Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

They should be using 32 colors by default, not 256…

Dx’s Jazz X was started before you joined the community, actually.

I am technically more than a year late with this but whatever >O. Since the SP levels included with this aren’t really the forte of this pack and since they’re more of a bonus than anything, my rating for this pack will not include those levels’ quality in account. Anyway, here goes:

Theming and Eyecandy – 5 out of 5

The levels’ atmosphere is possibly what Blacky excels on, and it shows. Those levels are a real pleasure to look at, I have found myself stopping running to look at things; and given that I am really picky on eyecandy, that should mean something ;). There’s a lot of detail everywhere, many original and interesting effects… not much to say here. Best marks for the eyecandy.

Gameplay – 5 out of 5

The gameplay is for the most part as good as the eyecandy. As an experienced levelmaker, Blacky obviously knows how to lay out a level well; none of the levels will get too crowded nor too empty. The flow is also really close to perfection – it (as the author says) finds the balance between a sloppy flow and a fully automatic one. Also the levels are good enough in their size… not much to say here as well. This is just some very very good gameplay.

Eventing – 4 out of 5

Rating placement of events gets really annoying when you need to sum up 15 levels ;|. Anyway, nothing was too wrong with the eventing in the levels. No amateurish stuff like a 40 second shield put in all the open, or Jazz starts in a ctf level. However, there wasn’t anything overly original about the eventing either (aside from the SP levels, but they’re not mentioned like I said), so that’s why the eventing doesn’t get a 5/5. Sorry blax ;D

• Eyecandy pwns, gameplay pwns

• The eventing doesn’t pwn too much but too bad ;D

Overall
This is a pretty much pwnage pack which you all OUGHT to download and host. Blablabla my head hurts I’m done with the review now >O

>O Fearofdark officially gets the Overrater of the Month award.

Theming and Eyecandy – 2 out of 5

I’m not sure how to describe the eyecandy here. While the layer 4 looks oderately decent (if tad bit bland), the background is what threw me off while playing the level. Layer 8 is untextured (…), and layers 6 and 7 consist of lots of golden blocks slowly floating over the background! Just like in levels from 1999. Most of the level was also quite squared off and not really looking good. One thing the author did take care of is the lighting effects; they aren’t good enough to improve the eyecandy as a whole, though.

Gameplay – 1 out of 5

At the first sight, this level looked like it could have decent gameplay. However, the first sight popped like a bubble after I actually began walking around it. This level suffers from several crucial problems which no battle level should ever suffer from anymore. Like _*Hurt events*_. Hurt events are something you should NEVER put in a Battle level. The rest of the level is rather mediocre as well. The flow is rather quirky (“challenges”, as Fearofdark puts it, should never be used in a multiplayer level), the level is small, and also somewhat cramped in itself. Fun? Not really.

Eventing – 1 out of 5

The eventing was about as sloppy as the gameplay. There have been a few really bad things here, namely a 40 second Water Shield out in the open. I can only condone a shield if it’s put in an expensive coin warp or if it’s a 15 second shield only. Also, this level has TNT and Frostbiter ammo (always a bad idea to put those two in battle), horizontal springs and pinball objects (ruin the flow), and too many carrots/powerups for this size. Not a very interesting placement.

• The eyecandy isn’t what Zappo Egypt is…

• Basically the rest of the level.

Overall
This level is one of your first levels and it shows. Don’t be discouraged, though – a lot of people’s first levels were like this. Also, if some things in this review weren’t particularly clear, read this article. It should explain most of stuff you didn’t understand. That is all I have to say.

Theming and Eyecandy – 4 out of 5

This level uses the somewhat unpopular and overlooked Hocus Pocus EP1 tileset. Not many levels use this set, but for some reason all the levels using this set wind up looking good or at least moderately good. This level certainly falls under the first category – some of the eyecandy is pretty and creative, for example the translucent “signs” on brick background walls. However, that’s about the only one kind of decoration you may find on the layer 4 background – the rest of the brick walls are somewhat bland. So are bland the masked tiles on the layer 4 – there’s barely any different kinds of bricks used there rather than just the typically used 2×1 light brown brick from the ep1 forest levels. The background layers are a different story though, the color the background fades in looks natural and nice, and the background layers also look good enough. One thing bugging me is that layers 5 and 6 remain unused. So much could be done with those! Like changing the layer 7’s tile colors into something else with some translucency tricks. Too bad D=

Gameplay – 5 out of 5

The gameplay was done well. The flow was decent (aside from one place in the level where there was a lot of springs). The level was actually quite smallish, but it used its space well for the most part and wasn’t cramped. Actually, most of the level was rather open, and that allowed to easily dodge the available weapons. Also, both teams should be rather balanced overall in a match. Not much else to say here.

Eventing – 3 out of 5

This is where this level falls prey. First of all, why is it the defending team who has access to the control room? I’d say that’s what the host has to do, not some random players. Also, one thing I also didn’t quite like is carrots in the playable area. Carrots by themselves are okay, but this time they seemed to be just scattered. If you’re going to put in carrots, put them in a team’s spawning place. Speaking of the spawning places, the attacker’s spawn spot seemed unnatural. If the level is about breaking into a dungeon, why do they warp in the middle of the dungeon itself? There’s the roof of the castle where BN resides, that could have been a good spawning place for the attackers. Also the powerups seem to be also quite randomly scattered. You could have made it so that both teams spawn with a few PU’s on their own and don’t get anymore ammo from that point.

• Pleasant eyecandy
• Decent gameplay and flow
• A logical layout

• Somewhat illogical carrot placement
• Mildly scarce ammo

Overall
This is a pretty decent Assault. Aside from some placement problems, it’s a level worth an occasional hosting. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it used in a JDC event either… so go download.

I think it’s a good time as any to tell you right in your face that the whole idea of JazzBusters is useless.

THAT’S A FACT JACK

I don’t really think this needs to be TSF… care to send somebody the source files (tileset and mask) to someone to compile it in 1.23?

This is neat, btw.

WINAMP MAYBE

…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?