Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I said a while ago i would review every singleplayer level from now on, you are the first, so let’s start.

First of all, i hate homemade tilesets, most of the time it’s not ‘jazzy’ enough and there isn’t any reason to use it, because JJ2 comes with some beautiful tilesets. This is why i don’t understand why you have used Nature ruins and not just ‘Jungle’. Sure, i have to agree that Nature ruins is a tileset which (if it’s used in a good way) you can make quite jungle-looking levels with, but somehow Guz managed to give the whole level an ‘empty’ feeling because of a lack off eyecandy.
The level was sometimes a bit unclear, I did also fell in the instant death pitt thinking there were some goodies over there. And the puzzle was just horrible, i just had to look on JCF how to solve it.

So, i guess you are wondering now why you didn’t get a 1.0

Well, here’s why. Village of Kali is not a good level, but there are far more worse one J2O. I can’t complain about the enemy placement, same story about the goodies (well, OK, maybe some more carrots and weapons would’ve been nice). There were some interesting and original things in it that i just might use in my own levelpack. Village of Kali may not be a good level, but it’s certainly not a bad level.

RATING: 6.5

Recommendation: NO

This is an enjoyable little single player level. You attempt to enter some type of temple, and have to fight your way in. The plot is a bit simple, and there’s no explanation as to why you want to enter the temple, which gives the feeling that this level belongs as part of a larger pack. However, this does not detract from the overall value of the level. The eyecandy is nice, and I didn’t experience any bugs, although in one point, a few more One Way events could have been used. The gameplay was qutie good in some places, like the first spikeboll maze. The only problem I had was that a few places were quite frustrating. In the very beginning of the level I fell to my death without warning, and did the same thing again just before the airboard. Also, some of the puzzles had me stumped until I looked in JCS and realized that a block I thought would have trigger scenery actually had a destruct scenery event, or that shooting some random tile in the ceiling was the only way to continue. The enemy, goodie, and food placement were excellent, with one exception. On Hard mode, more enemies were just placed in the same spot. This makes some parts a tad boring, because they just invovle tapping shoot a ton of times, and no skill. I’m sorry if this review seems to have a negative tone, because the level was quite good overall. I would have loved to see more, and think the biggest improvement Gus could make would just be increasing the size of the pack.

Wow. The screenshot of shadow_rules makes my tileset look much better than it really is. And he was very altruist by uploading a screenshot instead of me.

Ah yes. I have returned temporarily, just long enough to review this level pack, maybe longer.

Anyways, from the outset, I’d say that the level pack does a few things right. For one, it only puts the first level in the level list, which is good because it prevents confusion. It also does a very nice cutscene with some great animation and stuff, which somehow manages to go to the next level without the usual end-level fanfare that is found normally.

After that we hit the first level. It looks pretty good, with good music and a nice tileset choice. The storyline is very vague here, but that’s not much of a problem. What IS a problem is a few gameplay problems. For one, insta-death pits galore. Also, it wasn’t totally clear what could and couldn’t be stepped on.

There’s this one graphical element here I don’t like though, which is this repeating land mass which creates depth at the top and bottom of the level, but also obscures stuff and looks odd at the beginning. Otherwise, the only major complaint with this level is that the final boss is an icy pile of snow that shoots flails at you and summons flails from the ground and walls.

The next level is a hotel. I’m not kidding. I have no idea why, but it is. It’s supposed to be a base or something, I think, but I couldn’t help feeling I was playing as Jason or something as I slaughtered tons of what must be tourists. The eyecandy was very busy, and not that good, with screwed up perspectives at different times. The enemy placement wasn’t that good either, with just tons and tons of enemies, even when it didn’t make sense.

So then we magically get onto a satellite in space after that. Then we navigate through three satallites which are actually mazes before we have to take out a very hard “communications array” consisting of three hidden queens. Afterwards, we are treated to a nice “cutscene” (as it’s just a still image) of Jazz jumping down to the planet from the satellite… this looks alright, but is a bit weird. Jazz says he want to take over Devon’s planet. Huh.

So then we’re in central park, which looks really nice, but isn’t particularly good or bad, except there are still a ridiculous amount of enemies.

And after that is the city. This is probably the worst level, as it feels unfinished. Not even any music. Not really much in the foreground, though there is a big background which looks great. This level requires a lot of leaps of faith, often into but often not into insta-death pits. At last we make it through and fight Devon Shell in a big open arena. He then actually pleads for mercy as Jazz says that he is going to take over the planet, muhahaha.

Then there is another of these cutscenese. Then the game crashes.

Yes, when it says “first half” it does not mean “chapter one” it actually means the download is split into two parts. I don’t see why. It would’ve been nice to put a “To be continued…” or something, and quit gracefully.

Last thoughts?

It’s an okay pack, with a semi-interesting storyline I could not take seriously because of the variation and odd choices in the levels. I’d say download anyways. You’ve got nothing to lose, and there’s some interesting stuff anyways. So yeah, not that great, but not bad either. It’s okay. 6.5/10

These tilesets are quite good. I’ve used them for many different levels. As Gus said they are useful for building towns, beaches, mountains, hotels etc. The mask is a bit easy, but the graphic is very good I think.
It’s worth downloading it.

[I’m sorry that I’ve uploaded the same picture twice. One in a better resolution and one in a worse.]

Really, this is a nice looking tileset, but it’s just not big enough! What’s here looks great, but I wanna see more stuff, like caves, mushrooms, birds’ nests, waterfalls, and some more gruesome trolls!!

That looks great :D.. however jazz himself looks a bit ugly.. ;o.
but i am sure u pwn my artwork <3

I don’t find the level name exactly fitting and I don’t really like the “castle” tiles, but apart from that this is a really cool tileset :) maybe if you find the time you could improve the castle tiles and add some more variations to the grass tiles :D

I don’t really feel like doing a long review, so here goes.

A very nice tileset, it has about everything I could imagine.

You should rather make tilesets than levels. :D

It looks ok I guess but it isn’t very useable. It lacks diagonals and has very little EC tiles other than in the BG.

Not bad. You’re certainly improving at lightning-fast speeds.

Alton towers tileset

Alton towers tileset is an interesting tileset with an original eyecandy, it looks like a fun park with much activities

the eyecandy is original, the options for the background layers are just wonderful. with a good handle of layer speed u will get a great bg with activities – buildings – mountains, and a nice colored sky

the tiles are original, but i can’t say it’s fantastic, if u make a level with this u will get a plain ground which is a bit crappy, the gras tiles are a bit small in size and the ground is just 1 pixel color, only if u put thing in it in layer 3 or other tiles u can make it a bit better, but it will be still not great

the idea of scenery is brilliant the i like the kiosks and the rollercoaster rails, also the platform events that u used in your example levels are very original. there are much hard complicated animation events that u made, which makes the tileset more beautiful (the rollercoaster in de loop at the background)the trees and way of painting reminds me of twilight park.

also, the ground has another option,with a path of stones which looks really nice but when it goes up it looks like the stones aren’t that close to each other anymore which is unrealistic also the streetlamps could have an animation of a better lightning scenery..

the 2B version of the example otherwise the night background looks not very well imo, the quality of those tiles sucks a bit
*and btw the cinema looks kinda big if u look to the other things in layer 6

the spikes are original with a nice animated event
the rotating things in the ground are very cool, this let the makers/players reminds that this tileset is a bit technical aswell, like the rollercoaster etc

mmm? what else, well i like the cartoonish drawing however the quality sux, but that’s why i name it cartoonish :P it’s nice overall

it’s not very hard to use, all event tiles are included in this nice tileset

nothing more to say
quality = medium but rox
useful = yes, all event tiles are included
eyecandy = just wicked, and original
scenery = very nice and cartoonish, however the ground looks a bit plain.

nothing more to say, a 7.7 (most of the new ideas) it looks different than other tilesets, but also has the same event options

Gus, u did a brilliant job ;)

** Btw, my english sux but these things can still be usefull…well, i hope so ;s.

~Faw

The background is certainly an interesting one. However, I don’t really see that much practical use coming from this tileset. Pretty much every level made with this will look the same. The ground could also use some form of texture instead of flat colour.

7 for effort.

I’m usually not a big fan of Gus’ sets (although I do like Multiuse1) however this set is really awesome. Great job, Gus!

This tileset greatly reminds me of Mega Megatropolis and to some extent Disguise’s other sets. Gus’s tilesets are in a colourful style that heavily depends on Paint Shop Pro’s effects, and while his level isn’t quite the same as Disguise’s yet his tilesets certainly do have some quality.

Roger Lake comes with 4 different versions, each with its own palette. Apart from the palette nothing is changed though. The theme seems to be a park-like environment with giant trees and all sorts of plants and bushes, which is not terribly original but not really overused either. Some tiles are really nice, and I especially liked the big tree tiles and the animations, which are well done. There’s plenty of tiles for background eyecandy with mountains and water tiles in which these mountains are mirrored, lots of leaves, clouds and a nice flying bird.

The masking is a little awkward though. Some leaves are solid, while others aren’t; the general convention in JJ2 sets is that leaves can be walked through, so doing it different here can lead to confusing situations. Furthermore, the set lacks tiles for use in the “caves” (parts with layer 4 background eyecandy); there are no slopes with this background, for example, so you’ll have to resort to layer 5 for this. Another complaint of mine is that the rain is far too dense. Especially when used in the foreground, such as in the example level, this can become annoying rather than eye-pleasing.

All in all this is a nice, though not overly original, tileset, with a few drawbacks such as the masking and lack of some tile varieties. Downloading recommended though; it looks nice and it’s apparent that Gus is improving quickly.

Wow shit I actually like this tileset very much o.O
Im not a reviewer really but I must say good job

Just want to say, good job Gus :)

OK, i give a review :)

This tileset is very versatile. There are sand, water, trees, houses etc. It’s a little bit hard to use though. Colours match perfectly and overall tileset looks beautiful, but there are some ugly parts. Like those mountains, they don’t look very good. And some of the house tiles looks ugly. And there are one thing that disturbs me. There are no vine tiles!?

But overall you have created nice and useful tileset. Good Job Gus!

this is cool

Oh, this is nice. Gus properly “episodified” Tomb Rabbit and gave it an Episode File (so it shows up in the episode selection menu) and an opening cinematic. The episode file is quite nice, especially the logo, though I wonder why it’s placed in-between Jazz In Time and Flashback. Starting the episode starts the opening cinematic.

While it is essentially just a level, Gus took some measures to make sure it didn’t appear as such, and I must admit that it works really well. The palette of the tileset the level uses was altered in such a way that all HUD elements (such as the score indicator) are hidden, as well as the giant beam of light that usually follows Jazz while moving. This left me puzzled for a while and I only noticed it when the level ended and the reflection of the spinning diamonds was still there. Really clever.

The cinematic itself is, while short, quite nice. It’s not perfectly centered on the screen (which I suppose it was meant to be) but does look like a short movie clip rather than some clever parallax scrolling trickery and works well enough.

The upload also includes a patched version of the tileset used for the Tomb Rabbit credits, which also removes the score indicator and the rest of the HUD. As the author notes in the readme, it has some problems though (the tileset looks worse due to the limited amount of colors available and the enemies which were originally in it aren’t visible anymore). Still, I think it’s a nice addition, and it’s of course optional.

All in all, yet another refreshing and interesting upload from Gus, and certainly worth downloading alongside the original Tomb Rabbit. Keep up the good work!