Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Cavey Forest
DarkSonic, a friend of mine and co-leader of XLM has made another level, this time it it for our won XLM CTF Contest. Yay! Happy Birthday anyway (I think I already said it to you on MSN) Well, let’s check out if this level is worth DarkSonic’s 14th birthday party, and if it has a chance on the XLM CTF Contest. Prepare for a review!

EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
DarkSonic used the forest tileset of Blade, a quite good and nice to use tileset, but the eyecandy that is given in this set is a little bit below the average. Anyway, DS did a good job with the eyecandy, however it could be better in some places. The backgrounds are nice and the caves have a Dark Atmosphere. I didn’t see any tile errors, however, the eyecandy could be better. I think it’s more the fault of the tileset then of the creator, but it just doesn’t look so good, unless the author really took the maximum capacity of the tileset. Eyecandy can be a little bit confusing sometimes, if you look to the pathways at the floor or other parts, like when you need to take the carrot (it looks like it is in the ground, but it isn’t) and the part in the middle when you have to jump through two ledges in the foreground. Also, the top corner parts could have more EC, and the walls just look dull in the corners of the level.

AMMO: 1.75 out of 2.5
New let’s take a look at the ammo placement in this level. DS used a familiar three Powerup strategy (Seeker-Bouncer-RF) which is very unoriginal, but decent. However, the two secondary Powerups could have been placed in a more original way, they are now just flat at the ground. The Seeker PU looks hard to get in the first place, but it’s rather easy when you just run up the hill using Electro Blasters. Some ammo is placed at the ground or in other places, this could have been better, and sometimes the ammo looks a bit chaotic Also there a good points about the ammo, there is plenty of it, and most of the time it is easy to reach.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.5 out of 2.0
The structure of the level this time has it’s good and bad sides. Good side of the structure is the fact that there is a really decent flow, and you can move around not too hard. Bad sides are the flow are the fact that there is too less space sometimes, especially in the middle where you have to run through very narrow corridors. Another bad point of the level is the fact that the placement of the level is not matching with the rest of the level. You better had put the bases in corners of the level, now they are a bit too close to each other, and the worst thing is that’s it’s possible to run from the red base to the blue one and vice versa in a single, non-stop run, with just 1 jump! Could have been better, but the rest is OK. Not much diversity in movement however, but enough.

GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
Maybe I was a little bit hard in the first three points of the level, but the gameplay isn’t really that bad. It could have been better though, with a little bit more original eyecandy, more original placement, and a nicer level structure. You told me you tried to make your level a little less “squared-off” (a form of the level when all platforms are huge blocks) and you attempt has partially succeeded, but I still can see that you’re falling back in the same style sometimes, especially in the roofs and the corners of the level. About the flow; it’s quite nice, could have been a little bit better perhaps in some areas but still OK. I like the choice of the music, it’s some kind of dreamy-dark trance/techno, I like the flavour.

RATINGS:
At the end of this review I can say that DarkSonic made a level that is a little bit better then previous ones, but I guess the author ca still do better. It’s a little bit different then other levels of him who looked a lot like each other, but it’s still not different enough to be a complete new experience. Maybe you should get rid of the standard symmetrical structure in your levels, if you make something next time that is asymmetrical I think you could get higher votes (if they have the same quality) And now the answer of the question: is this level good enough to win the XLM CTF Contest? drums Well, I don’t really know it. The level is a bit better then the one of Dx, but I don’t know sure if it’s good enough to win. I guess it will be in the top 3 at least, depends on what Snooz has made. For now, here you have a 7.2.

Score: 2.0+1.75+1.5+2.0 = 7.25 = 7.2
Download: Yes, it is a little style change in DarkSonic’s level and it could be funny to download.
Host: I don’t think so, I think you’ll get too bored of the level when you host it online too often. However, it could be funny for a few times, but not more. I guess that few times are already over now.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

• .* (yes, back to the copyfromnotepad style) ..
  /run saphir_race_pack_second_review.txt

Level 1: Natural Racetrack
Eyecandy: All’s a-ok here. 2/2
Flow: The springs at the very beginning of the level can be hard to get through at first, And some of the puzzles can get really tough with certain characters. Aside from that, all’s well. 1.6/2
Possible with Jazz? Yes. .5/.5
Possible with Spaz? Yep. .5/.5
Total for level = 4.6/5 A

Level 2: Temple of the Dragons
Eyecandy: Pretty good. 1.9/2
Flow: Not bad. 1.9/2
Possible with Jazz? With a little trouble, yes. .4/.5
Possible with Spaz? A lot easier than Jazz. .5/.5
Total for level = 4.8/5 A+

Level 3: Cloudy Lab
Eyecandy: The thunder can get a little annoying at times, and the clouds can get real confusing too. (see below) 1/2
Flow: The aformentioned clouds can really confuse the cloud puzzles, and the wind tests get annoying. Oh, and there’s a hole in the warps in the first cloud puzzle. .6/2
Possible with Jazz? Patience patience patience. .3/.5
Possible with Spaz? See above.. .3/.5
Total for level = 2.2/5 D

Level 4: Raincloud Raceway
Eyecandy: Nothing wrong here. 1.9/2
Flow: SOME of the puzzles can really get annoying on this raceway. 1/2
Possible with Jazz? Yes. .5/.5
Possible with Spaz? Yes! .5/.5
Total for level = 3.9/5 C

Total for pack = 7.7 (rounded from 7.75)
Not too bad.

—EDIT: Line errors corrected. ..[This review has been edited by MattW]

Bjarni wanted me to rate this tileset, so I will.

Palette:
The palette actually turned out pretty well in my opinion. The movie posters look very good for 256 colors, and there’s even a textured background. It’s not perfect, but Very good work.
8/10
Masking:
The masking looks good to me. I didn’t get stuck on any of my 3 runs through the example level. I don’t understand what could really be better about the masking than you can’t get stuck in it.
10/10
Required stuff:
This level has most of the required stuff. It has all the destruct blocks except pepper spray and electro blaster. It has vines and poles and spikes, but no sucker tubes. It also has text signs, exit signs, and hooks.
9/10
Eyecandy:
This is where the level falls short. The basic ground is boring: Varying shades of orange, brown and red squares. There are a few movie posters, a poorly drawn guy with guns, a poorly drawn police car, and a weird yellow road in terms of eyecandy, but no foreground or background stuff, unless you count the textured background.
2/10
Overall:
The tileset is pretty good in most areas, but falls short on the eyecandy. You can download this if you want, but with eyecandy like that, I don’t really think you could use it.
Rating: 7.25 ~ 7.2

this looks kinda boring

Eyecandy: not bad,but i think the building’s in the background is a bit too much.

Gameplay: i think this dont looks like an CTF lvl,this is more for single player.

Tileset: the tileset is very good.
like i said,with that tileset,single player.

ammo: Good,nothing bad.

Download: yes
Host: not for hosting.

Dx,you are the best in single player lvl’s so do that.

i rate: 6,7[This review has been edited by Lulu][This review has been edited by Lulu]

Works well for me.
These are VERY good remixes! The way the different samples are used in the place of the original’s is great.

Megairtemple: Sounds just like Megairbase, but better. Feels like the temple is floating in the sky or something. Still short and reptitive, though. But’s still good.

Fanomondus: My favorite. I like how the guitar samples are used in place of the, ummm…flute-type samples. It’s not as loud as the original, but it’s my personal favorite. Five stars!

Scrapivo: This is good stuff. It sounds like a mechanical castle, and a lot more upbeat and less gloomy than the original. It’s awesomeness rivals that of Fanomondus.

Slugelectric: It’s good, but not as good as the original. The guitar samples aren’t loud enough, but if they were louder, it would sound more like the original Tubelectric. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, though. Keep it up!

A 9.5 for originality and good-soundingness.

Just to make things clear: they’re not remixes, but conversions, straight from .psm format (more on that later). The only difference is that those have a title built in now, not just some auto-title (like Song5 for Song5.s3m) The only advantage you’ll get is in the Module Players (ModPlug, WinAmp, I use XMPlay myself).

Now, I can already tell you this: these conversions kept all qualities of the original .psm files. As in, sometimes a sample is being played wrong (mostly zigzag samples sounding like waves going up and down, you know what I mean), due to the fact current players don’t have proper .psm support (.psm is old!), even though they have been converted to s3m.

To make a long story short: downloading these would be like downloading the original .psm format without the necessary modifcations to make them sound decent. As far as I know, ModPlug is the only player with .psm support built in, even tho it’s not perfect: samples played wrong, sometimes skipping and speeding; those are the common problems with .psm, and I expect them to turn up in the next sets. no rating yet.

- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3

How is this different from the various other places you can download JJ1’s complete music collection?

The music is to slow and quite boring with that sort of instruments in it, sorry.

Good remixes, I may use them for my levels. The only con is Boss.sm3, it has some bugs in it, maybe you should look at it. (Or my Sound Blasters are broken ;))

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Originally posted by PHT:
You can’t listen to it with Winamp

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No, you have to have a special music system of JCS, don’t remember it’s name, tough.

Good gameplay, I liked the jump parts etc. Good weapon placement (Just when you need a weapon, it’s there ;))
To bad it isn’t real fun as said before, a 7 from me.

Did you make it with the TSF JCS? If so, than it’s 1.24.

No eyecandy whatso ever. Horrible enemy placement, horrible item placement. I don’t see why the autor has named the level “tutorial level for beginers”. Sorry, a 1 from me.

Reccomend download rate: F

labratkid, if you are stuck, you can move to the left or to the right and you’ll get out of it, I changed that part, I don’t know if you saw that.

Strato, this level works just fine. Anyway, review time

Gameplay – Good
I like the gameplay here a lot, but it has some flaws. In several places, it’s easy to get stuck. For example, the author put a warp target with a wall right on it’s left side, this making you get stuff when you warp to it. Also, there’s a place with one ways that I got stuck in a lot. Other than that, the gameplay is fun and original and worth a second play.

Enemy placement – Good / Very good
Nothing wrong here, I like the placement a lot. There are some bugs, though. For example, at one point, there’s a tough turtle enemy in a one tile high passage, thus making him walk but not move, which looks rather buggy. There are some other flaws here and there, but none too big to hurt the rating at all.

Food placement – Good
The food placement is good for the most part. It seems that the author forgot to place food in some areas, though. You should try to evenly distribute food around your levels to make them look professional. Pick your food events carefully, as well. I’m not quite sure why there were bananas here.

Pickups placement – Good
My only complaint here is that there aren’t enough gems, but it’s still very nice.

Eyecandy – Good / Very good
Great eyecandy here, but nothing original. There are also some bugs in layer three. Remember to give secret passages a very thick coat of layer three. Don’t just put one tile in layer three for every tile in layer four that is part of a secret passage. I noticed you made that mistake a couple times in the level. The eyecandy has some tile bugs in the boss room, too, but nothing too serious. What I would like to see in the level is more carrots (not carrot events, I mean carrot tiles), turnips (or whatever they are), and perhaps some moth events. The 16-bit textured background could also look nicer. You should usually make your textured backgrounds fade to a color other than black, especially if it takes place during the day. It never hurts to be original, either. Take a look at Blackraptor’s Junkyard level (I believe it’s uploaded under the name, “Some CTF Level,” or something of the sort). It has a yellow textured background that fades to a sky blue color, if I remember correctly, and it looks great.

Overall – Good / Very good

Download reccomendation – Yes, but be prepared to use JJFLY and JJNOWALL to get unstuck in some places.

Replay – Probably.

I hope to see more levels by this author in the future. Nice work. My rating is 7.7. If there were no bugs that made you get stuck, I may have thought about giving this closer to an 8.0.

PS: This review is not proofread. There are probably several embarassing spelling and/or grammar mistakes.

-LAbRaTkiD

JCS Version 1.20 never existed so I assume that it’s either OEM CS or that old JCS that had a different name. 4 letters or something. Anyway, because of lack of existing I asumme that this level dosen’t exist either.

yay.. got my internet browser working.

EYECANDY: 8
The points are down for the dull eyecandy in some places and for the ground tiles in layer 3. This is confusing enough but then there’s almost no eyecandy. HoRRaY! Confusing level with uncool eyecandy. Sux more than ever. Don’t use ground tiles in layer 3.

GAMEPLAY: 7
Easy but boring. The old run left, run right, left, right style is used again. You score and quick if the opponent is slow. This level also is 6 differently shaped platforms around with layer3 ground tiles. It’s easy to navigate, and the fun starts when both players have the flag. Then again, you can’t go down from up. You cannot go to the bases frop upper left or upper right. They are a nice dead end.

STUFF PLACEMENT: 6.0
The springs are awful. Most of the spawnpoints are up and the bases are down, then when you go to the centre, suddenly a green spring on green ground appears and you bounce up…. it slows down and much. The powerups are at the upper left, upper right and the centre. Bouncer in left, RF in right, how unfair. RF is more powerful than bouncies. Why are you using this unfair style? I see no reason to. The carrot is in the ground, which isn’t bad, but causes 3hk’s often. And the seek powerup. Like I said in my unedited review, it should not exist in levels with such a layout like this. It’s fine in open levels. Fast scoring also kills you if opponent has seek powerup and you don’t.

ORIGINALITY: 7.7
Pretty much… unoriginal in many ways. I am being tired of seeing the forest tileset getting used with a musicfile based on space. Evil.

FUN FACTOR: 6
Uncool. Boring. You run back and forth. You get roasted repeatedly if you happen to get roasted the first time. The forest tileset which is used in many levels. No.

OVERALL: 6.7
DOWNLOAD?: Only if you are going to review…
HOST?: Boring… read above.

EDITED: Trafton’s request of removing the seek powerup placement thing.[This review has been edited by the WINNER]

Well it must have been a hard work! 22 big levels full of enemies and bosses. The most beautiful thing was: in this level, the head enemy was not Devan. A magic cat! Great idea. Not a classical story of Jazz-Eva and Devan! It’s good.
The level design was also good the difficulty was high. There were much enemies, less carrots! It could be better if there would be more carrots!
There was a storyline, two new enemies (like lego man and magic cat!=)
In some levels (One of the jungle levels can be an example) You have to pass the area and survive only. It could be better if you could make less fighting levels.
I have to say that this pack was good! So here’s a 7.7

A good battle-pack, but it’s really time for improvement.

LVL 1: Grazzbattle01
This is a small battle lvl, just like all the other lvl’s. The small lvl makes it boring. You make it to simple to get the Powerups and ammo. You dont have to do something to get a powerup. And the ammo is to much. There is a big place with 7×7 tiles Seekers or something. And there are standing 4 crates with Bouncers by the Powerup.
The Eyecandy doesn’t make it better. Bad layer 3 use. You can see ev’rywhere where layer 3 is used can see your feet. But the rest is a bit better.
Gameplay is okay… If your floating to upstairs, you can get stuck… But there are sucker tubes and things and vines and that makes it better.
But that carrot at the begin is bad to. If you shoot against it to the left you wont be able to get it.
Overall: A bit buggy lvl that needs better gameplay and better placement.

LVL 2: Grazzbattle02
It’s beginning to be better, but not really good…
You need to improve yourself Grazzkid.
Placement is better, altough it must be good. To much ammo on one spot. Also, I’ve seen that in EVERY lvl THE AMMO IS COMING BACK TO QUICK! It’s coming back in 1 second or something. That secret is to simple to find, and it will lead you to 5 Powerups! Thats to much.
Eyecandy is improved, if you look to Lvl 1. It’s a nice lvl.
Gameplay is also better, and the lvl is a bit bigger then first. But that suckertube that will suck you trough FastFires, but it’s waiting to long ev’ry time. If your enemy sees you, he will run to the end and shoot you down in one time. =(
Overall: A better lvl then LvL1. It’s still to much ammo in it…

LVL 3: Spazzgrazzbatle03
This is getting better, but I don’t like it when you almost put ALL Upgrades in it… There are some UFO’s in the lvl, and IN the UFO’s are Upgrades. You have to walk first to the right to get Electro Guns(upgrade =P) Then you can shoot them all.
At the begin are 2 secrets to! You have to jump high to get Seekers(Powerup…) And if you go in the sucker tube, press left to get 3-way(Powerup…=) )
The gameplay is bit bad. You just have to walk to the right and left or jump over the UFO’s =P. So not realy good.
Eyecandy is just nice! The UFO’s, background and the lightsettings are good. If you walk under an UFO, it will become a white Screen(much light) If you go, it will turn out dark again. Not more to say about this.
Overall: To much Upgrades but haves nice Eyecandy. Make more platforms to walk on so it will not become BOOOORING…

LVL 4: Space
Well, this time I’m impressed! This gots realy nice Eyecandy! HAHA! Those aliens give you ammo and carrots =P.
There are nice platforms and a better gameplay. Dont walk only left and right, but squeeze yourself in holes, jump out the Spaceship, and more like that.
Still, there is TO MUCH TNT!! 15×5 TILES WITH TNT!!! WHAT TO DO WITH IT!? And again, to much Upgrades… 3-way, freezer, Seekers and other kinds of upgrades.
Overall: I think this is the best lvl of all. Great eyecandy, good gameplay, nice joke, but still I’m missing the nice AMMO placement.

Fhew… I’m ready with the review… Ono, i forgot the rating! =P =P

RATING : a 6.5 for you Grazzkiddos.
DOWNLOAD : Your decision. I think yes…
HOST THIS: Nah… I think not, but you can do it allways! ;)

This review has been edited by Wadledee from J2XMC