Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Foreseeable Future is the first “modern” JJ1 release. Everything before this has been more or less bound within the steep limitations of JCS94 — DD was able to create a palette edit of Diamondus, and we’ve many of us edited a few events within the confines of the sprites that come with the levels we’re editing — but Newspaz has custom tilesets, custom attacks, custom sprites (mostly swapped from original JJ1 planets, but also some smaller spritifying work, like the flames in Castle and Desolatus), and even custom movement. There could be more — the flowers in Carrotus are conspicuously unanimated, and you should be able to shoot the knights’ helmets, like in Bloxonius — but overall Newspaz is pioneering and demonstrating JJ1’s true range of customization possibilities. Cooba and I are of course working on our own projects, as are perhaps others who haven’t shown any screenshots yet, but Newspaz got his out the door first.

All that, though, has nothing to do with the more important question of how good the episode actually is. Fortunately, in addition to doing stuff first, Newspaz is pretty good at it as well. He creates three distinct atmospheres that are copies neither of their JJ2 counterparts (though Desolatus, his version of BlurredD’s tileset “Desolation,” doesn’t have an exact single player counterpart anyway) nor of any particular JJ1 planet. Carrotus definitely has familiar elements from the original Carrotus levels, but it’s still distinctly Newspaz’s own, and I suspect I even noticed a piece or two inspired more by Easter. The enemies are turtles and bees, more or less straight from Diamondus, although the movement of the bees is sometimes a bit wonky, and nothing of the planet poses too much of a threat, unless you fall into the thorns a lot. Every once in a while the level feels a bit open, but for the most part NS recognizes that JJ1 necessitates eyecandy being crammed into small spaces, due to its small screen size, and his tileset conversion is flush with foliage. The turtle looks a bit weird, since its shell is the color of the Carrotus radish, but that’s not too big of a deal.

Castle is assuredly the main event. It’s the hardest and the prettiest of the three, the subdued tile colors mixing beautifully with the near-garish sprite colors. Enemies are Armor-Doofi from Stonar, recolored Red Bats from Turtemple, and the cannon tiles, which cannot be destroyed but will still fire cannonballs at you. The bats come out of nowhere, the cannons fire a lot, and there are a lot of spikes, all of which adds up to a difficult experience, with only one checkpoint per level. The level design is in no way an emulation of JJ2’s castle — it feels a lot more solid, for one — but it’s still very consistent, and does the best job of any of the three of feeling like it has a coherent, planned layout, more than a lot of areas one after another.

Desolatus is the most out there and plays around the most with JJ1, featuring moving platforms, spike-like events, weird jumping owls, tubes, bridges, and spring shoes. Its layout might be the closest to Cliffy’s, though I’m not sure… it’s pretty claustrophobic, with a pretty twisted path in each level, and, more than the other two planets, it features a number of clearly divided areas. It’s not as pretty, but that’s arguably not NS’ fault. It’s not nearly as difficult as Castle, though, to the extent that the level order becomes a little confusing, and while NS provides a skeleton plot for the episode, it’s not especially clear why one planet necessarily precedes another, so this could have been switched.

There are some distinctive features to NS’ level design which feel slightly out of place in JJ1 because they show up so rarely in the original levels. Newspaz makes much greater use of vertical space than Cliffy did — Cliffy had occasional floating platforms or floating springs, and Newspaz does use the latter once, but he also has a lot of tubes which you traverse using a single spring, or big pits for falling down, both of which are quite distinctive to him across all three planets. Secrets are usually in the same sort of place, a little off to the side in a place you’re supposed to go up or down, and they’re never hidden by foreground or destructable walls, you just need to walk over to them. Paths break occasionally, and that’s always cool — Carrotus is fairly complicated, and there’s a nice loop area in a Castle level that feels similar to Crysilis. One area near the end of Desolatus has a bunch of floating (tile-based) platforms and feels more like a CTF level than anything else, or perhaps Jill of the Jungle.

The biggest flaw in Foreseeable Future is that the difficulty, while mostly reasonable, is occasionally unfair. A side effect of Newspaz’s fondness of vertical space is that there are a lot of leaps of faith, and there’s no good way to know which ones will have spikes at the bottom and which won’t. One pit in Castle comes to mind especially which it’s really not clear that you have to jump across, and while this is subverted at one point in Desolatus — you fall down and land directly on a moving platform, which NS clearly timed carefully — it seems that working in such a small resolution is difficult, especially if you’re used to JJ2. The bats and cannons in Castle are hard to predict and the latter fire very frequently, making them possible to get by without injury if you memorize where they are in each level, but much harder to appraise at a distance and come up with a strategy for avoiding. You feel much safer there when you’re moving left, because the bats approach you more slowly and the cannons can’t hit you. I don’t object to difficulty by itself, I just object to success resulting only from memorization. The other planets are much better with this, though, a few surprising flames in Desolatus aside, and for the most part you’re just treated to pretty graphics, new and very memorable level designs, and a sense of inspiration as you realize how many things JJ1 can do if you give it a chance. Foreseeable Future isn’t perfect, but what is?

I’m giving this 10 because its an amazing effort. and PT’s rating is too low..

This was kind of amazing. the possibilities of editing jj1 seem to be sort of endless..

Again, an excellent JJ1 level editor.

Unlike J1CS, this program is very convenient and user friendly, and not just a proof of concept, either. Once you spend about ten minutes fiddling with the interface and the hotkeys, you’ll be able to create levels in the blink of an eye.

There’s a ton of included features which make JJ1 editing a fun, curious exploration – amongst which are editing enemy attacks, modifying sounds, custom tilesets, etc…

When combined with Doubble Dutch’s swiss-army-knife JJ1MOD, the modification possibilities are basically endless. Those who know how to design will surely appreciate Newspaz’s excellent work.

Even if you’re not exactly crazy about JJ1, you should download this – even if only out of curiosity. But if you do feel like getting your feet wet, then download this right now and get started!

Very, very nice editor. The new J1E has updated features, handy simplicity, a simple yet unprecedented bonus level editor (I hereby predict a surge of custom JJ1 bonus levels) and much more. Event customization. Quick performance. You can create a save game in JJ1 via the editor, allowing you to speedily test your level without skipping through the rest of the episode. Handy.
There were some things I didn’t like though, mostly in the convenience category. Unlike in the older and loosely similar J1CS, this prog does not let you scroll with the arrow keys, and you actually can only scroll up and down. Also missing is the inestimably valuable “B” multiselect key. I was very disappointed by that. The events were also stripped of their names, making it a long, boring and tedious process in hunting down and labeling each item.
So verdict? Nice and practical, and with only a handful of aesthetic detractors, the J1E is a very helpful tool that will redefine how JJ1 levels are made. Download today.

xSnooze: …what the heck…
Why is my rating too low? My rating is exactly what I think it deserves. IMHO, it’s not a bad one either, although perhaps an 8.0-8.2 might work too.

this is the oldest file on jazz2online :D , am i the only one who realised that ?

Cool…

ik wil het spel nu gaan spelen
oke

I agree with Snooz

[Inappropiate rating (7.7) removal. “I agree with Snooz” does not look in any way like a personal opinion about the download, which you are required to give in order to rate. Snooz broke the rules here, too, but his review was old and therefore left unedited. – FQuist]

These 3 battle levels must be the cutest I have ever seen. The scale is almost perfectly done, yet they’re still fully recognizable as smaller counterparts of their bigger brothers. Our rabbits look like giants in these levels, and it’s quiet fun to just explore them, especially Battle 1 and 2 and 3 (wait, that’s all of them :-P).

These levels were equite enjoyable in public servers, although some of the conversions have gone amiss (like Jazz-unfriendly parts in Battle 3, where some springs don’t go up high enough and Jazz can’t get 50 ammo from the bouncy PU, and a LOT of ammo has goen as well, but I can’t complain on the ammo part, because they just reduce lag). What’s fun is that the level-design flaws in some of the levels are still in this pack, only much smaller, and getting shot up to the two pillars above the seeker PU ledge in Battle 1 was pretty cool.

Some events are useless, like the copters, while many areas gain more importance now that the levels have grown smaller. Camping at the carrot is harder in Battle 2, mass-bouncers near the seeker PU in Battle 3 is slightly more effective, because of shorter travellin time, and the bottom-right corner of Battle 1 is a deadly camping spot with any powered-up weapon.

The gameplay of all levels feel quite normal, despite the smallness, and I’ve got nothing to say about the eyecandy, because they weren’t Newspaz’s levels and it wouldn’t be a very faithful conversion if lots of new stuff were added. Some events had to be moved and deleted due to the small size, but it just makes the shrinkag more realistic.

For those that want some crazy fun in multiplayer, this pack is a must download, but I can’t give the conversion a rating above 8 because of the fact that none of the original levels were actually made by Newspaz. ;-)

I don’t even have to edit my review to boast that I got the longest review. ;-D

EDIT: Hmpf! It turns out that I didn’t get the longest review, so I added more stuff…

Ugh. I had to restart this review 3 times now because of stupid computer self restarts and internet crashes, so I’m rather frustrated right now. Anyways, here goes:

Since this level has only one review (although its a great review) I decided to review it.

Introduction

“What is this?” is a solid, enjoyable level by Newspaz of J2LC. It’s no wonder it made it into the bash, since this level excels in several categories.

Layout/Gameplay
The layout of this level is interesting. In fact, its a mix of several different types of layouts. There is an open, platformy terrain in the top right, narrow corridors in the temple area, and corridors linking to “rooms” (open areas) in the cavern area. Yes, this level even has a dead end with a carrot in it. This bizarre mix of ideas can only add to the creativity of the level, and through my experience with this level, works alright (although people tend to stick to one area frequently). The gameplay of this level is also nice. There are even springs on the sides of masked objects to bounce you around, which could become very chaotic with several people playing. Although the gameplay is generally good, there are a few
annoyances that could be improved in it. Some springs are rather unneeded (like the one in the very topmost platform on the top right; what is it doing there?) and some could be of a different type of spring (the two red springs in the bottom right room, a blue spring there would suffice). 6, 22 – the area there should be revised. The floatup is too noticable and annoying – it causes a noticable delay before you hit the red spring. The slope should be smoothed out so the floatup wouldn’t be needed and there would be no delay. 57, 30 – Spaz can run and double jump up to the blue springs, while jazz has to go underneath the one ways to get up there. Otherwise, I rarely found myself bumping into stuff or getting stuck, although I think the room in the bottom right could use another exit since its a big dead end (at least have the sucker be lower so you wouldn’t have to climb up to get out.)
Rating: 8.5 (Generally good, and an interesting combination of different things, but it does not come without small bugs/annoyances which horde up together).

Eyecandy
Probably the section this level excels at the most, the eyecandy is probably even more bizarre than the layout, and probably gives the level its name, “What is this?”. Although strange, it’s creative and adds to the already-strange mood of the level.
There is a good amount of eyecandy in the level, and thankfully none of it really gets in the way or blocks view. The eyecandy could be confusing at first, but personally I got used to it quickly. The trees in the backround layer could be moved up more though, since they are barely noticable and the top right of the level is more empty than the rest. There’s not much to point out about eyecandy, though some of it looks particularly random (ferns growing out of the center of stone boulders and rocks growing on tree branches?). To sum it up, the eyecandy has a lot of creativity in it, and is pulled off nicely. The level doesn’t really have much of an atmosphere (except some screwed up jungle perhaps?) but it still looks good.
Rating: 9

Placement of Stuff
Let’s start out with the ammo, since it is battle. Personally, I didn’t find the ammo as creative as the previous two categories. Most of it is seemed to be placed in bunches, forming random shapes, usually rectangles, lines, or stairway like things. The majority of the +3 ammo is in the top section of the level; underneath in the caverns you’d find more powerups and +15 crates (while on the topic, I don’t think having two +15 crates of seeker ammo next to each other is a good idea). I think the top right could’ve used more ammo, since it’s quite empty in terms of events. Powerups (3 of them) were placed alright, I didn’t have any problems with them. Maybe the seeker was a bit easier to get than the rest, and more of a target since it even has a carrot next to it, and a Toaster powerup might’ve been good here (replace the RF with the toaster, perhaps?). Otherwise, nothing noteworthy. With the carrots, I think the one in the top could’ve been further away from the seeker. With the one in the bottom, I found that either it was ignored for most the game because of the inconvenient area it was in, or many people camped at it because it was a good place to regain health in without being noticed. Strategy wise, that could be a positive or a negative thing. Suckertubes were well placed. There also appears to only be 1 start pos, which could explain why people pile up in one area.
Rating: 8.3 (not as creative as the previous categories, and there is room for improvement)

Originality/Fun Factor:
The area where this level excels at the most. One of the most bizarre quality levels I’ve played (even the name indicates it’s strangeness), this level has seemingly random, but yet nicely pulled off eyecandy, and a combination of different layout types. The music choice is even original (although really weird..). As for Fun Factor, this level was fun enough to play in, although after the random level selection in the anniversarry bash forced people to play this level dozens of times it started to get boring.
Rating: 9.2

Overall (not an average):
I like this level, and so do many other people (its average is 8.8 and it made it into the bash). There is a lot of things in this level that make it stand out from other levels of the same set, and there is a lot of things in this level that make it enjoyable. (While I was typing this my computer crashed a 3rd time (4th if you count the internet crash), good thing I was typing this in notepad this time ;D). You should definately download and play this level if you haven’t had a chance to through the numerous times it was hosted. Among all the positive things in this paragraph about the level, there is still always room for improvement.
Rating: 8.5

Final Rating: 8.7 on the dot. This is a great piece of work that definately earns the rating and the download reccomendation I’m giving it, and I hope I will have a chance to review & play more of Newspaz’s works in the future

~Blackraptor.

Edit: wow. It took me an hour and 7 minutes to complete this review. Darn computer crashes..

DESIGN/GAMEPLAY:
What is this?!‘s level design is (for the most part) built out of tunnels through walls instead of platforms in the sky, a choice which I approve of immensely and vastly prefer. The level appears to be divided into several parts – outside, temple and cave, all placed logically – and each location has a design which is roughly believable, if man or nature ever built the world to be used as a battling arena. The level is somewhat horizontally based in places, suggesting that it indeed was once intended to be a CTF level, but this is not a bad thing at all and it’s always nice to have a passageway which is more than five tiles wide. (Platform based levels are often guilty of never having passageways, unless forced to by moving up against the top or bottom of the level.)
In any case, the level design is somewhat complicated, so it takes a while to figure out which places can go to which others, and which way sucker tubes point. (You wouldn’t expect sucker tubes to work in this environment, but somehow they feel like yes, they should be there.) After some minutes of playing the level you should get an idea of what’s going on, but it can take a little while, partly due to the intense graphics which I’ll mention later.
Once you’re used to the level, of course, the fun really begins. The weapons are well chosen – each of the available powerups (Seekers, RF’s and Bouncers) have special areas of the level where they’re the most useful, even the RF’s which are usually left out in the cold and random. There is enough open space in the upper right and long space in the middle that the missiles can have a decent change of actually hitting someone for a change in situations besides melee battles where other attacks would work just as well. Coupled with the occasional wall put up between areas, causing you to take a specific set of passages, the end result is a very nice feeling level where you may actually have to think about what you’re doing.
(NOTE: Gameplay for this level has only been tested in a 2-4 player type scenario. Balance may vary significantly with more players as certain spots may or may not become focal (perhaps the powerups). Still, I liked what I did see.)
PROS: Inventive mix of Battle/CTF layouts, I particularly enjoy the upper left area.
CONS: Small masking bug at one point, I don’t really like the upper right area very much (and it was mostly untouched in gameplay).
RATING: 8.7

EYECANDY:
Before you can get used to the twisty level design, you will be struck by the enormous level of eyecandy What is this?! has to offer. Every layer is crammed full of beautiful sights – five distinct layers are used with X and Y speeds set to 1, and in a great number of cases they’re all used in one spot! Everywhere you go there are twists, trees, different backgrounds, complicated walls, bushes, blocks, caves, vines and a thousand other decorations. Layer 3 in JCS looks great even if you have no idea what it’s going to do.
Many levels with lots and lots of eyecandy fall into the trap of obscuring the level design (see: virtually any level made using “Swamps of the Sleeping Jaguar”), and this happens a little in certain spots, but for the most part you can still see the level beneath the finery. I do have a few complaints – it’s hard to tell what’s a vine and what isn’t – but most stuff seems logical and you could spend a long time looking at the trees.
PROS: Everything looks great, you can tell a lot of work was spent on this level.
CONS: A tiny bit overcomplicated in some areas, and some people might complain that nothing moves. (Moths work in multiplayer, right?)
RATING: 9.1

PLACEMENT:
This is always somewhat hard to review, as it’s difficult to tell what’ll be enough ammo with more players than I tested it with. In any case, there is quite a lot of ammo in the level, all easy enough to get, and in some interesting formations (again, see the upper left corner). Everything seemed to respawn at about the right speed (maybe a little bit fast? hard to tell), and I don’t think I ever really ran out of anything. There were a few complaints which I’ll outline in cons, but nothing too serious.
As for other stuff… there are two carrots that I remember seeing, both pretty well placed. I quite enjoyed the bottom right one, which just felt… right. It felt like yes, that is exactly where a carrot should be. The other carrot is also good, allowing for much strategic shooting as you prevent your opponents from healing up. Finally, there are the normal three powerups (no toaster, which makes sense as toaster isn’t too useful in this level somehow).
PROS: Everything looks good to me.
CONS: Seeker powerup is the easiest to get, one or two annoying springs, and of course… there’s only one start position. Ouch.
RATING: 8.4

OVERALL:
In case the rest of this review didn’t give you the idea, I quite enjoy Newspaz’s What is this?!, and can only suggest that the rest of you download it as well. It’s still extremely early, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of the best levels of 2005, even though it could use a more start positions. The filename is j2lcdunno1, indicating that there might be a sequel… yes, please.
PROS: It’s a great level, ok?
CONS: A few small bugs I mentioned during the review.
RATING: 9.0

Blackrabite you caan run multiple instances of the program so you have have 5,10,15,20 OR MORE! ;D heh.

Good program although the style is cramped (im sure you get that from everyone) I’ve used this alot for stuff where people normaly ask the same question OVER and OVER. So take that you annoying non-sign reading peoples! I give it a 7.7 ;D Oh and Download recommendation :)

Wakeman rated this upload with three stars on Jazz2City.

Wakeman rated this upload with two stars on Jazz2City.

Wakeman rated this upload with two stars on Jazz2City.

Wakeman rated this upload with two stars on Jazz2City.

Wakeman rated this upload with two stars on Jazz2City.

Wakeman rated this upload with three stars on Jazz2City.

Wakeman rated this upload with three stars on Jazz2City.