Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Now I’ve never seen this movie, which may be a good thing, so I can review this without bias. Anyway…

Tiles: Well, we got quite a few “Bad Boys” related tiles, which seem to come from movie posters. Along the left, we have some destruct blocks with some handguns, a “!” block, a “?” block, a TNT block, a block with a poorly drawn blaster, a block with a poorly drawn seeker, and a block with a poorly drawn fireball. We then come to a textured BG (good), a block with some green things on it, a poorly drawn planet, a strange white thing I assume to be a police car, a strange blob type person with handguns, a lone handgun, some blocks, slopes, a brick wall and some event tiles. Not bad, except for the poorly drawn things (I assume the blob person was poorly drawn on purpose) and a general lack of theme. The colours are all shades of brown, and can be a bit dull.
Tiles: 7.0

Masking: Seems to work, with some nice mask messages. Nothing amazing, but no jagged edges or anything of the sort.
Masking: 8.0

Theme: Unfortunately, this tileset lacks much of a theme. Sure, there are some posters and some handguns, but remove those and you have a fairly drab block tileset. It’s hard to think of some kind of location one could make out of this tileset.
Theme: 4.0

Event Tiles: Let’s see…spikes, signs, V and H poles, a vine and a hook. Unfortunately, the sucker tubes are missing in action. Shame; you almost had a perfect score in this category.
Event Tiles: 8.0

Overall: Not bad, but look past the fancy posters and all you have is a generic MEZish tileset, without the vibrant colours of mezz’s work. Masking and things like that are all good, but you just need to work on a theme.
Overall Score: 7.2

Yonder EYECANDY: The level doesn’t look bad. It’s not terribly detailed, but it generally looks good. Both castles, the ground and the shark pit all look good, the knight castle especially. The animations look all smooth and good. The layer 5 in the caves looks very MS Paint-ish, though.
Yonder EYECANDY score: 7.0

Ye Olde WEAPONS PLACEMENT: Weapons are rather scarce. There are only a few weapons in the caves, one powerup per side (Toaster for the peasants and Bouncy for the knights) and a Pepper Spray PU in the middle. The weapons placement isn’t BAD, but there could have been more. Also, there are too many carrots for a level this size.
Ye olde WEAPONS PLACEMENT score: 6.5

Thou GAMEPLAY: Small and frantic. The level isn’t large, but there’s plenty of vertical space. The powerups have uses here, (except Pepper) and you probably won’t be wishing for a seeker powerup. I’ve played this level extensively online, and it’s quite fun.
The shark pit is kind of useless, but an interesting addition. Maybe too many carrots, but pretty good.
Thou GAMEPLAY score: 7.5

Now, thy OVERALL score: 7.0[This review has been edited by Iam Canadian]

SuperJazz: There actually aren’t that many enemies. The errors are due to the huge amount of animations and triggers in the level. As for the boss being really hard, well that’s kind of the point. And yes, both the level and boss are possible, as I’ve completed both many times. And to my knowledge, Devan never actually stays out of the arena. He goes back in, don’t worry.

Hmm…well, let’s review this systematically, shall we?

Eyecandy: Kind of dull. Not much in the background except the usual skeletons and the falling stalacites. I didn’t much care for the falling stalacites and the small areas with the blocks looked kind of tacky. You should have used different tiles for those areas. Bilsy’s arena didn’t look great either and the entire level was kind of drab. At least there were no major tilebugs.
Eyecandy score: 6.0

Enemy Placement: Only two kinds of baddies, minus the boss. Demons were everywhere. The Demons aren’t really powerful enemies, and they were about the only obstacles in the level, minus a few Bats and spikes. The Demons were everywhere, and not particularly strategically placed. A few more types of enemies to support the Demons would have been better.
Enemy placement score: 5.5

Gameplay: The level was a bit too short and linear. It was too easy and the use of the trigger crates wasn’t really apparent enough. Plus, you should have made Bilsy’s arena smaller. Not necessarily a BAD level, but could have used a bit more work.
Gameplay score: 6.5

Final Thoughts: If it’s your first level, it’s a very good level. A bit more length, some different enemy types (and for heaven’s sake, fewer Demons!) and fixing some eyecandy issues would improve this level dramatically.
Final Score (Not an average): 6.0

Very nice. You converted Haunted nicely, trimming it down, but still useful. So we have an Easter and Haunted conversion so far…someone should do Town House. Very useful set.
(Unsupported rating removal edit. Please provide more detail in your reviews. ~Violet)[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

Here is an interesting batch of levels from AE. All using the same concept, but are very different at the same time. Basically, the concept is like this. A few platforms are suspended over a pit of warps. Said warps will teleport you back to the top. Each level has at least one powerup, several types of weapons found in batches over the pit and platforms, and at least one carrot. These levels are small, and I imagine would make for a fun, frantic free for all with lots of people, especially in instagib. In fact, I think these would be very fun in instagib. Eyecandy is about what one would expect from the official Epic tilesets. Weapons placement is pretty good. All the ammo is found in large fields, and each level has about three weapon types, give or take one or two. They’re good, but they don’t have the innovations one usually expects from a tip level. A solid rating for a solid pack. Rating: 7.5

This, I like. Normally, I dislike single colour type tilesets, but at least this has some good eyecandy and a general theme, unlike many “colour” tilesets. Masking seems adequate. The set isn’t very original, but good.
RATING: 7.2

This is a nice little level from Blackraptor, that uses the popular “7’th Lava Fall”.
GAMEPLAY: This level has a similar gimmick to EvilMike’s old “Islands” level. That is, if you fall in the “pit” (in this case, lava) you are warped to your base. However, this level adds a small twist. The bases are hidden in sucker tubes, and going through the tubes will also set some triggers that will warp you to the corresponding base the next time you fall into the lava. This adds some nice strategy into the mix, and is definitely a nice addition. This makes “Zerox Factory” stand out. The level, fortunately, doesn’t favour either Jazz or Spaz. However, it’s possible to get stuck in the tubes in the lava, which is annoying, and the level’s biggest flaw.
EYE CANDY: Eyecandy is a strong point of this level. The tileset is used to great effect, as many BG layers are used, with buildings, lava flows and such. Nothing particularly special in the foreground, but the BG layers make up for it. Plus, the platforms near the lava look like they’re floating in the lava, which is a nice touch.
ITEM PLACEMENT: Basic +3 ammo is all placed well, and for once, there is no Seeker powerup. Instead, RF and Bouncer powerups are hidden in the walls. The RF is the most important weapon here. Get it, and you’ll own the level. The carrot is placed well, in the giant middle tube. It’s not biased to either side.
CONCLUSION: This is a very nice level from Blacky, that, with its interesting gimmick, makes it more interesting than yet another cookie cutter CTF level. All the bases are covered, and there’s nothing wrong with it at all. Plus, the music is nice. Download reccomedation.

EDIT: It’s come to my attention that the trigger bug is not Blacky’s fault. Therefore, I’ve raised the rating a tad.[This review has been edited by Iam Canadian]

Now it’s time to steal Trafton and Violet’s review systems! Anyway…

STORY: No story to this. Not a problem for a first level. STORY: N/A

TILESET USE: Diamondous is overused, but the eyecandy was reasonably good. The only eyecandy errors were in the trees, but S.F.D showed at least an effort in using several layers. But more variety and more layers used could drastically improve eyecandy. TILESET USE: 6

PLACEMENT: Enemies incredibly sparse in some areas, and overused in others. The forty Beeboy thing while a frog was a little insane. Weapons also rare. Devan was as easy to beat as usual. Geez, can’t ANYONE make that guy challenging? PLACEMENT: 6

INNOVATION: None here. This level was an excercise in linear “same ol’” sort of gameplay; amusing the first time, but boring afterwards. INNOVATION: 1.5

DIFFICULTY: Extremely easy, even with the forty Beeboy part. It’s short, so it won’t present much challenge, and is pathetically easy for seasoned veterans. DIFFICULTY: 2

REPLAY VALUE: Quite frankly, none to speak of. REPLAY VALUE: 1

OVERALL: Not too bad for a first level, and is salvagable. I’ve played worse. No, honestly. Don’t be offended by my review, I just tell it like it is. ;P
OVERALL: 5.2/10/ 52%

VERDICT: No D/L recommondation, but keep working and don’t get discouraged. Pretty much every first level is mediocre, so keep working at it.

This is pretty darn good for a first level. It’s a little more interesting than “go from point A to point B” because it’s more of a coin hunt level. It was pretty easy, but the coins were well placed, some requiring actual searching to find. Some eyecandy fixes, and more variety in enemies, and it’d be pretty good. If you made it, it’d get a 6, but since it’s not your level, I’ll refrain from rating it.

Norbii strikes again with another tileset, which is better than Greenland, but not as good as Toxic Factory. It features some tilesets ripped from the official Carrotus sets, edit versions of the Diamondous “kill this rabbit” posters, and some of the funkiest grass I’ve ever seen in a tileset. It’s quite good, though, I’m just negative. ;P Keep at it; I’m really liking your tilesets, Norbii.

DaPete01’s beta level strikes out…big time. A colonius level, Townload has poor eyecandy, with bad tile mismatches, and the use of layers only 4, 3 and 8. The stairs are done incorrectly, and a shield is easily accessed; a big no no. The rope is also done with hook events instead of vine events making it awkward to use. So, a 2.5 for you.[This review has been edited by Iam Canadian]

Although I expected a rip of the Donkey Kong Country level “Coral Capers” when I downloaded this, I was pleasantly surprised. The set ia big with all the necessary colours and mask messages. ;P To conclude, a 7.7 for you.

I like this. I really like this. The fact it’s TSF detracts me a little, but this is a simple, yet GOOD tileset with three long, medium challenging levels to show just what this tileset can do. The slime and city backgroud eyecandy are good, and this tileset works for me. But why PINK?

Not too shabby. 4I Falcon throws together a first level which is definitely an excellent first level. It’s smallish, with a fairly decent design. There are three main pinball “tables” for lack of better word. I don’t normally like levels which overuse pinball but 4I made it work for me. Eyecandy is okay, but the purpose of the trigger crate isn’t utterly obvious. I’m surprised that MEZ02 is so underused. I’m ranting here, so to conclude, here’s a 7.5 and keep making levels and you’re liable to be great.[This review has been edited by Iam Canadian]

Since I don’t understand a word of German, and I assume the majority of people here aren’t German, so I don’t find this particularly useful. I don’t think it should be rated, so I won’t rate it.

It’s a Diamondous recolour, but a decent one. And it shows some effort. In my opinion, the added tiles and show of effort makes it better than its competitior, Dreary Diamondous. I don’t know why you compiled this in TSF, for it would work in 1.23. Ah well. Here’s your 7.

Hoo boy. This is pretty much plagarism. The tileset consists of ridiculously dithered tiles ripped from many excellent tilesets. From MEZ03 to Psych. Try actually making original tilesets instead of taking other sets’ tiles.

“Hocus Pocus 5” is the fifth (duh) in the Hocus Pocus tileset series. Not as good as its predcessors, it includes Fooruman, an old standby of the series, some reddish block tiles, a strange “new” wizard character, and some miscellaneous stuff. This tileset just seems to be missing something. Still, it’s very good, and I’ll bet dollars to donuts it’s going to be used for Foo Races, so might as well D/L it now rather than when joining a Foo Race server and causing lag to the poor players. =P

That was bad. It wasn’t at all harder than the original and there is a cheap way to defeat it: stand to the right of the right side pipe. 1.5 points for effort and originality.