Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

2024 was quite the year for high quality CTF levels (and certainly battle too)! It was also a strong year for Dragusela and I think the strongest one from him so far! While there may be a certain bias from me towards my fellows in XLM, I genuinely think this is the most successful CTF level from Dragusela yet!

Since this is a fairly big level, it may not be suitable for duels (haven't tried yet), but the layout is still very solid and balanced which should allow enough room for versatile gameplay overall. I know it took quite some testing and effort to get the flow and balance right, but the result was clearly worth it! The flow has been optimized close to perfect, besides a few minor issues here and there. The level contains also multiple landmarks to ease learning and navigating in the level despite its size.

And boy does the level look pretty! The three main tilesets, Psych, Beach and Castle are blended perfectly together. The river, reflections, trees, mountains, clouds all tweaked to perfection in the aerial view. The only nitpick I have is that some of the key components were recycled from recent levels, mainly xlmthurism I guess. But the result is outstanding nevertheless.

With that said, I think you should definitely give this level a try in case you haven't yet! I am also looking forward to playing more games here in the near future. Well done Dragusela!

This one doesn't do much for me. The design's not bad, but the visuals cast too broad a net.

The central oval of the layout, combined with the additional little loop in the top right corner, is pretty interesting. The little roller cutout near the bottom left may be too generous though, especially since it targets one of the only sources of seeker ammo, which is what you'd want to attack someone in that alcove. A third seeker area, maybe near the top somewhere, could help a bit, and would also make the seeker powerup a more desirable prize. 20 coins is a decent target number, though the coin script is a little off, using the candy sprite in some contexts and the coin animation in others. I want to like the awkward purple spring in the bottom right but it's a little too awkward even for me, too hard to predict/control whether you'll go through the one way events or not. Other parts of the layout are fine—good use of varying platform thicknesses, good powerup areas—I'm just not wild about some of the most vital places. Oh, and it's hard to make Boomerang work as a non-infinite weapon, and I don't think Pumpkin Park pulls it off.

The visuals are where things fall apart—they're close to good, but don't quite get there. cooba calls them "scattershot" and I think I like that. There are simply too many different tilesets being thrown together here, and because we can recognize the sources, the level doesn't feel like it has a proper identity. Especially bad are the upscaled graphics (rocks, pumpkins, trees) with no effort made to smooth their big pixels, and the wild Carrotus trees right next to the carefully maintained Townhouse trees. None of the weird random rock graphics overlaid onto the Holidaius texture look like they really fit in, the tree branch platforms in the bottom left are too muted to see, and the random Carrotus/Diam/Psych foliage thrown all over the place is too generic, yet inconsistent, for me to care about. The colors are all a little too muted and the background of Diamondus trees in front of Townhouse buildings is a little too familiar. The Omen Woods caves do look great, though.

A really lovely take on a more eveningy Lapper Festive, though obviously I come in with a lot of positive bias for the tileset. The background does not work at any window height other than 600, but otherwise everything looks great here. The alternate-color ornaments work well, not too garish, and everything else tiles properly. The use of tinting to mark non-solid giftboxes and other elements is good here. This isn't the most detailed account of the visuals but just, um, it all works)? Everything in the tileset is put to its proper use and flows together nicely without ever becoming distracting.

I will jump right in and say that I'm not thrilled with the nail gun usage here. The gold standard for nail gun is still Illumination, with the different pickups and stuff you can access with them, and Jolly Battle isn't that. There is one specific area you get to using the nail gun, thoughtfully marked off with additional nail gun pickups, but the reward is… a nail gun powerup. This just raises the question. Also you can shoot the nail gun powerup with electro blaster instead. (This must be intentional, it's the only obvious place to use electro blaster in the whole map.) But the level also has an RF powerup, and most of the level is crowded enough with curved platforms that your nails are never going to go all that far.

There's also a toaster powerup which feels like it has a lot of support: fastfire scattered around the level, a few big springs, and of course thematic resonance. It's a bit blatant, using both Duo Bouncers and Spike Bomb right after they were both MLLE-ified in the same level, but I suppose there are reasonable places to use them both, spikes on the right side and bouncers in all the gentle curves that weave through the top/ left half. Firework doesn't work everywhere but it, too, has its good spots. Other the nail gun and the electro blaster, I think weapons are well chosen here.

The layout in general is a good mixture of close spaces, thin platforms, and open spaces, which keeps players entertained and also helps you keep track of where you are. A few minor visual landmarks are also included. The biggest point of interest is the full energy carrot, especially in a level with three other carrots, but I think it does work. Multiple weapons can be used to shoot it down (but not the nail gun!) and it takes long enough that you put yourself in a lot of danger, which is what you want to avoid if you have, say, 1 health and desperately need a full energy carrot. It's a good trap.

I would not have guessed this is a Dragusela level. Honestly I would not have guessed this is a 2024 level! It's so… indoors! It's almost a single tileset despite using four separate .j2t files, but it's all visually coherent. (The giant porthole is a bad resizing job though.) It's got really solid, intricate use of layer 4 and doesn't just lean on the background layers to sell itself. Battleship is not a tileset that I find easy to make look this good, so, kudos. I can see the Maelstrom comparison but it also reminds me of Dethroned, interestingly enough…

My biggest issue is the level is just a bit bigger than it needs to be. I think you could cut out about a fifth of its width, some of the area between the seeker and toaster powerups, and be fine. The far right area with the wide springs is also quite expansive but like, it's showing off, it's cute, it's fine. Check out all these springs! The sucker tubes into the top powerups are super campy but, well, I guess you know exactly what you're letting yourself in for, right?

This is a level I respect a lot but have never quite fallen in love with. It's not quite got a central concept that I can gel with, although it does do interesting things with vertical space. But it has lots of great bits scattered around, and again, the detail work in the walls is a treat.

Coated in that autumnal vibe of "dusk by 4PM", Pumpkin Park is yet another piece of evidence of how Dragusela has mastered the use of color in his levels. What would otherwise be a rather scattershot of tileset styles (JJ1, JJ2, and Blade) is brought together by the hushed purple and brown midtones to coexist harmoniously – combined with the quite lowkey background music, this level paints a very pleasing picture to look at.

With 2 carrots of a moderate respawn time, and a size I would describe as medium, this level seems to be aiming to be a duel level. But some design decisions become questionable if so – this layout is pretty open, and the carrots are not very far apart, so the first player to get the seeker powerup (hidden in a… candy warp, which is cute, but also pretty oldschool in gameplay terms) could probably dominate the game. And if it's not a duel level – why only 2 carrots?

This entry also lacks a little polish. The FPS, though improved, still errs on the lower side for me, the coin reskins are nice, but with the old sound effect and coin sprite in the HUD they feel unpolished, the title text stolen from The World Spear completely unnecessary and unoriginal, one of the hooks actually uses the Hook event (wtf?), the "final" version uploaded to J2O has no next level setting and still prints AngelScript warnings… combine this with the rather generic layout, and this level comes off as something that maybe needed a bit more time in the oven. (Says the guy who put a deadline on this level in the first place.)

Overall, a very nice looking level, that will probably play well enough – but not something I'd call outstanding.

Bonus points: The purple cityscape in the background is really tickling my TSF nostalgia bones, even if that may not have been intentional.

First review in years, here we go! Bioluminescence is a fun CTF level taking place in some sort of odd jungle where super-cool-mushrooms are the focus of the level. It is incredibly platformy, and requires plenty of jumping to navigate. One of my favorite kinds of levels! My favorite part of the level is that there is an obvious path at the top of the level that takes you from base to base with no worries – but it's pretty dangerous to take. You may want to reconsider that route… So to continue on our adventure, you're forced to take alternative routes in this level which wind you around a maze of mushrooms. In the end, it's classic fun with some cool scripting. The weapons are custom, but feel familiar. My recommendation for improvement is to put something awesome underwater. I hate going underwater in levels. I think either punishment or reward should come with it! Another suggestion is helping to differentiate one ways from regular tiles – but that's a very minor thing here and there. Overall, this is a solid 8.5/10.

Thank you for sharing! Highly recommended. Sorry I didn't get to play this with other people. I just played 1 player CTF. It was a good game.

Edit – PS – This is one of the most beautiful levels I've ever seen. GREAT JOB with the background and overall eyecandy! :) :)

+ i like the way you desinghed it!
+ the level have many interesting desinged parts
+ have many interesting places
- only a few things I miss
+ i really liked it, to play it!! :)
+ the new color scheme for this tileset looks very good!!!!
(the original tileset didn't come with that color, the new color looks new and good.

+ the new color scheme (for the grass platforms) looks very cool.
+ Some parts of the lvl are interestingly designed
+ further down the background looks really impressed
- further up the background could be better i think
+ that new creations looks good.

absolutely impressive level
+ The background(houses,trees) is almost perfect
+ to the tileset mix: its very creative designed.
- the place further up(leftside up,middleside up), could be better i think!!
- i miss a bit, an underground cave
+ Definitely one of the best xmas/snow levels I've ever seen :)

A very solid level with an interesting yet detailed eyecandy approach. The given layout is good, especially the base areas are a nice touch for either defending or attacking. My only shiver complaint is that the flow can get a bit quirky, but a few cycles to this level and you'll quickly master the fine tricks this level has to offer.

This design looks amazing! Battle near the lake is the perfect concept!

9.7/10!

its really Great Designed! :)
i like the way you desinghed it,

- for the background, i miss a bit a realistic water effect

+ you choosed a new desingh for "Diamondus ß"
i think this is good!

its new and it looks good.

A commendable effort by the author. The theme is well realised with a creative combination of tilesets, and the layout, while being rather cramped in places is quite novel and offers a decent gameplay experience. Nitpick, but I’m not sure if the level needed 3 different weapons that shoot downwards; 2 would’ve been enough. Great level nonetheless!

A very interesting palette choice for the given tileset. It looks very retro and cool, well done! The layout is decent and plays well. However, I don’t like that there’s only one entrace for each base. This makes it easily for the opponent to defend where you might as well die before you can take the flag with you.

Probably Dragusela's best level yet. I love the atmosphere created with the combined tilesets, especially the fountain in the middle is cleverly made. The layout is very open so there aren't many places to hide. I'm looking forward to see more levels like this in the near future. Keep up the good work!

I really like this “Forgotten Landscape”! With use of Diamondus tileset with night palette, this level is very challenging.

8/10

JAZZ IN SPACE! Super awesome level! Make more spacey levels!

9.5/10

9/10

Perfect atmosphere, and very grassy level. I really like grassland levels!

The mystery blue rainforest and its perfect gimmicks are awesome!

9.2/10

Oh, and music is made by Will Be.

I think this map is good. It has nice layout even if there are some mask bugs which will make you stuck in the wall like 12,35 and 26,9 and some smaller eyecandy/mask bugs (which doesnt affect gameplay for example 65,24 and 8,35).
Iam not rly sure about some eyecandy things. The first this wich catched my eyes were that black towers, they kinda doesnt make sence to me because that mountains in the backround are more detailed than that towers. It should be opposite, I would use some other more detailed ones or make mountains in the backround same simple as towers. Walls on layer between layers 4 and 5 should maybe move a little slower imo. Also i would maybe make solid branches other colored than unsolid, its kinda confusing.
Iam not really sure why there is water, I dont think it really helps gameplay in this case. Toaster PU is good choice imo Bouncers are deadly.