Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Certainly above average. I liked the fact that you didn’t stick to the original structure of the chrysilis. I also like the key changes partway through as well, which changes the atmosphere of the song and makes it much more interesting. The first half was certainly beautiful, especially with the epiano samples (I think I’ve actually used sample 8 many times before), whereas the song had a much darker feel towards the end.

As far as CC goes, I thought the drums were a bit too bland, though that might just come down to preference. I also thought I heard some notes in the second half from the low choir samples that sounded a bit off. Finally, I found there was a lot of sustain, which made everything sound clustered (although it did give the song a nice touch).

FINAL RATING: 7
DOWNLOAD?: Well, I intended this to be a quick review, but there’s a lot to say about this track. In summary, not a bad track. Just too much sustain, and some odd notes. However, it’s still a nice track with some good changes and a nice touch.

Can’t think of an introduction so lets get right to the review:

Starting off with the eyecandy, and I found it quite interesting. There is a mixture of blocks and normal carrotus tiles throughout, which was quite creative, but on the other hand, looks quite buggy (in my opinion), especially where insane amounts of blocks are used. It’s not a pretty level, but that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting to look at. There are some jungle tiles used as well in parts of the level, which looked iweirdly good, and I think could have covered more of the level. (I’m never good at reviewing when it comes to eyecandy). Other than that, layers were used well, although there could have been a bit more background eyecandy. There aren’t too many noticable bugs and the auther made good use of the tileset. Overall, I quite liked the eyecandy, apart from the overuseage of blocks.

Now on to the gameplay. The whole level consists of puzzles. There are no enemies (apart from one or two clusters), and not many items. Firstly, the good things: I like the concept of having to be careful with ammo in order to progress, and you have to have certain weapons to pass places. Unfortunately, there were a couple of bugs with this. For example, if you were stupid like me, and got to the second warp challenge with no toaster ammo, and couldn’t unfreeze the spring, there was no way of warping back, so I had to cheat. Secondly, there were too many warp challenges, which were quite fustraiting to get past, and thirdly, too many of the challenges were slow paced, especially the part where you have to get stuck, and then sink to the bottom. In turn, the level didn’t flow very nicely.

Other problems are that the level is too linear, the boss was too easy cause of all the powerups, there could have been more enemies and items and the level was too short. So overall, the gameplay isn’t great, despite some nice concepts.

Music was standard carrotus, and I didn’t see the point of the filing system. Good effort, but it made things a bit too complicated I thought.

FINAL RATING: 6.0
DOWNLOAD?: Not sure. There are some good concepts in this level, but I think it still needs to be worked on, and made longer in order to be more fun.

Casualty Mines was an exceptional tileset, and a hard one to follow, but I must say, I am very much impressed with this set aswell.

This is another artistic tileset, particularily for the background tiles such as the mountains and the trees, which are very well made. I think the streams are also excellent, especially because you can make them animate too. This set also has some decent spike tiles too, unlike Casualty mines, and there are some other creative possibilities aswell. There are also the standard Gus characters that come with the set, creating possibilies for a story. Comes in several different versions too, which is a bonus (although it would have been helpful to name them Pokljuka Heights 1, Pokljuka Heights 2 ect. so they appeared more organised in the tileset list).

However, the tileset is missing a few things. For example, it’s missing some blocks that you could destory/trigger, which means if you are planning to use this set for a level, you’ll have to substitute something else. You have also missed out the ends for H/V Poles (I couldn’t find any anywhere). Also missing some vines, and (as before) the water and caves could offer more opportunities (although this may be down to tile limits, which is fair enough).

FINAL RATING: 7.8
DOWNLOAD?: Of course! I still love the looks of this tileset. Although, it doesn’t have the same impact for me as casulaty mines, and there are a few things missing. It’s still worth a download for any jazz fans out there.

I must say, an epic end to one of J2O’s bestest and hardest SP series. The Fortress of Ruin is the longest episode out of the 5 (and took me a good 5 days to complete properly on easy.). Judging by the fact that this has already recieved 12 reviews, I think that I could be repeating what everone else says. Nevertheless, I shall give my opinion…

Starting off with the eyecandy, as usual, all the levels are excellently made with pretty much no faults to the eyecandy. All the levels have good atmospheres, and the lighting effects are used well too (particularily for the dark caves and the portals in Devan’s Fortress). There are also several styles of levels, and each level contrasts another (with one or two exceptions). Pretty much all I have to say about the whole pack to do with eyecandy. Pretty much bugless and creative in most levels.

The gameplay, and to re-re warn everyone here, it’s very hard to say the least. Episode 5 is probably the hardest out of the 5 episodes, particularily towards the end.

What is also outstanding about this episode is the awesome gameplay in the levels, particularily the layout of the levels themselves. There are several secret areas and routes in each level, and I think I got lost at one point trying to find Devan’s lair. Possibly the most unlinear levels I’ve ever played, so the player has the job of exploring. Also makes the episode fun to play again. Evilmike uses obstacles throughout the episode, particularily time-based obstacles which are overused (as everyone else has mentioned). Most of the obstacles require patience, particularly the classic Spike Boll obstacles and the unstable bridges, but there are a couple where you have to run like hell (the floating platform and most of the ones in the Fortress of Floods), so there is actually a variety of gameplay, just most of it timebased.

The gameplay isn’t perfect, there are some very stressful obstacles (the Fortress of Floods took me quite a while to complete, although that may be due to the fact that I am very bad at JJ2), and I also got stuck twice in the walls (whilst walking underwater, and in the Fortress of Sands in some rising spikes, although I died anyway). However, there are a variety of challenges held in this episode, and even if they’re not the first to be presented on the site, they’re quite rarely used, and even if most of them are timebased. Most of the levels are stretching JCS to its full potential.

Finally, the story (which is another crucial element to the series) is just fantastic. Makes the episode very fun if you pay attention. I won’t say anything else, cause I’ll end up spoiling it. Music and tilesets are also nicely used.

FINAL RATING: 9.8
DOWNLOAD?: That’s not even a question, just play it (the others too to get full understanding of the story). It’s a shame I couldn’t have written a longer review, seeing as most of the stuff that had to be said has been said. It’s very hard to fault, apart from repetitive time challenges and a couple of gameplay glitches. Any JJ2 fan should download this, and if they don’t, then they should be frowned upon until they do because it’s just excellent.

I sorely hope this isn’t Mike’s last episode, but if he does return, this should be a tough act to follow.

Very well done. This is an excellent looking tileset with many creative possibilities and features. The floor tiles particularily are excellently made (particularily ramps), there are many features, such as water, lava, honey??(or whatever that yellow stuff is) and some buildings. There are even some characters for a possible story as well. It’s also very easy to use compared to many other tilesets. One of the most artistic tilesets so far of the year, as far as I can recall.

I think, however, that it could be improved in several ways. As Evilmike said, the lava/water tiles could hold more opportunities, and the tileset is missing some decent spike tiles. The tileset is also missing some decent destructive blocks and poles. As several other reviewers have mentioned, this could easily be made into a 1.23 tileset, and there could also be a night version, or other versions of the tileset. I also don’t like the masking for the ladder tiles, seeing as you have to walk into the wall to climb them.

FINAL RATING: 8.8
DOWNLOAD?: Most certainly yes. It could be improved still, but this is most certainly a must download for anyone looking for a decent, canyon/mine style tileset, or just anyone looking for a decent download in general.

Before any reviewing stuff, it must be said that this is a big improvement from last time.

EYECANDY:
Excellent. The two townhouse levels were virtually bugless. The labrat levels had a few bugs in the floor tiles (for example, at the start) where they weren’t fixed, although that’s probably me being a bit picky. The eyecandy was generally very creative and used lots of layers. Overall, no major picks with the eyecandy whatsoever.

GAMEPLAY:
Now, the previous version had regenerating enemies, which made the pack a nightmare to play. This time, opening up the level in JCS, the first thing I notice: no regenerating enemies. Hooray! Even without the regerating enemies, the levels were still bloomin’ hard to play (especially level 2 with the numerous spikes). This time, the pack was much less fustraiting to play, and actually fun this time around.

As for other gameplay, you still have the standard run-of-the-mill puzzles, but with a few extras. I like the coin warps added in this time, and there were a few more secret areas. Better yet, Urizen has actually created an episode where Lori can play too by removing those copters (although it may be much much harder than playing with Jazz or Spazz. It’s also pretty rare to find a decent SP pack where Lori can play).

Criticisms: it’s still a bit too linear. No extra routes, but certainly improved from last time.

FINAL RATING: 7.8 (from a previous 6.1)
DOWNLOAD?: Although this holds nothing spectacular, it’s one of the better episodes to play nowadays, and offers a good challenge. Besides, it’s a massive improvement from the last version.

Just…no…It’s not even worth the review dude. I think SonicNathan has cleared up what I wanted to say – almost no enemies, gameplay and awful eyecandy. The only thing keeping you from scoring a 1 is the fact that you have things in your level (a 1 to me would be like walking through nothing at all)

Yet another Tubelectric remake…people should remix some more songs, for instance, I’ve not heard a remix of any JJ2 songs for quite a while…Nevertheless, here’s the review.

I like the introduction to the song. It builds up to 1:05, starting off with percussion, and eventually the bass comes in instead of jumping straight into the song. Eventually, you hit pattern 11 (1:05) and the song decends into a dark-electro style, which I also liked.

I also like how the song feels as if you’re making up as you’re going along, yet it still manages to a have some sort of structure (even if it is just a basic start, middle, ending structure (if that made any sense)). Also, another good thing is that all the samples are in tune with each other, and there aren’t really any problems with them (some effects would be nice though).

The best thing about this piece is that it isn’t a crummy remake of Tubelectric. Most of the beats and the melodies have been modified or made in the module, instead of being taken from the actual piece and had nothing changed about it.

However, there are a couple of flaws. Firstly, I dislike the ending. I felt that it was a bit over the top, and some samples felt a bit out of tune when they didn’t need to be. Next, I don’t like the way the introduction keeps breaking down at first, I thought it just slowed the song down a bit towards 1:05.

FINAL RATING: 6.9
DOWNLOAD?: Yes, this is certainly in the upper half of J2O remakes, and considering that I am a bit harsh on music ratings, that is a pretty solid rating. I would give this a go. This also makes a good song for perhaps a spooky or a storm level.

Not much to say about this remix, I’ll try and make this a detailed review…

The biggest problem by far is that none of the samples are in tune with each other, and in any song, that sounds awful and shows a lack of listening skills to what you have remixed (although TIMM may have just gotten away with it with thier orbitus remix, but it’s still a bad thing). This problem is made even worse, as most of the samples kept are from the original castle song anyway. In fact, all that has been done here is a change in one of the samples and some swapping around of all the patterns (which, in turn has also completely ruined the structure of the song). Oh, and one of the ends of the pattern is cut off, but that’s about it.

RATING: 1.9
DOWNLOAD?: I think not. Unless some drastic improvements, tracking skills and a lot more effort is put into any further remixes, I (with regret) don’t think music is for you.

Darn, I was misslead into thinking that this was going to be a scraparap remix of Sean Paul (which by the way somebody should so do). I wasn’t dissapointed with what I heard, however…

This supposed scraparap remix is not like many of the other remixes on this site. It is almost a complete composition with just a few elements of scraparap remaining (like the drums and parts of the melody), instead of your standard Jazz 1 remix which will just take parts of the song, change the samples and re-arange a few parts. More importantly, everything sounds in tune and the samples go very well with each other, and I love the different phrases of the song.

My only complaints are that something needs to be done with the ending (it feels a bit incomplete) and the structure is a bit hard to recognise sometimes and it is a bit repetitive.

FINAL RATING: 8.0
DOWNLOAD?: I think the rating says it all. This song would go great with somekind of poisonous android toxic ice level.

EDIT: Repetitiveness isn’t really a huge problem, but in my opinion, there are just a couple of sections like at around 0:30 that repeat a bit too often (also at 3:00 to 3:20 and again towards the end). This was really just a minor poke.

I think everyone else who has already reviewed has this one covered, so I won’t even bother writing a long review.

Very bad eyecandy with few layers used, and it was all a mess, particularily the background (for labrat, you need to use F to flip the tiles and make it fix). As for the gmaeplay, there was almost none. A few enemies and about 5 gems is about all this level has to offer. It was also very short and very linear, particulaily towards the end, where you have a long run up towards the end of the level.

RATING: 1.3 (.2 for the gameplay, and .1 for the eyecandy all on the basis that you had some)
DOWNLOAD?: Err, no, I don’t think. If you take a look at the JCS Reference at the top of the page, it has all kinds of tips on how to improve your levels. Also, make your levels longer and put more content in them and spend time on them. This could be made in 5 minutes.

From the bottom of my soul, I give you my review, but firstly, I would like to point out one big problem. Please don’t use basic filenames like begining, or castle5, or easter because those names are so common that they overwrite other levels. Call them something like “HF1Easter” or something else because then people can distinguish your work from others (HF standing for Headfreak, 1 standing for episode 1 etc.). Now, the review.

BEGINING:
The intro level…

CASTLE5 (Also titled, the begining)
At a first glance, the eyecandy wasn’t too bad. Most of the level was fixed, and there was a wide variety of layers used. There were one or two odd tilebugs, but overall, pretty good. Next time, however, it would be nice to see a variety of non-JJ2 tilesets used (this goes for all levels).

Now the gameplay, and it is far too easy. At the start of the level, the coins required for the 20 coin warp are right next to it, the majority of enemies used are norm turtles and there are extra lives just lying around the place. There were also no trigger puzzles or particularily difficult challenges, which will definately need to be required to get higher ratings. Also, you could use the CTF trick instead of spikes in pits to make it less annoying.

EASTER:
This level looks remarkably similar to one I played a few months ago, like Mortalspaz said. The eyecandy was again OK. Most layers used, lots of content ect. However, the problem with easter tilesets is that the ground blocks don’t fix together, so next time I suggest using one of the fixed easter tilesets. Even better: if you want to create a forest (as the name suggests), use a forest themed tileset, as there are plenty out there.

The gameplay was better than the first level. There was a lot more content and there were actually a couple of challenges. There was a wider variety of enemies used and there weree trigger puzzles. You also had to find the coins this time. However, there were elements of TSF levels in there and some elements of the level which seemed copied from other levels, with makes it less original and less fun.

BOSS:

Well, just a simple boss level, which is a classic way to end a pack. You could have maed it more fun if there was a bit of challenging level before the boss so that it flows better.

OTHER THINGS:
Also, there were a couple of loopholes in the story. You could have made it mroe detailed (e.g. why do you have to save the queen?? What incentives do you have?? etc. It is good that you have included a story into your pack, but a more detailed one is better and more fun. Also, please make the next episode longer (maybe at least 5 good long levels). 3 levels just doesn’t feel like a lengthy episode.

FINAL RATING:5.6
RANK: 5 Average
DOWNLOAD?: I would wait for episode 2. I think there needs to be a lot of work put into episode 2 and a bit more time spent into it. I would love to see more content, challenges and those loopholes in the story fixed. It also wouldn’t hurt to use some non-JJ2 tilesets for better originality. Download this if you are bored for 5 minutes.

It has to be said that this version is much much better in terms of content, and it is a good thing that you got rid of those pointless error messages and tubelectric tiles. However, I don’t get why the background has trees and stuff when this is supposedly a windows themed tileset. You also could have gone one further and made a keyboard too among other things you could have added. I love the idea, but as a general tileset, I still think that it needs some work.

Firstly, please sort out and translate all of your text from Spanish (as far as I’m concerned) to English, as most of us here speak English. I didn’t understand the texts in the level at all. As for the levels themselves, well, we’ll just have to see…

EYECANDY:
I wasn’t completely shocked by the eyecandy. 60% or so of it was fixed, but the other 40% was quite bad. The background layers weren’t fixed in level 1, there were areas in the levels where foreground tiles were missing completely where they were needed (the hat for example) and there was nothing to back up the floor tiles below, so you could see beyond the bottoms of floor tiles. Some of the animated tiles also didn’t fit with each other (the cat for example). Also, there were some random tile placements. Why on earth are there some blocks floating at the beginning of the first level and they don’t even do anything?

However, there is a good variety of layers used.

GAMEPLAY:

Both levels seem to have the same style. Both of them are completely linear to the end, both of them have no puzzles whatsoever and both of them consist mainly of just killings some enemies and getting past some insanely long catterpillars and some spikes. There were almost no items. There was also a failed attempt to place destruct blocks in the second level, and they didn’t show up because destructive blocks require animated tiles. It also helps to put a story in your level packs.

FINAL RATING: 1.4
DOWNLOAD?: Unfortunately, most of the 0.4 you scored comes from the half fixed-eyecandy. To improve the score, try increasing the amount of gameplay and content in your levels and spend more time on them.

BTW, I found SPAZ18’s quick review helpful.

A series of 3 mario races? Well then, this race pack could offer some serious originality. I shall review this pack race by race:

MARIO RACE 1:

Well, although the eyecandy theme looks pretty traditional and it has some mario style gameplay in there, such is flytraps and tubes, there isn’t actually a lot of content. Firstly, you can’t really play this online or over a LAN connection because it uses warps for the ends of laps, which only works in splitscreen. Secondly, the race is far too short, and there aren’t many obstacles, apart from one or two plants and a couple of pinball bumpers. Finally, the Mario theme is spoiled by all of the “Tileset by taz” tiles and floating trees in the background. I also felt that the eyecandy could be more exciting.

MARIO RACE 2:

This one is actually quite similar to the first. Again, there are not many obstacles. Just a couple of gaps and some destructive blocks. The rain in the backround was a bit distracting and it was far too short and again, the eyecandy didn’t really offer much. There wasn’t even any ammo or items or anything; it was a pretty empty level. That really is all there is to say about this one.

MARIO RACE 3:

This one was probably the best of the pack. You did slightly more in this level. You climbed up some hooks, dodged some spike bolls and there was even a water feature used, so there was more content. However, like levels 1 and 2, was still too short and over too quickly, and the eyecandy was still bugged. I didn’t really get why each spike platform had half a toad standing on them. Basically, like levels 1 and 2, this one didn’t have much to offer at all.

FINAL RATING: 2.3
DOWNLOAD?: There are better kinds of this thing to download, and certainly races that are more worthwhile playing. The main problem was the lack of content. The race didn’t have much to offer. Try putting more content into further uploads, making them longer and make them look more creative and less buggy in the future. Also, go into the JCSRef under the JCS section at the top on tip of how to make good levels.

Oh, and also, the music didn’t really work. You may have entered the file names in wrong.

Bad eyecandy, levels were short, fustraiting and there was no story, so they were pointless. Layer 8 in the space levels wasn’t fixed and the animataions were poor. Levels looked too rushed and I got stuck several times.

Also, the use of 2je files gains you no extra credit.

A Halloween themed level?? A little unseasonal don’t you think. However, that’s not really important, what is important is the review, so here goes:

EYECANDY:

You can’t really say that the eyecandy in this level ain’t interesting. The feel of the level is almost perfect for a halloween level. It was dark, the place is filled with haunted gravestones and evil-looking pumpkins. There is the odd light here and there to further set the tone.

There are a couple of problems, however. Although the level is dark, it is a little too dark to see anything else. Ok, perhaps the darkness makes it a bit more of a challenge but here, it is too dark to really see anything. My prediction is that you won’t be able to see the level at all on a bright day where the sun is shining onto the computer/mac/whatever screen. Also, you could have used more layers and there are some odd tile bugs around the level.

GAMEPLAY;

Here is where its starts to go completely wrong. Firstly, there are no challenges whatsoever in the level. No trigger crates or zones. There are no secrets whatsoever. The only thing remotely challenging in this level (apart from the dark) is perhaps the odd gate which you have to shoot, a couple of graves that you fall into and a few enemies. The level doesn’t only lack challenges, but it lacks items. Whilst scanning through this level through the JCS, I could only find 3 items, and all of them were carrots.

The cause of these problems is probably due to the level being too short. It isn’t lengthy enough to be considered a JJ2 Episode, and when you complete the level, I got the sense that it was incomplete.

FINAL RATING: 3.5
DOWNLOAD?: I’m afraid not, and mainly because of the appauling gameplay of the level. Try making the levels longer and more challenging so that they are more fun.

The time had finally arrived…as now, you don’t even need TSF to play TSF levels anymore. People can now stop compaining that they can’t play an episode because it is TSF (although that rarely happens, as most of the best levels use 1.23 anyway). Now, people who have 1.23 can play almost any level, which is probably one of the best things about this utility.

This is a programme that is useful to everyone, whether you’re somebody who owns 1.23, or somebody who is mainly a TSF level maker such as myself, as now, almost everyone can try almost every TSF level and nobody has a reason to complain.

What is also great about this is that it is very simple to use. All you do is drag and drop a TSF level into the program and it just makes a copy of the level that you can play in 1.23. You don’t have to go into any programmes or do any coding or editing or anything, it is just a matter of click, drag and drop.

Finally, after several tries to fault this programme, the only problems that I can come up with is that you still can’t play levels that use tilesets which exceed the normal tile limit in 1.23, such as levels that use the Mega Metropolis tileset (which has over 4000 tiles, although there is lite version of the tileset anyways). I suppose people may also find dragging and dropping the TSF level as an extra choore just to play it. However, that barely qualifies as a fault with the programme itself, which works almost faultlessly, and this is much better than having to edit the actual level data itself.

I very strongly recommend that everyone who has 1.23, or even people who have both versions of JJ2 download this because this is a very useful tool to try out and use to everyone. This should be hailed as one of the best things ever to hit JJ2.

EDIT: Doesn’t work particularily well with very very large files. I think the 0.5 off the 10 is still enough of a margin, so the rating sticks, and don’t let this put you off downloading it, as it still is a very good programme.

Despite the fact that it has just taken me over a year to complete this game because it was so hard (although I am pretty rubbish at JJ2 anyway), this is one of the most original, exciting and diverse campaigns ever.

There are a couple of buggy walls, and some of the obstacles were pretty annoying, but other than that, this is an epic pack.

It may be a bit easy, linear and lacking in eyecandy, but this pack will certainly keep you going for a while. Plus, it has an interesting plotline, uses a very wide variety of items and enemies and there are some coin search puzzles in there too.

It doesn’t stand out much, and could use a little more creativity, but so far, good effort.