Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Crystal Clear
This is the first level of DarkSonic in a very long time, and the first review of my hands in a very long time. I’d like to review one of my old pal’s levels again, so let’s start with this one, Crystal Clear, which I beta-tested. Hold on.

EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
Let’s begin with the visionary things. DarkSonic used the Mezmerize tileset, which is – as he says in his comment – a bit overused, but that doesn’t really bother to me. I don’t really like the tileset at all (I’m more of the natural type) but that’s not a fault of DarkSonic so I wouldn’t lower my rating for this. The eyecandy in this level is decent, and combined with the diamond-like music file, it breathes out a nice atmosphere which I like. Most of the tile placement is neat, however the background could have been better, I would have used the blue one instead of the green one. Now the contrast between the background and the wall near the base is too low.

AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
DarkSonic did, in my opinion, very decent ammo placement in this level. The single ammo is placed in many forms, also is Fast Fire located at some places. The level has one Full NRG carrot in the lower side of the level, which involves the bottom of the map in the gameplay. The three Powerups are chosen as kind of usual (Toaster, Bouncie and Seeker) although they are all placed inside sucker tubes, which adds some originality to the map. The Toaster and Bouncie can only be reached by weapons, the Seeker also by sidekick (it’s in the top of the level)

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.25 out of 2.0
The structure contains the biggest problems of the level. Most of the time DarkSonic picks a symmetrical layout for his level. In this one he used a semi-symmetrical layout but his formerly squared-off style is still visible at some places, however he improved a lot. The walkways however are sometimes a bit too narrow and combined with sometimes hard to see objects it can be frustrating to move around quickly. The sucker tubes to leave the bases are the only way out and can be used for camping. A part I really dislike are the blocks below the bases which are one-ways. The structure is not bad, but could be much better.

GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
The gameplay of this level varies from point to point. In some ways it’s funny to play this level, mostly thanks to the good ammo placement and the – as above said – excellent choice of music. The eyecandy can be annoying a bit at frist but when you get used to it it’s not that bad. A thing that kills a perfect experience of gameplay is the somewhat annoying structure, which takes away a big part of the flow.

RATINGS:
This comeback level of DarkSonic is perhaps not as good as it should be, but it’s really not bad at all, and I expect better things to see in the future. For the next time you could use a more open structure and, perhaps, a better tileset? For now, a 7.0.
Score: 1.75+2.0+1.25+2.0 = 7.0
Download: Yeah, it’s kinda funny.
Host: Not really, perhaps a single time.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW

CTF – Madmirrow
Well, another CTF level by Olsen. I feel that I like to write some reviews for levels again, so I don’t hesitate to create a nice review for this Mez (argh! Again!) CTF level by Olsen. Anyway, here’s my review.

EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
The level has a good start. The eyecandy is quite decent, especially the good backgrounds. I did not notice any errors in this level, not in the background, not in the foreground. The eye candy is further not really special, it looks a lot like the Mez level by SabaSpaz uploaded a few days ago (I wonder if the graphics in this level are copied from that level by the way…) Anyway, reasonable eye candy, keep up the good work.

AMMO: 0.5 out of 2.5
While the eyecandy was good, the ammo placement really sucks. About 5 types of ammo are placed in this level, in very small portions. Only Pepperspray, TNT, FastFire, Toast and Bouncie are placed around (just single pickups) and they are far from enough for a decent duel. The two best ammo kinds are not in the level, I mean Seeker and RF. And where the heck do you need TNT for? A really bad point is that there are no PU’s in the whole level, which sucks a lot. Two carrots are placed on both sides of the level, but they are not really necessary. Overall for ammo: bad, lousy weapon types, no powerups, unneeded carrots.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 0.5 out of 2.0
The structure of this level reminded me a lot of a very bad CTF level that was uploaded a few months ago, a level with the Ice Heck tileset wherein you only could run around between the two bases, it took an hour to reach them, and there was only one boring way. This level is almost the same deal. Only one path leads form the first base two the second, fortunately splitted into two paths at the bottom, so there is a little diversity. In short words: this level is too boring and not funny to play.

GAMEPLAY: 0.75 out of 3.0
This level is simply not funny to play, and after I made it from the blue to the red base, I was bored enough to shut down the game. The only thing that makes the level still funny to play is the decent eyecandy, the other things just are bad. The level really doesn’t have a bad flow, but it’s just so boring and some places are a little hard to reach for Jazz users. About the music; I can’t say like it, but it’s not bad either.

RATINGS:
Another prove of a plan dthat doens;t work out. For another time: GOOD EYECANDY DOES NOT MAKE A GOOD LEVEL! And this especially goes for this level, which is really a cramp to play and boring. You still have a lot to learn as a level creator, but try to listen to ideas of reviewers and you might learn something ;) For now, a 3.5 is my final rating.

Score: 1.75+0.5+0.5+0.75 = 3.5
Download: No.
Host: No.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

MEZTAR (or, CTF of Life? I dunno)
Well, it’s been a while since my last level review here on J2O, and my comrade R3ptile forced me to write a review for this level, because he tought that it was overrated. I felt like writing, but I didn’t have much time (got to go soon) and so here’s my “quite short” review.

EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
Again a level with the Mez tileset. Hurray. If you read my previous reviews then you would know that I’m not a great fan of these Mez tilesets (I think they are overused and not so good) but the eyecandy used here is not so bad. There are a few nice backgrounds and there aren’t much tile errors. It could have been a little bit more diverse, though, and I’m definitely not really impressed. But that’s just my personal opinion, and I won’t count in the score that I don’t like the set. Overall: Nothing special, but not bad.

AMMO: 1.5 out of 2.5
Same thing goes for the ammo placement in this level. Not really impressive, but also not really bad. The creator has chosen for a not so standard 4 Powerup strategy. In my opinion this is a little bit too much, because the size of the level is not really big and I think it would be best for duels. The ammo could have been spread among the whole level more: most of the carrots and some powerups and other things are placed next to the base, not really a good idea and it looks untidily. About the carrots: too many of them are placed in this level. There is a Full NRG carrot in the middle and two smaller ones at the both bases. Only the Full NRG would have been enough in such a small level like this. Overall: average, but not so good ammo placement.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.25 out of 2.0
I can say both good and bad things about the structure of this level: a good point is that the level is quite open and you can move around freely in the most places. There are also a few bad points about the level, like the annoying spring placement above both bases. This is taking away the flow and I don’t see the need of it. Another point of complains is that the level is way too empty: you can walk around for ages without seeing a thing. Overall: not so good structure.

GAMEPLAY: 1.75 out of 3.0
In the previous three points you could see that I was not really impressed by the three main points in the level, and a lot can be improved in later levels, I’m sure about that. The gameplay has good and bad sides: the level is kinda funny for a small duel or a skirmish but the level is way too empty and boring. So you don’t get the maximum score. The music is fine in my opinion.

RATINGS:
As you could see in the four points above I’m really not as much impressed by this level as Acid, and I doubt that I will be impressed later by this level. The author really didn’t make a bad job with this level, especially not for his first CTF level, but he still has a lot to learn. Good luck with your next levels, I look forward to see them. 6.2.

Score: 1.75+1.5+1.25+1.75 = 6.25 = 6.2
Download: Perhaps.
Host: Only once. For testing.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

Castle’s(?) Of Horror
Another level of Dx, and one of his first CTF levels I believe…. This levels is also for the XLM CTF Contest, just like DarkSonic’s Cavey Forest and my own Eternal Gardens, which I uploaded just before you. Anyways, I have made my intro long enough, let’s see if this level can go for gold in the CTF Contest!

EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Probably the best thing about the level is the use of the eyecandy, which doesn’t have much errors It’s not too buggy and I liked it, however sometimes you don’t see where you can walk or not because of the bricks in the front layer. Backgrounds are original, but a little bit too plain. I really liked the name text one the gravesto… What the heck… Argh, you spelled my name wrong again! How many times have I told you during the testing that it’s ChippieBW and not ChippyBW!!! Fiend! Well, for the rest I have not much to say bout the eyecandy, it’s as fine as it is, but you could have used not so much in the front layers. That would guarantee a better movement.

AMMO: 1.5 out of 2.5
Unfortunately the ammo isn’t as good as the eyecandy, and I guess the same thing will count for the rest of the level, unfortunately. Starting of with the Powerups, the three PU strategy (Seek-Toast-Bouncy) is quite original, but I doubt if it will work well, because the Toaster isn’t just a weapon that good in my opinion. About the coin warp idea: it is nice, but a little bit unreasonable, because you need 20 coins to get to the warp and take the Seeker and Full NRG, ten coins would have been more then enough, or even less. Now, you just don’t have enough time in a quick match to collect 20 coins for the Seeker or the carrot. A example of good coin placement is the level Castle Of Corruption by Snooze, that level had a good coin warp. The smaller ammo is also not really good, probably because you don’t see the most of the ammo.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.0 out of 2.0
This is another point of critism, the structure isn’t that good. The fact that kills it is the fact the the eyecandy with the bricks in the foreground kills a lot of the structure, because you don’t know where you need to go a lot of times. Also the sucker tubes ain’t well, sometimes you run up to them because you don’t see them and you get busted out of the house. There are in my opinion too much small holes in the level which make you lose the way behind the foreground eyecandy. Could be a lot better.

GAMEPLAY: 1.75 out of 3.0
The wrong spelling in my name already kills one of the three gameplay points (just joking) As you can see in the three points above I wasn’t really charmed about the gameplay. The eyecandy pleased me the most, but the sometimes un-nice placement and the structure which doesn’t provide a good flow takes even more points away. The music however is just fine, Haunted is a music file which fits right to this level.

RATINGS:
As you could read above I wasn’t really hysterical about this level, the good eyecandy just saved it from a vote below average (5.5) However there are still a lot of points which you need to improve. You have shown that you can create good eyecandy with this level, now try to combine eyecandy and good gameplay in your next level. I guess you surely will create better CTF level in the future, don’t worry. But, is this enough for winning the CTF Contest? I’m sure not. I don’t want to be arrogant or egoistic, but in my opinion my level and DarkSonic’s one were a lot better. Maybe you can get a bronze medal, but I doubt there’s more for you to get here. Here you go, a 6.2

Score: 2.0+1.5+1.0+1.75
Download: I don’t really know… it’s not a really bad level, but it needs a bit more work. I wonder why this level is 1.24 while the tileset got just converted to 1.23. A little bit useless, and it takes away a lot of hosts.
Host: Nope. There are better CTF levels too host, and I wouldn’t even host it to just read the gravestones.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

Cavey Forest
DarkSonic, a friend of mine and co-leader of XLM has made another level, this time it it for our won XLM CTF Contest. Yay! Happy Birthday anyway (I think I already said it to you on MSN) Well, let’s check out if this level is worth DarkSonic’s 14th birthday party, and if it has a chance on the XLM CTF Contest. Prepare for a review!

EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
DarkSonic used the forest tileset of Blade, a quite good and nice to use tileset, but the eyecandy that is given in this set is a little bit below the average. Anyway, DS did a good job with the eyecandy, however it could be better in some places. The backgrounds are nice and the caves have a Dark Atmosphere. I didn’t see any tile errors, however, the eyecandy could be better. I think it’s more the fault of the tileset then of the creator, but it just doesn’t look so good, unless the author really took the maximum capacity of the tileset. Eyecandy can be a little bit confusing sometimes, if you look to the pathways at the floor or other parts, like when you need to take the carrot (it looks like it is in the ground, but it isn’t) and the part in the middle when you have to jump through two ledges in the foreground. Also, the top corner parts could have more EC, and the walls just look dull in the corners of the level.

AMMO: 1.75 out of 2.5
New let’s take a look at the ammo placement in this level. DS used a familiar three Powerup strategy (Seeker-Bouncer-RF) which is very unoriginal, but decent. However, the two secondary Powerups could have been placed in a more original way, they are now just flat at the ground. The Seeker PU looks hard to get in the first place, but it’s rather easy when you just run up the hill using Electro Blasters. Some ammo is placed at the ground or in other places, this could have been better, and sometimes the ammo looks a bit chaotic Also there a good points about the ammo, there is plenty of it, and most of the time it is easy to reach.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.5 out of 2.0
The structure of the level this time has it’s good and bad sides. Good side of the structure is the fact that there is a really decent flow, and you can move around not too hard. Bad sides are the flow are the fact that there is too less space sometimes, especially in the middle where you have to run through very narrow corridors. Another bad point of the level is the fact that the placement of the level is not matching with the rest of the level. You better had put the bases in corners of the level, now they are a bit too close to each other, and the worst thing is that’s it’s possible to run from the red base to the blue one and vice versa in a single, non-stop run, with just 1 jump! Could have been better, but the rest is OK. Not much diversity in movement however, but enough.

GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
Maybe I was a little bit hard in the first three points of the level, but the gameplay isn’t really that bad. It could have been better though, with a little bit more original eyecandy, more original placement, and a nicer level structure. You told me you tried to make your level a little less “squared-off” (a form of the level when all platforms are huge blocks) and you attempt has partially succeeded, but I still can see that you’re falling back in the same style sometimes, especially in the roofs and the corners of the level. About the flow; it’s quite nice, could have been a little bit better perhaps in some areas but still OK. I like the choice of the music, it’s some kind of dreamy-dark trance/techno, I like the flavour.

RATINGS:
At the end of this review I can say that DarkSonic made a level that is a little bit better then previous ones, but I guess the author ca still do better. It’s a little bit different then other levels of him who looked a lot like each other, but it’s still not different enough to be a complete new experience. Maybe you should get rid of the standard symmetrical structure in your levels, if you make something next time that is asymmetrical I think you could get higher votes (if they have the same quality) And now the answer of the question: is this level good enough to win the XLM CTF Contest? drums Well, I don’t really know it. The level is a bit better then the one of Dx, but I don’t know sure if it’s good enough to win. I guess it will be in the top 3 at least, depends on what Snooz has made. For now, here you have a 7.2.

Score: 2.0+1.75+1.5+2.0 = 7.25 = 7.2
Download: Yes, it is a little style change in DarkSonic’s level and it could be funny to download.
Host: I don’t think so, I think you’ll get too bored of the level when you host it online too often. However, it could be funny for a few times, but not more. I guess that few times are already over now.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

Battle in the nature –2-
Well, according to previous levels of Olsen which weren’t very good (cough cough Skeleton Castle) I didn’t except much things from this level, but according to the rating of ice skull which was 8.7 (however I doubt that this is a fair rating and I know sure that it will be deleted because of no explanation) But the author could be improved since his last. You can see it in this review.

EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
When I started to play the level I was more then surprised for a moment, because the eyecandy that is shown here really offers almost the best thing of the fine Nature’s Ruins tileset. You already have a higher score for eyecandy from me then your total score in Skeleton Castle! I really can’t extract much points from the score for the eyecandy, it just looking good, and it uses almost every tile of the tileset. It has nice backgrounds, that move good with the other things in the level, there are no tile errors, the trees are placed good and the leaf shower is OK. I don’t have anything more to say about the eyecandy used here.

AMMO: 1.25 out of 2.5
This is something other: the ammo placed in this level is not really good, more something like bad. There are no Powerups in the level, which is truly a bad point, because a battle level just isn’t good without powered up ammunition. Other bad points about the ammo: the amounts of ammo that are placed. You could have made a much better ammo structure by dividing the ammo over the level, or even better by adding more ammo to the level. Now, there are a few places where you can get the ammo (other not so good point: the ammo used is particularly ammo of bad weapons like Ice Gun and TNT) and the ammo is in large groups. Also, there are no carrots in the level, which makes it impossible to heal and this takes away a lot of the strategy and thinking, because it will be more something like a fragging level now. Besides, the ammo respawns way to fast, this takes away more from the strategy.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.25 out of 2.0
The structure of the level has it’s good sides and it’s bad sides… I can tell positive things about it, like the fact that the structure is very diverse and there are multiple ways to get to a point in the level. But there are also a lot of bad sides to tell about: look at the destruct sceneries in the level. They could fit nice to a singleplayer level, but they simply don’t belong in a battle level. You should remove them. Other thing is the amount of one ways used, this may get you stuck in the trees. I also have some problems with the closed structure: it could have been more open in my opinion.

GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
Now let’s tell something about the gameplay. Thanks to the good eyecandy used, the level looks fine and it’s funny to play in it, but there are a few less developed points that take away some points from the score. The flow in this level isn’t also that good, it could have been better if the structure was a little bit more open and the movement was easier. The music file that is used fits perfectly to the level and it matches with the gameplay.

RATINGS:
As you can read I was a little bit surprised about what I saw here, especially looking to the fact that Olsen’s previous level just sucked. However, this level gets just an average score, but that’s just the problem with the placement, The ammo could have been a lot better, and the structure could be better too. Now, this level ends up somewhere in the average zone. If you count all the scores up, you will get to a 6.5. And that’s exactly what I’m giving this level.

Score: 2.0+1.25+1.25+2.0 = 6.5
Download: Maybe. The level has it’s good sides and his bad sides, but I guess it’s worth the downloading.
Host: I don’t really know. I’m sure there are better battle levels to host, especially since NiQ uploaded his really good Unnamed Battlepack yesterday. I guess that levels are better, but this one could be fine for just only once.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

The Unnamed Battle Pack Volume 2
I Thought you were uploading the XLM Contest level? Ah well, the Unnamed Battle pack Level 2 will also be fine. Yes, I heard the rumours that there was a really good battle pack called UB1, also made by Snooz aka NiQ aka The chair aka Blue Chair etc. Well, let’s see if this pack is worth the same score as pack 1… What?! 6 Levels? Ah man, I guess I have to point them all out. Well, hold on, this is going to be a very long review, I guess my longest, and perhaps one of the longest on J2O… Sigh… I didn’t made my comments on the levels as long as I do in normal reviews, but because this is a pack, it will be sufficient I guess. Here we go:

Carrotus Clash
I wonder why the Carrotus tileset is getting so popular last time in battle levels? I wonder, Dx made a battle level with this set too a week or two ago and now Snooz uses it again in his UB-pack 2… Well, let’s check it out:
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Yep, this is good. With this eyecandy, you can see the Carrotus tileset at it’s best! Many different layers are used, and with the foreground and background it gives it a nice 3D look… In the game itself, you won’t find any bugs with the eyecandy, but if you look good in JCS you can see that some of the roof tiles don’t mix with the tiles above… Ah well, these are just small problems and don’t distract much from the score.
AMMO: 1.75 out of 2.5
Most of the ammo is placed fine, there are three PU’s which is perhaps a little bit too much for a level of this size, maybe 1 or 2 PU’s would have been enough. The smaller types of ammo are placed really good, very diverse and at good te reach spots. One problem about the placement: there isn’t any form of a carrot available in the level, which makes this level probably good for fun games and instagib, but less for serious duels… I don’t say I don’t like it, because battle3 also hasn’t carrots and it is still my favourite battle level, but it takes away a bit of the strategy.
LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.75 out of 2.0
This is good… The structure of the level is very nice, there are many types of movement and there are some sucker tubes which transport you secretly to other parts of the level. Everything is good te reach ands there is quite a good amount of diversity available. The structure is good, perhaps the level is a little bit too small sometimes, but this is also easy because you can access to every spot in no-time, and this adds speed to the level.
GAMEPLAY: 2.5 out of 3.0
I liked playing this level and I enjoyed the diversity of the gameplay. The music file used is standard, but of course it fits nicely to this level. The flow is most of the time OK and there is a good balance in the placement, every Powerup is placed on a different spot in the level so you need to walk around to get it. The speed is OK, because you can’t stay long at one place and you will have many encounters with enemies because of the small size (opposite to B3, which is too large so you never meet your enemies) This is a battle level with not really much strategy but surely a lot of fun!
RATINGS:
As you can see I liked this level most of the time, and it would be a good idea to host this online. Eyecandy is good, placement could be better sometimes but it’s OK and the structure and the gameplay are OK. This level gets a 8.0, up to the next one.
Score: 2.0+1.75+1.75+2.5 = 8.0
Host: Yeah, if you like battle this is a very good choice if you get sick of the old B# crap.

Woodland Warfields
Now we move on to the second level in the pack. Carrotus Clash was a really good opener, and now I will see if this level, called Woodland Warfields, is just as good as the first level in the pack.
EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
If you play the level for the first time, the first thing you will think is: Hey, the eyecandy used here is worse then in the first level. That’s a bad point. But, when you will play It a few minutes, you will see that it still looks very cool. If you open the level in JCS, you will see that this level is completely translucent and you can see through everything, which has a nice effect. The backgrounds are also good, standard thing, but they look really nice. Also, the background layer in layer 5 doesn’t move right along with layer 4, and this gives the level a very nice 3D look. So, this level gets the same score as the first level. Nice job.
AMMO: 2.25 out of 2.5
There is very good ammo placement in this level… Much better then in level 1. Just as in the first level of the pack, there are three PU’s placed here, but the placement itself here is better. The Toaster and Bouncer can this time only be get with the Electro blaster, so you need to use more skillz to get it. I’m glad that this level DOES contain carrots, in fact two +1 carrots. This is better, because you now need to use more strategy to achieve them. Other small ammo is all fine, good placement and not too hard, not too easy to reach.
LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.5 out of 2.0
I guess this is the only part in which the level is worse then in Carrotus Clash, because the structure isn’t that great. It is good, though, but not great. The level has an original shape, it is totally made of invisible wood but sometimes the sucker tubes and other points are hard to reach. But overall, the structure is more then OK, the ammo is well divided and it has a good flow and balance.
GAMEPLAY: 2.25 out of 3.0
I thought the gameplay would be just as good as in the other level, until I found a big bug which takes away 0.5 points of the score: there is no music file attached to this level. Unfortunately, this takes a lot of fun away. For the rest I don’t have to say much bad about the gameplay, there is a good flow almost everywhere (except the places with the sucker tubes perhaps) and the eyecandy isn’t annoying and there’s a good ammo balance and other things…
RATINGS:
This level could probably get a higher score then the other one if it had music in it, now it has the same. Eyecandy is good, perhaps some more eyecandy next time would be fine but I guess you couldn’t have done more with the tileset. Ammo placement is very good, and the structure is also pretty nice. Gameplay could have been very good if it had music in it, now it’s just good. Counted up everything this level also gets a 8.0
Score: 2.0+2.25+1.5+2.25 = 8.0
Host: Yes, see the comment at Carrotus Clash.

Evil Realms
Let’s move on to the third. This review is now already the biggest I ever made, and I have still 4 more levels to go! Let’s check out a new level, called “Evil Realms”…
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Considering the limited size of the tileset, and the eyecandy used here, I can say that the eyecandy in this level is almost perfect! The tileset doesn’t offer really much, but what I can say here is really good. The light settings give the level a dark atmosphere, and the background with the eyes in it give me the creeps… Just as was meant to be. I don’t got to see any bugs in the level, it’s just fine. The only little bug about the eyecandy is that you don’t see that much because of the darkness, and so you might bump up to some things sometimes. No comment further.
AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
NiQ did a nice job with the placement in this level. Just like the eyecandy was original, the placement is also original. About the powerups, there’s a strange combination of them. In usual levels you very often get to see a combination of Seeker-Bounce-Toast and RF, but here you see a combination of Pepper Spray and Electro Blaster. This is original, but an upgraded EB doesn’t really more damage then a normal one. Also the carrots could be divided a little bit better, because they are both in the upper side of the level now. Overall, the ammo is nice, and the other placement too.
LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.75 out of 2.0
There is a good structure in this level, better then in Woodland and just as good I guess as in Carrotus. Most of the time you can get around without problems, except you sometimes might bump up to a wall or something (because of the darkness merely) The level is quite open and you have lots of moving space.
GAMEPLAY: 2.25 out of 3.0
First, I must say that there’s again no music in this level ,which distracts a few points. You can say that most players have the music already, but I just reinstalled JJ2 and I have nothing. So, this is not really an argument. The flow in this level is most of the time good (thanks to the open structure mentioned above) and everything is OK. Despite the fact that there’s no music around, it still has a quite good gameplay.
RATINGS:
Probably this is the best level of the pack till so far, perhaps thanks to the open structure and the original placement and excellent eyecandy for a tileset of this use. No music, which is a bug, but still a quite good level. This gets a 8.0 too.
Score: 2.0+2.0+1.75+2.25 = 8.0
Host: Yes, see the comment at Carrotus Clash.

The Food Facility
This level name reminds me of The Food Factory, where have I seen that level before? Ah well, let us check out the fourth like in the good Unnamed Battle Pack. I wonder if it is just as good as the other ones…
EYECANDY: 2.25 out of 2.5
The eyecandy in this level is really owning… If you open the level in JCS, you will directly be swallowed by the beautiful eyecandy used and you can see that Snooz really has put a lot of work in the eyecandy to get it this beautiful as it is now… The background layers are truly terrific, just as the foreground layers. The only reason that I don’t give as much points for the eye candy as the maximum is the fact that you can’t always see what’s a platform because the background layers almost have the same colour as the sprite layer.
AMMO: 1.75 out of 2.5
Another example of good placement you can see in this level, and it truly honours the level name. There is a semi-usual combination of Powerups, with 3 Powerups (Toast, Bouncy and EB) You’ll get the EB directly when you start the level, in a isolated room where you can’t to normally. The rest of the ammo is placed fine, sometimes it’s a little bit hard to see where it is because of the huge amounts of food spread over the level. Another point of criticism: no carrot in the whole level. It could have been placed on a ideal spot at the point where the suckers cross each other, but it isn’t. For the rest the placement is just fine.
LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.75 out of 2.0
About the structure of this level I really don’t have much to say, it’s just good, sometimes very good. There is a huge diversity in moving around, just look at the sucker tubes and other original things (ropes, water blocks, sucker tubes, springs, etc.) perhaps a little less springs could have been used.
GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
The points above were very good, but after I all I didn’t like this level as much as the previous 3. There are just as fine, but there are a few problems that swallow away points from the gameplay rating. Again there is no music used, which again distracts 0.25 from the gameplay score. The flow in this level is OK, not as good as in the first 3 levels, but it’s decent. Just like the balance.
RATINGS:
I didn’t like this level as much as the other levels in the pack, but it’s still a good level. I wouldn’t prefer to host it above the three other level in the pack, but it’s at least better then numerous crap we see every day.
Score: 2.25+1.75+1.75+2.0 = 7.75
Host: Perhaps, not as good as the other three in the pack, but it’s nice. Host a a few times as battle level.

The Space Fortress
We are reaching the end of the pack, only two more levels to go! Now let’s check out the Space Fortress, the fifth level of the pack.
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
I don’t really know what I have to think of the eyecandy here… Let me say I just give it 2 points. There’s lots of animation and movement visible and the starts background is nice work, but the space ships in the front layers are really annoying and the only disturb the gameplay. But, there are no errors and almost everything is worked out fine, so I will give 2 points for this.
AMMO: 2.25 out of 2.5
As you can see in the score there’s some very good placement in this level. This time a two PU strategy was used, which is more then enough for a level this size. The ammo that has been placed is probably the best so far, but sometimes there are too huge blocks around. I’m very glad that there’s a carrot in this level, this is really godo for the strategy.
LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.75 out of 2.0
The structure here goes back to level 1 and 2 of the pack, because it’s not too big and easy to navigate. You can get around easily and all places are good to reach. The level is quite open and there are some sucker tubes which lead you around through the level. A good structure, in other words.
GAMEPLAY: 2.5 out of 3.0
In gameplay, this level is possibly the best level in the pack so far, because it offers lots of good things. Again, no music, and I will distract again 0.25 points for it. For the rest, there are almost no problems with the gameplay in this level. It’s just good. The level is open and thanks to this the flow is really good. The balance is fine
RATINGS:
Thanks to the open structure, the good eyecandy, the speedy gameplay and the nice placement I can say that this is the best level in the pack in my opinion, even with the very annoying spaceships floating over your screen. This level would really get higher scores when you left them. Now, the level is (very) good, the best level in this pack so far. It gets a 8.5 form me for that reason.
Score: 2.0+2.25+1.75+2.5 = 8.5
Host: Yeah, this probably is the best level in the pack.

Crystal Mania
Finally, the last level in the pack! I’m getting really tired now, so I’ll keep this a short one. Here it comes, will this be a climax or an anticlimax of the UB-pack 2?
EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
I guess this is the only level that has a visible parallaxing starts background, but this is only a good point, because otherwise this level would be nearly invisible. I don’t like the tileset of this level, because it’s too plain and hurting my eyes. Moreover, I don’t like the eyecandy that much in this level as in the other levels in the pack, in my opinion it’s the worst of all, but it’s still OK.
AMMO: 1.75 out of 2.5
This level has some weird placement, due to the annoying level structure which I will point out in later parts of the review. There’s a usual combination of powerups in this pack (Seeker, RF and Bouncy) and there are all placed in the upper side of it. The ammo ammo is allright, but it’s spread in an unlogical way so it’s hard to collect it.
LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.5 out of 2.0
I really didn’t like the structure used in this level; it’s really hard to navigate because of all the sucker tubes and the eyecandy makes it even harder to navigate. Perhaps you could have deleted some eyecandy in this level to make the paths more clear, or you could have deleted some sucker tubes to make the level a bit more open.
GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
As described in the point above, this level has worse gameplay then in the other level in the pack, mostly because of some bad points in the level structure and other problems, like the confusing eyecandy and unlogical placement at some places.

RATINGS:
As you can read in the points above I didn’t really like this level as much as I did like the other levels in the pack, because of the all the 4 elements of the level weren’t just as good as the other levels in the pack. I could say that the level pack UB ended in a anticlimax, because this level is the worst (however this is just in the order I played them, you also could have started with this level and ended with level 5, which is the best)
Score: 1.75+1.75+1.5+2.0 = 7.0
Host: There are better levels in this pack, but if this was a standalone level, then perhaps one or two times.

FINAL RATING (finally)
Oof, that was a heck of a review. I spent more then three hours on it, but it was really the worth. Overall I can say that this is a level pack with a lot of ups and downs, it has certain really good sides and also a few less good sides, but overall; this is really a battle pack you can’t miss. I didn’t play UB1, but I’m sure this pack is a good sequel. Perhaps not as good as his prequel, but it will be surely just as funny! If I count all the scores of the levels up and divide them by 6, then you will get the final score of 47.25 / 6 = 7.875, which I will round up to an 8.0. Good job. Now, I’m going to drink some coffee. Goodbye.

Score: 8.0+8.0+8.0+8.5+7.75+7.0 = 47.25 / 6 = 7.875 = 8.0
Download: Yes, it’s a good battle pack and something else then the ordinary.
Host: Yes, it’s a good battle pack and something else then the ordinary.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

Jungel(!) Flag Map
As you can see at the exclamation in the level title, I saw that the word Jungle is terribly spelled wrong here… Aw well, if that’s the only problem of the level, it would be allright. But, I saw this level first hosted in Winner’s server, and I have a terrible feeling about it… Hold on for a hard review!

EYECANDY: 0.5 out of 2.5
If I have to tell something good about the eyecandy, I would probably quit here. The only thing that’s good about the eyecandy (and probably about the whole level) is that is has a background. The rest of the eyecandy is simply said sucking. This level is equal to raping Agama’s lovely Swamp tileset, which is the best one around (see Marshland) But the eyecandy here is so bad… There are numerous tile errors, the floors of the level don’t match and there is so much more bad that I don’t want to even talk about it here… Please don’t pollute the server anymore which such bad eyecandy.

AMMO: 0.25 out of 2.5
Ammo? What ammo? Okay, there are some weird things in the level that can be called ammo (like the EB thing at the bases… where is that good for??) and there are two brown crates that contain 15 bouncies… As Winner said in his review, there is a shield used in this level. Everyone can say that shield are not wrong in MP, but I believe it is. How many times you got frustrated when you played in B1 or DW because the enemy used a shield? For myself, really a lot of times. Shields dimply suck, and the game creators shouldn’t have put them into the game. There are coins you can pick up, and they are all round a useless warp which warps you to a powerup place with horrible weapons. The placement is just bad, accept it.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 0.25 out of 2.0
Yep. This structure is completely ruined, because you put up a warp at the red base which directly lead to the blue base where you van get the flag, but there is no warp at the blue base to the red base. This is bad, because red is terribly biased with this, and the complete structure is ruined. I can’t call this much of a level, because there even isn’t a border around the map so you will get a flag bug when you touch it. There are some nonsense events placed around the level, like sucking hurt events and other bad points. What is this?? Ruined.

GAMEPLAY: 0.25 out of 3.0
As you all can read in the other points described above I really hated to play this level… The gameplay is horrible too. There isn’t any flow in this level, there are too much bugs and you put all three Swamp sets in the download, but not even a good music file… After five seconds of playing this game, I knocked my head against the monitor wishing I could play another level, but no, I have to protect other players from downloading this. As you see, the gameplay sucks, also thanks to the biased structure of the level.

RATINGS:
I can talk hours about everything that’s wrong in this level, but I guess that’s a little bit too much and the level is surely not worth it that I talk about it any further. The eyecandy is sucked, there are so much tile errors and problems that it’s damaging the eyes. Same goes for placement, this doesn’t make any sense and there’s isn’t hardly any ammo here. Structure is also terrible, no border around the level and there is some horrible biased warp above the red base… There is no music in the level and the gameplay makes you want to turn of the PC. Advice for the author: restart with you JCS skills, try to get a new start in level creator and carefully read your reviews, OR STOP CREATING. If you are a little bit better then go into a level group, maybe they can teach you how to create REAL levels. For now, you’re LUCKY, because I give this not the lowest score; just a 1.2. Bweurk. This level is the worst CTF level ever made, and it give a new dimension to sadness.

Score: 0.5+0.25+0.25+0.25 = 1.25 = 1.2
Download: Never.
Host: Never.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

Locked In A Lab
Well, another one of fearofdark’s levels… I thought he would quit creating when he made his fourth level, but here is it’s sixth. I guess he carefully read my review, because he said he made this level a lot longer then the other Mez level he created earlier (Electro Rabbit, a level I gave a average 6.2) Let’s check out if he learned something from the reviews I gave him…

EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
The level is made again with one of the Mez tilesets… It’s not my favourite tileset type, but it’s often decent. Fearofdark chose here for the Mez01 Tileset, a set we all know from the funny endurance level You Can’t Scream In Outer Space (LLOONNGG) But it doesn’t look like it was made with that set, because the backgrounds used here are totally different from that level. About the eyecandy, I cannot really say if it is very good or very bad eyecandy, but it leads me more into the positive direction then to the negative. There is some originality in this level although the tileset is overused (in example, the backgrounds and the light settings are fairly original and the look fine) About the sprite layer, I can say that I didn’t found any bugs around, but I also didn’t found the eyecandy very good in any way… But perhaps that’s just a failure of the tileset. The foreground layers are used nice, I can see that the author really put work in this level, but the foreground layer is sometimes annoying, because you can’t see where you’re shooting at (thanks to the strange vertical bars) Overall, I can’t say that the eyecandy is really good, but it’s decent here.

ENEMIES: 0.75 out of 1.0
Now let’s say something about the enemies. As fearofdark said in the author comment, this level is a lot bigger then the previous one, and so that means that there are more enemies around. About 4 types of enemies are used here: The red bubbles, the labrat, the fight turtle and the normal turtle, which is probably enough for this level, and it’s good. I like the amount of the enemies used in this level, it makes the level harder to play then the original SP ones and it’s a bit challenging in some way, because there aren’t that much carrots to heal you and there are now save points on your path, so the advice is: save the game a lot of times, or you have to restart! Overall, I like the enemy placement here, and it will be good for next levels.

PLACEMENT: 1.0 out of 1.5
Now something about the placement. If you play through the level you will sometimes see that the level is a little bit too empty at some places. There is not much ammo in some places and the other pickups can sometimes be hard to find… a little bit more food would be better. About the carrot placement, this has two sides; there aren’t that much carrots around and this will be a little bit hard for newer players, but it’s more like a challenge for experienced players. Perhaps you could add different difficulties next time, so that there are some more carrots in the Easy level and a little bit less in the Hard level. Overall, I can say that the placement isn’t that bad, but it could be improved at some places…

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.5 out of 2.0
Let’s talk about the structure. In the comment fearofdark said that the level was miles longer then the previous one. This is true, the level is really longer and it is of a good size, not too small, not too big. With this size you could get a maximal score for structure, but unfortunately there are some penalties. The main problem about this level is the fact that the structure gets boring when you get deeper in the level, because everything you will see is something that you have already seen before in earlier parts of the level. In other words, the structure could be a little bit more diverse at some places. There is some diversity however, there are a few springs, and there are different kinds of platforms to jump on. But overall, the structure is OK, but it could be a little bit more diverse sometimes.

GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
About the gameplay I don’t have that much to say anymore. If you want to talk about the flow, I can say only one thing: it is OK. There aren’t that much flaws around and the speed of the level is adequate. A problem of the gameplay could be the light: the level is a little bit dark in some places so you can’t see the platforms you need to jump on. If you make a wrong jump you sometimes have to do it all over again, which could be frustrating in some way. The music of the level is a good choice, not so original (after all it’s just a basic music file) but it surely fits to the atmosphere of the level. In total, the gameplay was fine, I enjoyed the level a bit and it’s better then in previous levels of yours.

RATINGS:
Let’s conclude this review: the eyecandy is decent, it’s not bad and there are no bugs but it could be a little bit more diverse. The enemy placement was good for this level, sometimes a little bit too hard for n00bs but further no comment. The placement was most of the time OK but there could be a little bit more ammo in the level, because it’s a but too empty now. The structure was OK but it also could use a bit more diversity. The flow, music and other forms of gameplay were nice. Any advice? Mmm…. Let me see… Oh yeah, quit using the Mez tilesets please. They simply didn’t provide good enough eyecandy and diversity, and you could get way higher scores with a better tileset. Although, I think that this is a good level, surely if you see the low possibilities of the tileset used. As you can see in the cores, I can’t find arguments to rate this lower then a 7.0. Good job, it’s your best level so far (from the ones I’ve seen) Keep creating levels, because you’re getting better and better.

Score: 1.75+0.75+1.0+1.5+2.0 = 7.0
Download: Yes, it can be funny for a short time and it’s one of fearkofdark’s best levels.
Host: Perhaps in Coop, I guess that there are better levels to host but it could be funny for a while.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM

EDIT: I think a 7.0 is a little bit too overrated, since I’ve seen better levels with the same rating. I make it a 6.5.
[This review has been edited by Niels aka ChippieBW]

Spacebattle

Yay, it’s reviewing time again! I guess Wadledee and the other members from J2XMC won’t like it when I review (read: censored off) this level. But hey, I’m an censored, and J2XMC is my concurrent (I’m in XLM, another level group, for the interested among you) Well, get ready for a peppered review!!! Gnagnagna!

EYECANDY: 0.5 out of 2.5
Let’s begin this review not too bad, by telling something positive about this level! Yay! Uh…. Let me think of something positive I can say about this…. Mmm… Oh yeah! This level has a background what is not buggy! Truly something positive! Now let’s got to business: There is hardly eyecandy in this big, empty “Space Thing” The only real layers used in this level are 4 and 8, there is something in layer 5 and 3 but it’s of none importance. And what is used in layer 4? Only the ground stuff! Come on man, can’t you see that there are so much types of eyecandy in this tileset? You can create wonderful levels with it, but you only stick to two kind of tiles, just like you did with the McKinley tileset in the level Capture The Sun, which I didn’t even dare to review… It’s surprising that you put the name of the tileset maker in the level about 100 times… I bet he wouldn’t like it when he sees it, it will be a blamage for his name.

AMMO: 0.5 out of 2.5
Any positive things about the ammo in this level? Mmmm… Yes, there are Powerups! YAY! Sick of doing this, let’s get over to all the bad things around here. All the ammo is placed into boxes, there is a island with EB units however, but they don’t seem to have any use in this level. A really bad point about the ammo is that every weapon respawns in 1 second, as Wadledee said. This is very frustrating when you are playing this level! There are some coins scattered around the level, which will take you to a PU place with blaster and RF PU’s… This is actually of none use, because the Seeker Pu and the only carrot are in another place in the level, a place where you don’t need coins for. I can nothing say anymore.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 0.25 out of 2.0
As I probably set above, the structure in this level is horrible. It fits with the space idea though, but in my opinion (and many other more, I guess) there is way too much space around in this level, which makes it sad to move around and you will encounter lots of totally empty places. Besides, the eyecandy here is so boring, that it took me hundreds of cups of coffee to don’t fell asleep while playing this level. There’s absolutely no diversity in the structure, only running around. Even You Can’t Scream In Outer Space has a less boring structure, admit it.

GAMEPLAY: 0.5 out of 3.0
Well, do I have to say anything about the gameplay in this level? I guess not. If I had to describe the gameplay in three words, I’d say this: SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS. The flow is too boring, and I guess it will take hours before you meet another player in this level. The choice of the music is also bad, I can’t believe the author actually choose for the JJ2 ending theme, which simply doesn’t fit in any level.

RATINGS:
Well, I think I have said more then enough about how I feel about this piece of crap, and I don’t want to explain it anything more. The eyecandy is BAD, the ammo and other placement is BAD, the level structure is UGLY and BORING, and the gameplay SUCKS. As Wadledee said, never put your attempts to crate a “level” online again. Discuss them with your teammates, and for once and for all, LET THEM BE BETATESTED!!! ARGH!!! If you go on creating levels like this, I think J2XMC does a good job to ban you. Listen to your leader and don’t even dare to put this online again! Oh, you want a rating? Well, here you go, here’s a 1.7.

Score: 0.5+0.5+0.25+0.5 = 1.75 = 1.7
Download: No. Waste of your time, even if you have nothing to do.
Host: Omg… I’ll kill you personally if you try to!

Electro Jazz

It’s been a few days now since I reviewed the first three levels of fearofdark, which were not really good levels. I see he uploaded a new level, and I hope he really improved his skills, because the last levels just were bad. Ah, let us see this!

EYECANDY: 1.75 out of 2.5
When I first started the level I was expecting something that looked like the previous three levels he made (Candy Christmas Chronicles, Chilly Breeze and Freak-E) but when the level was done with loading I saw that the creator really made better eyecandy this time! This time, the level is made with the Mez’ tileset, which I don’t really like, but there is some quite good eyecandy here. This level has a parallaxing stars background in layer 8 that moves around and there is good eyecandy in layer 6 and 7. Perhaps the eyecandy would be better if you used something layers 5 or 3, not the level looks a little bit empty. There are not much bugs visible, so I won’t distract points for that. Overall, I can say that the eyecandy is better then what the author made in previous levels, but it is still far from perfect.

ENEMIES: 0.5 out of 1.0
Now let’s check out the enemy placement around here… I must say that the enemy placement is not so bad, because there are a lot of enemies moving around…. In the beginning the placement is even really good, there are just enough enemies walking around to make it funny. When you get further in the level, you will see that the enemies are a little bit overused, and that there are too much of them when you reach the end. There’s fortunately no boss in this level, but You could have beaten him better then in previous levels because there are enough powerups to pick up. Finally, I can say that the enemy placement is good in the beginning, but coming near the end there are too much enemies to keep the level funny. Next time lessen your enemies, or make the level bigger with just as much enemies and less carrots.

PLACEMENT: 1.0 of 1.5
In previous level of fearofdark, the placement wasn’t so good. Here I can say that there is better placement. With the ammo is not some much wrong, but don’t you think it is a little bit a stupid idea to place about 10 powerups in a level that is so small? Maybe next time you put less powerups in it (about 1 or 2) and some more individual ammo. I found something original in this level, a bird morph, which is something you don’t see much in levels. It’s required to take a golden coin at the top (you really need to watch out here, there are everywhere mods that morph you back and which make you fall on hurting things if you’re not Jazz!) About the coins, there are 10 of them needed for a bonus game which leads you to a secret room with two P’s/ About other things this level is also OK, there’s a lot of food and diamonds around. Overall, I can say that there’s mostly good placement around here, but next time lessen the PU’s and add some more other stuff.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.25 out of 2.0
Next point: the structure. Well, When I walked through the level at first I noticed that there’s a lot of diversity around the level in structure (there are warps, conveyor belts, sucker tubes, bird morphs et cetera) which makes the level diverse and funny to play. I don’t like the ending of the level however, because the exit is not well placed and the level goes on behind it a little bit further. In my opinion, you really need to place the end of the level at the end of the level. Also some bugs here: the level is not closed. I know it sounds a little bit dumb to say that, because you almost can’t jump over the walls, but please fix these minor bugs next time. And another point, like all your levels: they are too small! I easily can beat those levels in a minute or two, which is really too less. I don’t say that the levels need to be as big as those singleplayer levels of Evil Clones, but something like the singleplayer missions would be fine.

GAMEPLAY: 1.75 out of 3.0
Always the most important thing in a level for me, that’s why it gets the highest scores around. The gameplay here is often fine, but there a some small problems. The flow is good enough, you can move around easily, but sometimes it just doesn’t feel right. An example is the warp at the beginning: you jump in it, get into some tunnel and you try to hit the toaster PU. You miss it of course the first time, and you get pushed against a floating eye, which costs you a heart. This is not really funny. Another point of confusion was the warp when I ran through a tunnel of enemies, after the first saving point. I accidentally ran into a warp, got warped away and ended up somewhere else on a lab mouse. Could be a lot better, maybe next time mark your warps better, About the music in this level: it is OK, nothing special.

RATINGS:
As you can read, I think this is your best level till so far. Thde first three levels were mediocre, sometimes bad, like the third level. This level really shows some improvements, especially on eyecandy, and it keeps the good placement of your second level. The structure is mostly fine, but it could use some improvements. Same thing for the gameplay. Overall, I won’t give this really high, but here’s a 6.2. Good luck, I hope you make more levels in the future. I will surely rate them.

Score: 1.75+0.5+1.0+1.25+1.75 = 6.25 = 6.2
Download: Yeah, it is a nice singleplayer if you are very bored a few minutes.
Host: No, as said before, there are way better levels to host in Co-Op.

Ciao,
ChippieBW of XSÐ, CC and XLM (as level group)

Candy Christmas Challenge

Well, a singleplayer series! I would be a fool if I didn’t review all three of them, so I do it. Oh yeah, remember the comment of PHT. NEXT TIME UPLOAD YOUR LEVELS IN A PACK! This sucks, because you have to download all the levels if you don’t want a bug at the end of the level. Well, let’s see:

EYECANDY: 1.5 out of 2.5
I wonder why the candy tileset is becoming so popular last week, I know Dx put a nice level with it online, but the tileset alone is not really good. Anyways, I wonder why this level is called “Blockopia” as filename, because the title is Candy Christmas Chronicles. Back to the eyecandy. As you can see in the score above, I didn’t really liked the eyecandy used in this level, but there mere a mistake of the tileset then of the creator. The maker tried to make this level a little bit fun for the eye, but because of the tileset limitations (it’s a JJ1 Tileset, d00d) the eyecandy here is often boring. The snow used looks fine, but the background used here is boring. It could be a lot better with a better tileset. Perhaps use a better one next time?

ENEMIES: 0.25 out of 1.0
Well, I can’t say there is a good enemy placement around here. The only enemies shown here are a few bees, and they are the most annoying enemies in the whole game (in my opinion, of course) they have stung you a few times before you have collected all 170 coins, and because there are no carrots around, you have to battle Devan with about 2 or 3 hearts! No funny, because you can never beat him that way.

AMMO: 0.25 out of 1.5
Also not a really fine placement here. I guess the author of the level thought that a extra life is the same as a carrot, because there are no carrots around and about ten extra lives! Pff… Maybe it would be good if it was vice versa, now it sucks. There are 170 you need to “find” before you can go on to the boss, but there isn’t really a search. Just jump around and you will have them in no time. Easy enough, but when you have reached Devan, you have to fight him without any good weapon, so you never can qualify. The ammo is dramatic, there is no ammo in this level except a Pepper PU, a rather useless weapon, especially versus Devan.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.25 out of 2.0
I don’t really like the structure of the level, although it is kind of diverse. There are a few chocolate bars on which you can stand, but they break if you walk over them. You also have to make some big jumps, else you fall into oblivion. The structure is perhaps the best thing of this level, because it is quite right and diverse, although there isn’t really a path you need to follow, and the level can be a maze sometimes.

GAMEPLAY: 1.5 out of 3.0
As I have described in the points above here, I didn’t really enjoyed the gameplay in this level. The music used here was average, perhaps fitting to a level like this. When I walked through the level I got the horrible feeling that I was walking on a died out planet, because the level is so darn empty. A huge contrast compared to filled levels like the recently uploaded Evil Clones pack, which really r0cked (too bad they removed it) There is quite a good flow, which I have to say, and you can walk around not too hard.

RATINGS:
Well, as you can see I was not really satisfied about this level, but I guess this is your first one, so don’t worry. If you read the critism carefully of the reviewers, I’m sure you can make better levels in the future. For now, this level is not really worth playing, but it’s not that bad either. It ends up somewhere in the down-middle class.

Score: 1.5+0.25+0.25+1.25+1.5 = 4.75 == 4.7
Download: If you are absolutely bored and you are a huge fan of fearofdark, maybe, otherwise don’t.
Host: No. Not in Co-op, there are much better levels for such an occasion.

Let’s see, a new battle level of Dx, who is my comrade in XLM. Maybe it is time to introduce a new type of review, so let’s see:

EYECANDY: 1.5 out of 2.5
The eye candy in this level has two sides. One side is that it is decent, good and original. The tiles are most of the time used properly and the backgrounds and foregrounds can be called original here. But the eyecandy has also a negative side: It is very confusing if you play the level for the first time (and also later, by the way) the “waterfalls” in layer 1 are kind of confusing, and they annoyed me a little bit while I was playing this game. Other bad sides of the eyecandy are the backgrounds, which are the same as in the front layer so you constantly think that you are landing on a platform while you fall through. This can be done a lot better in the next level. Overall, I can say that the eyecandy here is average, it has good and original points, but also bad and annoying points.

AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
The ammo in this level is most of the time placed average, there is a good spread among all the surfaces of the level and the PU’s are placed out of the way, so they can not be grabbed that easily. About the smaller ammo I’m not so happy, sometimes all ammo is cropped in large groups (see the fast fire guns, there are about twenty of them on one spot) they better could have been spread in small groups among the level. About the carrots placement I cant say so much. Ðx proclaims that there are two carrots in this level, but I only found one, which is even pushed into a green barrel and you can’t hardly see it while playing (I found it in JCS) Only people who know about it can find this carrot now.

LEVEL STRUCTURE: 1.5 out of 2.0
The level is a square of 90×90, which is a good size for a battle level like this. The structure is quite fine, but thanks to the sometimes annoying eye candy I can’t move around really good. It’s hard to find your way sometimes, but there are a few nice sucker tubes which help you along the way. There’s some diversity among the structure (springs, vines, platforms, sucker tubes, warps, etcetera) so it keeps the level enough diverse. Overall, the structure is average, I guess. Maybe it could have been a little bit better next time.

GAMEPLAY: 2.0 out of 3.0
Always the most interesting part of a level. The gameplay in this level would be fine, if the eyecandy didn’t annoy me that much. Now, it’s a little bit annoying and not really funny to play. The flow is decent, could be a little bit better in some places, like the part where you have to jump from pumpkin to pumpkin. I liked the music, which was stolen from I believe High Volume CTF.

RATINGS:
This level can be fun to play in after you know it, but I won’t play it that much for sure. Next time make little bit better eyecandy and fix the annoying structure. If I count al the cores up, I will get this final rating:

Score: 1.5 + 2.0 + 1.5 + 2.0 = 7.0
Download: If you like battle levels and you want to try something new.
Host: Nah, the standard battle levels are better, but do it if you wish something new.
[This review has been edited by Niels aka ChippieBW]

Yay, a new level of DarkSonic! Anyway, eveything in this level is CUTE! The tileset, the music, the name ^–!!! Enough, let’s get down to business:

EYE CANDY:
Well, the tileset is CUTE, so the eyecandy is CUTE too (DS hates it when I use this word, so let’s do it often) But it’s not really impressive. It will do and at most of the places it’s decent, but it’s nothing special. Anyways it looks a lot like our Suburban Traffic level we uploaded a few days ago… Backgrounds are nice and CUTE, but some more interesting eyecandy would have been nice… I don’t know if that is possible with this set.

AMMO:
Three Pu’s have been used in this CUTE level, and they are placed in CUTE houses… The PU’s don’t have that much originality (Seek RF and Bounce, been there done that) and there are two carrots around… a fullNRG and a normal one. Maybe that’s a little bit too much for a small level like this. The other ammo is placed fine.

LEVEL STRUCTURE:
CUTE again, but sometimes a little bit too raw. The design gives it a quite good flow, and the base placement is average, maybe a little bit too hard sometimes. Anyways, sometimes the structure is a little bit raw, as I said, especially in the corners, that are very straight. Maybe you should have use some roundings somewhere, which would fit to the CUTE atmosphere.

GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay is good, the mellow music gives the level a CUTE attitude, and it’s funny to play in it. It really looks like a village, and it has the correct atmosphere. The flow is decent, and the whole thing works relaxing…

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RATINGS
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As I said, this level is quite CUTE. It;s funny to play on it sometimes, but most of it is a little bit of “been there done that”. Like all DS’levels the are worked out fine, but he would be a better level creator if he brougth in some original idea’s. The levels of him begin to look like if they are all the same….

Score: It gets a 7.0 from me.
Download it: Yes.
Host: Yeah, maybe one or two times.

PS: I thought this level was supossed to be in the XLM level pack! You create something new now?

A 8.5? Nonsende. Let a better player review it:

EYECANDY:
The best point in this level. The background are smooth, good graphics and not many bugs in the front layer and in the sprite layer. Here are really no problems. It could have been better, but it’s decent. The plant that are moving under in the level are annoying.

AMMO:
There is some decent ammo placing here, but, just like the whole level, its red-biased. This also counts for other things in the level… The only carrot in the level is near the red base, and so is the Blaster PU. There’s also an AIRBOARD in this level, which distracts a point. Never add airboards!

LEVEL STRUCTURE:
The level could be fine if it wasn’t that red biased… Anyways, the level is created fine iwth a good flow, but there are some problems, look at example the warps near the red base, it directly leads to the blue base! Besides, the blue base doesn’t have a warp… Make it better next time, and more balanced! Also, there are some wooden bars where you can fall thorugh. You should use ONE WAY events next time.

GAMEPLAY:
Well, the level here has a quite good flow, with no hard places and I like the rocky music, but the airboard and the biased things killed a lot of the fun I experienced by playing this level… However, it was quite fun for one time.

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RATINGS
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Not really bad, if you play with lotsa people it can be fun, but it’s too biased and wrong to make it a tipped level. If yyou read hte crtitism, you could possibly make better level in the future.

Score: a 6.2 from me.
Download: Maybe.
Host: Maybe 1 time, with lots of people.

I have a bad feeling about this…

EYECANDY:
Well, um… Well, as the author ais, it’s an invisible level, so there is no visible sprite layer here… The only eyecandy in this level is the background, and some weird numbers in layer 6 or 7… nope, this is no eyecandy.

AMMO:
There is ammo in this level, yes, but there’s too much of it. There are about three PU’s, which is enough, but the most parts of the ammo are hard to get, because of the invisible structure of the level… Also, there are way too much carrots for a level like this.

LEVEL STRCUTURE:
This is where the REAL problems lie. The previous things where problems too, and bad, but not as bad as what we see here… As said, the level is invisble, which makes it very hard to move around… It takes hours before you know all the paths here (and that is a BAD point here!) An after that you won’t like the level at all… Please make your next level visible again, please.

GAMEPLAY:
As you can read in the points above, this level is nearly inpossible to play in. The structure kills the gameplay, it is hard to move around and the Powerups and other ammo cannot be get… Nope, this level is a blamage, because it just wo’t work…

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RATINGS
————
As I have said above, this level is practically unplayable. I liked your levels of Holyland, because they looked nice and they were fun to play on. But this level shows that an invisible structure never can work in a level.

Score: a 1.5, you get 0.5 points for the background and that you put ammo in it (not good, unfortunately)
Download: Never.
Host it: Never, it will be the end of your JJ2 reputation

Another level of The WINNER. Yay.

EYECANDY:
Hmm…. well, I can’t say that the eyecnady in this level is beautiful. I guess more the opposite, however the tileset has enough eyecandy but the most parts of the level are boring… Maybe that is because the level is too big. There are also a few errors in the eyecandy, for example the tiles in the upper right corner near the blue base in layer 3… where is that good for?

AMMO PLACEMENT:
There is a little bit too less ammo in this level, especially when you look how big it is. There are four PU’s in this level (of course no Seek PU) which is the least I expected for a level this size. Unfortunately, the bouncer and toaster are nearly impossible to get, in the first place because the EB is thousand miles away and in the second place because the walls around the PU’s don’t let the EB’s through. This is really a big fault! The carrot placemnet is so-so, there are too much of them.

LEVEL STRUCTURE:
Well, as I said few times earlier, this level is too big and empty. You have to walk around for ages to find something in this boring mess and the sucker tubes last ages. I recommend a much smaller size next time (more like 125×75 instead of 200×130) Now, this level is only meant for big games such as mass events and 4vs4s, but actually the level is too bad to qualify for such a thing.

GAMEPLAY:
Because the level is too big and empty, I never reall yenjoined the gameplay. If I didn’t have the red arrow, I would have searched for ages to find the red base. The music file is fine, but it doesn’t improve my bad view on this level.

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RATINGS
————
Well, I have said it a few times now. This level is not good, but not really bad if you see what crap gets uploaded to J2O last weeks… I hold this level somewhere in the middel, and because a few good points in it, it gets a “sufficient” rating from me. 5.5 is what I’m giving this.; Perhaps use a smaller size next time, use a betatester or fix this level so it becomes good.

Score: a 5.5
Download: No.
Host: No.[This review has been edited by Niels aka ChippieBW]

Yay, a new level of NiQ aka Snooz aka The Chair! Let’s see:

EYECANDY:
The eyecandy in this level really gives it a haunted atmosphere, thanks to the rain and the thunder in the background… The eyecandy is mostly good but sometimes hard to play in, because the stone tiles are as well placed in layer 4 (where they should be) as in layer 3 and 5. NiQ found a good solution for this problem by making the bricks in the foreground a little bit translucent, so you can see where you can walk through and where not.

AMMO:
Four PU’s in this level: Toast, Blaster, Bounce and Seeker. The first three are directly accessible, the Seeker can be found by getting 25 coins. It’s really good placed, when you jump into the warp you get the PU and in one second you are transported back to the level. The coins are placed nice, and most of them are easy enough to grab. The Powerups and the other ammo are placed well.

LEVEL STRUCTURE:
Perhaps there are some problems here, but they are not so bad. One big point is that if you want you can directly run from one base to another in one long run, you don’t have to jump. However, this is not a big problem, because if you want to have some Powerups you have to move around the level, especially for the Seek PU, which is hidden.

GAMEPLAY:
This level has a nice flow, and after you get used to the bricks in foreground and background (it took me a few minutes) the gameplay becomes better and better. It really has the atmosphere of a corrupted castle, because of the BG eyecandy and the mysterious paths…. The music is OK, fits to this level.

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RATINGS
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A good level of NiQ, which has really not much problems, but sometimes is a little bit annoying to play. With a little bit improvement this level could get a 8.0 from me, but not now.

Score: a 7.5 from me
Download this: Yes
Host: Maybe a few times, don’t let it get too overhosted.

Finally, a new level of DarkSonic! Let’s check it out:

EYECANDY:
Quite good, the eyecandy is OK for this tileset, maybe a little bit boring sometimes, but the most of it is decent. Background layers are also OK. Maybe a few errors in the layer 3 foreground, in example at the grey stones upon the grey wall in the background.

AMMO:
There are somre problems here, in example that there are 4 Powerups, which is really a bit too much for a level this size. It are Seek, RF, Bounce and Toast PU, the four best weapons in the game, and so it is a little bit unoriginal to place them all in one level. If you had removed the Seek PU in the upper part of the level, then it would be a little more fun, because you would then involve the rest of the level more into the gameplay. The Full NRG carrot is placed on a good place.

LEVEL STRUCTURE:
As I said in the ammo point, the strcuture isn’t really good. What I didn’t had in hte beta-version were the sucker tube pipes which actually directly transport you to the base where you can score. And as Reptile said, this makes that you don’t really involve the rest of the level into the gameplay. I also don’t really like the oneway gates, but it’s good to see you removed those annoying blue springs out of there.

GAMEPLAY:
The flow is OK, partially thanks to the sucker tubes which lead you to the bases, this gives the level a good flow which is really one of the better parts of the level. The rest of the level also contains a good flow, so it was better if those sucker tubes were removed, because you then would have a complete level to play in, now you only play in the upper part. The music in the level is good for a few moments, but then it gets a little bit annoying (everytime: poo-poo-poo-pwie) which gets annoying after 3 seconds.

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RATINGS
————
Not really a bad level, but you really made better levels before.

Score: 6.7 from me
Download: Yes
Host: No

A battle level, well, I don’t guess it is so bad as Bjarni says, so lets review it:

EYECANDY:
Well, um…. Tja… No, this SUCKS. I don’t have a better word for it, unfortunatly. I’m lucky that there is at least a background in the level, but it looks like this is the first practice of making a level by someone. The backgrounds don’t match with each other, and the castle and waterfalls in layer 6 and 7 are misplaced so that they don’t look good and suck. About layer 4: the tiles are quite correct but the pink carrtos make it suck. Needs a lot of work.

AMMO:
Ammo? What ammo? There isn’t hardly any ammo placed in this sucky level, but there are FIVE CARROTS! OMG! No, next time add real ammo to your level. Now, there are only a few small pickups and no PU’s.

LEVEL STRUCTURE:
No structure in this level…. The level looks like an appartment complex with about 10 floors and it’s hard to change between them, becasue the annoying, irritating pink carrots make that you can’t even run around, which is at least one point there must be in every level! If you can’t run, you can’t play, that’s something I can say.

GAMEPLAY:
Well, as you can probably read above, I hated to play this level. There is no flow so I couldn’t get the nice Jazz2 speed which I like to see in every level. There is no ammo, the eye“candy” is hurting my eyes and makes me vomit, and the structure is so worthless that I can’t move around.

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RATINGS
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Well, I hope that I made clear what’s wrong with this level, so you can improve it. Next time make a decent level, and for God’s sake, use a betatester!

Score: a 2 from me.
Download this: No, there are better things to wipe your ass off with.
Host: see download, and multiply that 10 times.