Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Ancient or not, I can not say that I like this level at all. First off, it is a hotel, which is a crime on its own. Second of all, it shows little creativity. Do not make hotels. Hotels are bad. Capture the Flag is good. Apparently, this is supposed to be a battle level (I review as it is uploaded). As a battle level, I can not say that this is very hot. It lacks the necessary elements that make a good battle level, and has bad weapon placement. The eyecandy, which is not much of my rating at all, is actually not bad. There is some creative eyecandy use, but that does not make up for the pretty lame battle elements. If this were to be uploaded as “Other”, my rating probably would be just a tiny bit higher. But it is not. This is good for a hotel level, but I can not say that is saying much. Overall, this makes for a fairly bad level, though a pretty good hotel level. My rating is 5.7 and no download recommendation.

+ PROS: Good for a hotel, with good eyecandy.

- CONS: Bad for anything else.

VERDICT: My final rating is 5.7 and no download recommendation, unless you are someone who really, really, really, really, really loves hotels. In that case, you deserve to be troutslapped infinitely.

Yet another battle level by White Rabbit. Let’s view it, shall we? Cringes at use of royal “we”

This is a solid battle level using the “Heaven” tileset, which we are all farmiliar with. The level is overall very spifftacular indeed, though there are a few minor kinks that could have been avoided and raised the rating. Regardless, if you are a battle fan, and even if you just play battle games every once in a while, I can guarantee you that you will like this level. Judging by Violet’s review, this level is not very stable. I have to agree. When I ran it at first, my computer froze. The next time, it nearly froze and I had to resort to good ol’ end task. The third time apparently was a charm, as it ran, and quite smoothly at that. I am glad that I put forth the effort to get this derned thing to run, because this derned thing is derned good. The flow of this level is possibly the best part of it. There are very few bugs that I noted, and no dead ends. Eyecandy was right behind it, with some spiffy-looking stuff, though there were a few ultra-minor errors. Weapon placement was generally good, though the seeker powerup was placed in a lame fashion (come on, show some creativity! ;-P). Still, weapon placement is overall good. There were not many errors at all, which is nice to see. A great battle level and definitely worth a download.

+ PROS: Overall, a very nice battle level. Excellent flow.

- CONS: The seeker powerup was placed badly.

VERDICT: I give this an 8.2 and a download recommendation, especially for battle freaks. Great job, White Rabbit!

Here are two fairly good single player levels from Unhit.

The first one that I will review uses the Carrotus tileset. This level is chock full of stuff and reminds me of the Blade-esque overdose of pickkups. It contains several birds, much like one of the actual Jazz 2 single player Carrotus level, but seems a little bit too easy overall. There is not much challenge in it to speak of gameplay-wise because of the excessive amount of pickups. Still, eyecandy is solid and overall it is not a bad level.

The second level is in Medivo. It reminds me a lot of the first level, except it is a tad harder. The eyecandy is questionable in some parts, with rain falling inside the castle (oops) and some weird use of the spikes in the tileset, which do nto always actually hurt.

These levels would be pretty good if Jazz 2 was a platformer. Mostly, it consists of going around, collecting items, killing an enemy every once and a while, and avoiding the perils that come in the form of various spikes and thorn bushes. All in all, it is too easy for most players because of the excessive pickups. Still, it definitely shows some effort, and for that I give it a 7 and a download recommendation for single player affecianados.

+ PROS: Solid levels overall. Good design.

- CONS: Too many items, and a few miscellaneous minor mistakes. Way too easy.

VERDICT: Overall I give this a 7 and a download recommendation for single player lovers. It might be worth a look for other people, but it would probably not interest anyone who has been playing Jazz 2 for more than a month. This is about akin to the first few Jazz 2 levels on “easy” minus the bosses in difficulty. If that sounds far too easy to you, and it probably does, then this is not a must-download.

This is not actually much of a bad level at all. It features a lot of platforms (South African-ish) that make the level have interesting flow. When I say interseting, I mean it as in the strange way. The flow of this level is problematic, and I got stuck several times without even trying to. This is the quintessential level that uses this tileset, nothing less and definitely nothing more. There were a few things that looked iffy eyecandy-wise, notably the use of spikes in layer 3 (definitely a no-no as this looks really bad). There are quite a few tileset bugs, but not anything that drags down the eyecandy greatly. It is hard to write an enthusiastic review about this level since it really is just more of the same. If you have seen a good (Darn tileset) level, you have seen everything that this level has to offer. It is not a great level, but it is good. There is not much more to say than that. An OK level with little to distinguish it from anything else. Snore.

+ PROS: It is a solid level.

- CONS: Not much that is very interesting. A few eyecandy problems.

VERDICT: I give this a 7.2 overall and a download recommendation for those who like this tileset or are battle fans. It is not notable enough to be worth download to anyone else.

This is so cool. It’s some sort of bizarre mix between an ET style tileset and Carrotus. It’s called the space under carrotus, so I presume it’s supposed to be underground. As part of the background eyecandy, you see misty stuff (doesn’t tile well) with carrots coming out of it, which is a cool effect.
The basic contents of the tileset is a purple platform in both dark and light varieties, which can be switched between fairly well. Also a lot of tiles from Carrotus, like carrots, big carrots, pumpkins, vines and a sign. The author made new spiky thorn things, which unfortunately don’t look very good. I’m actually not sure why so much Carrotus stuff is underground, but oh well.
For eyecandy, you get a non working blue textured background (I advise just using the cave tile instead), and misty carrot stuff. The background is good idea wise, but could use some work graphically.
The zip also comes with a readme with a list of Norbii’s tilesets, two single player example levels, a night version of the tileset, and a green version of the tileset, in which the raddish looks awful.
What’s new and/or exciting about this tileset? Just the style.. ripping without being evil about it. While not taking Quite so many tiles from Carrotus would have been nice, and the masking on the carrots isn’t all that good, it makes an interesting effect. I can’t quite give it an 8 though.

We all knew that someone was eventually going to make a tileset like this, and I’m glad it happened. I’ve always wondered why you don’t see many underwater-themed tilesets. Now for the review. First of all, I have to say that this definitely is one of the most rux0r tilesets to come out as of late. But the tileset when used is almost as easy to use as it is easy to untangle coral. This will challenge even the most advanced levelmakers. Just look at the tileset in JCS and you’ll have a good idea of what I’m talking about. This tileset redefines “hard to use”, in fact. I’m sure that someone could make a good level out of it, but it would require more effort than most people posess. Still, drawing quality is really key here. And the drawing quality is pretty good for this tileset. Despite only using the fairly limiting collection of sprite colors, this tileset looks pretty derned realistic. The fish and everything are well-drawn. Included are suckers, hooks, signs, poles, blocks, and pointy things for your levelbuilding pleasure. There aren’t any fancy-schmancy “megaeyecandy” objects or neat-o animations, but there is a sufficient amount of features to keep people entertained. Simply point, if you can make use of this tileset (not as easy as you would think), it can make some great stuff. However, mastering the tileset is extrodinarily challenging. I’m not a huge fan of underwater levels, but with some creativity, you could make a pretty spiffular one. You have to actually use this tileset to do justice to it. In JCS, it looks a little dry. But when you combine it with the water event (like in the demo level) it looks really nice. Whilst on the topic of the demo level, I have to say that I like it. The only complaint I had is that it was too hard to distinguish the man (and rabbit)-eating piranahs from the nice, friendly, docile trout. Back to the tileset, the shipwreck tiles are confusing to put together but really look nice when you do put them together. To put how difficult this tileset is to use in perspective, I would say it is roughly 3 times as hard as Beach. It’s pretty much impossible to use if you don’t have at least 6 months experience with JCS. In that case, I recommend you simply enjoy this tileset for its beauty and don’t make a level with it. Still though, for advanced levelmakers who want to make an underwater level and actually can use this tileset without too much trouble, you’ve found your dream tileset. Download recommendation for all, though don’t expect for it to be easy to use.

+ PROS: Tileset looks great, well-drawn, first of its kind.

- CONS: Hard to use. Really, really, really, really, really hard to use. And unless you want your level to look really weird, it will have to be underwater. Enemies blend in with fish swimming in background if you choose to use them in the background.

VERDICT: At first, I was thinking that I would probably give this tileset a 7.5 to 8. After seeing it in action, though, I raised that to an 8.2. Simply put, this tileset isn’t easy to use at all. It’s very well-drawn, but only the most experienced JCS users will probably be able to put it to great use. Still, anyone who is interested in tilesets should download this, even if they are unable to use it in a level. It’s really that well-done and creative. Great job, Violet.

Various Edits: Moonblaze, I agree about the sucker tubes – they do suck. ;-P

Edit: Rating change to 8.5.

[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

A level that runs is not bad for a first level. And this runs.

This is a fairly simplistic and pretty short single player level featuring signs in Dutch. Not being anywhere fluent in Dutch, I have no possible way of rating the storyline, so I will skip that process. There are a lot of oversights here that you could expect from a first level. For instance, the spikes lack the “hurt” event. The enemies are all far too easy. There was no use of enemy or boss range controlling, so Devan (the end boss) will often simply jump out of the screen. There are far too many carrots for a level with so many simple enemies. Anyone who dies in this level needs to practice a bit more. Finally, the music of this level (which is unexplainably strange-sounding) does not fit this level whatsoever. This level is way too short, way too easy, and way to buggy. The eyecandy was actually somewhat surprising. I could not find many eyecandy bugs, though there were a few. That could be contributed to the fact that the eyecandy is fairly simple. Still, this is a commendable thing and rare in a first level. Overall, this is an OK first level. There are things that definitely need work. Next time, put a little bit more time into gameplay but keep up the good bug-free eyecandy. I can not recommend this for download, but it definitely shows promise.

+ PROS: Very few eyecandy bugs.

- CONS: Too easy. Too many gameplay bugs. Music does not fit at all.

VERDICT: Overall, I give this a 3 and no download recommendation. There are a few things that definitely need work, but this still shows promise. Focus a little bit more on gameplay next time and I am sure that you will eventually get pretty good ratings!

Actually, I have to say that I like this tileset, though I am not exactly sure why the author did not just make his own signs and Carrotus tiles, etcetera. This is a fairly basic tileset featuring tiles ripped from the Carrotus tileset and the Diamondus tileset. The latter is mainly just “Kill this Rabbit” posters modified to say some other things. The grass is easily the oddest part of this tileset. The grass sort of reminds me of that of mEzMeRiZe in that it is excessively sparkly and unrealisitc. When building a level, this translated to some fairly weird-looking grass, but I can not complain that much. It still looks alright. There is plenty of eyecandy there, some of which is disappointingly ripped. I would rather, even if another tileset happens to provide exactly what the tileset needs, see authors draw their own content for their tilesets. Regardless, it does not look bad, even though there was some degree of color loss during the rip. Beyond that, this is a fairly solid tileset that would have made a perfectly good 1.23 tileset. In fact, next time you make a tileset, please try to make it 1.23. More people will look at it and review it than with 1.24 tilesets. Besides, these tilesets are not that big and could fit perfectly well in a 1.23 tileset. Overall, this is a good but strange-ish tileset that is worth download for anyone who likes Carrotus or is a tileset collector.

+ PROS: An interesting twist on Carrotus. The abstractness could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

- CONS: Might be too abstract. Ripped tiles make the tileset look neophyte-like. Should have been a 1.23 tileset.

VERDICT: Overall, I give this tileset a 7.2 and a download recommendation for those who collect tilesets, like Carrotus, and/or enjoy abstract tilesets. It is still a good tileset, though the ripping is disappointing.

Norbii strikes again with another tileset, which is better than Greenland, but not as good as Toxic Factory. It features some tilesets ripped from the official Carrotus sets, edit versions of the Diamondous “kill this rabbit” posters, and some of the funkiest grass I’ve ever seen in a tileset. It’s quite good, though, I’m just negative. ;P Keep at it; I’m really liking your tilesets, Norbii.

cough not 1.23 cough

Can you even make 1.23 tilesets? I would be willing to help…

[Review taken out cause I don’t care]. Trafton, you edit someone else’s reviews. so (wah) (wah) yourself![This review has been edited by DaPete10]

Shut up, winner.

The level is not bad for a first level (yes, I always say that :P) but there are some things that should be improved. First of all, all text is in Dutch and since the majority of the J2O users is not Dutch it would have been a good idea to make those texts in English. Another problem is that the spikes don’t have the hurt event on them, so they don’t hurt at all. The third problem is the end boss (devan): he often runs out of the screen so you can’t see him or shoot at him.
The level is way too short and easy because there are just the “easy enemies” like norm turtles and devils, and there are too much carrots. The music doesn’t fit. I didn’t find any real eyecandy problems, so thats a pro.

The level is too boring and short anyway. Download not advised. “Power Rick”, try to make your levels longer and more challenging next time, and keep practising ;)

EDIT: Forgot the rating.[This review has been edited by Fl@$h aka BlewMeUp]

Realy good levels!

Nice levels, keep up the good work!

Good levels, download very reccomdend!

Nice, it’s not get boring…

Nice level, nice idea… Nice music, also.

It’s not working…

Handy, now I can use more colors.

It’s usefull. :)