Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Despite the fact this tileset has those japanese pocket monster invasion stuff in it, i really like it.
The tileset looks pretty good: it has basic stuctures like walls, trees, sand, background layer elements like clouds and mountains and even some animations, a flying leaf for example. The Pokémon (sp?) screenshots aren’t exactly beautiful but you shouldn’t care too much of them anyways (if you make a level using this set). The masking also fits the needs.
Furthermore, the pack also includes two great levels: one Battle, which is way too large, a little bit hotel-like but has good design and eyecandy…and a CTF which is basically the same level with the two bases placed. Oh, by the way, i think a custom music file would fit best for this tileset. Just my two cents.
As you may have noticed, not only JKM’s kids like this tileset pack :-) “JKM bat/ctf” gets a CLEAR DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATiON from me.[This review has been edited by Aiko]

Know what? This looks a bit like the (obviously unexperienced) author took Commander Dats’ south african level tutorial, chose Diamondus (baaad idea, sorry :) and tried his/her “best”. Well…let me say it straight: that doesn’t work. The level’s design may be okay (average i guess) but the eyecandy isn’t really eyecatching if you know what i mean (some people like iCeD may find the background layer impressing though :). But overall, “Screwed up Diamondus” could need some improvements in my humble opinion. Sorry.

Good! Very good! This tileset contains about 240 tiles converted from the original Jazz1 “Technoir” planet. It offers many objects for level building like tubes, animated belts, arrows, lava(?) and some other useful stuff.
The example level is disappointing (fortunately the very cool original music song2.s3m is included). Btw: I will rate like i feel its appropiate and in my opinion a good tileset needs a proper example level, no matter what “type” it is. End of story. Thanks.

Overall, a great download for all talented level builders and A REAL MUST for every Jazz1 oldie! :-)[This review has been edited by Aiko]

First of all, THE MUSiC CHOiCE is awesome!!! You’ll listen to tracks like “elysium” by jester/sanity (german 01d5k001!!), Amazonas by Skaven/FC and four more classic 4-16 channel demotunes from the early nineties…that says it all i guess.
Now, the ten levels themselves also look pretty cool: the design/layout seems to be a reminiscence of the original Epic single player episodes. Some places even look a bit well…copied…thats not a real con, no. Furthermore, the eyecandy looks very, very good (better than in the original Epic levels i’d say).

Conclusion: it’s nothing really super-original or exciting or new but if you liked the original episodes from the game (and who of us didn’t?) and have a marked preference for good tracked music, you’ll LOVE this. A MUST DOWNLOAD FOR EVERYONE![This review has been edited by Aiko]

“Jungle Doom”, which is a very nice level by BlasterMB, has a pretty good layout, allows fluent navigation plus fighting and it has a fair amount of eyecandy. The only downfalls are the hurt events (they only the hurt the server in MP mode; maybe the author could remove them and re-upload?) and some very minor layer/tile bugs.
Otherwise, good level and WORTH A DOWNLOAD!

“The Secret Caves” is not a bad level, but not really a good one either. The design and weapon placement is quite good, but somehow boring (maybe thats because i’m not a fan of all those Diamondus levels) and the lack of eyecandy is too obvious. Of course, there are some “additional” ideas like a coin warp that leads to a secret room and the like. But overall, i miss something “special” in it, i don’t know (only 5.5 points). The hardcore CTF Fans should download this. Everyone else, think about and read some more reviews :-)

Cool, this level uses one of my absolutely favourite tilesets. The Town tileset is hard to work with and BlasterMB really did a good job here: the layer arrangements look pretty good. Unfortunately, the design is a bit…unhandy. The navigation is not as fluent as it could be. The event selection is good, too but still needs some minor improvements (Generators for the weapons are set wrong, they come back too quickly in my opinion).
The background doesn’t fit too well, personally i would like to hear the original “Street Wize” (city1g.it) here.

After all, i can only RECOMMEND you to DOWNLOAD the “Town House Doom”, its more than a decent level.

P.S.:
Bad idea to include the large metal.mod music file in the ZiP. All TSF owners already have it. You should re-upload the ZiP without this file.[This review has been edited by Aiko]

Aha! Finally something from Germany after quite a while.
“The modern past” is a pack including a new tileset with over 300 tiles called psaiko…errr…“psycho” and an example battle level (“The modern past”).
The “psyco” tileset looks pretty nice and colorful, has some useful tiles (walls, vines, spikes, stars etc.) and a lot of funky animations (a TV for example). The masking is well made, too.
The included level is okay, maybe a tad too confusing (hard to navigate sometimes) and hotel-like.
Conclusion: because i’m a bit biased (he’s from my country, you know) and i’m in the mood, i’ll give out 7 points!
UNBEDINGT RUNTERLADEN! (DOWNLOAD NOW!)

By the way: it’s a pity that the kewlish music file doesn’t play in the level. Setting has to be: “cages.s3m” not just “cages”. Correct this bug and re-upload the level, mirrow.[This review has been edited by Aiko]

This level pack consists of one tileset, two levels and two converted music files.
The tileset used is “Super Mario Bros. / Doki Doki” by the author himself (increases my rating) and it looks quite good as i mentioned in the review for it.
Well, the actual levels don’t look too beautiful: the first one is a small “intro” level (playing time: 5 seconds) and the second one is a bit too confusing (many doors and stuff). Design and eyecandy are pretty much so-so. I admit that i like the actual idea behind this but the resulting level pack has still too many annoying bugs.

Important note: the next level settings are all wrong. Seems like the author sometimes used subdirectories (even in the ZiP file). As iCeD mentioned: you should NEVER DO THAT. Please :-)
Besides, the funky chiptune music doesn’t play.[This review has been edited by Aiko]

Hmmm, this is confusing.
The first level, “Jubilee Joy” could make a nice race level but it’s quite useless for a battle (somehow, i got the impression that the author completely forgot about ammo!?). Design and eyecandy are not too bad but a tad too repetetive as iCeD mentioned.
The second level called “Allys and Gullies” is something totally different: a classic hotel level with rooms (I want one! Pleaseplease!!! err…no! just kidding ;-) and letters saying “This is my room. Keep out. Blah.” and stuff like that. It uses the “Building” tileset by Gringo (which is…well, okay…an average hotel tileset in my opinion). As you can imagine, i don’t like this pack too much. Very slightly below the average i think. Hotel fans will probably like it.

P.S.: Tip of the day:
Don’t use points (“.”) in filenames. Could cause trouble. Believe me.[This review has been edited by Aiko]

“Battle Out4” defintely reminds me of “Carrottus Squash”. Like in martin’s masterpiece, design and eyecandy are very good. The platformish level style makes it a great level for hardcore battle freaks and yes, it really allows fluent navigation. Unfortunately, this level uses one of the tilesets i dont like too much so that could make me substract some tenth points (sp?). Event placement is very good, as iCeD mentioned.
Overall, not as perfect as “Carrottus Squash” but REALLY WORTH THE 11 KB. You should DOWNLOAD before its too late (who knows? maybe we will all die or your harddisk will be full or…).

By the way: the author forgot to set a correct next level setting. Bad idea, as i have mentioned 1000 times before :-)

P.P.S.:
To all authors: Please, please add SP level start events. Makes testing way easier for us reviewers :-)

“Futuristic Times” has one big problem: its not really a battle level (despite the author describes it as one) but not really a single player level either.

The whole design (which is quite good at the beginning in the upper left corner, but then gets worse in the lower right corner) would better fit for a SP map. A battle level should be circular and allow easy navigation.

The eyecandy is also good at the beginning (see? thats the problem: a good battle level never has a beginning at all) but then loses quality in the other areas of the map.
The JJ1 3D Bonus stage music fits quite good for MEZ levels, i think.

To conclude my review…“Futuristic Times” is definitely below the average and therefore not really a top candidate for a download. It just needs some more work (low four points).

Oh and “stenace”, reviews are never meant as personal attacks but as objective (at least we hope so) comparisons with other levels. We just want to help creating the largest list of homecooked stuff for J2 to make peoples download decisions easier. We can’t rate certain levels higher just ‘cause they were made by a beginner. If you want to discuss this, i invite you to visit the JMMB.

P.S.:
Wrong next level setting (leads to a level thats not in the pack).

My first though when i played it "Man, Newspaz isnt serious about this piece’o‘cr… level". Then i read your description above :-)
Well, to put it short:
bad tile placement and bad event placement in many places, wrong tileset chosen (Carrottus!) and way too short and easy. Music is missing. Clearly below the average of nowadays.

Err…do you allow me to rate the level (not just blahblah about it :-)? Okie, here we go: some guys here already noticed it’s a so-called "Hotel" and most people don’t like this kind of level (including me).
It makes use of the "CLC" tileset by some unknown artist (who seems to be a member of the "Cracco Clan" at least), which is quite good actually.
The level is pretty large and has loads of rooms and stuff like that. The design and eyecandy is interesting in some places, but then suddenly loses quality in other areas (bad tile placement for example).
Honestly…personally i don’t like this kind of levels at all, but it seems like the author put some work into it. And i award any kind of effort (4 points here).
Still no download recommendation from me, though :-)

Hehe, interesting idea (to simulate a Personal Computer in a Jazz2 level :-).
It uses the funky (and small) "SUPAPLEX" tileset by GreenKiller but unfortunately the level itself is pretty hotel-like (rooms etc.) and neither design (boring/wrong tile placement) nor eyecandy (not enough) will make me rate it higher :-)
Despite i like the overall idea, "The MB computer" doesn’t get above average.
Download or not? Decide yourself i’d say. (Well, if you always wanted to know how your ‘puter works inside…)

Holy cow, “zeldagb” is a huge tileset. It includes hundreds of 32×32 tiled pictures from the original Zelda games (but i have to admit i never owned Zelda and/or any kind of console…admit? No, actually i’m proud of it ;-). The masking is good, and it even includes some backgrounds. Sure, the graphics itself look a bit “pixelized” but thats not the authors fault, as far as i know. Blame it on those Japanese freaks back in…199X or so.
To my pleasure, the author also included an example level which is quite cool and seems to show us original levels from the original game (Who knows…could you write a readme next time?). The level is not really superb regarding design and eyecandy, but somehow i like the whole idea behind this.
So WHY NOT DOWNLOAD this nice little pack? Esspecially Nintendo addicts will like this a lot. (Very low seven points)

"tubearounds" is a pretty weird level using the "Top Secret" tileset by Overlord which basically consists of JJ2 screenshots (and some useful, nice looking structures as i admit :-).
The level itself is pretty much a hotel: using Warps you can access several different areas/rooms etc..
Well, the concept isnt really revolutionary as you can imagine…but unfortunately the design doesnt make it any better: tile placement is quite boring and theres a lack of eyecandy. The weird tile animations also doesnt improve my impression of this level and the music (in case you actually included some) didn’t play.
Sorry, i can’t give a download recommendation for this level.

P.S.:
The next level setting is wrong. Not a good idea.

P.P.S.:
To all authors: always include a SP start event to make it easier for us reviewers to test. Thanks :-)

"the MEZ 2 Doom" is a nice battle level: the design is good (i esspecially like the way the MEZ02 tileset was used) and it has lots of platforms, which makes it fluently playble. The eyecandy could need some major improvements though.
Second downfall is the music choice. The "Boss" music doesn’t fit too well for this level/tileset combination.

But overall, battle fans will like probably like this level. They should DOWNLOAD iT right NOW.

“the Carrottus Doom” (actual name is “Volrath’s Curse”) is a another quite decent battle map using the (boring, old, overused) Carrottus tileset. The layout and event+weapon placement is good, only the eyecandy isn’t too great (error in the one background layer for example).
To sum it up, “the Carrottus Doom” is a GOOD DOWNLOAD choice if you like Carrottus battle maps :-)

P.S.:
To all you newbies: PLEASE DO NOT iNCLUDE the original tilesets and/or music files from Jazz2 in your ZiP files. It only wastes webspace (and J2O needs LOADS of webspace). Puh-leaze RE-UPLOAD it WiTHOUT those files.

I like this level a tad more then SteelTalon i guess. I didn’t find the design too bad and there was even some eyecandy in the background (i have the feeling that it’s copied from some other level, though).
Sure, the tile placement is not really perfect in most places and the weapon selection isn’t very wise as well, but in my opinion the level still is playable. Unfortunately it uses the superoverused Carrottus tileset which makes me rate it lower :-)
Overall, not as bad as SteelTalon rated it (my opinion :-) but not really worth a download as well. Just needs a bit more work.

P.S.:
Please do NEVER include the original .j2b files from the game in your homecooked zip files. Makes no sense and is a waste of rare webspace. My suggestion: RE-UPLOAD without the music, PLEASE.

P.P.S.:
The next level setting is wrong/doesn’t work.