Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I played this pack in small doses after it’s release to overcome the repetitiveness that people were experiencing, but I still like to give it a little review.

This episode basically consists of a Carrotus hub world, which leads to 4 worlds somehow inspired by human history and myths. In turn these 4 worlds have their own hub, or Central Area, that leads to several levels. I love how the tilesets used are Chandie’s own arrangements of JJ2’s original sets, often with modified palettes to serve a different purpose and combined with oddly photorealistic looking temple-ish graphics similar to Tomb Rabbit.

The story is basic but slightly more portrayed than your average single player. Jazz and Eva’s daughter got killed by Devan and original character Merlin will help Jazz and Bonus (the Coin Bunny) go back in time to get it undone. For this they need 4 ‘Time Freezers’ scattered in historic locations. For some reason Bonus wants coins for every warp they make. While silly, I liked that Bonus had some character with funny texts and unexpected places where he showed up.

Gameplay mostly involves you searching an area for a lot of trigger switches, which in turn open up the exit or lead to coins needed to go to the next level. Ammo is plenty but other pickups such as food are very scarce. Some levels like Temple of Sun or Alibaba’s Cave are pretty well designed while others, especially the Central Areas, felt more empty and dull. I also disliked the morph sections where you often had to open up an area with Jazz’s high jump, only to return and come back as Spaz to finally get that coin. That often repeated several times in each Central Area.

So long story short, the hub worlds are kind of repetitive and meh, while most ‘real’ levels are pretty good and well-made as vanilla levels.

Level specific things that stood out to me:
Temple of Sun, among some other levels, had nice animated tile traps, as well as Toaster fire cannons.
I liked the perspective of the doors in Cave of Wonders, as well as the pun on the bosses’ name there.
Poseidon Islands had a nice escape level with flashy lights, and cool stuff like that.
The later bosses, Alchemist and the Devan tank thing, were pretty well made.

Specific things I didn’t like:
West Desert had a very unclear long jump, even with the trigger platform slightly giving it away.
Too many trigger switches is a general problem, but Atlantis Central Area topped it all.
Atlantis’ underwater lab had a very unclear path, and no guaranteed TNT to progress.
In general TNT usage was confusing, and hindered progression in Atlantis.
Buddha’s Temple in particular had confusing tile masks a lot.
The ending felt a bit rushed.

Now for some problems:
In Temple of Sun, the last checkpoint gets you stuck in a wall after dying.
The Arabius Intro’s next level leads to itself after pressing ‘space’, but jjnext does work.
The 2nd time in Atlantis Central area, Bonus has incorrect text ID set.
Tibetius has a tube that exits right under a Demon enemy, and it’s easy to get stuck inside the corners of temple roofs.
The 2 times Chandie knew a trigger door was bugged were annoying (in Atlantis’ ship & Buddha’s Temple). Bonus does tell you to walk back a bit to make it work with varying results.
Some music files near the end may be missing?

Overall I do recommend this if you can enjoy vanilla single player, have some patience, and can look through some oddities here and there. This is not Chandie’s ‘ultimate episode’ or something but still worth a play even if you just jjnext the hub worlds to reach the better levels.

This map has quite a few interesting things to offer. Bouncer is extremely powerful here to wreck your enemies in these curves. RF on the other hand gives an extra boost for more speed in those curves. This map is actually quite fun once you have played a couple of games here. I’d like to see more eyecandy here, though it’s not a big deal I assume.

OK, so here is my review of levels:

Level 1 – Welcome aboard the S.S.Fancy – Well, this level isn’t bad, especially using beach tileset and extra Diamondus trees tiles. The music “frolick Lane” is perfect for this level.

Level 2 – Under the S.S.Fancy – This is the water level, the traps and ghost enemies fit perfectly for the level. Music also fits perfect for the level. About the boss, it isn’t very bad, Robot and Queen aren’t the worst threat, however Bloody_body offers you a scripted collisions of Robot from Plumbing Climbing level From the pack called Stone Abyss. This will make the boss very difficult to beat.

Level 3 – Titanic Tube Tussle – This tubelectric level is very stressful because there are trigger crates and lots of ammo and enemies, however this doesn’t look bad for me.

Level 4 – Small Circuit Skirmish – The short boss level, however I could buff Bolly up and prevent from stomping on his top like Bloody_Body did in Thunder Wander level of Stone Abyss.

Level 5 – Heck’s Pinball – This level is good, lots of pinball objects, enemies and two bosses at the end. However this level will be played better if I choose Damn + Ice tileset from Holiday Hare ’17 pack and erase some of unnecessary tiles.

Level 6 – A Duel of Green Beasts – The final boss of the episode is set perfeclty, however I used the RMFinalBoss.it music for the preparing for the fight, for the fight I use ckbroken.mo3 music from Holiday Hare ’17. Also, the perfect tileset for this level is once again Damn + Ice from Holiday Hare ’17, unlike the previous level, there aren’t any unnecessary tiles to erase. I will also use HH17_Roar.wav (jjSampleLoad(SOUND::BILSBOSS_APPEAR) “HH17_ROAR.wav”); and EXPSTD3.wav (jjSampleLoad(SOUND::COMMON_EXPL_TNT) “EXPSTD3.wav”); samples for this level.

Summarizing, the pack isn’t so bad, I’ll give you 7.7/10.

Download surely is recommended

You have some artistic skills, but probably you’re a little bit lazy.

A nice and tidy tileset. I liked the way you’ve rendered grass and stones. But the tileset sufferes from a serious lack of eyecandy – if you’ve added stones, small roots or something else the soil would look significantly more realistic. The same goes for the sand. The same goes for the forest as well – only the edge of it is filled with trees, while the middle is filled with empty green tiles. This is pretty boring. The colour of the distant walls should be just a little bit darker than one of the soil, otherwise it doesn’t look harmoniously. In other aspects the tileset is well-done!

P.S. OMG, this thing was uploaded almost 14 years ago… And I’m arrogant enough to judge about author’s artistic skills and to give him advices on painting :D

If you’re a lazy dumbass like me, if you only like to run, shoot and type “jjnowall” and “jjfly” when the level you’re currently playing is tedious but you want to get a better look of it to write a review, please scroll page down to “Brief review” – that part was written exactly for you!

Detailed review.

The level is really huge but my review isn’t going to be huge at all. Honestly speaking, I’ve spent an hour or so on checking out the rabbithole, and, obviously it was hardly enough to explore even 20-30 % of the level. Probably I should have spent a little bit more time on playing the level in order to write a non-quick review, but I was really fed up with it. However I managed to feel the gameplay and to make up my mind about the level itself.

So, what I was talking about, you are supposed to explore this enormous area of the rabbithole, which looks more like a futuristic space station. There are different areas or zones that are connected by warps and tubes (sometimes you have to walk in the tubes as they don’t actually suck you). The laws of physics don’t always work there (don’t forget that it’s a rabbithole, wonderland, Lewis Carol’s logic and stuff like that – how much better the level could be if you’ve used Psych tileset with its rich eyecandy!) – sometimes you may slam into an invisible wall, or be captured by “sucker tube” events that hang in the air, bullets and bird’s feathers are flying here and there but they don’t affect you in any way – they are kinda eyecandy.

Brief review.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time on finding your way. In fact it’s just a huge labyrinth. Only if you like unhurried monotonous gameplay (which I highly doubt if you’re reading the bief review) can I recommend this level to you.

6.0… Ok, well, let it be 6.5 for your efforts.

I actually liked this level, the idea to make a chaotic and silly map (especially for April Fools’) is appreciable, the music and the tileset is fitting and fun. However (although I know this level was meant to be a joke), I’d prefer to see two or more rooms for this level, that would make the matches last even longer on this map and doesn’t take much effort to do.

This tool is really handy for making translation files, being fairly easy to understand and allowing for an amazing level of customization. The interface is a bit simplistic and lacking even a simple kind of flair to make it easier on the eyes, but it gets the job done.

However, it’s worth noting that the tool isn’t perfectly user-friendly. For example, the “Capture the Flag” menu option’s text appears to be separated drastically from the rest of the text from the same menu. This probably is related to the structure of the language files themselves, but it nonetheless is an issue, however small it may be. It can also be a bit hard to find the specific line you want to replace, which, again, is mostly due to the fact that this seems to pretty directly give you access to the structure of the language files, flaws and all, instead of trying to present it in a way that’s more readable to the user.

I get the reason why it’s done this way, mind you. It’d be quite the daunting task to do it in a more user-friendly way all things considered! That, and this is merely a modified version of an existing tool, so I can understand how it’d probably be outside the scope of this project to fix all that.

Nonetheless, the user-friendliness is the main thing keeping the tool from getting a perfect 10, since aside from the less-than-perfect presentation of the interface, everything else is pretty solid. And hey, it does its job, and that’s what matters the most, right? I can’t really complain, it’s a good tool. :)

If you don’t mind a tool that’s not 100% perfect in the user-friendliness department, I would highly recommend this tool.

…somehow my first review on this site is for a tool rather than a proper level or such.

Who would’ve thought?

(Speaking of which, I hope I did this review right, seeing as how it’s not only my first review, but also a review for a tool rather than a level.)

A very atmospheric level with a cool background mixing rain and thunder , The level is big thanks to its width. Running from one base to another feels like a marathon, but the abundance of carrots compensate for that. Fireworks and its weapon placement are great, I also like how the Roller PU places you at a risk of drowning (If you’re slow)

I Like these title set, i take it!

[Review changed to quick review, see the review rules.

SteFan I really like your super-hard training level, the edgy sides and lack of eyecandy is the main problem, however, the pack doesn’t seem bad. I’ll give you 8 of 10. Also Bloody_body made a mistake – there are 2 main levels in each planet. That means there will be 24 main levels and 3 secret ones – 27 in total, all of them super-hard.

Download recommended

Also, you could use MLLE to insert more layers or tiles from other tilesets. This editor will be useful to you. Also, transitions of level’s colors in boss battles are also useful, because Bloody_Body and I are fond of recolors.

Good luck!

EDIT: The first castle level (Castle2-SH.j2l) is very good! Keep it up to the end and rest of the levels will be released.

Hey this j2s web is working! Guys remind me cuz it works on JJ2+, not non+. Like!

A very challenging level. Or, probably, it seems so to such a butterfingers as me :D

Well, the level is challenging and at the same time it’s rather small so that’s why it isn’t tiring. What I loved most of all is a new gameplay the level offeres. You have to climb the mountain in spite of the strong winds. Obviously, it would be pretty easy to accomplish if there either were no pits or no wind. However, lots of wide platforms would prevent your falling from the top of the level to its bottom.

When I finally reached the top of the peak and encountered a boss I was surprised by the fact that boss restores his health after you fall down from the battle area. I wondered whether it was a bug or a feature. Only after accomplishing the level I took upon myself to read the readme file that explained everything. Anyway, it is clever and inventive usage of game’s limitations of the distance where the object can be active.

Nice, original and challenging level. Download recommendation!

Definitely one of the best levels using Tubeelec tileset, tunnel Background is cool, combined with the other eyecandy. Fireworks fits the layout pretty well (combined with the level theme) Layout is good. Fun level overall, download recommended.

Actually a very solid level in my opinion, because of its satisfying eye-candy, game-play and use of custom weapons. My favorite aspect is the use of energy blast, which goes well with the quite vertical and open layout in my opinion.

I was really confused by zzaj’s review since Smoke’s levels are usually of a good quality. Even though I usually don’t review MP levels, I’ll make an exception this time because I feel like 6 is an exaggeratedly low review for such a great level.

Eyecandy [10/10]

First off, the visuals are absolutely stunning. I’ve played Sonic Mania and I really liked the Press Garden acts but never expected it to look so damn good in JJ2. It really does, I played this level all by myself for like 15 minutes just because of how good it looks. That, plus the custom weapons which I’ll talk about later.

Music [9.3/10]

The music is good but… well, I’m not saying that it’s bad but it’s just not the kind of theme you want to hear for longer than 5-10 minutes. I love the track itself but it gets really irritating after listening to it for too long. Maybe it’s just too tense? Hell if I know. Suggestion: If you want to keep it Sonic Mania related, you could use the Metal Sonic Boss theme, the final boss theme or even the Press Garden Act 2 theme, even though it’s a bit too calm for a battle level.

Level Design and Weapons [9.6/10]

The level design is top notch. As zzaj mentioned, it’s got an overall vertical layout. This, however, is not a problem as the custom weapons are made specifically for this kind of level. The tornadoes and the fireworks are designed to hit the opponents who have the higher ground and the thunder makes vertical navigation much much easier. The ammo placement is just fine, maybe there’s a bit too much ammo in some areas (or at least that’s how I feel about it). Oh yeah, also it’s one of those levels that are much easier to play as Spaz. It’s a common thing but always brings me down.

Overall rating: 9.7

It’s not flawless but really solid level nonetheless. I haven’t play tested this with a friend but I can tell that it’s really fun to play. Great visuals, great music, great level design, great level overall.

(Had to change my previous review because of some issues.)
Now that a missing file was included, the level loads and works perfectly for me as well (had problems before). I really like the moving background and the custom weapons, the level looks very cool! Layout problems are also fixed and it works smoothly.

I love the recolours, but the contrast is too high in this one.

Over all the font looks pretty neat, thou I question the dissension of making only an outline font.

Especially since most modern programs have an outline function so it would be more useful to have the inside filled and one can just apply there own outline with what ever colors they wish.

but it does look exactly like the in-game font.

By no means a bad level, but very plain in every meaning of the word. The winding S-shaped corridors are overused and having to go through them all the time gets tiring fast. I dislike both carrot placements but the top one is particularly bad. Lastly, it’s not atmospheric enough. No parallax layers. It feels like a soulless collection of blocks.