Not recommendedReview by P4ul

Posted:
8 May 2007, 16:04 (edited 8 May 07, 20:31 by Booshi)
For: Battle From Freedom
Level rating: 6.2
Rating
5.5

I wanted to review each level separately, but my review itself would just get chaotic. All the levels just look the same.

Eyecandy

The eyecandy in these is chaotic and reslly not up to the standards set up by certain people. Everything here is scattered randomly, like the author was in a rush or something. Another important thing is that the author himself didn’t show any thinking from his own. Each time we play these levels we get a strong feeling of deja vu, there’s nothing original and everything can be seen in other levels. The backgrounds aren’t too special here too, and by saying backgrounds I mean backgrounds, not “layer 8’s”, because some people here really get excited as they see layer 8 textured.

Gameplay

The layouts here are a massacre on their own, except level 3 which was just evidently ripped off mr. Bird’s “A Victorian Urban”, which I should take points off but won’t. As for the other two, I can’t even tell if they’re open or cramped, because that depends on the place we’re in. There’s a huge open area which turns into enclosed tunnels. The levels here are very platformy, which doesn’t really mean we can jump from one platform to another because they’re very long and thin, which almost makes me say they look like the = sign.

As for ammo and other stuff, there’s just way too much of it for such a small level on the (average) 110×80 scale. All the food here could be finely put in a, say, 150×100 level. Besides, it’s just placed really chaotically (quite a lot of the chaos thorought the pack don’t you think?)

Summary
  • Pluses?
  • Chaotic

Overall
This, as an overall, is a pack of chaos. If you like chaotic gameplay and eyecandy (which isn’t really the best thing) download this.

RecommendedReview by P4ul

Posted:
5 May 2007, 20:16
For: Rayman 1 - Forest
Level rating: 7.5
Rating
7.5

Eyecandy

Well, for starters, this tileset is very.. intimidating. And overwhelming. By playing a level with this tileset, we can feel like a true rabbit in a forest. Everything in this tileset is extremely large, sometimes perhaps too large. The big plants certainly give out the greatest impression, which stand out in the levels a lot (13 tiles high!), which makes the levels look very open and original. This tileset represents a jungle (a bit similar to the official JJ2 Jungle tileset, thanks to Epic), so if you do like nature themed levels, go try this out.

Usability

Well, this tileset falls prey here. You have trees and big plants to use.. and nothing else. Even the JJ2 Jungle has had some building tiles that you could make a village out of, where as this has solely trees and plants, which may make the conversion a bit boring. I know it’s a conversion, but there’s no trouble in adding some stuff by oneself. All the most required tiles are on the top of the set, so there’s no hassle with looking for all kinds of random tiles to make a floor tile properly (hinthint JJ2 Inferno). I do miss a textured background though, all we have here is trees (again..) The mask here seems like a joke, though. It’s just the contour of all the walls. All the soil tiles are unmasked, which is, well, questionable. (Just open a level using this set and look at the mask, you’ll know what do I mean)

Summary
  • The idea is original
  • Splendid plants
  • Overall intimidating eyecandy
  • Weird mask
  • No other possibilites other than making a forest/jungle

Overall
This tileset will appeal to those who like nature (jungle) themes, but unfortunately there’s nothing much else which can be done with this set.. pity.

RecommendedReview by P4ul

Posted:
28 Apr 2007, 12:05 (edited 28 Apr 07, 12:06 by Booshi)
For: Temple of Karnak
Level rating: 7.8
Rating
8

Eyecandy

What could be said about the ec in this level, if it looks just like one of THE classic SP episodes on J2O. It’s normal use of the KejeroEgypt tileset, which may not be too shocking today as it once was, but it’s good enough nonetheless
One of larger errors here, though, is that there’s a lot scarab symbols. You may ask whats wrong with it, well nothing too much if they’re placed further away. But here you see the scarabs everywhere D=. Also the use of the water block events is a little questionable, because imo it should be used when the water tiles are in front of the player, not in the back, because it looks odd.

Gameplay

The layout here is a bit different from all battle levels, there are a few dead ends with powerups and +1 carrots. The level is platformy, but the eyecandy helps covering it up a lot. Also a lot of platforms means more freestyled gameplay, without fixed routes (hence why lvls like BBLair and DW are so strategical). The level also contains (only) two pits, one of them in the lava room, and one hidden on the right, in the area taken from the last Tomb Rabbit level – the one with the crate puzzle, the first mummy encounter and the pit with bees.

I don’t like the ammo placement here though. It’s just scattered chaotically across the level, there’s a lot of ammo basically everywhere, and it comes in mixed groups which makes the ammo placement hard to remember overall.

Summary
  • Original idea
  • Interesting gameplay
  • Classic eyecandy
  • Chaotical ammo placement
  • The scarabs are overdone D=

Overall
This is a very original and interesting level, which should be used in some dedicated server loop, not to mention the soon coming ab10. I give this an 8 mainly for the sheer originality. Aside from a few bugs it’s a good level and fully deserves the rating.

Not recommendedReview by P4ul

Posted:
23 Feb 2007, 16:09 (edited 23 Feb 07, 16:09 by Booshi)
For: Rabbit Settlement
Level rating: 2.8
Rating
1.9

..what the heck?

Eyecandy

How in the world does this level get an 8 and 4.5 for the eyecandy? I’d say it’s a mirage, not eyecandy. This level doesn’t have anything which could be called that. Layer 4 is entirely bland and boring, and the only thing in the background is a hotel room (???). As for the background itself, it fades to black, and the background itself is very light, which looks bad :/

Gameplay

Also a heavy overrating here. This level is 50×35 tiles big (congrats), and all the paths are straight like a dash: – Too small, not enough ammo, blahblahblah.

Summary
  • n/c
  • once again everything

Overall
This review is directed not only to the author, but also to other reviewers who overrate everything; mainly I mean people such as Kax, and SPAZ18 who gives an 8/10 for a level’s eyecandy just for a “good background” because he’s unable to make a better one.
Thank you ladies, goodbye

RecommendedReview by P4ul

Posted:
29 Jan 2007, 20:30 (edited 29 Jan 07, 22:13 by Booshi)
For: Króciutki teścik
Level rating: 1
Rating
1

Witam wszystkich zainteresowanych!!
Hello to all of you who are interested!!

Eyecandy

Wiec jezeli chodzi o eyecandy to nie znajdziecie go tutaj =D i na tym by mozna zakonczyc recenzje na temat ec ale cooba pewnie by sie zdenerwowal wiec jeszcze cos napisze (Y).W lvlu nie ma zadnych animacji, jezeli chodzi o warswty to sa wykorzystane tylko dwie (layer 4 i 8). Calosc jest zbudowana z jednego klocka (no dobra z dwoch), grubosc scian wynosi 32px,a jezeli chodzi o te diamenty to wygladaja one kiepsko (same gem ringi i purple gemy)
Actually, as for eyecandy, you won’t find any ec here =D and this would be the end of the description but cooba would get annoyed so i’ll spit out more (Y). This level has no animations at all and uses only two layers. the whole level is built using only one tile (well ok, two), all the walls are 32 pixels thick, and the diamonds (gem rings and purple gems) at the end look overdone and kind of lackluster.

Gameplay

Wiec autorka miala racje mowiac ze test jest krotki bo ma tylko 2 levele z czego pierwszy musimy pokonac kickiem a drugi kopterkiem (brawa dla tej dziewczyny), a jezeli dojdziemy do konca to mamy bardzo trudny naprawde trudny wybor amianowicie mozemy grac od poczatku lub zagrac w drugi lvl (ktorego nie ma)
The author was right about the test being short, becuase it has only two levels, one beatable with the sidekick and the second with copter ears (congratulations), and once we reach the end, we stand before the extremely hard choice: we can either restart the level or play the next one which doesnt even exist.

Summary
  • tralalala
  • lol

Overall
Najbardziej zaciekawil mnie rmx, ktory wg autorki jest jej, pewnie tak uwaza bo zmienila nazwe (nie ladnie krasc rzeczy od czlonkow IC >D)
The thing which interested me the most is the sugar rush remix (which isnt even the music used by the level), which the author claims as hers by changing its name… not nice to steal stuff from IC >D

RecommendedReview by P4ul

Posted:
3 Jan 2007, 17:31 (edited 22 Feb 07, 15:05 by Booshi)
For: Beach +
Level rating: 7.7
Rating
5.6

Eyecandy

hmm.. I dunno why do some people get so excited over this set maybe because there’s several added tiles? it’s kind of cheap (coughinferno2.0) and it’s not really a reason to raise ratings.

Most of these tiles have been “borrowed” from other tilesets. the only thing he drew himself is the elongated diamondus bush, which is, um, ugly. The whole rest is taken from other tilesets like the textured background from other PJ’s conversions (which he took from diamondus beta) why use this background instead of making a new one instead? (Filter -> Render -> Clouds, PJ). We will also find more (questionable) things, such as the coral from Violet’s conversion of Lagunicus, inferno 2.0 caves, which are slowly getting overused in sets (make them from scratch at least, PJ, because the one you stole has bugs) and background layer stuff from jungle and diamondus.

As for the palettes, there are five of them, two of which are the original ones. For me, the worst one must be the midnight one, which would be decent but the %{color: #FF8000;}ORANGE% wood which look ugly and don’t fit at all. As for sunset, its problem is the background layers. The sand under the shipwreck is also %{color: #FF8000;}ORANGE%. To end with an actually positive accent, I’ll say that the tropical palette is the best one out of all five, the sand and the foliage look great.

Usability

Here the situation is a bit better than in how this looks, but there’s also this one problem that there’s a lot of spare place where you could add more tiles. As for the layout, it’s rather friendly, there should be no problems when finding the right tiles. The mask also has been fixed, but there are still places where it doesn’t fit to itself correctly.

Summary
  • Tropical version
  • Fixed mask
  • Few self-made tiles
  • Lots of free space

Overall
It hurts me to see that people overrate such conversions heavily. Dont forget that there are better conversions than this (DiamB, NOKA’s pack) which have an equal or lower rating. People, think twice before rating so highly



Edit: I saw a level made from this set (not Birdie’s) and know what? The mask is just as bad as in the original one. The soil barely even tiles, mask-wise :/

RecommendedReview by P4ul

Posted:
4 Dec 2006, 20:07 (edited 4 Dec 06, 20:12 by Booshi)
For: Atmospherical
Level rating: 8.3
Rating
8.1

Eyecandy

Maybe I’ll start from the best things in this lvl. Firstly, the background layers are incredible :D, especially the sixth layer at the bottom of the lvl, GJ DS. The “caves” on layer 5 also deserve mention, although they’re not as impressive :P as layer 6. I would like them better if they had more “holes” in them, they would look a bit better in that case. However now I must mention the things which I dont like as much. These are the walls and those weird… buildings… at the bottom of the lvl. As for the walls, they’re a bit too plain for me, I like the one on the very right though, for it has a nice effect of being a little, um, bumpy for the lack of a better word. If only the whole level had the walls like that, it would be great . As for that strange multicolored thing… it doesnt fit. I don’t even know what it is , but my intelligence tells me that it might be a building of some sort.

Gameplay

Let’s start from the layout. It’s a fairly simple one (but solid), which makes it simple to learn. It allows for fast movement between the bases, but here also lies this problem: the springs aren’t calculated too well. If you run into a spring the wrong way, you will bounce into a wall or the ceiling Like if you run into the spring on 84,48 from the left, you will hit the wall. You could of placed a warp or an one way there, or something, but no big problem. As for the ammo, there’s just enough. In some places they form nice patterns, like the one in the middle of the level. One can get fully armed easily, so that’s good. There are two PU’s (RF and Bouncy) which are close to the bases, and one Full Energy carrot which is in the…. middle? of the lvl.

Summary
  • Layer 6 is impressive
  • Nice, simple layout
  • A lot of ammo
  • The not too interesting building at the bottom of the lvl
  • The buggy springs

Overall
I like this better than some of DS’ lvls, although I don’t think this is that great like some people (cooba >O) think. I’ll give this an 8.1 i think, because this is a really nice lvl.

Greetings, P4ul from IC

RecommendedReview by P4ul

Posted:
3 Nov 2006, 22:20 (edited 5 Nov 06, 20:22 by Booshi)
For: The Highlands
Level rating: 8.2
Rating
7.9

Eyecandy

Where have I seen this It’s kinda hard for me to rate this level, for obvious reasons; it uses the Diamondus Beta tileset which is very familiar to me. Anyway out of the whole ec, I especially like the bg layers (6 and 7), with caves and trees behind them, like in blacky’s crematoria (?) gf level. And as for the worst thing in this level, the foreground bushes. They look as if they were placed randomly without any thought involved.

That’s all for the best/worst things, now lets get back to the EC as the whole. I liked how some of the diamonds had the Steady Light events on them (not too noticable on a normal speedy game though); there was some food in the soil (an interesting effect, but I didnt like it too much). It could use a few more holes in the soil and more trees on the layer 3. I also found a tilebug in the bonus (a cut cavern).

Gameplay

Well uh, what can be said about gameplay? Firstly, the layout is built nicely, it can produce fairly fast-paced games, without any bumps or obstacles. You can run from one end of the level to the other with barely even having to jump. The bonus (seek PU) also speeds up the gameplay. The only thing which may slow it down (which is good since too much of fast pace can get on nerves) are the powerups hidden in walls – Blaster, RF, Bouncy.

And since we’re speaking of ammo, I should note that there are all kinds of ammo (w/o tnt), accessible easily and in fair amounts. There are also three carrots here, which would be good but two of them are in the 30 coins warp. Maybe there are more carrots but i found only those 3 :/

Summary
  • Nice layer work
  • Well placed, easily obtainable (wth hard word >O) ammo
  • Interesting layout
  • The bushes look bad
  • A bit too few holes in the ground?
  • Could use more carrots
Overall Back to “where have I seen this”, we can outline a few things which have been done already:

But anyway, these things don’t make any bad effect, they actually make the level have a ‘familiar’ feel which makes it deserve appreciation.

[Textile fix. ~Cooba]

Review by P4ul

Posted:
8 Jul 2006, 09:51
For: Random Battle Levels
Level rating: 8.6
Rating
N/A

!!!!!

why does cooba always gets reviews but I dont? no one ever reviewed death facility, and when I upload a pack only cooba’s level gets reviewed! i have some bad luck it seems :|

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