RecommendedReview by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
3 Mar 2005, 23:54
For: Islands in the Sapphire Sea
Level rating: 8.6
Rating
8.7

Now this is good! Congratulations, Blade, you’ve nearly captured the Jazz2 artistic style! I think this tileset is a new landmark in the advancement of custom tilesets.

From now on, I’ll use this as a reference point for reviewing and drawing future tilesets!

Good stuff:

Excellent artistic style that matches JJ2!

Some of the best “3D” work in the sprite layer I’ve ever seen

Eye candy (all the pirate things are really well drawn and look catchy!)

Background layers are extremely well done. This tileset is one of the few that fit a non-textured background very well. I know that frequently people put textured backgrounds in where they aren’t necessary, just because it’s hard to do, not because it adds much to the tileset. But I think this set does just fine without one.

Very flexible ground tiles. I especially like the way you used a darker “path” in the sand to show the mask intuitively.

Includes all the major event tiles, except sucker tubes (which is ok, I guess)

Good masking, overall. Were the skull and other eye candy objects in the sprite ground supposed to be masked?

Bad stuff:

Too cartoony. This set needs at least SOME texturing and shading.

It’s a bit confusingly laid out. I think it’s probably pretty meticulous to build levels with.

A lot of the ideas are stolen from official tilesets (although that’s better than stealing tiles themselves or stealing ideas from other homemade tilesets, in my opinion)

The “interpolation” is nice, but I think you should use it throughout more of the tileset; one particular thing that needs more is the sun.

Needs more animations! The flag is great, but this set seems to be a still-life or something. I think it would be much more effective as a more animated set. I realize that you’re approaching the tile limit for 1.23, but I think that animations would be worth removing some unneeded tiles for!

I was desparately hoping to see a pirate in person while I was playing the demo level, but alas, me hearties, ‘twere none in sight!

Other Comments:

You know what might be cool in here? A little whale in the water that shoots water up through its blowhole that you could use the Float Up event on :) .

The demo level seems be too crowded (too busy with eye candy), but I won’t count that against you. I’ll just score the tileset itself.

In short, I think ye did a fine job, there, laddy. Howe’er, the set needs a bit ‘o texture, methinks. Ya set such a good piraty mood for me, though, lad. Perhaps we could join arr forces sometime on a Jazz2 adventure. Thank ye so much fer bringing such life ta this ‘ere tileset collection!

RecommendedReview by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
23 Feb 2005, 19:00
For: Brickman's Castle
Level rating: 6.6
Rating
6.5

Not exactly the prettiest tileset, but creative.

Good stuff:
- texturing on bricks is good
- good job at making the maskless castle background (the dark bricks) darker! you wouldn’t believe how in many other tilesets one cannot tell the difference between masked and unmasked layer 4 blocks just by looking at them!
- creative idea with the kings and soldiers, but they should be better drawn
-masking is generally well done

Stuff to fix:
- background is too plain and repetitive to match the rest of the tileset. if you can make good textures like that on the bricks, you ought to make good textures on the background layer(s)
- only 2 layers of background (possibly one could use the hills in a couple layers, though)
- eye candy in general is pretty lacking

Other comments:
- includes a “fair” number of event blocks: horizontal sucker, text signs, spikes, vines, hooks, v/h poles, and destruct blocks.
- this tileset may be a bit boring after using it once or twice, since it is limited in content

Really, though, it’s not bad for only being your 2nd tileset released. If I were you, I would put your talent to work on one good, long tileset that takes a while. You seem to have good ability to make tilesets, but this one seems to be rushed. Always make sure to take your time if you want to create a quality tileset. Keep up the good work! :)

RecommendedReview by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
31 Dec 2004, 19:28
For: Chateau
Level rating: 8.3
Rating
8

Nice job, Toxic Bunny. I like seeing your tilesets :) .
Here’s my opinion:

Theme:
- Good selection for a theme. Not many people can do a good “castle” tileset. However, there is a bit of confusion between whether the tileset is supposed to be realistic or cartoony.

Eye Candy:
- Great for the things that are there, but there could easily be more add-ins.

- I like the chandeliers, barrels, and stained glass windows, especially. Also a little confusion between 3D and 2D drawing styles (i.e.- between the ground and Destruct blocks). Perhaps shadows would help this.

- Great texturing job (what program?)!

- The arrow signs on the ground outside are hard to see. I think the average gamer would miss them.

- It’s hard to tell what the Hurt scenery is.

- Animations would be a great addition to this tileset

Usefulness:
- One could make a decent level out of this tileset, but it leaves something to be desired. Namely, a lot of event blocks (Warp, Sucker Tube, other Destruct block types, Water Block, Trigger blocks [dotted outline / lock & key blocks]).

- It also supports almost no palette events.

- The inside ground is also unnecessarily complicated. Try organizing the tiles in preset patterns that your level designers will use frequently.

Background & Scenery:
- Very minimal. The background is too plain.

- Having no textured background is acceptable, and this tileset can work fine without one, I think, but there needs to be a lot more than what’s there now.

- The grass in Layer 6 needs to be combined with scenery in other background layers to be effective.
- The trees in Layer 3 confuse the dimensions by sticking out of the lower levels of dirt.

Masking:
Generally quite well done!

- The tile at (27,8) in the set has an unexpected corner. This shows up in the demo level at (43,22).

- Nice rounded mask on outside hill ground!

- A few other random minor blips

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: BioCorridor 1.26
Level rating: 8.2
Rating
N/A

What do you mean by palette events? I opened a thread abuot it.

…And actuallya majority of the tileset was done in MSPaint. Other programs I used include PSP, Universe, and MSPhotoDraw (some textures).

The “God Rocks” was for fun. I don’t really know CyberSpaz.

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Starlit Spaceship(upgraded)
Level rating: 5.1
Rating
6

Hey, this one’s kind of interesting.

Good Stuff:
- layered stars; it’s an interesting change from the usual
- good use of theme

Bad Stuff:
- doesn’t include some tile types (vine, hook, signpost, etc.)
- tubes look too similar to ground
- needs variations (I think it would be cool if you combined all 3 versions of the tileset into one)

It’s not bad, but it could be better.

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: PAINTED PARADISE HEHE
Level rating: 8.3
Rating
6.7

Well, considering that it was your first tileset, I guess it’s pretty good.

Good Stuff:
- includes all essential tile types and several extra tile types
- good use of multiple layers
- waterfalls looks nice!
- bmp files and info included

Bad Stuff:
- eye candy needs serious help; using your PSP could help a lot with textures and shading
-unoriginal; I think I’ve seen everything in this tileset other places before.
- too plain; I can understand that you may have wanted it to look “painty”, but I don’t think you really accomplished that

Don’t be afraid to take lots of time working on each part of the tileset. Even though you’ve had the set in production for a number of years, it doesn’t look like you spent much time on it. Considering that it’s your first tileset, this is understandable. You have some potential, but it looks like you could use some practice first :) .

Edit: I honestly think I was too harsh on the rating the first time, sorry![This review has been edited by Biohazard UOI]

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Mega Megatropolis (1.23 version)
Level rating: 9.1
Rating
9

Cool. I was hoping that you would do this some day :) . I like it a lot.

Good Stuff:
- textures (maybe a little overused, but mostly pretty good)
- The bridge tiles! They rock!
- Road tiles rock, too!
- Excellent job on the little plants

Bad Stuff:
- some of the masking doesn’t seem intuitive in gameplay (i.e.- leaves are masked, but branches aren’t)
- it looks like you designed this set with black as the transparent color in your original file or something, because all of the shading seems to be fading to black, which doesn’t exactly fit with a daylight tileset.
- a few objects like the windows look out of place because of the difference in detail level

Overall, though, it rocks :) . I like it a lot! Good job, Disguise!

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Egypt UT2k3 Jj2 tileset Version 1.2C
Level rating: 3.1
Rating
3

Yikes, this is kinda scary.

Good Stuff:
- detailed in the copied parts
- pretty easy to use what’s there

Bad Stuff:
- a few misaligned pieces in the top blocks
- colors are extremely limited (browns)
- palette doesn’t match very well (if you want to use that much brown, choose more brown tones/shades/tints in your palette)
- extremely incomplete (vines, hurt, warps, etc…)
- accidentally clear parts (check inclines)
- auto-masking isn’t really a good idea

Sorry, dude, but you should look at a few others and take your time to make a nice set.

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Xargon (forest set)
Level rating: 8
Rating
7.5

Pretty good. Nice adaptation to Jazz2

Good Stuff:
- accurate, detailed
- works well w/Jazz2
- complete, inclusive

Bad Stuff:
- a few serious mask errors (check arrow animation, boulder scenery)
- a few minor mask errors (Try smoothing things out- you never know what might happen that could get a player stuck in a wall.)
- 16×16-looking tiles clash somewhat with Jazz2 sprites, but it’s understandable

All in all, it’s a good tileset. With those few errors fixed, it might be great.

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Jetpack v2.5 (updated!!)
Level rating: 7.3
Rating
7.2

Interesting. I never had the real original JetPack, but I have played spin-off games like it.

Good Stuff:
- accurate (I’m trusting the other reviewers here)
- easy to use

Bad Stuff:
- not practical for much in Jazz2

It’s always hard to rate the tilesets made to match other games :) . Well, I like the idea and the simplicity of the tileset, but the fact remains that I would never make a level with it. It’s like a “display model” -good for looking at, not for playing.

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Defence of the Homelands.
Level rating: 7.5
Rating
7

Interesting. By the way, it’s spelled “defense”, not “defence”. :)
Exit Grammar Nazi

Good Stuff:
- innovative
- well-tested (in 1-player mode, at least)
- custom tileset/music

Bad Stuff:
- constrictive space
- little variety
- unexplained portions (could be confusing in an online game)

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Mega Megatropolis
Level rating: 9.5
Rating
N/A

Sweet tileset! It makes me wish I had TSF :) . I took a long look at the preview GIF, but as you requested, I won’t rate it. I will however, comment:

Good Stuff:
- hugeness
- detail level
- backgrounds/layers
- wood stuff
- music :)
- Jazz2 artistic style (something I lack most times)
- heck with it, it’s all good!

Bad Stuff:
- I don’t have TSF! :(

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Townsville ][ Night
Level rating: 8.3
Rating
9

Yeah, it’s Townsville ][ at night.

Cool, though. I really like this set.

Good Stuff:
- eye candy
- variation
- color
- theme
- music :)
- background
- layering (personally, I prefer rain in the foreground, but that’s just the demo level anyways)
- depth/dimension

Bad Stuff:
- pretty much the same as the daytime version (well, I guess that’s not a bad thing)
- bricks can become distracting, especially the large ones.. maybe they should be smaller and/or darker.

Hey, this tileset rocks! Great job, Disguise![This review has been edited by Biohazard UOI]

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Eternal Agony
Level rating: 8.2
Rating
8.7

Cool!

Good Stuff:
- choice and application of transparencies
- detailing and gradients
- layers harmonize well

Bad Stuff:
- needs more variety
- somewhat dull-looking

This set has wonderful eye candy for what it has, but it needs more stuff in it! It seems that this tileset was begging for some kind of intensity. What I mean by that is that this tileset is very suspenseful, but has no climax. There could be something included that frightens or surprises the player that would make this set much more intense (i.e.- skulls, flames, or faces). This reiterates some of what Blackraptor was saying at the beginning of his review. Other than that, it has awesome eye candy and tone.
Great job, yo!

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Dark Reign
Level rating: 7.9
Rating
7.7

Pretty good.

Good Stuff:
- blue bricks
- background layers
- kept well with color theme

Bad Stuff:
- most of the ideas are ripped from Medivo
- sprite layer objects look flat
- lacking some elements of gameplay (warps, lights, float up scenery, etc.)

This would be a lot better if it were expanded. In that case, I might give it an 8.5 or so.

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Frozen Hell
Level rating: 7.2
Rating
7

Pretty good for a 4th level.

Good Stuff:
- pretty good eye candy
- good time length
- obviously thoroughly tested

Bad Stuff:
- nothing particularly unique
- too easy (after the first check point, I only lost two hearts, both of which were replentished quickly)
- somewhat predictable

Generally, it’s “pretty good”. The problem is that it’s nothing more than that. It would be nice to see some surprises or changes in gameplay somewhere in it. But, not bad for a 4th level.

Review by Biohazard UOI

Posted:
Posted more than 20 years ago
For: Marble Gardens Tileset
Level rating: 8.3
Rating
8.7

Awesome tileset!

When you just look at the tileset, it looks like any other, but in application, this is a really nice set!

Good Stuff:
- detail level
- water background
- accurate of Sonic
- concept
(I liked the music, too, but that doesn’t count :) .)

Bad Stuff:
- mask on steep slopes, but understandable

Good job, overall!

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