Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I had great fun betatesting this, and it really deserves more reviews than it currently has, so I feel as I should repay my enjoyment of this with a review.

Shade Castle is a really enjoyable level that I haven’t really seen coming until just a day or two before it was released. It’s fairly small, but still takes a while to finish as there’s quite a lot of exploration and revisiting areas in this level due to it being on the other side of the spectrum from linear. You’re free to travel wherever you want and don’t really have to complete most of the objectives in any order. This enhances replay value by quite a bit since you’re not forced down the same road each time you play and you get to decide what you want to do and when you want to do it.
Tileset use is really awesome. The eyecandy just radiates creativity and is really a pleasure to look at things. The tileset chosen is a very underused one and it’s great to see people using different sets instead of making the same repetetive Swamps levels. I particularly loved the “Invisible Tiles” platforms, those were ingenious and made me put on a smile the first time I saw them. However, because you used tiles in ways they certainly were never intended to be used, some things got slightly confusing for a bit, as sometimes I wasn’t able to tell what was solid and what was for show, or if that pole tile actually had an event on it or not. Although not really your fault, the spikes in this tileset are really hard to notice. Most the damage I took in this level came solely from them =/.
The layout of this level is awesome. Non-linear, and very creative. Coins and crates are placed in amusing locations and not just floating around in a random part of the level. The level was challenging, and it was enjoyable yet agonizing to see all the different and wonderful ways you made spaz take damage. The level was also pretty difficult, mostly from the hurt events and certain evil placement of enemies in walls or near poles ;P.
However, the area which this level really shines in is event placement. A variety of tricks were pulled off in this level which made it all the more fun. Using events such as spike platforms to increase the difficulty level is a nice alternative then just stacking enemies everywhere.
The level does feel noticably more empty in the open areas then the caves. The backround is pretty typical in eyecandy terms especially compared to the rest of the level, and there’s not much layer 5 eyecandy to obstruct the view. The caves are really well done, however.
Aside from the annoyingly small spikes to constantly harm you, Violet also took the liberty to place dragons into walls, lizards under vines and demons near poles. This does make the level considerably more challenging (and the lizards under vines thing was a creative trick), however nothing screams pain like getting hurled into a wall dragon by an h-pole while being at one heart.

The level was rather short (provided that unlike me you don’t receive a game over from constantly running into sharp objects), however each and every part of it is definately worth playing. The level is fun, creative, and inspiring and was really a pleasure to betatest. It’s too bad it won’t be in FSP2, though ;(.

Overall rating 8.8. This level looks like the author had a fun time making it and really shines in several categories, however it’s only a single level with no real storyline (as it is a preview) and could have been a bit bigger, as well as the exterior parts of the level possibly more visually pleasing. As a stand-alone, this is definately among the better levels uploaded on J2O.

… Um, no they aren’t.

I started playing this. It was very good. Enemies were placed well and itwas fun. Not too frustrating, but difficult. The first level was a sea shore. The islands raised up at a certain point. There were crabs to shoot. Food was placed well. Not too little, not too much. After swimming the 2nd time, I reached the exit. Then I went in a jungle. I needed a lot of moves, such as escaping the rocks and swinging on vines. I passed through satisfied. I beat Schwartzenguard. Here I go in an ancient town. I had to pass through sewer and to break blocks with specific ammo. There were the inhabitants of the town trying to stop me, but I destroyed them. They are no match for Jazz. Well, i went in the town castle, wich had inhabitants trying to stop you also. This is starting to be an unbelievable and unforgettable night. There was a rock to push to climb, bit as I play this with TSF, it’s for Lori hard to climb up that wall. When I beat the queen which guards it, I get in the Chemical X lab, which has a lot of experiments, which also gets me, like the bird morph. When I flee, I get in an even older castle, which has soldiers and ghosts, and I fight Bubba. Well,Now I am back to carrotus. Yay. Now I must find Bilsy’s base and destroy him. Better not die, or else I lose the fastfire and can’t finish. Well, many objects were used. Musics placed were very cuddly (especially the shore one). My rating is 9. Download recommended.

OK, I’m gonna try to review this.

There are 3 Tileset Conversions in this pack. This is a conversion of Epic’s original Jungle set.

I like the colours on the Day set. I think the green goes well on the ground and the leaves on the trees. PJ7 has also added some new tiles. Some of these include the Tubes from the Tubelectric JJ2 levels. These would make great sucker tubes. The tree background from Diamondus has also been added to the Jungle Paradise set. There is also some cool waterfall effects which can be used in the background and some great rain effects that can be used in the Foreground. There are some things I also don’t really like though. I think that the orange background on the Eve set looks a bit too bright. I also think that the purple in the Night set also looks a bit too dark. I know it’s for use in Night but I just don’t really like it. The water colour looks a bit odd too on the Eve & Night sets. I can’t think what else to say. I’m going to give this a 7.5 because I do like this conversion. The Day set was the best out of them. I wasn’t really a big fan of the Eve and Night sets.

SCORE: 7.5
DR: Yes

I hope this was enough. I haven’t really reviewed that many Tilesets. I mainly review SP levels.

You’ve uploaded 4 tests in only 2 weeks. This must mean you don’t spend enough time on them. My advice is:

1. Spend more time on your levels. You’re levels are of poor quality and have been rushed.

2. Don’t upload tests. In my opinion tests are boring and are made over and over again. Try making a proper level like Sp, Battle, CTF etc.

3.MAKE SOME GOOD LEVELS!

And I won’t rate this because I don’t rate tests.

#:-S

[Unsupported rating (8.0) clearance. Please provide actual reasons for rating a level. For more information on writing a proper review, see the \Review Rules\. – Fquist]

I liked the first bit of it untill the 2nd bit came in kinda ruined it..still keep it up!

This is really quite good for a MS paint tileset. I’d never use it, but you did very well for having such a limited resource =p

Eyecandy 3/5: There wasn’t a whole lot, but some tilesets don’t necessarily need a whole lot. I would have done the stars in the background a bit differently, but that’s just my preference. The ground tiles were hand drawn quite well, though the spikes are very hard to see against a dark background. I would have made them a different color entirely such as reddish brown to contrast the other colors.

User-friendliness 2/5: The tileset is fairly small, so you won’t get lost looking for specifi tiles. However, there could have been many more types of tiles for events such as poles or sucker tubes.

Originality 0/1: Slimy Land and ET’s Planet are both similar to your tileset, but I still commend you for doing so well with MS paint.

OK, this is gonna be probably my longest review ever.

LEVEL PACK PLAYING TIME: 10-15 mins for first time players of this pack. Less if you have played before.

LEVEL 1

EYECANDY: The background looks a bit dull as there is nothing in Layers 5, 6 or 7. No foreground either. Layer 3 is used but only for the collapsing sand. 3/10

GAMEPLAY: This level is too short. This can be finished in about 1 min – 1:30. The objective in this level is to avoid all the 3 traps and get to the end. Dull. 2/10

ENEMIES: There are not enough enemies in this level to kill you. There’s some Crabs, Tube Turts and some Fish. 2/10

OBSTACLES: There are 3 traps in this level as I have mentioned before:
1. There is a pit full of Gems. Fall for the trick and you are trapped.
2. There are some “!” blocks with 2 ways to go. Choose the wrong way and you are trapped AGAIN.
3. There is some Collapsing Scenery in the sand about half-way through the level. Fall down through this and guess what happens. Trapped YET AGAIN.
I found these traps annoying. I do not like these “JJK” moments. 3/10

PICKUPS: Gems. But you’re trapped if you go for them. 1/10

LEVEL 1 MARK: 11/50

LEVEL 2

EYECANDY: This time there is a background in Layers 6 & 7 but it looks kinda empty when not in the water. 4/10

GAMEPLAY: I couldn’t really understand the objective in this level. You have to find a flashing block which then displays the message “ACCESS GRANTED.” I go to the other end of the level and jump out the water to find that this is the end. Confusing. 3/10

ENEMIES: Not that many. Some Crabs, Tube Turts and Fish. Not really enough to kill you. 2/10

OBSTACLES: There’s a Destruct Scenery block where the flashing block is. Not that many obstacles in the level. 1/10

PICKUPS: Some Seeker (Gun4) ammo and gems but that’s just about it really. 2/10

LEVEL 2 MARK: 12/50

LEVEL 3

EYECANDY: Hard too really see any eyecandy when you are being sucked up really fast. But there was not much of a background. No foreground. Looks OK in the water. 4/10

GAMEPLAY: Errr… You’ll just being sucked up really fast. Not much Gameplay in this level. Level ends in about 20-30 seconds. 1/10.

ENEMIES: Some Fish, but it’s hard to be killed by them. 1/10.

OBSTACLES: None at all. 1/10

PICKUPS: Bouncer (Gun3) ammo and Gems but it’s impossible to pick them all up as you are moving too fast to get everything. 1/10

LEVEL 3 MARK: 8/50

LEVEL 4

EYECANDY: I really do not like the background at all. The fast moving stars are annoying and could even give you a headache. Not much else to see in the way of eyecandy in this level. The meteors do not tile very well with the background. 1/10.

GAMEPLAY: You have to follow a path of meteors to Devan’s ship. This can get boring. 1/10

ENEMIES: None at all. 1/10

OBSTACLES: None at all. 1/10

PICKUPS: Just some RF Rocket (Gun5) ammo. Nothing else. 1/10

LEVEL 4 MARK: 5/50

LEVEL 5

EYECANDY: The grey background does look a bit dull as that is all you can see most of the time. You will then see some moving meteors in the background while fighting Devan which look pretty cool. 4/10

GAMEPLAY: First you have to get through some Destruct Scenery using the 3 Weapons you collected in the previous levels. If you don’t have them then the text says that you have to type “JJK” 4 times. Huh? Can’t really see how that helps. Once you are through the Destruct Scenery, you then Buttstomp into a room where you have to enter a code. If it’s wrong then you’re stuck there which is bad. You could have used the CTF Instant Death trick. After entering the correct code, you then Buttstomp down and then go on to fight Devan. The code idea is cool but getting stuck there isn’t. Level is also short. Finished in about 2-3 minutes. 5/10.

ENEMIES: None, except Devan. 1/10

OBSTACLES: The Destruct Scenery at the beginning and the Code room. Nothing else though. 3/10

PICKUPS: Nothing to pick up whatsoever. 1/10

LEVEL 5 MARK: 14/50

The credits level follows but I don’t think there’s any point in rating it.

TOTAL SCORE: 50/250
FINAL MARK: 2.0

DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION?

No

GRADE: U

PHEW! Finally done after about 30 minutes. 750+ WORDS!

It would have also been better if you included the music files rather than getting us to search for it.

Nice map to test your skills with the character Spaz :)
7 because its a nice map but with some bugs.
At pos 48,56 you can fall between the wall and the teleport into the bottom of the map.
At pos 86,16 if you hit the wave on the right you are shot into the teleport to lvl 12.
At pos 122,21 and some other places in the lvl with the ballons i cant jump and sometimes even dont move.
I played with the original version of TSF 1.24

[Unsupported rating (7.0) clearance. Bug reports are helpful and detailed bug reports are especially good. But – regarding the rating, reasons should be given why the level is good. For more information on writing a proper review, see the \Review Rules\. – Fquist]

Rating: Space Waterspout.

ok lets begin with level 1:

Eyecandy: ermmm, eyecandy, is there any, eehhh…..NOOOO there isnt any!!!!

Gameplay: You begin on a plain sand plateau (it doesnt even look like a beach), you will see a gap of 3 tiles high and about 15 tiles long with green gems in it, so you think, well, lets grab them, but!!!!! its a trap, as you enter the gap, a wooden plank will appear and close your escape and then a message will appear: ohno, its a trap!!!
type jjk to restart!!!
DONT DO THAT EVER AGAIN!!! and its even in the beginning of the first level!!!
So, i think well, thats the ‘only one’, but i was wrong, not a minute after it, there are 2 ways to progress which are locked by ! blocks. You have to go to the upper way to progess, but dont go between the 2 sand humps cuz you then will get locked up again!!!

well, then further there is a long sand path, with about 3 enemies spread out in like a width of 60 tiles, and then a woodhouse appear with a crab inside the passage, then you will jump and kill the beast, and notice that the ground will collapse and you will go underwater, and guess what……..

YOU WILL END UP LOCKED UP AGAIN!!!!!!

THIS IS NOW THE THIRTH TIME IN ABOUT 2 OR 3 MINUTES PLAYING THE SAME LEVEL!!!!!

okay, im out of it and as i progress there will be nothin but sand, sand, sand, sand and about 3 crabs orso….

then you will enter a sea of 3 tiles high (i think that seas are much bigger in real), well anyway, you will enter that ‘sea’ and shoot down 5 fishes and 2 tube turts orso… and then the first level will end

Enemy placement: eehhhmmm, about 15 enemies spread out a level of like 15 tiles high and 256 tiles long orso, i think that that is just too less!!!

Ammo: NO ANY!!!

Bonusses: yes, there are bonusses, but they are almost all traps!!!

Overall: an empty level without bonusses or ammo!!!

Rating level 1:

Eyecandy: 2/10
Gameplay: 0/10
Enemy placement: 1.5/10
Ammo: 0/10
Bonusses: 1.2/10
Overall: 2+1.5+1.2=4.7
4.7/5=0.94=0.9

Rating: 0.9

okay, level 2

Eyecandy: no any either, only underwater there IS SOME, but it doesnt look well cuz its not used well

Gameplay: YAY!!! no traps!!!
BUT!!!!!!!! it still is empty!!!
You just search for a minute, shott down a single block, open a way by touching an ‘acces granted’ block thing, and search further through the oh so empty ‘Jack sea’, as you call it
and then you swim a circle (as the level name explains) to the place you started, but then go to above and finish the level, wohhhowww!!!! this was ‘exiting’, NOT!!!! it was just empty in all ways!!!

Enemy placement: 10 fishes, 10 crabs and 2 tube turts in the whole level, thats not enough!!!!

Ammo: AT LEAST THERE IS ANY!!!!! you will get 7 ammo pickups of gun 4, but that still is not enough!!!

Bonusses: eehhh, like 3 green gems, 1 red gem in the whole level!!!

Overall: just, boring, boring, and boring again!!! This is just annoying, and is getting even more annoying!!!

Rating level 2:
Eyecandy: 3/10
Gameplay: 2/10
Enemy placement: 2.5/10
Ammo: 2.5/10
Bonusses: 2/10
Overall: 3+2+2.5+2.5+2=12
12/5=2.4

Rating: 2.4

Level 3

Eyecandy: BAHHHHHHHHH, no any either!!!

Gameplay: you dont have to do anything, just float up in the water and get to the top of the ‘waterspout’…… Thats just silly!!!

Enemy placement: eehhh, like 25 fishes and thats it…

Ammo: eehhh, like 12 ammos of the bouncer scattered in the whole level…

Bonusses: 5 green gems and 12 red gems, COME WITH FOOD NEXT TIME (ever heared of coins btw???)

Overall: this is just a level with takes not even 1 minute to finish, and besides you dont have to do a single thing!!!

Rating level 3:

Eyecandy: 0/10
Gameplay: 0/10
Enemy placement: 1/10
Ammo: 1.5/10
Bonusses: 1.5/10
Overall: 1+1.5+1.5=4
4/5=0.8

Rating: 0.8

Level 4:

Eyecandy: space stars and stones, no any other things

Gameplay: hop on the board, and search through the space to a nearly impossible findable-(dunno how to call that) exit

Enemy placement: some floating suckers, nothin more……

Ammo: gun5, with little amount…..

Bonusses: eehh, gems???

Overall: nothing more to say here.

Rating level 4:

Eyecandy: 0/10
Gameplay: 0/10
enemy placement: 1/10
ammo: 2/10
bonusses: 0/10
overall: 1+2=3
3/5=0.6

rating: 0.6

ahhhhh the final level (5)

Eyecandy: eeehhhh could be MUCH better, its just plainly the tiles you use in the gameplay and nothin more….

Gameplay: well this is the best gameplay of the pack but still!!! you begin by a wall which can only be broken if you had the ammo still carried with you, if youve not you have to type JJK 4 times (dunno why, thats what the text says). Well after that its just walk here, stomp there, and walk there, stomp here, and then a code or something like that, and you will get stuck easily!!!!
After that you will fight devan (surprise) and after that youll finish the level, w00000t!!!!

Enemies: no any except devan!!!!

Ammo: no any!!!

bonus: no any!!!

overall: just boring (see the gameplay above)!!!!!

Rating level 5

Eyecandy: 1.5
Gameplay: 1.5
Enemies: 0/10
Ammo: 0/10
Bonus: 0/10
Overall: 1.5+1.5=3
3/5=0.6

rating: 0.6

Rating all levels:

Level 1: 0.9
Level 2: 2.4
Level 3: 0.8
Level 4: 0.6
Level 5: 0.6

All levels: 0.9+2.4+0.8+0.6+0.6=5.3
5.3/5=1.06=1.1

Final rating: 1.1

NO DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION!!!!!

Please make entertaining and good levels in progress!!!
And dont rush your levels, make them bigger, less empty, spend time on eyecandy and extra gameplay, make fun puzzles, and place more enemies and place them better, and place some pickups like: coins, food, gems, 1ups, carrots, ammo, and othere pickups!!!
Using environment and gameplay events are not a bad idea…..

And in progress put the music in it, or a link to the music zipfile, i was just lucky i already had all the music files!!!!

Well, i hope you will make SPLENDID levels in future!!!!
Then you will be one of those levelmakingmasters!!!
Wouldnt you want to be one???

review by: ~~ Jazz-Les ~~

VISUAL
Layer 6/7 has some cave tiles with some trees on top, which looks very smart. This is very similar to the background in It’s over by Booshi. On the foreground layer, there are tons bushes placed randomly throughout the level, which looks very ugly. Food has been placed on the walls as well. Again, this looks ugly. Trees have been used quite well, though. In general, the eyecandy is ugly in some areas, but it looks good overall.
4/5

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay in this level is quite original. There is plenty of ammo, and not too many in any area. There isn’t too many annoying obstacles, except the occasional area that requires excessive jumping. A lot of the PU’s in the level are inside the wall and need to be got using the Electo Blaster. Spring’s are used a lot, to save you jumping, execept in some areas that need them. There is also a coin warp that requires 30 coins. The coins in the level are placed in diagonal lines randomly around the level. There is a seeker PU in the warp. Also there are hardly any carrots. In general, the gameplay is very good.
4/5

GOOD POINTS

*Nice Gameplay
*Original
*Nice level layout

BAD POINTS

*The Bushes are placed randomly
*Not many carrots
*Needs more springs

VERDICT
This is another nice level by XLM, but there are still some ways it can be improved.

FINAL SCORE
8.5

Download Recommendation!

EDIT – After more careful studying and playing, I think this level deserves a higher rating.

Aquatic Castle, as you can probably tell from the included screenshot, is Castle gone Turquoise. Most everything in the tileset is somewhere along the range of blue to green, with a few exceptions like the very bright purple veils. It’s fairly hit and miss. Some things look too bright, for example, while the background turned out great in its blueness and is a joy to watch as it floats by. The sprite colors are also changed, and I guess I can live with that, although the apples seem to suffer a bit, which is ironic because they’re all over the example level.
The real test of the color scheme, though, is the walls, which make up the vast majority of the tileset’s content, and sadly I cannot quite find myself approving of them. They look okay at first, but gradually their just-off-whiteness begins to feel somewhat sickening. This could perhaps be saved by some variety, like maybe dark brown, but the tileset does not offer such safety.
So much for the color scheme… it’s rather pretty as far as it goes, but it gets old, and parts of it are too bright. That leaves the other modifications. Castle edits aren’t too common, and honestly, nearly every castle edit I’ve ever seen involves painting the whole tileset one color, but that doesn’t mean it’s not editable. Indeed, it has a few flaws, particularly in the realm of masking. Aquatic Castle fixes none of that. It does add a textured background, which I like very much, an animation from Beach with anti-aliasing difficulties and a different perspective from the rest of the tileset, and some tiles ripped from Disguise. It’s an effort, but while one’s taking the time to edit a tileset, one could at least fix its bugs…

The inclusion of the tilest, sadly enough, does not improve this level much. While it’s possible that something inventive could be made out of a test based primarily around helicopter ears, this does not feel like that. Most of the level is spent using helicopter ears to navigate through narrow tunnels of warp events, much like every other test level in the world. There are a few breaks – an airboard part, an Updraft style part, a Copter Tests style part – but for the most part you just helicopter ear, occasionally against wind or some other devillish obstacle. The designs of the parts vary but generally consist of your going downwards and striving to move left or right fast enough when necessary.
There’s nothing exactly wrong with all of that, but there’s nothing right about it either. TEST for Jazz brings nothing to the test field. It adds no ideas. Anyone can make you fly through warp tiles, but tests are one genre of levels which rely almost completely on some degree of inspiration and originality, as well as good design (and occasionally even eyecandy), to make any sort of impression. Mike’s Platform Tests is a level I can play many times. His underwater jumping level, not as much. This, I have no interest in redoing.
Of course, part of the issue is that this level is visually inexcusable. I have no clue why anyone, including the author, would use this tileset. The sembalance of a textured background is badly reduced in colors, and the whole of the level consists of lines of brightly colored blocks or 32×32 tiles against that background, with a scrolling JAZZ made of MSPaint blocks with Jazz heads on them. Also, the lighting is dark for some reason. The whole thing is blindingly bright and painful and, again, probably looked better before the tileset was included. Please, if you insist on using a tileset full of bright colors, do it properly. People have put the Simple tileset to good use before.
So, as I’ve said, there’s nothing particularly wrong with this level, aside from its visual appearance, it’s just nothing interesting in the least. Not only that, it’s not even tested. You can get easily stuck in the winning area, and that’s assuming you can get to the winning area, as the sucker tube that’s supposed to send you there ended up flinging me out of the level and into the bottom edge of the screen. :( No download recommendation.

“The Mine Battle” makes some attempt to portray a mine, but it is hampered by a few factors, primarily the tileset, which does a much better job of being described by its name. “Lame Tileset” is a very simple set consisting of a few blocks and not all that much else. The colors are somewhat nice, and I am amused by the recolored Hocus rips, but it doesn’t lend itself to very nice-looking levels, as this upload illustrates. The eyecandy is very dull, and the radiation towers, rather than being imposing instruments of genetic mutation, merely come off as green squares with tiles poorly strewen around them. The inside of the mine is worse, making no attempt to have any sort of graphical quality beyond endless blocks and a simple background, with no variety at all.
That could perhaps be saved by an intriuging level design, but while Mine Battle manages to be unconventional, it does not manage to be appealing. Aside from the radiation towers, you mostly just run around in big boring tubes, with occasional tiny one tile platforms, trying to kill your opponents with (of all things) TNT, Electro Blaster, and thankfully Toaster. The Electro Blaster is supposed to be some sort of secret, hidden by the gray destruct scenery blocks which are all over the mine, but really add nothing to the gameplay except some initial tediousness.
I see no spark of divine inspiration in this level. I see nothing that causes me to believe that it is good. I see only a bunch of passages with a few events and blocks placed randomly in hopes that the combination of the story, the radiation towers, and the strange level design would somehow result in something good. They did not.
Furthermore, this level uses the hurt event, which is typically considered unwise in a multiplayer setting. The “radiation” causes you pain, which is kind of sad, because there’s no reason to approach it at all. No goodies or anything. Everything is in the mine, so why bother climbing up all the ropes of the towers?

This download is kind of broken,Wazzup!Please check if u have put all the neccecary things in the zip folder.

This would be a great ringtone for a mobile!

Please include the title set.

At a brief glance, I can say there wasn’t a whole lot of work put into this. It may have a cool theme, but it could have been better.

Layout 1/3: Same as the original castle except for the added, ripped tiles.

Usefulness 1/3: as stated above, nothing was changed about the original tiles or their masks (aside from color).

The Conversion 0/3: In all honesty, I think all you did was change the Hue of the whole tileset using Photoshop. This would have been reasonably okay, but you added barely anything to CONTRAST the blue — therefore, it is drab and plain. I think the yellow suits of armor are the only contrasting colors. Having a differently-colored textured background would have helped greatly.

Originality 1/1: The one thing I can’t deny you.

I think you should consider making an original tileset for a change. You keep zipping out these tileset combo/conversions that have rather limited use.

well, its too empty.
and it doesnt look like a mine.
its a good idea of those radiating poles things, but they doesnt look like radiating poles things.

overall a ~ not ~ fine level you would use in some occasions.
The ideas where good, but not worked out well…

The story is ok.

and you used the wrong tileset,(in my opinion) because it doesnt look like a mine…
you used it because its very easy to use, but i think not that you have chosen it because it looks like a real mine, am i right???

I give it a 4.9

~~ Jazz-Les ~~