Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This one is a battle level that I am a bit torn between liking and disliking. While I do enjoy the theme and certain gameplay aspects of the levels like the swinging platforms and no-clip sucker tubes, I can't help but feel like the overall gameplay is perhaps a bit too quirky and old-school for my tastes. But that doesn't mean it is a bad level.

The biggest issue I have with the gameplay is the layout that reminds me more of a single-player level or even a race level, rather than a battle map (even the respawn area at the bottom left reminds me of Race1.j2l a bit). I think this level could actually even work much better as a race level (from the bottom-left to the top-left corner) with some adjustments.

From my perspective, it is difficult to create levels with vertical gameplay that would play out smoothly. While there are certain good elements for quicker access to the upper ground, like the sucker tubes and such, I feel that the overall flow could be much more optimized. The flow seems to be favoring Spaz quite a bit more than other characters.

Another issue for me are the cramped passages under the "hill", that just encourage camping in those areas. Especially the area with the Gun8 power up that seems to be extremely difficult to counter from below, although reverse bouncers give a small chance at that. The upper left corner of the level seems also relatively campable, although there are slightly better chances at countering that. There's also that passable "pipe" at the top of the level where I'm having an issue with the tileset masking that gets me stuck momentarily when jumping against the ceiling.

But on the positive side, I like some of the extra spices added to the gameplay, like the double bouncers and other ammo choices, swinging platforms for elevation, long sucker tubes that go far across the level in order to quickly gain higher ground, airboard access that took me a while to notice and figure out, etc.

I find the level's visual side to be decent overall, but maybe a bit lacking in certain areas. Perhaps I'm just not the biggest fan of the core tileset used here. However, I do definitely like the overall blood moon-theme and the way it has been executed.

I do realize that whether you'll like this level or not depends quite a lot on your tastes and what you're looking for in multiplayer levels. This definitely ain't the optimal duel level or a fast action-packed level, but perhaps a more tactical one where wise choices with control for objectives and zones matter. Actually out of custom game modes, this level could do potentially well in LRS-based game modes that encourage finding good camp spots and other key objectives quickly.

I'm not exactly sure how I should review a JJ1 level, as I had never played a custom JJ1 level prior to this one. Even the previous time I played JJ1 at all was years ago. But I am amazed by how modern technology makes it possible to play JJ1 even with custom levels and especially on a web browser! If that wasn't the case here, maybe I wouldn't have even bothered to pay the effort to get JJ1 installed along with Dosbox, etc. Also as I have minimal memory of what the official Marbelara levels looked like or how they played out, I can't really compare this one to them, but I'll just review it as a standalone level.

On to the level, it seems like the level gives enough room for the player to roam around and explore different areas with creatively placed secrets, as typical to a JJ1 level. Maybe some of the "indoor areas" were even slightly closer to the official JJ2 levels by design, which impressed me.

While playing JJ1 after a while, I definitely was not used to the slippery controls and restricted vision in the game, and I found myself dying quite a lot especially in the beginning. Luckily the level offers plenty of save points and carrots to give a chance to the player to survive throughout the level, especially on lower difficulty levels (I played on medium).

I suppose the level visuals are quite standard to a JJ1 level or maybe even slightly improved from that, I cannot tell for sure. But just saying that I find the level also visually pleasant and nothing is especially bothering me about it. Although the level is relatively big to enjoy the gameplay for a while (I don't know what are limits of how big a JJ1 level can be?), the fun often ends rather suddenly. But this was also certainly an interesting experience!

Are you a fan of JJ1? If so, then this is for sure worth a try for you as well!

Probably the single best way to mark the 30th anniversary of Jazz (however incidental), Marbel Prize is a delicious piece of vanilla Jazz.

I was going to say "little piece", but this level is considerably bigger than the original levels – with multiple discrete sections (marked by checkpoints), optional areas, and a lot of diverse and rewarding secrets. It took me a few attempts to get to 100% items, and that's not counting the "super secret" I ran out of time for. All of which is on brand with Marbelara as we know it, but on a bigger scale and more polish.

As mentioned by minmay, the enemy placement is pretty insidious, and this level is much tougher on ammo than JJ1 generally tends to be. It's not terribly hard – which is pretty rare as far as Violet levels go – but expect above average difficulty.

Overall, really rather quite good, maybe not brilliant, but more than worth the 10-15 minutes.

I had been replaying some older Violet levels this summer and noticed that there is a gap between her SP and MP works – in that the former usually go pretty wild with tileset combinations, while the latter tend to pull their punches in this department. This level in particular, though, does not disappoint.

Although Violet remains careful and prioritises player visibility, the eyecandy in bllib is visibly more diverse – eclectic even, considering those poor disturbed Diamondus trees – than in blcon, even though the latter features 400% more textured backgrounds. The music does a lot of the heavy lifting as well, but the overall impression left by Blood Libel is one of vague, but intense discomfort and dread. And with that eyebrow rising title? Playing this level hits different this week than the last, for reasons I should not elaborate upon.

This is by far the most interesting layout from all the contest entries, built with, and around, one specific gimmick in mind. Navigation is easy, and means of climbing upwards are plentiful, with one direction but many possible paths. Violet is weaving new cloth with familiar threads here – in addition to everything listed in the download description, a seasoned JDC player will be reminded of Ascendance Cliff, Tower of Death, but also The Fingers of Icarus, and even Penelope and/or Falkenstein: The New Order. If the opening post of the contest thread was written specifically to entice Violet, should I be surprised that Violet’s entry seems to be created specifically to entice me, as an easily flattered level designer? Who could possibly tell.

Across all the entries for the Halloween contest, this one is my favorite, and is therefore declared the winner.

Bonus points: The Spike Bomb looks really good in blue.

Just reading the name "Blood Libel" and the tagline "This level is fundamentally Sisyphean" felt like taking two verbal punches in the face, and the level itself lives up to them.

I love when levels try weird gimmicks, and I found these gimmicks play pretty well! The layout delivers the feeling of Getting Over It With Violet CLM without having awkward flow, and I died plenty despite the presence of an almost-instantly-regenerating full carrot.
The duo bouncers are a great idea, I've played a lot of levels with both regular and upside-down bouncers and every single one of those levels should use these instead. Also I like how the ammo sprites remind me of particle physics.
I'm less impressed with the bird and the moving platforms – using the platforms feels a bit too slow and precise for multiplayer. And I'm sure there's some cute stuff you can do with the bird, but with the duo bouncers already letting you attack people above you, it mostly just feels like a shield.

This level's visuals are downright surreal compared to the other contest entries', and it's all the better for it. Of course there's the superb custom palette and the very very bright red moon/sun/whatever (ooh, ALPHAMAP!), but I also adore the smaller details like the guts-colored sky growing closer as you ascend, and the water splash animation being recolored.
It's also excellent with landmarks, every spot looks unique and the layout was really quick to learn.
I do think literally raining blood might be a bit too on the nose, but it does look good.

Overall, this is for sure the most original entry and my personal favorite, I'd be delighted to lose to it!

How can download be added when this game mod, uses some custom sprites and many tools and features and a lot of stuff and custom objects and boss fights that is cool.

A pretty simple mutator that should be the canonical way to play Head Hunters. Makes it even more intense to have a lot of gems.
I worried that being "stealthy" when you have no gems might have some odd gameplay consequences, but it wasn't a problem at all in the JDC event and that's good enough for me for now.

Whoops, meant to review this last year. Great twist on LRS and Pestilence – like Pestilence you have to actually roast people to win, but like LRS the winner isn't known until the very end.
And unlike either, the amount of time a Condemned game lasts is consistent!
Rules are nice and simple, too. Highly recommended for any LRS-suitable level.

Well-designed vanilla JJ1 gameplay. Compared to the original levels, you can expect much better enemy placement, a more efficient layout, cleverer secret areas, more dynamic tileset usage, less ammo, and more fun.

While it's all well thought out and well made, it's also not that innovative or exciting. That enemy placement is REALLY good though.

nice

An excellent showcase of recent JJ2+ features, as well as a big, fun, and balanced level. Did a Hard run as Jazz around release, and yesterday a Hard run as Spaz getting 100% of the skulls. The only downside I found was that after dying, enemies may get in the way of the Skyrunner's teleport locations (carrots also respawn though). Download this!

Preamble (geared towards other elderly fans of JJ2):
As someone who grew up playing Jazz Jackrabbit and now rarely opens it aside from the odd Anniversary Bash, I have memories of a game that even pre-2010 seemed stretched to its limits by the community. Feeling a bit dissatisfied after barely playing in this year's Bash, I figured it was a good time to get re-introduced to all of the wonderful ways the community has expanded the game (specifically in Single Player which was always my favourite mode) while I sort of looked on from the periphery. I guessed that a recent upload from Violet would be a great starting point. It was a very, very good guess. She delivers.

That said, I don't want this review to just be gushing about how heavily (it seems to me anyway) that this level features JJ2+'s capabilities. It's just relevant for players like me who might be looking for a fix of their old favourite with a lot of the new bells and whistles to marvel at. You'll be impressed.

But as delicious as it is to encounter new enemies and use new weapons and everything, is it actually fun? Well yeah.

Weapons, Enemies, Difficulty:
As minmay said, the new elements make you approach the enemies in a fresh way that didn't get stale. Standard weapons variety is very deliberately limited, but I am not sure why. Perhaps it was done for simple thematic reasons? Custom enemies are used well and provided great novelty, although I don't know if I would say they were challenging enough a lot of the time. I probably need another play through on harder modes. The boss, however, was another story for me..

Theme, Goals, Gameplay:
So, the actual goal of the level was not clear to me for quite a while. It may have just been that I wasn't paying close enough attention initially. I wasn't sure whether I needed to collect a certain amount of skulls or coins or if I was trying to open new areas by seeking out trigger crates. To be perfectly honest, for the first few minutes I was avoiding the skulls because they seemed more like enemies. So naive of me. So innocent. Once I worked out that it was mainly about collecting coins, I enjoyed scouring areas again for something I might have missed. There were also times I would need to find how to get a coin just out of reach, which was very motivating and kept me engaged.

The custom platforming elements were very fun, except for the shooting sucker tubes over spikes which, I dunno, maybe I'm too old and I don't have the patience or reflexes anymore. I still adored the trigger crate animated vine/tree platforms and the custom twisting platforms. And who doesn't love pole dancing? Very fun!

One small issue I had was that (and I assume this is a JJ2+ problem in general?) I couldn't save. I ended up playing for much longer than I intended originally because I didn't want to start over again. I stayed engaged for it but I was rushing towards the end. So a warning: give yourself plenty of time.

Eyecandy, Music:
There are several different themes as you travel around the map. Violet's combinations of different tileset elements were sometimes a little jarring (but maybe that was a part of the point given the spooky theme?) in their contrasting vibes/styles but after a while you settle into a coherent.. setting. She also made use of the newer textured background features to really great effect.

Drastic changes in mode or theme were accompanied by music changes that were both always welcome but also soon became a touch stale as they were, again, a little jarring. And, again again again, maybe that was the point? Very spooky. Very zany. Like a deluge of bees angrily fighting over a split trash bag stuffed with sprinkles that had passed their use by date.

Overall:
A very fun, sensational level absolutely stuffed with engaging new kinds of gameplay opportunities. Definitely recommended for Single Player fans, especially those of us looking for a taste at what JJ2+ has on offer. (And I know, I promise this review isn't just about JJ2+ itself, but good god all of you guys are absolute legends <3). While I found myself a little frustrated or confused sometimes, and I didn't like that I needed to complete the level in one session, it was novel in a ton of different ways and left me smiling. Definitely have a go!

Here's some good showcasing of what's possible with AngelScript when it comes to raising the intensity of typical boss fights in JJ2+. Too bad the fun is over quickly.

This was definitely an entertaining experience! The level required me multiple attempts to finish, as the gameplay is versatile and it is easy to get lost in the level on the first try. Still, all the custom enemies and approach to the available weapons is very refreshing in the modern SP scene. Download recommended!

Perfection.

This pack technically consists of 4 levels but only the last 2 are interesting gameplay-wise. The first is a tiny prelude to the (silly) story and the second has a bit of gameplay but is over very quickly. The third one is where it really starts. You have to cross a jungle filled with traps while looking for a carpenter. These traps are a hit & miss across the pack, with some giving a fair challenge while others are more or less unavoidable unless you’ve seen them before, such as some sneaky rolling rocks. The animated tiles used as hazards, mostly in the form of retracting sticks, are hard to avoid and at one point they can even hurt you while retracted (inside a hollow tree trunk). It’s really trying to push the boundary of what vanilla JJ2 offers, and luckily that’s not all negatives. The lock puzzle in the fourth level consists of multiple small contraptions that you have to solve to un-obstruct the final pattern that you have to see and input in order to proceed, all done through trigger scenery ‘magic’ in a world before Plus.

All levels in this pack have these theater-like foreground decors. While I understand the reasoning behind it (The two primary sources of inspiration for this pack also did this), I felt like it was too visually obstructing for the sheer difficulty of these levels. Furthermore, it’s not always easy to spot what walls and floors are masked, and plenty of enemies (like bats) are fully or partially obscured by layer 3 tiles. All of this isn’t a huge problem as long as you continually remind yourself to traverse very slowly, and that this pack is more about small nifty obstacles instead of flowy run & gunning. There are, however, enough enemies to shoot along the way, but aside from a few of the monkeys they won’t pose a big threat. Collectibles like food are also plentiful, getting a sugar rush never felt more useful. The amount of carrots feels just right, with some of them placed in less straightforward places, making them very rewarding.

All in all a decently fun and unusual vanilla JJ2 experience. Its shortcomings are mostly technical, but so are its qualities, with the big puzzle near the end being the icing on the bittersweet cake. Download recommended, although the majority of the score is due to the fourth level that carries most of this pack’s quality.

Not much else to say other than "Masterfully done!".

In a way, I'm glad that this was released separately from the Halloween collaboration in question as it would've likely overshadowed the other levels (assuming said collab will be finished at some point).

Highly recommending this level.

Its amazing how even though this being in 2d, it still captures the feeling of threed in earthbound.

A beautiful premise with beautiful execution, Threed Realms looks small, then unfolds to be bigger than you ever imagined.
One striking setting and song become several, the new enemies are tricky and cleverly placed, and a ton of checkpoints and shortcuts prevent tedious backtracking.
Replacing the Blaster with the shorter-ranged Melee Sword really changes how you want to approach enemies, and it's a twist that stays fun throughout the whole level.
My favorite part is the boss battle. It's readable without feeling trivial or unfair, and it's really fun to swing at.

With original gameplay, lovely presentation, and the most groan-inducingly punny title I've read in a while, you don't want to miss this level.

All that said, I'm not gonna try to find the remaining 3% of the skulls. I spent enough time looking for skulls back in Monster Bash…

Absolutely amazing.