Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Lots of cool stuff that I’ve always wanted to see in JCS ever since I started using it (12 years and counting).

EDIT: Removed what was a bit too harsh.

9 years later: I realise the title means “Dark Wood Jungle”

Barrier shattering, record breaking. Incredible all around.

reg ;)

Sounds pretty cool.

Clever and cute.

To be honest, I didn’t like either all that much since I think giving monsters more energy makes the game boring, and not harder. The palette manipulations (especially in River Secrets) are very pretty, though.

Finally a level in palette D!!!

Starlit may not be Starlit Summit, but it’s still a pretty decent CTF level with an oldschool feel – the music and tileset (good choices on both!) are right from the past decade, and the asymmetrical layout will remind you of 2002’s biggest hits as well.

Unfortunately, it has some flaws or otherwise weird things about it. First of all, I don’t get the point of the platforms in middle top – once you get on one, you can just sit there safely, since there’s no other way of getting to the top than the vines. Besides, it’s easy to access the full carrot from both places, so even if you managed to hit the camper, they could just run away and heal (with this look on their face). In a duel, where you have no teammates to take the hit for you, this would be a big problem. The bottom area is a nice place for the two +1 carrots and it has cool flow, but putting a gun9 powerup there is a bit of w wtf moment, since gun9 isn’t even all that useful here. And even if it were, there are still ammo pieces of gun9 flying around, so hogging the PU makes no sense. The tube at 42,57 is kind of useless, since it’s just as fast to reach the PU from the right by the springs and above. Also, no ammo at 48,53?

The full carrot really looks like it should be on the ledge at 54,33… but that’s picky.

Overall, it’s a nice level, but needs some fixes to be a proper good level. And as there was no beta testing, the rating will perhaps be edited at some point. :)

EDIT: That’s better.

EDIT2: Raised the rating since this is such a bunch of fun to play.

Totally pointless.

WTF is with the other .j2l file included?

What it says – a small Labrat romp. Decent overall.

Massive props for using this music!

Lithium: Fair enough, I didn’t notice that.

Quite decent.

Clever but lacking. With such a name and a custom tileset you could have done much more than a nondescript industrial level (even if the tileset looks decent).

Dude if you’re using a TSF only tileset in a couple levels then it would make some sense to mark the upload as TSF only, I think.

Missing tiles, miscolored tiles, no black tiles at all, pinball events broken, lazily converted animations, lots of filler, ugly textured background. This set didn’t age very well I’m afraid! :(

Crimi: It’s supposed to loop to the first level: http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/3195/olc-battle-pack/

Some good eyecandy ideas all around (I dig the waterfalls), shame that the level looks rather amateurish as a whole (very repetitive tile work on the bottom and in the indoor backgrounds). Why put a black tile on layer 7 and then a textured background on 8? Beats me. The ambient lighting is a tad bit too dark. The music wasn’t too bad but the sample quality was grating (and also loud).

The layout doesn’t look like a lot of effort went into it. I can imagine dueling here would be boring. I was hoping the Devan shrine (which I mistook for a well) would have some use, even as just another way down. With no powerups, little ammo, and no room for using special moves effectively, it’s going to be a slow game. I recommend studying Moonlit Harbor and Triton Armory to see how to make a duel level. Can’t quite pinpoint a rating.

When playing this level, it’s important to take a look back at FawFul’s history as a JCSer. His J2O downloads page is like a cliched rags-to-riches story: starting with plain bad levels, slowly moving through the beginner phase, which then culminated in the largely hit-and-miss Planetary pack (my rating: 7.9); and finally moving onto his most recent work such as Wicked Wood, one of the most played levels on the jazzjackrabbit.net clan ladder, Faw’s evolution couldn’t be more obvious. And it doesn’t just end there, as Frontier Falls is at another tier of levels entirely.

While other level makers only theoretize about creating a perfect CTF level, Faw wastes no time and goes for it. CTF, being a gamemode treated more seriously than the others, has its own standards, and thus perfection, or being close to perfection, is very much possible. Is this level balanced? Yes, it’s nearly impeccably balanced. Does it flow well? No flow problems are to be found, everything falls in place. It’s neither too enclosed or too open, and neither too horizontal or vertical. Is it biased? All three characters have their own ways to shine here. Is it versatile? While intended for duels (the winner of the 2011 duel level contest), this holds very well in a 3on3 game, and will work in big games and also the bash.

Is it original? While it’s not anything groundbreaking on the first sight, there’s more to Frontier Falls than just the usual CTF level. The pit “concept” is as old as SILWI is, but seeing how Faw could have used a death pit instead (which would have killed this level), it’s quite refreshing. No Bouncer or Seeker powerups equals no silly spamming, and you’ll have to do your best with RFs and Toasters (which isn’t difficult, given the layout, but still some skill is required). There’s plenty of room for RF tricks, wall jumps, messing around with the carrots with TNT and Toaster, etc. You’d be hard pressed to find any sort of flaw here at all – this is as close to a perfect CTF level as possible.

Even if FawFul had to use an edit of an edit of the original Carrotus tileset, it’s still the very peak of its possibilites. Faw does the smart thing and instead of using every single tile he could, he sticks to the usual Carrotus eyecandy with some additions, such as the multi layered caves (the patches of black tiles giving more depth), the little holes in the ground with wood over them, etc. Instead of littering the level with carrots and pumpkins, Faw uses them sparingly to provide some small, reddish variation from the green and brown. The swirly, ropey pumpkin plants are replaced with the small grapevines lifted from Psych, to a great effect – this feels much more of a standalone world than another Carrotus level.

And of course, there are the titular frontier falls. While this idea has been done before many times (how often do you play JJ2 online PT32?), it has never been used with such effect before. It’s the key part of the visuals, yet it’s not overbearing or annoying (if you like, though, you can disable it with a JJ2+ trigger command). The waterfall theme makes sense with so much vertical gameplay and falling going on. Because of JJ2’s limitations, Faw had to settle for a less complicated backdrop for the top parts of the level. Some may dislike its simplicity but I love it, it feels very natural. Together with the excellently chosen music track, the eyecandy creates a compelling ambience that I immerse myself in every time I play. I’ve said this several times before and I’ll repeat it again: this is the ultimate Carrotus level. There will never be a Carrotus level looking as good as Frontier Falls again.

This is FawFul’s best level yet, this is XLM’s best release yet, this is the best CTF level of the year and one of the best period. It was worth enduring Faw’s comparatively sucky levels just to see him make this one. Congratulations and don’t stop JCSing!