Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

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

These levels were all decent, although it seemed that there was something was missing and I felt some of them were a little lacking in certain areas.

Still, nice job DS. If you ever get bored of the current popluar levels, download these.

this is pretty damn good, only 2 things i would change:

2:29 where it starts playing the normal 1 but faster doesn’t really go, i would have cut the sped up intro bit out and had it continue on a bit more smoothly

should have added some more instruments in to make it a bit busier

Nice pack. All levels are good. Best levels by you so far I think.

Very nice pack. I think that Desolate Chemistry is best battle level and After Dark is best CTF level in this pack.
Nice job Snooze, again :D

nice pack with some very good levels. dl recommendation. 9.1 is kinda overrating though.

What defines an ‘old’ computer?

another really awesome level pack. all of the levels are great imo. scrap brain is very panic!!ish, though…

…and theres a fr! +0.1 for that.

gj DS.

I’m reviewing this on behalf of the review exchange.

First of all, I really enjoy levels of uncommon gametypes. This pack only had one, but it’s one of the best assault levels I’ve ever seen. It was well thought out, however I think you could’ve used more things accessable from your base, like buyable teleport spheres or something. Overall, this is a great original level.

Because the above level was the only unique level in the pack, I will be reviewing the other levels in general.
These levels have pretty well developed eyecandy. You used some very original ideas here, such as translucent hiding spots and corridors, and the slightly less original turrets. This made gameplay fun and strategic. I found the CTF levels in specific were very evenly matched between red and blue. In the CTF levels however, I noticed less originality was used. This is made up for in eyecandy however, as you used your tilesets to some of their highest potential.

I suggest that any multiplayer fan should download this, as it offers a wide variety of levels many people will enjoy!

Originality – 9

Eyecandy – 8.5

Gameplay – 8.5

FINAL GRADE – 8.7

You have a high quality pack here!

I think, it’s best utliy ever for JCS. Becuase it’s simple to use, and what’s most important: it works.
I just tested it in my Miracle of Sun, and i have been suprised, that my level was multipled. I also added big music file… and i didn’s saw any bugs.
We was waiting for it – and it’s time to make one big ultimate world! :)

I don’t really feel like writing a long review, but this won’t be a quick review either.

These levels have some interesting concepts that haven’t been tried before.

Atom Heart 243.5 has already become popular for a lot of people, and it’s one of my favourite levels to play in. It has good eye candy and a strategical layout. Despite its size the 2 Full NRGs it has are placed with thought.

The Sun Fired Blanks is a really big level that I really like as well, but it’s not that good as Atom Heart
243.5. It also has some nice EC ideas.

Center of the Universe (this time with the right capitalization) is not just another random Diamondus Beta level, it might be a bit cramped but it’s fun to play in.

Dim0rphic has a really strange layout that’s hard to learn, I think the level is kinda underrated. It’s really big as well, and has a sense of humour. ;D

Earth is one of my favourite levels of the pack, it uses the Space Warbase tileset in a really creative way and the layout is interesting too. I remember playing here once and I had a lot of fun.

The Fights of March is a really small level that almost feels like a bonus. I think I’ve seen this level some years ago..

Greater Legacy is a really big level. It has great eye candy, the best I’ve seen with Chateau(that’s no wonder though) It’s really hard to learn, but I think that’s not a big flaw.

Central Shaft makes great use of the Pekka Kana 2 tileset, a tileset that hasn’t been used a lot before. The layout is pretty open and not too simple.

The Frozen Throne is one of the smaller levels of the pack. It’s the best use of Glacier I’ve seen, and it has some nice ideas. I remember playing a Team Battle game here and that was pretty fun.

The other versions of these levels are a nice bonus. Overall, this is a great Multiplayer pack. The pack was probably supposed to be bigger, but SJ has made some great levels. These levels are great to host sometime, and because some are pretty big they can be used for things like events too.

FS pretty much said all of the stuff I was going to say but whatever, here goes.

Both of these levels impressed me on first sight. They are both great for JDC events and also exceptional levels for the upcoming AB10. Not much to say, download these.

Holy Cow! This rocks! Now that you can save in larger levels, makes playing them more flexible and easier! Thanks!

Time for a full review!

Layout:
Good layout. Easy to use. Layout is self explanatory. Graphics aren’t that good but this IS only patch as well as it was made with some sort of program. Glad they added the warning. Nice stuff! Couldn’t be easier to use.

Buggs:
No bugs. Just run the patch on the jazz2.exe and there you go. Not bugs whatsoever.

Usefulness:
Ah what a great patch. You can not play bigger music files. (But huge ones will still do things. I played a 32 megabyte music file and my computer crashed.)You can save in big levels like QOB and the invasion of Deserto space base. Very useful!

My score:10
D/R? This is one of the most useful patches you can download. Download right now. Same goes for the 1.23 version! Download now!

when i just saw this upload i was like “haha i bet DS is gonna give this some ridiculously high rating”

Echo Isle – the first level in the pack. kinda linear and generic, it’s a shame that even after all these years people still make such layouts.. 2.5/5

Northscar Needle – the tileset is butt ugly but somehow snooze gets away with it.. probably the best level in the pack gameplay-wise. 4/5

microcrack // – it’s criminal to give such a good looking level a stupid name like this. the layout is nothing special though, better than the first level but still only average. 3.5/5

- – i find it a pain in the (-) to navigate around here when i move really fast. the tileset is cute though. 3.5/5

After Dark – probably the best all around level in the pack. i actually consider this level one of snooze’s finest levels ever, among with saint zipcode, radiation, the boneyard, teacup and clipboard chaos which i consider snooze’s best level, although it feels unfinished… anyways this level owns. 4/5

people keep saying stuff like “this time snooze focused on gameplay” and blablablabla these levels are very simple gameplay-wise.. i won’t rate this since i don’t give a (-) about battle levels but overall i give the CTF part of this pack 3.5 stars and a download recommendation.

Introduction

For some people this pack might be unexpected, but most people(including myself) knew that this pack was coming. After NAII, a pack that a lot of people liked but some people didn’t really like, it’s time for NAIII. And Snooze beats me again.. with 9 levels in a pack and he uploads his pack before I do it :(

Anyway, let’s start.

Gameplay

The layouts of the Battle levels are all relatively simple and solid. Unlike NAII, which had levels with more complex layouts. These levels have better layouts in my opinion. It’s really easy to run around and you don’t bump against things. I would call the levels’ size medium, although Water is a pretty small level. There is nothing wrong with the flow either.

The CTF levels are like the Battle levels: easy to learn, pretty simple, solid and nice layouts. The ways to the base are not extremely simple, but they’re not complicated either. For example, in After Dark the way to the base is not a straight line and it takes some seconds. Otherwise, really nice gameplay in both kinds of levels.

Eye candy

When you play levels from this pack the first thing you’ll notice is that most of the levels have a translucent background. Snooze has paid a lot of attention to the backgrounds in the levels, especially in Echo Isle. According to the author himself it took a day to create it. The eye candy in the levels is pretty original. For example, Northscar Needle not only has a good background, but it also has original eye candy in the walls(in layer 3) Another example is the eye candy in -(no wonder why the level has that kind of name). I really like the pillars there. There is enough eye candy to look at, in every level. microcrack // uses a tileset that has been used a lot before, but still it has some original eye candy. Land of Kaamos uses a tileset that’s really hard to use, but it has been used well. It has some translucent tiles like the sky. Those few things just show the creativity of the EC in the levels.

Placement of stuff

As usual, the ammo placement is good. Although Desolate Chemistry doesn’t seem to have a lot of ammo, it’s spread well. The Power-Ups in that level are placed with thought, even if they’re in dead ends. The other levels’ Power-Ups are placed well too (although Echo Isle has no Power-Ups!)

The Battle levels all have 2 carrots. In most levels the carrots are spread, but Desolate Chemistry has 2 carrots that are pretty close to each other. However, you will need the copter to reach one of them and that might take some seconds.

Most of the CTF levels have more than one carrot, but – has only one (a Full NRG). There are a few levels with one Full NRG and 2 +1 carrots, there is one level with 2 +1 carrots and there is one level with 2 Full NRGs. There is nothing to complain about here, even though I am not a big fan of levels with only one carrot.

Further comments

I really like the fact that microcrack // has sober at the bottom right corner of the level. Kurast Bazaar has the C-C-C-CHAMBER OF THE SNOOZE and there are a few other secrets in the levels. Just Find It Out.

I’m pretty sure that this pack is better than the previous parts of New Ages. I don’t really like giving ratings before something gets uploaded, because then you know what you are going to get. I just want to say that we need more levels like these: they’re awesome!

well i promised sj that i would review this, so here goes nothing.

EYECANDY:
eyecandy in these levels is really nicely taken care off, and most levels have very nice atmosphere, especially the bg layers.(Especially fiobb.j2l) my only complaint would be the Sprite layer ec in fioctff since i thought it was quite bland in some spots, but other than that, the ec is really nice.

GAMEPLAY/FLOW/LAYOUT:
gameplay is also nice, you can get around easily without bumping into stuff, and levels are sorta easy to learn (except fioctfe)
Layouts are very nice, most of them balance beetween tunnels + open areas which is good enough.

PLACEMENT:
Ammo placement is nice, ammo-flocks dont look bad, and i liked the pu’s you have placed in the levels.

OVERALL:
This is really nice pack, and most of the levels are bash-quality and some would be also good for jdc events and stuff. eyecandy is also good, and so is the gameplay. download recommendation.

(I also might adjust this review later because it sucks. ;/)

- snz -

two awesome, big levels. they’re huge, fun to play in, look great, overally awesome. hmm, 9. gj Rag :)

These are levels that I didn’t mind playing without prior experience. Although not many new concepts, there are more elaborate versions of older ones like the carrot in Evening Shades.

If you can’t think of any levels to play, then host these.