Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Well, it’s a Letni conversion, and it’s a working Letni conversion. That much is good.

Beyond that, I was massively underwhelmed by CelL’s JJ1 conversion.

In his defense, Letni is a pain in the donkey to work with. The visuals are limited, the music bland and unappealing, the levels boring and unengaging, the tileset even more so. Letni is one-dimensional and uninspired, and it’s arguably the most unpopular JJ1 planet of ALL time (Matched only by Raneforus, Muckamok and Ceramicus).

However, if one is making a JJ1 conversion, one must gut through the pain and misery and do a good job.

While most if not all of the Jazz 1 tiles appear to be there, not all of them are the right color (Especially the yellow, blue and red pulze lights mounted on the dark blue background). There’s no clear background duplicates of the orange and light blue floor tiles, limiting the JCSer to one measly BG choice. Speaking of this, there’s no fancy backgrounds or anything. No fluff tiles (Which are extraneous tiles that weren’t present in the original set, but still add a positive element to the conversion. These are things like sucker tubes, blast’em blocks/buttstomp blocks, vines/hooks, et cetera) of any kind. Grouping was absentminded at best, sloppy at worst.

There’s extremely little present here in this tileset to work with.

In short, it looks like CelL just copied all of the tiles from Jazz Jackrabbit 1 over to the conversion and slapped everything together.

I wish he had done a better job with it, because J2O is STILL waiting for a decent true-blue Jazz 1 Letni conversion (Not remake, conversion) to be created.

Neutral DL rec, since it’s not a very good tileset, but it’s the closest thing to an adequate Letni conversion out there at present.

I promised a review here, but I can’t guarantee that It’ll be a good one….

The eyecandy is nice in the level, and has a great theme, however I say its heavily drawn back by the limitations of the tileset. Still feels nice nonetheless. What is missing? I think perhaps an emphasis on when you are nearing a pit, though I’m not quite sure how I’d emphasize such a thing with a tileset… Maybe putting some sort of food near the pits and there only, to signify danger? I’m not sure.

The gameplay is great, yet the layout can be confusing as with the placement of perhaps the carrots. I’ve played the map several times and still feel like I may not have learnt it properly, but again I blame the tileset for this for not allowing for as much variation as possibly intended. The level looks different from place to place, but some areas just confused me and reminded me of another part of the level. As for small tricks and gameplay gimmicks, I’d rate this high for the execution. Furthermore, PIT:nice.

This level should and will be played in JDC events and there is a great reason for that. The level is perfect for such an occasion. I still feel like I missed the point and haven’t learnt the level to its fullest. Please download, and play.

Nice lvl, pretty hard…

Great level, definitely worth a try especially in bigger games.

Definitely a good concept-level. I actually had something similar in mind, but gj anyway cel!

This level is most convenient with lots of players indeed. Download and try!

It still has flaws

EYECANDY:It is good,plenty of stuff in the layers

SIZE:good

PIT:nice

GAMEPLAY:good

AMMO PLACEMENT:good

FLAWS:why is there food in it?

I opened it up in JCS and it said that the event (Chesire2) was illegal in multiplayer maps.

OVERALL 8.0

DR:yea

OH and i guess i should mention I played this in a JDC event and I liked it GJ CelL

Love the flow, love the open space in between and the “catacombs” underneath. The fact it’s still being played today, 8 years after its release tells you a lot.
However, I have to say, that in my opinion it is slightly overlooked if we compare it to levels like semi and distopia, especially the latter has got a lot less going for it in terms of gameplay.
Zaitox allows for smart gameplay, but it’s also incredibly quick. You can die and be in the enemy base in no time.
Cell, in my opinion, was always good at making original levels, that were a wee bit different from all the rest. I remember one which had a specially interesting way of getting in and out of the enemy base, but short of downloading all of cells levels, I really couldn’t tell you which one it was.
However, we can safely say, that this great levelmaker will be best remembered for this very level, and with good reason, because it is indeed one of the best.

I think nobody deserves a 10, so I’ve decided to give it a 9,5

I’m sorry but this is a bad tileset. Let’s look over the problems.

First thoughts
Well when you first look at the tileset, you may thing to yourself, “Hey, this looks pretty good. you got animations, hills, bridges and all that good stuff.” Once you actually start yo build something with it though, you realized just how bad it is.

Tiles
While there are quite a couple of tiles in this tilest, there are lots missing. you have your basic hills and ground and animations. There is a lot missing though. There’s no sky or background, no SIGNS, poles, suckers, hooks. There are Jazz 1 signs. What is there can look ugly. There’s just to much missing to make this a good conversion.
3/10

Animations
Well when you first look you say that the animations look decent, but no. The basic Lenti flashing chips aren’t included and i could give a 1 just for that. the electric walls look bad because of the background surrounding it. Same thing with the monitors. there are lots of frames missing in some of the animations. (they look fine, but in Jazz 1 there were more frames) There’s some spinning light animations and some static TVS. the animations are good, but the fact the pulsing chip isn’t here and some of the animations look horrible, I can’t give more then a 2.
2/10
Colors
This colors look off. I don’t know why everything just looks dingy and off. Maybe it would look better if the pulsing chip was here?
3/10
pallet events
Non are used so I won’t rate.
Masking
Masking is decent but there are some things, like the pushers, that you can go through for some reason. Masking could be a little better as something should be mask but aren’t. the Jazz 1 signs have weird masking on them.
4/10
Final score: 11/40
Score: 2.5
Rank: F
DR? I’m sorry but this is just way to off from jazz 1. You can download because this is the only one available, but I’d rather just wait for a better conversion.

Nice set, nice set. it does seem to have pretty much everything from JJ1, which makes me happy. Colors are accurate, anims are good as well, it’s a perfectly usable conversion.
I also likes how there was [of certain tiles] always several types of each tile to use. Using the same block over and over and over again never really goes over that well. But there’s plenty of variety, and I like it. Didn’t really like the example, but ah so what! DL this. BTW, what is the significance of the planet? It has nill to do with JJ1. That I know of.

Unfortunately the animations is poor. It’s too low pallette and you make the floors and walls with background which destroy the quality.
However I used your tileset no NOKA’s to make my Episode Two,because I wanted the orginal Letni.
The computers animation was good and blue screen too,but in dark-blue screen animation was very poor.
What’s a pity that the background isn’t animated but besides is quite good!

PS(for not Polish):The name of planet Letni means summery ;)

[Letni is Intel backwards. ~cooba]

Well, it seems that no one actually took a serious and careful look on the pack. And I did notice it quite late indeed as I thought people were sure what they actually thought about the thing. Nevertheless the pack doesn’t belong to the worse side. Even with today’s standards the levels remain fairly decent.

Most of the eyecandy is appreciated and mostly even more. Just so nice creativity was already used 4-5 years ago. DreamScape quite shows a good side of it while it actually might confuse some players as the default textured background CelL used just blends up with the entirely green level. 22 Hour Biscuits with the same tileset has this problem fixed and offers just more kinds of sweet and interesting eyecandy with an ambient atmosphere.

Some levels have a handy layout with a bit more questionable flow though. Not all the amount of vines are that necessary and definitely Asphalt Warzone has annoying balance-problem somewhat. Part of the sucker-tubes improve the flow slightly, part of them lead to something secret like a PU, and an equal third part are useless. As well in Mechanism 35 such mazes don’t really satisfy me. Another fine example of a better gameplay is Superior Technologys. Unfortunately involving these tubes.

Placement is kinda boring to say at the least. Ammo is placed either path-vice or in squared flocks, while also I’m wondering the point of freezer being everywhere. However the way that major pickups, carrots/PUs were placed was mainly exotic and even this part does have some quality.

The pack is overrated, but good. At least it beats that another old CelL-pack, the “mega CTF pack”, where actually all these levels were put in after. And they are the better ones indeed. I’m not as well sure about the Constructional Warfare that just looks like an unfinished predesign. An exact 8 should do it. I recommend downloading this however and giving it a try.

Eyecandy overall
Blablabla awesome/decent/good, or something.

Sacrifice
Carrots
There are two one heart carrots, accessed by warps, in a little room. I think that it’s a good thing to have two carrots instead of one, since then chances aren’t so high that they will both stop respawning completely on a laggy server. You can counter camping inside the box by using gun9 from the outside, or camping where the warp out of the carrot box targets, therefore it isn’t easy to just take the carrot like that, which is good. Besides, if you try to get the carrot as flag carrier, chances are quite high that you get hit again when you try to get RTS, as there are often a lot of base/spawncampers at your base.

Power ups
The original part of this level is that you get seeker powerups each time you die or join the server. This adds a great tactical aspect to the level, as defending becomes very effective when you always respawn with seekers.
There are also pepper spray power ups, which can be quite useful… the placement of those are good, since you can get them on your way to base if you are taking the lower route.

Pickups
Ammo placement is good, along the routes so you don’t have to run away to look for ammo, which slows down the game and makes everything much more boring. A good thing is the piles of RFs that you can use for hunting complemented by the bouncers and powered up pepper there sre in the level. There are also quite a lot of toaster pickups, which can be useful for something I guess (this is not really my favourite weapon so I seldom use it, especially unpoweredup).

Bases
The base areas are great, easily defendable. There are three routes to them, I think. Camping the base can be countered quite easily with gun9, RFs and gun2. The fact that you can spawncamp the base area also adds an unusual aspect, since that’s not how jj2 normally works. Yeah, I like those bases.

Other tactical areas
There are a few tactical areas here. Mainly bases, carrotbox, above it… The bottom if the level tends to be come quite unused, unless the copters stop respawning.

Flow
It’s easy to navigate, the level is easy to learn, and everytihng is good. The only thing you can raise objections against is the use of copters, since those often stop respawning. The upper path is by far the fastest way to base, so if one team doesn’t have spawning copters, they have quite some disadvantage. There are a few places where you pretty much run into walls, which you must avoid to not get hunted down by RFs or gun8. I like those areas, as they are not really dead ends, but still dangerous. Same thing goes for the warps on top of the level targeting the carrotbox, where you can often get warpkilled, something I think is good as it adds another danger to the level. For example in really good games on bblair I never dare using warps, since I know someone will kill me as soon as I do.

Summed up
Nice level, I like it a lot. I am not sure what others think, but I give it a 9, the only thing stopping it from becoming a 10 is that copters can be a problem, it sucks for duels (no seekers for the one not dying) and that you can sometimes get stuck where you get seekPUs on spawn.

Introspection
Carrots
I think there is only one carrot here, so I assume it’s a fullNRG one. (No I refuse to use JCS to check, and I didn’t have anyone playing with me.) It is placed quite fairly. It is within sight from the blue base, but not from the red, on the other hand it’s a bit easier to reach it from the red base (from blue you need to do a quite tricky doublejump, if you are Spaz, to get there). In order to get to it you need to use a spring which is placed in an area where there should be a lot of people all the time, as it is quite close to both bases, meaning it has its risks to try to get there. The same spring is also really useful for attacking the red base with RFs. So nice carrot placement.

Power ups
There are two power ups, RF and toaster, which are placed in really dangerous areas to go to if you are hunted (since you have to either fall down to your enemy again after you took them, and the only other way to flee is by a copter, which you can never be sure of when or if it spawns). I like it. >) The fact that there aren’t any seekers makes the play around bases a lot more interesting, as they at first sight seems very easy to defend, but once you notice you don’t have seekers, you quickly become way more vulnerable to attacks from above.

Pick ups
It seems quite easy to find the ammo, and most of it is along the lower route between bases, which is good since that could possibly make that area of the level more used, as the higher road is way quiker. (same way as Sacrifice’s)
I would like gun9 to make the left base area a bit harder to defend.

Bases
Quite alright. As I said, they seem not to be too easy to defend… It’s also quite easy to fall off when you are RTS or R, which can add to both frustration and fun. The left base seems easier to defend than the right one.

Other tactical areas
I think the bases and the carrot are the only tactical areas here. Perhaps the power up-places too, but the power ups are really far away, and that could be bad for the gameplay, as it becomes way slower, which sucks. I don’t think I would bother with power ups most of the time, perhaps on my way back to get RTS or if I don’t have to R so fast.

Flow
It’s nice, apart from the power up areas where the helicopters are annoying obstacles, but I guess you can adapt to that, so nice job here too.

Summed up
For some reason this level seems not as good to me as Sacrifice, and it was also a bit harder to learn. A work well done, it gets an hmm… 7

Greed
I hate the coinsystem. It was probably a nice thought, but it just didn’t turn out to be fun. I won’t review this levels, I’ll just subtract some from the total score because of it.

Sadness
Carrots
There are 3 of them – one fullNRG carrot and two one heart carrots. The full NRG carrot requires that youhave a key to reach it, and if you take it you can be pretty sure that you will lose your health again afterwards, since there will always be campers at the target of the getting out of carrot area-warp. It’s not a good idea to stay at the one heart carrot of your team’s waiting for it to spawn again either, since the 1 heart carrots are sort of placed in dead ends. Also, the fullNRG carrot can easily be camped by simply shooting it down and standing at it shooting upwards. In other words, it’s risky to take carrots, which is good when your level only has one…

…Power up
The level has a toaster power up in the middle of the level, as I mentioned before only centimeters away from the warptarget out of carrot area. It seems to respawn quite quickly, and for using a one power-up system, I must say that toaster is a good choice, as it isn’t so easy to run out of.

Pick ups
The pick ups are obviously placed with thought in this level, and are mostly around the bases. The red team however has an advantage over the blue one, since there are toasters above their base instead of bouncers as there are by the blue base (bouncers being very effective for damaging the opposing team’s RTSer.

Bases
The base areas are great. They have only got one way to be reached from, but that doesn’t make it completely impossible for the attackers to get to the RTSer, since there is a turret where they can spam bullets from. As I mentioned before the ammo supplies are good around bases, which is a good thing in my opninion.

Other tactical areas
I can’t find any other tactical areas.

Flow
It’s quite easy to move around and the level is easy to learn (with the possible exception of the locked doors). In this level, as opposed to for example in Sacrifie, it’s fatal if the copters stop respawning, as there is no other way to reach base. This, of course, reduces some from the total rating.

Summed up
Good level. I give it an 8.

Sanctuary
I’ll, surprisingly enough, start off by commenting the eyecandy on this one. It’s much sexier than the others’ IMO, but maybe I just like the tileset because I am so m*ickng dark side.

Carrots
There are two fullNRG carrots in this level, placed right next to eachother with gun9 pickups near them, for extra camping/carrotkilling fun! I like it.

Power ups
I think there are two powerups in the level. Seeker and Toaster. They are placed nicely in the bottom corners, and they don’t really give any team any advantage over the other. Oh, wait there are pepperspray powerups too, at the carrot area… doesn’t matter, but I guess they could be useful for attacking the bases, which are in quite open areas. Also the carrots are placed in a way which could be ideal for attacking with pepperspray.

Pick ups
The ammo placement is very good. Most of the ammo, if not all, is played along the major routes between bases and carrots, which is good as anything that could possibly lessen the quickpacedness of a level is negative.

Bases
Great base areas. Open and accessible form three directions with springs for inspired bullet dodging. There are also quite a lot of pick ups around them, which is good as NA-fights suck.

Other tactical areas
Can’t really find any. It’s the normal: bases, carrots, powerups.

Flow
Very good! even if you don’t know the level you will easily reach the other base just by running where your nose points. You still need to do a few tricky jumps to find the fastest way to base, though – which is good since atleast I myself would like to have a little advantage over my opponent if I bother learning a level throughly.

Summed up
I like this a real lot, and I would like to give it a 8.5 for being almost as awesome as Sacrifice (which has more orignal, yet entertaining gameplay, giving it a higher score – Sanctuary is only entertaining, not really original).

Twilight
This has one of those sucky SILWI-like falling systems, which sucks, so I will just substract some from the total score of the pack, instead of making a proper review.

Total score
Sacrifice 9
Introspection 7
Sadness 8
Sanctuary 8.5
Average 8.125

Minus Twilight 8.0
Minus Greed 7.9
TOTAL: 7.9

In other words ~8 6Tees and a downlioad recummandation for CelL!

This tileset is lacking background animations that are used in the origional. although quite good and very accurate, It is missing some things (Mainly animations)

I have made two levels with this (One not released, since it’s on a crashed hard drive)

-The 45 degree slope is missing a tile to continue the slope The first slope using this tile in JJ1 has the animation circuts on it, but further into the level, there is a complete 45 slope without any hinderence.

-There is no animated background, and it is poorly done. this is painfully obvious when you put a Backgroun CPU next to the circuts.

-Many of the tiles have backgrounds. This might be okay if you are only using layer 5 as the background, but using all 8 layers? Forget it. Make the tiles backgroudless next time

in short, if you are looking for a Letni Tileset, this is the only one on J2O right now. Until a new (And better) one comes out, I recommend against downloading this.

these levels are so not played by anyone.
So i gues there is some overrating involved(never played any of them myself). It might just be they’ll get popular a year from now, as did bloodbunnys levels(which on the other hand have a lower average rating yet are very overplayed, especially bblair)

Argh CelL man. ;P
You named your level with a name I had planned to use for one of my coming levels long time ago, as there is a law with what I name my levels, or so.. Well, I know you couldn’t have done that in purpose just to annoy me, and it doesn’t matter too much after all. It was just bad luck for me, and you were faster on releasing your level, as I’m going to release my level in a pack.

Well, unfortunately I have no time to rate this, but must say: “Well done yet again, CelL.”

About time I got around to reviewing this.

I will start off by reviewing the theme and eye-candy.

As always CelL has made a level that doesn’t fail to please the eye, but that doesn’t mean the eye-candy here is amazing. The background is probably the most disappointing aspect: While there’s rain in the background, it’s very hard to see. Using rain in levels is becoming popular, huh? – You can see the dark blue horizon, and the stars that are barely visible. So you just see the sky and rain, but no clouds; what sense does that make?

CelL did not use the yellow colored tiles much for a very good reason. The grass, or moss which would better describe their appearance, is not only on the tops of the bricks, but the green colored brick tiles placed under the moss tiles on the top represent moss on the bricks as well.

My first comment to CelL when I tested the level is “Nice architecture”, which is relating to the usage of most of the layer 4 tiles like the pillars and bricks. I especially like the way the area that leads to the pit is designed.

I like the overall atmosphere. Nice music, which doesn’t exactly fit the atmosphere, but it’s alright. The name Sanctuary is brilliant and adds to the feeling… And that’s all I can say about the theme and eyecandy, which is this level’s strongest point.

The layout is relatively easy to learn, but I found the platforms to be weirdly designed (although still look decent), and weirdly placed. Although I am not fond of the layout’s design, I think the game-play here works; the flow is good, and the springs are placed well. I think the pit is annoying, but CelL had to keep it there despite my complaints. Some tiles would appear to be solid, but weren’t – not a big problem since they were placed under platforms. Balance between the bases is good, even though the level isn’t symmetrical.

The placement of ammo is strategic and solid, but not very interesting in my opinion as they are used in mostly line patterns. CelL added two pepper-spray power-ups, which is not a problem in my opinion; It’s funny, as I recall CelL told me a couple of years ago never to put two of the same power-ups in a level. Toaster power-up at the bottom left, and a Seeker power-up near the bottom right – all works. CelL pulled an EvilMike by adding a secret; I wouldn’t think of putting a secret in a CTF level, since it’s such a fast paced game-type, but whatever. Two Full NRG carrots are placed beside each other, but getting from one to another isn’t so easy: it’s generally faster to go from the carrot on the left side to the one on the right side than the other way around; smart players can use that to their advantage.

If you want to add to your CelL collection, download this. If not, download it. It’s a nice medium-sized CTF level for 2vs2s, and I have a feeling this would absolutely rock in 3vs3s. I suggest you host this whenever you are stuck on deciding what level to host, or are thinking of hosting the same ol’ classic CTF levels – Sanctuary would be better, much better.

-fs

CTF Release Review 03: Sanctuary.

Introduction: this level is made by CelL, and it’s been a while since he uploaded a single level. Well, if this level is worth downloading/hosting, so it would be a great new level… you will see when you see my review.

Gameplay:
I’ll start off by saying that the spring placement is good, although there are too many in some places… The level’s layout is interesting. The level’s size is fairly average, the level is a bit open. The level isn’t symmetrical, but it has good balance between both sides. It’s easy to reach the bases, and there are several ways to do. When you reach base from the bottom-left, there is One Way that let you go to the first platform under the base.

Eye candy:
Now this is very interesting. There is much eye candy in layer 4. I think the level uses too few green and yellow tiles. The other eye candy is also very good, I can say I like it alot. The tileset was used good except that green and yellow tiles… but they were there at least. The rain was interesting too. The level uses layer 3-8, it’s good enough. I can’t say alot more about it.. so let’s continue with teh placement.

Pickup Placement:
The level uses some interesting groups of ammo, and they’re good placed too. There is Fast Fire near the bases. The level has interesting Power-Up placement. There are 2 Gun8 Power-Ups(one at each side), but you can get to both sides. There is a Toaster Power-Up at the left side, and the Seek PU is at the right side, but is harder to get. The Full Energies are placed where the Gun8 Power-Ups are too. It’s a bit else than the other levels with 2 Full Energies, and I can say I like it.

Others:
I can say this level is original, because of the tileset that is underused, and how the tileset is used… GREAT! The Full Energy placement was an interesting and good idea. It’s also good that most of the eye candy is in layer 4, like WR said. I don’t have major complaints about the level.. maybe there should be something else to replace the 2 Gun8 Power-Ups… but it’s also original.
Host this: Yes, if you are sick of the old levels.
I give this level a Download recommendation.
My final rating: 8.3.

Well, I’m not sure how to reach the super secret, but I don’t mind.

I’ll post a more detailed review later. For now, enjoy the short version:

Good use of tileset. Lots of tiles in the sprite layer, which means low detail users will enjoy the fantastic eyecandy too. Maybe a bit more colour, and more spikes?

Gameplay is the best part, definitely. You can run through the lvl very easily, it’s jazz-friendly (thanks to the betetesters) and there are many paths to the bases.

Weapons placement is great, there is always ammo for you and they are easily accesible.

The blue base is easier to defend than the red base, however.

8.2 fow now, but maybe an 8.5(!) if I manage to find the super secret and test the lvl more extensively.

Yay, a CTF level by Cell for a year now and I’m the first one to review it , cool.
Ok let’s start:
Capture the flag level by Cell of OLC.
The flow in this level is really awesome and you can move around and do many known strategys and you can also make ones to this unic level so this level isn’t boring but a good one.
about the eye candy and background..
There’s eyecandy indeed and in this level you can see it very clearly and I have to say creative eyecandy the background is black whick kinda makes me sad he didn’t used any colour on it or something, but good eyecandy use and it matches the level.
about the gameplay..
Game play is very good the level is open and big to do many things and technics.
I think Cell should have added a bouncers pu. =( but overall good game play.
About the Ammo pleacement..
The seek power-up is placed at the corner and it’s good in my opinion for 3on3s and 2on2s even for 1on1s.
I kinda didn’t love the Toaster Power-up placement he should have done that somewhere down in the middle but it’s fine too.
as I said bouncers power-up should have been add.
Overall..
Nice level one of your best Indeed , I liked zaitox more but this is better for somethings , good job CelL ! Keep making good levels. =)
defenetly gets a Download recommendation from me.

Medivo is probaly one of the darkest planets.

EYECANDY SEARCH: You have a choice of 2 backrounds, rain or skyline. You have extra rain if youi want to put it down. I couldn’t find any other eyecandy.

FEATURES: Sucker tubes made out of bricks, the JJ1 signs and some animation tiles.

COLOURS: Perfect!!!! Exactly the same as the origonal MEDIVO planet on JJ1.

Rating: 7.7

Download: It’s over 7.5, so yes.