Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

:)

(Rating removal. Do NOT do this again. -Trafton)[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

Good! I loved the original Marbelara and this conversion is really good, one of the best conversions around!
PS: Could I use some of your tilesets for a project I am working on?
PPS: Please make conversions of Fanolint, Orbitus and Megairbase. I would be happy.

Well, I guess it’s hard to make a tileset of the BOOORING Ceramicus, but were there really this few tiles in the JJ1 levels?

Good idea ,good levels……

Cool!!!

It’s kinda interesting that Cell is one of the first to use this tileset and he is already trying something different. Kinda like Stripe’s level…

GAMEPLAY:

A Cell level in typical Cell level format. The layout is good. The balance is nice. It’s not too complicated. Players can use some new strategy. I can’t spot any fatal flaws so I don’t have any complaints about the gameplay. I barely played it, but it looks good.

EYE CANDY:

In a word, interesting. But is that a good thing? I don’t even know myself. I’ll just assume it’s better than average (or something).

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

There’s a full energy carrot in the middlw of tehe level. Can’t go wrong with that. The ammo placement is good and so is the powerup placement. There isn’t anything here that I don’t like.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

I dunno. Maybe? The BG is a little strange for my tastes, but whatever (I’m not taking points off for that anyway). I’m rating this an 8.2 just because.

Yesh. The Music was Great Awesome Choice !.

The Weapon Placement was Nice
Powerups were well placed and easy accesable for both sides.
Also very easy to go from one base to another and it can be done very fast.

Great Level Cell Specialy for Small Duels.

Download Recommedation !!!

Argg, I wrote a long review on this but then my computer screwed up and I had to start all over. Ill try to remember what I put in the review.

MUSIC CHOICE:
At first I didnt like the music, but then it got good, it fairly fit the level.
Pros: N/A
Cons:N/A
Rating: N/A

TILESET/TILESET USE/EYECANDY
The tileset choice was great, the level used Violets new Scraparap conversion. I personally like the conversion and the planet, and was hoping for a level made by it. the tileset use is great, a great deal of tiles were used. You can see many different tiles in the walls, backround etc. Eyecandy was just great. The backround was nicely done, and there was a lot of backround eyecandy (including the wires and blue walls) and it was very detailed. Not only that, but you can see eyecandy everywhere, even in the walls and stuff.
Pros: Everything is great
Cons: I can’t think of any
Rating:9

GAMEPLAY/LAYOut:
The gameplay here was alright. though there were many pits here,the spring placement made up for that. I also thought some area’s are quite open, but I dont mind that. Layout wasnicely done and balanced. Easy to travel around. Though there was only one route to each of the bases (though 2 escape routes) and it may lead to people guarding it, but this goes for many levels.
Pros: Balanced layout, good spring placement.
Cons: No major ones
Rating: 8

PLACEMENT OF STuFF:
Firstly, there was one carrot here, a full energy, which is good since the level isnt that big. The full energy isplaced in the middle of the level and easily accesible from both bases. There are 2 powerups here, a pepper and a seeker. The pepper wansnt really needed, but I dont mind it. The seeker is probably placed in the best position (bottom middle, where most people wont go if the seeker wasnt there) and its also easily accesible by both bases. The bases are placed fairly and well, and it takes a fair amount of time to travel from one to the other. The ammo is placed interestingly and imagitivingly. I quite liked it.
Pros: Mostly everything is well placed.
Cons: Nothing that spectacular, except the creativity maybe.
Rating:8

REPLAY:
The level is quite fun to play, especially if you like the tileset.
Pros: Fun to play for some people
Cons: May not be as fun for others.
Rating: 7.5

OVERALL (not an average):
Since the level is balanced, has good ammo placement and good gameplay, I quite like this one. It looks nice and plays well.
Pros: Looks great, plays great
Cons: Some minor things I didnt like
Rating: 8.2

FINAL RATING: Its actually 8.1 something but its rounded to an 8.2. I quite like this level and reccomend you to download it.

I like this, but mostly just the music. Violet’s battle with this tileset was also fun. :)

Weapon placement is good, I don’t see any tileset errors, good music. ;)

Host often? If you like the tileset/level, then yeah!

Very very good! Better than Battleship v1 :)

Pros:
+New tiles
+Smoother animations
+Destruct blocks done very well

Cons:
-still missing some stuff (and one thing from Battleships v.1)

Rating 8!
Keep up the good work.

Dan.

I’m not a huge conversion fan, but this is a fairly good one, and definitely an improvement over the original version of this tileset.

MISSING TILES: I could not find anything that was missing. It all seems to be here. Well done, CelL.
Pros: Everything seems to be here, although I am no expert at JJ1.
Cons: None.
Rating: 9.2

ANIMATIONS: Although I have a very limited experience regarding Jazz 1 and tileset conversions, I think the fireball in this tileset is supposed to be animated. Other than that, I think it is all there.
Pros: Almost all there.
Cons: Isn’t the fireball supposed to be animated?
Rating: 8.5

COLORS: Great looking. Well converted. Nicely done.
Pros: Great conversion of colors. Looks quite spiffy.
Cons: None to speak of.
Rating: 9.0

ADDED TILES: Conversions never seem to do well in this category, and I wonder why. Regardless, there are some things added: blocks, vines (which look awful), poles (ripped), signs (JJ1), and sucker tubes (miniature versions of the others). I think that is it, although I don’t know all that much about JJ1. Good in this category, but still disappointing. There is no harm in adding tiles, especially good ones.
Pros: Some things were added.
Cons: Quite a few things still are missing, and some of what is there is either ripped or looks pretty bad.
Rating: 7.0

MASKING: I got stuck a few times during testing, but not enough to have any major problems. The CPU thing was a bit messed up, but otherwise, well done.
Pros: It looks good.
Cons: CPU needs work, and a few small other inconsistincies do, as well.
Rating: 7.5

OVERALL (not an average): Definitely better than the original conversion and good overall. While it is not perfect and does suffer from the problems of many other conversions, it overall is quite nicely done. Good job, CelL.
Pros: Converted well.
Cons: While the conversion is pretty much perfect, the added tiles and JJ2 compatibility is a tad lacking.
Rating: 7.7

SCORECARD
Bugs: B+
Eyecandy: B+
Background Eyecandy: N/A
Foreground Eyecandy: N/A
Masking: B+
Tile Variaty: B+
Tiles Included: B+
Quality: A -
Conversion Strength: A
Added Tiles: B
Masking Conversion: B+

OVERALL: B+

FINAL SCORE: 7.7

- Trafton

This is really great. I was just making the first version of my Battleships level, and said, “Hey, shouldn’t there be a sprite for this?” Everything I said that about is fixed up. I didn’t see much of a difference in color though… The animations are also longer, and should be more smooth… I will definetely use this tileset in my next version of Battleships =)[This review has been edited by labratkid]

First of all, JelZe, if you think all JJ1 tilesets are blocky, you have much to learn.
Now, Battleships was always one of my favorite JJ1 planets (though it’s not exactly a “planet”), and I was not paticularly pleased with CelL’s last conversion of it, so here’s hoping (I haven’t seen it yet) for a good job.

MISSING TILES: I can think of no tiles that this is missing. The various slopes, the grey pipes, it’s all there.
Pros: All there.
Cons: None.
Rating: 9.0

ANIMATIONS: The animations would seem to all be there, too, and I don’t think they’re missing any frames (though of course I could be wrong).
Pros: Almost all there.
Cons: I think the fireball is supposed to be animated.
Rating: 8.5

COLORS: The colors look great. I don’t see any color bleaching or anything of the kind, and CelL seems to have overcome the multiple-palette problem.
Pros: Everything looks great.
Cons: None to speak of.
Rating: 9.0

ADDED TILES: Conversions often seem to fail in this category. CelL has added blocks (a mixture between stuff already in the tileset and the JJ2 blocks), vines (icky icky), poles (stolen from JJ2), sucker tubes (smaller versions of the larger ones) and some signs (the JJ1 ones).
Pros: A decent amount of stuff is there.
Cons: No hooks, no belts, a lot of it is ripped, no spikes (a flame jet pointing up, maybe?).
Rating: 7.0

MASKING: The masking is all done well except for the CPU boss things, which should probably have a mask that you can shoot through but not walk through (so shooting has some effect). While other tiles in the tileset can presumably be used, it would be nice for the CPU back to be like that, instead of just a spider.
Pros: Everything looks pretty good.
Cons: CPU needs a little work, a few of the little tiny blocks seem a bit off, the fins are a little messed up.
Rating: 7.5

OVERALL (not an average): This is a rather good conversion which does great in getting the original tiles but not quite so good at making them into a tileset. I hope to see more conversions of this quality (well.. slightly better, actually) in the future.
Pros: Everything looks to be there, the colors are great, lots of animations, added tiles.
Cons: Some things ripped, some things missing, a few masking problems, a little confusing (the slopes in paticular) in a few places.
Rating: 8.5

Well, my 350th review…

Anyways, its been a while till CelL made a conversion.

What I can see is that this is a newer version of the previous Battle ships conversion cell made.
The tileset remake is alright, I would definately prefer it than the older version. Some added on tiles here and stuff. Though it still could of had some more stuff, Its currently fine the way it is. Easy to use, and color is good. I dont feel like writing a long review on this, so Ill give it a 7.7 and a download recc.

Anyways, to extend the content of my review I will point out some things I liked in this conversion. -Great Texture in those fires -Well made arrows -Destruct blocks fit the theme and look cool -Some things looked nice and all.
……..Hmmm….my status hasnt changed…I thought surely…oh well.[This review has been edited by Blackraptor]

Ok, I’ll review this decently for heaven’s sake…unlike Waz just did…

Theme:
It seems space tilesets are becoming famous again (or still are), it’s Jazz 1 Battleships (for the fanatics, it’s the last episode’s last world).

Contents:
Well, everything from the old Jazz 1 game is there, plus some extra stuff, like poles and destructable blocks. CelL could have at least added a conveyor belt, since it’s a technical set. O, did I forget to mention the grey/blue planet for in the background? (actually it’s Scraparap’s moon)
O, CelL also put in an example, poorly made though. It doesn’t show what you can really do with the set.

Masking:
Masking is ok, no bumps, just straight. And of course messages hidden in the masks are there, though less than previous ones. I’ll name them here:
- “foo” in one of the golden barrels
- a spider in the wall next to the Central CPU
- “hi” in the star block
- the location of the world in Jazz 1
- a bicycle in the fire of the engines

User-friendlyness:
Like all Jazz 1 tilesets, this set is blocky, which makes it pretty easy to use. And the eye candy is pretty basic, as always with JJ1 tilesets.

Verdict:
Well, what can I say? A decent conversion by CelL. I don’t have a scorelist (too lazy! :P), so I’ll just give it a 7.7 for now.

- JelZe GoldRabbit

Cool set.

I don’t know if it’s a good conversion since I don’t have Jazz1, but I like this.

A 7.5

ONE SILVER PENNY:
Composing Review…….

EYE CANDY:
The eyecandy here shocked me, I was really addicted to it.The backround thing, although its not the first time its been done, is a good addition to the level. The eyecandy doesnt get confusing (since either way, the blue cave tiles are unmasked) Though there isnt anything what you would call new with the eyecandy, its still a good addition. Also, behind those blue backround tiles is the mountainous/river backround and of couse, the warped sky. There is a great deal of backround eyecandy, and it doesnt get to the point where there is to much. There isnt any foreground eyecandy that I can see (aside from the layer 3 used to help with the layer 4)but thats ok, since foreground can tend to confuse you a little. There isnt that many things to mention about eyecandy, and it doesnt get irritating like it does in some levels. The eyecandy is just your good ol’ basic and happy eyecandy which makes the level look really nice. The eyecandy is definately a great addition to the level.
Quick edit: There is some foreground, the trees. I cant beleive i didnt spot them before. Anyways, the trees are good, widely spread in the foreground and dont confuse you at all. (at least thats my point of view. So I have no problem with the trees.
Pros: Great Backround and foreground, everything pretty much good.
Cons: Nothing that shocks you to much like OMG WOW. Other than that, none.

TILE SET USAGE:
Like the eyecandy, the tileset usage is also great. There is a vareity of tiles used (even that flashing white block or whatever you call it is used), though not all the tiles are used (which is actually a good things, since some of the tiles could of ruined the level a bit), there is a good variety and the basic, important tiles are used. I have no problem with the tileset usage. Though i feel more of those gems in the walls could of been used, that barely affects my rating since this isnt very important. Anyways, like I said, nothing wrong.
Pros: Probably almost everything.
Cons: Barely any aside from some minor things, some of which I wont even bother to mention in my review.

GAMEPLAY:
Making great gameplay in levels is even harder than making good eyecandy for most people. The gameplay in this level is quite good. I have dueled someone online with this, and found the gameplay quite satisfying. Though I have a few small complaints, such as the helicopter.(This doesnt have to do specifically with your level, CelL, many levels have this). I dont really think having copters in your levels is that good, since if you’re being chased by someone, having to wait for a copter to appear so you can get away on it is quite irritating. Though I do not mind having a copter in the level, there could of been something such as a spring or a sucker covered by layer 3 there as well incase the copter doesnt appear as quickly as you want it to. I found the “one silver penny warp” a good idea, since it will have you collecting pennies if you ever want a carrot. The warp is also well placed. Though, people may camp at the silver penny, if they know their opponent is injured and lacks a penny. This isnt very good, there could of been another (maybe hidden) penny in the level so people will find it much harder to camp near it on 1vs 1 duels. Also, I have a small complaint. Usually, the person, who at the start, gets roasted by their opponent looses a huge advantage. When I played online with Genex, I got roasted and lost all my pennies and weapons and he gained the upperhand, but he kept it for almost the whole game (until I roasted him). So, what im saying is that in this level, if you get roasted, you automatically loose a great chance of winning, and it will be very hard to reclaim the upperhand. This doesnt affect all levels, some like BBLair you can get roasted many times and quickly regain the upperhand. This isnt a tremendous problem though, but it still affects the mark.
Pros: Gameplay is fine, good spring placement and stuff.
Cons: Helicopter con which I mentioned, camping at the silver coin, hard to regain upper hand.

LAYOUT:
Hmmmm….The levels layout appears to be fine. There are smooth edges (if you know what i mean) and there are springs placed where they should be. The level, infact, almost looks symmetrical, which is good for the layout. I dont have much to say about it, since most is mentionedin gameplay. It is quite easy to travel in this level, and to make geta ways, so i dont havr any complaints.
Pros: Basically everything, excpet for the problems mentioned in GAMEPLAY
Cons: Some places a bit bumpy, and the cons in GAMEPLAY.

PICKUP PLACEMENT/BASE PLACEMENT:
AMMO: I actually quite like how the ammo was placed here. Not only was it placed in a creative fashion, but its not sparce so one could quickly gain some ammo. There is also a large variety to use (bouncer, RF, seeker, electro blaster, toaster i beleive). I have no complaints about ammo, but its not that outstanding either.
CARROT: There is only one carrot in this level, which is the fullenergy. I dont complain about that, since the level is quite small and doesnt need any other carrots. The carrot is placed well, pplcant technically camp at it. The warp for the carrot is also placed well, in the center. The penny is placed well as well, except I think there could of been 2 pennies in the level.
POWERUPS: Hmm…powerups. The seeker is placed good as far as I can see, its placed about in the center. The toaster powerup, though, is placed just on top of the red base, giving them quicker access to it. This can be an advantage for red, since the toaster DOES deal 2 damage, and ppl only have 3 hearts in CTF. But im thankfull that its not the seeker or bouncer that is team based. Other than that, there is a good choice of powerups.
BASES: One base (blue) is placed higher than the other (red) but it isnt a problem. You can get to both bases quite quickly, nut thats because of the size of the level. The red base seems to be more closer to the toaster and the coin though, but it seems blue has an easier access to the warp. There isnt much wrong.
PROS: Creativly placed ammo, not to sparce, carrot warp and carrot placed in center. Bases generally placed well.
Cons: Some things lead to camping, Red base has a greater advantage.

MUSIC: The music is chosen well for the level, though I expected the diamonus music. Nothing wrong with this.

FINAL: I guess ill rate this an 8. I was leaning towards the rating of 8.5 but then as I played further I noticed more cons which took from the rating. The levels is also quite small, I reccomend it for private duels. The level is also quite well made, and it was fun to play. Although definately not CelL’s best, still a great addition to any CTF server or jj2 folder. Great work celL

Looks like Cell made another semi-laggy level. But what do I think?

GAMEPLAY:

It’s a little orignal and symmetrical from what I can tell. It’s easy enough to get from base to base; nothing wrong with the flow. The only thing I didn’t like about the layout was at the bottom middle where there is the bouncer and toaster ammo. You could have done something more than just make straight paths from one side to another. That’s the only thing I found wrong.

EYE CANDY:

This level has some of the best eye candy that I’ve seen with this tileset. The background makes the level a little laggy and can be a little confusing, but that isn’t that much of a problem since Hardware Acceleration and/or Low detail can be used. It’s also a shame that the level can’t really live up to the name in 8-bit as it does in 16-bit.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

The full energy carrots in this level were placed slightly differently from what I normally would see. One is placed at the bottom left and the other bottom right. Near each carrot, there are springs that lead to a warp to the top middle of the level. On top of that, there’s a seeker powerup near that warp target. This could lead to some interesting gameplay. Anyway, ammo placement was overall alright and no complaints with the placing of the powerup.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Maybe. Decide for yourself. I’ll rate this a 7.7 since it’s a nice level but could be a little better.

At first blush, this level looked like it could become a classic. The grey-metal Wasteland eyecandy was good-looking and gameplay was fun. That is, for the first ten minutes of play or so. After that, problems in the general structure of the level became quite apparent and the level lost some of it’s enjoyablility (is that a word?). Wasteland is probably a bit overused, and the eyecandy in this level was odd. Also, it quickly became apparent that this was the layout from the underworld. Still, it’s a solid Capture the Flag level. Let’s review, shall we?

TILESET/TILESET USE: The level’s author decided to use Blade’s “Wasteland” tileset. While “Wasteland” is a very good tileset, the grey-ness of it is a bit overwhelming. The monotone color scheme of this level was not exactly interesting. Instead, it made everything feel a little bland. I was expecting more, but maybe I should not have. Wasteland does look fairly spiffy, but it does also have its limits. I liked the detail the author put into the pipes in this level, but I still think that the eyecandy was a bit bland.
Pros: I did not see any tile bugs. The little individual pipes were well-done and it showed effort.
Cons: The color of cement is only so interesting. Nothing creative, new, or interesting.
Rating: 7.5

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Weapon placement is definitely the strongest point of this level. Some may consider this too many powerups, but I myself think that this is a fairly good balance for the amount of carrots there are. The basic ammo was well-placed. The basic ammo was not clumped as it often is in levels such as this, but it was also not so sporatic that ammo drain occured. The balance was very good. As with many levels these days, electroblasters come in handy for getting powerups that are in walls. Ammo placement was well-done. Good job.
Pros: Everything was placed pretty well.
Cons: Some might consider the amount of powerups there are to be a little bit too many.
Rating: 8.5

ORIGINALITY: If ammo placement was this level’s best side, this is definitely its dark side. Simply put, while this level is quite solid, there is not anything original in it. The eyecandy is not original, nor is gameplay. While the float up use towards the bottom of the level is not often seen, it has been done plenty of times before and has by this point became uninteresting. Originality is easily this level’s worst part, and that drags down the level’s quality and makes it a tad less fun to play. Something a little more creative would have been nice.
Pros: This level does not take chances with things that could have turned out awful.
Cons: This level takes way too few chances. Nothing that has not been done before is in it.
Rating: 6.7

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: The level’s layout (which is quite evil) consists of four gigantic platforms and smaller platforms coming out from the walls. While playing is fairly fluid (it did not take that long to get from base to base), playing it over and over is not very enjoyable. The level is by nature fairly linear: one or two routes are by far the fastest while others are too slow to be usable. The flow is still more or less good. The problem with this level is that you can not play it over and over again without becoming bored. The only thing I really hated was where the springs next to the bases were. They can be used to get to the above platform, but they confuse me into thinking there is something in the little compartment that the springs are located in other than basic bouncy ammo. Other than that, gameplay was solid, but linear.
Pros: The flow was more or less good.
Cons: Layout gets old quick, and is sometimes a bit annoying.
Rating: 7.5

REPLAY VALUE: I can not say that I like the replay value of this level as much as a lot of other reviewers. Simply, this level seemed to get old after about ten minutes of play. There are not many alternative routes, and eyecandy was nothing spectacular. Also, the music got really, really annoying. I had to test it on a computer with speakers to make sure the music was good, and it was just not worth the effort. I suggest that those who wish to play this level a lot turn off the music and turn on something more interesting.
Pros: The level was OK.
Cons: Got old really quick. Background music is annoying.
Rating: 6.7

COMPATIBILITY: This level really looks as if it would cause flag bug, but fortunately does not, at least during testing. Still, the places where there was not a sufficient mask make me nervous.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Not applicable.
Rating: Not applicable.

OVERALL: This is a solid Capture the Flag level, more or less. While this review does sound very negative, it is because I am comparing it to CelL’s other works. The flow of this level is more or less OK. Still, I was just expecting more from CelL and was a little bit disappointed by what I got. This level does not show much room for improvement beyond improving the eyecandy slightly and maybe tweaking the flow a bit. This would not improve my score much, but it would be nice. Not a bad level, but it has some problems that make it not so interesting to play. A download recommendation for Capture the Flag players.
Pros: Weapon placement was pretty good. There were no tile bugs.
Cons: Gets tedious fairly quickly. Music was annoying. Low replay value. Ho-hum eyecandy.
Rating: 8.2

OVERALL RATING (Not an average): 7.7

Yeah… the music is alright. Only with this titleset there isn’t much eyecandy. But the background and the pipes are okay. A challenching level. Weapons are okay. Almost a 8 form me. :)