Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

+ Visually decent in the night version
+ Good selection of weapons and powerups

- Fairly quirky flow, hard to move in smoothly
- The vines at the top of the level are mostly on the way, rather than adding more gameplay depth
- The buffer tubes and spawn positions are quite evil, it takes a long time to attack the enemy base after dying
- The lower levels feel too cramped and it’s easy to hit the ceiling while moving
- Some things are a bit unintuitive, such as the floor below the bases which is not one way

/ Seems to be playable in 2v2 and 3v3, but 3v3 might get a bit cramped
/ The day version might be a bit harsh to the eye, the night version works better

From contest feedback:

+ Fairly original and inspiring level theme
+ Original choice of weapons
+ Generally solid layout with lots of potential if some improvements were made

- The big white blinking clock in the middle of the level is quite harsh to the eye, even if visually original, it could be less distractive
- Some things like the vines blend too much with the level primary colors, makes them hard to see
- Powered up roller weapon seems a bit overpowered in this map, it’s flying around literally everywhere
- The tiles could be used better in the sprite layer, looks a bit dull visually

/ Playable only in 3v3 apparently

From contest feedback:

+ Inspiring level theme and impressive visuals
+ Uncommon and interesting powerup choices, balanced pickups in general
+ The movable carrot gives more room for strategic play around it

- The flow is rather quirky and hard to get used to, lots of climbing on the sides of the level
- Some areas require very precise movement like the middle with blue spring and flipper pads
- The top of the level may get a bit campy and generally feels to be a bit isolated from the rest of the level (the level might be a bit too tall in general)

/ Playable in 3v3, not working in 2v2

Not rating it, because we’re in the same level group.

From contest feedback:

+ Interesting layout with a few influences from other levels
+ Much room for skill moves like RF-climbs
+ Balanced with both open and closed areas

- Fairly peculiar flow, hard to get used to
- Feels sometimes a bit cramped with the ceiling scenery, especially in the middle
- The top area of the level feels a bit redundant and isolated

/ Playable in 3v3, not sure about 2v2

Not rating it, because we’re in the same level group.

From contest feedback:

+ Strategic layout and very different from other contest levels
+ Uncommon and balanced weapon/pickup placement

- Huge FPS drops in 8-bit mode for some reason
- The level gameplay centers around the fly carrot too much, also because the only way to get rid of it is by going underwater
- The level feels unfinished and empty in certain aspects, there isn’t much visuality nor scenery in the level
- There is only one exit from the bases unless you have a fly carrot, which makes them quite evil dead ends

/ Seems like it could only work in 3v3, partly due the fly c as well

I’m looking forward to see a more finished version later on. :)

From contest feedback:

+ Good usage of the tileset, visually decent and no distractive elements
+ Solid layout
+ Well placed platforms and ledges that allow diverse skill moves
+ Quite balanced for all characters

- The level seems slightly imbalanced regarding open/closed areas, there is only little room for safe play

/ Works only in 3v3 probably

Not rating it because we’re in the same level group.

From contest feedback:

+ Fairly balanced layout with both open and closed areas
+ Pretty smooth and friendly flow with lots of diversity
+ Lots of room for strategic play and skill moves like RF-climbs
+ Balanced weapon and carrot placement
+ Visually impressive but not too distractive, no harsh colors

- Takes some time to learn completely, some areas are not so easily distinguishable
- Some tubes are sometimes hard to move in
- Some scenery is hard to distinguish as foreground from sprite layer, like the ceiling tubes at the top of the level

/ Seems playable in 2v2/3v3

From contest feedback:

+ Good strategic depth regarding the full carrot, possibility to shoot it down with certain weapons or block access by freezing springs
+ Well balanced weapon and powerup placement
+ No area is too easily campable but there are a few spots for breathing
+ Impressive visually without being too distractive to the eye

- The springs next to bases are sometimes hard to land on

/ Seems playable in both 2v2 and 3v3
/ The level is fairly big in size, but at the same time very open which compensates for it

Very inspirational level by Loon with stunning visuals! The different tileset parts combine here smoothly, giving the level a very unique and epic atmosphere together with the music choice!

What can I say, this editor eases a level maker’s job at creating very creative levels by a landslide. At the beginning it may take a short while to get used to if you have been using JCS for years, but after that it really pays back in speed and diversity.

I loved every level of it (no pun intended)! It was already awesome to see all the references of other JJ2 players and levels which were executed well. However the way the levels managed to keep a very humoristic/parodic atmosphere through the episode while keeping up to top-notch visual- and gameplay-quality impresses me more than anything.

Actually, nowadays the advanced strategy in 2on2/3on3 CTF is that all the players in a team report their health changes. This way a team can better organize their positioning. That is the only extra that could be implemented perhaps.

This remade level truly competes for the title of the best standalone single player level ever made for the game in my opinion. The visuals are top-notch, although sometimes probably even too excessive, the gameplay very versatile along with the scripted features that make it even more original. The musics are well chosen too. Download recommended.

Judging this level from a competitive point of view, it is a solid level that offers a fresh new layout.

Update: The latest version fixes the major gameplay flaws so I’m updating my rating appropriately as well. Good job FireSworD!

This level has a very original layout, yet it is still fun to play in competitive games. I like the way the bases were implemented especially. The level should be somewhat balanced as well. It contains 2 full energies, but they have a long spawn time, which ensures that players cannot survive too easily. It works well for games of any size too.

It’s been a while since anyone released any single-player with an actual storyline, and especially a long time anyone released any episode as big as this, which inspired me to write a full review for this.

Well, actually the storyline is kind of confusing at times, partly due to the broken English used in cutscenes and dialogues that are a big part of this episode. The cutscenes and dialogues are mainly done with Angelscript here, and although they are mainly just still images and text, there are nevertheless some cool effects. However I think they could have been done better with a bit more effort put into scripting, such as defining which character to display in the cutscenes. Right now it seems a bit goofy that they are all displayed, and our main character is called just ‘Player’. Also some of the text is hard to read in the limited time since there is simply too much stuff in the background.

But basically, the story begins with our player waking up at home just like any normal day (I don’t know if there was a preceding episode to the storyline?), and goes to the nearest police station to look for a ‘Secret Room’, and after that things start to get twisted (not spoiling you more).

The levels do look mostly okay. Sometimes I’d expect there to be more detailing though, and sometimes there is too much since often the tiles that are meant for the fore- and background are used for the sprite-ground, and vice versa. Also sometimes the gameplay gives me the feeling that this could very well be something of various hotel-levels turned into single-player, since the gameplay is often about going up and down building blocks in an urban environment, indoors and outdoors, or just running straight by a linear corridor.

The number of levels is more than a hundred, but a big part of them are cutscenes and savepoints, and then the rest of the levels are cut into parts whenever you reach a certain goal. Not sure if the cutting was really necessary although the idea works nicely as checkpoints.

But the gameplay has also got it’s action-part, and that is definitely the best part about the episode in my opinion. It can be riding various vehicles or running away from evil police soldiers, or crawling in tight air valves. Actually this episode has a very violent theme, and the levels are filled with blood, fire and dead rabbits. At those points I notice potential influence from various FPS-games such as doom, especially at the levels with more creepy atmosphere and creepy music.

Talking about music (which I know isn’t very essential about the levels and was an optional download), I think this episode uses some of the most terrible tunes I’ve heard since a while, since some of them are of type chiptune, and very poorly composed ones. (I can imagine Angry Video Game Nerd raging while playing this :D)

Another annoying thing about the gameplay is the blaster that was made reloadable, because you can hold at most 15 bullets, which is used very fast with maximum fast fire. Then, you will need to press R everytime to get more ammo for it which seemed just kind of pointless to me, and it felt that it was rather done because it’s “just cool” like this. It happened a few times that I’d shoot myself into a death pit by seeker-recoil after my weapon automatically switched when my blaster got empty.

Some of the more passive levels, like elevator rides and the like could have been compressed a bit, since there wasn’t even anything to look at since the visuals were just generic. However, the levels and the storyline got more and more interesting as I progressed, and there was nice unexpected turns in the storyline. At the later levels you could also find yourself dying by rather unexpected events as well, such as sudden police-ambushes. Also at times it really took me some time to find the right way to go in the levels (I think I was just being lucky to find some of them by accident). The biggest pain was one of the last levels where you need to look for a very well hidden switch that I couldn’t simply find without looking at JCS, since there weren’t even any hints.

In the end, I found this to be a fairly entertaining episode. Definitely more entertaining than any usual single-player episode with the idea of ‘just playing’, but the gameplay-flaws and other small details I mentioned prevent me from rating this too high. It still has potential to be the best single-player release of last year.

So, well done and thanks for releasing this!

EDIT: Quite soon after I was finished with my review, I realized that I overrated this episode, so I tried to modify the rating to be more of a match with my criteria. Actually in general I feel that I have been too generous towards the releases I have reviewed recently, so I will pay closer attention to the quality of the uploads I review in the future.

Nevertheless, I still find this single-player release to be one of my favorites from last year, but I should advice other players that it isn’t anything especially original, although a lot of effort and experimenting probably went into the designing of the episode. You may still like it, if you are thirsting for new single-player adventures like me.

This is a fairly fun single-player episode, although it’s nothing too special. The levels follow the oldschool formula of level creation and even use mostly just the basic epic-tilesets. The episode was visually good though as well, sometimes maybe a bit overdone since it was hard to see where to go actually. Nevertheless I liked these levels.

This is a well-crafted and decent-looking old-fashioned short single-player level that is actually fun to play. The levels were hardly any challenge for a veteran player like me even in turbo mode but I still enjoyed it. I had fun exploring the secret areas. The levels used a few slightly original concepts as well, especially in the last level.

rekt

This is a nice horizontal level that is the only multiplayer-level that uses the “train”-concept, as far as I know. Although the concept isn’t actually much more than a visual theme, it also influenced the level design which should be interesting for many players since doesn’t let players dominate too easily by abusing vertical positions.