Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

….What?

I used this level to test the music in-game to see how it would play back while I’m editing the song in ModPlug. It was a home-brewed “development tool”.

Jazz2’s music engine played music a little differently than winamp or even modplug, so this level gave me the means to hear the actual playback. it’s all part of beta-testing.

As already stated, there is another utility, “PackPacker”, that can also automatically pack levels, music and their tilesets into a zip archive. So what does this utility offer?

The Main thing this packer offers is user-friendliness. whereas Packpacker requires you to go into command prompt and enter a large string of commands. With Levelpacker, you drag and drop the level onto the app, specify a .zip name, and it does the rest.

(edit: The bugs I have mentioned have been fixed, so I have removed my comments about it =D )

The packer works beautifully, packing both tilesets and music, making your levels look professional. The ability to limit the packer to one level is interesting. I cannot imagine a use for it myself, but it is nice to have.

the ultimate improvement I would like to see to this system would be a GUI that lets you see a list of the files and the ability include/exclude files into the zip before you pack, similar to CD Burner applications.

overall, I must say that this is actually a improvement over PackPacker, and this is a tool all level creators should not be without.

The ending episode of Evilmike’s amazing series is, as usual, mind blowing. Mike pushed his creative skills to the limit, creating what can be easily considered the most challenging levels this side of Jazz Unleashed.

mike had said on IRC that he aimed for “Old NES Platformer” difficulty. oh boy. If this series is anything what those games are like, then I don’t want any part of them!

Difficulty is not the only thing that this episode excels at. Eyecandy is amazing. The levels have an atmosphere few levels or even games can achieve. ideas abound in this episode, and evilmike once again impresses me with his mastery at JCS.

The story is the strongest part, though. I had to suppress the urge (Which was actually rather strong) to jjnxt and see the ending. Part of the reason is obvious: This is the denounment of the series (The main climax happens, I believe, at the end of episode 3) and mike is trying to tie as many ends as he can. In fact, he explains everything, answering the many questions forming since the start of the series, and letting Devan’s second form fit into the storyline, which is a rather clever trick.

I feel the ending does not provide full closure for what is supposed to be a ending of a series, but I remind myself of what the intro said “This is a story of someone caught in (The empire’s) downfall” and the theme of the title, primarily on “Devan Shell” It sort of makes sense then on your characters action. The main antagonist is defeated; He is one small rabbit, and cannot alter what has been done. and so, the cycle of life continues.

This series has made a drastic influence in the jj2 community, and i would therefore be nuts NOT to give it high mark!

okay, judging from the comment “The Version is 1.23 and TSF mixed”, arrow has tried to make a 1.23 levelset with TSF. The problem with that is the TSF JCS does not make its levels compatible with 1.23. To make somthing compatible with both versions, it has to be made with the 1.23 JCS only.

This levelset is quite…. difficult to understand. The title is “Attack of the Dead” but there is no reference to dead, zombies or otherwise in the text, just your generic “Jazz Vs. Devan” story. This is a little like buying a FPS but getting a Racing sim instead.

The levels are full of bugs. There is one level (protect the cargo.j2l) in what is supposed to be a little room, but you can go flying off into the Great Blue Yonder in one of the maskless walls. I got stuck in a couple of places, and the levels were all and all too short.

Not to say they are bad, they do have some general spots and puzzles that are thought out, but the level’s shortness and confusion makes these points rater moot.

The really wierd thing is Your level strings. You have the levels labeled attack1-12, but you go from Attack1 to the level named Pinball.j2l etc. This clutters the home-cooked section with levels I don’t have a idea if they are used or not.

Overall, I rate this a 2 – most of it going to effort. It needs work to be a masterpiece, and it would help if it was betatested before release.

If you need help with JCS AT ALL, please go to the Jazz Forum and ask. We don’t bite!

The plot is… well, cheesy in places, but very origional. It was enough to keep me playing til the end.

Sticking to origionality though brings with it shortfalls. There is only one enemy type, and absolutly no pickups, which the author explains that stuff that jazz could use would be nonexistant in the internet. This is acceptible in a sence, as it does increase the difficulty, but at the same time, saying carrots were “Restoring programs” would have been as simple as passing sparks off as “Antivirus programs”

The main tileset used was simplistic, flat, yet perfect for the world that Troglobite is creating. The eyecandy is simple, but the whole area is covered in animations, which makes up for it.

The area where it does fall short, is in the music. only 2 music files are used, and one was used for all but one level. By the time you are finished the final level, you are pretty sick of the same music file.

Overall, It needs tweaking, but that does not stop it from being a good play. I would recommend it.

You have the feel of the origional JJ1 tileset use down, but you miss features that even JJ1 had.

Where are the secrets? Springs were not used until medivo. Where are the goodies?

Hiding enemies is a general levelmaking no-no.

Levels were Linear and did not provide much to explore. I’m willing to let that slide a little; they were quite long.

First: The level uses the TOP3 tileset.

Second: A top3 tileset can therefore be played in 1.23

Third: it’s a level all about bashing some user. (There may have been some significance in the J2O community back in 2001)

The author has a good grasp of JCS, I’ll give him that- but entertaining?… No.

Another great episode from Evilmike

Evilmike does a good job with setting the stage for the plot, adding a twist so good I did not want the episode to end.

Level design is well thought out. You do some backtracking, but the tilesets and the storyline makes it like its all in a day’s work for the player, a atmosphere not seen very often even in other games.

My favorite level is the forest path. It is generally non-linear, with great music and eyecandy.

Recommended? Why would you question it? You got my brother, a passive JJ2 fan, interested in the series since episode 1. The episodes have already influenced several single-player levels (Mine included), and finally these episodes are a quality not many people can match.

In other words: YOU MUST PLAY THIS!

While I am not a heavy CTF player, I believe these are pretty good levels.

Emerald Forest gives you two versions of the same level: Evening and night. I will talk about them both in general.

The layout is symmetrical for both bases (Some might like this point in a CTF game – Others may not), with a central “Gateway” between the two. The level is easy to navigate. Once I got used to the level , I never felt lost.

Eyecandy is good, with lots of places for the eye to wander. The rain is a nice touch, and it add atmosphere to the level.

I think birdie is somewhat right about the music selection for one level. The first Emerald Forest (aws_Cave.xm) made the first level very enjoyable and completed the atmosphere of the level, which was at night. The evening level (mikko56.s3m) Seemed to lack the atmosphere, and not fit the mood created in the first level.

Overall, I liked the level, and think this would make a decent CTF for any server. Recommended.

meh, It’s fairly short, although accurate level.

At first, I didn’t think Industrius would have been a good music for the level, but upon playing it, I thought it was a reasonably nice choice.

Crossovers can be too accurate though, and it shows in this level. The goodies are just keen candy tiles with the jazz “Consumables” over it (Powerups for books, fast fire for the raygun, Coconuts? for the lollipops)

Warping the player back to the start is a nice move (I expected hurt tiles), but it is not a big enough deterrent from keeping the player from touching the stuff. I think using the “SP CTF Death trick” would work nicely here and add more accuracy to the level, in forcing the player to restart.

There are no enemies, and I think this hurt the level a little, which origionally was full of yorps. Just using regular JJ2 enemies in good spots would make the level a bit more entertaining that just being a obstacle course.

Masking could have been done a little differently, but this is only some mild issues so I can’t complain. (The masking around the exit was cool) As for eyecandy, Commander Keen had no multi-layer EC, and it is the same here.

Overall, I feel this level needs some polishing. I would remove the Keen1 goodies from the background completely, and just use the JJ2 equivalent (Coconuts? why coconuts? Why not the wrapped mints?).

Download recommendation? The jury’s still out on that. I believe small levels like these are better “Sold” in level packs, as the levels don’t provide much entertainment value on their own. If you want to give it a try, Go ahead…

I think if you add the word “Concept” to your level title (Which I feel is what you are demonstrating here), you would avoid the reviews by people who are looking for quality (AKA review by sonicnathan)

The design is simple: basically a puzzle boss that solves itself, but the idea of waiting around while it does that seems rather unorthodox for even a puzzle boss, even if you are defending yourself from enemies.

This concept might be more believable in a war-theme (“Hold the base until we can send reinforcements…”), but as a generator thingy?… maybe not…

A good idea as a timer…

Best low-end CTF levels evar.

“Best CTF Party good luck” – a dry level that is really cramped. No eyecandy, ammo, or music. The plus side is that scores can be done in 3 second intervals, and the level will become extremely chaotic if you fill the server right up, and full servers love chaos :)

“CTF Level Design Fiesta Dont Die” – n00b has listened very well to criticism about his last hit level. Now we don’t need to worry about boring platform tiles – there are none! not only that, but a blind maze with two blue bases and 4 red ones! WoW!

n00b has hit gold with this one, and we can hope his levels reach legendary status. I know it rocked my world =D

A continuation of the awesome level series by Evilmike, and he does not disappoint.

Evilmike has mastered the mood of the series very well. Both the storyline and music have that “This can’t be happening” feeling that “Rebirth of Evil” started in it’s story arc, and expands on that.

I get to see more of his amazing usage of the TOPIII tileset, with a station that almost seems real due to the amazing application of eyecandy.

The highlight of this levelset for me is the virtual combat level, where you navigate a “Wireframe” version of diamondus. Diamondus levels are a dime a dozen on J2O, but this level is so unique, it’s amazing!

Recommended? OH YES!

Pure awesome.

A solid storyline starts this levelset off. Then the fun begins.

Evilmike sez this is the remains of another levelpack, but you can hardly tell with the storyline.

He uses tricks I did not even know were possible in JCS. Seeing a small cutscene to show a gate opening, greating a ball of light for a teleporter, even using the ROCKET TURTLE, a boss I had previously thought was unusable!

This levelpack is work the download just to see what kind of tricks JJ2 is capable of doing.

I have to say, this series could very well be the Half-Life of levelsets.

The only problem I could find in this levelset was the last part felt rushed. Maybe it’s because I was not doing my usual procedure of clearing each part of the level I went into, but it definatly felt shorter than invasion of Deserto

I am a mediocre reviewer, so I cannot go into detail on various level traits, but Level 2 (Deserto Orbital Base) is my all-time favorite. The eyecandy is jaw-dropping, and the constant use of “features” throughout the series will mean this will be a must-download for a long time.

Keep up the good work. We will be eagerly awaiting the next episode.

Wow, Blast, You have been busy! :) Tilesets IMO are somwhat hard to create (Artistic side of me has low power)

I would not recommend doing anything with the pallettes until you know what you are doing. most do not like color changes.

A very good and accurate tileset from Duke Nukem 2. I am going to have to bug you on telling you to do more of DN2. This is absoluty good!

Too bad JJ2 does not use ladder features, otherwise, that would be cool with this tileset.

in the registered version, there is a brig level in each episode. most of them have other features. the shareware episode level is the only level to use the jail background.

A very good download to make a level out of.

This tileset is lacking background animations that are used in the origional. although quite good and very accurate, It is missing some things (Mainly animations)

I have made two levels with this (One not released, since it’s on a crashed hard drive)

-The 45 degree slope is missing a tile to continue the slope The first slope using this tile in JJ1 has the animation circuts on it, but further into the level, there is a complete 45 slope without any hinderence.

-There is no animated background, and it is poorly done. this is painfully obvious when you put a Backgroun CPU next to the circuts.

-Many of the tiles have backgrounds. This might be okay if you are only using layer 5 as the background, but using all 8 layers? Forget it. Make the tiles backgroudless next time

in short, if you are looking for a Letni Tileset, this is the only one on J2O right now. Until a new (And better) one comes out, I recommend against downloading this.

If you are wondering, Yes, that is the secret level music for deserto. This level is probably the only other one in the entire series that you morph into somthing else. A pretty straight forward level, you change into a lizard. This secret level is accessable in level 1 (Near the exit sign)

Three words:

This Levelset Sucks!

These HAVE to be the flattest levels i have seen. You run in a straight line reading some dumb story of Megaman getting kidnapped by Devan. If there is one thing I hate, it’s story crossovers, but that is beside the point.

No enemies (Except for devan), noeyecandy, and no music, even though it is included in the zip.

The levels take 10-30 seconds to complete, and considering the look of the levels, the work put into them cannot be more than ten minutes tops.

No recomendation.