Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Thanks for pointing out the tilebug. It’s fixed now.

Also, you can easily shoot down the fly carrot with powered bouncers. Don’t use the small gap, just walk right up to the edge of the pit and shoot.

KiMO: You’re right that the carrot is risky, but luck has almost nothing to do with it, at least not in a serious duel. If you can time when the carrot respawns, and have been tracking your opponent, you’ll have enough time to get the carrot. The is especially true if you know how to RF jump, or if you’re skilled enough to shoot down the full nrg and catch it when it’s falling (this is the quickest way to get it). Luck is only a factor if you are lagging, playing in a large game, or aren’t paying attention.

It’s always good to see a new level by EvilMike. Well, here is one.

Eyecandy:
Good eyecandy, but because of the layer 4 eyecandy you don’t see many of the eyecandy. But the eyecandy is well made.

Layout:
Well, I saw a few tilebugs. At the right base somewhere at the tube. A diagonal tile didn’t had 2 tiles. So it didn’t fit. The layout looks good, well done.

Gameplay:
Well, shooting both c’s down isn’t very good for the gameplay. (Fly carrot and full energy.) It is only annoying for the full energy. But you made doorways to shoot the fly carrot down with boucer. That was a good idea. With the fly carrot going into the tube and there is finally a warp and you come out by the Electro PU. There are a few RF climbs and that makes the gameplay even better. This map is fun for duels, but for bigger plays I wouldn’t recommend it.

Pick-up placement:
Good, the carrots placements are good. But 3 pu’s? all of them in one line? I think that you placed them faced too eachother. But you get ammo faster. I think that you should place the RF and bounce under the bridge somewhere. And if you got the bouncer PU, you can’t shoot the fly carrot down. But 3 pu’s are good here.

Music:
Good, but it isn’t the perfect song for this level.

Final rating: 8.2.

DR: Yes, this map is sure fun for duels.

~Looney.

EDIT: I really like the gameplay, you discribed it in the same way as I did. I just did the cons of the gameplay. But it is a good map to play, this gameplay has something unique ;D.

Yeah, level designed for duels. Nice one, but I am not sure, maybe I am wrong, but again, fullNRG can be shooted down I think. Eyecandy is good, and RF climb .. nice idea! Well, I wlil surely pick this level in the tournament (ofc if SJ add that level to mappoll :P).

Cool tilesets,cool music…all cool

[Your rating (5.5) doesn’t quite fit the review you wrote. ~cooba]

I like “Thrax” level because this is easier than others :P
You must play!

OMG, this is such a great finalle for this great episode :D

EDIT: I thought, as a skilled SP player, that this episode is the most difficult SP episode. Then I saw Blackraptor’s “Dreamscape”…
(Not so related, but I’m here to chill the people here who died a lot here)

Is interesing for hosting it on other servers.

Really Really Really Awesome Level pack!!!!!!!!!

This is a great level set. I recomend downloading this pack!

PLOT: great realy great original story and very well done. 10/10
GAME PLAY: hard but fun. 10/10
PICK UPS: not to many but not to little. 10/10 ENEMY PLACEMENT: great realy hard but vary hard 10/10

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

Outstanding MSPaint skills.

You’re all rating an old version of this tileset.

Which is kind of silly for me to say since the “new” version is like 10 years old.

;D this tileset have more helpful tiles!

This is was good tileset, Mike…

And Kimo, dont rate level…
Rate only tileset(if this is tileset)

Nice level, but a little small.
(Rating (5.5) clearance. Upload is a tileset, not a level. ~Violet)

Good good good, It’s very good.

It is the best!

I don’t even rememeber making this, and I have a pretty good memory for my levels. This is really, really weird.

Actually, now that I have given it a good look, I probably didn’t make it. My levels from 1999 are almost this bad, but the ones from mid-2000 are actually playable.

I wrote a review for this a long time ago, but having played the episode again recently I must say my opinion significantly changed. Therefore, I’m writing a new one.

I should start with this – Episode One is ambitious. From the way the story is interwoven with the gameplay to the size of the levels to the variety of puzzles, it’s obvious that in this episode EvilMike attempted to push the boundaries of JJ2’s singleplayer game mode. And in a lot of ways, he succeeded; I think this is the first time I’ve seen an episode with so much attention for the story that didn’t compromise the gameplay because of it. Another Story, for example, had a very well-presented story but as a result mostly consisted of (sometimes interactive) cutscenes, resulting in disappointing gameplay. Here both get equal attention and the episode really shines in this regard.

Already in the download description, on top of this page, the player is warned that this is a very difficult episode. And indeed it is; I often died and when I did manage to complete a level, I rarely had more than one heart left. Apart from the usual enemies you’ll see a lot of death pits and spike balls in the levels, which certainly keeps you on your toes all the time. Even if you’ve got a blaster powerup and lots of fast-fire you can’t simply go running around holding space, as you’ll inevitably run into some spikes or a bottomless pit sooner or later.

In fact, even when you don’t run around like a madman you’ll get hurt sooner or later. The problem with the episode and its difficulty is that there are far too many obstacles you simply can’t avoid. Or, you can avoid them, but you’d have to know they are there first. Now that wouldn’t be a problem if you had an endless supply of lives and could start over at a save point without punishment, but lives will often be in short supply. You can’t save manually either, as most levels are too big for this and will crash if you attempt to do so.

Take, for example, the following situation (from the “The Castle” level):

Those blocks I’m about to land on are collapsing blocks. So basically, unless I somehow have superhuman reflexes and manage to switch to TNT the microsecond before the bats noticed me, I’m guaranteed to lose a heart here. This isn’t the only occurence of such problems. I’m all for challenging enemies, but this is simply frustrating. And difficulty is good; frustration isn’t.

It’s a pity that levels are spoiled by places like this, where EvilMike tried to push it just a little bit too far with regards to making things challenging. Mostly, enemies are genuinely well-placed and used in such ways that in spite of their very rudimentary AI they are hard to kill. For example, often a bat will be hiding in a small alcove, making it impossible to stay a safe distance away while shooting. In such cases however the player gets the chance to assess the situation beforehand and has a fair chance.

There’s also a few occasions where I simply didn’t know what to do. The final battle against the Rocket Turtle is an example; the previous level was a chase, where the Rocket Turtle flew away while you had to get to the exit. Assuming the next level would be the same, since again the Rocket Turtle quickly flew out of sight, I tried to make it to the end of the level as fast as possible, only to be warped to a death pit. Some more instruction wouldn’t have hurt. I have to applaud using the Rocket Turtle at all though, as its a rarely used and erratic enemy and was used well in this case (when you figured out what you were supposed to do).

Another problem of mine with regards to the difficulty might be a matter of taste; the overabundance of spike balls. EvilMike made a lot of jumping challenges involving spike balls. As a result, those often require very precise timing to cross them without getting hurt or even dying (the recoil of getting hurt often making you fall into a pit full of spikes). In my opinion those were often way too hard though, requiring such perfect timing that I often gave up altogether and resorted to giving myself invisibility with cheats. As said, this might be a matter of taste; I did enjoy the parts involving ordinary enemies, where I just got to shoot stuff.

During the parts where the episode isn’t plagued by frustratingly impossible challenges, however, it’s pretty good. Depending on the tileset, levels look gorgeous. Strangely, while they use the same tileset, the “Deserto City” levels look a lot better than the “Temple” levels. Whereas the City looks like a proper desert settlement the temple gives the impression of boring, repetitive brown blocks without much decoration. It gets better once you go underground, but the “daylight” temple parts simply don’t look that good. Having created the tileset himself, I imagine the Temple tileset was an obvious choice for EvilMike, but it might’ve been a better choice to go for a tileset like Persian Paradise here, or at least an updated version of Temple (which was years old already when this episode was made).

Like the graphics, the music was generally well-chosen. The soundtrack mostly consists of techno tracks, which might seem a bit strange given the fact that this episode mostly plays in the desert, but the music fits well and helps establishing an “alien invasion” theme.

It is hard to rate this episode. It’s got a moderately interesting story that is tightly interwoven with the gameplay in a way that we haven’t seen before. It looks excellent and sounds great too. Yet, at times it’s so frustratingly (and unfairly) difficult that I found it hard to genuinely enjoy playing it. Perhaps you’re a better player, or one that doesn’t particularly mind insane difficulty. Even if you aren’t, this is an episode you should certainly get, if only to appreciate the beautiful levels and well-told story. Expect to smash your keyboard a few times while playing, though.

Probably among the very best packs uploaded to this site. There isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said, although I still think the difficulty level of these levels is insane. A fitting end to a pretty remarkable series of episodes.

One word. Awesome. :)

This is great level! I like campy levels XD! This my favourite level impressed me with good gameplay and good places for camps! Awesome tileset by Disguise and good levelmaking experience from Evilmike made awesome and simple level! xD Disagree with me, because some ppl hates camps and my words looks bad and weirdry, but i wanna say what im just like this lvl! Well done, Mike!
^_

Note: Looks like if devres great, other levels will looks great too! Sorry for bad english! :)