Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Congratulations. This level puts new meaning for my CTF level reviewing system. Finally, a level so bad it deserves an extra long review (not to sound harsh or anything).

GAMEPLAY:

I don’t think I could ever possibly describe how bad the layout is. It’s not balanced, it has no flow, and I was frustrated just trying to find my way around. Let me give you some advice (or a lot of advice) with the problems I saw:

1.) There are no borders around the level, which can create the infamous flag bug where you see someone capturing the flag every second. Always, always, ALWAYS add a border around the entire level of at least one tile (two tiles are recommended).

2.) The events are either misused or just don’t work out. Like with the water, are you trying to make the level much more frustrating with it? And there is the problem around pos 26,34 with the steam where it is easy to get stuck there if you’re not very careful. And you used hurt events? If there’s one event you should never use in MP, it would be that one. It just gets in the way and can even kill the server.

3.) The level has too many dead ends, and not just routes that lead to nowhere, but places where you can actually get trapped and never get out. Don’t use horizontal springs the way you did in this level.

4.) And I think you took the advice to use animations one step to far. It seems as if you used animated tiles for more than 80 percent of the level. When others said use animations, they probably wanted you to use the tiles made just for animations (like with the blue “shock rods” you didn’t bother to animate). You, on the other hand, misinterpreted this I thought that they wanted you to make animations like where the tile disappears and reappears. You can use the disappearing/reappearing animation tiles if you want, but seldomly. The Mez tileset you used just naturally lacks tiles for animations. A lot of other tilesets are better for this.

5.) If I had to guess, I would say you have no idea of how to make layer 3 align with layer 4 (or really anything layer-related for that matter). All you have to do is go to layer 3 and right-click with your mouse and then click on properties. In that, go to where it says “Relative movement”. Next to the “X-Speed” and “Y-Speed”, change the number to 1 (it normally says 1.5 if you haven’t changed it). And you can resize the layer under “Properties” next to the box where it says “Tile width” and “Tile height”. I suggest experimenting with this and with all of the other options (I don’t feel it is necessary to explain everything in that section of JCS).

6.) And finally, the level looks more like a single player level than anything else. This fact alone could kill the rating of this level. It seems that you tried too hard to make the level work when really a simpler level would receive a much higher rating. If you’re going to make a CTF level, look at how other people made their CTF levels. And when you’re making your next level, look for some beta-testers and make sure they barrage you with a lot of suggestions. It appears you will need it. Keep making levels; practice can always help.

EYE CANDY:

I’ll tell you when I find any. It’s definately way below average. The background tiles weren’t used correctly (you’ll have to resize the layer and/or put the layer in “Textured mode”). You were lazy with a lot of the tiles in this level. Look at how other levels use eye candy and try to be more creative in the future.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

Not good at all. Too many carrots in one place and no ammo. Hypothetically, if this was the greatest CTF level ever created but you only messed up on this one thing, it would already be rated a 7.0 at the highest. CTF levels just can’t work with bad carrot placement and no ammo. And powerups are always nice. I’ll give three possible suggestions of what you can do with the carrots:

1.) Use one full energy carrot placed in the middle or somewhere near the middle of the level. Make sure that it is easily accessible, and generally same distance, from each base.

2.) Use two full energy carrots placed not too close to one another. From each base, it should be easy to get one of those two carrots but not both.

3.) Use a +1 carrot, similar to how I said to use the full energy carrot in my first suggestion, but don’t use any powerups (I doubt I myself would ever use this suggestion, but it’s still a good choice to use).

Personally I use the first suggestion the most in my CTF levels, but you can experiment with whatever you want. Also, I can’t really say much about ammo placement since you didn’t even use any. Take example from the way other level makers place ammo in their levels. And when you’re using events like these, use a generator (20 or 25 would be good). You just have to click “Create a generator for this event” where you select the event to use. Then change the number next to “Delay” to 20 or 25 or whatever.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

If I said host this often, that wouldn’t make me much of a reviewer. I’m rating this a 2.5 just because you remembered to put two CTF bases in the level. If I get bored and can think of other things to suggest, I’ll add on to this review.

The Edit: No, I had no idea how long it took you to make the level, but I can tell that during that two month period you didn’t focus on balance, ammo placement, flow, and several other things that I’ve mentioned in my review. I don’t want to discourage you to the point where you don’t make any more levels, but the one you made isn’t even decent. And just because you worked on a level for two months, it doesn’t necessarily make it a good level. Practice and opinions of others is where you get improvement from. Make sure you read all of the advice I added in the review.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

A nice titleset, that rain is purple! But that adds fun to the titlesets. I have also seen the text, floating text, the robots are funny. A 7.7.

I LOVE THIS MUSIC FILE. ITS MY FAVE.

BUT THE LEVEL #*&. IT IS RUDE. YOU CAN GET AN UNCOUNTABLE QUANTITY OF LIFES THE LEVEL IS SHORT. THE BACKGROUND LAYER IS AUFULL
(CAN ANYWONE EXPLAINE WHAT EYECANDY IS?)

HAPPY SINGUPDAY TO ME! I FINALY SINGED UP. EI!! WHERE ARE THE PRESENTS:)

ANYWAY, BACK TO BISENES.

THIS LEVEL IS NISE AND INTERESTING,ALTHOW LACKS WARPS. ORIGINAL NAME. BUT I HAVENT SEEN NOT 1 TUBE. NO SECRET PLACES THATS
WHY I GIVE YOU 7.2

IS YOUR UNDER BELLY AKING? THEN BYE GAMERS ENEMAS. THE BEST ENEMAS IN THE WORLD.FOR ONLY 2$ :)

Brilliant! I especially liked the final boss, it was a really good idea.

These are some really good levels. I enjoyed them, but seeing a sign and not understanding it can make one a little bit nervous.

Funny level!!and it was fun to play.

Song14 reminds me of Queen of Board :|

Anyway. This level is fairly good – it has a lot of stuff in it. There’s water with weird platforms in, some powerups, and a loada poles. Actually, there’s too many poles – it can be hard to move around in some places because of them.

The eye-candy – well, there’s nothing wrong with it in most places. However some tiles did look a bit wrong or placed where they shouldn’t be. There’s one layer of background scenery which is smaller versions of the tiles in the level, and the water has been placed wrong.

The ammo placement isn’t good – there’s one massive area with about 70 flamethrower pickups all bunched together. In fact, all the level does seem a little ‘bunched’ – there’s basically rooms for most things and it can be hard to get around sometimes. Also, you need to use Spaz to get around most of the level, as Jazz’s high jump can’t reach some of the platforms.

This isn’t really worth a download… there’s a lot of bugs and some scenery misplacement in some places. Also the ammo needs to be dispersed a bit more as it’s all grouped up in one place. Just above average, really.

This is… ok. It’s a pretty big battle level using Mez03, with lots of ammo and powerups.

The eye-candy is on the whole just average – some bits of the green platform thing were misplaced, and you could’ve added some more scenery to the walls instead of just bunging it all in one place.

This is a big level, but there’s some evidence of stuff being grouped together, as though the author thinks of good ideas one at a time, so lots of scenery looks the same in one area then different in the next. This level also has a lot of warps, sometimes just for warping about 2 tiles past a big column thing in the way. This makes it feel a little bit constricted.

Ammo placement is OK, there’s lots of it and some powerups as well. However, as it’s big, you can generally collect all you can then try to find some random enemy, then spend time finding all your ammo again.

Background scenery – well, there’s some background there, but it could be improved upon by adding another layer to it. This level looks a bit ‘flat’.

This isn’t particularly bad, but it has some flaws in it. Worth a download, but there’s better out there.

Blackraptor’s latest level. Better than the last eight. It’s not horrible or great nor original or clichéd, but it’s decent.

GAMEPLAY:

The layout in this level isn’t hard to get around in, but a few tweaks could improve it a lot. The thing I dislike the most about this is it lacks balance. For example, at the top there’s a lot more space around the Blue base on the left side than the Red base on the other side. On top of that, Spaz can take a shortcut to the blue base by double jumping, while Jazz will be forced to use the route with the two poles. And one thing about poles: use poles as seldom as possible. And try to avoid putting them into one of the main routes to a base (though you can avoid at least two of them in this level, like the pole near the Red base). Also, try to get rid of some useless things like the tubes near pos 93,29. Think about making the level more strategic and stuff like that.

EYE CANDY:

Somewhere around average, I guess. There’s nothing I find appalling in the eye candy. But what’s with all of the Mirrow pics in the level? Secret obsession? Even Disguise didn’t use that many pics of him in his example level of the Mirrow’s Kingdom tileset. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone (except everyone that reads this review). You can keep it in, but it doesn’t add for eye candy much.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

I can’t really say I hate the way you placed the two full energy carrots. It’s a little boring, but it’s alright at best. Just like the ammo placement and the powerups (I suppose). I also don’t feel like analyzing all of it at the moment.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

If you somehow find this level fun, play it 24/7. If you’re like me, then don’t. 7.0 because I don’t know. Maybe I’m being “nice” again.

One other thing: I normally don’t mention things like this, but the music could not possibly fit any less then it did in this level. Don’t do that. Use better music next time (it’s better suited for Shadow’s ShockWave), and maybe some you found on your own.

This is a HORRIBLE level.
All bad points:
1. 10000000000000000000 Booby Traps
2. Hurt Event
3. You can get Very simple stuck
4. Eyecandy suck
5. Gameplay suck
6. It looks like more a SP level than a CTF.

Overall: Barf. The tileset tiles are strangely used. I see that you like the animations (there are tenthousends of them) But, spend more time on your levels and don’t make hurt events and booby traps and shield and blah blah blah. I give this a 2 for your practice and lol texts. Further nothing.

Nice and funny, with the water. But a little to less eyecandy…

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

After I play it for a while I get bored… but it’s still nice!

(uhhh… ok. This isn’t really a review, though. Unsupported rating removal edit. ~Violet)[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]
(Rating RESTORED due to date review was originally posted. ~Violet)[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

Well, lets start.

The level is very detailed, but i felt some parts needed springs, and the pinball didnt look all that great. The powerups were occasionally to close to each other. The ammo placement was ok, maybe WR and Supersaiyan went a littlebit to overboard with the powerups, but its generally ok. The gameplay was ok, nice use of one ways. The eyecandy, was great, excellent use of it. Generally, this deserves an 8, but since you made 3 different versions, ill boost up the mark to 8.2. Overall some great levels worth a d/l recc. Good job :)

Diamond Dash or somethin.
Eyecandy too confusing, couldnt tell what was solid and what wasnt. Liked the tree maze though, and this was hosted for JDC once i think… When i played this online long ago, i got stuck in the place which said like i said, dont let yourself get pushed around, but anyways. At the end the eyecandy looked cool, and at the beginning, if you look down, u see horrible tile placement (some tiles floating in mid air for no reason??)
Orange shift
Nice tileset, kinda annyoing going through all those loops, because if you miss even one than you must go back and go through it or you cant pass the level. Also, when i got to the end, for some reason there was no end warp….Anyways, the level is ok.
Speedsville
Strange name. I didnt liek the mushroom, im anti flying mushroom. Anwyays, some short cuts and cool effects, but i didnt like this much.
Overall: 7 and a download recc. I got to go now.

Thankx for your usefull revieuws, my plans on the next level is to combinate all tips and only put the good stuff in it and all things wich where wrong in my old levels will not be palced in the new lvl.

Ok, this review will be quite short for im not in the mood right now.
Eyecandy: 7/10
Quick comment: Basic eyecandy, nothing that stands out much
Placement:6/10
Quick comment: To many powerups, ammo could use a touch of creativity
Tile Placement: 8/10
Quick Comment: Saw no errors (unless you count the DATS an error :P) but nothing reallly outstanding as well.
Size: 5/10
Quick Comment: To small, takes 5 seconds to get around the entire level, ok maybe 15.
Overall: Nice and fun, download reccomednation.

The tielset use and eyecandy in the first level was AMAZING. It was so ****ing cool! The lenght of the level, was to short. I notice this in most of your levels splash, they are just to short. Anyways, enemy placement was avr. and goodie placement was maybe a bit below avrage.

Second level. Water kinda looked crappy here, and hard to see. Backround was boring, and eyecandy not to intense. Overall: First level=9, second level=6.5
Toatal: about 7.7

This tileset is deemed illegal by the original creators, so I shall not rate it. :D

Well, for a ‘conversion’ its good, but its missing to many things. Having the shareware (episode 1) of Hocus Pocus, (It was one of the first 10 games i had on my computer , my old one), i can compare this and the actual set in the game fairly. The backround is there, but it would of been nice to add in an extra textured warp backround for people who have trouble using a non-warp backround (This may sound like im the one having trouble, but im saying this for all you quiet people out there who are having trouble with JCS). Anyways, some tubes or destruct blocks or stuff like that would of been nice. Just because it is a ‘conversion’ doesnt mean only tiles that are ‘converted’ can be used in the tileset. Add some of your own tiles in, it will boost up the mark, i GUARANTEE it. Well, overally about that point is that the main tiles are completely missing (except the ground and stuff). The wizard’s there, that same poor one which you people blindly named fooruman just to make an idiotic version of a character in lord of the rings or something. Anyways, you CAN make a level with this, but it wont get higher than a 7, which is what im giving this. There is quality in this, but i reccomend you download violet’s conversion which contains all 4 hocus pocus episode 1 worlds. Still some tiles missing, but quality guaranteed.
To much ripped tiles, i cant really give this a download reccomendation, sorry.