Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

As far as 1998 levels go, this one's pretty good.

The level is fairly short and simple, but its geometry seems to have some thought put into it. Tree branches are used interestingly as a sort of obstacle, with enemies often placed just below them. The level only ever contains Seeker and Electroblaster ammo, which you will definitely need for the tricky enemy placement, though I wish the Seeker ammo was a bit more sparse, as this weapon tends to trivialize fights.

Unfortunately there's no pickups beyond weapons, health, and a total of 4 coins. This makes the already small level even more basic, as there's pretty much no exploration involved. The coin placement is pretty cool, though. They take a little bit of figuring out even on JJ2+'s 800×600 FoV. There's no checkpoints either, which wouldn't be much of a problem considering the level's length… except there's a boss at the end. The arena is small and has a few respawning enemies, so I barely survived it without losing a life. Knowing that I'd be sent all the way to the start was probably a major factor to how much effort I've put into this boss fight…

Default music and sparse eyecandy certainly scream 1998. The same trees on a background and foreground layer at the same time make the opening section a bit confusing. There's also a nasty tilebug with one of the flowers.

It's okay for what it is, a somewhat decent 5 minute romp.

Well, I've seen worse first levels.

The layout feels largely incidental, very likely made up on the fly as the author was checking out what JCS can do. There's a sense of sections, where one concept is immediately dropped forever as another one comes up. This might be seen as a positive, as it technically keeps things fresh. However, given the nature of these gimmick, it doesn't feel intentional to me in any way, just classic "my first JJ2 level" shenanigans.

First section starts you off having to collect coins to progress, and you have to do this while falling. This is most likely why the level is supposedly "4 Jazz", but I played Lori who also has a copter ears move and even so I found it impossible to collect all of them on the first try (and you do need all of them). So you have to go back, and the method to do this feels counterintuitive, mostly because it's placed near a tree. JJ2 experience says the tree branches are one way platforms, but not this time, and it almost feels like intentional padding.

Here the player is thrown into what feels like JJGBA's shop intermissions, except everything is free. Worth noting is that this establishes that ammo is only provided in this level as part of puzzles and progression. I don't like this in general, as I feel utility is secondary to combat value for JJ2 weapons and should be mostly limited to secrets, but even aside from my personal preference this level does the cardinal sin of not respawning things necessary for progression. Instead, whenever there's a task you can fail, you're provided with suicide spots. Even in vanilla JJ2, there's a quicker and more elegant way to do this via CTF bases, so I'd recommend that next time if you don't want to delve into scripting just yet. Then again, JJ2+ death pits are easy to place even in JCS.

The next section I can only describe as things copied and pasted almost at random, just to fill space and play time. This is probably where jjturbo9 figured out how to copy things. The regular path is supposedly very hard, and well, it's not a cakewalk with all the bees, but you also get plenty of carrots and because these are the same repeating chunks of tiles you know what to do after you've climbed the trees once. As for the other path, I'm confused if the "secret" is a secret at all, given how obvious it is and that the level outright tells you about it twice. I guess not, since it's more or less assumed as necessary for the next section. The highlight here was having to get a Float Lizard to follow the player, and then avoiding smoke rings on the way up. I know I've seen this combination of ideas before, but not a lot.

It's at this point that the level uses the Sugar Rush mechanic as a means of progression. It's a novel idea, but because it's not scripted in any way, it doesn't do its job. Any character other than Jazz can just blast through, and even with Jazz it's entirely possible to tank enough hits to speed to the other side. Out of all the things in the level, this is where Angelscript would most come in handy.

The worst path though is the maze. On the technical side of things, it's actually the most impressive part of the level: generous use of new tiles, a frog puzzle that feels quite advanced for someone's first JJ2 level, and a decent sense of player jump height. However, all of this doesn't help that this is simply a maze through and through, something not very well suited for JJ2. If it was populated more interestingly, perhaps. But right now it's only a bit more palatable than Queen of Board (which sucks and I'm not open to discussion about it). The biggest problem is the concept of wrong turns. Sure, they're clearly marked. But it's still a ridiculous obstacle, with a punishment incommensurable with the kind of mistake you're doing. Furthermore, the Trigger Zones aren't properly placed – it's very easy to end up stuck in one of the appearing blocks, and then the only way out is cheats or level reload. Near the end, you get an option to backtrack. It's fool's gold. Whatever you might've missed, the level has so few items that it's definitely not worth having to go through the entire maze again to get back on track. A shortcut that opens up once the maze has been completed once would be nice.

And finally there's the boss arena. Is this a spoiler? There's no story, so I don't think so. The area is absurdly large considering the boss itself is stuck on a small platform. Well, at least you can't go so far away that the boss would despawn, so points for that I suppose. Miniscule ammo amounts in the level don't matter either, since you get the best powerup in the game just handed to you.

Now, as a final note, I'm not the type of person to complain that "you didn't use the tileset conversion that I'd worked so hard on, weeehhhhhhh" – but the yet another new Diamondus edit included with this level feels extremely superfluous. It's just FawFul's old edit with a few tiles changed, and most of them are really unnecessary. I recommend trying out the custom MLLE level editor, which lets you use vertically flipped tiles with a single key press; you wouldn't have to include every tile you're flipping in the tileset. You can also easily place a player character sprite onto the sprite layer and color it like a multiplayer skin however you'd like, it's just a few script lines! I know it feels impossibly hard at first, but it's really simple once you check out a few existing JJ2+ examples. Also, placing flowers on tree branches is certainly a… choice. Mistletoe, I guess?

jjturbo9, I hope my review and its rating doesn't discourage you from making more JJ2 levels. Rather, my intention is to give you an incentive to strive to be better, to learn more and especially learn from other custom levels. It's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock 'n' roll), but since you already went the extra mile to make your first level bigger and better designed than most first levels that land on J2O, I'm certain you can get even better!

Ah, right. I forgot to mention, the weird sound that follows almost through the whole track is the heavily modified “Are you ready?!” voice sample from the JJ2 version.

You forgot to credit the original author – ScionFighter.

One day, I was just wandering around when my brother was downloading latest downloads on J2O. He immediately latched onto Chet’s levels, laughing at them, pointing out all the bugs and being just nasty all the way. And – guess what? It was fun!

As you may guess, when I got the PC I started playing these. Maybe I could write reviews for all of them, but that would take too much time, so instead I’m just taking care of the one (or actually two) that got me most interested. Yeah, interested. It actually isn’t as boring as it may look at first glance!

you Will pay beccuse the dead R alive.!!
The story is very mysterious. In fact, we know nothing more than the fact that it’s apperently happening on 12:10 (after midnight I guess) when the dead come. And they hate us. In fact, the level texts even suggest that they use some sort of a tactic to attack us! Oh my. I just wonder what may it be, as it looks like the only way they do so are the two holes that make us go back. There’s also one more thing, but I have no idea who is really behind it – the dead or the player.

CLICK
Whatever you do, you will see this message, followed by “YOU RELEASED DEMONS”. Trigger? I think not. However, the way it’s done is plain awesome. This text is going to be my canon for the next few weeks! Now whenever someone does something that makes a click sound I say “YOU RELEASED DEMONS”! That should be a classic!

ROAR
These two levels are trying really hard to be scary. I must say that while I was actually having great fun instead of being scared, I found… mysterious stuff. As a Metroid fan, when I found some weird tunnel I thought “secret sequence break passage?!” Now I think I really have to cut down with game series. The tunnel led to nowhere. ;( What a shame! This was starting to get fun and then brutally shattered my dreams! Also, in both levels there are places with really LOTS of 1ups. Just so you can retry these “hard” levels as many times as you want. How kind! ^^

BE CARFUL.Thereas a TRAP!
Another thing that made me enjoy especially the first level were the really, really, really secret secrets! They’re so secret that probably the author himself didn’t know about them! This is better than hidden worlds in Metroid 2. With Spaz, I reached the unfinished parts of the level! AWESOME! With that, I could scale even higher to the empty, mysterious pieces, exploring the mysteries of Chet’s mind! THIS IS THE SOUL OF THE LEVEL BABE

Something tells me I am being watched
The second level was somewhat short… O r wasn’t it? I saw some pieces of it that I appearently missed… In fact, I probably did some sequence breaking (intended?), because I got to the boss which wanted to take my gems. Ouch. He probably meant the metaphoric version, as I barely had any actual gems… However, I saw a lot of them just behind the wall! Were they my property? I wonder how, as the beggining of the level clearly stated as it’s somebody else’s house… Boss’? No idea. Another SPOOKY MYSTERY (someone call Scooby-Doo and the gang!)

AND there he is.I’LL BE GOING!!!!!
There’s even more and more of the mysteries, as for example Eva appearing out of nowhere on hard difficulty (plus on easy and in multiplayer too, but if you’re playing on medium, better avoid the regal secret) or the mysterious voice giving you advice on harder parts. Yes, this set of 2 levels is one of the most intriguing downloads in the past few months… maybe even years… Especially that there is one more mystery in it that will probably never be solved. This mystery is… the sense of all this. And if you find it, you can call yourself the successor of Sherlock Holmes!

——————

SCORE: 2.5

Pros:
(+) Gives a good laugh
(+) SECRET WORLDS ;D
Cons:
(-) Really bad eyecandy
(-) Completely random enemy placement
(-) Lack of sense

Modplug Tracker, sometimes with addition of SoundForge.

It’s interesting how these ratings are actually valid. Then again, I can’t find anything to prove them wrong.

EDIT: Okay, they aren’t. Fooled me.

You win, Dan. =D

Author of this remix claims that the song is “unremixable”. Come on, that’s illogical. If something is impossible to remix, how did you make this one? Every song is remixable, because even if the melody can’t be improved even more, you can always go for a style change. There are so many possibilities!

And yes, this is the first Deserto remix indeed. We had a rearrangation already made by Jackhabit, which was nice and all but didn’t change the melody itself enough to notice the difference. This one’s a fresh look on the song, which was my favourite from the A-C ones.

S is for style
I expected a techno remix and so I got it.. sorta. The beat is well expanded and uses good drumloops, giving a “nasty” style, especially thanks to those power-uping parts with snares going wild, ya gotta love’em! The samples are chosen well, fitting to each other. At first I thought marimba is out of place, but later I noticed that it greatly fits as a integer for other parts. Everything makes it a jumpy and cool tune, I think it would be neat as a background music for breakdance show. Hmm, gotta ask JSZ Arkardo about that.

A is for arrangement
Most of the original melody is there. Tiny bits that are gone are the scratching-like instrument on the end of loop and one “riff”. I liked them in original but I doubt they’d fit the remix, so let’s let that be. What I really like in this remix is the beggining – kind of approaching the listener, being made of short, silent parts in the very beggining and then quickly building and speeding up to reach the actual tune. Among with well chosen samples that gives a nice climax.

N is for nice
Hey hey, I didn’t expect that to be so entertaining! At first I listened it just because it was my duty. Later I found myself playing it again… and again… and again… man, it’s addictive! This is definetely different than other Danyjel’s remixes – I don’t know if this is caused by getting to see TIMM WIPs, daring to get a higher rating from JC or just a nifty idea, but whatever it was it was worth the trick.

D is for Danyjel!
C’mon, give it a try and download now, you won’t regret it!

It is 2MB, Danyjel. The remix is good and I recommend it to download, tho’ if you don’t like midi-sounding remixes, consider choosing ElectroPiZZa’s remix from “A Rather Tasteless Sequel”.

I sense inspiration here. But I still WILL finish my piece, mwahaha. Not even JC will stop me! >]

.:First feel:.

Wow! Great as always, maybe this is even your best yet!

Review coming later…

@Jarno: It’s actually more of hard rock… you sure you actually listen to a download before writing something?

Shh don’t spoil the suprise. ;>

Couldn’t you include the tilesets?

I don’t have time for a review now, but one I must say: this rox. MUST HAVE.

@Danyjel: This is NOT a sample. This is a real guitar, recorded and mixed with the drums.

You’re alive, AcId? Man, you really need to remember about logging in! I couldn’t contact you for few months!

Christmas are coming, and so do christmas levels. I’m not against it, I even made a christmas level myself, but not only some are below average, but also a few have nothing to do with christmas except for the name.

When I saw the title, I thought it will be a snowy battle level with xmas music. However, I was wrong – for unknown reason (originality, maybe) Jarno Vos decided to use Carrotus Night and add some snow – and you must know this snow is purple. Still optimistic (as I am), I continued playing the level. Boy, I could’ve stop at the very first look…

Panic
The level is heavily vertical. It’s only a bit widhter than the game window, but the height is like, hmmm, maybe 5 or 6 screens. So there’s this shaft, and there are some airboards. The autor predicts they are necessary, and basically they are (fall to the bottom and you have no chances of going back up), but then why we can avoid them? If the player is fast enough he can move above them and continue the play on his own feet. Of course, he wouldn’t want to, but still it’s bad. Especially since walking players are faster than airboarding ones.

‘Cause it’s an unfriendly place
The ammo placement is quite like plants on a desert – not much of them, and they always stick together (that’s called oasis). On the top there’s TNT, in the middle there are Frostbiter, Seeker and Bouncer. There’s not much on the bottom (some coins and a carrot, which isn’t something great – I’ll explain that later), until you go to bonus. Wait wait, bonus? Oh yeah, sure there is one. You could guess that looking at the coins. If you were lucky enough – they don’t respawn! And more than that, you need to get them all if you want the bonus. And even if you got them all, you’ll spend a while finding it. I think I can tell that it’s the arrow on the right wall, especially since the bonus isn’t quite worthy the trick. What you get is some Toaster ammo and entrance to the room on the very bottom. It contains a bit of Fast Fire, 2 carrots (once again I’ll get back on that later) and… spikes! Iiiiingeeeenouuuuus. It’s so easy to touch them, that I begin to wonder – does this room help or actually acts fully opposite? Hard to guess, especially since the spikes are in the normal part, too. Lots of. Argh!

You’ll run back…
Back to the ammo, at first I didn’t understand why Frostbiter ammo is placed in such obscure place. This still is strange, when bouncer and TNT are easy to get, just like the Blaster power-up (TOO easy on this one, I say), and Forstbiter isn’t more powerful or at least as powerful as them. Soon I found a wicked passage in the wall near Frostbiter ammo, which led to a text saying “SHOOT!” I did what it wanted me to do, and so I got a fire shield. Yay, it’s hidden enough! One good thing so far. If there only was a quicker way than going all the way back to get out…

…and forth
While the level is quite small (which I don’t count as bad, I like small battle levels – of course 1 screen size level is breaking the line), it contains whole 9 carrots! To make it even worse, in almost all appearances they come in groups of two. Maybe it’s to give a chance of entering the bonus? Maybe that’s the christmas gift? Anyway, that’s another wrong thing. I was coming to this one from a while in this review – carrots on this level are done horrible! There’s barely a chance to roast someone, even with the Blaster PU.

You call that christmas?!
The last on the long list of cons comes eyecandy – or should I say it crawls, because it’s barely noticable. There’s NO background and foreground eyecandy (the lake on bottom has the same movement speed as sprite layer) and the layer 4 eyecandy is very poor. A few flowers, carrots (one badly done), caverns on the left (I named them so, but only because I couldn’t find a better word – they make no actual caverns at all) and a few unnatural pumpkin vines. Oh well, at least it’s better than nothing – and believe me, I saw many levels with really zero eyecandy. Maybe you did, too.

No way!
This level has barely anything to do with christmas, as well as with joy (the basis of christmas IMHO). No recommendation, really. When I looked into the readme file, it was clearly saying that the author is 8 years old – but that doesn’t change the fact that the level is bad. Jarno vos, maybe you should train a bit with more skilled levelmakers – I’m sure you’ll find someone who will want to teach you levelmaking basics – or at least check out JCSref or a proper article. Meanwhile, I cannot give this level anything over 2.2.

When I started this level for the first time, I just thought: “wow, this looks so nice”. Lately not many levels give me such an impression, so I was optimistic for this one since the very start. And this impression is still keeping up.

Fire Sword has been a levelmaker of quality for quite a while now. The ones that I played already are Higher Fragging Rate and High Volume CTF – both were very good and I always have fun playing them. This level does not only look good, but it’s also great to play.

Carrots around us
The level is medium-sized, yet it features 3 carrots to pick up. You may think that’s a bit too much for duels, but their positioning makes such thinking wrong. It took me a lot time until I found out how to get the lowest-positioned carrot!

Falling
On the right of level, there is a shaft closed with destruct blocks. It’s perfect for escaping from a seeker shooting enemy, if you manage to destroy the blocks fast enough. You can either get out on the way down or fall all the way to the bottom and warp to the top. The problem is, if you’re jumping in from the top, you’ll need to shoot the block before you get out (if you didn’t do that earlier) or you’ll end up in the same place. And your enemy may be prepared for such an occasion.

The getaway
If you look at all those springs in the level, it looks much like CTF at this point. “Speed-tracks” are pretty much everywhere, so there’s no need to stop. Just jump, stomp or shoot when you need to. There are also some pinball bumps. Only a fool would tell they’re randomly placed – for real they help in manouvering in the level. Very well done on that, FS.

k get ammo
I like the ammo placement. It’s a battle level, so you can be armed to teeth in seconds, but you need to jump a bit for that. My only complaint is that there’s too much bouncer ammo in one place. Power-ups are placed well, too. Maybe 3 of them is one too much for such level size, especially they are seeker, bouncer and toaster – if a duel is played and both players have all power-ups, that can result in quite heavy-arms battle. Oh, the seeker power-up can be archieved only by shooting, so getting full ammo for it doesn’t include kicking/uppercutting the PU.

Beautiful beta
Like others, I’m wondering why didn’t Epic leave the tileset the way it was on the two early beta screenshots. Of course, Pyromanus made it a mix between that, final Diamondus and diamonds from 1.20 version, but still it’s just so much better than final version. Fire Sword did great job on eyecandy, so even if you’re alone on the server you’ll probably want to look at everything around while you still can. The point of view on the background layer gives a feel that the level is positioned on a hill. Don’t forget the leafs – they’re an oldie, but the way FS placed them and the direction in which they are moving is much better than what I usually see in this case. The music fits very well and it’s very good as standalone, too.

Ya gotta have it!
Overall, this is a very good level. Basically I would recommend it for duels, but you can also have some great fun with public gameplay. Just don’t use InstaGib – I think that’s a bad style for this one. And you won’t have time to look at eyecandy and listen to the music. ;)

@White Rabbit – I said you’ll have to destroy them if you didn’t do that earlier. Not that it’s impossible in that moment. It can be even done without special moves.

First of all, you misspelled the planet name. It’s Diamondus, not Diamonous. You could just check the name in JCS easily.

The level is very small. I’d say it’s even too small for duels. Two rooms and a platform in the middle. This is the first attemp to make a RA level, so I guessed it will be bad, but that’s really bad. The poster looks like a brick, not piece of paper (you could just make it a texture on the wall and it would look much better), the walls are full of diamond tiles. There is no big deal in hitting the leveltop, and there’s too much ammo. Actually, the only good thing in this level is that it’s on Diamondus. At least the ground is, because the sky is too gray. I would give you 2, but since this is the first RA level not made by the crew, I give you a 3.5, so you can mobilize yourself to doing better. Good luck!

Ah, found the last one to go through. A lot different from the ElectroChoir and TubElectra.
The name does not actually fit. This remix is a very calm (the rhytm is hard, but peacful, like in some hip-hop tunes), piano played melody. Here we have the most recognised parts of JJ melodies joined together, in a way that really makes it good. The pattern order is quite monotonious, but still, logical. The JJ1/JJ2 theme could’ve been done better, in some moments it sounds more like church bells than piano… But that sounds too. Not for game, you say? In my opinion, it would be great for Agama’s Heaven or some sanctuary/church tileset. Maybe it’s not a must-have, but it’s really nice, so if you’re looking for something to listen or making a heavenly level, you surely can pick this one.