Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

“Date uploaded: 04-01-09”
Coincidence?

Anyway, the level is extremely linear and eyecandy is very bad with tilebugs everywhere. I couldn’t understand what the textstrings said and they were too high up on the screen. Use the “@” to move the text down.
Most of the Layers were used but you didn’t use Layer 3 to cover up the hats.

9.7 is completely overrated!
In the tileset, you will find tiles ripped from MEZ02, some poorly drawn signs, ugly text blocks and ugly red ground.
Very few animations can be made out of this set.
The background tiles look bad.
Apart from the MEZ02 tiles, the tileset was obviously made in MS Paint.
I cannot give anymore than a 2.5

Here, we have an excellent utility that can convert TSF tilesets into ones that are usable in 1.23 as long as the tileset does not exceed 1023 tiles.
I have tested this with a few TSF tilesets and it actually WORKS! :D
After dragging the .j2t file on top of the “J2T_Converter.exe” file, the tileset is converted within a few seconds!
The only thing I think this could do with is maybe to include an option to overwrite the existing TSF tileset that is in the 1.23 folder with the 1.23 version so that I wouldn’t have to deal with two files. You can also convert more than one tileset at the same time by dragging two or more .j2t files on top of the converter file.

This utility is very useful since you can expand on your vast library of tilesets you already have and make some 1.23 levels with TSF tilesets (only if it doesn’t have more than 1023 tiles) that was not previously possible.

Since the only minor annoyance is the extra file with the “#” that is created I will not be too harsh on the rating. I am going to give this a well deserved 9.9 as I did not encounter any errors when using this utility.

DOWNLOAD NOW!

EDIT: The utility can now overwrite the existing file or you can type in your own text for the new file. The files with the “#” no longer appear, so I’m gonna bump this up to a rating of 10.0!

This needs LOTS of work. The background used in Layer 8 makes everything appear distorted, use a textured background instead.
The level was also very short and one lap can be completed in less than 10 seconds. The enemies and Coins were not needed.
You also need to vary the tiles used in this level. Do not use just one tile multiple times, try various combinations. Try to also include animations. The waterfalls look bad and unrealistic if they are not animated.
One more thing, do not leave huge empty spaces and do not use just one tile high platforms.
I suggest looking at some JCS tutorials including:
+The help index in JCS itself
+How To JCS – http://www.ninjadodo.net/htjcs/
+JCS Ref – http://www.jazz2online.com/jcsref/

These two websites (especially How To JCS) are very useful.

This episode has the same issues I had with the first. Repetitive eyecandy and masses of enemies everywhere. Two Queens as a Boss which would probably take over 100,000 shots to kill since they are placed so far away from the edge.
This is slightly improved on Ep 1 though not by much.
Levelnames are always the same e.g. Castle of Boss 10?!
2.2

Hardly anything has been changed in these remixes (if you can call them that).
Easter Remix sounds the same except some very annoying beeps have been added.
Weird Personalities Remix sounds worse than the original song. Some very bad horn sounds have replaced it which makes it sound nothing like the original.
Rating: 1.0
No recommendation.

I too got the Internal Animations error, except I was getting it in Levels 1 and 3.

EDIT: I have just tried these levels in TSF (1.24) and they work fine there. I can’t understand why they won’t work in 1.23 since they weren’t made in TSF JCS.
The too many enemies error confuses me since I’ve played levels with thousands of enemies and they WORK. How odd :O

Quality NOT quantity makes a good pack!

EYECANDY & ATMOSPHERE

The eyecandy in this pack (all 60 levels) is VERY repetitive. Everywhere I went I could see tilebugs, buttstomp and destruct blocks used for the ground. I like the way you tried to make a highway or train track out of the Carrotus and Diamondus sets but unfortunately all of those blocks made it look repetitive. The backgrounds are nothing original. Most of the levels have only the backgrounds ripped out of EPIC’s own JJ2 levels. Some levels even look EXACTLY the same but with those ugly blocks thrown in.
The music used in all the levels was very much questionable. Christmas music in a Carrotus level?! Castle music in a Diamondus/Carrotus level?!
After getting through the last 50 levels I find that the eyecandy is just recycled from all the previous levels in this pack.

1.6/10

GAMEPLAY

There was no actual gameplay to speak of in this pack. All I was doing was running left/right and holding Space Bar down ALL THE TIME. After getting the Blaster PU from one of the SEVEN boss levels it gets far too easy. 60 levels is far too many to make.
There were some Secret levels but they were mostly the same. One of them was the original JJ2 secret level with the Bird ripped straight from there. Only differences are the FAST MOVING impossible to dodge Spike Bolls and the ugly buttstomp blocks thrown in again.
Most of the levels were the same ones repeated at least 4-6 times. The Boss Arenas are far too big. Why does the arena have to be like 200 tiles wide for ONE BOSS?!
The “radio electric” level was boring. All I was doing was watching the player just fall down 468 tiles FOUR TIMES through MASSES OF BLUE GEMS and then I bounce staright back through about 20 Blue Springs to the exit.
Gameplay overall was extremely repetitive as I was running, shooting, jumping, stomping and breaking crates for most of these levels.

1.2/10

PICKUPS & ITEMS

GEM OVERUSE is the first thing that comes to mind here. I found approximately 18,000 Gems in one of the levels. Food was also too much since I got about 8 Sugar Rushes throughout the whole game.
Ammo was just EVERYWHERE! One level had ALL THE POWER-UPS next to each other so I had every single weapon after that.
In the final level there was 4 Power-Ups and 8 Fast Fires REGENERATING meaning that if you die there you can get your Rapid Fire back again.

1/10

ENEMY PLACEMENT

First, why is there enemies everywhere in every level? This doesn’t make the levels any better but more frustrating for the player. One of the levels had about 1,000 FLOATING LIZARDS! which is just far too many. I had to JJINV sometimes in some of these levels since the enemy amount was just too much.
The first level was very annoying to play since there were Dragons everywhere you went. Some were hidden in front of flowers and EVEN behind Layer 3 scenery meaning I got hurt without knowing why it happened in the first place. DO NOT place these Dragons on every single one of the platforms since I almost ended up dying for no reason.
Placement is also very bad because some of the enemies were on the EDGE of platforms meaning I got hurt no matter what.
The final boss of this pack was 8 Devans which was just pointless. This doesn’t present any kind of challenge but just makes the boss annoying to defeat.

1/10

TOTAL SCORE: 4.8/40

CALCULATING: (4.8 / 40) * 100 = 12%

FINAL MARK = 1.2/10

DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION & COMMENTS

With repetitive eyecandy, gameplay and very bad enemy placement I cannot recommend this for download. After playing this episode, I don’t know if I’ll want to play through Episode 2 since it’ll probably be all the same.
I suggest not trying to build a massive level pack but attempt one at a smaller scale of say 2-4? Or try building just one level at a time. Making 60 levels would take at least 2 years!

PHEW! Done after 3,900+ characters!

An update of Sonicnathan’s episode.
Eyecandy looks good. Gameplay has been improved, there is not as many invisible mazes as before. Crate puzzles are not too hard.
Loading a game in Area 51 causes Access Violations and Stack Overflows so a Save Point before that level would be a good idea.
DL Recommended!
Rating: 7.5

It’s still not completely working in 1.23! There are several animations missing in each of the levels. You need to re-insert them in 1.23’s JCS to make the levels work.

EDIT: The 1.23 levels work now.

An improvement on your previous version. No idea why it’s called Forest as it doesn’t really look like one.

EYECANDY

Everything looked OK although there are still a few tilebugs in the Layer 4 ground tiles. The background was OK but nothing very special and I couldn’t really see the BG in Layer 6/7 until I got near the bottom of the level.
You could add some atmosphere to the cave parts by using the “Set Light” events to make it a little bit darker and seem as if you’re in a cave.
Overall, the eyecandy is nothing really special, looks kinda similar to the original TSF Easter level.

6/10

GAMEPLAY

There are various puzzles to be found in this level. They all involve breaking Trigger Crates and do not require too much thinking to proceed. The triggered bridge across the pit works much better as you now are unable to run and jump or copter over it.
There are a few secrets that can be found here, some of these are hiding Coins which can be used to gain access to the 20 Coin Warp where you can get a Toaster Power-Up, a Full NRG Carrot and some ammo.
The level was a good length, not too long or too short. It lasted me about 10-15 minutes which is good.
A few more puzzles were added to the level, still didn’t require too much thinking but you needed to explore the level a bit more to find more crates as there was more than one in each of the 4 warps.

7.5/10

ITEM & PICKUP PLACEMENT

Food was plentiful in this level this time. There was enough to start two Sugar Rushes.
There were enough Carrots to find. I did get down to 1 Heart Health but I was able to find a +1 Carrot, of which there is a reasonable amount of them.
Two Full NRGs can be found here; one in the Coin Warp and another just before the Boss.
Amount of Gems has now been reduced, I only found about 300 this time.
There was just one 1UP to be found so gaining an insane amount of lives will not happen.
There was one Power-Up which can be found in the 20 Coin Warp but I thought this was useless as I already had maximum fast fire on the Blaster.
Overall, placement of the pickups is good and there is now plenty of food to get.

7.5/10

ENEMY & OBSTACLE PLACEMENT

There was a reasonable amount of enemies in this level, not too many or too little. They were not in annoying places such as on 3 tile wide platforms or platforms above Springs.
Obstacles in this level were Trigger Scenery and Spike Balls to fly past. The spikes were kinda easy to get through and not much thinking was required to get through the Trigger Scenery.
The boss wasn’t too hard but the amount of Fast Fires I picked up from enemies made him a bit easy.

7/10

SUMMARY

PROS

+Good length of level
+Puzzles to solve
+Secrets to find.
+Coins to collect.
+Improved on previous version
+Decent eyecandy
+More exploration required to find the remaining crates.

CONS

-Too many Gems
-Not enough food
-Eyecandy looks too similar to the original TSF Easter level
-Puzzles still don’t require too much thinking

TOTAL SCORE: 28/40

FINAL MARK = 28 / 4 = 7.0

SHOULD YOU DOWNLOAD?

Marian has put more effort into the level to add more puzzles and the level lasts longer than before, took me about 5 minutes longer. So, I would say YES to downloading this.

I had a problem with the secret level. After finishing that, I was just sent back to the desktop without any errors appearing. I guess I’ll have to proceed without the secret level for now.

EDIT: It works now! :D
Good job on fixing it, I’ll review sometime.

A very fun CTF level with good flow, item placement and good eyecandy. Sucker tubes work very well.
Ideal for duels and 2v2s or whatever. Also a good level to host online.
Rating: 8.2/10
DL Recommended! :)

EDIT: Rating raised because I had so much fun in this level :)

As this won Rag’s Domination level making contest, I couldn’t wait to review this.

EYECANDY

The first thing I notice is the unusual mix of pink and yellow in the Layer 8 Background. I really like this and think that this goes really well with the tileset that has been used. Quickz has made extensive use of all the Beach and sand tiles in this set. The water background in Layer 7 looks very nice. The waterfalls don’t look like they are pouring down from nowhere but really look as if they are coming from the ceiling itself and they stop at the water like real waterfalls should do.
Quickz has made excellent use of Layers 3-8. Layers 1 & 2 aren’t used but you don’t need to use every layer to make a good level.
Everything here makes this look like a Shore as intended by the level name.

9/10

GAMEPLAY & FLOW

This level has very good layout, is easy to navigate and doesn’t feel cramped. The top right is empty but I don’t think that is an issue in this level. You can choose to do two things. You can either capture the Control Points located on the left and defend them or you can go for the Seeker Power-Up, the only PU that can be found in this level located on the right by going for a swim through an underwater tunnel on the far right.
If you decide to go for some ammo or the PU you can be sure that the CP you were defending is going to get recaptured.
The flow here is excellent, there are no annoying dead ends that you will bump into. There are also no warps so there is no way to escape from attackers by warping to other places.

9/10

EVENTS & PICKUP PLACEMENT

There is a nice amount of ammo to be found in this level. All the ammo for each weapon grouped up very nicely. There is neither too much or too little of every weapon.
As I mentioned in Gameplay, there is just one Power-Up and that is the Seeker and the placement is not campy. Spaz players can kick the PU for 50 ammo but since most people use Spaz I do not find this a serious issue in the level. Jazz players can still uppercut the PU by pushing it a bit to the left. There are three “+1 Carrots” to be found here. No Full NRGs so that players cannot regain full health to easily. The Carrots are spread out nicely so you shouldn’t have a problem gaining 1 or 2 Hearts back. One Carrot is placed by the Seeker PU so that you can get some ammo and regain 1 Heart back. Only one Carrot can be found nearest to the CPs so defenders shouldn’t regain any health too easily.
There are two Control Points (CPs) here. One CP can be found in the top left so it’s possible that you might get surrounded and get Seekers and other weapons fired at you from all directions. The other CP can be found at the bottom left in the middle of two pools of water. The two pools can be used as protection from ammo that may be fired at you while protecting the CP. Seekers may still hit you.
Five different weapons can be found here, these are: Bouncer (Gun2), Seeker (Gun4), RFs (Gun5), Toaster (Gun6) and Pepper Spray (Gun8).
Most of the ammo can be found on the right side of the level so if you are defending any of the CPs you will have to go some distance away from the CPs to regain some ammo.
All the platforms can be accessed easily with all the available Springs.

9/10

OVERALL IMPRESSION

Pearl-Shell Shore is very fun and has excellent placement of pickups and has impressive eyecandy. I love the mix of the pink and yellow in the background.
This is a level I would definitely play online and host.

EXTRAS

The Artificial Sun (artsun.it) music used is a perfect fit in this level. +0.1

TOTAL SCORE = 27/30

OVERALL MARK = (27 / 3) + 0.1 = 9.1

SHOULD YOU DOWNLOAD?

Since this won Rag’s Domination level making contest and has been awarded the Featured Download of October 2008, you REALLY MUST DOWNLOAD THIS!

These are OK levels, but a JJ1 remake seems pointless as there are “+15 ammo crates” EVERYWHERE! You never run out of ammo. Also, there are tilebugs and some big empty spaces you can see behind the walls.
All the levels including the secret one lasted me about 5 minutes in total.
Coins were also useless.
DL Rec = N/A

Useful utility, but should we be able to see the IP addresses? I guess these would be useful when we get “Error connecting to list servers…”
You should also make it show which servers are Plus only.
Why does 1.23 show up as 1.21?

As the only different feature is that the IP addresses are shown, we already have JazzTool to show the GIP.
But still, good work at making this.

I didn’t like this remix of Xmas2. Most of the sounds have been replaced by guitars ALL at the SAME volume.
Although I could hear some of the music, this didn’t sound very Christmassy (is that a word?) at all. Sounds like something you’d hear in a space level.
No DL Reccomendation.
1.0

Here we have a new JCS.ini file created by EvilMike which is very useful.
All the events have been put under the correct categories. It’s now easier to add in extra time for Shields since the Stopwatch is now under that category.
Some events have been renamed so that they are more understandable.
EvilMike has also labelled which events work in TSF only (marked with an asterisk “*”) and which do not work.
Also included is an MCE Event so it’s now easier for those who want to include MCEs in their level(s).
In some events, the boxes have also been renamed, including the “WaitTime” on the Sucker Tube.
This is certainly a very useful file for not just beginner JCS users but for everyone else too, so I’d definitely give this a DL Recommendation!
As a rating, I’m gonna give this a big fat 10!

Does this actually do anything to improve TSF? When I tried the Single Player option, it just gave me Access Violations.
The only thing different I noticed was the “1.30” in the Main Menu.

A good level, but not really worth 8.9
The eyecandy is excellent.
However the level seems a bit too linear in my opinion. It’s easy to get from one Control Point to another.
I like the way that there is a Death Pit below the CP to prevent camping.
Still it’s a fun level worth hosting now and again.
7/10
Recommended