Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

INTRODUCTION
After all this praise and celebration of Moonblaze’s new single player pack: The Demon Invasion, such an experienced reviewer like me could not possible resist to test it out himself. (Did I say ‘experienced’? Looks like I did.). So, I sat back, clicked on the Download link and watched as the percentage went up…slowly…slowly…slowly…done. After reading through the rather short and very un-helpful readme I loaded the first level. And with that little double-click I was about to find out if this was the great single player pack that it was meant to be, or if it’s simply another over-rated download.

LET’S GO SAVE THE WORLD! AGAIN!
The story of The Demon Invasion is quite simple and about as original as the usual ‘kill-the-baddies-rescue-princess-get-the-gold’ kind of thing and is, you guessed it, about saving the world…yet again. The game starts with Jazz exiting a secret castle entrance that looks much more like an over-sized piece of rock (which it incidentally is), and discovers an army of Tuf Turts marching into Carrotus thanks to some great trigger work and some nice lighting effects. This kind of beginning is really powerful and it already shows the player that this level pack is going to be good. In other words, Moonblaze makes the player want to know more, just like a good author makes the reader want to read further to find out more about the plot of the book.

WOW! I LOVE IT! NO! I HATE IT!
The Demon Invasion has some very odd but original eyecandy. Most of the levels are crammed to breaking point with it and there are heaps of marvellous things you can see in all the levels, with the exception of the cut-scenes. Wherever you are in a level, you’ll always be surrounded by lighting effects, trees, carrots, rocks, caves, bushes, plants, fire, vines, spikes, lava and bridges. If I was to name only one reason to download this pack, I would say download it for its looks. Moonblaze has obviously done an excellent job and worked very hard. But is it overdone? The answer is, sadly, yes. Although giving the levels great looks, the eyecandy severely handicaps the players in loads of different ways. It blocks the player’s vision, hides enemies, gets in the way, confuses the player and generally speaking, makes the player’s life so much harder but in a frustrating way. Most of the time, you never know if a tile is solid or not or if touching those spikes will hurt or not. This is utterly confusing and it’s not exactly good that the eyecandy also hides enemies so that they’re almost invisible until too late. Less experienced players will find themselves losing hearts for no reason and the only way to get through a level alive is to walk really slowly so you can spot baddies in time. It’s a real pity that such good eyecandy makes the levels so hard to play. This sort of thing makes one develop a hate-love relationship with the eyecandy.

BANG! ZAP! KABOOM! ouch
Moonblaze has made some amazing enemy placement for The Demon Invasion. There are always at least 3 different kinds of enemies in all levels (including spikes and lava). You always have to keep guard and stay hyper-alert which is fun especially if you just came home from a rough day. And believe me, to be able to play through some of the harder levels without getting hurt once will require about 15 cups of coffee and at least 3 sugar cubes to sharpen up your reflexes. What does annoy me is the fact that some enemies are impossible to avoid. You simply have to get hurt in order to move on which is really irritating. Also, at the beginning of the jungle level, you are immediately surrounded by nasty bugs and monkeys and it will confuse you enough for you to lose valuable seconds of shooting. But these aren’t that big problems since I never expect to get through a level without losing a heart or two. The difficulty level is one of The Demon Invasion’s strong points and is a real pain in the back. But it’s not as hard as Moonblaze said it was going to be in the readme. By saving often you can play through all levels without losing a single life but I suppose it will provide a challenge for people who aren’t as good.

OK, WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO NOW?
The gameplay for The Demon Invasion is interesting. Moonblaze has made most levels a mix of puzzle-fight levels where you have to find and buttstomp crates, look for gems and so on which are fun to play but those things have all been done in masterpieces such as Rabbit Honour Guard and Tomb Rabbit. Still, I don’t mind re-using old ideas since they work and it’s always fun to see a good singleplayer level made with Nature’s Ruins. One of the more original levels is Ring of Fire. It consists of Moonblaze doing some magic (I think) and you have to protect him from hordes of enemies. Nothing will happen if the enemies do reach Moonblaze so although it says protect Moonblaze, it means keep yourself alive. It’s awesome seeing all those baddies coming and it feels almost like that scene in Starship Troopers where the humans defend their base against an army of bugs coming like waves. Except the baddies here in Jazz2 move so slow that anyone can kill them in time. Perhaps faster regeneration time? The last playable level of the pack is the worst one because it’s so much more linear, uses a tileset that could easily have been beaten by censored 1 or 2 and has no puzzles whatsoever. It would be nice if there were some boulders to avoid and crates to find. Overall, gameplay is all right but could be improved to make the levels more fun.

WHERE DID THE WEEKEND GO??? OH, IT’S STILL SATURDAY
All the levels in this pack are of very high quality, but they…are…simply…too…short. If you don’t care about the secrets and run around like a headless chicken shooting all over the place you can complete even the hardest level in a matter of minutes. Having seen all the triggers, baddies, ammo and eyecandy you immediately know that Moonblaze has spent a lot of time on every single level but 3 hours work for him means 3 minutes play for us. This is a serious weakness of the pack and shortens its life-time and re-playability dramatically. Once you complete the pack, you kind of get a feeling of just leaving it there and not to play it again. I finished the whole pack in one single day.

CONCLUSION
After going through all the pack, I’ve come to the conclusion that The Demon Invasion is not the great singleplayer pack everyone else thinks it is, but deserves something better than an 8. It has got a boring storyline but amazingly beautiful eyecandy (amazingly annoying eyecandy too), provides a fun challenge for most players and has some really nice cut-scenes (one with my name in it – yay!). I would’ve given this a much higher rating if the levels were longer or if there was more levels. I completed this in one day, as mentioned before.

Pros:
Great eyecandy.
Gameplay should satisfy everyone.
Hard, but not impossible.
Good cut-scenes – keeps the story going.
Good effort put in by Moonblaze.
Good baddie placement can make life hell for the player (in a fun way).

Cons:
Eyecandy is annoying.
Short levels.
Not much re-playability.
A couple of dodgy baddies.
Even more dodgy storyline.

Final rating:
8.5.

Cheers,

White Rabbit.

EDIT: I got the longest review![This review has been edited by White Rabbit]

Mostly the same critics as Violet, exept that I don’t like the crate.

And considering Washing Man :
Waz’s right : I checked ur profile
E-mail : waz@clean.com
Real name : Clone Waz
Occupation : I made this site by myself. (What the hell are you talking about)
All reviews by this user : Waz11 (!)

I believe ur quite new here, and let us be clear : This is no chit-chat site. I read the comment by Girl Fraend(deleted) : “Glad to c your site” What the hell? “Your” site? Whose site? I believe she was talking to u Washing Man…Adress an J2O admin to find out about the rules of this community. If not, get the heck out of here!

And Mad Teenager : Your rating is unfounded. This TST does not deserve a 2.7! And you gave no comment.

Well, spam you have realy done your best one this one.
But I agree also, the diamonds are too difficult to find…

I dont rate programs.
I just agree with Violet CLM.
I just dont undurstand why people rate puzzles? Watsing the Teletubbies is exacley the same!

One word: BAD
The road never end.
Bad eyecandy, needs more details.
One thing I fancy: The cars, there are very funny, and the bords.
Next time, spent more time on your titlesets.
One thing: What does water in a road titleset?

Man. this is an irritating level.
Eyecandy very poor.
Genorators are too fast.
This level is very difficult with all the trigger crates, two words: BIG MAZE.
If you like maze levels download it.
If you hate maze levels, then it is better not to download…

First, don’t use such generic filenames. Both the level and the .zip overwrote earlier files. And don’t say it’s 1.23.
One of the things that strikes me about this level is that it’s kind of a remake of Colon1, in that several areas in the level are directly from it, and others look based. (The coin warp is even for 50 coins)
Eyecandy, design, and gameplay are good. There are a few tile bugs, and layer 3 bugs, and quite a few float lizards have copters when they’re not supposed to, but oh well.
Unfortunately, this level suffers from the same thing the author’s last one did – there’s nothing new. It feels like just another longish Colonius single player level, and that’s what it is. There’s no plot, just a start position, an exit, and some stuff inbetween. However, it does a better job of this then in the other level.
I can’t say I liked the place where you’re going through windows and there’s a Fencer behind the layer 3, either.
But overall, this is a longish level worth playing if you’re bored. If you’re looking for something new and different, though, download something else, like maybe The Demon Invasion. (:))

Yes, I do try to put as much attention into eyecandy as possible.

So what can I improve on for next time?

I HATE spams, mrplonker. You could have edidet your first rewiew.
The lewel is cool. I made triger event in 1 of my levs, but i forghot how to and i erased the level.:`( … Im not crying! Just pretending!And the bottom-left part of your lev. is cinda confusing.
GAMER OUT.

WOW WHAT A FIRST LEVEL I GIVE THIS A 100000000000000000000000.5!
This is one of the nicest first levels i ever seen ¨*have bad memories* it’s a nice pinball level with suckers, and all things you need. I have nothing more to say, you can get Pus and that’s it. I orginally give this a 7.7, but it’s your first one so i give a 8.
TiP!

Hello I am here again, I have reviewt a level of you earlier.
Lets stat out again with an 10:
1. Too much weapons. -0.5
2. Too much ememies. -1
3. When you play this level its get boring. -1
Next time, make your levels more interesting. There are only some rats and suckers.
It’s get too boring.
Nothing new, I like that level of yours Colon Secret much more interesting than this one.
It’s not get boring.
Oh, yeah your not very happy with an 6.7 aren’t you. So, try make your levels not boring.
[This review has been edited by spazz]

Nice level.
Okay lets start out with an 10.
1.Too many enemies. -1.7
2.Strange placment of carrots. Example: The first part there are almost no carrots, in the middle there are way too many carrots, and in the end too less carrots.-1
3. Stuff taken out of the original levels of Jazz Jackrabbit 2.-2
4. And now a plus point: it is orginal, it not gets too boring. The level is long and is not gets boring. And thats is realy good. +1
So that makes a 6.7.

This review was submitted before the level was uploaded. I hope the level will be a good one. :)

Edit: Actual review:
First of all, you didn’t include the tileset, and the level is actually TSF/1.24. Oh, and some tile bugs.
Anyway, the level is a longish level with nothing very new or interesting in it. There are quite a few suckers and rats, as well as other stuff, and some tubes, but nothing all that interesting. Eyecandy’s standard. I’m tired.
What interests me more, really, is that this uses a tileset from “our” community. Oh well.[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

1

Since im so lazy, ill just make one comment on each section of the review.
Eyecadny:
Basically what you expect, not to good not to bad, around average.
Enemy placement: 5/10 Not horrible, but to many enemies in one spot, make it easier for SPaz.
Tile Placement:
Some parts were really bad, some parts were ok, but mostly they were not to bad.
Diffuclty: twas easy, even though the enemies were overused. The carrots were plentiful in some parts, and the enemies werent just placed difficultly. I think some levels were spaz biased.
*Small note: The boss were area 2 (Bubba) seems to jump through the top of the walls and out of the game. This could easily be fixed, and deducts a few marks.
Pickups: Mostly overused in areas, and occasionally underused in others.
My favourite levels were probably the spacey universe ones, because the tile placmeent was usually decent, and because i am addicted to the set. Although the backrounds werent warped, and the enemy placement was awful (to many clunched up enemies) That, and i got stuck somewhere in a suckertube in the second level.

OVERALL: Some nice levels in there. Not to good of a pack, but an improvement. Keep trying!

This was a decent level pack. The eye candy was OK, but there are often too many enemies in one spot. I couldn’t get past the 6th level…bleck. Possible download.

Cool… I think the eyecandy is very good and all the obtackles are very original.[This review has been edited by snorky]

Omg lol I am going to try Flash’s bug off. ;P

(Omg lol rating removal. -Trafton)[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

…You fooled us :P

I don’t know. This is like 3DBattle, but with Hand-drawn graphics. Graphics are very nice, but the tileset’s usability is zero. You’re walking through a beautiful, yet kinda messy, “greenland” with weird masking. Too bad you can’t make levels very different from the example level with this. This would have been a 7/8 or higher when you seperated paltforms and background

EDIT: Please upload the tilesets you gave us screenshots of :)[This review has been edited by Fl@$h aka BlewMeUp]