Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Well then, I first like to thank you, IJsKonijn, for deciding to upload this pack even though you won’t finish it. Getting to play the finished levels is better than having nothing at all right? So let’s get into some details.

From the first level on, you imediately notice the “1998 style” all over it. The way secrets are placed in walls, pathways are made, enemies are placed.. It’s all easely comparable to the original SP levels and early custom levels (such as those by Wakeman).

I didn’t ever think parts felt copy-pasted like Stijn did, everything seemed pretty unique to me while in TSF’s easter levels I definitely felt doing every section about 5 times. I do however agree that the crate puzzles get exhausting and that usage of layer4 tiles as back and foreground is very, very confusing sometimes. Those are my biggest downsides for this pack too. Especially in the Jungle level (though Diamondus had it’s share), it’s very hard to navigate and I got confused all the time. Though on the other hand, it indeed looks beautiful!

Ammo is okay for a traditional SP where you don’t need all too much, the RF’s aren’t available too early so you can’t abuse RF jumps too much. Toaster may be too much which I don’t like, as it’s by far the easiest weapon besides Blaster. Food is plenty and good for several sugar rushes, and the traditional coin warps are there but with a nice twist in one level. I loved having 3 different reward choices inside the coin warp with 3 possible accesses if you got all 30 coins.

Best to me personally may’ve been the Beach level, as it didn’t suffer from the 2 main problems (crate puzzles and layer4 usage) that much, and good levels using the Beach tileset aren’t common due to it’s usage being challenging. I also enjoyed the last level a lot, with it’s non-linear layout being a surprising difference from earlier levels in the pack.

I definitely recommend this pack to anyone who digs traditional SP levels. Even though the pack isn’t actually finished and the story ends abruptly, it’s not that important as the levels are enjoyable enough even if they were released as stand-alone. I believe a 7.7 is a fair score, but don’t let that make you think this pack isn’t special at all, as it definitely is!

This is a fairly fun single-player episode, although it’s nothing too special. The levels follow the oldschool formula of level creation and even use mostly just the basic epic-tilesets. The episode was visually good though as well, sometimes maybe a bit overdone since it was hard to see where to go actually. Nevertheless I liked these levels.

I found this quite enjoyable. It may not be overflowing with innovation, but it shows a consistent individual level making style rather than an imitation of Epic’s. Stijn’s review lists most of my issues, I’d also say throw out the secrets one is forced to find to continue. Also there really could’ve been an outro level to finish the storytelling.

This pack was okay. The premise of “an old school single player levelpack” is delivered well; everything is fairly “old school”, from the level design to the excuse plot to the music list.

The levels are mostly good old platforming with some trigger crate puzzles mixed in. Lots. Of. Trigger. Crates. Trigger puzzles can be okay and they’re pulled off well in a few situations in this pack but after the 5th or so crate exhaustion usually sets in and in these levels you’re at about the quarter-through point then. It’s not the biggest of problems, but it does make you wonder whether maybe leaving behind the old skool style and going for some more innovative puzzles instead might’ve been a good idea.

Perhaps repetition is this episode’s problem in a more general sense too; I found myself thinking of TSF’s Easter levels a few times, and then especially of those sections where you had to jump up a copypasted set of platforms that seemed to serve no other purpose than to make the level feel bigger. Now I’m not saying that’s what happened here, but things did feel a bit samey every now and then. It’s all perfectly serviceable, but not necessarily fun.

On the other hand there were many more enjoyable segments as well, with small detours that lead to bonuses and a lot of secrets. These did result in me having multiple powerups (including the Blaster powerup) halfway through though, which made the subsequent levels a lot less challenging than they would’ve been with sparser ammo. A more balanced distribution of weapons would’ve been better, though there’s few things as satisfying as having a fully powered-up blaster and running through the levels destroying everything in your path.

When it comes to visuals IJskonijn is an alumnus of the Spy school of design, where every layer is layer 4. Especially in the Jungle levels things look appealing at first sight but once you start moving everything becomes super confusing as platforms are used both as tangible objects and background scenery. This makes it quite difficult to see what parts of the level you can actually stand on. The other levels are a bit better in this regard, though some parts go off the other end of the scale and look fairly bland, with repeating patterns, and little eyecandy. A bit less of both (and fewer tile bugs) would’ve made for a nicer middle ground, but except for the more egregious parts the levels do look quite decent overall.

So what to make of this pack overall? As I said, it’s okay. It’s not bad by any means, and it’s an adequate diversion, but there was no moment during playing that I thought “wow, this is really cool” or anything like it. Good to download if you’re into single player and out of levels to play, but nothing out of the ordinary.

new sp episodes ftw. I enjoyed this one even if it doesnt use new jj2+ plus things.

Finally! Every now and then I’d wonder what happened to this project, glad to see you decided to make a release.

Just reading the list of music files was a nostalgia blast.

Just good.

Now I’m not that good at reviewing conversions, but It doesn’t take a genius to see this is a great and usable tileset.

What this is
This is basically a conversion of the old battery check level Binnen. While at first glance it looks like it has everything, there some things missing I would have liked.

Tiles
I haven’t played Battery check in a while, but I can safely say pretty much everything is here. All the background, foreground, animations, and tiles from the original tileset look like there here and well. It was nice you added destruct locks in with the tileset as I love using those. The water area in here as well. There some things I would have liked that isn’t here. Vines, hooks, tubes, textured background and arrows aren’t here. I’m sure you could get tubes working by using some of the tiles to make something that looks like tubes, but some custom ones would be nice. Overall, everything is here, i just wish there was some more stuff added.

Edit: Most of these have been added! I’ll give you an extra point!
8/10
Animations
The animations are good. They all have there frames but some of them have bugs. The static TV has a bug where part of the railing flashes in the third frame. Other then that, the animations look great and fluent. Nice job!
9/10
Colors
Colors look perfect, exactly what i remember from battery check. Great job there!
10/10
Pallet Events
Won’t rate because non are used, but thanks for fixing up the pallet!
Masking
Masking is good. It’s a lot better then the old tileset. Masking is straight lines and almost everything is masked properly. the only thing that has weird masking is the tiles with the monitors near the bottom of the tileset. Other then that, nice work fixing up the masking job!
8/10
Reusability
Not the best. While you do have a variety of tiles to use from under water, factory or lab, your still limited because there’s no outdoor background. If you included this, It would have been a lot higher of a rating.
6/10

Final Score:41/50
Score: 8.2
Rank: B
DR? Sure. This is a great tileset and I won’t be surprised if someone will use it. Download now and enjoy!

Edit: Changed rating by a little.

good lvl

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

Let me be honest here…This level is a tad overrated. I’m glad some things were fixed, like the filename and bugs, but the level as a whole isn’t that great.

Graphics: This is where the level suffers the most, I think. Don’t get me wrong, the eye candy’s okay, but there’s just too much of it! It’s hard to make out what can be jumped on and what can’t, and it obscures items and enemies.
GRADE: C+

Music: Standard jungle theme. It’s not bad, but you could have done something better.
GRADE: B+

Playability: This level can be beaten, which is good. Just be prepared to deal with unseen enemies unless you have a very sharp eye.
GRADE: A-

Structure: Felt kind of tight in places, as if trying to keep you from dodging obstacles and such. It doesn’t really do you many favors. It’s not terrible, but please do keep enemies and movement in mind when making other levels.
GRADE: C

Placement: Most of the items were easy to reach, but I couldn’t find the coins needed to open the bonus warp. That might be from my rusty skills, but eh. I’m not too concerned. There should be more weapons and maybe a few extra carrots, I ran out of toaster ammo before I reached the end. Also: NEVER put enemies on top of or near checkpoints! That’s just bad design right there. Also, take away the platforms in the boss area, the boss isn’t going to jump after you and the lack of platforms allows for better maneuverability.
GRADE: C-

Difficulty: I’d say about average. A player with decent skills in JJ2 should be able to beat it without dying.

Verdict: I’d say, try it at least. If you like it, that’s fine. Me, I don’t really like it. It’s not terrible, but it could be improved.

FINAL GRADE: C
RECOMMENDATION: No

Radio GaGa is a rather odd level in the sense that its not as different as the description would lead you to believe. It is however a rather solid first showing. Despite being rather linear and keeping the player confined, Radio GaGa is a fun and quick diversion. That and some original ideas sprinkled in earns Radio Ga Ga a download recommendation.

This very good level!!! Continuation do not plan???

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

I would love to see how this level is though i don’t have TSF.

I to loved commander keen and have recently started converting keen 4 levels to Jazz2, but when labrat-kid made he’s excellent tileset of grasslands, except that he forgot to include the animation of lifts moving up down left right or circular.

meh, It’s fairly short, although accurate level.

At first, I didn’t think Industrius would have been a good music for the level, but upon playing it, I thought it was a reasonably nice choice.

Crossovers can be too accurate though, and it shows in this level. The goodies are just keen candy tiles with the jazz “Consumables” over it (Powerups for books, fast fire for the raygun, Coconuts? for the lollipops)

Warping the player back to the start is a nice move (I expected hurt tiles), but it is not a big enough deterrent from keeping the player from touching the stuff. I think using the “SP CTF Death trick” would work nicely here and add more accuracy to the level, in forcing the player to restart.

There are no enemies, and I think this hurt the level a little, which origionally was full of yorps. Just using regular JJ2 enemies in good spots would make the level a bit more entertaining that just being a obstacle course.

Masking could have been done a little differently, but this is only some mild issues so I can’t complain. (The masking around the exit was cool) As for eyecandy, Commander Keen had no multi-layer EC, and it is the same here.

Overall, I feel this level needs some polishing. I would remove the Keen1 goodies from the background completely, and just use the JJ2 equivalent (Coconuts? why coconuts? Why not the wrapped mints?).

Download recommendation? The jury’s still out on that. I believe small levels like these are better “Sold” in level packs, as the levels don’t provide much entertainment value on their own. If you want to give it a try, Go ahead…

Nice try.

Eyecandey:
Almost nothing.
There’s a background that is textured which is good. But other than that the eyecandeys bad.
2/10
Ammo Placement:
There are bouncers, freezers and toasters. That’s it. No Power ups. Also there are 4 fastfire events which can make the game boring. Speaking of which all the ammo and fastfire icons respawn in way to quickly making the level easy.
2/10
Carrot placement:
I have to say for a small battle like this 1 is enough. I have to give this one a 10.
10/10
Total:14/30
Score 3
Rank E
DR/no

let me play plz

Yeh!
I like this level.
This level is a great job with all the trees in layer 3,5, and also in layer 2. I also like the caves very much, that and the trees makes the level look like a “real” jungle:P
And here Details.

I played with Jazz in normal mode.
Eyecandy: 9,9999…/10
Hmm…There was very much eyecandy and i love it. But sometimes there been to much. Sometimes I didn’nt see the enemies and got hard lifeloss, that why I don’t give you 10 points for the eyecandy, but you can see it as 10 points. If you would make more levels make them with the same eyecandy as this one.

Enemies: 7.5
The enemies in this level was good placed, not to much and not to less if you are playing in normal mode, but there was only one ‘hard mode enemy’, so there are a little less enemies for hard mode. The choice of enemies was good but not perfect. The ravens shouldn’t be there, but it makes no bigger different.

Ammo placement: 8.5
Good ammo placement.
I had around 5-20 cartridges of all weapons in the whole level, but I was out of fire in one part of the level.
The choice of ammo was good, but not perfect. Fire and ice are two good weapons to use in jungle, but I hoped to see any bouncers in this jungle level. (my favorite weapon, but I will not decrease the rating because of that)

Other placement: 7.5
What can I say.
Food, goodies, and diamonds was all good placed, but I didn’t see any ‘easy mode events’, like carots and other, that will decrease the rating a little.

Gameplay: 9
Very good gameplay.
The great eyecandy did so the level caught me in a hurry, and then it just flowed on until I came to the place with the air boards.
There I lost the good feeling, it decreased the gameplay:( but when I continued after that I cameback in a few seconds.
The length of the level was good.
I never reached the feeling “when is it over”, but the level could easily be 10 times bigger. Ok, I exaggerated, but I could have been playing a a much longer time.
I saw a very few untiling tiles, but in so low degree it makes no bigger different.
I didn’t find any bugs here and that’s good.

Average rating: 8.7
Not an exactly average rating but overall I think this level deserve it.

This is my first review so been gently if you there is something wrong that I didn’t have seen.

White pinguin

Woah, how did I miss this?

The level kinda deceives you at first. A single level using an official set titled “Jungle” rated over a 9? It becomes apparent why when you play the level, however.

First thing first, this level has a crapload of eyecandy. You tried to make it look like a jungle and you succeeded, maybe over the top, though. The whole level gets in your face and makes it hard to discern whats there. Often times enemies are completely hidden behind foreground layer foilage or seemingly solid objects are really backround eyecandy. The level does really feel alive, but it also feels confusing at the same time. There’s also a few eyecandy bugs with layer 3 at the 49,32 area, a tiling bug at 44,71, and another ec bug at around 98, 79 (keep in mind these are the positions in jj2, not JCS).

The levels plays…average. It’s a typical single player level without anything new, really. There are well placed enemies (aside from the eyecandy covering most of them up), some goodies (the level could use more though, IMO.) and some secrets. From the start I knew this level would be extremely short. Making single player levels containing tons of eyecandy like this is extremely tiring and a very long process, so the levels end up being very short, as shown by this one. The level was also pretty easy. The only reason I got injured was because I couldn’t see a hidden enemy and either ran into it or got lobbed by a banana.

There’s a lot of effort put into this level, and it does come out quite detailed and looking like a jungle, although it would’ve been better if it would’ve been longer, or in a pack with other levels of similar quality. Right now, though, the level isn’t too outstanding as there are many cons that take away a lot of the spotlight from where this level shines. The level focuses TOO MUCH on eyecandy, and therefore the quality of the level is severly detracted in other areas such as the layout of it (too short, too basic, etc). It is nice to look at this level, but I think I might’ve preferred one that sacrifices some of the eyecandy to make the level play better. This is another one of those levels that I give a download reccomendation because I want people to see that spending too much effort in one category makes your level lack in others.

~Blacky

This level is really good… look at this ratings:

RATING OBSTACLES:
This level has beautiful Jungle-obstacles… that’s good for a Jungle-level, isn’t it?
VERY GOOD! PERFECT!
Rating: 10!

RATING GOODIES:
A perfect number of goodies: not to much… not to less! GREAT!
Rating: 10!

RATING EYECANDY:
Very, very great. A lot of trees, bushes and caves. And not only on the Sprite-Layer, but on the foreground AND background too! It’s hard and I love hard levels, so a perfect rating!
Rating: 10!

RATING UTERUS BOSS:
I hate Uterus Bosses, so I give a rating for the Uterus too. And this level has no one Uterus. It has an Tuf Turtle, one of my favorite bosses. Great!
Rating: 10!

FINAL RATING:
Yes, yes, yes… your final rating is a 10, a 10, a 10. CONGRATS!

Starting Comments:

I have lots of time, so I shall review this level.

Played with: Lori
On difficulty: Medium
Playing time: 5 minutes

Playability:

The level was, apart from the fog, a pretty basic single player level. There was nothing really special in gameplay, but I had fun playing. Sadly the level was very short, I played through in 5 minutes. Nothing more to say on this subject.

Score: 6.0

Balance:

Sadly the level was very easy. I lost a heart or two being hit by fencers, but that’s all. The difficulty should be boosted a lot, by adding enemies in places where they have an advantage, and maybe an endboss.

Score: 5.5

Creativity:

The fog idea was good, apart from that the level is not really creative. Like I said in Playability, the only thing to do is get to the exit. Maybe a puzzle or something similiar would make it more fun, but for such a short level it’s enough I guess, and I did not get bored.

Score: 6.0

Eyecandy:

The fog in one of the foreground layers looks pretty cool, I liked it. The rest was fine, there were no tile bugs and the Colonius tileset was used perfectly. The sewer area was very dark, which made it look pretty cool.

Score: 7.0

Fun Factor:

The level was very short, and featured nothing really original apart from the fog, still I enjoyed playing, so I guess it deserves a 7.

Score: 7.0

Overall:

A nice little level to play through. Nothing amazing, but I enjoyed it. If you like Single Player, download this. If you are looking for an amazingly original single player pack you better go with FSP.

Overall Score: 6.7

Download Reccomendation: Yes