Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

After playing the previous pack it was simply more of the same things I didn't like so much, such as the respawning enemies and permafail puzzles. The jokes fell short because of the theme change, but otherwise would have been funny. A controversial pack with its merits and shortcomings, thanks for making it anyway!

Nice pack of old levels, theme is mostly there. Some of the puzzles are pretty creative but the permafail and enemy respawns make it a frustrating experience sometimes.

Mmm a nice light level with a good flow :)
Ill gonna host this some times i gues…

This is a good level pack! :D

This is a good lvl pack ill like it very much :D

[Review changed to quick review. – Cooba]

Holiday Hare 07 is Odin’s sophomore Holiday effort, and much like the official sophomore holiday pack this download is mostly made up of regurgitated material. The pack is split up into two parts, the main attraction “Jazz Jackrabbit’s Scientolomas Adventure” (Originally titled Jewmas adventure), and the much meatier Holiday Hare ’05 Remix. Both portions come up short in various areas, though the 05 remix is able to save itself a bit better since it is longer.

I shall start with the scientolomas adventure which is comprised of a meager two levels. The pack was originally centered around Jazz being a Jew, and a few of the pack’s jokes (intentional or not) fall a bit flat from the name change. The controversial line that sparked the name change is left entirely unchanged save for the replacement of “Jew” with “Scientologist”. How this is perfectly ok, or at the very least any better is beyond me. The first level in the pack is extremely dull gameplay wise, but makes up for it with its sharp sense of wit and humor. Jazz proclaims he is Corporate America as he steals coins (actually silver cookies, though the pack calls ‘em coins more often than not) from the citizens of Holiday Town (only open once a month in the year!) The level design however is extremely linear and the nearly nonexistant puzzles simple and trite. One puzzle (and perhaps the only puzzle) has a rather clever hint, however it serves no real purpose as the puzzle can be solved easily enough through guess and check. The dull level design is majorly hampered by two things: the rather slow pacing despite its amount of enemies, and that two recent coin collection levels that have been released eclipses what can be found here. It is still worth playing for it’s comedy however, though it will feel like a chore for the most part.

The second level is the better of the two by far, though it is short and rather shallow considering it has great potential for a larger product. The level is based around the concept of crate puzzles, where you must push a crate containing TNT to the silver crate to move on. It feels a little bit like Portal though without the humor. In fact, if Odin brought the humor over to this stage, then axed the first level so more time could be spent on this one, and then added as a bonus stage to the Holiday Hare ’05 remix it could have been much better. This stage also offers a very awesome, though simple, addition. It is called the failhole, so if the finicky JJ2 crates don’t work the way you needed them to you can retry without the loss of a life. The last crate puzzle is a bit anticlimactic and the Devan boss is rather dull leaving for an unfulfilling ending to an otherwise sublime level.

The eyecandy in the levels are rather basic, nothing that really pushes the tileset. However, this is the HH98 tileset, which is one of the hardest tilesets to use period. The levels in HH05 also contain basic eyecandy which is probably due to the Holidaius tilesets being limited in nature.

Speaking of HH05, the remix feels a bit spotty. Granted all Odin had to work with was my terrible review from two years ago (also granted this review isn’t much of an improvement, rarely going into detail), he did do a rather good job at trying to tweak it. The levels include more enemies, a complaint I had from the original pack. The problem with this is that some areas contain too many land enemies (a ton of air enemies, when done right, is always fun to deal with) and some enemies are placed in locations that make the level near impossible to traverse. The Bilsy boss fight feels worse with the added enemies, though if the aerial enemies in the arena were removed it could work out perfectly well. The level design, whether dilluted by the added enemies or not, is still as great as it was a few years ago and that alone should warrant this remix a playthrough.

All in all the pack has quite a few faults, though A) It is the only single player holiday pack this year (again) and B) the awesome parts are REALLY awesome. Download recommended.

Hey, if you played through this level pack, I’d love to hear what you think. Even if it’s a short review.

very bad sorry but u know some levels are good some are bad i like some.
(Unsupported rating (1) removal. Very philosophical, but it really doesn’t contribute much as a review. I didn’t get much of a sense of what the level was like from reading your words. ~Violet)

ok its a bit good

[Inappropiate rating (2.0) removal. Please provide a reason for why you think something is good or bad. This is a review, not a rating, so you are supposed to actually review the file. – FQuist]

There was a secret code? I never noticed that while reading the readme.

good perfect =)but 3. level is very hard..i use jjgod cheat =) and 3.level don’t start because start point is near the wall..fix it…and now i will give it 7.5…

A fresh Holiday Hare adventure since Epic is too busy not making one. Heck I doubt they’re even making an xmas Unreal Tournament level pack.
Anyways, Holiday Hare 05 has you on Holidaius on a mission to track down Bilsy and his holiday terrorists.
Each level has it’s own spefific puzzle or challenge.
One level has you hunting down Silver crates ala a small segment in Holiday Hare 98. Another has you battling a snow storm while trying to complete the level.
Unfourtantly, the enemy placement seems lacking. Some areas seem content by tossing tons of baddies at your face, while others just leave around a raven or two and call the job done.
While we’re talking about baddies, the boss fight with Bilsy is a real downer. You may feel tempted to use the tunnel at the left, but its really useless and will just get yourself killed. And thats the problem, without the tunnel thing, the arena is just a small, flat one. I was able to outrun fireballs easily, and if you know how to make Bilsy disappear before he fires at you then the knowledge make the fight more easy and boring.
Despite the enemy shortcomings, it is incredibly fun solving the puzzles and overcoming nature’s obstacles. The only level that didn’t really deliver a lot of fun puzzle/challenge-wise was ‘Bilsy’s Lair’ which was essentially a fetch quest.
While some would want longer levels, I don’t mind the shortness. Mainly because if the levels were longer they would all feel like a one-trick pony respectivly. Since you’re not going to get an Official Xmas pack from Epic, and it seems Odin’s pack is currently the only choice for new Christmas levels this year, Holiday hare 05 is a reccomended download. Also it’s not half bad of a pack so yuo should download it anyways.

OH CRAP. I’ll fix it.

Fatal Application Error
No such file: holpack2.j2l

Well heres a review for you :).

Good good level…

EYECANDY: 10/10

GAMEPLAY 7/10

Why?

The eyecandy and style of this level is amazing, you have put a lot of time into it and its great! The colours go0 together very well, the background layers suit the sprite layer and the music is techno, which suits the modern look of the level. For me, its perfect on the eyecandy part.

However, this levels gameplay, (tho good :)), isn’t great in my opinion. Its not characteristic in strategy and looks a little platformy. Other ppl may think the gameplay is better than ive said here; however, your lucky to actually get such a high rating from me with the type of level uve made :P im not a fan of these platformy levels, but ive got to hand it to you, WELDONE. If i can say anything now, try to make your levels have certain areas like in battle 1, instead of it look samey all over.

DOWNLOAD THIS LEVEL-

Quite platformy, these levels are. Not really solid. E-Prime can be a great example for that. Anyway, as this is a duel pack intentionally, its quite okay for these levels to be small. I might be a strict reviewer or maybe a kind one, I dont really care.. D=

Tiny 1
Rating : 6.5
Comments
Well, the eyecandy was typical from what you would expect from this certain overused tileset. A few nice things, but they arent so noticeable. BR’s level in tubelec could have been used for an eyecandy example.
The gameplay suits the duel, but its quite hard and annoying to get the bouncer pu. And I think that was the only one I could find. There are a few tactics, not much. And yet the tubes can be a nuisance.
The layout, well its really platformy. So flame me. Thx. Anyway the layout was okayish, but still not worthy of the Chinese gods. It seemed a bit biased. Jazz biases, Spaz biases and turrets which you can get stuck in, but only if you try hard.
The pickups were placed okayishly in this pack. Could have been better.

Tiny 2
Rating : 7.0
Comments
It is evident that I like this one the most. And that it has a few original concepts in the eyecandy. Good job for an underused tileset. Nice 1up placement for sparkling effect and waterfalls are good. Good Job.
The gameplay is good here too, as there are platforms to destroy, the level is probably better off without carrots and as instagib, as all of these are small. I say this would be a really neat instagib pack, but its okay for a small quick duel pack. It shouldnt take too long.
The layout was good except platformy again. Underwater platforms too. Should be pretty solid, but oh well. The top area has no point. If you want a good level, everything you place needs a reason and an attention grabber, such as a PU.
It is okay how the ammo is placed.

Tiny 3
Rating : 5.7
Comments
The level has not really any eyecandy, possibly because you used a bad tileset. Or one I really dislike. It deserves a bit of rating, but I dont like it so much. Keep that in mind. You also made some nice ways of excusing the limited tiles in this set.
The gameplay was averagish. But still a bit annoying as the RF PU isnt needed at all in this level. Its quite tight and small. If it were open and mad it should keep it but it isnt.
The layout was yet again platformy. It needs work, you need to avoid placing platforms, I used to think it made it easy, but these levels cant stick with it. =(
The ammo is adequate, but an RF PU isnt needed here as explained earlier.

Tiny 4
Rating : 6.7
Comments
The level is a bit less platformy than the others and has okay eyecandy for the set.
The gameplay is okay but quite spazbiased. The level has slots that are quite hard to get into.
The layout is probably the least platformy, still platformy though. Needs a bit of work. It has adequate and sufficient PUs.

Overall
Rating : 6.5
Comments
This pack has potential, I hope you keep making levels, I would like to see how you improve in the future. You impressed me a bit, and yet, take in the comments I said. It migt help. Gj.

Ok, ok. So I’m not so good at these reviews. But I know a fun level when I see one—and I see one. This was GREAT! I really had fun winning it. I cannot understand why no one has yet reviewed it. The tests were undeniable original (some of them, at least), and the entire time I was enjoying myself, which is truly what matters in a test level. I gotta hand it to ya, Odin, this was excellent. Some people might think it wasn’t, but I think so.

Ok, so do I have to give reasons? thinks Well, I already STATED my reasons. It’s original and fun. The levels are kinda hard at the end, especially since you keep getting warped back. All I can say is that I enjoyed this and highly reccomend the downloading of it, especially if you like tests. (Hey, I already admited it—I suck at reviews.)

Okay. This is extremely overrated so I guess I’ll balance out the rating.

Summer Dreams – A level by Odin

The first thing I noticed is that the level is very open in the top, and there’s no layer 5 eyecandy or whatsoever to make it at least a bit interesting. All there is is open space and backround.

I don’t really like the platforms in the level, they look really thin and again have nothing interesting about them, such as having at least some layer 5 cave tiles around them.

The eyecandy, in general, is alright. The bottom areas are ok, but the top is kinda lacking in the area. I also found a slight eyecandy bug at 49, 58, if it matters.

The placement of stuff is kinda weird. And 100 coins is O.o. I wouldn’t think you’d also be using ice ammo to look for secrets in the middle of a game, too, which makes me thing that this level would be used more for random hosting than serious games. Also, the reward for the 100 coins is rather =|. Too many ammo crates in one place will leave a big mess.

The flow of the level has a few bugs. Firstly, the pole sometimes throws me into a wall. A few horizontal springs (namely the one around 182, 45) juts me into a solid tile. 251, 53 also could’ve used a spring because its just an empty corner.

The layout of this level is huge. 256 horizontal wise is O.o. I’m not sure if the layout has much strategy at all, and isn’t just randomly put in to fill up the area. The 100 coin reward also allows for camping (when there’s a full energy and a blaster powerup, who needs to go out and run around?).

Overall, this level isn’t bad, but is far far far from a 9.2. I think I’d give it a 7.2. The music also has a looping problem, btw.

Edit: Fix the next level setting plz.
Edit 2: Defost deleted his review (he rated this a 9.2) so thats what I meant by this being overrated.

Some how I dont even have the tileset of the level!! so i can’t rate it!

This level keeps giving access violations! :-(