Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Is this level pack creative? Sure!
Is this level pack good? Ehh…

Pros:
- Interesting boss ideas, albeit simple;
- You can tell that some amount of effort went into making it;
- Levels are visually distinct from one another and can look pretty nice at times.

Cons:
- The level layout is a bit flat, not great but not terrible;
- Lots of tile errors, inconsistent tile usage;
- The boss fights are repetitive and become tedious rather quickly;
- Not Lori-friendly, probably beatable as Lori if you're really good at it;
- If there are secrets, I couldn't find any;
- No checkpoints whatsoever.

While I can't really recommend this level pack, I have to appreciate the effort that went into creating it. These are three original, short to medium-sized levels that try to bring something new to the table, which is very commendable!

Slaz's levels exist in a peculiar intersection of being incredibly specific to JJ2 mechanics while also not specific to traditional JJ2 level design. There are so many events that this level is built around that couldn't easily be substituted, and yet, this is not at all how the normal levels play. V-Poles, one of my favorites, are used frequently to help the player get around. Pickups are simultaneously numerous and infrequent, often placed singly instead of in groups or four or six. Some food pickups are used to mark where players should jump and so on, classic platformer design goodness, while many more are just incidental to keep the player engaged and the screen busy. Secrets are absolutely everywhere but do a good job of being clearly secrets, not the main path, except for the exit from the dark grave area, which is kind of confusing. Collapse scenery is used to great effect in an all-new(?) way to open up the level as you progress through it: there will be multiple horizontal areas built on top of each other, and once you find the way up to the next one, you can trigger collapse scenery to open up more paths for easier exploration later. Sometimes this is paired with buttstomp scenery, which I think works less well because the stomp blocks are much easier to see than the collapsible bridges, and that makes it look like something you're supposed to uppercut. Things that look like they can be shot can generally be shot. There's just an endless variety of things to do, in a variety of possible orders to do them in, letting players take control of their destinies and craft their unique gameplay experiences. But somehow this non-linear experience manages to be crossed with an ultimately linear level with three or four distinct, bounded areas with their own objectives and layouts. It's an impressive balancing act, the moreso for how natural (but rewarding) everything feels.

It's a neat little Halloween themed SP level! I really liked the custom ghost enemies and the atmosphere.

when i first saw it,
i was pretty amazed by this creations!!! so good job!! :)
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+ i really enjoyed it! it made me fun :))
+ the halloween desingh does fit, and it works that it looks like on halloween!
+ nice idea with the ..ghosts!!! (make sure that /plusonly on ..and /latestversiononly on … is enabled,
to see this 2x enemies in a ..transparent white )
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- to the level: a few things could be better , i think!!)
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+ the "coin warp" goes into a cave, inside of this cave , there is a little ufo
hmm.. not sure what it does, i didn't got all the coins, i'll try soon again to find all the needed coins
not sure what this little ufo does! :)
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..anyway it's a nice idea!!
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btw you need 60x coins to collect
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of course i liked it to play it!! :)
thanks
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your creation was a nice surprise!! :))
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//message from: 30.10.2023
today i replayed it, and i found all the needed coins, the search was long, and easy to find them
finaly to the cave:
and.. that ufo seems to be a tile, ..and it's not a pickup item.
first, I thought its a new weapon, ..but i was wrong :i
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and there is a message left: "This tree survived the nightmare."
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btw you can not kill the ..ghosts but you can freeze them.
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[hidden message] im always so much thankfull!! ,for any new selfmade creations for jazz2! to keep the game allive! :)

Here is the gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwSEQDTlWaU&t=1023s

I really like this concept. It can be used for the future. 10/10 Hype.

EDIT: it works for single player and even co-op levels!

An enjoyable non-linear level for the experienced player. Some creative enemy placement such as dragons in walls and lizards under vines. Sometimes it's a bit unclear what path a crate opens, and masking isn't always obvious. There's more ammo than you'll ever need, and the boss gave a decent challenge until you find out where to camp.

Don't even bother downloading this one, it's just a flat surface with enemy spam.

A very solid level with an interesting yet detailed eyecandy approach. The given layout is good, especially the base areas are a nice touch for either defending or attacking. My only shiver complaint is that the flow can get a bit quirky, but a few cycles to this level and you'll quickly master the fine tricks this level has to offer.

Great mutator, especially with the extra effort of the HTML! Slight improvements could be made to saving gradients. It still lacks the colouring of the default ammo type gun and the death animation. Other than that this is a perfect mutator.

It's a great idea to make the color of the characters customizable as you want, it's perfect and works very well.

a m a zing

A very impressive map, fantastic, very big with large spaces in some areas however it is quite easy for me to get lost. In my opinion it is a nice map, definitely recommended.

A futuristic vision of how much better our cities could be. Efficient yet cozy apartments. Progressive zoning laws recognizing the utility of mixing residential buildings with cafes, optometrists’ offices, and fireworks. Spacious, scenic sewers. Neighborhoods navigated with rocket jumps instead of noisy, dirty, dangerous cars.

Central Park’s a big level with lots of paths, but with all the long-range powerups and ammo around, you can expect to roast and get roasted pretty fast anyway. Cool all-directions gameplay in the center, with the carrot and powerups being tempting but difficult to control, and the bases are also vulnerable to long-range attacks from several directions.

It’s a Loon level, so of course you can expect lovely visuals with inventive tileset edits. The park and buildings are nicely rendered, with lots of neat little details and color choices that distinguish them from every other town level, and a few simple additions even breathe new life into Colonius’s sewer tiles.

Be warned, this level has a very demanding script (every pickup has a custom behavior to prevent being shot down), so you’ll need a fast CPU for the best experience.

As a big fan of boss rushes, this level is the strong candidate to achieve good rating.

8/10

<< you can click here to enter the j2o Hoaxes thread
(this links to the jazz2online Forum Thread, press on the newspaper image to fast enter the j2o forum thread)

i remember me:
when i was young and first saw this:
i just entered a jj2 online server and i saw this:

this was a lots of fun!! they was very funny to play
of course i had a lot of fun while playing them

very funny to play!!, and makes a lots of fun to play them!! :)

the test looks realy good!! :)

//good things:
its a very small test with a top3 tileset, such little top3 test’s often make a lot lots of fun to play!!

//bad things:
the needed tileset is not included. and not even uploaded to any j2o upload.
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warning: this level required a tileset
that is not included here!!

needed tileset:
-T3P by Unearth-.j2t

i didnt found it on j2o..
but the file:
https://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/7027/ben10-test/
have – T3P Unearth 2 -.j2t which is a similar.

maybe you need to fix it a bit on JCS to make it playable!!
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~ next time upload the needed tileset here..

We do get the occasional diagonal level, like Sub Junction 3 from Subtracted Space, but this is the most consistently diagonal one I can think of. Unfortunately it does showcase JJ2’s limitations with diagonal designs, such as flying into space instead of running down slopes; getting stuck running into walls; and a lack of weapons that can reliably fire in the direction you’re moving. Another issue is that there are no powerups and lots of warps that send you to an entirely random location, so there’s not much in the way of strategy here, you just go to random places in a random order and hope to run into someone. The lack of powerups is not helped by how many carrots there are (including some hidden behind layer 3). There are some fun visual experiments going on here, including a number of animated tiles, and it’s always good to see non-standard tilesets getting some appreciation, but ultimately this feels more like an art piece than a battle map. Look at it and smile, but don’t try to roast people.

I’m not able to do a full review right now, but it’s an amazing tileset. If I ever find the time and motivation to make a level again, this is the tileset I’m going to be using.