Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

WOW creapy tileset….the lvl is very big GamePlay is very hard.Eye candy well it’s kind of creapy too..I can’t even see were Im going! well……..the lvl scares me! just take 6 and go!

[Unsupported rating removal (6). No valid reasons for this rating were given. You find the eyecandy creepy and the gameplay hard. Why are these a bad thing? Do they make the level worse? What’s your reason for giving a 6? – FQuist]

Finally, I get TSF installed(spent the whole day trying to find my CD), so I can review this level. Can it make me feel like I didn’t waste my morning and early afternoon? Let’s find out.
Level Design-7.5/10
It somewhat reminds me of a compact version of a level Cliffy might have made, but there are some tile annoyances(For example, some background tiles are used in the sprite layer and back layers). Another thing is the trigger crate’s left does not have a warp, and can lead the player too an ‘endless’ pit of doom. The secrets in the level seem remiscent of the secrets you’d find in official levels(coin warps, gems in walls etc. etc.). The boss arena does not work well for Bubba for he jumps through the tiles, however this is addressed in the readme. Finally, the biggest flaw is that the level is too short. Oh, and the coin warp doesn’t use a normal coinwarp booth, but instead a dotted tile, which I thought was somewhat odd.
Story-NA/10
There is no story here, but if I had to make a guess, Devan’s time warping has further messed up Tubelectric sending in rifts of time from which creatures and objects not native to the planet come through. You go to the planet and try to seal these time rifts and destroy the unnative goons.
Eyecandy-6/10
Avearge stuff acheived from a tubelectric tileset, not too excellent.
Difficulty-7/10
On multiplayer, I had some trouble thanks to the sparks and a bee. Also, newer players may not use the BBB ammo needed to solve an early puzzle the correct way. This is bad because the ammo does not regenearate.
Placement-7/10
Very average placement, save for a bee, there is nothing that was too horrbile or too genious. Some good points were the placement of the Seekers and a few other secrets. A very bad point is Bubba’s placemnet.
Closing-
It’s a good start, but in the future I’d like to see a larger level, and see where the other average points stretch or constrict from there.

Download Reccomendation?-Yes, but only if you need a short diversion.
Co-op?-No, with this small space Co-op would hinder the collection of some of the secrets, and ends to quickly before any teamwork happens. However, the pit near the trigger crate can be used to trick a friend into oblivion. Whoo.

I didn’t like it. No further comment.
(Unsupported rating (3) removal. Why didn’t you like it? ~Violet)

Ladies and Gents. Here it is, another XMas pack, only 3 levels, but … WHAT FUN! It is sooo playable so enjoyable and looks great too. This pack is rather underrated, but I see it is quite normal here that good packs has lower ratings than worthless and boring.
What’s inside levels? Of course they are finely designed: a lot of springflying, treetops jumping, baddies shooting. Yep, it’s all right there and the filesize is only 30kB big, because it only uses original game resources. Yes, I’d like more levels or bigger levels, I’d like to hear music in XMas Night level. That’s why it gets 9.7 not 10 out of 10.
Highly recommended.

No, do not cancel this project, just fix some levels add two more and we would have another excellent episode.
What to fix?
First level is perfect, second level has bad tileset maybe it could be improved.
I didn’t like the rain on 3rd level and there was only one place that made Lori character impossible to play: maze puzzle though it could be fixed by adding a skateboard.
Fourth level pretty challenging and really good, I even play this one with Lori and I must say it was fun. I only hated the background.
So overall that would be great episode if you hadn’t cancelled it and fix some issues. But now we have good four levels to play that are worth 8 points. At least try to make some update to these: change the speed of background in levels 2 and 4 also add a skateboard at the maze and I’ll surely rate it higher 1 whole point.

Do not finish it have mercy for players, yuck. :P

This is not cartoonish, it’s some pix of antitalented child put to tileset. Ungliness and sillyness at its best.
(Unsupported rating (1) removal, wide attack removal. Try to go into more detail and don’t be quite so negative, okay? ~Violet)

No this can’t be – another worthless piece of file with HIGH RATING. This episode is the worst thing I’ve ever seen or play (not for long I must admit) the graphic is just stupid, do not make anymore tilesets for Jazz go play with your crayons :P Yuck yuck yuck, it just disgusts me. (See more about it in tileset review)
Music in the first level is as stupid as the graphics are.
Leveldesign as far as I was able to bear to see was hopeless – far below average. Do not touch JCS again and when you do don’t upload effects here. I don’t know what talents you’ve got but tileset and level creating are your anti-talents for sure.
Now I must search through whole my download and delete everything ‘made by satan’. Another such shock would kill me.
Oh and the last thing: change the name of this episode to Silly Childish Episode and look at some cartoons (or original Jazz graphics) to know what does cartoon means.

———

and here’s my answer to da man’s comment:

I’m expanding rating list and what do I see: aahh -> ‘1’ (it is right there believe me). Now, let’s say I find some episode “no fun at all”, should I:
a) rate it 1.0 because that’s my opinion about this pack
b) rate it higher just because other players do so ?
In service Jazz 2 Online we have democratic way of posting reviews and rating uploaded files. Some may like it others may not, but only administration of this site decides about it. What’s that democratic system then – it means: majority decides, but minority preserves its rights to have different point of view.
As you all can see: majority of high ratings gives current file a high overall rating even though I rated it lowest possible way. Well, 7.5 is still very high rating …
There is another system which is not practiced on this website and it is called totalitarism. It’s when all people must act the same even when some think other way. In that case I had to choose option ‘b’.
I know satan has made an effort and spent some of his free time to make this pack. But I’m not here to rate how much work he did but how good is the effect. Surprisingly I do not see any comments from authors of levels that i’m reviewing. Why do other play a role of their advocates is not my problem. Being a new person on this site doesn’t make me any worse than people who are here longer (well, at least I do not see it in “The rules”) very often a new point of view is something positive.
I apologize all offended (if there are any) authors for my reviews, but honesty is what I appreciate most.
P.S. User Snooz must try harder to offend me in reviews area or PMs. Silly insults only make me laugh ;)

Average levelpack. Many issues and bugs were already pointed out in other reviews. But I also have my own cons: don’t say anything about music in readme when there’s NO music at all in the zip-file. No, I’m not going to download mods especially for your pack, you didn’t includ’em = there’s no music. You always could use one of the original tracks.
Some of the tilesets you’ve used are good others are not – especially 3rd level, but that was your choice.
Covering some area with leaves on 2nd is really annoying – well, I know it’s for increasing difficulty, but that’s cheap method, couldn’t you do better?
I’m stuck on last level and can’t find the way to trigger crate – that’s bad. I know puzzles are nice and everything, but if I want a puzzle I play a puzzle game which JJ2 is not. The gameplay should flow rather continously but it doesn’t. Puzzles in JJ2 are usually based on finding secrets in walls and not on logic thinking and I hate spending my time on hitting every wall I see.
And last but not least – why do I see all levels on my homecooked list when it’s levelset/episode. There should be only the first one, I was quite confused – which level should I start with.
The only pro is that you can play with Lori. But my overall rating is averge unless some things in this pack are improved in upgraded version.

I had not much fun playing this pack. Good there were just 2 levels, nice tileset though, but the background should be less eyetwisting. I wonder why you didn’t use blocks to build something good looking in the background. And when the player finds secret passage, he shouldn’t have problems with getting out. There were more irritating details in leveldesign, sometimes passages were too small, sometimes spaces too huge and empty. A bit over average: 6 points.

I enjoyed playing this pack much and that’s important. Big levels, great eyecandy … if someone likes original episodes should try this one. Pack uses only original tileset and music, probably that’s why Bjossi concentrated on leveldesign. It isn’t perfect but near perfection and since many worse levelpacks have better ratings I give 9.5. This pack really deserves it.

I’m just rating this a ten so Wiolet will come and edit it. Mmmkay?
(Unsupported rating removal edit. This review sucks. ~Cooba)

The Hidden Kingdom

Firstly, I like the creativity used in the backround in this level. The author attempted to make it look as if there is a castle betwixt the trees and mountains, and it manages to look alright. I don’t particularly like the eyecandy too much; I think there is a lack of cave tiles and the level screams out for more layer 5. The layout seems kinda strange, I don’t
really like the area around the fly carrot (That sucker is also annoying to get to cause of difference of masking between the blocks and the brown wall tiles). Music is alright, but a better one definately could’ve been used since this one doesn’t provide a lot if any atmosphere to the level. Some parts in the level also feel extremely empty.

Rating: 7.5

Rocky Gardens

This level also could’ve used a lot more layer 5. It has more atmosphere than the previous level, but I don’t like the wind events in it , and more eyecandy could’ve been put in. A lot of the ground is really flat and looks boring. Places like 26, 43 need one waying and there are a few pointless areas like 24, 32. Ammo seems to be overly sparce as well.

Rating: 7

A lighty X-mas lava version

This level had a great first impression for me, but there are a few annoyances in it. The green spring at 46, 81 doesnt reach the platform above. The suckers on the side could’ve been more pointed out since I had no idea they were there (accidentally ran into them). 77, 74 is an bleh area. Needs a spring or something. You shouldn’t have put two +15 seeker ammo boxes next to each other cause it will cause a lot of ammo lag (like the seeker area in battle 1 does.) The level is also kinda small, and definately should not have a full energy carrot. I also feel that a few areas should have more ammo. I would’ve rated this 7.7-8 if it wasnt for the carrot..

Rating: 7.5

Wooden Wonders

After playing this level, I found I liked it. The music is funny and the mood of the level is great. The layout was good, the eyecandy was nice. The only thing I didn’t really like was again it barely had any ammo in it =P.

Rating: 8

Midnight Battle

Bleh, so many places in this level got confusing because the author used masked tiles like the blue ground in layer 5, so it was hard telling what was solid and what wasn’t (even when using common sense and guesswork, I still couldnt figure out if some of the ground tiles were solid or not until I walked into them). There is an icepower up here (omg!) along with some friendly neighbourhood ice ammo. Flow of this level needs quite a bit of work, not only cause of the confusing eyecandy, but some springs need to be replaced, and more springs/floatups should be placed. The creativity in the ammo is also kinda limited since a lot of it is just placed in long lines.

Rating: 6.5

Ctf levels:

Harmful Hazardous Harbor

Again a lot of the level is empty (some places could really use more pickups or eyecandy to brighten them up a bit – like the area around 40, 73). Bases are in the top left and bottom right, and because the gameplay is diagonal instead of the usual straight more people might be complaining about team biasness and stuff. There were lots of pointlessly long tunnels without much things in them. Ammo looks balanced enough.

Rating: 7.5

Station 87
No Start Positions found. Whoopee ;(. Im not going to rate this cause playing CTF levels in SP = sux, but right now it looks like it would get 7.7 – 8.

Pitfall CTF
Hm. This level is really small seemingly. Less than 70 tiles across. I like it though. I sometimes crash into something at 43, 60. There’s not really much to say about the level cause its really small. Having blaster be the main (and only) powerup is interesting, though, and I like this level. Next level setting needs to be fixed though (-0.1)

Rating: 7.8

Cutted Problem
Both jazz and spaz could play here, which kinda sux since jazz can stay in air for a really long time and has an advantage. Otherwise, level is pretty standard, and nothing really new about it. Imo there should’ve been more ammo and less ammo crates too. The eyecandy in the starting room looks nice though.
Rating: 7.6

Full Moon Time

It looks kinda ugly when you can see the bomb crates above the arena when you jump. Eyecandy looks weird, and otherwise just a regular ground force level without the anti-jazz thing. Looking in JCS, it also seems that everyone can get into the control room because DX forgot to put a lock on it. (-0.3)

Rating: 7.4-0.3 = 7.1

Castle of Fake

Suckers in the top of the level are kinda annoying. Level needs a bigger arena too since the crate alone destroys like 90% of it.

Rating: 7.3

Conclusion: For me, this pack was unexpected. It was alright, but deadlines tend to rush things and a lot of these levels couldve gone through more testing since there is still bugs in them. This is still worth downloading, because these levels are (for the most part) well made and fun to play.

Final Rating for pack (Takes out calculator): 7.38 ~ 7.4. Download reccomendation.

A bit over average pack… the lack of variety in levels is quite painful in long terms – you get bored far too early. Eyecandy pretty average too, using good tileset like heaven is not enough – important thing is also how to use it. Another pack with missing tilesets – bonus level made my JJ2 to quit. This bug lowers the overall rating because it happens in the middle of the game.

It might be good levelpack but graphics just ruined a lot of things. It should be rather called MEH (My Eyes Hurt) Levelpack and my eyes did hurt after playing level with fog, underwater level and dark castle level. This graphic was so annoying that I used jjnext few times. Since leveldesign is well but eyecandy is horrible it makes the whole thing pretty average – so 5.5 is my final rating.

Just a little comment on Violet’s description.

“Two other levels, battle4 and race4, are only available in .lev form, which is very different form of encryption and much harder to convert, if not impossible.”

It must be possible. I don’t think that Cliffy would have time and will to 99% accurately remake all the levels in JCS.

[2011 EDIT: LOL I AM DUMB]

OK, here’s my few words about this package, since Agama is real guru in making tilesets and I hope that users high ratings are big encouragement for Agama to create more masterpieces. Of course it gets 10 and recomandation and now some words about this tileset. It was made on a base of original beach tileset – good to know, because I see no similarities (maybe a bit in a colour palette) this rather looks like made from scratch because every element, every tile is changed. Imagine a scenery for JJ2 on which you see a swamp with tall trees with rather dark brown and green colors and beautiful background. Now open your eyes and look at sample level of swamp tileset… and teach your imagination to create such amazing images.
P.S. still few Agama’s tileset’s to see, I’m sure I won’t be dissapointed.

Yes, it’s Agama’s tileset and yes, it is great. Although I don’t quite like some elements like black holes among bricks, and the river in the background is takin’ player attention (at least my attention) but it’s still a masterpiece. Look at those pictures on the walls, one word – genius. Hard to compare it to other Agama’s works, it’s quite similar in style, just different scenery. One thing is certain these tilesets are real jewels in j2o downloads and it would be a crime if I’d rate it lower than 10.
P.S. Filesize is quite big, but trust me – it’s worth waiting!

I really like these tiles… they’re neat and preserve the cartoonish style of whole game. Now, that work deserve really high rating beacuse this stuff fits well to original tilesets. Level designers: use Heaven and your levels will just look great. That’s how good tileset should look like, so… maximum rating and recomended for download :)

Quite playable and enjoyable levelpack… some ideas originally implemented other not, eyecandy below average – it’s not just because of poor quality tilesets, even on levels with better tiles there are too small repetitive patterns and lack of details. There are even more cons – like too narrow passages making levels buggy. But the most important bug is that some files are probably missing making the game to quit with fatal error… and there’s no readme file. I can’t give more than 6.5