Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

A pretty decent level pack, held down by some tilebugs, spring & pole sections not working as fluidly as intended partly due to the tileset and partly because of the level creator, lack of variety in pickups since you only get a few gems, apples the occasional carrot and a small amount of ammo.

Level 3 makes probably the most mistakes, you have to find 2 trigger crates and the first one is hidden behind shootable blocks that look like tileset walls that are just above soft lock pits (meaning it’s a pit that doesn’t hurt or kill you, you just remain in the fall animation at the bottom of the map, with cheating jjfly being the only way to get out). Also some of the vine areas can get you permanently stuck in the wall tiles if you press down at the wrong moment, leaving your character in a permanent buttstomp animation. The thing is, none of these issues are unfixable, just remove the endless pits, check the tileset masking with the vine areas, and the spring and pole areas, maybe add some variety to the pickups, though that shouldn’t be the priority while the other gamebreaking issues exist.

On the positive side of things, I think the level layout is pretty good, the choice of music is good, the level is pretty despite the tileset being somewhat simple. Enemy and item placement is okay too. This can easily be a 7.5-7.7 upload once the mentioned bugs are fixed (though given how this is a 14 month upload, I’m not sure it will happen), but for now I’ll give it a 6.7 with a download recommendation, since it’s a solid pack once you look past or avoid the bugs and oddities associated with the levels.

Hoping to see more

Well, well, well… Nice one Dragusela! 8/10!

BTW in my version I used Stone Abyss tileset of Carrotus and the texture background was made using MLLE.

Make good levels, especially the XLM ones!

What I particularly enjoy about this level is the degree to which it has distinct areas. Instead of being constants, elements like giant carrots or snaking vines or wooden platforms will appear in clusters, making those areas memorable and giving the player a feeling of progression. More such focuses keep turning up throughout the experience, including progressively larger cave areas, bigger uses of wooden platforms, and a lategame forest and underwater section. Besides that, there’s a good healthy amount of pickups all through the level, on the main path and in alcoves and in secrets, and enemies are varied even if never particularly dangerous. The layout and graphics do a lot to avoid becoming boring: the floor is constantly rising and falling as you move along, you change directions a lot, there’s some variety in wall thickness (although it would feel more Carrotus-y with some thinner platforms), various bridges and wooden things appear to keep things fresh.

Other than the rock pushing section, at the bottom, though, nothing in the course of the level ever feels unique… which, of course, is totally fine, it just means that the level isn’t transcendent. But I’d like to see more attention paid to how the level can feel distinctly Carrotus/Easter, particularly when using events instead of just stuff the tileset provides. Bird cages would feel at home here, for example. The wooden platforms and floors didn’t always feel great, due to a combination of how thin they are drawn and how inconsistently solidly they were placed (layer 3 vs 4). One area is covered in thorns that don’t hurt you, followed immediately by a small pit of thorns that does hurt you. Speed blocks are used in place of lock blocks. Diagonal carrots only ever sprout from the ceiling. Both(?) powerups can be obtained by shooting bouncers at them instead of using the intended warps.

It’s a good level with good, if never particularly challenging, gameplay, but it lacks a certain identity.

The aurora in layer 8 is quite lovely, but the rest of the level doesn’t charm me as much. The layers of mountains and trees in front of it are dull gray, neither silhouettes in front of the green glow nor illuminated by it. Frosted Peaks does a better job of blending these background colors. The darkest color in the blue grass gradient is still too bright, distractingly so. Electroblaster pickups are common but the layout does not seem designed for them. Barrels and masked trees appear because the tileset has them but mostly don’t seem to contribute to gameplay, instead getting in the way of easy movement. Multiple top right corners of walls can’t be jumped up against because of improper masking (and no One Way events). Most egregiously, innumerable platforms are simply too high up to reach unless playing with a double jump. Several in particular are placed ever so slightly higher than the highest point reached by a spring that appears to be intended to take you there, but, only if you are Spaz. Other springs bump you into ceilings or are hard to find, set not quite flush against the nearest walls. The design process seems to have prioritized graphics (though with some questionable palette choices) above gameplay flow, but both are important. The areas with bridges or vines are generally nice and interesting, but it’s frustrating to get around the rest of the level.

The aurora effects in this xlm level are perfect! 8.2/10!

Oh, the music (This Is Gonna Be Good) is made by Randy Newman, and is from the Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog”.

WOW Dragusela I really like your snow xlm battle level! 8/10

BTW in my version I used “Knuckles’ Chaotix – Evening Star” music by Joseph Tek Fox instead of Drax’s “Christmas Memories”.

Not that bad, could’ve used more testing but the visuals are good.

This jungle lake level is awesome! The good atmosphere, usage of new MLLE content like Fireball Gun and so on is perfect.

8.5/10

Well, well, well… This “Lab 38” map is looking very good, and in my opinion, it deserves a good rating.

This time I’ll give you 8/10.

This map is ok. Backround trees are maybe moving too fast and when you fall into pit you see how they levitate (you see sky under them ). Iam not sure if that leaves are good idea in multiplayer map. Also i think there should be much more ammo. I think if you add one more carrot and some ammo it would be good event map. Also nice music.

I can’t seem to be able to play the level properly, half the tileset for me is missing. Isn’t there a tileset file for the mashup tileset used in the level? Because the level loads the Easterius tileset, but everything that is borrowed from a different tileset doesn’t load. Can someone help with the solution, I’ll post a review when I can properly play the level

A traditional JJ2 level that uses MLLE just for aesthetic purposes. Enemies are Carrotus’ default turtles and lizards, as well as skeletons and ghosts to add to the ‘sinister’ atmosphere. The invisible walls don’t always make sense, and it’s not always clear which bushes can hurt you. Overall it’s basic gameplay but a very solid clean level design.

I’ll give you 7.5/10 because, one – this level is really great, and two – nice music.

Great work Dragusela!

It’s called Turtemple

‘Sinister Winter’ is a stroll through a pretty frozen Easter landscape, full of (useless) gems and with a few puzzles to solve on your way to the boss at the end. I found it a decent experience, though it was marred a bit by a number of issues that at times prevented me from progressing.

Some of these were promptly fixed by Dragusela after I reported them, others remain. One lingering problem is that the level basically requires you to play as Spaz, but doesn’t tell you this. If you happened to select Jazz or Lori, a lot of platforming will be much more difficult and there are a couple of places where you can get stuck outright (e.g. 325×104). The level does have separate starting positions for Jazz and Spaz, so it seems like the intention was to support at least those two characters, but the rest of the level design doesn’t reflect that.

If you are playing with Spaz, the level is a decent trip, though there are a few places where it’s easy to get lost as you have to backtrack because a crate just appeared a couple of screens back because you just walked through a trigger zone. This is not signposted very well – and sometimes the trigger zone is easy to miss too because the level expects you to take a certain path, but another one is equally viable! The more straightforward parts of the level are okay, and the level overall looks quite nice, although there are also more than a few tile bugsand the music didn’t seem to fit very well (but nothing as subjective as music selection). I do wish enemy placement had been a bit more challenging – they’re not exactly difficult to avoid at the moment. It all ends with Uterus, who I found no fun to fight underwater, but I suppose that is a way to make it more challenging to beat.

Overall this is a promising new level but there are just a few too many bugs and issues to really recommend it. Another round of testing for the next effort might improve things.

Wow Dragusela you are the best level maker I have even heard, and your SP level is a great masterpiece.

I’ll give you 7.2/10.

Also, the music comes from Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose game.

Cooba’s review is exaggeratedly low. It’s a simple and visually appealing battle level, perhaps not ideal for competitive battles but I can see how it could be enjoyable for casual players looking for something fun and simple.

Looks nice but gameplay is nonexistent. Don’t do things like carrots next to two seeker ammo crates, the player with the powerup will stay there forever and win. This is especially bad in this map because it’s literally the only room in this map.

Eyecandy in both levels is interesting (dirt tiles are repeating too much on some places). I like how you combinated carrotus with colon. Its interesting how you chosed to use lighter color in backround wich is more far, looks like there is sunrise in far but you are still in dark. I kinda dislike that roof on 70,35 has same color as another roof wich is up, i think it should be darker, cuz that roof is in backround and you cant step on it (its kinda confusing). Well is well.
Layout itself is kinda boring, looks too empty for me. Also there is not enought ammo.
Music is ok.

I really like the house design! And the atmosphere and wishing well placement are awesome!

10/10 HYPE!

Download recommended

Also, the music is made by snz (Warfare In My Mind) & radikson (I Realize).