Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Well, we’ve seen this before…yup, it’s that Psych3.

Nothing to see here, folks, move along.

Hey, whatever happened to that Wind Meister 4 demo that you were showing people, like, five (seven?) years ago? I liked it!

This was a great level when it was made and it still is a great level.

Ehh…this is the sort of level that people generally make before they know anything about making levels. There’s no eyecandy to speak of, confusing warps abound, and the layout makes no sense at all. And one room completely breaks it by making it impossible to die.

I can’t really think of any redeeming qualities. Don’t download it.

Wasn’t this a cheat program five minutes ago? Yeah, I think it was.

I’m finally getting around to reviewing this pack. Yay.

Past of Fortress Renovation
Mm…okay.

This level has some very nice eyecandy, but it’s really awkward to play in. Despite being fairly small, the layout manages to be quite confusing. There are two very, very bad locations. One is the bottom left – the entire level practically acts as a funnel to it, and there’s only one exit from it, which is into a warp with a single target that’s really easy to camp.
The other is the location of the start positions. Or rather, the start position. Yes, this level has ONE start position! (It has two events, but they’re very close to each other.) It’s not actually that big of an issue, but it still hurts the gameplay.

Fortress Renovation
Not at all bad.

Again, this level has great eyecandy. The “paint” doesn’t really look very good though. The layout isn’t difficult to learn, although you’re guaranteed to fall in the pits a couple of times as there are lots of blind jumps. Unfortunately, this is another level with a single start position, and this one is a bigger issue than the last because the level has fewer places to go than Past of Fortress Renovation. Sans badly placed single start position, I liked the dead end at the top left; it makes you think twice about getting the RF powerup.

The top right of the level is…strange. It has almost no ammo, one entrance (okay, there are two, but one is very hard to get to), several exits, one carrot (there’s another one but it doesn’t respawn!), and a toaster powerup. The top right of the area at the top right (if that makes since) is particularily weird. It’s a big, empty space with no events, sans one spring and one ammo box. It’s almost as if Snooze forgot to finish that part of the level.
But if you stop trying to figure out the top right, it’s a solid battle level.

The Shrine
Good but horribly secretly biased.

Again, this level has nice eyecandy and one start position. The start position isn’t really a problem in this one, however, because it’s in a nice, open area that you can quickly get out of.
The layout and flow are both very nice, although the level has almost no ammo at all – the bulk of your weaponry will be made up by the powerups.
I particularily enjoyed the placement of the pits in this level. Unlike those in Fortress Renovation, the pits in this level are obvious and you’re unlikely to walk into them too many times. But they’re well placed. Oh, they’re well placed.
You’re probably wondering what the “horribly secretly biased” part is, so I shall tell you. You’ll notice some one way floors above a small hole with float up events in it. If you’re Spaz, you can just jump right up to those floors and get to the seeker powerup and carrot above them. But if you’re Jazz (or Lori)? Then you have to run up on it just right so you collide with the Freeze Enemies and fall into that little hole. The result is the same, but the method is much harder, AND you’re a sitting duck while you do it. Bad, bad, bad. Bad.

Hall of Legends
Awesome but OLD.

This is a very solid level. It has a good and intuitive layout, good eyecandy, and good event placement. I particularily like the pits. The puddle at the left feels rather gimmicky though.
There’s really not much to be said about it. It’s just a great level, period. What I do know is that it’s OLD! Oh well. That doesn’t change that it’s a good level.

Secret Forest Shrine
Very good, but kind of dull.

This level has some amazing eyecandy, despite the tileset. It’s quite big – not sure why PT32 described it as small. The layout is pretty good, but it suffers from one major problem: the layout is extremely hard to learn and unintuitive. You could be near the top right and think you’re at the bottom left, and you could easily miss 40% of the level because there’s no sense of direction.
And aside from that, the level just isn’t that fun to play in. I’m not sure why this is, and it may only apply to me.

Underground Hunting
Good.

This level is decidedly generic. There’s really nothing at all interesting about it. I didn’t really like the eyecandy that much, but it doesn’t look bad. The layout is solid but uninteresting. It’s hard to say anything about this level because there is nothing to say about it. That’s how ordinary it is.

Headhitting
All right.

The level’s eyecandy isn’t great, but it looks all right. Again, the layout is very funnely. Some parts are just going to get way more attention than others. This can be good, but in this case it isn’t. Ammo placement is very bad; some parts have quite a bit and others are almost completely barren. And, aside from that, there’s nothing really notable about the level. It manages to be quite playable though.

Epical Elements
Great.

This is a really nice level. It has great eyecandy and a good layout. It’s much more intuitive than most of the other levels as far as getting around, which is nice. I like the placement of the seeker powerup, and the tube-blocking ceiling springs have an interesting (though not particularily dramatic) effect.

Untitled Prupel Level (:P)
Excellent.

The eyecandy in this level is just wonderful, with some inventive tileset usage. The only exception was the top left – it looks rather unnatural. (He also failed to use the layer 3 corner tiles.) The layout is a really strong point. It’s very intuitive and well-balanced. Overall, this is one of the best levels in the pack.

Condemned
Awesome.

This is probably my favorite level in the pack. It’s hard to fault this level in any way. The eyecandy is downright amazing, the layout is intuitive, easily learned, and original, and the level altogether holds up very well. The water is also used very nicely. I must admit, however, that I spent several minutes trying to get at all those ammo barrels. (And when I finally did, I discovered they were actually gem barrels.)

A Time Forest
Bleh.

As the last level in the battle pack, and with the three preceding levels, you would expect something epic and awesome. Instead you get…this. Snooze tried hard to make some original eyecandy, but it just plain looks bad. The layout is okay, but it’s ruined by the event placement. Ammo is very sparse, and, again, there’s one start position – and in a very bad place. It’s like there was no real thought put into this level. Snooze just slapped stuff down.

City of the SnOOzE
Wonderful.

This is just a great CTF level. It has a great, balanced layout, with some great ideas. And it looks fabulous. Seriously. I suppose I can’t say a whole lot about it, because there’s nothing to fault. It just holds together so well. Great job, PJ.

Restplace F0R SN00ZE
Good.

Again, the layout is nice and balanced with some original ideas. I mistook this level for a battle level at first, which might be a good thing or a bad thing.
My main problem with this level is its eyecandy. Not only does it not look very good, the level is absolutely RIDDLED with tilebugs. They’re everywhere! DS even forgot to use the layer 3 stair tiles. Ugh. And the music? Blechhhh.

Forest Green
Good.

Again, the level has a good layout, though, again, it’s rather battle-ish. And while it’s obvious that DS put a lot of effort into the eyecandy, it really doesn’t look all that good. The gameplay makes up for it though. And again, the music is awful.

Ancient Abyss
Good.

This level has some very original ideas. You have to love those huge falls. The eyecandy looks all right, though it doesn’t excel by any means. The stalactites/stalagmites are rather confusing at times. I don’t think I’d play any truly serious games in this level, but it’s fun.

Systematic Crash
Very nice.

A great Domination level. Eyecandy isn’t too original, but it certainly looks nice. The level plays really smoothly. It’s intuitive and balanced.

Hoven
Okay.

Eh. This level’s layout feels a bit too restrictive for Domination. It almost feels like Battle 1. Playing in it isn’t that enjoyable because of that. The eyecandy is nice, but rather weird. One of the weaker levels in the pack, IMO.

Overall I think an 8 is a fair rating for this pack. Considering its vauntedness and its reception by others, I was very disappointed by most of the levels, but a few of them were really great, and I definitely recommend downloading it.

Personally, I don’t really think quite as much of this pack as others do. It was a pretty solid pack overall, but suffers from some big problems.

The first thing I noticed was a stark contrast between the eyecandy in these levels versus the eyecandy in Snooze’s other levels. These levels have far less. You can probably use “but it’s set in a dream world” as an excuse, but come on, you comment on how “realistic and vivid” the dreams are.
Of course, the levels don’t really look bad, just plain. That’s not really a bad thing, but it detracted from my enjoyment a bit.

The second thing I noticed was a pit which had absolutely nothing warning of its existence. I later found out that these pits were prevalent throughout the pack. This really hurts the pack – taking lives away from the player just because they were unable to guess at the existence of a pit really won’t positively impact their opinion of a level (or level pack).

My next quibble came with Dream Drift II – the “QoB level.” You have to find 10 coins, but, like EvilMike, I couldn’t manage. The layout of the level is very confusing, and the seemingly random triggers just made it much worse. It’s just one level, so it’s not really that much of a problem.

And then, as I went further in, I noticed another problem – you never know where you’re supposed to be going. You could roam around for half an hour trying to find a trigger crate, because the levels are just so open and maze-like. This is very frustrating, and, in many cases, didn’t make sense.

Another thing that bothered me was the enemy placement. There aren’t a whole lot of enemies, but there are quite a few, and I didn’t think they were placed very well. The long lines of Hatters in Dream Drift (I), the huge balls of float lizards in Dream Citadel.

However, don’t let the above text fool you into thinking that it’s a bad pack. Far from it; it’s pretty solid. I just only mentioned the bad stuff, because the good stuff’s already been pointed out by other reviewers: there’s unique tileset usage (just look at the ghost ship), some great atmosphere, and a very original and prevalent theme.

I shouldn’t rate these without playing them online, and the review system doesn’t let me give it a download recommendation if I do not rate it. Enjoy your delicious N/A.

As for a real review, I’ll just say that one level has great eyecandy (Cursed Leaves) and one has great gameplay (The Dismal Palace).

You inspired me D=

Wow, I never expected anyone to like my levels enough to give me something above a 7.

Oh, and powerups and carrots tend to misbalance small levels.

Okay, I know the reason. It’s because I’m horrible at creating CTF levels, and lazy, and wanted to upload SOMETHING, and for some weird reason, I chose to upload THIS garbage. Because I do not know how to delete it, I’ll have to wait for it to slip out of the recent downloads section. EVERYONE UPLOAD MORE STUFF OK THX