Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I just came back from my trip to Ðx’s cave swamp, as I played this because the level is another one of the SP nominations in the 2011 JCS awards. So let’s review!

The first thing that got my attention were the deathpits. It took less than 10 seconds to notice that the whole level is based around one huge deathpit. In this case it’s a river, and the player has to cross it. This requires focus, planning, and precise jumping.

This level is clearly meant as a good challenge rather than a rollercoaster ride. It consists of short ‘tests’ with savepoints inbetween. There are some lives and carrots scattered and there is plenty of ammo to help you roast the flying enemies. Some gameplay elements included in these tests are moving platforms, precise platforming in low space, and stomping enemies to extend jumps. Most gameplay appears original to me, but some elements are just well known ways to make SP levels harder (or more annoying?).

The eyecandy is simple and effective, which is good for a level that lays focus on gameplay challenges. The whole background is covered in a dark brown color, and the green vine tiles are used to cover enemies. This all including the music are very fitting for a cave level.

I recommend download only if you want a good challenge. It took me 1 gameover and after that I used (or abbused?) the first part of the level to stack up extra lives. Worth 8.0 for the inventive gameplay!

This is the first time in months that I played a new single player level so I had to get used to the gameplay mechanics once again. Nevertheless, I like to write a proper review for it as it was a pleasure to play througth it.

As this pack’s name indicate, it’s prime story and setup is similar to EvilMike’s Devres packs, only taken slightly lighter with more linear level design, less side story telling, and no real puzzling. Most levels are a fine mix of classic ‘run ‘n gun’ style gameplay and the well known ‘find crates and exit opens’ type of design.

The pack starts with 2 introduction levels. A well known text scroll introducing the story in movie-like fashion, and a short playable level that sets things off. It’s clearly not the most original way of doing things, but it sure isn’t bad and it works well getting the player (me in this case) perfectly into the simple storyline.

After finishing the first set of levels and coming to the first ‘Save’ level, I used the point to stop playing and take a rest. Yeah, this pack is pretty hard. As I said it might just be my hiatus from single player, but the shortage on carrots and nasty narrow spike tunnels gave me a real challenge resulting in 1 gameover and many lives lost. Especially the invisible bats and the other flying enemies later on, made the search for health even more important. And ironically, I found most carrots by abusing the respawning enemies..

However, what I played was enjoyable enough to live on with the action and story while looking at the well made eyecandy. The tilesets used are the Jazz2 tileset remakes, which include enough for the eye. I’ve seen no obvious tilebugs (I’m no expert on this) and almost any wall is portrayed with tasty eyecandy. I did manage to stuck myself 2 times, once in a narrow edge at the castle, and once at the underwater tree in the woods. All levels make good use of light effects, not only to accompany backgrounds but also inside walls to create a nice cave atmosphere.

The strangest thing I noticed is that the latter 40% (or so) of this pack got a lot easier. Yes, it gets easier in the end. I don’t mind it personally, but it did came to me as a surprise. The enemies were more forgiveable and I found more barrels with health. There’s also less crate searching than in the middle levels. The overall pack felt more flowing as I progressed through it.

As this is an episodic pack, it’s obvious that the ending stays open for more. Yet this ending, didn’t really gave me a clear clue of how the events could continue, instead it came quite surprising compared to how some other quality episodic packs did it. Or it’s just my movie-filled December that made me tired of story telling..

Either way, I’m still looking forward to episode 2 and hope for some spectacular plot twists and original gameplay mechanics. This pack had a great flow of gameplay that didn’t got off the ground all too well, but sure was more than just enjoyable and it’s leaving me want more! While there are other SP packs with better quality, SP packs don’t spawn out of nowhere and Laro’s work sure has paid off!

The overall pack is a flowing SP experience and I recommend this to everyone who loved packs such as Devres and Tomb Rabbit. Yes those are totally different, but those 2 far exceed the average, this does too! Worth a good 8.0 to me, and download recommended!

It’s not fully stand-alone, but other than that, it’s very nice to play around with and helpfull to the active JCSers.

The minigame itself works for me and it’s actually pretty good as a little time-killer if you have some spare minutes.. however, the turtles seem to be flying off-screen a lot and that spoils the fun. If you’d fix that bug, then I’d say incredible work if this is one of your first tries with GameMaker.

Well, believe it or not, your level is slowly becoming legendary among online games. I keep hearing ‘Best CTF Party Good Luck’ as a possible level switch in various servers and even duellers are starting to enter Best CTF Party Good Luck. After all, good luck! :P

Looks interesting, but after all, I don’t play the guitar. I may show these to someone I know who’s playing guitar for a living, I just got to hear how these sound.

As promised, I’ll review Master Sven’s new level in pretty detail. I’ve clearly loved levels made with the Diamondus tileset over the past so it won’t be that hard. Atleast we’re seeing the ‘new’ Diamondus conversion in this one..

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is very ‘pathway’ like and doesn’t have any serious originality. A first game in this level will clearly show the fastest paths quickly and none of the pickups are requiring any move or action that I’d call special. Overal a nice flow of gameplay, that’s seen in many other similar CTF levels though.

EYECANDY
Eyecandy is kind of ‘Diamondussed’ without any imaginated fill ups that could be done with the tileset. In my opinion, that’s more than good enough because it feels like you’re playing a classic Diamondus level. Including the background and the gradient, which are similar to the one in the shipped levels. The use of water (real event and eyecandy) has been done well and doesn’t interupt with the style.

EVENT PLACEMENT
Not too much to say about this. Ammo is done good enough, I’d have done it a little different though, but that’s based on my personal opinion on ‘weapon balance’ amd such. Carrots are fine, though I’m no fan of them, maybe one of them could have been removed but then again, that’s my own opinion. Also, the warp at the bottom right appears to ‘warp’ to the opposite direction through a base, which enables a flagholder to score through a warp.. :p

RATING
I suppose by hosting this level now and then, you could have some fun. It’s not unlike many other CTF levels, but still a casual, medium to small CTF level that feels kind of classic. Download recommended and a 7.0 for you! ;)

The level is pretty much alright yeah. No masterpiece, but alright. Actually, the purpose for this review is to ‘normalize’ the overall rating for this level thanks to reviews involving secretive personal attacks, sorry admins lol..

[what ~cooba]

A very small level, based on one of the most played UT maps, good idea! It may not be completely like the UT map though, it does give the same feeling. A small and very standard level, I recommend it for duels, and for download! But don’t expect any serious fun..

As promised after playing your beta version, I’ll write a review for this level though a little later than expected. After playing the final, and updated (as it seems) version of your level, my thoughts remain as they were..

GAMEPLAY
First thing I noticed when playing the beta days ago, was the gameplay being comparable to classic concepts, thus meaning that this level won’t give you an original experience, though no fun is wasted. The pit in the down-middle area of the level is most likely the most ‘original’ part to be found. Players have to get the powerup without any major trouble around or else they’ll be sucked down into the pit by the surrounding winds. Overall gameplay is practically linair and involves running/jumping in corridor styled areas finding/killing each other.

EYECANDY
Nothing too special, except for the background, as it will probably receive different feedback. Personally, I kind of like the ‘towers with transparent windows’ except for the downside (I suppose it’s the ground holding the towers). Walls include animated tube sort of things we know from levels like E-Prime, still looks good even for this level style. Other eyecandy is pretty minor, but nothing hurts the eye and that’s generally the best thing for my eyecandy score. ;)

EVENT PLACEMENT
It’s practically hard to run out of weapons in this level, as weapon pickups are spread all over the place and you’re likely to run into an powerup which is easy to get (not including the Seeker PU in the pit). And it looks like this level is meant for some fast fragging, as you’re likely to run into easy to get carrots as well.. Envoirement events are as it should, and the palette (not really part of the level though) gave me a good feeling with the style.

RATING
Hellforge is an average small-sized battle level involving ordinary gameplay aspects. It does however create and specialize the tileset’s possible atmosphere. I don’t recommend this for duels, as the amount of pickups won’t fit for that. And for the background, you’ll love it or hate it.. I still recommend downloading as this will add a good level for your ‘public hosting’ collection. A 7.5 for the ‘alrightness’ of the level!

As I’ve promised yesterday, I’ll do a review for this interesting new CTF level as soon as it find it’s way to J2O. So ehh, here it is! And yeah, I’ve heard the pretty damn cool music file now :P. Makes me enjoy summer even with the bad weather outside hmm.. But enough of this, let’s begin reviewing!

GAMEPLAY
It think when people look at the screenshots, the first impression they’ll get from this level is the huge amont of paths crossing each other. Well, after some of Faw’s instruction and a little test run on this level, the gameplay indeed proves to be the strongest part. I’ve already played this level in an early testing state and even at that time many interesting spring, tube, and secret paths were done and working well. Although I don’t mind death ends in CTF levels that much, in this level there always is a way to go, thus some exploring is recommended before playing duels/clanwars in this! Overally seen, the gamplay is not as over-the-top as in levels like Nightfall in Noobland, but the many minor and major tricks and pathways (especially the ‘secret’ paths involving the pillars) makes this level interesting to explore, game, and master!

EYECANDY
It has been long ago since I’ve played a new level using the Persian Paradise tileset. I do remember some great classics using this Disguise set though. The set has a good bunch of eyecandy tiles, including some stuff not to be used too often. But ey, it’s about how the level makes use of it, and that’s pretty much alright. I haven’t seen any tilebugs or layer3 errors and whatever. And probably because of the months of work spend on this, every area in this level looks clean to the eye (well NOT including Mario’s face :P)!

EVENT PLACEMENT
Let’s begin with the weapons, as stated in the level description, there are 5 powerups. With the Seeker and Bouncer probably being the strongest (Seeker is always strong and bouncers are handy in the smaller tunnels in this level). Normal weapon pickups are alright aswell, as I’ve never experienced a moment without any usefull weapon. Another interesting pickup is the Full Carrot placed somewhere near the middle of the level, with more pathways leading to it, try to keep that one safe for your damaged teammate in busy games :P. Envoirement events are just as they should, I don’t really give much for lightning effects lol. But generally, I don’t see any factor of events that has to be changed.

RATING
With Sultans GunPalace (still a weird name but I guess that makes it original), you have a huge, balanced, hardcore styled level, in my opinion best played with 2v2 or especially 3v3 games. Duels should be fun aswell if you don’t mind the size. You should first explore some pathways or even open it with JCS if you’re lazy :P. And at last, I recommend download and give a 9.0 for a challenging CTF experience without any gameplay crap that’s trying to be original. See ya in JJ2! ;)

EDIT: The 9 I gave for this level wasn’t meant to be a ‘overrated’, how could it be, cause it’s based on my personal opinion on your level.. I could have given it a much lower score if things like eyecandy or text strings bothered me aswell, but it didn’t. Yeah I’m no expert at level creation, but my score and opinion remains, this level is one of the few I’ve ‘tested’ this year, and it gave me that awesome ‘CTF’ feeling again. :p ;)

Please don’t waste space with usesell downloads like this. I don’t see a real point in ‘training’ levels but if you want to make one, let it have some aspects from popular levels and areas to train special techniques like RF-Climbing. NO Download recommendation!

I haven’t reviewed in full form for a long time since the Quick review function came to the site, but somehow this morning I am in for some writing how lolling it sounds.. So well here is my review for this level using the original Castle tileset including the great Jazz3 castle song.

GAMEPLAY
The first expression I got when entering this level in JJ2 was the ‘classic’ feeling it has from the start. The overall gameplay, tileset, and level design reminded me of the level ‘Rux0riffic (or something)’ by one of the Jazz2 developers. You basically walk through corridors and towers shooting enemies and looking for secret doors and paths. It also has some gameplay parts inspired by other classic levels, like the rather simple ‘warp puzzle’ and the fact that you must collect coins to continue the last part of the level (like in Hot Cross Bunnies), failing to collect 100 will result in warping to the start of the level. This will however force you to look for the secret paths which is a good thing. The gameplay is almost flawless, other than some small bugs like getting stuck for a while between a spring and a ‘pillar’ wall tile and falling into the spikes automaticly after crossing an ‘already collapsed’ pole bridge after using the warp above coin bunny to go to the start of the level.

EYECANDY
The castle tileset, as proven by the original Jazz2 levels from Episode1, is one of the few original Jazz2 tilesets that (in my opinion) had enough eyecandy tiles and background tiles to create a rather attracting atmosphere. And this level is using just as many eyecandy as the original Castle levels, and at some places even more. At some locations in the level, the dynamic lightning is set pretty dark which makes the level more stylish and chalenging aswell. I haven’t noticed any real eyecandy bugs in this level.

EVENT PLACEMENT
The events placed in this level match correctly with the gameplay style. Like there are enough sorts of enemies (like bees lol) and some extra enemies just for the hard mode. There aren’t that much carrots, which is a good thing because that is one of the things that made the original levels too easy. Weapon placement is alright, as the prevered weapons for the placed enemies are there and there is a room with powerups to upgrade them. Text events are there aswell, but more for some laugh than real hints (which aren’t really required for this kind of gameplay). The animated fire tiles are marked correctly with an ambient sound, and all spikes and other special tiles are wokring. Food and savepoints are placed too. There are no events placed that involve any bad gameplay, only some extra events placed in crates are a little overdoing.

RATING
This level is nothing new to Jazz2 level creation, but it is a present from heaven for those who prefer the ‘classic’ Jazz2 gameplay over the newer things found possible with the game. So if your mind is blowed after playing episode4 of EvilMike’s Devres series, you defenitely like to escape the hounted castle in this level for a ‘relaxing’ moment. I suppose I’ll give this an 8.0 for the effort given to this level, but not higher just for the fact that it’s 1 level and nothing too new for the communities standard. Download recommended.

Simply put, this is one of the best single player packs ever released, and Mike’s best one so far. I’m in fact, still a huge fan of Jazz2 SP and I kind of dislike crate puzzles that have been overused in it. This pack has got some other puzzle/search twists I really like. Nothing = perfect, but just like Blade, Mike deserves my 10 for hard work!

This tileset uses a different, original drawing style and mixes new kinds of tiles with old ideas. It also has some great edited versions of old JJ1/JJ2 tiles and everything that a level creator needs is there. The quality isn’t Blade’s new tileset, but it’s sure a pleassure to work with this tileset, as there aren’t much new tilesets lately.

I always loved Blade’s Cartoonish drawing style in his tilesets. This one does the same thing, but is drawn even more professionally. This could be the best tileset from 2008, and I can say it is already one of the best ever made. And don’t forget the size, you can’t make much more tiles in an 1.23 tileset! Hopefully this will be actively used!

This is one of the few utilities released for JJ2 that really add some new functions that makes the game interesting to play for many more years. And on the other hand it makes the ‘normal’ game types like CTF much easier to understand and manage. Great job, techie programmers of the community!

I actually listened to this music file 3 times in a row yesterday. I kind of like the Medivo music in JJ2, it’s one of my favorite musics in the whole Jazz series. And the trance tunes added to this version mix up smoothly together with the original music. Keep this coming and I may write a full review. :p

Thanks for liking my level! And good luck with it. :p

Nice to look at. But I don’t think this will become a success in a real level or level pack. I don’t make a real review for this but be happy with my meaning.