Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Kindly include the tileset.

(transferred from old version due to Trafton’s request)

EYECANDY/RELATED CATEGORIES:
FOREGROUND LAYERS:
There is nothing in the foreground layers. Of course, this is to be expected, as JJ1 never had a foreground, so you are unlikely to have usable foreground eyecandy in JJ1 tilesets (an exception that comes to mind is Haze’s JJ2 Muckamo), but still, a few trees or something might have been nice.
Reupload: For the most part, this remains unchanged. About the only foreground I can see are a couple of trees in front of some layer 3.
SPRITE AND SPRITE FOREGROUND LAYERS:
Layer 4 is just about all there is. While the author seems to have replicated all the platforms, not much attempt is made to make the level look all that nice. This is sad, because under ordinary circumstances, JJ1 Diamondus can produce some very nice looking levels. The strictly platform design of the level hampers this a bit, though, so I will not come down on this problem as hard as I could. In other news, there are a few interesting things here and there, mainly at the bottom (if such attention to detail was spent in other layers, and the rest of the level, this might have turned out better).
Reupload: This basically stayed the same.
BACKGROUND (5-8) LAYERS:
Pretty much empty. Layer 8 consists of an attempt to make JJ1Diamondus’ background textured (which looks ok in 16-bit, but blah in 8), and the other three have pretty much nothing at all. None of JJ1 Diamondus’ black mountains, or the little starry things, or improvised stuff. Really, the background is positively barren.
Reupload: The author has changed the background to the more conventional pipes, and added lots of clouds, which looks a little strange at first, but you get used to it. Still no mountains, but at the bottom you’re surrounded by trees, which is kind of overdone, really. Maybe a few in the foreground, but this army of trees behind you is too much.
TILE BUGS IN ANY OF THE AFORE-MENTIONED LAYERS:
Due to the lack of just about any layers other then 4, I suppose there is a lack of tile bugs in any layers other then 4, unless you count a lack of tiles as a tile bug. As for layer 4, there are indeed a few bugs which could concievably be ironed out. First among these is the grass. Sometimes it alternates between tall and not-so-tall grass (you may know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen the tileset) without using the tiles that connect them together, ending up in a way which doesn’t look incredible. Other ‘features’ include a lack of good sides for the cave stuff, as well as broken edges for a few of the platforms themselves, the 4-tile-wall-gem-thing not completely assembled, and some bad connections between walls and ceillings.
Reupload: Some of this is fixed, some isn’t. Still, there are way too many tile bugs for my tastes.
ORIGINALITY IN EYECANDY/IMPROVISATION:
Pretty much nothing to speak of here. Everything is what you’d expect it to be, and while this is generally true with JJ1 tilesets, I know I wouldn’t have minded a little more daring from the author. Ok, so he uses tree branches for both Vines and V-poles, though sometimes not where there were tree branches in the original level, but this does end up looking kind of weird (in the case of the V-poles, anyway). I would have, myself, used the black tree branches from the background, which are more centered and believable for the job.
Reupload: The V-poles are now the black background branches, and the bridges are branches again. Still, there is nothing much that is very new.
OVERALL PROS: Most tiles fit together, no seriously jarring mistakes.
OVERALL CONS: No background or foreground to speak of, some tile bugs, lack of originality, and that absolutely weird secret level OMF bot floating around where it shouldn’t be…
RATING: 6.2 (from 5.5)

GAMEPLAY, DESIGN, AND THE LIKE:
MAIN LEVEL:
The main part of the level is taken directly from Diamondus Warzone, as I presume you already know. Thus, it shall not get a rating.
Reupload: It still won’t.
MODIFIED PARTS OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED FACTORS:
For the most part, the level remains intact in these factors. However, as you might expect, there are one or two differences, the main one being the trees. In JJ1 Diamondus, treetops are solid, and they are solid here, albeit with one ways. In JJ2 Diamondus, and the original level, they are unsolid. I’m not sure how much of a difference this makes on the gameplay, or if it’s a bad thing or not. Second is the addition of some bridges, where tree branches would have served just as well. Third, a few places where there were springs in the original (the top left area comes to mind) have no springs now. This is quite a problem, as it does effect the gameplay. Especially in the case mentioned previously.
Reupload: As far as I can tell, everything that was listed here has been fixed. Nice.
OVERALL PROS: The author keeps this as a tileset change, and not a remake, so the level is essentially the same.
OVERALL CONS: A few bugs, as can be seen in the second category.
RATING: 7.0 (from 6.0)

PLACEMENT; WEAPONS, ITEMS AND BASES:
MODIFIED PLACEMENT, AS FOR THE MOST PART IT IS THE SAME AS THE ORIGINAL:
The only thing that comes to mind is that the plasma shield has been removed in this version. I’d have to say this is a good thing, but it’s obvious enough it doesn’t paticularly effect the rating.
Reupload: It still doesn’t.
PROS: The shield is gone.
CONS: None to speak of.
RATING: N/A (from N/A)

OVERALL ANALYSIS OF THE LEVEL BEING REVIEWED, POSSIBLY OBJECTIVE SUMMARY, ETC:
QUALITY OF REMAKE: (IF REMAKE IS THE WORD)
The level is basically the same as it was before, as you will probably know if you read the text preceding this. About the only difference is the graphics, and I think I have covered that factor already. Are there any relevant things that didn’t find their way into the above things? Not that I can think of. An interesting point is that the music is still from JJ2, and not JJ1, but I probably won’t (consciously) adjust my rating for this. Could certainly be worse.
Reupload: No change.
OTHER VARIOUS FACTS OF INTEREST THAT PROBABLY DO NOT EFFECT THE RATING:
The tileset was converted by Toxic Bunny. The author has added a ceilling to the level, lowering the chance of flag bug.
Reupload: No change.
SUMMARY CONTAINING BASICALLY A REPEAT OF WHAT I HAVE SAID BEFORE:
This is an ok tileset change, but tileset changes rarely get a paticularly high rating, and this is no exception. Thankfully, the gameplay remains for the most part intact. If you do download this, don’t download it for the background or foreground. I don’t know what you should download it for, but not that.
Reupload: As previously stated, the graphics are improved a bit.
OVERALL OVERALL PROS: Layer 4’s ok, the plasma shield is gone, flag bug is lowered.
OVERALL OVERALL CONS: A few (mainly graphical) bugs, lack of all that much eyecandy, some springs missing.
RATING (not necessarily an average of the previous ratings): 6.5 (from 5.7)

STORY: I think you’re supposed to be shown something about life. Only it doesn’t matter, because the whole thing makes no sense.
Rating: 1.0

TILESET/TILESET USE: The levels are strictly black and white. All the sprites are completely black, and you can only hope what looks like a wall is. There are a few pictures now and then, but they’re used in such a way they don’t help much.
Rating: 2.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: No.
Rating: 1.0

ORIGINALITY: The whole thing is completely new and different, but for a good reason.
Rating: 1.0

DIFFICULTY: Difficult? Sure, it’s difficult. If you have any idea what’s going on, you’re doing well.
Rating: 1.0

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: I can get more entertainment out of watching a banana turn black.
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL (not an average): Failure.
Rating: 1.0

Diamondus seems to be a popular tileset for editing. Not counting different times of day, this is the fifth version I have.

COLORS: ICK. Pretty much everything is this horrible shade of green, including all the gems in the walls. What isn’t green is tinted green. The background looks terrible, the beehives aren’t all the same color, the blocks ARE, and there are transparency problems.
Pros: N/A
Cons: Icky icky icky.
Rating: 2.0

ADDED TILES: The author seems to have added a single line of tiles at the bottom. It consists of some hand-drawn letters saying this is by LabRatKid, and three alternatives to the Rabbits Stink sign, none of them in front of cave.
Pros: There are new tiles.
Cons: The new tiles are not all that useful, nor do they look very good.
Rating: 1.0

MASKING: Interestingly enough, the author chose to make his own mask, instead of keeping the old one and maybe editing it a bit. This was a major mistake. To put it bluntly, the masking is terrible. Everything is covered in jagged edges, a lot of masking overlaps into nearby tiles (for example, the main cave background has a solid part), it’s doubtful whether the vines will still work, the Diamondus Pole tiles are all messed up, etc.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes. Admittedly this masking would be almost ok in an original tileset, but for a remake which is supposed to FIX bugs, this is unacceptable.
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL: This is not a paticularly good edit, as you’ll have noticed from the fact I have not been able to come up with a decent Pros section for any of the above factors. I can’t see any reason to use this.
Pros: N/A
Cons: It exists.
Rating: 1.5

THE AUTHOR’S VOICE: The author of this level seems to be mute. I am unsure if this is a bad thing or not, but will be lax and not rate the voice. Try to find some voice coaches before next time you release a voice file, though.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: N/A

THE AUTHOR’S CLOTHES: Hmmm. The author does not seem to be a very flashy person, as his entire wardrobe is brown, with one or two hints of green here and there. What with the incredible monochromeness of the outfit, I’d have been tempted to create a perspective illusion on the shirt and put a picture of some trees or something, but no. Do not stare at this person if you are easily bored. Aside from that, the appearance of this person is still not perfect. There are several holes and poorly patched spots, and the stiches are far too regular and uninteresting.
Pros: The clothes seem to be the right size.
Cons: No color, some problems with the holes.
Rating: 5.5

HOW MUCH I LIKE THE AUTHOR: The author has three main qualities which I shall draw your attention to. The first is his absolute devotion to rubber balls. He has few toys besides these rubber balls, although there are a few model missiles he keeps around. Second is his appetite. The man (the Mazeman man) seems to be either quite gluttonous, or know a lot of people, as his house (from the times I have visited it) seems to be quite filled with snacks of every kind, although, for the most part, healthy ones. There may be too much food, even, though the carrots seemed regulated enough. The third is the company he keeps. None of them seem paticularly bright, nor have any real idea of why they are where they are. A pity. Overall, though, the author is a fairly good person.
Pros: The friends are ok, the food is healthy.
Cons: A normal person could never eat that much, not enough variation in toys.
Rating: 6.5

THE AUTHOR’S NAME: The author’s name is, to be honest, kind of boring. I mean, “Mazeman”. Does he produce mazes? No. Maybe if he had some sort of cool logo, where moving the mouse over one part would cause a section of a maze to appear under the mouse, but there’s nothing complicated like that – just a straight, ordinary name with nothing new or radical. I like some of the letters, though.
Pros: Some of the letters are kind of cool.
Cons: The name is, on the whole, not too good.
Rating: 4.0

WHERE THE AUTHOR LIVES: The author lives someplace in the desert or the beach or something, and while the way is plainly marked, it can be hard to get through some of the things inbetween my starting spot and his place of dwelling. Fortunately, there were several friendly travellers to help me through. Overall a pretty good trek through a pretty good area, though it gets kind of pathetic near the end.
Pros: Decent.
Cons: Not incredible.
Rating: 7.2

MY RECEPTION AT THE AUTHOR’S HOUSE: Well, as you probably know, I was served too much food. Still, they seemed quite glad to see me, and I may come again sometime, if I’m in the neighborhood.
Pros: They have a nice welcome mat.
Cons: Some parts of the conversation were a little touch and go.
Rating: 6.7

KEWLNESS: YAY THS IS KEWL RIGT? RIHT??? OMG NO? IWAS WORONG =(*(( Anyway, all things considered, the author is a pretty good character, though there are a few faults (paticularly in his way of dressing… ugh) that a good butler could help with.
Pros: KEWL
Cons: NOT ALL KEWL
Rating: 7.2

First note: This is 1.23.
Second note: I will never understand why people say a level is unplayable simply because it has a password and hidden in the homecooked levels list. While neither of these are good things, it still leaves at least two ways to play the level.

THEME: This is one of those countless test levels using Cool Day that do not have a theme. It uses basically the normal stuff – jumping through warps, coptering through warps, floating up around warps, sidekicking above warps, and running over warps. It, at least, manages to stick to a lot of theme.
Pros: N/A. I do not know how to rate this.
Cons: N/A. I do not know how to rate this.
Rating: N/A. I do not know how to rate this.

GRAPHICS: Nothing in the way of graphics. No background eyecandy, the walls were mainly the brick tile, and the warps were mainly the background hill (or whatever it’s for) tile. Still, even this can be made to look better then it does here.
Pros: N/A
Cons: Nothing to speak of in the way of graphics.
Rating: 1.7

DIFFICULTY: Pretty easy. The airboard test looked like it was going to be harder then it was, as about halfway through it grabs you up in a sucker tube (scary) and suckers you through.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 5.0

ORIGINALITY: The only possible bit of originality is at the end, where you are in an interactive roller coaster. Or at least, that’s probably what it’s supposed to be.
Pros: N/A
Cons: Pretty much no originality.
Rating: 2.0

OVERALL: Pretty sub standard piece of work here. The author does not seem to have put very much work in it. I don’t know about other reviewers, but I would prefer if you tried to add some sort of theme next time… and, of course, some eyecandy.
Pros: A little quality.
Cons: Not too much.
Rating: 3.0

None of this is paticularly new. Some things, though, are highly obvious. Still, I think this is part of what the articles section is for.

First, I’d like to mention the disappearing bullets is a JJ2 bug, and only happens in SP.

TILESET/TILESET USE: Ugh. Pretty much all the walls are the single 1×1 block Wasteland (the used tileset) provides. This means all the walls, all the trigger scenery, and all the destructable blocks. There is nothing to let you really know where the edges of the arena are, or where the bottom is, for that matter. There is nothing to speak of in the way of background eyecandy. Also, there is no layer 3, so some things end up looking kind of weird to those of us used to BlurredD’s levels.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 2.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Bad. There’s some really fast generating TNT ammo in the top right corner, and that’s basically it. As for the falling crates, there are none – just a single TNT crate somewhere in the arena.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.0

ORIGINALITY: There is nothing to speak of in the way of originality. The whole level system is from BlurredD’s levels, which I wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t so mangled (more on that later). The arena itself has nothing interesting, nor does the tileset use.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.0

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Well, the arena itself is a bunch of semi-randomly placed blocks, all fairly thick. They seem designed so you can get down to the bottom without using the TNT, but why would you want to? It generates fast enough, you shouldn’t run out of it any time soon. However, the biggest problem is the start of the level. The author uses BlurredD’s improved (I think it’s the improved version) Spaz detector – but without the wind left, causing you to usually get stuck, unless you know of the problem and move left into the area yourself beforehand.
Pros: Brief flickerings of design.
Cons: Low gameplay.
Rating: 1.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: There is nothing paticularly entertaining about this level. And then there’s the fact that it’s only one level. This is not usually a ground for complaint, but when it comes to Ground Force, it kind of is, as they go best in packs.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.5

OVERALL (not an average): This level does not have much of anything going for it. Although I distrusted labrat’s review upon first reading it, it is actually kind of accurate, though I find the rating a bit high.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.5

Edit: Fixed italics.[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

“nobody can play this now”
Oh, I wouldn’t say that. However, after playing it, I almost wish this was true. This pack does not deserve a review with headings and all, and as a result, I am not going to give it one.

The pack starts out with you in the viking village. You learn that Tomator has escaped. Hint: ignore the fact he’s obviously trapped inside the jail. As a result, you run off into a spaceship. The next two levels are spent flying in the spaceship in what has got to be the worst spaceship cutscenes I’ve ever seen. Then you finally get to play a “standard” level, but I can’t say too much for the quality. The background for it is kind of ok, though.
There’s not much else to say about this ‘pack’. It is my opinion you should not download it, whether you have the tileset or not. 2.4.

TILESET/TILESET USE: The level uses (I think) some variation of Waz’s Weirdus. The level is, for the most part, strictly orange and green, which makes for an interesting effect. There is nothing in the way of background eyecandy, and one or two tile bugs could be found in the level.
Pros: It comes off as interesting.
Cons: Nothing to speak of for eyecandy, the blocks get boring after a while.
Rating: 5.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Basically, there are no weapons other then some fast spawning powerups here and there in the level. The top left corner has some fastfires, too. However, my main complaint in the placement area is the extreme biasedness of the level – towards the author. In one place, if you go in the right combination of warps, you get every single powerup and the bubble shield. Pick a wrong one, and you are doomed to ages and ages of going around in a spiral sucker tube. I can not say I approve of this in a simple battle level.
Pros: Some parts ok.
Cons: Everything regenerates too fast, the secret place, l didn’t notice any carrots.
Rating: 3.7

ORIGINALITY: Nothing much in the way of originality. I’ve seen basically everything here done before.
Rating: 2.0

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Hmmm. The level consists of two areas, which can be travelled between by a few green (turquoise?) sucker tubes. The design is nothing incredible, but it’s not that bad. Gameplay’s ok, too, but it would be better with weapons instead of just powerups. And, of course, no author area.
Pros: Actually decent design.
Cons: The author area, you can get stuck easily at one place, a few other problems.
Rating: 6.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: You can actually get a fairly enjoyable play here. Yes, anyone who gets into the coin tube is probably going to leave the server (which makes sense, seeing as rejoining is muchmuchmuch faster), but other then that you could hold a few people in here for a while.
Rating: 6.5

OVERALL (an average it is not): This is an ok level with a not too inspired design, and a few nasty quirks. The weapons in paticular could use some work.
Pros: Decent.
Cons: A few problems, gets boring after extended play (or looking at it).
Rating: 6.0

Please include some documentation. This has the looks of a very (overly, in fact) complicated level, but you give no instructions whatsoever, so it’s a little hard to review/rate.

Ok, this pack has a few rules regarding how you are allowed to review it:
The tilesets are small, so you can not rate the eyecandy of the levels (but you CAN rate the tileset use…. hmmm).
The tilesets are small, so you can not rate the size of the tilesets.

Ok, correct me if I’m wrong, but is this much different from saying “This level has horrible gameplay, so don’t rate the gameplay.”? Continues list

The tilesets are small, so you can not rate the theme of the tilesets.
You are not allowed to have an “Overall” category in your review. (Actually, I’m not sure about this one, but it wasn’t listed in either of the category listings…)

Anyway, as you might guess, I have decided to review these things on their merits, and not what Waz says is irrelevant. Because eyecandy is important, and a theme is important, and the other stuff is kind of relevant.

TILESETS:
THEME: None of them have any apparent theme. Like several of Waz’s tilesets, they seem to be an area composed of bricks in the background, with solid blocks and gradient pillars in layer 4. This is getting kind of old. With no apparent theme, there’s not all that much to talk about here.
Pros: N/A
Cons: No apparent theme.
Rating: 3.0

GRAPHICS: Graphics are, also, pretty much standard Waz. A few ok looking blocks, some gradients, a few bricks, and some nice looking extra eyecandy stuff (at least in the 30 tile). Ok, but not too realistic, and not paticularly incredible, either.
Pros: All about the same level of quality, tiles look right sitting next to each other, some stuff looks cool, even.
Cons: Could be better.
Rating: 6.5

INVENTORY: 10 tiles: Block, tubes, vine, spikes. 30 tiles: Block, tubes, hook, vine, spikes.
Pros: Some things are there, sucker tube in the bigger one looks cool.
Cons: No hook in the smaller one, only one type of block.
Rating: 7.0

ORIGINALITY: Other then some of the graphics, there is nothing much original about these. They feel incredibly rehashed, and give me a feeling of deja vu. The */!/? block is kind of interesting, but it’s a bit hard to make out, and it would make more sense to just have it be a ? block.
Pros: Some original things.
Cons: Not too many, block could be better.
Rating: 6.0

COMPETITION: Once again, it’s hard to list competition without a definite theme. However, feel free to look through Waz’s other tilesets and decide which combination of the same types of tiles you like the most.
(No pros given)
(No cons given)
(No rating given)

EASE OF USE: As you might expect, small tilesets like these are quite easy to use, especially when the walls are blocks and not something more complicated. I do have a complaint, though. The vertical gradients in Waz17 don’t have enough possibilities – they fit onto one side of the diagonals, but not the other, and there’s no tile to shift from flipped to unflipped.
Pros: Mostly good.
Cons: A missing tile or two.
Rating: 7.2

MASKING: Masking seems fine, though it strikes me the mask for the spikes could go up a Little higher…
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 7.2

OVERALL: These are some ok tilesets, though nothing special. They seem to have been created more because Waz has gotten annoyed with reviewers then anything else.
Pros: not bad! :=D
Cons: A few flaws.
Rating: 6.7

Average rating for the tilesets: 6.2

I shall finish this review by reviewing the levels as well later. In the meantime, this is left N/A.

Expectations:
Graphics: 3.2 – Gameplay: 1.2 – Originality: 1.0 – Fun Factor: 1.0 – Overall: 2.0

Review after actually seeing the level:
GRAPHICS: Nothing to write home about. Pretty standard labrat, with some X/Y/1/1 layer 5, and a little background eyecandy. There’s also a vertical pipe which doesn’t go down far enough and just stops. There are a few tile bugs with the metal stuff as well.
Pros: …it’s ok.
Cons: Bugs! Yay!
Rating: 4.5

GAMEPLAY: Well, it’s a soccer level. Thus, it has no interesting gameplay. Right? Right. The level’s gameplay makes no attempt to improve the soccer/hockey/football/volleyball/tennis/pingpong/etc gametype: simply a generating turtle shell on top of a platform. Oh, and you get some ice. I have no idea why. Would not Toaster or Electros be more helpful?
Pros: The turtle shell generates.
Cons: It’s a soccer level.
Rating: 1.2

ORIGINALITY: Ok, I can think of three new things here. One is the idea of having a scorekeeper. I’m not sure WHY there’s a scorekeeper, as I can’t see anyone bothering to play this, but it’s a new idea. Two, you get some ammo. Ice. Again, no idea why. Three, instead of TNT, the turtle shell fall off the bottom of the level and eventually self destruct. Yay!
Pros: A few new things.
Cons: None of them are paticularly interesting.
Rating: 3.5

FUN FACTOR: Oh, come on. It’s a soccer level. There’s nothing in the way of gameplay, and as a result, nothing in the way of entertainment. There’s a possibility someone will get this gameplay to work someday, but it has a looooong way to go.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL: It’s just a soccer level. It has better eyecandy then most, and the turtle shell falling off of the level is new, and the platform’s too small, but it remains just that – a soccer level.
Pros: N/A
Cons: Hello? It’s a soccer level.
Rating: 2.2

(Filter malfunction correction. -Trafton)[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

THEME: Is there a theme? It’s hard to tell. It might be a desert, but it seems a little too dark to be a desert, and too many clouds.

GRAPHICS: The platform is a solid brown color. The background is a textured background which does not work in 16-bit. The background eyecandy are a yellow circle and a solid white thing. The only things in the entire tileset with any shading at all are the tiles taken from official Jj2 tilesets.
Pros: The sign looks almost kind of semi-nearly ok.
Cons: No shading, no texture, no quality. Textured background doesn’t work, wall signs are almost invisible.
Rating: 2.0

INVENTORY: H/V poles (ripped), various blocks (ripped), spikes, signs, vine.
Pros: Some things there.
Cons: Several things are ripped, no hooks, no variation.
Rating: 3.0

ORIGINALITY: Nothing to speak of.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 1.2

COMPETITION: Assuming you can find a theme to this thing, I think anything else with this theme will be better.
(No pros given)
(No cons given)
(No rating given)

EASE OF USE: On the plus side, it seems fairly easy to use, although the top corners of the platforms are done rather poorly, and seriously hamper level design. Also there is no evident bottom for platforms.
Pros: N/A
Cons: A few errors.
Rating: 3.0

MASKING: The masking is ok, but as you might expect, it needs some work on the jagged areas.
Pros: Ok.
Cons: Jags.
Rating: 3.0

OVERALL: I’d say this is a no. The author tried, but the result is not paticularly satisfactory.
Pros: There is worse stuff out there.
Cons: Graphics, originality, bugs…
Rating: 2.2

But when the copter doesn’t respond for people it’s easier to kill them! :(

Waits for the above review to go away

TILESET/TILESET USE: All four of these levels use the author’s own Waz15, and yes, that does get boring. Each of the levels uses a different version of the tileset (Normal, Green, Night, Ice), but the tileset use is so very similar in all of them (basically just how they’re supposed to be used) that it comes out feeling very repetitive… repetitive… repetitive. Still, everything fits together, though I can’t say I like how the masking on the pillars effects gameplay.
Pros: Everything works.
Cons: Used the same way in all the levels, nothing paticularly interesting about the tileset use, pillars have problems.
Rating: 7.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: I guess these were placed ok. There were a decent amount of weapons, but not too many, and carrots seem ok. I’m not quite sure an RF Powerup is a good idea in one of these levels, as they’re so very cramped it’s more likely to get you in trouble then the other people, but Oh well! the rest is ok. Except in Waz38, where you can get the bouncy powerup by just shooting through the sucker tube.
Pros: Decent placement.
Cons: A few flaws.
Rating: 7.2

ORIGINALITY: There’s not very much that is original in these levels. The Toaster Powerup Poles are kind of new, though they take a bit too long for my tastes, and a few of the structures are different, but for the most part, be it design or tileset use, the originality factor is not high. Which is not too surprising, as it seems to be Waz’s weak point.
Pros: A few dashes.
Cons: Just not very much.
Rating: 6.2

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Four cramped little levels with nothing much to speak of in the way of flow, which while not as important as in CTF, is still rather handy in Battle. Gameplay’s ok, but you spend too much time crashing into walls and falling down for my liking, or getting attached to a vertical pillar when you expected to fall down. Not too much in the way of strategy is evident in these levels, either.
Pros: Believable battles.
Cons: Cramped, low flow, low strategy.
Rating: 6.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Hmmmmm. Well, these levels are mildly entertaining, but if I were to host them, I would take advantage of the fact they all lead to each other and give the server a low roast count, as the levels get old kind of quickly.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 6.2

OVERALL (not an average): These are four medium small battles of ok quality, but really nothing special. They don’t show all that much work, and the originality factor is low. I think we can conclude a 10 (with no english explanation) is too high for these levels.
Pros: They’re ok.
Cons: A few bad spots.
Rating: 6.5

Edit: Rating fix (miscalculated previously)
Edit in response to Waz: I am not saying it is necessarily boring to use any given set. However, four small battle levels, all using the same tileset, ARE going to get boring to look at. As for the pillars, their masking is normally fine, except for the way that they are used which makes them seem messed up. As it is, you can get attached to the sides of walls when you don’t want to.[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

Ok, this is truly sad. Not once did I notice that Distruct made this, and not Disguise, until I came to the bottom tiles of the tileset. Even then I thought it was some joke of Disguise’s until I snuck another look at the level info. Gaaaaaah.

THEME: The theme is…. PROBABLY a forest? It’s hard to tell.. it looks more like a strange mix between grass and high tech platforms, with something I can only guess is supposed to be trees, and some big background mountains in the background. I can not say it feels very like a forest, let alone an Entwined forest, and this is mostly because of one factor – there is basically nothing in the way of trees. There’s a grey vertical pole with a grey platform pyramid on top, but it doesn’t look like a tree. I am aware drawing trees is really rather difficult, but stilll…. Anyway, this feels a bit like a nature tileset.
Pros: The grass is done rather well.
Cons: Umm… Entwined? Forest? Trees? Bushes? Miscellaneous plants?
Rating: 6.7

GRAPHICS: The graphics in this set will take you back to J2C days, assuming you were around back then. They resemble closely Distruct’s other sets, or Disguise’s early ones – fairly simplistic but good anyway. The grass, for a start, is done quite well. The sucker tubes are a little iffy, and the background mountains have this incredibly “done before” feel. I’d say this has “ok” graphics, though not spectacular.
Pros: Things are more or less all the same quality, so it doesn’t contrast strongly.
Cons: This quality it has could be better.
Rating: 7.0

INVENTORY: Spikes (badly masked), sign (kind of badly masked), sucker tubes, arrows, vines, hooks, H/V poles, warp.
Pros: A decent amount of stuff is there.
Cons: Some bad masking, no blocks.
Rating: 7.2

ORIGINALITY: If there’s one thing this tileset suffers from, it’s a lack of originality. Simply put, it is just another isometric semi-nature not-incredible-graphics-quality tileset (by Distruct, even). The grass is, again, nice.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: N/A

COMPETITION: This tileset’s competition is every other isometric (or not) nature tileset out there, only most of them feel more like nature tilesets and less like someone is trying to create a park inside their spaceship/fortress. The tileset is only skin deep, is the problem, and so is surpassed by others in its area.
(No pros given)
(No cons given)
(No rating given)

EASE OF USE: This tileset looks pretty easy to use, though there are a few tiles which seem to be missing.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 7.5

MASKING: Masking is, for the most part good, with a few problems.
Pros: Mostly well done.
Cons: The spikes, sign, hook and raindrop could use a bit of work.
Rating: 7.2

OVERALL: This is an ok tileset, but nothing spectacular. The grass is nice, some things aren’t, the textured background is boring. There’s really not all that much to say about this tileset, and I anticiapate Trafton coming along to disprove that statement.
Pros: It’s decent.
Cons: Nothing spectacular, a few flaws.
Rating: 7.2

Oh.

STORY: No story.

TILESET/TILESET USE: The author uses automasked versions of Muckamo and Deckstar, and neither are used incredibly well. Muckamo fits together, but there’s no background eyecandy, and the levels are sparse enough it ends up looking really dull. Deckstar isn’t really used correctly, and it comes off way too boring. The author could have at least used conversions (NeW’s Mayhem has both of them.. or he/she could have used Haze’s Muckamo Day), but he/she didn’t, so the slopes in Deckstar don’t work, but the windows are masked, while in Muckamo you stand on top of stars in the background.
Pros: Muckamo fits together.
Cons: Very plain, masking difficulties.
Rating: 3.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: There are actually quite a lot of weapons. Mostly Bouncy, but towards the end you get some Toaster, Ice and Seekers, while at some points there’s TNT to blow open a secret. It isn’t placed with too much care, but there is enough of it, to be sure. In levels 1, 2 and 4, there are 100 coins scattered about the level. Collect them all, and you get some sort of reward at the end. This is interesting, but the coins are all a bit too out in the open (in fact, they’re on the linear line of gameplay, for the most part), so they could be done better. The other various goodies are placed ok, with the notable exception of the Gem Rings, which are placed directly next to the ice powerup (!). As for enemies, I can’t say too much about them. They seem to be placed basically where there’s room, though some places show a bit of thought (like the dragon flies).
Pros: It’s decent.
Cons: Ice + Gem Stomps = No.
Rating: 5.2

ORIGINALITY: These levels are, to put it bluntly, not very original, with the notable exception of the final level, where you fight Uterus on either swinging vines or a bridge (your choice!). This surprised me in contrast to the previous levels, which were very linear (except for the maze in the first level) and (for the most part) uninspired. Muckamo, overall, came out tops in terms of originality in this pack.
Pros: Some originality.
Cons: Not too much, and the Deckstar levels are just dull.
Rating: 4.5

DIFFICULTY: These levels are, for the most part, not hard at all. It’s a little challenging to remove the orbiting spike balls from around Uterus, but other then that, there are enough carrots and weapons to get you to the end of the level basically (if not completely) intact.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 2.7

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: These levels (again, with the exception of the last level) are not paticularly entertaining. They consist mainly of walking through the enemies, jumping up and down a little to collect the coins, and reaching the exit with not too much thought required. There are one or two trigger crates, but they are not incredibly interesting (though they did help the first level out).
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 3.0

OVERALL (not an average): The author shows promise, but the fact of the matter is, these levels are not all that good. The eyecandy is plain (try to use conversions, and not the original things, next time), the gameplay boring, and the difficulty low. However, if he/she tries a little harder, I can evision better levels coming our way.
Pros: Levels 1 and 5 are ok, Muckamo fits together.
Cons: Nothing too interesting, gameplay poor.
Rating: 3.2

The tilesets and music WERE uploaded to J2O, but the .zip file was too big, and it got deleted. I am going to assume I have all the tilesets used, though, as I usually do. Yep. FYI, they’re Jazzed Realm, Slimy Land and Winter Wonderland (in Wisety’s Wonders).
This is all very strange. I could have sworn this file was uploaded to J2O before, as I already have it. Looks helplessly at Chandie for explanation

Later edit: Well, there seem to be no explanation coming, so I’ll just review this normally.
STORY: The story is that Bilsy did… something, and you must find him and defeat him. Who says to be good a level pack needs a good story? Still, a little more in the way of plot would have been nice. Moving on, it is followed fairly well throughout the levels, with a brief excursion to defeat some queens which ends up tieing in anyway.
Pros: Handled fairly well.
Cons: Does it really matter what Bilsy did? The plot’s just very standard.
Rating: 7.7

TILESETS/TILESET USE: Once again, Chandie here uses Slimy Land (ET), Winterland Wonder (Disguise) and Jazzed Realm (Everlasting?), and if you don’t have these tilesets I don’t know what the world is coming to. Slimy Land is used completely as the author intended, with nothing paticularly strange. Winterland Wonder is mostly normal, with a few interesing transparency effects which end up looking good in 8-bit (and I could care less how they look in 16-bit). Jazzed Realm is hard to say, as I don’t know if it does have an intended way of use. Anyway, tileset use is good, some interesting things, nothing ends up looking bad.
Pros: Pretty much all works.
Cons: A few tile bugs in the Winterland Wonder walls, some masking problems here and there.
Rating: 8.5

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: This pack did quite well here. Everything was placed well, and while there may have been a few too many 1ups, everything else is balanced. Weapons, Items and Enemies are placed with the same care and precision you see in the official JJ2 levels. Bravo.
Pros: Yes.
Cons: Maybe a few unbalances.
Rating: 9.0

ORIGINALITY: Chandie is very good at balancing originality and non-originality. Chandie’s packs seem to start out with ordinary Jj2 play, then slowly grow more and more different as you progress. The three ice kingdoms were really quite interesting (though I can’t say I care for the foreigner text), and it must have taken some work to get not one of the Queen bosses to conflict with the others. Still, there was not quite so much originality as there could have been, and I felt it was a bit lacking at times.
Pros: Some interesting things.
Cons: This factor was a bit missing sometimes.
Rating: 8.5

DIFFICULTY: This pack is… well… easy. It’s not just that there are actually a decent amount of weapons – I used only blaster and plowed through the enemies with no problem at all. It just does not present enough of a challenge. No spike balls, spike platforms, paticularly dangerous weapons, or anything. The queens are fairly simple to dispose of (no spikes or anything), and Bilsy’s not too bad either. If there’s one thing this pack fails in, it’s giving the player a challenge.
Pros: Not beserk fifty enemies per tile stuff, or no enemies at all.
Cons: Too easy.
Rating: 7.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This lack pack is fun, and I may end up playing it for a third time, and possibly a fourth. Again, the replay value might be a little higher if it was a little harder, but it is fun nonetheless. Enjoyable.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 8.2

OVERALL: This is a good single player pack (probably better then NiP), but nothing too amazing. The eyecandy is good but not spectacular, and while it’s solid, it seems to be missing a certain something now and then. Regardless, it would have gotten My vote for LoTW if it had actually been held Saturday Evening, and not Early Afternoon.
Pros: Quite good.
Cons: A few problems here and there.
Rating: 8.7[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

THEME: The theme is, presumably, a big space station with an evil computer which will not open the pod bay doors. Except there is no evil computer. Or a monolith. Or, for that matter, much of anything to make it feel like a space station. Yes, there’s a big (and incredibly grainy) view of Earth in the background. Yes, there are stars. But it doesn’t feel too much like a space station, and I’m not sure if it feels like anything, to tell the truth. It’s not quite a factory, a spaceship, a space station, or anything else. There is such a distinct variety of tiles it’s very hard to pin this tileset down. And I completely give up rating this area.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: N/A

GRAPHICS: Here’s a hint for you: Play the included CTF level. The tileset will end up looking horrible if you only play BlurredD’s example level. But Stripe’s CTF thingy shows that the tileset actually Can look good, if you put a little time into it. That said, the graphics vary, as does most everything here. The plug and the textured background do not look paticularly good. The fans, in contrast, are simply incredible. The blocks and the light blue 3Dish platforms look good. The diagonal pipe does not. The brown stuff looks good. The 2-tile sloped blocks don’t. For the most part the graphics for this tileset are quite good, but there are several blemishes which bring down the overall quality a bit. I maintain the fans are incredible.
Pros: Most things look good, the fans are great.
Cons: Some things show little or no work spent on them, no shading for the 3Dish blue platform hole.
Rating: 8.5

INVENTORY: */!/[]/=/ blocks, hooks, sucker tubes, fans, spikes, vines, maybe belts.
Pros: Most everything necessary is here.
Cons: A few blocks missing, the spikes are boring.
Rating: 8.2

ORIGINALITY: Hmmmm. Hard to say. Some parts of this tileset are certainly original (like some of the moving stuff, the background, and the manhole like thing), and some are just very boring and seen-it-all-before-and-done-better,-too. However, the tileset is prey to a very large deal of possible original tileset use, so it gets a fairly high rating here. The possibilities factor is high, but what would you expect from BlurredD?
Pros: Lots of possibilities.
Cons: Some things are rather boring.
Rating: 9.2

COMPETITION: Well, the main competition is the earlier version (without a number) of this tileset, which had some tiles I’ll admit would have been nice if included. After that, the vast collection of space tilesets is open for inspection. This tileset is probably better then most of them, but I have to say there are also several tilesets I like more (this MAY change if I see more levels made with the tileset, maybe not), so I forgot the point I was planning to make.
(No pros given)
(No cons given)
(No rating given)

EASE OF USE: The author brags, as do several people, that the tileset is hard to use. I’ve been looking at it for a little while, and it seems all mostly straight foward, aside from the fact that way too many tiles need to be flipped. Most things are where you’d expect them to be, with a few exceptions, and while the various Inventory tiles are scattered randomly throughout the tileset, it could be worse. I do not plan to try, however, as to be honest, I can’t say I like it too much.
Pros: Many things fit together sensibly.
Cons: Some things do not, and some notable parts of the tileset are missing from the example levels.
Rating: 8.0

MASKING: Everything seems to be masked well that I’m seeing. A few too many little sloped corners for my tastes, but I suppose that can’t be helped too much.
Pros: Masking good.
Cons: Not too much work required to get it to be good.
Rating: 8.7

OVERALL: The author (BlurredD) has included four versions of the tileset, and most of the review applies to all four, but I thought I’d talk about them anyway. There’s the normal version (1), a Pink/Brown shade (2), a Green version (3), and a bad looking night area (4). They are all, in essence, the same tileset, though I think the pink/brown is probably the best. Overall, this is a good (but overrated) space (I think) tileset, with good quality but lacking an overall feel. I think I’ll go review something that doesn’t try so hard to be better then it is now.
Pros: Most things are pretty good.
Cons: Flaws here and there.
Rating: 8.5