Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Awsome level!!

Eyecandy

It’s good! Don’t change it, it’s not much but not less.

Gameplay

It’s awsome, perfect for 1 vs 1 and mayby for 2 vs 2? It’s nog Jazz or Spaz based. And the flow… It’s awsome!

Ammo

Well placed, really nice. Mayby a coin warp? :D

8.0

Layout
This is a great part about the level, it has good flow without being bland and it has multiple paths with a three tier design, also you never find yourself at a dead end, wich is a good thing for ctf levels. I especially like the base locations.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| – 8.9/10

Event placment
The event placement is nice, it has ammo in the places you need it, and the placement of powerups is pretty good. The overall ammo placement helps prevent people from always being in the same place all the time. It could have been better though because all the ammo is easy to get, you don’t even have to jump a bit to get it.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| – 8/10

Eyecandy and looks
Loads of eyecandy wich is somthing I like to see, but it wasn’t overloads so I couldn’t see the sky it was just the right amount. The background has a nice fade color to it aswell. I see you didn’t go with the “standard brick pattern” that adds a nice little touch to the level, And the layer 4 background tiles make it look more like a structure rather then some floating bricks and platforms.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| – 8.6/10

Overall everything stuff
Good music that suits the level nicely and a level with good layout good theme and great style.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| – 8.6/10

download recommendation?
Yes! Its a great CTF level that you should at least try.
=D
=(

Bonus
Your a fellow XLM member ;D No, I cannot say that. Well I’ll give you a bonus point for useing an under used tileset.
||||| – 0.1/0.5

=)Freestyle.(=

Cold Waves
As I promised DarkSonic, I’d write a review for it’s latest release (also because there are no reviews for this upload yet) so lets test this, alright?

EYECANDY: 1.9 out of 2.5
First thing I noticed when opening this level was that I used an relatively few-used tileset (Nippius) Nippius is a decent set with a reasonable amount of eyecandy opportunities for the courage designers, but it has it’s down sides as well. This becomes clear when watching the caves, those merely look like big fat grey squares. The layer-8-background isn’t too bad, but not impressive either. Overall, the author has done enough to make the level worth looking, especially with the given tileset, but it’s not that impressive. 1.8 out of 2.5 points.

PLACEMENT: 2.0 out of 2.5
DarkSonic often knows what to do with the placement in a level, and this is no exception. Again working with a triple Powerup system, this level has a Bouncer and Toaster PU (one near each of the bases) and the RF as main weapon. The placement of the Full NRG carrot reminds me much of the placement in Security Breach v2 (placed on a small platform in the sky, near the roof) but it’s a good location here. The loose ammo could have been donne better, I suppose. Everything is floating around in the air and with a simple run strategy it’s hard to collect much ammo. Overall, placement is decent, but could have been better on some places.

STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.6 out of 5.0
The level doesn’t have a clear structure with a meaning, most of the platforms are hanging around in the sky. The places between them and the corridors are board enough, so there’s enough room to navigate without much trouble. The layout is, however, a bit standard without many secrets or originalities. The level name “Cold Waves” probably refers to the water in the lower side, but you can’t get in this water. Gameplay is solid as always, but like the layout a bit standard. Nothing wrong, but nothing innovating either.

RATINGS:
This level is the first made by DarkSonic in a while, and the level veteran appears to not have lost his skills in level design. In my eyes this level isn’t as good as, for example, X-Station or Apple Land, but it’s decent. Next time something more original please, that would increase the ratings a lot. For now, you get a 7.5

Score: 1.9 + 2.0 + 3.6 = 7.5
Download: Yeah, it’s a nice level to watch and play a few times in.
Host: Perhaps a few times.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW

I don’t feel I can make a good rating, so I wont try, but I feel like commenting a little on this.

Eyecandy
I dont really care, but atleast it isnt disturbingly ugly. Colors looks nice together, and all.

Gameplay, Pickups, Layout, and pretty much everything else
My first thought was “Oh, he made notsbv2 with another tileset”, since the areas around bases are made sort of the same way, which isnt a bad thing at all :) Coming to think of it… sort of reminds me of jungle’s edge too – with the placement of carrot and bases.
I like the way coins are used, its nice to have a golden coin, which draws lots of attention in a semi-dead end, (only 2 small ways out of there), however that place could be a way too easy stayalive-spot in a teamgame.
The RF-powerup’s placement is great. If you try to take it you will most likely get killed, but if you in some way manages to take it, you will have an easier time hunting your enemy.
Same thing with the areas under bases, very easy staying alive-spots…Could be good, could be bad ;p
Something that disturbs me is how the coins are placed so you have to jump to get them, and the fact that the text-string above the coinwarp is unreadable (due to the scoreing-count). Overall a nice level.

Anyways, 2v2 here, anyone?

Although I do not care much for names, I’d much rather call this by its file name “Apple Land” I like that name much better. Now on to the review!

For some reason this level’s tileset goes so well with the use of apples, almost to the extent of the lemons with Ceramicus in BR’s Lemon Nightmare; the level has an atmosphere, one that I like, others should as well. To accentuate the theme, the background has a dark red fade. One of the downfalls of the theme is the music choice, although it’s not particularly bad, it does not fit with the theme well in my opinion, there could definitely have been a better choice.

The tileset usage is what you’d expect to be made from this set along with a few other decorations that use tricks from other levels; certain color tiles used with transparency to change the color of tiles for example. So really nothing too original.

The level has a solid symmetrical design, allowing three direct paths to each base which makes defense almost pointless as it’s likely for the capturer to grab the carrot at the top middle unless the defender is extremely skilled. Especially considering there are plently of slopes: there is a bouncer powerup (included in warp for 10 coins) and easily obtainable bouncer ammo near some slopes; killing is not at all difficult for the attackers, or the defenders in some cases.

Camping is an aspect of this level, and needs to be implemented to a huge extent if one is to win. The top middle has the only full nrg with the coin warp (all coins have a 31 regen and are placed sparsely around the level). The bouncer power is the main powerup to be used, it will be used a lot, it’s the main weapon that can be hogged by one team and could decide who wins the match. Close matches aren’t likely in this level. Although there is an RF powerup included, Chasing isn’t easy here, the top area may be good for the use of RFs though. The RF powerup is located underwater which pretty much makes it useless to attack people there with it. The bottom area will be the least touched place.

I like the level mainly for it’s theme. As for the gameplay. Most players will not like such a sparse placement of coins, and the ridiculous regen time on them. Players will resort to playing with the RF powerup most of the time, resulting in many 3hks. If you like levels with a nice theme and like to be evil by hogging things from other players, then this is the level for you.

-fs

Yay, you helped me for one time, the WINNER. =D
I might add that I updated the level, like mentioned in the description. This is mainly for Chip, because he hated some things that lowered the rating alot. So, maybe he can re-download the level and check again or something. (Unless he is too lazy)

(comment that has nothing to do with rating)
“And I dno why I just said that. Anyway, nice level, and I snuck on in my schooltime to write this. So flame the WINNER if it sucks.”

The only thing I can say to this is: I like how sometimes people find sneaky ways of flaming me without admins noticing. Especially when I did nothing!
(end of comment. Begin review)

Eye Candy 8.0
I see you are really limited to the eyecandy offers of this tileset. I mean that the tileset doesn’t have lots of things to do good eyecandy tricks. The lack of animations. I found none. There’s a little confusing part at the bottom. The bottom-middle, exactly. Anyone could think “I can go through that!” but they can’t.

Gameplay 7.0
I decided to agree with Chippie a bit, and hate the springs. I really hate them at the bottom. As mentioned in the eyecandy section, you can’t go through the bottom-middle, although it looks like you can. You actually can go through it from a 1-tile high passage. WHY did you do a 1 tile passage, although you could have made all of the tiles at the bottom-middle able to go through? The annoying springs do a good job on hiding it. Nobody can notice it, because they just get bounced up by the springs.
Now for the suckertubes in the base area. I dislike how you can use a suckertube to easily catch the flag, and the only way to defend it is to shoot seekers all the time, hoping someone goes through the tube and gets hit.

Placement of Stuff 8.5
What idea made you have a blaster powerup as the “middle-powerup” and bouncer/toaster powerups as the “side-powerups”? It’s simple to say that toaster and bouncers are better than the blaster. Except if you keep bashing the spacebar (or other fire button) like mad. You should have fastfires, if you have a blaster powerup as the middle one.

Overall 8.1 (not an average!)
So this concludes the review of another XLM level. You did a better job than other XLM people.

Space Station: Milaria
DarkSonic frequently asked me to review this level of him (mainly because I reviewed nearly all of his better levels so far) Anyway, it’s one of my rare reviews these days cause I’m too lazy to write any others and I’ve got better things to do with my precious time, but I promised DS to pull another one off for his latest level: Space Station Milaria (I’ll refer to it as Milaria for the rest of this review) Let’s see if I’m still able to review.

EYECANDY: 1.8 out of 2.5
In one of the textstrings around the level, DarkSonic mentioned that he was inspired by Zaitox for this level. Once you start the level you’ll indeed see a large similarity between the two levels: both use the same tileset. The eyecandy itself is different from Zaitox: DarkSonic did use other backgrounds are there are actually some original things, like the yellow bars in the background and such. After a few minutes of playing however, you can get the idea that the eyecandy is a bit boring. Some tiles don’t seem to match, but I guess that’s more a fault of the tileset maker than DarkSonic’s. Overall, I can say the eye candy is pretty good but not really one of the best.

PLACEMENT: 2.1 out of 2.5
Maybe some more original things inside the placement stuff? Who knows. At least there’s some originality in the Power-up placement: Instead of the ordinary Seeker/RF-Bouncie-Toaster Power-up system, DarkSonic used a Blaster powerup as central PU. The usual Full NRG carrot is placed just a few tiles above the central PU, which could make the tiny place a good spot for camping. The other smaller ammo is placed quite nice and in original shapes, mostly in vertical shape (along the walls and the central pillar) I don’t have any major negative comments about the placement, ammo is nicely placed however the carrot near the main PU is a bit nasty and asking for campers.

STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.4 out of 5.0
On with the major point of this level: structure and gameplay! Well, the level is about 95% symmetrical, and the red and blue half are divided by a large on-tile-thick pillar in the middle. This pillar has two open spots, one with the carrot and main PU (middle of level) and one on the bottom, which can be heavily guarded by two turrets, a nice position for a camping defender. The level is more open than other levels of DarkSonic, and he even managed to make it more original by giving all the platforms in the level “a purpose” (there aren’t floating objects in the sky anymore, but they seem to have a function in the space station. So far the good points. Not everything is good about the structure, and I will start with the very annoying springs in the lower corners of the level, which actually make me want to lower the rating of the level with one full point. The problem is: you approach these springs with high speed and once you hit them, you bump into a wall. You have to break if you want to take them correctly and then quickly move in the other direction. I know this is kinda original but it just kills a lot of the flow. As Ragnarok pointed out earlier, some parts of the level are a bit unneeded and the roof is still a bit Squared-Off. Overall, the flow is decent, but not quite good, and some parts are questionable. I like the music which is used here, but I don’t really think it fits to the level.

RATINGS:
DarkSonic did a brave job by releasing a new level which is slightly different from earlier levels he produced. However, all new designs have a difficult start and so does DarkSonic’s. The level would/could have been a lot better if the nasty spring situation would have been improved, and some other parts too (read review) I think I’ll give this around a…. 7.3. Yeah.

Score: 1.8 + 2.1 + 3.4 = 7.3
Download: Yeah, it’s a quite nice new-style level by DarkSonic.
Host: Maybe a few times.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW

EDIT: I see that you re-uploaded the level, which you really didn’t have to do for me alone =P. Anyway, now it’s been improved, I need to recheck it. Some factors in the level could raise the rating a lot, the placement of the springs is one of these things. The situation as it is after the change is really A LOT better, and after re-playing it, it enjoyed me more. There are still some small flaws in the level, but it’s truly a lot better now. Rating has been raised with 0.5 points. Good job.

Hi! HB, even though i am a BIT late. Sorry I wasn’t on at ur birthday. I was throwing up from this crappy fever. I still feel sick.. But this level really deserves a review. On Friday, expect something. And I dno why I just said that. Anyway, nice level, and I snuck on in my schooltime to write this. So flame the WINNER if it sucks.

Eyecandy :
Rating : 8.5
Comments :
Well, a few copied stuff from Zaitox, and to be honest I HATE that level. But this isn’t it so thank GOD. Anyway, the translucent caution things are cool, but I swear Zaitox has em.. ;P Anyway, there are a few nice stuff in the level, like the bottom middle area. It looks nice. How the vines and everything covers eachother up. There aren’t many linear parts or stuff. Or any squared off bits. GJ. ;l

Gameplay :
Rating : 8.8
Comments :
Well, the movement is quite smooth. And this is really nice. It has far enough bases, and there are practically… 2 dead ends? .o0O0o. And yet they aren’t really big. There are a few pointless areas, like near the base, there is a tiny platform, with a spring on it. There is not really a need for it, but I suppose if you don’t want to get the enemy flag whilst getting ready. =\ Well, the huge pillar going through the bottom is good as it has tactic in it. ;D

Layout :
Rating : 8.2
Comments :
Nice layout and good way of removing a really FAST way of getting from base to base. (Going through the pillar if it wasn’t there) The pillar kind of divides the level apart. I hope it isn’t platformy, coz that is what I am saying. Anyway, GG.

Placement :
Rating : 8.4
Comments :
It is somewhat original, and there aren’t really any square placed ammo areas, but I think the blaster PU shouldn’t be so near to the Full NRG. Other than that. GG. GG. GG.

Okay, I REALLY G2G NOW.

Strange number of download. 3 and 666? OMG RU devil or satan?

Its been a while since I last reviewed, and this level only had one decent review in which the rating stayed. I was bored (or am) so I wrote this… Here goes..

Eyecandy:
My Rating : 9.0
Comments :
The thing I disliked were the areas where the blue tiles looked as if they went into thin air, without edges. On the other hand, there was a nice original background. And the lighting effects were really good. It made it look like another dimension with black holes… Except they didn’t suck you in… ;(

GJ.

Gameplay:
My Rating : 9.0
Comments :
Well, good way of anti camp, and its easy to attack the base, that makes it more exciting and less camping. A symmetrical level, and the anti-camp at the carrot is interesting. You can rampage in with bouncers or RFs for a quick way to destroy the camper. The only reason in the upper branch of the level with the Seeker PU, is the Seeker PU. The ammo there is all over the level. The seeker PU is easy to camp. But the other PUs are hard to camp. Because if you come in with bouncers, the enemy is DEAD. ;D
The flow is decent and the springs and tubes and everything are nicely placed.

GJ again.

Placement:
My Rating: 8.0
Comments:
There aren’t any things I particularly like about the placement, or hate. (This is for ammo if you haven’t noticed, dingbat) The level is nice.. But I can’t really rate it, apart from the patterns in placement..

Layout:
My Rating: 8.0
Comments:
A bit platformy at places, and some annoying walls. The slopes can prevent camping. The seeker PU, should have at least loads of ways to prevent camping there. But I like it I guess. ;) Well, good level.

Download : Yes
Host : Yes

NOT Security Breach v2
Ah well, time to review another level, it’s been a while. This time it’s DarkSonic’s “Not Security Breach v2”, which is made for the JJ2WC CTF Contest. It got a third place, so this will be worth to review.

EYECANDY: 2.1 out of 2.5
The Eyecandy is very good for the given tileset. We all know it’s a JJ1 Tileset, so it has some limited possibilities, but DarkSonic did the best he could. Although there are some levels with better eyecandy with this tileset – I’m thinking of one of Ragnarok’s levels, but I can’t recall the name – this level’s eyecandy is just good and never overdone. The advice of adding Project Hog/Fog to the level was taken very greedy, which results in a large number of light effects in the level. I recommend a modern video card for this, even my GeForce FX5200 128MB wasn’t able to run the level with a constant 70fps (I had some drops to 60-65 sometimes)

PLACEMENT: 1.9 out of 2.5
Not much to say about this. The Powerup-system brings in three Powerups (Seeker, Toaster and Bouncie – classic situation) and one Full NRG carrot. Nothing special about this, it’s not very original but it’s good enough and easy to learn. The placement of the normal ammo is a little bit more original, the different forms of ammo look quite good and are interesting.

STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.8 out of 5.0
As you can expect from DarkSonic’s levels, this level has a very smooth gameplay and layout. All bases are accessible from multiple directions (above, from sideways and from a sucker tube which pumps you through the flag) and there aren’t much places to camp. All places are quite easy accessible and there’s almost no Spaz biasing. Good job. The music file is not really special, something more powerful would fit better to this speedy level. About the text strings, they are a good attempts but the humour is a bit weak. I can’t say much more about the layout, it’s typical for DarkSonic and so not very original.

RATINGS:
Not Security Breach v2 is one of DarkSonic’s better levels, with decent gameplay, good eyecandy and well placement. If the next levels contain some more originality, it could actually turn out to be a TIPPED download. This isn’t one of those, it’s a 7.8 though.

Score: 2.1 + 1.9 + 3.8 = 7.8
Download: Yes.
Host: Yes.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of [si] and XLM

a really nice level i allready fell in love with it
(Unsupported rating removal. ~Violet)

Street Pass No. 2
Waaw, another Street Pass level by DarkSonic. The first one was used as the opening level in DarkSonic’s Packy Pack, and it got a well-deserved 8.2 from me. Let’s see if the second level, obviously called “Street Pass No. 2”, ends up in the same prize category. Behold. By the wya, sorry for the somewhat late review but I’ve been kinda busy lately.

EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Last time it was War Torn Night, this time it’s Mega Megatropolis 1.23 Night which is used. I can say the eyecandy is really well done in this level, although it could be better. I really like the background a lot, but the green hills give a weird effect since they move faster then the structures behind them . I don’t really have anything more to say, everything just looks good and filled and the double-paths are OK. The raindrops still look a bit weird when going up in the suckertube (I told you to correct this earlier) but I don’t think it’s possible too change it much more.

PLACEMENT: 1.8 out of 2.5
DarkSonic used a rather different form of layout placement then usual. All ammo quantities are placed in different shapes and you can say that almost every part of the level has ammo. This is quite good and original, although the placement isn’t really optimal. Again, there’s a two-powerup system with two majors, which are placed in walls. This is quite nice, but I’d like to see something more original next time.

STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.5 out of 5.0
On with the final part: structure and gameplay. When zooming out in JCS, you can see that this level has a typical DS-structure, which I can’t really explain in words. You have to see it for yourself, I guess. It’s a quite good structuring system with good flow and gameplay, but it’s getting a bit bored after a while. Same thing goes for this level, I suppose. While playing the level I got the feeling after a while that I saw it all before. Definitely not one of your most original levels.

RATINGS:
Streep Pass No. 2 is just again one of DS’s solid CTF levels, which isn’t too original but quite good. If your levels contain more originality, you could easily achieve a higher rating. Here’s a 7.3.

Score: 2.0 + 1.8 + 3.5 = 7.3
Download: Yes.
Host: Perhaps.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW

Heya, lets start =)

I never saw you hosted it but whatever, i downloaded it and i saw that it was only 100×50. Not a big problem if the other things are very good.
Layer 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are used, good point, eyecandy is okay.
But the level is very small and the platforms are very near to eachother.
I dun have many time, so i’ll give you the rating.

XLM Pack. After two horrible levels by XLM, I review this pack now. My expectations are NOT HIGH.

1. Street Pass Number One
This is a simple level.

{Eye Candy} [8.7]
Not bad at all, it’s probably the best thing about this level. The mountains at the back in layer6 and that castle type of thing in layer7. However, one part of the mountains has its top clipped off.

{GamePlay} [5.6]
This is the campers’ strike. In a 3vs3, someone can just keep camping the sucker tubes that are used to get the flag. If there’s no camper over there, it’s then all about suckertube entering and fast. It’s pointless.

{Stuff’s Placement} [7.4]
This isn’t that bad. The toaster powerup in the suckertube is easily campable though, and the carrot is in a bad place. If you use the suckertube tactic, getting the carrot is so easy it’s taking many tries to kill a bit skilled player. But bonus points come from the nice toaster type of powerup collecting. And at last it’s JAZZ BIASED, not spaz biased. Better than nothing.

overall total {Level Total} [7]

2. Overheated and Freaky World

{Eye Candy} [8.1]
I really like how you did the layer 6/7. But the trees are annoying. The layer3 stuff in the foreground grass isn’t bad.

{Gameplay} [8.5]
It’s very easy to move around, the only thing that annoys are the hidden springs. I can’t see stuff, going to run speed, BOING. It’s annoying for that to happen. But although that’s one of the level’s problems, it has a good flow though. The platforms fit nicely.

{Stuff Placement} [8]
Two powerups, Bouncer and Toaster. No “main powerup”. Considering the size of level, this is ok. The bouncers own the toaster, though… it’s a bit of team biasing.

overall total {Level Total} [8.3]

3.Fourty Metres In The Air

{Eye Candy} [7]
I don’t find anything bad in the eyecandy but it’s not anything very nice either. It’s the Average. Maybe it’s the tileset.

{GamePlay} [6.6]
Everything you do is run left and right at the bottom. Get flag, score, get flag and score again. Shoot seeks, kill other flagcarry, score… that’s something like that all the time.

{Stuff’s Placement} [7.0]
The seek powerup placing is stupid. You need to explain how to get seek PU to everyone. The carrot is in middle of Gun 9’s. At least the carrot isn’t placed in middle of the patch you move left/right to score.

overall total {Level Total} [8]

4. Punished In Space

{Eye Candy} [9.5]
The wall thing is on Layer 6. This is the best part of the level. The animations are pretty nice too.

{Gameplay} [3.2]
Believe it or not, this level itself is stupid. For some reason, there’s a no-fire zone in the bases. I don’t know why, but it really ruins the whole thing. Anyone can keep camping at the bases. You have two bases in different rooms next to eachother. You WARP in the bases. Getting the flag is a bit hard because of the springs. I don’t like this. AT ALL.

{Stuff’s Placement} [7.5]
There’s a huge load of RF’s at one point in this level. There’s also an RF powerup in middle of springs. There’s a bouncy powerup very near blue base and blaster powerup very near the red base. Nothing wrong with this one.

overall total {Level Total} [5.7]

5. Plastic Surgery CTF

{Eye Candy} [5]
The worst part. The single 1 color background somewhere near blue base hurts my eyes with its flashing. And it looks very ugly. Also layer 6 or 7 weren’t used for nice BG purposes. The wall at the right and left side is very dull and ugly.

{Gameplay} [6.5]
The unfair bases have come again. Just like in XLM Owned Town. Top left is a lot easier to defend than bottom right. Some springs are annoying. There’s not a lot of them though. However, there’s no problems with the gameplay.

{Stuff’s Placement} [6.0]
The only problem is with the Toaster and Bouncer powerups that are unfair. It’s a lot harder to get the toaster powerup than the bouncers Powerup. I see no problems elsewhere with the placement.

overall total {Level Total} [6.2]

TOTAL {OVERALL} 7.04 -> 7

The Packy Pack
Since a few months, DarkSonic declared that he was working on a CTF-pack. Now, at the dawn of 2005, he finished his pack and uploaded it J2O. I promised to give him a good and long review, so I will. Here you go.

Street Pass nr. 1
EYECANDY: 1.9 out of 2.5
The levels is made with the famous War Torn Night tileset, and the links with Distopia are automatically established in the beginning. If you look better, you’ll notice this level isn’t very similar too EvilMike’s classic, but I’ll explain later. The eyecandy itself is nicely made, I especially the transparent platforms. It’s not really wonderful, but good enough for the tileset.
AMMO: 2.1 out of 2.5
The first level of the Packy Pack has a three PU system, with Toaster as central Powerup, and a RF and Bouncie as minors. It’s balanced well since the level is symmetrical. The Toaster can be grabbed inside a few sucker tubes, which makes it easily accessible for campers. The others Powerups are in walls and they can be taken by uppercut or Toaster. This seems a little Jazz-biased, but I like it. The carrot is placed in a central spot and the platform prevents it from being shot down, but now it can be camped a bit. The smaller amounts are OK and original, but they could be placed more to the ground.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 4.2 out of 5.0
The level has a really good flow, since the platforms are well placed for a good flow. It takes a while before you know the entire level, but it’s really worth it. The system with the opening doors is a nice idea and it brings a lot of extra strategy to the gameplay (base defender can open the doors when the flag carrier comes from the other base etc.) The bases itself are accessible from three different places, which is a good thing. It appears that CelL selected the music files, and the music for this level fits good. Overall, a nice and interesting structure and nice gameplay.
RATINGS:
Street Pass nr.1 is a nice level with some really original things (like the opening doors and toastable Powerups, which I will probably use myself in later levels). This level is a good opening for the pack, let’s see if the rest is just as good.
RATING = 8.2

Overheated and Freaky World
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Where would a good pack be these days without a level with one of the Diamondus β sets? I don’t know, so here is one. This time it’s luck for the lava edition, which isn’t used earlier in a CTF level I believe. The eyecandy here is quite good for the set, it has nice back and foregrounds and everything looks good. I told you to put a little more eyecandy on the platforms, and you did, but still not enough. The blocks could look a lot better if you added more eyecandy to them, and so would be the whole level. The eyecandy still gets 2 points, however.
AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
This level is slightly smaller then the first one in the pack, and DS has chosen for a different PU-style here: just two Powerups, a Bouncie and a RF, each one near a base. This is a balanced enough, and if you die you have directly access to a Powerup when you respawn. The powerups itself are placed a little bit annoying, because they block the roads. The smaller ammo amounts are placed OK, and so is the Full NRG carrot in the middle.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.5 out of 5.0
The level is smaller than Street Pass nr. 1, as said before, and the structure is a lot more narrow. The general flow in the level is OK since the objects are very soft and not too bumpy, but the spring placement could be a lot better. You bump too many and the location near the Toaster can be described as rather irritating. The music fits too the level perfectly, and I like it much.
RATINGS:
In the first place I would say that OaFW would be the level I liked most, but after a while testing I realized it was not as good as I expected. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong, in fact, it’s still one of the better levels DS made till now. It could have been more, however.
RATING = 7.5

40 Meters In the Air
EYECANDY: 1.7 out of 2.5
Another level with the best new tileset of 2004 (Windstorm Fortress by BlurredD). The eyecandy this set features is really good, and this level has quite a bunch of it. Some places look really good (especially the part in the upper-left corner which I liked very much) but other parts are rather dull (like many of the stony platforms) I didn’t notice any tiling bugs, so I can say the eyecandy is over decent, but not that good. SuperJazz did a better job with the WSF level he uploaded in his pack a few days ago.
AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
The minor PU placement is generally the same as in the second level of the pack (both bases have a Powerup near it – yet again the Toaster and the Bouncer) but this time we’re speaking of a big level, so we have another Powerup: a precious Seeker. This one can be reached by two warps in the upper corners of the level. Sometimes you directly fall down to the Seeker and you can take it, other times you’re stuck in a small block and you have to jump up. The Full NRG carrot is placed on a balanced spot, and the other smaller amounts of ammo are OK.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.6 out of 5.0
As the other two levels in the pack, this level has a nice flow and the other forms of gameplay are also fine. The music file used is a little bit too slow for the level in my opinion. The best PU in this level is fixed around the triggers that make you fall down, but I couldn’t figure out how these triggers work. The ones in Street Pass nr. 1 were pretty simple and you knew directly how to use them, but it will take time before I figure these out. This was about the only (big) thing that annoyed me about structure and gameplay, so you still get 3.6 points from me.
RATINGS:
This level was a little less then the two previous ones, I hope the next ones will be better so we have a good ending. If the eyecandy was better and the trigger system would be a little easier to use, this level would get a higher rating. For now, it’s over decent, but not good.
RATING = 7.3

Punished In Space
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Another Odyssey level, yay! This set features a lot of good eyecandy, but not all of it is used in this level. For the platform eyecandy, this level is almost the opposite of Overheated and Freaky World: the eyecandy on the platforms itself is very good but between the platforms it looks rather empty. The background layers are a bit boring, but decent. Perhaps it would be better if layer 8 was more visible.
AMMO: 1.8 out of 2.5
Let’s go on with the placement. As you enter the level, you end up at the bases, which both have one powerup in the beginning: a Blaster and a Bouncer, which isn’t perfectly balanced but good enough. The most important smaller amounts of ammo (RF and Seeker) are all in the upper part of the level, but to make the action more spread around the whole level, the author added some interesting objects in the lower half (RF PU, Full NRG carrot, Bouncie Ammo) which makes the level more balanced.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.2 out of 5.0
The structure of this level is kind of original: the two bases are both placed in the top half of the level (next to each other, but separated by warps) This seems like an interesting idea, especially because the two bases are both no-fire-zones (prevents killing) but I’m not really fond of the idea. The flags are not easily grabbed because you have to buttstomp to get them, and there’s only one entrance to the bases: the bases itself are impossible to camp on, but the warps to it are not. The same thing goes for the base exits, there’s only one exit which is also a good thing for camping. The music file fits to the level, and I like it.
RATINGS:
This level has fairly good eyecandy, and the ammo placement also seems OK. I don’t really like the Base Placement and the entrances and exits to the bases, and I think the lower half of the level isn’t anything special. More base entries/exits would make the level much more interesting.
RATING = 7.0

Plastic Surgery CTF
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Time to go for the last level of DarkSonic’s Pack: Plastic Surgery CTF. The name promises much, but once I play the level I end up in an ancient castle so I can’t really find it what the name of the level is about. Anyway, time for the eyecandy ratings. The eyecandy in this level is pretty good, I like all the stuff in the sprite background layers and the platforms, however they are a bit boring, don’t look too bad. The rain effects in the foreground are also nice. The layer 8 background could be better, though.
AMMO: 1.8 out of 2.5
Yet another two-PU-system, with Toaster and Bouncer! This is starting to become a little bit unoriginal after 5 levels, but at least it’s a decent solution. They’re placed in walls again, and this time you have to reach them by Electro Blaster. The Full NRG carrot (also as usual) is placed in the centre of the level again, which makes it balanced for all players. The smaller amounts of ammo are OK too, they’re placed in semi-original forms and at the right places.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.8 out of 5.0
The flow in this level is good as always, and I like it. There are multiple pathways you can choose from, and I guess this is one of the better levels of the pack. There’s not much to say more about the gameplay of this level, it’s just a good as it is. In the beginning I thought the music file sucked but once I listened longer to it, I could validate it more.
RATINGS:
Plastic Surgery is a quite normal, not so special CTF level, but good enough to make it nice to play in. A little more originality would be welcome, however, since the level is a little bit boring. After Street Pass nr. 1 I guess this is the best level in the pack, and a good closing one.

Final comments
After a long period of waiting DarkSonic finally released his Packy Pack and after about 2 hours of reviewing I finished this piece of text. DarkSonic made with his Packy Pack a nice CTF pack which combines the best of DarkSonic in a pack of 5 CTF levels. Not every level is as good as the others, the first one was truly a good CTF level but later the levels became a little more unoriginal and boring. The final level however was pretty good and a nice closing level. Overall, this pack is one of the best packs this year so far (stupid comment) and it’s worth to be played online.
Score: 8.2 + 7.5 + 7.3 + 7.0 + 7.6 / 5 = 7.52 + 0.2 (pack bonus) = 7.7
Download: Yeah, this is a bunch of good CTF levels.
Host: Just a few times.

Greetings,
~ ChippieBW of [si] and XLM.

Just some notes.
Ðx: where is your review? You said you would review.
Jarno vos: you should finish your review or I’ll report it. At least give more information.
Read the info added and re-download. Thanks.

First:An 8.9 and a 6.3 = 15.2 : 2= 7.2

Second: Review more

Hey sorry for the long waiting!

A nice lvl by DS!

OKey

Eyecandy

Better then your other levels and its good used, mayby more on layer 4 mayby not. Anyway its good and i dont think it needs changes

Gameplay/Layout/Bugs

No bug found =), the layout is nice and its great to play this. Its good for duels or Clanwars. Second its not spaz or jazz based.

Placement/ALL/

Good placement mayby one more powerup but it does’t needs really hard. Mayby one carrot more ;O…

A great lvl and i must say download this!

A 7.7

~Dx of XLM

Review For X-Station

Hey Dude,

This Level Is Really Good

Eyecandy 6.3

Can Better
Made.

Music Used 8.9

~Jarno
See Ya