Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Nice music… some songs better than the Jazz2 music! But i don’t like all..

Time for another contest level-review. While looking again to the level carefully although I have had several games there before, the level wouldn’t look that sweet anymore.

Just about the decoration in the background, Sky, “hill-trees”, “tall trees”, they don’t really fill the background enough and it gives a little bland atmosphere. However the fade-color for sky is nice and leaves in front fit. Lightning was used for the cave-region which is alright. I would have wished a little more of waterfalls to the foreground for instance. The ceiling shouldn’t be as linear everywhere either. Also spotted few bugs like at the bottom I could see a very thin line, barely noticable, under the layer 7 decoration. Another thing was at 26,37 which has waterfall-tiles placed both on layer 4 and 5 as double.

Like me, Enigma wasn’t fond of creating a fully symmethrical level for now. It is indeed fine that there are some differences with the sides. However annoying is that the level remains quite linear and that the springs kinda assist you everywhere instead that you would have to do a little jump-work while climbing up to the upper levels. Also I would find the large space between ground and ceiling quite useless unless I was Jazz. Then again being Spaz makes you able to double-jump from tree-tops and such to higher level without springs. Overall the layout makes you very vulnerable to rf-missiles for example and generally it’s just difficult to run away with low health from an opponent here. That’s why this could rather support team-games where there could be always somebody to save the flag if the carrier feels himself chased. It seems to be also possible to cover self with the barrels at bottom, from bouncer attacks especially. The blue base might be possibly a bit easier to camp as well as the hole to the top-level isn’t as close to the base as in red side, not as open either. I earlier had a thought of somewhat this kind of basement for one of my levels. Seems it doesn’t have anything really wrong though I wouldn’t have put the bases technically as close to each other. So the level does give some tactical impressions anyway. The level should actually have only one start-position per team, but looked like there was a “Jazz” start-position forgotten to the top-left weirdly.

While moving through the level, it quite soon becomes clear that most stuff is pretty much placed in a balance on both sides, like carrots. About the j2mc-version, the fast-respawning basic carrots are a freshening choice although a few levels probably had that already. The ammo is placed either separated along a certain path, or in small flocks, that unluckily are, “squares.” The two barrels to the bottom were a nice idea as earlierly mentioned. Anyway all this is done reasonable well, nevertheless anything of it is really SWEET.

Something like 7.5 was my original plan about the level but guess it’s a 7.7 as it took the third place in the actual contest of total 12 entries. The music was originally used in Jazz Unleashed Demo, but is good and suits so that’s something positive too. Overall I feel that I criticized the whole level pretty much but ended up in such an uh…high rating. I just prefer the two older ctf-levels by Enigma over this; The Marshes of Twilight, and Celestial Wargrounds. Download recommendation on all three of these however.

This is a simple, classic Jazz 2 level using a modified Diamondus tileset. Everything about it is quite good. The level layout is excellent (and open, which is welcomed these days), and ammo placement is expert and well-considered. Everything in the level “clicks.” The only problem that keeps me from giving this level a higher rating is that it is somewhat indistinguished. Besides from the colour modifications in the tileset, which are quite attractive, it’s a standard oldschool Diamondus level. A little more creativity would be welcomed, and there is a sense that it’s all been done before. However, it’s done extremely well. My sole complaint is the slowness with which carrots respawn. An open level lends itself well to play with many people, and the slow respawn time damages this potential. Overall, though, that’s just one qualm; it’s quite good.

“And you should replace the barrels with crates because they can cause lag.”

Just as well, *DO NOT DO THIS* because gun crates can crash a server and barrels quite can’t.

Very nice level , Enig!! This level isn’t symmetric , but very balanced. The way you made this layout is very original.:)
For the eyecandy , I can’t say anything bad , since it all looked very cool. Now for the ammo….ehm…I think it’s all well placed , nothing to complain. There are 3 power-ups , all good visible and well placed. In this level there are 2 +1 carrots which you can get by using a spring , which is fun. There are no secrets in this level , everything is visible. That makes this level easy to learn and that’s a good point.
Conclusion : This level is really good and I’m happy to see more and more good levels coming up in this contest!

Whoa, man! Why did I betatest Celestial Wargrounds and then forget it and not review it? A thousand apologies. eats Enigma

Celestial Wargrounds is a small, fast-paced CTF lvl. A nice, smooth game of CTF between two friends can quickly turn into a frantic slugging match if more than 4 additional players join in. This is lvl is so tiny that you won’t stay alone for long. :-)

For those that have a quick trigger-finger and like speedy games and CTF, this is a must download. MUST MUST MUST!

The eyecandy is average. There doesn’t seem to be much stuff in the lvl… just air. It’s ok, I suppose, but it could’ve been much better. I mean, come on! Enigma, you’ve failed to create good eyecandy using an Agama tileset!

The gameplay and weapons placement is by far the best part of the lvl. There are “only” two dead-ends, but they’re so obvious only idiots go there while being chased. Springs, float-ups and suckertubes are nicely placed and you will always be able to not smack yourself into a wall at 180mph. The suckertubes, however, are slightly hard to get into, especially the one leading into the blue base. I would also like the lvl to be more Jazz-friendly (make even larger, open spaces! :-D).

All in all, Celestial Wargrounds is a great, although small and plain, CTF lvl by Enigma. eats Enigma

8.2. Download recommendation.

I can imagine FireSword hacking away at his keyboard in this lvl with his trigger-finger…!

This is great, I’ve allways wanted these songs.

Thank you guys:)

Ive Got All The Jazz1 Music
Even The Title Screen
ex.select episode
And Ive Got The Diamondus Music
All In .s3m Format

I Cant Up-Load It Though:(
Mabe Next Week! When I Get More Internet Time!!!
If Anyone Wants Me To Up-Load It!!!

e-mail:
jgoslin@hamcoll.sa.edu.au

Nostalgy.
I think Jazz 1 music is somewhen better than Jazz2. Then, best music on the world!!!

This was a great Idea!
But no diamonds Music!

Gameplay : 1,8

choosen : 2
My favoriete tileset.

Event Placement : 1,5

eyecandy : 1,2
Disapointing, i expected more from a lvl with this tileset.

general : 1

7,5

download ? sure, its worth a look ( not of its eyecandy )

host ? not to much,

My comments are basically what everyone else said. This was one of my top picks for the contest. I had it narrowed down to 3 and it was hard to pick. But this was a great level so keep up the good work.
P.S. I will be uploading mine after fixing some rather strange bugs that didn’t appear when I tested it.

Hmm….an enigmish type of level :P
Lets review shall we.

I remember this level from downloading this from BlurredD’s contest thread, I remembered that I didnt think of it as so good before, but I didnt explore it much. Also, this is probably the first level I’ve seen with vertical rain, woope.

Eyecandy:
The eyecandy of the level was basic. The leaves werent that overused in the place, and some places looked empty with barely anything there. But the eyecandy was well, looked nice and realistic. The thing with the vines look like they are holding up the wooden platform was a creative idea and definately added to the rating I’m giving the level. Also, the leaves on top of the trees was good, it was very realistic and was very interesting. Good job. The eyecandy is mostly basic, with not much surpises. I feel the vine tiles (the hanging ones) may have been a bit overused for the eyecandy. Some places like the bottom right I reccomend there to be a bit more eyecandy and stuff, but it was alright.

Gameplay:
The gameplay was done well here. The middle part was made well. The sides look a bit different, since the left has a dead end with the fastfire pickups, while the right has them on a floating platform. So in other words, you can pickup the fastfires while running away from an enemy on the right, but tat the left you would come to an end and will have to turn around. I didnt like that very much. Also, atthe bottom left, the sucker hidden in the tree, some players may not know that it is hidden there and will probably run into the dead end and will get killed. But thats not to big of a problem, since most people will probably discover the sucker there, or will just avoid that place. There are some floatups used for easier gameplay, and it was alright.

Pickup/spring placement:
The ammo here was mainly placed ok. Most of it was placed in a creative fashion, i didnt find much problems with it. What I did notice is that there was probably way to many fastifres spread across the level. Other than that, I dont have much more to say about ammo, it has a lot of good combinations and stuff. There was only one carrot in the level ,which was a fullenergy. It was placed in the center of the level, and was placed well. Im not sure I found it as amusing as BlurredD though ;P. The springs were placed ok, i didnt have a problem with them. I also couldnt find anything in the level that I should mention about springs, except that that helicopter could of been replaced with something such as a blue spring, because helicopters tend to slow you down a bit.
Anyways, everything here is basically ok.

Generalizing comments: The level itself was ok and interesting to play. Although not my favorite one using the swamps set (I liked Marshland of Evil a bit better) its still a fun level to play. Some minor flaws brought down my rating a bit, but the level is still interesting and I can imagine this level being 3rd place in the contest probably. Enigma did a great job on this and it would probably be hosted several times. The music choice was also well picked, adding some more atmosphere to the level. Enigma did some great work here, and made a good level which I reccomend you to download. This level gets a rating of 8 from me, and thats basically all I have to say for my review. Good job Enigma :)

Another compacted contest level review:

The Marshes of Twilight

GAMEPLAY: Probably balanced. Alright flow and layout.
EYE CANDY: Good.
CARROT PLACEMENT: Nice. I like it a lot.
AMMO PLACEMENT: Nothing bad here.
HOST THIS OFTEN? Host this a lot.

Overall review: I can’t find anything wrong with this. This might even be the first level I ever saw with vertical rain using this tileset. I was going to give this an 8.2 until I noticed something interesting with the carrot. This might as well be my favorite entry in the contest (too bad I couldn’t choose this as the winning level). 8.5 is my rating.

The Edit: I went a little overboard with the rating when I first reviewed this. This is really an 8.2 at best, but it’s still my favorite level out of the contest I held.[This review has been edited by BlurredD]

Nice music![This review has been edited by EvilMike]

Its an ok level. Nice music, layout is good. Tileset use was great, ive yet to find a bug. Ammo placement was good too. Very nice CTF level here indeed. To tired to qrite long review…

no diamondus

Is it just me, or does BlackRaptor always copy MoonBlazes general review context and score? ;-P

This level is awesome. I’ve been waiting for a level to put this tileset to good use. I love the name, aswell. Two cliched words put together to create an original name. l33t.

This is a very high-quality level, but a tad bit smallish by Enigma. At first, it appeared that this level suffered from small masking problems. However, the more I played this, the more it seemed like coincidence. Weapon placement was outstanding, and so was eyecandy. I searched for quite a while, but I could only find a few tile errors, which is a good feat for this tileset. The tileset was used correctly in all areas. The level’s flow was it’s strongest point. Navigation was a breeze, and I rarely hit into walls. The only downfall was that this level is a bit on the small side. However, for games that don’t require a huge amount of space, this level is definitely a must-play. Certainally this deserves a download recommendation. :)