Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Wow, I’m impressed that someone actually uploaded a JJ1 level. I had one in progress too, but it wasn’t finished. (I actually made it because I accidentally deleted the first level of Technoir – send it to me via electronic mail if you can)

Enemies:
Long live the Diamondus bees and turtles! Doubble Dutch also outfitted them with brand new golden shells, so they look like they came from the Battleships. Nice. However, there are far more turtles than there are bees, so shooting gets a little boring after a while.

Weapons:
In spirit of JJ1, the player gets more weapons than he or she needs. Better many than nothing. Unfortunately, there is more ammo for Toaster than there is for any other weapon.

Layers/Eyecandy:
The modified Diamondus tileset is used really well, as far as JJ1 allows. The background is very groovy, and so are the lava waterfalls. The robot from One Must Fall also takes place in this level.

Secrets:
What would be a level without secrets? Those who read the JJ1 manual will feel like at home – if you come across a dead end, shoot it! Actually, I was rather disappointed at the end of the level, because the level was fun and I wanted more. Fortunately, I discovered a secret which brought me another extra minute of gameplay.

Extras:
I was somewhat surprised by the hole at the start of the level, and it made me lose one life. A similar thing happened later, after I shot a checkpoint. There is a bug in JJ1 which makes you lose two lives if you fall to the bottom of the level after you shot a checkpoint. The level was also hard, like most JJ1 levels. This is probably caused by the lower resolution and more enemies. Fortunately, you have plenty of Toaster ammo available.

Final Rating: 8.0
Download Recommendation: Of course!
Comments: Are you still reading this? What are you waiting for? Download it now!

This is a very short level. Be forewarned.

Enemies:
Not many, compared to the number of weapons available.

Weapons:
What’s with all the TNT when you really only need 3 of them?

Layers/Eyecandy:
Only layers 4 and 8 are used, and these are the most important. At least layer 8 is textured.

Secrets:
Are there any? There is a bonus warp, which is totally inappropriate, since you get a sugar rush. Sugar rushes are only good in big and hard levels, you know.

Extras:
See above. There are some triggers, and stomp blocks used in place of destruct scenery.

General Rating: 1.5
Download Recommendation: No, it is a waste of time.
Comments: If you aren’t one of those who upload a few levels and never return, then I suggest you take some practices in level design. Learn from your mistakes and try to avoid them in the future.

It’s been quite a while since I was here and did some reviewing. So… this is your first level? Well, it’s far better than first levels of mine!

Enemies:
Enough, and in some tight places maybe too much, compared to those open places where there are not many. I have nothing against your choice of boss, but it’s been a bit too easy to defeat it.

Weapons:
Like n00b said, too much, and the player is somewhat overpowered with all the power-ups and stuff. This makes the boss very easy to defeat, say, using powered-up RF Missiles. There is, though, a wide variety of them, so you are never stuck using the Blaster.

Layers/Eyecandy:
Layers other than 3, 4 and 8 are never really important to me. However, to those who love eyecandy, I guarantee you’ll be disappointed big time.

Secrets:
There are a few, but they are spoiled by help texts. For example, the secret gem stomp. It isn’t really that secret when you know its location.

Extras:
There is food, but I never got a Sugar Rush – which is good, as the level is far too easy. The sucker tubes are used well, and so are spring-and-pole combos.

General Rating: 4.5
Download Recommendation: If you are bored, it can keep you occupied.
Comments: You have a potential. Don’t waste it by creating bad levels.

NOOOOO!
How could you?! How?! Oh how?!

For those who don’t know, SonicNathan and I had a deal where I would send him my already 1.5 year old Deckstar conversion. But this never happened. :(

Anyway, it’s a good conversion. But it looks like it’s based on mine since the first 12 rows are identical.
But I’m STILL the owner of the first one!

Response to SonicNathan: From what I have in my “electronic mailbox”, you did never actually compile the tileset but instead only sent thousands of emails with suggestions on how to do it better. Thanks, but I never asked fot those. I only wanted you to compile my tileset. With that I could have finally done something good for the JJ2 community, which I never did with my level crapware.

Phew. A battle level? Looks like a bad single player level. (no offense meant)

Sorry, being offline for such a long time, I forgot my review rules. So, here we go anyway:

Layers:
I didn’t really make it through the level to see it. It’s really difficult to navigate. And that’s supposed to be battle? Battle levels have to be fast.
The backgrounds are bad, except for layer 8, which is textured. And the whole level is made of stomp-blocks, which makes it very difficult to run on those blocks because there are no slopes. I might be wrong, but this is what I see.

Weapons:
There are: Pepper Spray, Launchers (bouncers in JJ2-speak) and TNT. I didn’t see any other weapons. There are powerups for: Seekers (no ammo, just the powerup), and a Blaster powerup. Nothing more, I think. And the ammo is placed very oddly. When used with the stomp blocks, everything is horrible.

Pickups:
Ammo, nothing else. You don’t really expect anything else in a battle level. There are some coins, perhaps for some bonus warp, but I saw no carrots.

Eyecandy:
Very bad. As I said, the entire level is made out of stomp blocks, and there are so many that they block the background, which is practically the best thing in the level to see.

Gameplay:
No slopes, oddly placed ammo, some coins (not a bad idea, but where’s the warp?), warps (which is really annoying in a battle level) and no carrots. I’m afraid this level has bad gameplay as well as eyecandy.

Other:
The tileset is Carrotus, an Epic tileset (I prefer Epic tilesets over user-made ones, but I don’t have the time to explain). I didn’t hear the music, because my speakers don’t work. But the level itself isn’t really Carrotusy, because there are only stomp blocks, and nothing Carrotus-native (nothing that Carrotus has) like the grass and stuff. The name of the level is really un-creative, it shares the name with the tileset. Very bad.

Final Rating: If I could give one, then 2.5.
Download recommendation: The same as with the rating, if I could rate that, then it would be NO.
Final Comments: As long the author isn’t one of those who just register, upload something, then never come back again, then the author shouldn’t upload everything and try out new things, learn from other levels (I created a few good battle levels, try searching, that’s why we have the search engine for) and stuff like that. There are plenty of good articles on J2O about level making. You can also ask on the forum, there are many resources to help you out.

Wow, I have written quite a long review.

_~RedJazz SLO
(redjazz_slo@yahoo.com)_

I don’t know anything about sound modules, so I’ll just give an average review.

USES:
This song is very useful for a bonus level or a race level. I think I’ll use it in one of my levels (which are under construction).

FEELING:
Like fearofdark said, it sounds like Sluggion, but it has some Diamond-ish aspects. The melody is the same. The main change are the samples.
Response to fearofdark: The drums are supposed to be playing alone at the end. This is in the original song.

CHANGES:
Aside from the instrument (read: sample) change, there aren’t many changes. This is good enough for me.

Final Rating: 5.5
Download Recommendation: Um… yes.

Final Comments:
Keep the good work up, Eigus. You see, I started with 2’s, and now I have 7’s.

That level reminds me of the first one I ever uploaded to J2O.

WEAPONS
Just blasting around. Toaster would be more appropriate for Psych.

PICKUPS
Just some chocolate at the beginning and some other food, no gems or anything.

ENEMIES
A total of four hatters at the beginning, some annoying dragonflies, and a boss at the end.

EYECANDY & LAYERS
You just used layers 4, 7, and 8. The rain was good. The whole level looked like a storm. The position of that tree in the beginning is almost identical to my #$%&@ “Rabbit in Wonderland”. I hate the climbing area with the dragonflies, they almost killed me. And next time place some spikes on the bottom of the level, or at least make a line of warps, if a hole is necesarry.

GAMEPLAY
Nothing really. The boss isn’t really that useful in a level like that.

OTHER
At least music was good. I like the ‘broken’ bonus warp. But the level is way too short.

Final Rating: 2.5
Download Recommendation: Only for reviewing.
Final Comments: Don’t stop making levels. Always experiment with new things. There are many articles on J2O about levelmaking, check out the JCS section.

That’s a cool application. But I don’t like it some way. It ‘turns off’ all instruments except drums.
Medivo music sounds creepy.
Beach music sounds like the normal one.
The… umm.. (beep) music sounds weird.
Credits song (or Pull Back The Bass) sounds like normal.

Anyway, good job. :D
RJ

An orange version of the Castle tileset also existed. Could you make it too?

Unfortunately, I’ve got no pictures.

[I had the light yellow version in plans, but I got lazy and it would wind up being a lot of work. The screenshot didn’t have a palette and it was saved as an MSPaint .jpg, and the level shown in it was just… really weird. ~Cooba]

Wow! A Battleships level! You don’t see that every day.

EYECANDY
Good, nothing special. The whole level is very symmetrical, except some things like the suckertube at the left side of the level.

GAMEPLAY
You don’t need to run at the whole level, the bases are on the down side of the level, blue on left and red on right. It doesn’t make sense.

WEAPONS
Bouncers and Seekers. Don’t use Bouncers in an open level, they are affected by gravity (what gravity?). The crates are placed in a line. I’ve heard that crates cause lag. Don’t use only two types of the weapons, use all if you can.

MUSIC
Well, it’s good. It fits the level, I think.

SIZE
Small, 10-15 players max.

TILESET
Jazz 1 Battleships v1 by >CelL<. You should use version 2. It has more animations and tiles, and a better palette.

Final rating: 4.0
Download recommendation: Hmmm…
Comments: Try to make a larger and better level with more ammo types. Don’t make symmetrical levels.

EYECANDY:
The background layer is good, but you could make it textured. To do this, go to layer 8’s properties and select Texture mode. Layer 7 has trees. Good idea, but can be really annoying because there are also leyer 4 trees.
The green bushes on layer 5 are made for layer 7 or 6, open Jung1.j2l for details. The sprite layer walls (or underground) are ugly. First make black tiles, then insert the cracks (or whatever they are).

WEAPONS:
No weapons, only Seeker crates. I’ve heard that crates cause lag.

POWERUPS:
As I said, there are only Seekers, but there is a powerup for every weapon! You placed them on one place (which is easy to reach), that’s not good. Powerups should be hard to get (except Blaster, Weapon9 and Weapon8 powerups).

OTHER ITEMS:
The spikes hurt you. That’s not good for a multiplayer level. There are float up events and sucker tubes.

SIZE:
Small. 10 players max.

TILESET:
Jungle isn’t a user-friendly tileset. But i give you +0.5 because you used it. It’s rare.

MUSIC:
‘Shareware Order Info music’ or ‘Pull Back the Bass’ in 1.00g (yes, really!). Not a good choice. Next time you make a jungle level choose ‘jungle’ for the music or download it. There are many music files on J2O, you know.

Final Rating: Sorry, you deserve a 4.0 + 0.5 mentioned before.
Download recommendation: No.
Comments: Try to make a SP level before MP. Let’s hope you’ll make better levels in the future.

EDIT:
There are no carrots in this level.

Cool!

Unfortunately, the palette sucks. But that’s your first conversion, so… better than nothing. Also, this is the first Fanolint conversion ever (Ice Wolf made one, but it sucked, cuz it had no animations). There are also enemies! I also planned to convert Fanolint. If I could rate it, I would give it a 6.5.

PS: I’m making a Deckstar conversion. When I try to build it in JCS, there’s an error message saying that the tiles/mask file (I don’t know which one) cannot be opened. Anyone knows a solution? Send me a PM fast.

EYECANDY
Just snowmans. You could pay a bit more attention when making the ice walls. The background doesn’t move.

MUSIC
Orbitus remix… It fits the level.

AMMO
Many RFs. There are also Toaster, Launcher, Frostbiter and Seeker. All of them have powerups.

OTHER
There is a coin warp, that’s good. It takes you to the RF powerup.

TILESET
It’s an ice tileset… With bad palette, but thats not your fault… Well, you culdn’t make an ice level with the Beach tileset, could you?

Final Rating: 7.5
Download Recommendation: Yes
Comments: Pay more attention to the eyecandy. ratboy, it’s not so bad, you know.

You don’t have to upload the tileset, because everyone has Castle 2.

Thisi is a forest battle level. It’s small (65×65). The name is Generic Battle Level. Did you know that Marinated Rabbit was named Generic Water Level in 1.00g?
OK, here’s the review:

EYECANDY
The background layers have good eyecandy. The sprite layer is too green, but it becomes even greener in the lower part of the level.

AMMO
Easy to get, placed perfectly, so you can pick it up even when you’re running. You used all kinds of weapons, but there are no powerups.

MUSIC
Good. It fits the level.

Final rating: 8.0, I think.
Download recommendation: If you like the size, download it.

Why didnt’t you include the music?

PS: Does someone know the RGB values of the ‘ugly purple’ transparent color used in JCS? Send me a PM if you know.

How can we have fun if it’s for TSF?
Also, as Ischa’s other level packs, this pack also has a story very similar to the official one: defeat Devan.

That’s a strange looking battle level.

EYECANDY
There’s nothing special about it. Just some lava things (or what is this) and nuclear waste. The background is just stars and it doesn’t move.

WEAPONS
Not many. It’s hard to get seekers. There are also powerups, but I have no ideas how do you get to them, because it’s impossible (I think) to get to the coins.

OTHER
There is collapsing scenery. Not a good idea I think. I hope it does respawn. There are also ‘float up’ events on some places. It can be annoying sometimes.

Rating: 5.5
Download recommendation: I don’t know… Try and review.

SMALL TOWN
EYECANDY: Nothing special, but good.
ENEMIES: Well placed, maybe too much. What are Fencers doing here?
LAYER USE: You used all layers fine, but Layer 1 is empty. That doesn’t count, because Layer 1 is almost useless.
AMMO: Seekers. Good placed, right where you need them.
FOOD: There is almost no food in this level, but you don’t need sugarrushes.
SIZE: Well, just like you said, small.

MEDIEVAL MADNESS
EYECANDY: Nothing special, but good.
ENEMIES: There are enemy generators! Why? These birds are annoying! There are too much of them!
LAYER USE: Annoying. Foreground layers are used way too much. Sprite layer and the background is OK.
AMMO: Frostbiters? There is too much TNT. You never need it, except at the TNT destruct blocks.
Food: Enough for a sugarrush.

Tilesets: TSF to 1.23 conversions, they are used well.

Final Rating: 6.0
Download recommendation: If you like challenging levels.

Well, this is a Mario-style episode. It hasn’t got ratings so I’m going to rate it.

EYECANDY
Good, nothing special. Animations are standard Mario animations. The ground in the Intro level is pretty annoying, because there are too much blocks and they are all cracked and brown. I also hate the coins. Why haven’t you made JJ2 coins? :-D

ENEMIES
What are Suckers doing in the castle? And why are there monkeys? Enemies are annoying, for example Rapiers in the last level. The boss is Devil Devan, too hard I think. The episode ends just like Mario, the princess says ‘Thank you for rescuing me’.

TILESET
Where the heck did you get the tilesets? You used them good, except the ground in Intro.

DIFFICULTY
Hard. I even had to cheat – because of the lava. The three pipes (red, green and blue) are stupid, because of the ‘hurt room’.

Final rating: 6.5
Download recommendation: If you like Mario and challenging levels.