit more in general.

This pack is so far easily the best in the New Ages-series. What can I say? Download, host and play this often. It isn’t just about a few good/neat levels, but the entire pack is worth a try. Nice work etc.

P.S. Up for a duel in ‘Echo Isle’? ;0

SJ