Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Here we have a level which is not too large for a casual 3vs3 match, but is also not too small to suit events with a greater number of players, though the spawntimes for the latter may not work for everyone, considering that there’s generally not too much ammo piles scattered around the level. But worry not! Those kinds of events are usually hosted with fast spawn settings enabled.

What probably makes this level stand out is the complex layout, which is more or less open at the far ends, and becomes more and more cramped the more you travel to the center of the level where, conveniently, the only carrot is, which makes the center area juicy for some close and chaotic combat. Don’t get too carried away with the chaos though, one wrong move and you may fall into the dreadly pits, so don’t just run around like a headless fly, have some control over your movement!

But don’t let the center make you feel like you should leave the outer areas out, since the outside is where the majority of the powerups are, particularly the seeker powerup at the top middle of the map, which is evenely spaced out and quite isolated and far for both teams, but such a strong and useful powerup is worth the visit to it. That’s a nice little quirk to get some more traffic in the top area, which has a whole new layer of combat since it’s accessable only with the fly carrots. However, with annoying seekers flying around, this path should be used with caution as seekers are even more useful in areal combat, but the huge pillars give the player some nice cover and a chance to utilize the environment against their opponent.

There are also blaster powerups in the walls at the far left and right. Even when you have no ammo you should always try to take one of these just in case. It’s always useful for stuff like fending the flagholder off from the bases. There’s also two electroblaster powerups but those may be less important, unless you happen to be passing by them with really low on electroblaster ammo, you never know.

Lastly, there’s the RF powerup at the bottom middle, quite impossible to miss. This is probably where the most stuff is going on, as it’s right below the carrot and in the fastest route between the bases. If you manage to snag it while it’s there, good for you, it has multiple purposes. You can use its far range to snipe someone flying far away at the top, or use it’s strong blast to get your enemies away from the carrot or bases. There you have it, some might say it’s a bit of an unusual choice of powerups but it’s different from most setups nowadays, and it certainly works with the gameplay.

Now lets get to the aesthetics! The Medivo castle theme is supported nicely with some athmospheric music from Michael van de Boos. The visuals are not at all distracting, so players can easily concentrate on their game, and if they happen to be stationary for a little while, they definitely have a lot to look at, the level is full of fun little details. You can clearly tell apart the cold, foggy blue background from the yellow-orange hot castle in the foreground, the contrast here is simply brilliant, the platforms are clearly visible in motion.

To put it all more simply: great map. An enjoyable, decent CTF level, that’ll surely leave you beside yourself and give you something different from what most popular CTF levels offer nowadays.

VERY detailed set with LOTS to choose from. It captures the theme very well! Magnificent!

Fun level, pretty good eye candy and the background is unlike any I’ve seen in JJ2.

Very impressive layout and outstanding eye candy, especially if you consider that it was all done in only 4 days?!

Cool level! I like all the stuff done with scripting and while in my opinion it isn’t the heavy mappool quality some players demand, at least it has great eyecandy and you already have fun just by running around the level!

Great layouts and rich eyecandy. I like them all but Riddlehamhope hall is my favorite.

While the eye candy may be nice at times, the levels are repetitive and get boring after a small while.

Easy level but it has a nice and funny atmosphere, I really like the boss too!

Not really a challenge but still really enjoyable.

For the restrictions of the above mentioned contest, this set is quite creative and full of detail. The only issue is that it has no slopes, but again I guess that’s only because of the restrictions.

This intro really is pretty damn impressive. There’s only one bug in saldr5 where you can move (as your default character), but it doesn’t actually change anything.

I like how you presented the whole war thing between Devan’s minions and the rabbits, the atmosphere in general is simply brilliant.

I like the playable (tutorial?) level as well. Makes me wonder how levels with this gameplay style may look like.

I hope you finish this.

Probably one of the best Medivo remixes out there, if not the best.

Rooms that are accessible only through warps are generally not a good idea, especially if they are big and you can exit them only through another warp again. People can just camp the warp targets and get plenty of kills.

If you perhaps put holes on the middle left and right the two big rooms wouldn’t be THAT campy, but there would still be a problem, as the entire map just feels cramped. There’s plenty of power ups to go with but in a small map this can result in total chaos. Also it seems the bouncer ammo boxes respawn insanely fast, which only adds up to what I said above. One warp target wasn’t even placed well, as it got me stuck in a wall.

I don’t like the eye candy. The trees in the foreground are quite distracting, it wouldn’t be that way if there wasn’t a whole lot of them. Instead you could’ve experimented with the background and added at least mountains or something.

You used the cave tiles well enough, although it seems you forgot to fix a tile bug. Other than that I don’t see any errors, Diamondus is quite an easy set to use, and it looks good. I think you should continue using this set until you get the hang of making levels.

In the future try making levels that are more open wide. Not that open but take a look at plusSeasons.j2l or Murder of Crows. They use Diamondus too and are quite good.

This mutator is both fun and useful. It’s really handy especially in giant levels.

@(SF)-SteFan-BG: Lol, it’s a series of levels, not just one.

Also, how does “great” match the 4.7 rating?

EDIT: Taking the time to rate this now that I can. Great pack! The gameplay style is quite similar to the original levels and it was actually an exciting challenge for me (hard mode). Although the eyecandy could’ve been better at some parts. Overall, great!

I’m giving this an 8 and if you ask me, Stefan’s rating only made this incredibly underrated.

The Angelscript file doesn’t work.

But so far I like the Roman army references and the music.

EDIT: Would be good if someone replaced the .j2as file…

I like balanced asymmetric CTF maps, this level is one of them. The carrot area has many ways of entering and defending.

Though the blue base is kind of too open for bouncers. It would’ve been cool if it was like that from both sides.

The eyecandy and layer work is probably the best part, but it seems to have nice gameplay as well.

xd sorry but these levels have so many flaws to be battle levels.

Overall a good map for events with lots of people. I like the custom weapon and the level generally looks cool, although I like the cobalt version better because I dont like the way the dark purple radios look in front of the light blue background .

Well the mutator does exactly what it is supposed to so there is no reason not to give this a perfect rating.

I guess I should at least point out how it’s great that none of these weapons copy the standard JJ2 weapons in any way (that I know of) and every weapon is useful in it’s own situation, where they both have pros and cons, making some kind of balance between the weapons.

The animations look cool and I like the small details on the ammo boxes and powerup monitors.