Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Devans Factory Gooder

Uh.. Gooder? The correct tense is “Better”. However, you’re not supposed to rate somebody’s grammar and spelling but the file. The zip file contains no readme file so I just randomly started with a level. All levels, except for censored 2 (ripped) show up in the Home Cooked Level list, so that doesn’t give any clues either.

• Level 1: Colon Cluster *
  The beginning seems ripped from the official Epic levels, it even gives clues to some copied stuff. However, this level is full of tile bugs, overused ammo, enemies and events. Colon might be a hard set to use, but this level is just bad.

• Level 2: Bad Pitt *
  The author obviously edited this official level or added the wrong file to the zip. No rating. But look! The next level setting obviously works. This means the author just tried to fake us with who actually created the level.

• Level 3: Crazy for Christmas*
  You forgot to include Xmas1.j2t in the ZIP file, so I had to copy it from my TSF folder to the 1.23 folder.. Annoying!

It has disturbing foreground scenery (the lamp poles). And again an overuse of enemies. There is no background scenery, the author obviously found this too hard to manage. It again has some serious tile bugs. If Project One would ever see this, they would awake from the death!

• Level 4: Devan’s Factory*
  Bad choice of background and music (censored.j2b!?). The foreground chains look pretty dumb. The level also has text strings making comments about the level. ‘Devan must love seeing that every day!” and “What is this thing”, for example. Well, that thing was just a can with a chemical fluid. The level has no eyecandy and guess what? Even more tile bugs.. The level ends with a Devan Robot Boss.

Well, and that’s pretty much it. These levels keep on looping. It doesn’t matter where you start. Probably the author couldn’t make up his mind or something.

OVERALL:
The colon level is plain bad, there are many tile bugs. The censored level is fake and the author didn’t make this (probably only edited it) and the Xmas level doesn’t give a ‘merry xmas’ feel at all. No download recommendation.

RATING:
3.5[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

Can you PLEASE make a version of this for JJ2 regular? Remember, T.S.F. wasn’t released in USA!

Ed’s 15th Symphony

I wonder why nobody else reviewed Captain Spam aka Nicholas Killewald’s level, so I do it now.

It sadly uses the overused Diamondus set. There’s no background scenery.
A good thing is that it’s treasure hunt: you don’t see TH levels very often. The exit idea is original and in the level are some hidden gem places. There are no tile bugs.

- CONS:
A bit boring, could use a little more eyecandy.

+ PROS:
It’s treasure hunt and it shows interesting ideas.

VERDICT:
This level is not very recent at all but worth playing. It even has one funny text string.

RATING:
7.0.

Battle In The City!

The level is not actually called ‘Battle In The City!” but ‘Battle en Ville’. I know, this means exactly the same but it’s still different.

There aer lots of tile bugs, there’s an overuse of ammo and the gameplay is bad. Besides, it’s edited.

- CONS:
Bad ammo placement, unoriginal, edited

+ PROS:
One original idea, the ‘jumping crates’.

VERDICT:
Don’t download this unless you are really really bored.

RATING:
3.2[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

Nighty Battle Pack

This file has been uploaded almost a year ago and still nobody bothered to review this one, so I do so now. I think every download should get at least some reviews. This zipfile contains 9 files, of which 3 are levels, 3 are tilesets and 3 are music files. It doesn’t contain a readme file saying which one you should start with, but I suppose that’s Wolf Battle.j2l.

• Level 1: Temple of the Night *
  There’s a moving background and some clouds passing you by. In my opinion, this is not enough background scenery; you could’ve added some more. The music doesn’t fit the level at all and even if I would’ve listened to it seperately I would dislike it.

You forgot to make the water translucent, so it looks pretty odd. There could’ve been a bit more springs, for example on (3,45). Although it uses Agama’s Heaven set, it doesn’t have a single tile bug so far I have seen.

• Level 2: Night Forest*

Despite the unoriginal title, the music is better than the other level. The gameplay is average, the ammo placement OK. There are no tile bugs spotted, even though it uses the extremely hard to use Swamps set.

• Level 3: Planet of Night *
  With a terrific music choice and a good textured background (+ bg scenery) this level has nice ideas, but is too small and I counted three dead ends. However, it’s not bad for its size.

- CONS:
The levels are a bit too small and the first one has a bad music choice.

+ PROS:
There are no tile bugs and the last two levels have nice musical support.

VERDICT:
The author proves that he can work with JCS but should mind the size of the levels. Nevertheless, if you want to download a small levelpack consisting of three small levels, download it.

RATING:
6.2

Cracco Warfare

The zip file contains 4 files, of which one is the level. The three others are a readme file, a music file and a tileset. The tileset is one of Cracco’s ripped tiles sets.

The level has a textured background, but there’s no background scenery. The concept is interesting, and the start is OK. In one of the areas you can get warped there’s an overdose of ammo.

There are no serious tile bugs, but that’s basically impossible with all those blocks and stuff. This is not really a good level because the tileset that is used is average.

- CONS:
No eyecandy or background scenery

+ PROS:
Interesting game mode

VERDICT:
The author obviously tried to make something original, but due to the limitations of the tileset and the lack of eyecandy I’m not really satisfied with this release.

RATING:
5.0.

Recommendation for downloading: Curtainly Yes.

Well, it’s the best designed level that i’ve seen among 20 latest at least. It looks powerfull and very interesting.
At first i wanted to decrease the rank due to one thing: when i entered this ctf level in singleplayer mode to look
at design work in general, i couldn’t do it, ‘cause you didn’t put jazzstart event for singleplayer mode, that’s why jazz appeared inside the solid surface and couldn’t move. (it’s more difficult to check out general level design in two-screen mode.) But i think, if it is multiplayer game then let it be multiplayer game, single mode doesn’t play any role in it, right? Although, in future don’t forget to set single player start position. (i had the same problem with my “first and last” battle level:)

So here is your level rank: (max = 1 point)

1. LEVEL INTEGRITY = 0.8
(Distance between two bases is too small)

2. TILESET = 1.0

3. MUSIC = 1.0

4. LEVEL DESIGN = 1.0

5. TECHNICAL DELIBERATION = 1.0

6. TEXTS = 1.0

7. PICKUPS = 1.0

8. EFFECTS = 0.3
(There are no any remembered unique things, maybe just that sleeping leopard or jaguar)

9. ORIGINALITY = 0.6
(Background is well done, though not so unique structure)

10. GENERAL IDEA = 0.5
(Uniting common idea isn’t so visible)
————————————-
0.8+1+1+1+1+1+1+0.3+0.6+0.5=8.2

Cool level!, ninja. I recommend to download it, 100%.

STORY: First a marine person who looks like he’s in chains unless you look closely tells you there are too many enemies. Later you follow him to the exit.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Doesn’t really exist.
Rating: 2.0

TILESET/TILESET USE: This level uses the infamous Moebius tileset, which has something to do with Sonic the Hedge. There is no background or foreground eyecandy, and the walls in layer 4 are all about the same. I suppose we should be thankful their purposes do not change over the course of the level.
Pros: No tile bugs (despite them being barely possible with this tileset).
Cons: Not much to mess up.
Rating: 3.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: There are some enemies which don’t all feel like they were placed with much thought, hardly any items, and a few weapons here and there.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Poorly done.
Rating: 2.0

ORIGINALITY: This level’s most original thing is following the doomed marine, but it’s not done very well – you can easily move backwards and have him move backwards with you.
Pros: A bit of originality.
Cons: Not too well done.
Rating: 3.0

DIFFICULTY: Not too high. About the only way to get severely hurt is not understanding what the author uses as hurt events.
Pros: A few nasty traps.
Cons: Other then that, nothing much.
Rating: 5.0

REPLAY VALUE: I can think of no reason to play this again. It’s not very fun, and there’s no plot.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Not applicable.
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL (not an average): This is a not-too-long single player level without much plot. There are, however, a few nice moments with trigger crates, which is really what saves this level from a worse rating then it gets.
Pros: Trigger crates, traps, some of the enemies.
Cons: Eyecandy, the rest of the enemies, not-working-too-well follow sequence.
Rating: 4.5

Hmmmmm. The average rating ended up being quite a bit lower then the notanaverage rating. Interesting. I’ll raise it a little because I’m the reviewer and it’s my choice.

Now it’s time to steal Trafton and Violet’s review systems! Anyway…

STORY: No story to this. Not a problem for a first level. STORY: N/A

TILESET USE: Diamondous is overused, but the eyecandy was reasonably good. The only eyecandy errors were in the trees, but S.F.D showed at least an effort in using several layers. But more variety and more layers used could drastically improve eyecandy. TILESET USE: 6

PLACEMENT: Enemies incredibly sparse in some areas, and overused in others. The forty Beeboy thing while a frog was a little insane. Weapons also rare. Devan was as easy to beat as usual. Geez, can’t ANYONE make that guy challenging? PLACEMENT: 6

INNOVATION: None here. This level was an excercise in linear “same ol’” sort of gameplay; amusing the first time, but boring afterwards. INNOVATION: 1.5

DIFFICULTY: Extremely easy, even with the forty Beeboy part. It’s short, so it won’t present much challenge, and is pathetically easy for seasoned veterans. DIFFICULTY: 2

REPLAY VALUE: Quite frankly, none to speak of. REPLAY VALUE: 1

OVERALL: Not too bad for a first level, and is salvagable. I’ve played worse. No, honestly. Don’t be offended by my review, I just tell it like it is. ;P
OVERALL: 5.2/10/ 52%

VERDICT: No D/L recommondation, but keep working and don’t get discouraged. Pretty much every first level is mediocre, so keep working at it.

Story:

You follow the mp character from the old FPS Doom to the end of the level. That’s about it. No story really.

Gameplay/Layout:

One single player level based on breaking scen trigger boxes to continue on to the next part of the level. Wasn’t hard. You should be done within 10 mins at most. If you take longer then 10 mins, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Eyecandy:

None. Yay!

Weapons:

Close to None.

Overall:

Don’t download it. I would expect a lot more from a guy with the nick name of Satan. You bring the dark lord Satan shame.

Gamplay/Layout:

Not great. I found places where I couldn’t make jumps because I was using jazz and not spaz. Also, the thin blue bars should all have ONE WAY events through them. If you look at Disguise’s level examples for the tileset you will see that those were used. So that added to movement problems. The sucker tubes, again look at what Disguise did.

Eyecandy:

Good Enough.

Weapons:

Yeah, ok. I found weapons all over the place. Refer to what BlurrrrrrrredD said above.

Overall:

I bring down a rating huge when you can’t make certain jumps because you use jazz and not spaz. I hate that. I mean really hate it. It doesn’t make the level follow well. I would have given this level a 7.0 but for all the problems I listed above and the jazz problem which I really hate brings it down to a 6.2

Overall:

No, just no.

The only reason you would want to download this is to see what our crazy buddy Bjarni has come up with. That’s the only reason I gave it a 1.5 The 1 is for how terriable the level is and the 0.5 is because Bjarni made it. I was really happy to see that there was NO SMOKE in the level.

I agree with everyone (except destroy himself ;) about the religious stuff and swearing. Jazz2 is a cartoonish game and the f-word (stup censor) doesn’t fit. And if you use it, use it when it fits. In “Destroy the reactor and f***” swearing has absolutely no use and sounds quite stupid. I also didn’t like the idea of using Eva as a whore :P

The levels are quite nice anyway. There are many tile bugs (look @ elecs screenshots) but most of the levels look very good anyway. I especially liked the Town House levels; they somehow look like there actually lives someone, and you wont think the whole city is empty and there are only some buildings. I didn’t really like the labrat and tube electric level tho; they are too hard because you’ll often just bump on enemies without being able to kill them before they’ll kill you. The castle level was quite nice and had terrific eyecandy, and the event placement is good, altough there are way too much pickups.
The Diamondus, Carottus and Easter level were average altough they had some parts with weird tileset usage, but overall they’re okay. The medivo level was rather original, altough the rain was buggy and they eyecandy a bit overdone. The medivo level was one big maze and I found it a bit too hard, but maybe I didn’t try hard enough. The platforms on the foreground weren’t a very good idea though.
The haunted house level was kinda lineair but still good. The enemy placement was not very good again, but it was playable.

Overall, I liked this, especially the town levels (omg superb) but those “mature taunts” (lol) were really stupid. What does it matter that you live in Russia? I live in The Netherlands and I know that they are not words that actually mean “fun” or “enjoy”. I also didn’t like the things like “you hear the voice of god” or something. Not because I’m anti-christian, but because it doesn’t have anything to do with Jazz and because it sounds stupid in such a context.
The music didn’t fit when it was custom music and did fit if it was official music. Try to use music tunes that fit, it really adds something to the playfeeling. The eyecandy was very unbalanced; sometimes it was near to perfect and sometimes it sucked. Same goes for gameplay. The pickup placement wasn’t good (way too much food and gems; you can get 3 sugar rushes in one level) but the author used very much trigger crates and stuff in such a nice way that that makes up the food and gems thing ;) I recommend the download, just don’t look at those “voice of god” and swearing texts and you’ll have fun while playing this. 8.0.

Btw, why do you dislike JCS? Did you actually use the hotkeys? JCS has quite much hotkeys that make the usage of it a lot easier but it’s hard to find out which keys you should use. If you don’t know them, you could ask someone :P

I’m not going to write a long review. I only want to say that this is realy good. But one thing: This isn’t all beach levels. Please canche it.

Blue Jazz

The author categorized this as ‘Multiple’, so I wonder what’s in this ZIP package. Now, what seems to be the case: this is just a Battle Level. Please choose the correct filetype next time.

The level makes use of Pavlik’s Blue World tileset. There is no textured background, background scenery or eyecandy. Sometimes you had really weird tile placement, e.g. the construction next to the fire shield.
There is no real gameplay and all of a sudden the screen gets a blue mask in the foreground, which looks dull.

- CONS:
No eyecandy, some minor tile bugs, overuse of ammo, no textured background, bad gameplay, no eyecandy.

+ PROS:
The author shows some original things like the transparent blue screen covering the foreground for a while.

VERDICT:
This is below average and I really can’t make more of it.

RATING:
4.5

Nasty race

The zip file contains a level, no readme file. It luckily shows up in the Homecooked Levels List, this is essential for a local splitscreen race game.

You can start on two positions, one lower than the other and its placement is fair. I spotted some minor tile bugs, especially the corners and places like (31,15). You can climb over obstacles in different ways. There are also several paths and ways to finish a lap, depending on which basket you take.

Not every basket is handy to take, some paths take a long time to complete, some include very slow sucker tubes.

- CONS:
Not too big, some minor tile bugs and no real eyecandy.

+ PROS:
Several pathways.

VERDICT:
The author thought of strategyful ideas and several pathways are nice. The only thing is that this level is fairly small.

RATING:
5.5. [This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

Final Fight!!!!

Probably the author went a little insane with the title. The description tells us to open a word document, although there’s only a txt file in the zip. Don’t feel offended, but there’s a huge difference between a word document and a notepad text file. The text file contains a story and a description what the level is about. It unzips in a seperate directory (FinalfightS) in your JJ2 folder and so you are unable to open it unless you take it out of the folder.

The level itself does contain NO start position. I doubt if the author played this level even once! It’s also a bit Spaz biased since you need to kick eachother, buttstomping just won’t do. It doesn’t have a lot of eyecandy and the gameplay is minimal.

- CONS:
Small, no eyecandy or start position, unhandy unzip method

+ PROS:
You don’t see assault levels very often.

VERDICT:
The author obviously thought of making something interesting, but didn’t really work it out.

RATING:
5.0

Black is Back

Although everybody above me complains about the filename I found there’s nothing wrong with it. The zip contains 22 files: 12 Levels/9 Tilesets/1 Textfile.

• Level 1: Project Black Battle*
  The moving and flickering background scenery is annoying and discouraging you from playing. So, I immediately switched Low Detail on and it was way better. This shouldn’t be the case, something in Low Detail should be lower detail, not higher. ;-)

The pipes have some dead ends and it lacks ammo. You can’t even get out anymore at some points! No, this is certainly not a good level.

• Level 2: Project elctroman*

Ignoring the spellingmistake and the lowercase first letter of the second word I take a look at this level. The foreground scenery is annoying.

It again lacks some springs and it has some dead ends again. The layout isn’t that good and the ammo placement is bad.

• Level 3: Project Blaster *

Just like all the other levels I have to complain about the background scenery. It’s moving just like in the other levels which doesn’t improve your eyesight. There are no tilebugs but that’s basically impossible with Mez01.
The whole level layout is like a maze, and I dislike the ammo placement.

• Level 4: Proyect DeathMatch*

It’s surprising how you first write it down correctly and now suddenly write ‘Proyect’. This level again has foreground scenery, but because this is a dark one you won’t really notice it, so it’s OK.

The level’s pretty symmetrical and doesn’t have anything original.

• Level 5: Project Big War*

Getting a little obsessed with the projects? Anywayz, the background scenery is placed too high, look at the trees! The foreground trees don’t look really funky either.

And: I. NEED. MORE. SPRINGS. Yes.
I didn’t find any tile bugs but the layout isn’t that good.

• Level 6: Project Jumpinthefier*

Probably a misspelled title, the author might mean ‘JumpInTheFire” instead. The moving background irritates me again. It’s also way too small.

• Level 7: Project Goodbye*

Uh, Seeya later? Well, I wish. Because this level isn’t any good. You can’t see yourself when you’re a bit too low because the clouds will cover you. Every once in a while some guy on a platform will also pass you by. Buh.

• Level 8: Project Kobra*

I won’t even bug you anymore with the levelname spelling mistakes. The stars in the background are too bright and so irritate your eyes when you look at it.

There are no serious tile bugs but this ammo lacks gameplay, springs, ammo, size and effort.

• Level 9: Project Space Man*
  Too short and simple, using a set by FrankenQuist.

• Level 10: Project Gunfire*
  This is a level using the Temple tileset by EvilBike (no offense). The rain in the foreground goes to the right, eh.. Pardon? It’s annoying as well, and the background (the grey one with the clouds) is boring. The whole level is boring. ZzZ. gasp.

• Level 11: Project Blue War*
  Eiffel 65 sign! Yay! ;-p This level uses WiseCoffee’s Blue tileset with rain going down! Wow ;-P The flash thingy is hurting my eyes, but it’s probably Canadian lightning (just like VeggieMan’s level, hahah.)

• Level 12: Projest Boomerang*

Whatever a Projest may be, this is probably another dull level from the pack. It has dead ends and lacks originality.

- CONS:
All levels lack ammo/effort/originality/good spelling. Every level has some dead ends.

+ PROS:
No serious tile bugs.

VERDICT:
The whole pack isn’t too exciting and it’s not original at all. Black is back.. Well, if it’s back, please let it leave again.

RATING:
4.5.[This review has been edited by Electric Ir]

LG2: Story

This is one zipfile containing one single TXT file: a story. The author made this after playing Lost Gemz 2.

It’s nothing special, and generally just a little ‘blablabla’ introduction to the levels.

- CONS:
It’s pretty much nothing.

+ PROS:
None.

VERDICT:
The author tried to make something interesting, but failed though. J2O is not the place for this.

RATING:
Since this is a single TXT file I won’t rate this. Better upload something real next time.

Bjarni, I am afraid you will have to work on your levels a lot longer if you want to improve. Still, this is a good effort and I’m sure that you worked pretty hard on it. It may get a low rating, but if you spend more time on levels you can get higher ratings!

STORY: Unlike Bjarni’s previous levels, there was no storyline. It would have been nice if there was. Next time include another one of your creative storylines. Some of them are pretty good! :)
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: This category was entirely missing.
Rating: N/A

TILESET/TILESET USE: There is not much in this level, being that it is little more than a small introduction area and then a boss, but what is there is OK. I say “OK” as in that it was not riddled with tile errors and could easily have been much, much worse. This level does need more eyecandy, but it is more or less solid for what is there.
Pros: Not too many tile errors.
Cons: Not much eyecandy.
Rating: 2.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: There is very little to say here due to the sheer miniture size of this level. There is an introduction area and then a boss place, featuring the weird boss bug that happens when you combine the Devan (Robot boss) boss with another boss, as Violet mentioned.

Pros: Good boss placement.
Cons: There is not much placement of anything to speak of.
Rating: 1.7

ORIGINALITY: There is not much originality in a level such as this, since it features little more than a platform and then the boss area. I guess this is original in one way or another but…eh…well, it is not very original at all.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: There is absolutely nothing new here. Look elsewhere for new things.
Rating: 1.2

DIFFICULTY: There is only a boss, and very little more than that. In fact, this could pretty much just be considered a boss level. It is as difficult as moving and fighting a bot is. That’s all. Snore.
Pros: None that I can think of.
Cons: It is only a boss. Not really applicable for a score.
Rating: N/A

REPLAY VALUE: Since this is only a boss and a platform, there is really no replay at all.
Pros: None that I can think of.
Cons: Just a boss. Nothing else. Not creative at all. Tedious.
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL (not an average): Overall, this level is pretty plain and simple. There is only a strange and buggy boss. There is not much more to this level. That is pretty much all it is. Eyecandy is good, though the level is wayyyyyyyy too small.

Pros: Shows promise.

Cons: Just not a good level by any measure.

VERDICT: Overall, I give this a 1.7 and no download recommendation.

Rating: 1.7 (Not an average)