Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

The Crazy Christmasbattle 2007 doesn’t quite live up to its name, but there are many notable features in this level, and among them, the bonus warp, the water, all the V poles, and of course the hour glasses. To sum it up, it’s 180×72, consists of two towns on each side, a few large platforms in the middle, and a cave under the right town.

EYECANDY
The level looks very average. There are only a few tilebugs (remember to cover all the spots around the windows, not just the actual window frame, or parts of your rabbit will stick out). For the most part, the surroundings look like a typical HH98 level. I found nothing really original in the eyecandy, and sometimes it was a bit plain, especially in the middle, which is the emptiest part of the level, with only two L-shaped platforms.

Technopauluz has opted to use a third layer of mountains in layer 5, which I suppose is slightly original, but it takes away from the level, as layer 5 is usually the most important background eyecandy layer. A tileset like HH98 lacks a lot of transition tiles, so eyecandy is made MUCH more flexible using layer 5.

Simple things like putting those large, brown trees in the background, changing the colour of the layer 8 sky, and using more of those foreground streetlights would make a real difference. Remember to use all available tiles in a tileset.

GAMEPLAY
The level has mostly good flow, but the water and the poles really slow you down unnecessarily. I see no reason why water was included, and it looked slightly out of place too. Always be careful of where you place poles. In Crazy Christmasbattle, they’re at the exit of every cave, which really makes you think twice about entering it in the first place, especially if you’re being chased. I also didn’t like the time-delayed springs, as people aren’t likely to stick around for long in one place (I’ll get to that later). Watch out for pointless dead-ends. There are two of them in the right town.

The level is quite large, but has no carrots, nor does it have any power-ups apart from a few for the freezer gun. More power-ups are only available by entering the bonus warp. Players really do move around a lot in the level, as there are virtually no places worth camping.

Areas above the bubbles are slightly Spaz biased as Jazz/Lori can only reach one platform of the two, but it’s not a big deal.

Like the eyecandy, everything feels quite average. It’s not bad, but you feel there’s nothing different here. The level has an interesting bonus system though. It really is Christmas, as entering the bonus warp does not directly give you anything, but instead drops a goodie down somewhere else in the level for anyone to take. There is a large range of “drop-downs” available, and none respawn. I feel there should be more coins available, so players can enter the warp more often. It’s a good attempt to keep the gameplay interesting, but it’s quite random, and it’s tediuos to enter the coin warp again and again, with nothing but a few crates dropping down.

The hour glasses are another novelty. As the author said, you can shoot them down to get in the way, but people mostly jump over them. Try to test your level online as much as possible, and note the spots where people congregate, or don’t. If nobody ever goes to a place, then it is simply useless space.

OVERALL RATING
This is a well-built level, though not so well-designed, and I can see a lot of effort has been put into the level. I’m sure it’s possible to have a lot of fun in it with enough people going into the bonus warp, but the rest is nothing we haven’t seen before, so the rating won’t be very good. See this level as a learning experience, and a stepping stone to better levels.

I was searching for good new tilesets and have found this one. It’s rank 5 in the tileset category, so it Has to be good… I thought. But as I opened it in JCS, it shocked me. This fastly-Painted small tileset is rated even better than Disguise’s tilesets. It doesn’t deserve to.
So, here’s my review:

Theme:
It’s supposed to be a factory-theme, but I can’t really recognize it.
0/1

Main tiles:
Well, there are all necessary ground tiles. They’re untextured and look boring. Furthermore, vines, poles and suckertubes are missing.
0.5/3

Eyecandy:
There isn’t any eyecandy besides the well done animations.
0/2

Background:
Nothing special. Just a textured bg and some ugly buildings for Layers 6&7
0.5/2

Animations:
I think the animations are well done in this tileset. There are also switches, which are missing in many other tilesets.
1/1

0+0.5+0+0.5+1=2 +1 because “1” is the lowest Rating on J2O
Final Rating:* 3 *

Try to use some textures, more tiles and find a better theme for your next tileset!

This is really nice level since it has unique gameplay. im not really sure what makes this level unique, since it uses default tileset and all that stuff, but eh, my guess is that its because of the vertical-based gameplay. the layout is symmetrical though, and usually symmetric layouts are very boring, but this one is not. also, the pits are nice touch.

there’s also lots of powerups, and four carrots, which is unique for this size. first i wasnt sure how it works out, but now that i’ve played through level a bit, and been looking around and stuff, i can say that it works out here. the powerups are nicely chosen too, there’s even ice one. there’s also two coinwarps, which lead to carrots i think.

eyecandy is pretty good for this set, since this is quite limiting tileset in some cases. however, fs managed to make a level which looks nice, and doesn’t look boring, so thats nice.

i don’t have anything more to say, except that this is indeed very unique level. download recommendation.

(im sorry about this bad review >:()

RATING The Invasion Of Deserto

I said one thing: I not like wild tilesets(like deserts and jungles) so much. but this episode was change that.

so:
EYECANDY

Good points:
Apart from using of Jazz 1: Ihlvndi tilesets i like your the secret level, your “The Castle” level, but i liked so much the smart way you used in Jazz 1: Ihlvndi and the way you use it to create the “Temple” tileset. Good job!
BAD POINTS: ?
Total: 100/100

GAMEPLAY

Good points:
Some levels are huge with a lot of traps! I liked it!
AND… In “Deserto City” you use on a lot of things what do the gameplay to difficult!
Bad Points: too hard or easy levels.
TOTAL: 95/100

STORY:
Great! very creative!
TOTAL: 100/100

EVENT PLACEMENT:
Good points:
The events are placed well! lot of enemies. so the items!
Bad points: Lot of levels are placed with GUN 8 Pepper Spray-It’s too weak weapon. You can replaceit with GUN 2-Launcher or GUN 6-Flamethrower.
TOTAL: 95/100

MUSIC:
i cant rate it because i didn’t download the music… :-P

RATING: 97.5 ~ 98 = 9.8
DOWNLOAD? YES!

Response to Rotesta:

No, It dosen’t work

RATING Unconventional Coffee

‘Unconventional Coffee’? So complicated name, and so UNUSUAL level!

so:

EYECANDY
Good points:
Very unusual eyecandy. big level. Smart use in one of the Epic’s involved tilesets. Nice!
Bad points:
PLEASE Help me to find bad points!
I didnwt find! :-)
Total: 100/100

GAMEPLAY
VERY UNUSUAL!!
LOTS OF SECRETS!
SO LOVELY!!
Total: 100/100

PLACEMENT
This is the FIRST CTF level i downloadED USING food, some goodies(like Freeze Enemies)
BUT i liked the Traps!!
SMART!! COOL!!
Total: 100/100

Music:
You do a smart way to not select “Colony.j2b”-It’s sucks. but NICE MUSIC!!
Total: 100/100

RATING: 100/100=10
Download? YES!

p.s: you can use “Town House Lite”- TSF Tileset converted to 1.23. I think is better than colon.

i was download this and when i run the exanple level i get pink interface(the points and all the jj2 interface). why is that?

the best of all 5 episodes. maybe keeping it shorter was the way to make it fun, but there were many original ideas also! i liked the frog-based levels (i like froggy:p) the levels were enjoyable and easier than the previous ones and that made it fun.
the tileset was improved a lot since the first episode so it made the levels look much better.
the end boss level was also good. Trying to turn off the four buttons. But a familiar end boss would be more surprising (like the whole big enemy was one of our end bosses.) so we could fight with him face to face after this end boss level.
Anyway, the final episode was the best one. takes a 7.6—7.7 from me!

by the way, thanks for writing my name in the credits! i did nothing but to review :)

I’m late. Almost a year later and I decide to review this level…

I feel a need to as after a certain period of time standards change and levels can been seen through different lights and I’ve decided to try reviewing levels this way from now on.

Now to begin with the review, this is Blackraptors’ best released level by far. To start off, the main appeal of the level is the theme and look. Now here’s where I start stating my personal opinions. It’s obvious Blacky was aiming for a random chaotic look, and the theme seems heavily influenced by death metal, in that aspect, this level still retains its originality. Even after other levels that have copied certain eyecandy aspects still have not captured the same style presented in this level.

Now here’s where I state the problems with the eyecandy, yes, you heard me, there are problems with the eyecandy. Unlike what other people here may have you believe, the eyecandy was a thin line between being butt ugly and brilliant. To support the eyecandy the level had to be totally reliant on the theme, which justified some of the chaotic uses in the level…HOWEVER some uses simply DID NOT WORK; like the purple pillar tiles did not tile and clashed horribly with the black tiles, and they were used quite a lot in certain places and some other uses around the level were borderline ugly. Ambient lighting helps hide this to some extent but keep in mind the level is relatively big and some people need to free up fps to play seriously in jdc events or in servers where a lot of players will abound, and this level was designed for a lot of players, so turning off ambient lighting will be a common thing and will reveal the eyecandy flaws to a large enough extent where it will be distracting. Now there are a lot of levels that have recieved rather low ratings for simple mistakes like tiling problems.

That aside, the eyecandy and theme were awesome, as Blacky used the complex method mixed in with efficient placing (for example the pulsating large purple pillar at the center of the level) which is rarely seen. Whatever unconventional uses that worked were also quite amazing. So in my opinion this level has a great theme but the eyecandy is not perfect.

Now on to the gameplay, and this is where the review starts revealing important, unstated facts about how the chasm really plays. The two reviews above, although well written, do not state much about the layout and gameplay, which I will go into detail here. The basic layout is two chasm-esque parts at the right and left side of the level, separated by rather long and linear paths. The layout is really quite simple and not very strategic. There are some nice tactics, like the tube which can be used to change direction, but since the paths are so close, this tactic will not produce much of a different outcome if it hadn’t been added, but other than that, the level mostly consists of running and shooting. Ofcourse the level does nothing wrong as far as flow is concerned, but as we all know perfect flow in battle levels means little strategy and more weapon spam. Since most of the level is linear wherever you go, this makes the RF powerup the most powerful weapon in the level and this will cause plently of fake health deaths. The lack of areas in the level being safe means a lot of matches will depend wholly on luck, since the best playing style here is hit and run. So there’s really nothing original or unique you can experience in gameplay here. The level is basically fast paced and although some areas I thought should have been easier to reach, the layout is still easy to navigate. So if you’re looking for fast paced and exciting games with blurry outcomes, this level is for you. If you feel like having a tough match based on skill and planning, there are better battle levels designed for that.

This level is best fit for an anniversary bash like event where there is no serious playing.

Despite giving this the lowest rating, it’s a must to download the level for the fact that it shows eyecandy is not all about just decortating a level randomly with tiles, it is all dependant on the theme and the theme totally determines the personality and which light the eyecandy should be seen. The same can also be said for gameplay, as gameplay is not really just following the standards perfectly and making a level flow right, there are plently of ways to make a fun level that breaks standards in exchange for flow.

I hope to see more levels like this one in the future. Until then…

EDIT: I totally forgot to mention anything pertaining to the LRS version. Oh well, I pretty much covered what I wanted anyway.

-fs

PLEASE REMOVE THE PICTURE FROM THE LEVEL DOWNLOAD PAGE. IT’S TOO HEAVY!

[Heavy? It’s 22KB big, which is pretty small in all honesty. ~Cooba]
[To put things in perspective, your (Fox282) posting of that comment and getting sent back to the info page made you download around twice the amount of kilobytes that it cost to download that picture. – FQuist]

FS, stop being against players who enjoy fast paced matches… ;/

[Offensive remark removal ~cooba]

Thanks for reviewing guys. There are a few things I feel like stating, one of them is the fact I realized beforehand that hunters would use the pits to regain health. As for the flag carriers having a defensive advantage because of that; I wouldn’t worry about it too much, since hunters at full health will take more risks, so it evens out. Also consider that the carrots are easy to defend, and there’s an ice powerup and ammo to freeze players, so you can kill them even at full health thanks to the pits. I like to think of it as an added tactic, not a problem.

As for the carrot in the coin warp.. yeah I feared it would be too easy to defend, but it’s a safe spot, and a safe spot isn’t much if you can’t stay safe for a significant amount of time. The carrot also makes the bonus worth taking. Besides, it’s narrow and cramped. If you played plenty of team games, it’s obvious how neat being safe for even a short period of time can be.

As for the lack of originality pertaining to the eyecandy: I fully agree, but keep in mind my first intention was to create a fully standard, conventional level as a joke, since I figured R3ptile would be receiving relatively unusual levels, this one would be unusual to other entries since it would be conventional. That idea didn’t hold though.

Its good lvl but some little.And realy mixed.But i give you 7.5 note:Use more tiles and space.

I loved it!
Good conversion, Good palettes(it’s weird palettes!), Good Example Levels!
BUT- The palettes in Labrat not like so good :-(

RATING:
9.9-0.2(Palettes of Labrat)=9.7
Download: Yes! why no?

Good Job!

can you convert this to 1.23?
it isn’t like 1.24 tileset… :-P

A relatively medium sized battle level, with surprisingly original gameplay concepts. Birdie utilizes coin warps marked by ‘lights’, where players can get trapped in the mid area or denied access to the copter at the far bottom left side of the level because of them. Although this can be countered by going into the special blue lights. In a heated match like a duel, this feature can proove to be quite usefull as it adds tactics and encourages careful and subtle playing styles. However it can also proove to be quite annoying for the casual battle players who are just looking for the usual mindless brawl in standard battle levels. This is definitely a thinking mans level, in that aspect this level is different from the norm.

As with most strategic levels, this one has a big learning curve emphasized by the original layout design and features. Not to mention different design styles like the use of one tile passages to create a maze around the mid section of the level which add variety and create an enigmatic flow to the level. You’d think having totally different designs would destroy the flow but it’s designed in such a way where it’s easy to chose where you want to go and additionally, it’s simply easy to understand the layout, mastering is another story.

I’m glad to see an influx of levels like theese. Although they have learning curves they provide strategy and you cannot win in them by simply moving quickly and spamming weapons.

As an added comment: No I am not against players who like fast paced levels. I’m just stating it’s nice to see rare levels like theese, where there’s more than just blasterwars. It’s a fact, not an opinion.

Thanks to the admins for doing their job but let him say what he wants. There’s no way he can offend me anyway.

I knew asking people in JJ2 servers to review it would lead to poor efforts on their part. :-(

Another Atlantis level?! However, the review:

EYECANDY:
The eyecandy has a nice use of backround layers. Layers 5,6 and 7 look like what you would see over a river of some sort. I couldn’t see complety because the water was blurring the screen. Layer 4 was quite dull. There were just different coloured blocks. No foreground was used, which makes things even more boring. Overall, nice layers 5,6 and 7. Layer 8 was blocked by the water and restricted space on layer 4, making it pointless. Layer 4 itself was dull, and no layers 1, 2 or 3 (as far as I can see).
EYECANDY RATING: 6.0…Shamefully, this is the highest eyecandy rating i’ve given out in weeks:(

GAMEPLAY:
The level here can be described in one word, boring. The concept of the entire level being underwater is quite underused, and the very few levels that use this concept are usually not great. The exact same goes for this level. All you do for the entire level is shoot fish and bump into 1 or 2 trigger crates. At the end, there is a boss. The worst thing is that there is no explination for why you are shooting loads of fish and killing the uterus boss. Without a story, the level could have been the slightest bit fun. Overall, the underwater concept is quite origional, but it’s no good if the level isn’t fun and all you are doing is shooting fish and looking for things for no reason.
GAMEPLAY RATING: 4.4

AVERAGE RATING: 5.2
RANK: 5 Average
DOWNLOAD?: I wouldn’t recommend this as a level, since it is rather boring and pointless. However, Jazz 2 doesn’t get many decent underwater levels.

At first look i coudn’t distinguish background between walls, but it is playable and after a little playing, it is clean. Ammo is scattered by small groups 1-3 each, but for good player that is not a problem.

This is a very unique level, which is appropriate since it was an entry to a level contest which specifically asked for unusual elements. This level is certainly unconventional, with a number of elements that you won’t find in many other levels. Despite that, the level avoids being gimmicky, which is somewhat of a feat considering that it’s hard to build a level around unusual concepts without relying on them too much.

Three full nrg carrots seems to be a bit high for a level of this size, but the large quantity of powerups plus the death pits might help to offset that a bit. Still, I can forsee some problems occurring because of that. If players take into consideration that the pits are bascially full health in exchange for all your weapons, players without the flag might feel that they shouldn’t grab the carrots. This in turn could lead to flagcarriers being rather difficult to kill, and might encourage camping. People playing this level will need to adapt their playstyle so that they grab the carrots regardless of their position, instead of using a more conservative playstyle where they leave the carrots for the flagcarrier and call out when the carrots spawn.

The coin warp also seems like it might be a bit problematic, since once you get up there, there isn’t much of a way anyone can hit you without them entering the coin warp themselves. And the presence of a full nrg carrot up there means that a player who is determined enough could probably hold that position for quite some time, defending it from other players and using the carrot to heal up. Granted, the warp target is right underneath the carrot, meaning that players exiting the warp should be able to grab it before the person defending the spot, but that’s only if the carrot hasn’t been shot out of the way.

This level gets an 8. Out of the four levels that were being judged, this one was my favourite.