Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

…except the palette edit wasn’t AntiDevan’s.

The eyecandy here does the work well. Unlike many of the levels using this tileset, this level really feels like set in a hot environment. Sprite/foresprite layers look really good. The walls are all detailed and give this level a semi-3Dish feel. Layer 5 is used to help out the sprite eyecandy, and it does the job. Lots of Flicker Light events make in front of the lavafalls make up for a very well created effect. However, the background layers suffer from lack of originality. The same background has been used to death, and the moving lava on layer 6 doesn’t really help it out. Satan planned something to move across the lava (the bubble animation?), but that was deleted and remnants of the planned layer can be seen in its properties.

This level finds the happy medium between two kinds of bad flow. You can’t really say whether do you have to jump a lot in this level or not, it’s all very well balanced. The layout also works. It’s mostly enclosed, albeit there’s enough space for the players to move around without bringing on the chaos. Also this level is rather small, and thus not reccomended for a bigger group of people. 3 players will be sufficient.

The placement is alright. The ammo is spread out fairly, and in some nice ammo patterns as well. There are also a few fastfires to help out the Blaster PU, and rather scarce seekers. The two latter powerups are harder to get, as the Bouncer PU requires some RF climbing, and the RF PU is hidden somewhere too (not telling you where >D). Also if you’re low on ammo, you can get to an ammo barrel and get some ammo. This level has also two carrots (like Satan pointed out) and they’re also placed fairly well. Nothing extraordinary, though, and none of them is hidden (I couldn’t find the upper one though). Their respawn time is also alright.

• Well done eyecandy
• Smooth gameplay
• Original layout
• Enough ammo
• Sufficient number of carrots, considering the fact that two of the three powerups are hidden

• Rather small

Overall

This is a well done battle level. It was approved by CelL and FS who organised Anniversary Bash 7, and that should be enough of proof (aside from my review). IMO this is one of the better levels of this year, so download. OR I BAN.

Theming and Eyecandy – 2 out of 5

I ran down the first level in the pack and suddenly was utterly dismayed. It suffers from the same problem as Epic’s levels kind of do – while it’s supposed to be a cave, why does it look so darn open?! There’s something unrealistic floating in the background too, making it look like the place is actually a lush grassland dubbed as a cave because instead of sky you see a giant drab wall. Violet’s example level showed a cave-like environment, and that is where the standard was set. As soon as I got past level one, I got to the second one. My Spaz started in a cavelike thing again (which looked way better than the first level overall), and then he proceeded to the surface. I was immediately dismayed (again \\o/) to see that there is nothing in the background! Just the sun floating below the sky and something supposed to be large tree branches to help out the trees on layer 4. Putting a few mountains in the background would be a way better thing to do, and Littlefreak could even try to make the building you approach in another level out of some tiles. The aforementioned trees look kind of dead too, as for the most part they’re devoid of any kind of leaves. Are the trees dead for a reason or another? Anyway, I found my way out of the dead tree canopy and approached the building, even though nothing in level 2 looked like one. SURPRISE! Level 3 suffers from the same problem as 1 does! LF barely used any of the cool possible effects WSF features, and the eyecandy turns out being worse than in the example levels again. On the contrary to the first three levels, level 4 actually uses background eyecandy. The problem is, they have been borrowed from Mike’s battle level! Bah. Other than that it looked just like level 3, maybe except for the sewer environment, which was kind of original and is the one of the few things saving the eyecandy from getting the lowest score possible.

Gameplay – 2 out of 5

The gameplay in those 4 levels wasn’t really any better. They were all rather short and easy (I played on Hard). And yet again, the most disappointing level is level 1! Considering the open structure of that level, I just jumped above most of the enemies and dodged the rest of them. Blah! No challenge at all. On the contrary, the latter levels were pretty challenging, but not because they had some extremely well done traps. Level 2 is evil because lots of the branches in the dismal tree canopy are on layer 5 and thus it takes you a while to climb up after you crashed a certain trigger crate (why would anyone leave a switch opening the door of a fortress in all open?). Then you fight the Tuf Turtle Boss (no real challenge either) and approach level 3. In one certain spot, there’s a row of doors and you need to do a certain thing to open/destroy them. The problem is, you are supposed to figure out what do you need to do, and it obviously takes a while and is rather tedious. After that you must destroy a crate with a frog (why with a frog? =( ), and then face a few demons in a small room with collapsing scenery. Fun? Not really. Then comes the rather tedious as well level 4. You need to figure out what to shoot in order to proceed a few times, destroy a few crates, and approach the sewer. The sewer is probably the coolest part of the whole levelpack. You fall into something like acid, and must quickly get out. Then your character gets dizzy and sees himself on an airboard (coincidientally enough, I felt rather dizzy on that certain part as well ;D), and gets out. If the sewer part wasn’t this short, the gameplay itself would get a 3 instead of a 2. However, it’s extremely short for one reason or another. Anyway, your character exits the sewer, passes a collapsing bridge and fights something supposed to be a blur wannabe (As if me and Defost weren’t enough.) and looking like an Uterus boss. The arena was barely challenging at all, so the boss died and everyone lived happily ever after. Blah. Uninteresting gameplay.

Eventing – 2 out of 5

The eventing was also floppy. Most of the ammo was just scattered around in some random forms, and so were the coins. All the bonuses require 20 coins (more variety required =( ) and often they’re overpowered. Level 1 lets you choose between a Bouncer PU or a Toaster PU, Seeker PU in level 3 and Bouncer PU again in level 4. So if you pick Toaster PU in level 1, you will get Bouncer in level 4 anyway, so what’s the point of choosing one over another one?

• A few original things in level 4…

• Basically the rest.

Overall
This wasn’t all that good. Doesn’t really apply to today’s standards, and most of it is rather evil and tedious. The level 4 is semi-cool as it has an original part, which is the sewers. Unfortunately, not much else is original here, so…

EDIT: This was kind of too harsh.

…why does this extract to another folder…

This is better.

Very nice thing ;D

and MAKE MORE TILESETS SIR

RF climb*

*Crysilis

First of all, the eyecandy didn’t really impress me. Background layers are all stolen from the official Carrottus levels (bad move), there’s no foreground, and sprite layer eyecandy isn’t all that pretty. Aside from the level being bland, there were barely any tilebugs, something which you don’t see often in Carrottus levels. My only complaint is that after the floor in the arena with Bubba collapses, the text sign still floats midair. Some items tend to float back and forth between layer 3 and 4, too.

As for gameplay… the idea of getting coins and getting back has been done before (in Carrots’ Hot Cross Bunnies or Blur’s Devan Express, for example), although mixing it with a frog-only level was a large leap in increasing this level’s originality factor. Add some push-a-crate-into-TNT things, and you have a nice semi-original level. However, the way your ideas were executed leaves much room for improvement, as following bugs pretty much destroy the gameplay.

• Bubba is able to jump out and/or fall off the arena.
• The second TNT stick is able to kill the floating lizard.
• No one ways on the large four branch trees.

The way events are spread around is nice as well. There are enough (maybe a bit too much) carrots to keep the player alive (something which you’ll need in the hard mode), and most of the enemies seem to be put strategically (dragons and bats, for example). There might be too little coins though, with the limit of 10 coins the level turns out to be a rather small one (pity).

• Nice mix between a coin hunt and a frog-only level.
• Fairly balanced.
• A noticable difference between skill settings.

• Not all that good eyecandy.
• Short.
• Bugs >O!

Overall, this is a pretty nice level, a rather bland a short one though. Keep on making levels, you can get even better. =)

Why not use the “REUPLOAD” function…

Just a little comment on Violet’s description.

“Two other levels, battle4 and race4, are only available in .lev form, which is very different form of encryption and much harder to convert, if not impossible.”

It must be possible. I don’t think that Cliffy would have time and will to 99% accurately remake all the levels in JCS.

[2011 EDIT: LOL I AM DUMB]

And have you asked Icey for permission to edit his tileset?

No it’s not.

I don’t really have much time to review, so I will keep this short.

This level is a brilliant example of how to use Blade’s recently (one month ago? ;p ) uploaded tileset, Islands. The tileset use is really splendor. With all of the layers being used and gems scattered on the whole level (like Radium has said on this level in Anniversary Bash 7 server, “INTERACTIve eyecandy fx” the outcoming effect is a pure pleasure to the eye. However, I do have a few (really, really minor) gripes. Por exampla’, the coast-like thing on layer 5 visible when you’re underwater shouldn’t have bushes (unless they’re the underwater kind of).

The gameplay is as smooth as it gets with a Blackraptor level. No flow issues, clear and easy to learn layout (after a few minutes of playing in here you should remember each place and most of the (rather pointless, but still funny) secrets), bits of creativity there and there (like both of the coin warps, allowing for quick moving from edge of the map to edge of the map if you have got enough coins. I like it very much, it’s extremely useful when it comes to strategies in this level. Aside from a very slight Spaz bias in some of the places, the gameplay rocks.

Placement of events is a strong point of this level as well (to be honest this level lacks any weak points whatsoever ;p ). The powerups are all logically placed, maybe except for Toaster powerup placed just a few tiles away from the underwater area ;p but that’s about it. There’s enough ammo scattered over the map, and you won’t find yourself running into a place lacking any kind of ammo. Somehow TNT manages to work in this environment as well (handy for blowing up opponents chasing you underwater), and that’s a rare thing in battle. The wide variety (vaarsiinety!!!11omb) of food also makes its job; you will get a Sugar Rush (rather pointless as well) in a matter of seconds. And of course there are three carrots. Unlike WR has said, it’s quite hard to stay alive even with three carrots, when you consider the level layout as a rather tricky one. The similar situation (and the same review issue ;p) could be seen in FireSworD’s Garden Brawl.

(Or it might be just me being rusty. ;p)

Overall, this level does a flawless job on putting you on a pirate coast, which is what the tileset is supposed to represent by itself, but that’s an other story. ;p In short, I give this the rating of 8.7 and a download reccomendation. Keep on making levels like this, Blacky!

Because he can.

It’s not the trigger crate what blocks the wallclimb spot, it’s the trigger zone. It’s there so latecomers don’t wallclimb in when game starts. However, this system falls prey when server is laggy, and right now I’m modifying it. Thanks for noticing that, Blacky.

(blah) Nonetheless, thanks for pointing the bugs out, Sonyk. You helped me with making these levels better, thanks to you. =)

“Just upload it normally by putting both files into the zip.”

Good luck on trying to upload a .zip which is 5 MB big.

Example levels don’t have to be super-l33t-wow-omg levels, all they have to do is to show what you can do with the tileset and how to use some tiles…

Egypt you used is Kejero’s.

What. The. Hell.

Whatever you may think, Battlea is NOT a secret level. Moreso, Battle4 is a level which came with v1.00g. However, the edit itself is awful enough to blissfully ignore that Battle4 has been done. Hurt events. Lighting Shield. Ultimate Weapon of Doom accessible via a coin warp. Invincibility carrot kept. And many more poorly overlooked flaws.

Far Out has been edited so badly that I just can’t explain how badly is that done. Zapper apparently has no clue how to make foreground layers move, so he puts there various loads of junk hoping that someone (maybe Jarno?) could find it nice. The way to access the level itself is also bad. Crash a crate and get a secret!!1

Anyway, as Zapper has informed me, I shouldnt rate it because it’s not a level pack, but a patch (tisk tisk). gg.