Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

NOKA really needs to get some sort of life. Or maybe just spend more time on each conversion. The quality has been kind of lessening each time (read: bugginess), and now this Turtemple (wanna bet it’ll overwrite CelL’s version?) is almost finished. Not to mention; if you take so little time, people will start realizing that making JJ1 conversions isn’t too difficult and that most anyone can do it.

MASKING: Masking is, for the most part, good. Almost everything is masked logically, straight lines and stuff. However, there are a few useless holes in the vertical yellow wall area, the bottoms of said yellow walls are too uneven, the giant glowing things have very poorly masked corners, the turrets are too automasked, and of course the tileset says the mask holds instructions on how to use the tileset but it doesn’t.
Pros: Mostly logical.
Cons: A few too many bugs for my tastes.
Rating: 7.7

ANIMATION: Tubelectric is a highly animated tileset, and thus, almost everything (except for the basic ground) is animated. I am unable to find any real flaws with the animation. Very nice job.
Pros: Everything seems to work.
Cons: Well, ok, the turret fireballs could have moved a little smoother.
Rating: 9.2

COLOR: Noka, who previously has survived the problem of multiple palettes, finally falls prey. An unacceptable number of the tile types in this tileset have multiple palettes, resulting in the fact that they look very strange when placed next to each other. In addition to these primarily mild gripes, the textured background in the day version barely works at all, where in the night version it’s one of the few things that does. I mean, really. Did Noka test the night version at all? It’s so full of color errors it’s almost painful to look at.
Pros: Most things work, nice outward show.
Cons: WAAAAAY too many problems. Noka, you really need to look into the possibility of a beta tester. They’re great at finding bugs you’re too lazy to fix without being informed of by a third party.
Rating: 6.5

INCLUSION: Very nice. Essentially everything any good tileset needs is here, with more blocks than most have, a belt, etc. There are no normal spikes, but there’s other stuff, and there’s no water block (but for obvious reasons). From the original tileset, everything seems to be present. Putting stuff in is certainly Noka’s strong point.
Pros: Everything seems to be there, the poles look rather good (despite being completely JJ2 rips).
Cons: The “Now Approaching” thing really doesn’t work at all. Noka, it looks cool, but you haven’t spent nearly enough time figuring out how to make it work. It’s kind of buggy even if you don’t count the fact that it looks weird and the stars don’t fly and things like that. Oh, and the vine doesn’t look too good.
Rating: 8.5

POSITION: For the most part, all tiles seem logically placed in their own seperate areas. My only gripe is that the various event tiles seem scattered randomly throughout the tileset, instead of all at the bottom (and optionally along the side) where they belong.
Rating: 8.5

OVERALL: This is essentially a good conversion, and is probably the best available Tubelectric conversion. It screams “BETA TEST ME!”, but if you don’t want to use the textured background, the night version, or any of the layer 4 background bricks, you may be able to make a working level. (Well… there are no slopes, either, so I guess you’re pretty much regulated to single player) Noka, please spend more time on your work.
Pros: Everything seems really good, especially at first glance.
Cons: Way too many bugs.
Rating: 8.5

On a final note, out of all the Palette Events, only the Carrot Bumper works in the slightest. In Tubelectric especially, this is unacceptable. I’m probably overrating this, but I’ll leave it at 8.2 for now.[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

INTRODUCTION TO PAC JAZZ: This game (seperate application) seems to be a variant of Pacman where you control Jazz’s head (the author has this strange fixation with Jazz’s head) instead of Pacman.

GRAPHICS/ETC: Hmmm. The walls look normal enough, though probably a little too bright. The pellets which normally turn ghosts blue look awful. Pacman has been replaced with Jazz’s head, who only has one frame of animation (this looks really strange when he dies), and the ghosts are replaced with the worst rips I’ve ever seen of Normal Turtles. (If you eat one of those power pellet things, they get nigh-invisible dark red letters above their heads). The whole graphics set looks extremely ripped and has that “I need to make this Jazz like I’ll spent two minutes rippiung things!” feel.
Pros: Jazz’s head actually didn’t turn out too badly.
Cons: The walls are too bright, the power pellet is ugly, the normal turtles are horrible.
Rating: 4.0

GAMEPLAY: Everyone knows how to play Pacman. You move around through a maze eating little yellow dots, avoid the ghosts, and eat special things which let you eat the ghosts. All of this is here. The main problems are… bugs.
One, you can turn around and crash into a wall. This is really annoying if you were hoping it would just turn as soon as you get to the intersection. Also, the ghosts have apparently no artificial intelligence at all, seeming to move randomly whenever they reach an intersection. Being scared does not seem to effect their behavior at all. And you appear to have infinite lives…
Pros: It’s recognizable as Pacman.
Cons: Too many flaws, not even the right layout.
Rating: 4.7

ORIGINALITY: Nothing is original in this except for converting it to Jazz (though I remember hearing something about Pacspaz from ET..). I recommend you go download a game called “Pacman Worlds”. It might inspire you somewhat.
Rating: 2.0

OVERALL: This is a rather poor Pacman takeoff – I hestitate to call it a clone – with strangely ripped graphics and poor gameplay. There is honestly not all that much else to say about this. You are still advised not to download this file. (This time it’s only 1,345 KB, though!)
Rating: 2.5

ERRATA: Apparently this entire game is an edit of some already made program. This lowers the rating by .5 (And I haven’t calculated it yet).

Ok, I’m going to try the more ordinary review format again this time.

INTRODUCTION TO HIT JAZZS HEAD: This seems to be a seperate application, presumably intended to be a game. It’s probably made by this program people call “Game maker”, as I think I’ve seen that loading bar before.

GAMEPLAY: Uhhh. Four Jazz Heads (the lives symbol from JJ2) bounce around the screen. You click on the heads. If you do it right, your score goes up by one, and the head repositions itself. There is no way to lose score, nor go to a more difficult level (I assume… I gave up after 50), nor make any advancement at all. After about ten seconds, you will start to wonder “just why am I doing this?” and you probably won’t come up with some sort of answer. This game is brilliantly pointless, but that’s about all it’s brilliant in.
Pros: Everything seems to work.
Cons: Nothing seems to happen.
Rating: 4.0

ORIGINALITY: When reviewing the originality of a seperate application (a game, in this case), I suppose one should compare it to other apps/games of the same nature. I can’t find any. Still, juding by the complete lack of… well, anything, I’m going to guess originality is rather low.
Rating: 2.2

EYECANDY/GRAPHICS/APPEARANCE: The bouncing things are Jazz’s JJ2 life head. The background is an apparently unedited screenshot of Psych (Night, I think.. for some reason there are those parallexing star things which look somewhat out of place), and the window has a border of what are either ten second drawn pyramids or ripped from Commander Keen, it’s hard to say. One wonders, with all the other graphics from JJ2, why not simply have a more graphically familiar border? Shrugs
Pros: No obvious visual errors.
Cons: The border is ugly, nothing is all that new.
Rating: 5.0

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR/ENJOYABILITY: After a few seconds, this game quickly loses interest. Sorry.
Rating: 2.0

OVERALL/VERDICT/SUMMARY/BREAKDOWN/FISH: This program isn’t really worth the space it takes up… which brings up a rather annoying point. Why in the world is this simple program 1,654 KB? I understand you use some graphics, but really, this is ridiculous! …sorry. Off on a tangent there. Anyway, you probably shouldn’t download this. Wait until the author improves or decides to upload something which isn’t quite so simple. (In fact, what with the simplicity and the filesize, I rather worry this was a virus in disguise)
Pros: Everything seems to work.
Cons: Rather boring, nothing can really change, the “automatic repositioning” looks weird.
Rating: 3.2

(In other news, I seem to be a Ultra L33t Reviewer. Hmmmm.)[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

New concepts in level design… gameplay has never been this flat!
This level essentially could be plotted out with a program that creates filler material and changes directions when told to: Right, down, left, down. Sure, while travelling the lengthy horizontal parts (which you can easily skip over as Jazz – this level is so incredibly biased) you have to jump, but if you pay attention, you notice the design is really just “move forwards”. This level would not be misplaced in a Mario game. As for the little nuances in the flat paths, they mainly consist of the author taking whatever weird tile structures are prebuilt in Inferno and putting them into the level.
What’s good? There are a few interesting parts like the coins/1up at the spikes, and (considering the lack of fastfire) the blaster powerup isn’t the worst idea.
Pros: Not too much. Read the last paragraph.
Cons: Design way too boring.
Rating: 4.7

Zooooooom… ouch.
With a design so strange, what can the gameplay be like? Surprisingly, not too bad. The flow is really annoying, due to the constant idea that “a small cliff is a good obstacle”, but for the most part, it’s decent. Bilsy, of course, has an awful arena, but I suppose we’re used to this by now. ….and I can’t think of anything more to say.
Pros: Not too bad.
Cons: Not too good. Bilsy is bad.
Rating: 5.2

Yum! Yay! Die!
Getting steadily better here, placement is really rather good indeed. There aren’t nearly enough weapons, but enemies seem placed logically throughout the level, likely to cause damage. There’s an ingenious bit at the top of the level where you can find bats, which aren’t noticable unless you’re skipping through the level as Jazz, at which point they swoop down and hurt you. Brilliance. The ravens are always good, and the land stuff does its job as well as anything with such limited intelligence can.
In the style of the original SP levels, goodies are placed generously in this level, available for just a little extra effort. There are a few bomb crates, the extra life needs extra work… all nice, though maybe a little too easy. My main complaint is the trigger crate, which is depressingly pointless.
Pros: All fairly good.
Cons: Not enough ammo, trigger crate is bleh.
Rating: 6.5

I can see the sky from here! Isn’t Kansas wonderful?
One of the more disappointing parts of this level is the eyecandy. Layer 4 consists mainly of ordinary walls (and a few trees), with far too many open spaces. This would be fine, but the open spaces are just that – open – no interesting filler stuff. Maybe a little more cave would be good… but really, the level seems far too empty. And imagine what it would be like with low detail…
As for the other layers, they’re extremely bleh. The author copies (maybe literally) the original graphics from Inferno for this level, leaving a primarily empty background. The lighting even causes the walls to partially blend in with the background, making this a very annoying/boring level to look at, on the whole.
Pros: No tile bugs that I noticed.
Cons: Extremely bleh.
Rating: 4.5

What’s new, and should you care?
Very little is new. I can not think of a single thing in this level I have not seen before, to tell the truth. …wait, the bats. Ok, the bats are new. But the rest of the level is extremely hum drum and blah and old and that sort of thing.
Once you’ve played this level once, you have little reason to ever want to play it again. The annoying design, mediocre eyecandy and less-than-amazing gameplay combine to create an unexperience which should remain unrepeated. You may, in fact, give up before finishing the level. It’s just that dull.
Pros: The bats are new!
Cons: Boring.
Rating: 3.0

New joy wait upon you; here our play has ending.
Here we are in the summing up, and I can think of little to say I have not already said. This level is good for a first level, but in no way deserving of such ratings as an 8.5 or 7.7. In short, this level is a wonderful representation of the poor quality we are forced to put up with these days, but it’s not wonderful in too many other ways.
Pros: The placement! The placement is good!
Cons: So… dull… must keep… eyes open…..
Rating: 4.5

Hmmm? Interesting… no reviews? I wouldn’t expect that from a normal level…
..of course, maybe it’s not normal. The most impressive thing about this upload is that it took about a half hour to make. I bet the text took up a large portion of it.

It’s 12 ‘o’ clock, do you know where the fun is?
This level has a rather unusual design. Four 8*7 rooms, which you can traverse using the holes in the walls. Strangely, there is text inside these holes, but only in the middle tile – not on the parts one is more likely to be in. Why in the world did the author choose to upload this level? It looks awfully like a “wow I made this in (amount of time) I must rock” level that doesn’t get uploaded. But I disgress.
Ok, “fair witness” mode aside, you now know what the design is like. So the question that arises is “Why is the design like this?”. It hampers flow, the springs aren’t too well lined up with the horizontal holes… yeah. Levels with this sort of design are interesting to make as an experiment, but to tell the truth, they rarely (if at all) turn out well. This did not.
Pros: The author included springs (though green would be nicer), thankfully not leaving you to high jump through the holes. TSF Compatible!
Cons: This design! It’s just horrible.
Rating: 2.5

Here’s a riddle for you… what’s green and white and bad all over?
Answer: The eyecandy for this level. The walls consist entirely of the greenish pipe tiles included in Mez01, and while there are no tile bugs, this is hardly surprising. Mez01 really has a lot of possibilities for eyecandy most people don’t bother with, but this level bothers with none of them! Give us some blocks! Pipe variation! Other layer eyecandy! Something other than this DISMAL green stuff!
…ok, I exaggerate. There is background eyecandy. Sort of. Apparently the author has taken the star tiles and thought something like “Look, white dots. Like snow!”. So voila, the white stars go down. Straight down. At a rather unusual speed. Not only does this end up not looking like snow, but it’s so obviously tiled it’s almost painful to look at. You’ve got at least two unused layers for eyecandy, add some depth to the snow! Different placements, different speeds… please?
Of course, the question arises; “Why is there snow in the first place?” The level name is Microtubes, the filename is electro1, why is there snow? It’s like that “Snow in Carrotus” level: the snow is only there because it can be. Ok, I’m only going to say this once: Your level name is Microtubes, get some tubes in there! Mez01 has lots of tube tiles just asking to be eyecandy… don’t waste time on inappropiate snow!
Pros: I guess the snow Is kind of original… no tile bugs in the pipes.
Cons: ARRGH! Lack of EVERYTHING! WHY WHY WHY WHY?????
Rating: 3.0

See the little angels… how do they rise up, rise up, rise up?
Weapons placement is actually surprising sensical, considering the other aspects of this level. You’ve got Fastfire (always a good idea), EB (nice with so many walls), Seekers (for those annoying people in the room opposite) and… TNT. Well, three out of four ain’t bad.
The weapons are placed in corners of the rooms, which actually is more logical than putting them in the middle where they’ll just be shot down. My only real complaint is that no matter how fast they generate, four of each type is really not enough. A strategist Could possibly stay alive for some time in this level, as it’s not a tiny carnage room – so give us more weapons.
As for those things known as “other pickups”, they do not exist. Again, this is a good thing, as they’d be completely pointless in this level.
Pros: Somehow, this factor is far better than all the others, despite a rather obvious lack of real thought or effort. Things are placed well, and nice choices.
Cons: Why TNT? And again, there needs to be more ammo.
Rating: 4.5

Wow! Let’s do that again!
Oh, no. A few minutes in, this level is probably going to get boring, unless you’re already very bored. Of course, one person is bound to like it for that reason, as why else would it be hosted in the first place? This level is good for a quick glance at “how not to make really fast levels”, but for playing – no.
Pros: I suppose some entertainment could be gleaned.
Cons: Just not enough. The appearance doesn’t really lend to the enjoyment either.
Rating: 1.7

In conclusion, sir…
…don’t download this. It’s not really all that good, and the complete lack of anything interesting makes the bad parts seem worse. The fact that the level is too small to fit into a 640×480 screen, making the author add an empty column, is not really all that pleasing. Let’s just all be glad that the author has matured since this level, and instead makes things like “Colonius 1 edited so the tile Dizz Sux is no longer there”.
Pros: Few.
Cons: Too many. This level should not be edited with a few changes, it should be thrown to the ground and forgotten.
Rating: 2.0

Well, this should be interesting. A new boss. Not that I really believe it’s new.

Interesting. The Uterus MCE. Destroy the floating green/red box thingies, then kill the main guy (who can’t hurt you) with TNT. Sadly, once the boss life bar is depleted, it fills itself again, so it’s essentially an endless battle.
Still, it’s an interesting eyecandy effect, and might be useful somehow. Download this to take a look at it if you haven’t seen the Uterus MCE before.

I have decided to adopt a new tactic. Instead of playing the level once, then reviewing everything, I will play it once for each category, trying to only note those factors. How long this will last is rather dubious, but I’m going to give it a try.

Gameplay, Design, and related fields:
Well. Ever since BlurredD released his SP pack, all of Dx’s levels seem to have been desperate attempts to equal the sheer goodness. In this case, Dx goes so far as to use Thermal K, in much the same style as it is used in Blur’s pack – I.E. lots of caves.
And, of course, the instant death. Which doesn’t work. About 75% of the time, I seemed unable to lose a life from the instant death you’re supposed to get when you fall into the lava. Technical side gets a low.
But what about the real gameplay? Rambling aside, the gameplay’s not too bad, but the level is short enough it doesn’t have much of a chance to grow on you. First you navigate some tunnels, not falling into the lava. Then you are a frog for less than a minute, not falling into the lava, and get hurt while turning back. Then you navigate a few more tunnels, not falling into the lava. Then you fight Bilsy, (and you guessed it) not falling into the lava. I’ll discuss Bilsy later, but in the meantime let’s look at the previous areas.
The tunnels try too hard to be hard, as Trafton said most admirably. This will be expanded upon later, of course. But with the high jump you need to climb on top of hurting fire to perform (a high jump in a TSF level.. for shame), when said fire is nearly invisible against the lava fall… things get a little annoying.
The frog is, of course, far too short. You jump three pits, two devils, then get kissed by Eva. And you get hurt. Did I say that already? Here’s a hint: give the player a carrot for those unavoidable ouchies.
Still, the gameplay is somewhat decent. With the exception of Bilsy. Because Bilsy is one of Those bosses, the ones who need support from their arena to provide a challenge. Like buttstomp floor. But in this level, you’re not even on the same platform as Bilsy! You never should be! No challenge at all! Feh.
Rating: 6.5

Graphic quality, use of layers, tile-to-tile smoothness, general eyecandy:
The eyecandy is, for the most part, ordinary Carrotus. Walls that don’t really fit together at all, large or small (in this case large) amounts of cave, and no plants besides the carrots, which are used simply as walls. All of these apply. About the only difference between this level and a normal Carrotus level is that, well, it uses Thermal K. So in addition to all that other stuff, there’s a moving lava pit (weird), lava falls in the background (too bright, and they blend in with the fire), and those neat little wooden platforms. Only once, sadly.
If you want other layers, you’re out of luck. Everything is Speed 1, and aligns perfectly. Obviously there should be something more, as you do see the sky now and then, but there isn’t. Alas.
And yes, the walls don’t fit together all that well. Black edge to wall edge, wall edge to black edge – all over the place. If only Dx had added some plants, at least…
Rating: 6.7

Weapon Placement, Item Placement, Enemy Placement, Text Placement… you know, placement.:
There are no goodies. There is only Zuul. Enemies, anyway.
Well, ok, that’s not completely true. Near the end you get two boxes of ammo, some seekers and some relatively useless bouncies. And… umm… well, I guess that’s it for goodies and all that. Well, I suppose it’s a small level, but some carrots would have been nice now and then. SUCH AS NEXT TO EVA.
But enemies. There are enemies. A few of the enemies are well placed, paticularly some bats who are in good positions to knock you into the lava. But many of the bats, and most of the devils, are just there to be shot. “Automatic carrot creators”, you could call them. There are two at the boss, for that matter. It’s not like they can pose any harm, so they just give you carrots.
Basically, there will be a bat in the ceilling if any of the following are true: You are in a long straight passage, you are just getting into a passage from a drop to the lava, you are leaving a passage to get over a drop to the lava, or you are going somewhere to be able to cross a drop to the lava. There will be a devil on the ground if any of the following are true: There is flat ground and there is not another devil for at least three tiles.
Besides the bats and devils, there is one more type of enemy. The Floating Sucker, which as we all know, has no real purpose except to be stomped. So Dx lets you stomp them to get across some lava. In a tight space. And only once. Why only once? Why not more than once?! ASDF.
So what’s the verdict? Placing enemies after you finish the level is not the way to go.
Rating: 6.7

Fun Factor, Originality, Replay Value… whee, I just changed the order around.:
Well, as said before, pretty much this entire level was taken from Blur’s demo thing. So what is original? Just a few things, sadly. There’s the disappearing author sign, the annoying high jump fire, and… I guess that’s about it. Work on your own brain a bit more, Dx.
As for fun and games and all that, I have now played this level about four times. My feelings for it have gone *bad, *ok, *ok, *eeh. I’m starting to lose interest. This shouldn’t be played too many times, but play it more than once, as your first impression is likely to be wrong.
And I have to admit, a few parts are fun. There’s something just strangely satisfying about killing the two devils on wooden platforms. Or jumping over the widest frog pit.
Rating: 7.0

Overall impression of Subject Level:
This level is all right, but it’s not too good. The music just seems wrong, and I don’t even have much of an ear for music. The enemy placement detracts from the enjoyability of the level a little too much, and the eyecandy can get tiresome.
But there’s something about this level. Something showing that no matter what Dx reviews like, eventually he may become a good level maker. I try not to rate potential, but this is actually in the level, so whatever.
So it is that I give it a Rating: of 7.0. Low 7, but 7 anyway.[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

ET, latest suggestion: Now that you’ve made all these nice changes, could you be persuaded to reupload the file?[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

OMG. Everything Hotel Dream had and less, with a basic idea taken from Mirrow’s Kingdom, and ratings such as would impress Eagle. Or someone. What more is needed in a tileset?

GRAPHIC QUALITY: Imagine a mix between Mirrow’s Kingdom and Hotel Dream. Hotel Dream’s tiles (quite literally, in several cases) with Mirrow’s Kingdom’s color scheme. Basically this is a yellow, white and blue tileset with hints of red. And it’s for hotels.
As for the actual quality, this varies between tiles. The authors have brought over Mirrow’s Fire animation, AGAIN, and it almost manages to look ok when placed inside a fireplace. There’s an ugly folding chair, some penguins who change color when they animate movement, a weird pillar..
ok, I’ll be honest. That’s just the bad stuff. And the good stuff, which is annoying because I really wanted this tileset to be bad, is probably the majority. You’ve got your luxurious bed in three colors, various one tile high furniture thingies, an interesting textured background (which WORKS) a few nice textures here or there, and a wardrobe which would look lovely if it was attached to anything.
Oh, and of course, there’s a lot of stuff taken from previous tilesets. All the kitchen stuff, the shower (parts of it, anyway), the tiled wallpaper, Disguise’s font, Mirrow’s fire, Mirrow’s Babe, the |’‘ pipes, the mailbox, text signs ripped from JJ2 tilesets…
All in all, the graphics quality is pretty good, but a few of the tiles you should avoid putting in your levels. For example, the !Tuxedo Penguin, or (depending on the length) the green table.
Pros: The candles, the blue pillars, the ornate stuff, the umbrella.
Cons: The floor texture, the folding chair.
Rating: 8.7

VARIETY: Hotel tilesets should have variety, right? Lots of everything? Of course. But Disguise and Mirrow may not have heard that. There is one type of wall, though you can put a carpet on it if you really like. The platforms can’t be removed from the brick wall, and to be honest, the whole tileset has a “been there, done that, ignored the t-shirt” feel.
Fortunately, Disguise/Mirrow make up for this at least in part by including at least a few helpful tiles. Pillars, golden pipes, that spirally gold stuff, fireplace siding and the letter bars all could concievably twisted into bizarre and interesting eyecandy effects. But not enough. And seeing as there is no official Foreground OR Background eyecandy, levels made with this may end up feeling kind of… empty somehow.
Pros: Some easily usable tiles.
Cons: Mostly one-use-only, no official eyecandy.
Rating: 7.2

MASKING: Disguise (maybe?) saves the day with a masking job! Or so it seems at first glance. There’s stuff in the background, the walls are masked logically with no apparent bugs… but the hotel stuff. Oh yes, the hotel stuff. None of it is masked at all. You cannot stand on the couches, bask in the shower, sit on the chairs, lay in the bath, swing from the chandelier, or even climb onto the umbrella. It is all unmasked. How boring. Oh, and the stairs don’t work too well.
Pros: Most things work.
Cons: Stairs, unmasked thingies.
Rating: 7.5

POSSIBILITIES AND/OR INVENTORY: Inventory first. This tileset has a Vine, a V-Pole (no H-Pole, and it doesn’t work off of a wallpaper), water tiles, sucker tubes and a textured BG, but that’s really about it. None of the poles really work, nor does snow. The tileset is missing lots of absolutely essential things.
As for possibilities? As a direct result of above factors, this tileset is regrettably unusable. It’s too bland for a hotel, too flashy for a battle, missing too many tiles, and of course other tilesets can do basically anything this can do better.
Pros: It has a few things.
Cons: Spikes, H-Poles, better V-Poles, hooks, keys and locks to go with those (distinctly non-working) doors, a better palette… you know, there is a reason for beta testing.
Rating: 6.7

OVERALL (not a batting average): At first glance, you should love this tileset. But it’s a crowd pleaser and little more. Good for those who want to impress everyone graphically, but too lacking if you want more than that. Download recommendation to look at, but if you want to make a hotel, use Dream or True. Or even something else.
Pros: Ok, I’ll admit it. The graphics ARE great.
Cons: Gimme a B! Gimme an E! Himme a T! Gimme an A!
Rating: 8.2

It has been a while since I downloaded and reviewed a test level. Or any kind of level. Still, let us see what I make of this.

Graphics: At first, the eyecandy looked good. But… the author tried too hard. The blue blocks in the foreground ruin what is otherwise a decent non-438 eyecandy system. In the background, there is solid black with stars, and some nice looking red and green pillars made out of flipped sucker tubes. The overall effect looks good, but has a few problems. First, of course, the foreground, which is just the blue mentioned earlier. Second, the pillars are too plain, and look like the background needs something special at the top or bottom. It doesn’t. On a final note, Layer 4’s graphics weren’t too good. You get either some tubes, or an endless repeat of the same 1×1 block, for the walls. Warps, which most tests have, use the teal-blue + tile. This doesn’t look too good, sadly, as it really contrasts heavily with the pillar background.
Pros: Potential, good at first glance.
Cons: Didn’t quite work. Layer 4 = no.
Rating: 5.5

Gameplay: Where to begin… well, most of this level are Jazz-ear-tests – you keep pressing jump and slowly go down through all the warps. None of this is at all hard, as there are no long crossings or anything. Then you get a Spaz-sidekick test, which I don’t think too much of if not accompanied by something else, like morphs or triggers. Sadly, this is not. You sidekick and jump, and that’s just about it. No RF Kicks, even. But it’s the hardest part of the level by far. Which is sad. The level is, by the way, pure test. There is nothing inbetween.
Pros: Errr.
Cons: Well, it’s all… normal. simple. uninteresting.
Rating: 3.7

Originality: I’m actually pretty sure I just finished telling you there was none in the gameplay. But the eyecandy had some originality. Like the warp at the end.
Pros: Bits of eyecandy.
Cons: Shovels of gameplay.
Rating: 2.2

Well, this creates a drawing of a carrot which follows your cursor around. However, it is run as a program, so the carrot will only appear when you are running that program. If you open something else, say, JCS, it will go away.
Now, I happen to know it’s possible to fix this problem. And seeing as this doesn’t use any real transparency, just a grab of the desktop, this all adds up to being pretty poorly done. And pointless. Sorry.

…you can rate music, Taz.

Well, the above ratings looked promising, until I remembered who were giving them. At that point, my expectations for this level(s?) reverted back to N/A.

I can’t recommend this level too highly. The design is strictly linear, with nothing even resembling an alternate route. The traps include horizontal springs which you must morph to Spaz to pass (no revert morphs, btw), collapse scenery over a pit of warps, and a wall of speed blocks with the Destruct Scenery image.
As a result, even if you hit an obstacle and are forced to pause, it is a “darnit I hate this level” pause and not a “ooh I’m an idiot” pause.
How about eyecandy? Well, instead of mixing and matching various block colors, the author splits the level into five seperate levels – each exactly the same except using different colors. He also seems to have no clue how to set up next level settings, as all but two lead to the first level, which leads to the second by some strange coincidence.
The walls are also far too blocky. Waz offers pillars, which isn’t much, but at least you can try to make your walls look better.
On the other hand, this race is occasionally all right.

PROS:
CONS: Next level settings, linearity.

good but dutch
No, not good. It may be dutch, it’s certainly not english, but it’s certainly not good either. Or cool with a lowercase c.

So what is this level? It looks to be a hotel. It features several caterpillars so you can change the palette around, about four (essentially identical) rooms, an undocumented warp zone, some ammo, and a bunch of deadends.
At times, you can pick up coins, but I don’t see any reason to do so. I would honestly expect someone who can figure out that they should put not only the level – but the tileset and the music – in the .zip would be able to document this a little more, but no such luck.
What’s the design? No, that’s not your question, that’s mine. I can’t really see any paticular design. The player walks over a hill into the main hotel, which is rather confusing. The text doesn’t use @s, so they wouldn’t be too readable even if they were in english.
And of course, there’s the eyecandy. Or rather, there isn’t. Most of the level is involved in a movement marching to ban graphic quality. For the rest, the author tries to add eyecandy and things, but he fails. Showers and Bathtubs need layer 3, you know… (it’s the Sprite Foreground layer…)
So after the unappealing review, is there anything good about this level? Not really. The warp zone looked almost all right, but then I noticed the enormous dead end. That and it doesn’t make too much sense. Whoops, getting into the cons again.
The author can use layer 8!!![This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

How to complete a lap in this level:
1. Hold down right and run the whole time.
2. At one point in the level, just before the first hole, press jump.
Congratulations! You have now completed a lap, and lost one heart while warping. Repeat the above steps once you’re done warping, and you’ll have completed another lap!

Get the picture? This race isn’t too long, and it uses (basically) bees as the sole obstacle. Well, there’s a pit, and some spikes, but mainly the bees.
“Bees”, you say? Yes, bees. Read the author’s description. The type that will kill you in race mode, which this just happens to be. Race, not treasure hunt-online-compatible-race. And thus there are bees as enemies. No, please.
Ok, so there are bees. How about the graphics?

Well, this level gives tile repetition a new name. Every wall tile is the same, every ground tile is the same, every cave tile is the same. Well, not every ground tile, there’s a stump and a lot of rabbit stinks signs, which only serve to show the monotony of the other tiles in greater relief.
Eyecandy? Sorry, just the signs. Nothing in the background except a textured layer 8, and there’s just enough dimming of ambient lighting to slow down JJ2, but not enough to be really noticable.

This is, of course, a race level, so I won’t rate the enemy placement, despite it being the main point of the level. Sorry, Bjarni. Try for another point next time. No download recommendation.

(On the plus side, this is indeed not warez!)

Edit: Good gosh, you’re right. You don’t have to jump. Make that 2.0.[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

This is a bad example of a test; this is how you should avoid making them. This test level was very undocumented.
It has two different types of visually poor tests. Music choice is also annoying…

Overall: a 4.0!

No download recommendation if you are a test fan!

(On a slightly more serious note, this level is very unfinished, which explains the complete lack of text or three quarters of the features promised in the level)

Tubelectric is an abandoned munitions factory.
2’s number doesn’t actually appear in the crossword.
1 looks just like 7.
There doesn’t seem to be a 38 anywhere. And what is this strange “44”? Might they be… the same thing?
[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

Special note before reviewing: The author has asked that his upload not be rated, and as such all ratings shall be set to N/A instead of whatever I might have otherwise chose to rate.

GAMEPLAY/CONCEPT: The gameplay is classic word search. You are given a list of clans and names, and told to find all of them written out in the big table of letters above. Yes, I found myself. The author seems to assume you already know all of this, in addition to how they can be written out in varying directions. I.E, if you simply look from left to right, not changing position vertically, you’ll get Fireball, CelL, Overlord, Snooz, Batty Buddy, Salamander and Blackraptor, but not too much else.
Pros: It’s a word search.
Cons: I’ve never been too much of a fan of them. It would be nice if instead of this being completely a document, it was a program where you could select a word to show you found it, so you wouldn’t keep seeing it again. Printing could still be optional.

WORD CHOICE/DIFFICULTY/COMMON SENSE: The author, for the most part, chose names of four or more letters. Being names, and not common words, of course, a lot can be found simply by looking for uncommon letters then checking in all directions. The worst of these is J2LC, which includes the number, despite there being no other numbers Anywhere in the game. Aside from that, there are also a lot of 2/3 letters, which is probably not a good idea. These clans and short names will probably show up quite a lot – I found five “ot“s in a rather short period of time.
Pros: Mostly longish, distinct names.
Cons: Too many short things, J2LC has an obvious problem.

ORIGINALITY: What in the way of originality can you offer a word search? Maybe we just haven’t figured that out yet, but the author hasn’t. There’s no “circle all the used letters and the remaining letters will spell out a secret message”. There’s no “find all the words without using the same letter more then once”. No, the gameplay is completely classical, right down to the Fireball at the very top left.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A

OVERALL: What can you say about a word search? As a general rule, it’s just there, something to do when you’re bored and your eyes can stand the sight of a large white area. Judging from the other reviews, there’s not too much else to say about it besides “I’m in it.”. BN, yes, you are in there.
Cons: Still not automatic.

This is highly unfinished. Could you let me finish testing next time?

Ok, I wasn’t planning to review this, but after seeing Executor’s review remain there so long and nobody else rating it something more accurate, I gave in.

STORY: Let’s see… Devan is building something with money, so you have to take all the money. Because if Devan does not have the money, he can not use the money. Get it? Get the money.
Pros: Money! Yay!
Cons: A little… simple? Underdeveloped? And why do you fight Devan so early, anyway?
Rating: 4.0

TILESET/TILESET USE: Interestingly, while not anything amazing, the eyecandy is ok. The levels, except for the previously-uploaded bleh CTF level, use Toxic Bunny’s seemingly unknown War Torn tileset. Ok, so the rain looks kind of ugly, and I don’t know why the background mountains Move in the first level, but layer 4 fits together.
Pros: Mostly works.
Cons: Some of the other layer eyecandy kind of sucks, the rainbow brick buildings have too much tile repetition and don’t look very good.
Rating: 6.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: The weapon placement is ok. There are a few weapons laying around, and an RF powerup, but it’s neither overdone nor underdone. Now, remember how the goal of these levels was to collect money? Obviously, how the money is placed should have some effect on the rating. It’s all kind of obviously placed, which could be a good thing when you consider you have to have 25 coins to end the level… in the first level. In the second level, you don’t need the coins, and they don’t Do anything (yay, Executor!). So they’re ok, but not all that good. Enemies weren’t all that interesting, mostly just flying enemies where they’d get in the way. Oh, and the other goodies… decent, though underplayed.
Pros: Coins ok, weapons ok.
Cons: Enemies and other goodies kind of boring, coins not necessary in one level.
Rating: 5.5

ORIGINALITY: By this time, collecting coins is not the most revolutionary gameplay. Still, it’s interesting, though I’d prefer doing so in a less linear fashion. The eyecandy contains nothing paticularly new, nor does what’s left of the gameplay.
Rating: 3.7

DIFFICULTY: These levels are pretty simple, really. Just make sure you go in all the obvious pits in the first level, and you should be fine. And of course, don’t run into the ravens.
Pros: Not too hard.
Cons: Too easy, though.
Rating: 5.0

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Maybe it’s just me, but this pack (and I have played it at least three times to confirm this) did not entertain me enough to want to play it again. The flat design just ends up being rather boring, and the uninspired end boss with the generating Float Lizard doesn’t help.
Pros: Few.
Cons: Not too engrossing.
Rating: 2.7

OVERALL: This is not the wonder pack Executor thinks it is. Sure, it’s ok, but it needs work to be more then that.
Pros: Some things are ok.
Cons: Some things aren’t. I sometimes feel I could just repeat Overall Pros and Cons for most every level I review.
Rating: 4.5