Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I played it, and now, the time has come to review it! :)

Gameplay
In the very beginning you turn into a frog. Seeming that you can’t attack, you must run from your enemies. When you found 10 coins, you can exit the level. Nice idea, but it needs some improvements, like a story (As you mentioned).

Eyecandy
Not much eyecandy… And even a few tilebugs… Try to find the correct tiles for every corner and such.

Creativity
In this level, loads of puzzles and other stuff I never saw before. Very nice on the sucker tube usage.

Originality
Frog levels aren’t that original, nowadays, and also since this level hasn’t got a story… Well, it’ll cost you some score…

Overall
Not a very bad level, but at least you had some creative points.

Good Thing
Push a crate on a TNT to explode it.

Bad Thing
Scenery and Tilebugs

Score
8

Download recommendation
It is worth the try, and you could learn something from the idea’s used.

This is a small CTF level by Snooze with a fairly simple design that you can learn in mere minutes. It’s a fairly typical level in terms of quality: nothing special, but good enough to enjoy.

The first thing you might notice when playing this level is that the eyecandy is quite detailed, with no parallaxing background. In other words, the entire level, background and all, has a single scroll speed. Unfortunately, due to the tileset having a limited pallete of colours, this makes the level have a very “busy” look to it. This winds up adversely affecting gameplay; it becomes common for players to not see stray seeker missles and other hazards heading towards them before it is too late, unless they are really paying attention.

While this level is very small, I do not reccomend dueling in it. The level contains only a single full nrg carrot, and while that is not a bad thing, it makes the level much more suited to 2vs 2 gameplay. Anything larger though, and the level would be too crowded. The level thus has a very limited scope, unless you don’t mind dueling in levels with a single carrot.

One major problem I noticed in this level, which is present in almost all of Snooze’s levels, is the prominince of float up events. Using these sparingly is a good thing, but in the case of this level, the authour simply goes too far. These events are used in places where they are very easy to notice, and almost seem like a replacement for springs. There is a reason jj2 has a “jump” key. Throwing float up events all over the place is completely unnecessary.

Similar to the problem with float ups, I noticed that there are a few pits where if you run directly into them and fall, you will go through the side of the pit and hit a spring that takes you back to the top of the platform on the other side. If I run into a pit, I EXPECT to fall through it, not be magically transported to the other side. If I wanted to get to the other side I would JUMP. Several times while testing I ran into this problem, and while it is easy to get used to, it is annoying and pointless.

The level contains a single toaster powerup. Pepper spray and seekers are also prominent, both useful in this level. Finally there are a few electro blasters to get the toaster powerup, and rf missles. I found both of these weapons to be mostly useless. The electro blaster is only good for getting the powerup, and the rf missles are hard to use because the level is so enclosed, not to mention being inferior to pepper spray in terms of range and speed. For some reason I couldn’t find any bouncers, which would have been a great weapon in this level.

Speaking of weapons, I found the location of the electro blaster to be very spaz-biased. They are located in a pit, where spaz could jump down and double jump to get them, while jazz would have to fall all the way through. The lack of bouncers also makes this level even more spaz-biased.

Overall I rate this level a 7. I was considering giving this a 6, but the level was enjoyable enough to warrant a point higher than that.

After playing a game in this, and running around in it quite a bit I guess I’ll review it.

Gameplay/Layout:
It’s really simple. I don’t like the area around the tubes to the base because its kinda confusing and a bit of stuff needs one way in it. This level is also really spaz biased as he could get the EBs so much easier, as well as get up that shaft. Also, its really hard going down here. Whenever Im running from above an am at 1h or something, trying to get to the carrot, either a spring or a floatup always bumps me back up then I get killed. The level is also rather flat. The red spring next to the left base is also useless. It juts me either to nowhere, or into the ceiling of the above platform. Overall, the layout and the flow of this level isn’t bad, but needs fixing.
Rating: 7.3

Eyecandy:
The eyecandy of the level is rather busy. Nothing is moving though, so that makes it rather flat. There’s a lot of stuff in the backround and it makes things hard to see. Most the time I get killed by seekers I don’t even see coming at me (its not lag either, since I was the host). Other than that, the eyecandy is nice.
Rating: 7.5

Placement of Stuff:
I don’t really like it. One full energy carrot..The level is small, but its kinda annoying. Especially since its not the easiest to get to cause it seems like all the springs and floatups try to make you miss it. The toaster powerup is in a wall. The ElectroBlasters are in a very annoying spot, and are also spaz biased. There’s also a lack of bouncers which definately shows during games. The CTF bases are placed in tubes which, though not extremely original or anything, is nice.
Rating: 7.2

Overall(not an average):
The level seemed alright at first glance, but there are quite a bit of issues with it that, imo, prevent it from being seriously played in. The author also did not seem too happy with this creation either, and there is a lot of room for improvement.
Rating: 7.2

Final Rating: 7.3
Download Reccomendation: Sure, although it’s definately not Snooz’s best work.

Bleh, what a poorly constructed pack. However, for first levels there are somewhat nice, but to be fair I must rate these as I would any SP level (pack).
Story-NA/10
None. I remember someone saying the Forgotten Gems pack was just a bunch of levels loosely strung together. Quite simply, this pack is the same, only being connected by a ‘Next level’ option in the JCS, and not a weak storyline. From the first few levels you’d guess that Ilus is some random dude who has lots of lands and Jazz/Spaz/Lori must go and stop some turtle infestation.
Eyecandy-5/10
Bare minimum, and some tiles just seem to be tossed in( See: Randomly animated blocks that aren’t there for any real apparent reason in the Tubelectric level)
Gameplay-4/10
Repetive, Repetive, repetive. Fight enemies, collect a HUGE ammount of goodies, enter a coin warp, rinse wash, repeat. However the Easter level was actually pretty fun, bringing this from a 3 to a 4.
Placement-3/10
Enemies in logical, predictable places, too many goodies(I must of gotten 5 sugar rushes at times when I didn’t need them), and sometimes coins seem tossed in just for no reason(Example: the ice level, if there was a working bonus warp, I never found it). However I stopped playing at the beach level(It simply got too boring), so it might have gotten better. Also, some levels have Bosses in rather dull arenas.
Difficulty-1/10
None, it’s so incredibly easy, the only way the levels would pose a challenge is if you can’t hurt anything.
Final Score-3.3/10
Verdict- Not bad for a first level pack, but compared to the average SP level, it is very poor.

Download Reccomendation? No, not yet anyhow. Wait until this person becomes very good or average at level making, then download this to see how far they have come. Otherwise, steer clear of this.
Co-op? No. A second player wouldn’t add much to the expereice.

Why not use the “REUPLOAD” function…

hehe there is some stupid, really stupid remix (my second, i hate it soo much) called “TubElectra”… just this.

. . .I think my ears are bleeding. I’d go through with an actual review, but I’m entirely sure that Haze said everything I was going to say and even gave the score I was thinking of. So. . .yeah. Maybe I’ll go through with an actual review if this picks up enough steam and ratings.

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The “Simon Cowell” of Jazz 2 Online‘s Music Scene. . . Joseph Collins
“Dr Lithius” or “LithiuServer” on Jazz 2

Blade has never uploaded here a totally ugly tileset and as I can see he progresses in tile creation. Background tiles are brilliant, cool cartoonlike landscape that needs no drastical improvement. But tiles for foreground and sprite layer are still a bit monotonous one coloured, I’d like to see some pattern and shading on the walls. It is possible to do and there are good examples in some tilesets uploaded to this site. 8 points is my final rating – read it as: good but needs some serious improvements to be perfect.

Hellow, here to give out some points again… =D

Gameplay
The story was very nice. Nothing like a bad guy and frogs. Apart from that, the levels were a bit crowded. The paths were narrow and loads of baddies, sometimes unpredictable, which can be annoying.

Eyecandy
Loads of pillars, curtains and other stuff. No holding back on the eyecandy for you!

Creativity
I never thought the frog can be so powerfull. The idea of pushing a trigger crate over a TNT wasn’t such a bad idea at all! You got extra credit for this one!

Originality
Not the most original, I must say. I still have an old frog episode somewhere, and I’ve seen a few on the net too. Apart from that, this wasn’t bad at all.

Overall
It seems like I will give you an 8. It was not bad at all, but it could have a little improvement. Work on ‘space’ and enemies you ‘can’ beat.

Good Thing
Frog can destroy crates afterall!

Bad Thing
Why does Jazz has to crawl his way through these levels?

Score
8.0

Download recommendation
Certainly worth the play!

changing my review to QR, as i thought my original one sucked. anyway, this pack is great.

(PA)
(Semimild personal attack removal. ~Violet)

(PA)
(Semimild personal attack removal. ~Violet)

That is really good levelpack. As a first impression I didn’t like Spaz to be the only playable character, but on second thought there are many packs playable only by Jazz. Leveldesign is really great – many triggers, teleporters all levelspace is pretty well used. Dividing it into chapters is fun idea it gives the taste of storyline but it’s not as boring as in many other episodes, we’re not sentenced to watch long intros with slowly flowing text.
Eyecandy is perfect even colums in the foreground in first levels didn’t annoy me and the tileset usage couldn’t be much better.
Playability – it’s the strongest part of this pack. Challenging levels with strategically placed enemies and items made me to think and plan before rushing forward.
Putting levels into separate subfolder is great idea, thanks to this, levelpack didn’t mess my main jazz2 folder too much I wish other leveldesigners did the same thing.
A tileset is missing for 3-1 level so I cannot rate this levelpack. Fix the problems and I will gladly rate this pack to 9.0 with recommendation.

Well designed levels, quite enjoyable and a bit challenging, but way too short, exit is found where one would expect it’s just the beginning. Using short intro music in first level and Lizard room where you may stuck are bad ideas either. 7 points is fair enough.

I’m giving you low rating. Why? Because you’re very annoying person – you’re insulting players in your comments (see above and the readme file). Releasing a levelpack doesn’t make you a god. It wouldn’t be bad if I’d enjoyed this pack a bit, but I didn’t – it’s not about difficulty it’s about: I’m not going to dance how you play me… sorry. Whole levelpack is not as hard as … just boring, especially because there was no gameplay flow and I had to find something hidden too much times. Putting the action on the desert probably made it easier to not care too much about eyecandiness.
In case you are stupid or just suck: the rating would be higher if your attitude was different, but not much since I didn’t enjoy playing these levels. And it was an insult for me that I couldn’t play for long with Lori character.

[Unsupported rating removal (5.0). You’ve given invalid reasons for your rating. Please only take into consideration the quality of the download when rating, not your dislike of the author. – FQuist]

I’m not in the mood to make a long review, so i’m just going to pile everything up in one paragraph.

This level is a remake of the original Battle2 level. However, there’s this one little tumor-esque thing at the lower left part of the level that is not found in the original level. Proper layout takes a back seat to eyecandy, which is seen in the form of mask errors. The eyecandy isn’t all that good either, in my opinion. Just some floating things in the background. You get a 6.5 from me. Download this if you really like battle2, but otherwise, you can skip this one.

Dizzzang! It’s n00b here to review something, and let’s see what we got. A tileset from 2002, and Ugh! It’s so MS painty! But that’s not too bad. This tileset would be perfect for tests, but not much else. There are some simple tileset enemies, and some nesscary tiles, but not too many. Eyecandy tiles? Hmmm, well there are some aliens(Tileset enimies, or destructable), Some animations, and not much else. Really not much that you could use in other layers. It also has some rain tiles, which is a nice addition.
In closing, this tileset is MS Panty, few people will use it for tests, fewer will use it for anything other than tests, and even fewer will like the tileset.
Best Tile- The crashed rocket
Would be better if- Redone,reshaded, and had a textured BG.

Electra,

The layer use in this level was very normal, no bugs with layer 3 etc. I spotted tilebugs, like an unfinished wall.

The enemy placement wasn’t as bad either, at some points you chose the right enemys, at some point less good ones.

What annoyed me in this level were two things: The background tiles placed in the sprite layer and that hole next to the crate that makes you fall down all the way. The bonus was not visible, a bit unhandy. And yes, the level was very small.

Totally there are too many solveable cons. A 5,7…

A small tip for your next level: take the time, nobody is chasing you. It could give some very nice results.

Starting Comments:

Aaaah… this reminds me of my first Tube Electric level (mine was far worse though).

Playability:

It was quiet a nice little level, but sadly, it was way too short and everything inside there was just like in any other level. You run around, kill some baddies and collect goodies. At one point you’ll have enough coins to enter the bonus warp, get some seekers, and blast the boss with them. At the start there was a little puzzle involving bouncers which was nice, but the rest was just average.

Score: 6.0

Balance:

Very easy. I made it the first try, because there’s nothing which is really challenging. The enemies are easy to kill (sometimes a little tricky, but there are enough carrots to keep you alive), the few puzzle situations aren’t that hard to solve and the boss proves no real challenge either. Needs some work.

Score: 5.0

Creativity:

The puzzle was nice and some enemies were placed strategically, but the rest was just basic running, shooting, collecting, stomping, etc. Some more puzzles would have been nice, or situations where the player has to react fast to get over traps. The boss was also too simple, you fight him in a little arena with four platforms. Pretty much like in “A cold day in heck”. Try backing up bosses with other stuff, or giving them an arena which gives them an advantage while it’s difficult to move around for Jazz in it. That will solve two problems – it will make it harder to beat the boss, and it will be different from usual stuff.

Score: 6.2

Eyecandy:

The eyecandy was not so good. Some stuff in the background (too empty), some tiles in layer 4 and that was it. A variety of tiles would have made it better, aswell as new ideas to make it look different than all the other tube electric levels. I found no tilebugs, however.

Score: 5.7

Fun Factor:

Due to the low difficulty level and the lack of creativity, it was not too much fun and if it had been, it would have ended too early because the level is so short. Try improving the other factors mentioned above, and it will be a lot more fun to play.

Score: 5.5

Overall:

An average little level. It’s not bad, but lacks new ideas, challenges and eyecandy. A story would also be nice.

Overall Score: 6.0

Download Recommendation: Decide for yourself.

Raging Resurrection

Here I start a review of this level. I’m not in a good condition and not in a very good mood, but I’ll review this anyway. A 6 looks too low in my opinion.

Eye candy : 2.4 out of 3.0
I’ll start with the eye candy in this level. While I run through the level I see alot of stuff on my way. The ambient lighting effects are nice, and I don’t understand that the reviewer above me can’t see what he/she does. Oh well. The backgrounds are nice, and the layer eye candy is nice as well ;P. The music gives the level a nice atmosphere which I like. A small con is that there are some secrets I don’t particularly like. There are some 1up events which I like as well(the shining effect ;P) Well, that’s all I can say. The eye candy is quite l33t in my opinion.

Gameplay : 3.0 out of 4.0
Let’s start with the layout. The layout of the level reminds me of ‘Titled Level’ but there are some differences. The level isn’t symmetrical but it’s balanced. There are some tubes, and the bases are placed on the left and right sides. You have to take a tube to get to the base, so this prevents a flag bug. The other flagbug can’t happen somehow. It’s very well done. The spring placement is nice. Some of them are hidden. There is some Spaz-bias near the bases, though. I can get up with Spaz there but not with Jazz if I tested it good enough. The triggers are useful(just like I did in my last level) The level’s flow is nice, and the rest is nice as well. I don’t really know what should be improved except what I already said.

Placement : 2.4 out of 3.0
Now I’ll continue with the placement. The level has only 1 Power-Up, but I think it’s good enough. The placement of it is good. The ammo is also good placed, but some boring shapes of ammo are used here and there. The level doesn’t have alot of Gun9, which is fun. You’ll run for some Gun9 so you can get the PU =P. I think the right side doesn’t have alot of ammo at the bottom, but the Full Energy is closer to the right base than the left base. Normally it would be a problem, but it also is strategic. Some shapes of ammo are good though. There is not too much ammo on the ground. The weapon choices are good enough. I would say there is a small advantage for the team that starts at the left side, though. The start positions are placed good enough.

Overall : 2.4 + 3.2 + 2.4 = 8.0. Good job!
Conclusion : a nice new level by Snooze. One of the better levels made for XLM. I hope I’ll see more nice levels like this one.

Host this : Yes. It’s a good new level to host now and then.
Download : Yes.
EDIT : After looking another time, I think the gameplay is a bit worse than I thought before. What EvilMike said about the float ups was true; thus my new rating is a 7.8. It’s still a nice level. ;]