Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Whether or not it is a horrible sign of horribility that I am lazy and have not reviewed anything up to this point is either an omen or a coincidence. Going for the less poetic stance, I’d go for coincidence. Or at least because these ratings confuse me. And, as any great reviewer should (which begs the question why I do), I disagree with all of the above reviews. Labrat’s and dx dc’s overrate this, primarily because it is hard, while mikeejimbo underrates it, probably for the same reason. However, difficulty should be balanced. This goes beyond just difficult and more to something along the lines of trying to kill the player. Being dumped onto spikes and enemies does not make this a good pack, although it nonetheless is one. The fairly good level design and decent eyecandy make this a good pack, while the unbalanced difficulty hurts it severely. This pack is overall flawed in many ways; the eyecandy is riddiled with inconsistincies and just plain is not great, while the gameplay suffers from hiccoughs and dead ends. A good pack, but certainly not a 9. Read on.

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: First of all, dropping into enemies is simply something that is not supposed to happen and is considered taboo in levelmaking because most players would rather not have to buttstomp whenever they fall into somewhere offscreen. The first level in this pack, the capitalization-challenged “on the beach” features decent gameplay at the beginning with obvious and clear paths, but then quickly begins to deteriorate as the level goes on. There is an area with a pole that oftentimes sends the player in the reverse, away from the target. Additionally, you can back up in this level to basically the start if you have ice, which is a definite no-no. The secrets are placed creatively, but for the most part are far too minor to prove worth your time. What can easily be noticed the first play of this level is that it is miles from easy. This is not a compliment in this case for several reasons. You tend to find yourself dumped upon enemies or with too many chasing you to do much about it. This is too hard, simply put. Besides, simple shoot ‘em style game play grows old, and this level lacks any puzzle elements to back its action elements up. Finally, if you are hoping for save spots or a good amount of ammo, you will be disappointed. No save spots are to be found, making this level go from questionably hard to trying-too-hard-to-be-hard. When you add on a nearly impossible to find exit to the formula, you have yourself a disapointment. “Carrot land” continues the proud tradition of poor naming but at least improves the capitalization rate fifty percent. The start of the level features what has to be the biggest mistake in levels like these you can make: spike pits. Ah, yes. Spike pits. The scourge of levelmaking. Of course, as Carrotus lacks spikes, those spiky plant things are used. As if once was not bad enough, the most difficult part of this level is based on doing it again. While bouncing off springs. While trying to climb using those springs. While fending off enemies. Get the idea? This is just another way in which this pack tries too hard to be too hard. And, above it all, all of the signs in this level begin with “sign”. Uh-huh. Thanks for clarifying that. At least there are save positions in this level.
PROS: Challenging and generally high-quality.
CONS: Has some indiscrepencies throughout the levels. The difficulty oftentimes is too strained.
RATING: 7.0

TILESET/TILESET USE: The pack’s starting level, “on the beach”, is an example of utilitarian eyecandy at its best. While there is in fact eyecandy, most of the visual treats that are to be found are simply required elements of any decent level using the Beach tileset. Beach is not at all the easiest tileset to use, but the wood in this level is far too wooden and not creatively used. For those about to complain that I am being unjust in demanding more out of the Beach tileset, I recommend you take a peak at FireSworD’s excellent “Termite Haven” CTF level, which manages to make Beach look great – and using only the wooden tiles, too! The second level, “Carrot land”, follows a similar path to “on the beach”, although there are a few less masking-related errors. Carrotus is indeed a really boring tileset, and despite levels attempting to make it better, most mainstream use continues to center upon the same boring old formula. If you are going to use the formula in question, though, at least it should look fairly spiffy. This does not. Because of the spiky pits, or whatever you call them, which require tall, one-tile squares, much of this level’s eyecandy looks pedestrian and a bit off. Which is disappointing, especially considering that Carrotus is infamously easy to use. And regarding that lightning: since when do random areas of caves become pitch black while the rest is light as the outside day?
PROS: Good looking in some parts.
CONS: Dull. Not much more than the base requirements.
RATING: 7.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: I can’t complain that a level has bad ammo placement because it is hard? Just watch me. While playing “on the beach”, I found myself thinking “thank God that there are at least carrots in this level.” In fact, I was initially glad that there was ammo, however little of it there is. Ice and TNT, perhaps the two most useless ammunition types for this level, are naturally the two most common ammunition times for this level. There are a few creates and miscellaneous other things that contain ammo such as bouncers, but for the most part you will have to rely on your trusty blaster unless you want to suffer through the slow TNT and fast-melting ice when attempting to defend against some very hungry fish. “Carrot land”, the second level, is a bit more liberal in the distribution of healing items, and perhaps a bit too much. At one point, there are three carrots right next to eachother. Additionally, it was before – not after – a hard part, and most players really trying to play well in this level would already have plenty of lives at that point. Besides, carrots together in such great quantities look amateurish and one has to wonder why they were not distributed throughout the level in the first place.
PROS: It gets better as the pack goes on.
CONS: Little ammo. Little thought to how the ammo would work in the specific levels.
RATING: 6.5

REPLAY/FUN FACTOR/ORIGINALITY: This category was obviously going to be trouble. “on the beach”, which I really, really want to capitalize, at least gives you a short period to recover before falling into some hungry piranah. There is some enjoyability to it, but some is definitely the word. The fact is, this is little more than a difficult and bland level with various defects that make it tedious. After being off reviewing levels so long, I am surprised to find perfectly sane people rating this so high. Perhaps that’s why I am going to avoid rating much else for a while (if I can control myself, that is). This level is nothing extraordinary, and due to lack of puzzles, it is simply too carbon-copied to hold interest. “Carrot land” has a good concept going, sort of, but is maddeningly irrelevant. It requires you to wade through several key-finding missions before finding the correct warp that leads to a key. This is not a puzzle as much as complete and total random luck, and does not count as a puzzle in my book as much as a really annoying obstacle. Calling this level fun would be a lie. The spiky pits and key puzzles certainly make this level longer, but at the expense of the player’s enjoyment and interest.
PROS: Hard, which can be fun.
CONS: Hard, which can be annoying.
RATING: 6.5

OVERALL: I am sorry for not providing good reviews for the remaining levels, but I do not think that I can say much more. They pretty much follow a similar prototype and template. This pack – despite what I have said – is good, and I am mainly being a bit mean in the review because it is overrated. It has some good ideas and is difficult, but really, really needs better enemy placement and perhaps a bit of a tone-down on the difficulty. After all, you can make it so there are many enemies only on hard mode. Then even neophytes can play, and us reviewers can sleep at night!
PROS: Hard…
CONS: …unnecessarily hard.
RATING: 7.2
DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION: For single player fans and obsessives and for level obsessives. An okay play when bored.

GAMEPLAY: B+
Flow: B+
Layout: B
Creativity: B
Bugs: B+

EYECANDY: B+
Tileset use: A -
Eyecandy Look: B+
Creativity: B
Bugs: B+

PLACEMENT: B
Weapons: B
Enemies: B -

~ Traft

I strongly dissagree with Mikee. And, I must say, I never thought I would live to the day when I rated a level higher then DX ;) Here you have a good handful of lovely, huge, very hard single player levels.
THE BEACH LEVEL
Great level; maybe the hardest one. Good eyecandy, and fun gameplay… a great challenge, overall.
THE MEDIVO LEVEL
Another wonderful level. Very nice to look at, too. Really original… my favorite one.
THE DIAMONDUS LEVEL
This is what saves the level from getting a 9.2. Jazz really can’t beat this level unless you know how to do the golden jump, and not everyone knows how to do it. The eyecandy here is a bit overdone, too.
THE censored LEVEL
A very hard, and original. Also the boss level. It frusturated me to the point where I was ripping out my hair. ;p
THE CARROTUS LEVEL
I must say, I don’t remember this one. I just remember that there was a place with springs.

Download reccomendation: Yes.
Own Mikee’s review: Yes. ;p
Play this again: Sure.

Mikee, if you’re going to be dropped into a pit, the author is testing your reflexes of buttstomping enemies quickly from above. Falling into spikes is your own fault ;)[This review has been edited by labratkid]

This level pack is interesting, at least. When I first saw the first level, I thought “This looks like it’s worth a 7 so far.” A bit of playing and I ran into all the annoying stuff.

One thing that happens frequently is that the level drops you onto enemies and spikes, going against the “top ten level editing tips.” Also it often makes you go through the same part twice, when you’ve already been through, which I believe goes against the list, but in any case is bad.

If you look at level two, and other places in some of the other levels, the tiles don’t fit together properly.

GAMEPLAY:

Annoying, and not really satisfying

WEAPON PLACEMENT:

The weapon placement is not all that great. There aren’t too many, anyway.

ITEM PLACEMENT:

Ouch… this was bad. There were very few carrots and few checkpoints too.

Unfortunately I can’t rate this lower, because I would be accused of underrating.

And the credit level is the most annoying one I’ve seen, pretty much ever.

EDIT: One thing I forgot. It’s very annoying, and there are more fun things you could do with your time. I’m thinking of starting a webcam pointed at my lawn.

Didn’t you read it? “Don’t teach players to play by killing them.” That was from one of the JJ2 team members, too.

And the only way you can avoid dropping onto them in some places is with the helicopter ears, and in other places he sets it up so that you CAN’T.
[This review has been edited by mikeejimbo][This review has been edited by mikeejimbo]

WOWOWO!

1-great gameplay!
2-hard easy normal mode!
3-GOOD eyecandy!
4-Good ammo placed.!
5-good food placed.!

download reccomed??? YES!

donwload![This review has been edited by dx dc]

just very short cool bud at some places i kant get throug witoud cheating so its a 8.2

First of all, I must say that I like this uploaad A LOT more than the previous ones by this author (not to mention the author’s previous somewhat questionable reviews by “relatives.”) Regardless, this is quite a good pack and definitely an improvement over some of the author’s previous works. The only level I really did not care for highly was the puzzle one, generally because the puzzle was not much of a puzzle at all – more the luck of finding something. Now on to the reviewity.

TILESET/TILESET USE: Tileset use is good enough all around, except in the levels that use the author’s own tileset, which is something Space-y. It definitely looks like the author actually put quite a bit of thought into eyecandy this time, and it came out well. Nicely done.
Pros: Looks very nice.
Cons: The Space levels using the author’s own tileset are of questionable eyecandy quality.
Rating: 8.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: Weapon, item, and enemy placement was quite strong. There were not excessive hurt events like in the author’s previous levels, but there were enough things to keep this pack challenging enough to hold interest.
Pros: Nice placement.
Cons: Nothing that really sticks out in the cons column.
Rating: 8.2

ORIGINALITY: I have no idea what this being a demo has to do with originality, but oh well. Simply put, this pack features nothing amazingly original, though it does have a few cutscenes. The plot was, happily, not abandoned mid-game in order to stray off to search for something else (more of an accomplishment than one might think) and everything was well-crafted. Not extrodinarily new or anything, but adequate.
Rating: 7.5

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: All in all, there really is not much to say here. Definitely improved over the author’s previous less-than-amazing works. For instance, in other levels by him, there were quite a few unneeded hurt events. Not so in this pack. Well done.
Pros: Good gameplay.
Cons: Nothing huge.
Rating: 8.0

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: The cutscenes, along with the fairly good gameplay, make this not a bad second play in addition to the first. There is nothing ultra-creative about this level, so there isn’t a huge amount of incentive to play it twice, but it is still solid the second time. Well done.
Pros: A good pack.
Cons: Nothing that boosts the replay value, specifically.
Rating: 7.7

OVERALL (not an average): While it is always nice to get high marks in everything, I think the most important victory is bettering your own skills and improving your own level making abilities. Satan is obviously doing so, as this is a certain improvement over his previous levels. The jury still seems to be out on this level – DanX obviously does not like it, and Violet really seems to. I think I will take a stake between Sun Fun Dude and Violet on this one. I do not think this is anything amazing, but definitely a vast improvement over previous works. And that is possibly the best achievement out there. Nicely done.

GAMEPLAY: A -
Layout: A -
Creativity: A -
Bugs: B+

EYECANDY: B+
Tileset use: A -
Eyecandy look: B
Creativity: B+
Bugs: B+

PLACEMENT: B+
Weapons: B+
Enemies: B
Carrots: B+

THE FINAL GRADE: A -

THE FINAL RATING: 8.0

+ PROS: A vast improvement over previous levels. Very well done.
- CONS: Not an amazing replay value, but nothing bad either. The space levels are bad-looking.

- Trafton

This is boring. And also include the titleset, I can’t open the first level. When I played it, you only have to shoot some enemies and then the level is over. And thats about 6 levels. It’s also to small, what is this, your first levels or something?

In The Begining…

From the start I could see it was going to be difficlut but I think it may have turned out a bit to difficult. I always play on hard and I expect a chalenge but you shouldn’t place a ridiculoius amount of enemys on hard.

Creativity Is Sky High…

lots of elements were exelent. Like revistiting the same places twice at different times. And the story was something new, It wasn’t another Devan wants revenge go and stop him, oh no. It was about a weird cat who was bad for some reason (what was so bad about him?).

Levels good and the bad…

Level desing was pretty bland and boring in some places but great in others. The tree climbing level was repedetive, boring and unfun. But there is plenty to enjoy here. Especily if you have been waiting for another lengthy single player pack (not 2 levels claiming to be epsiode).

To wrap it up…

Pros
-Fun new original plot
-Great re-vist levels idea
-Some really creative levels (puzzels, helping out all the Evas and flying to the top of airbases)

Cons
-To much enemys in some cases
No -way to get out of spike pits (I usually put a trampoline next to the spikes so the player can atleast get back up)
-Puzzels can get frustrating

Final Verdict

A recomended download great mix of difficulty, just a bit to hard in some places.[This review has been edited by Sun Fun Dude][This review has been edited by Sun Fun Dude]

Yea, but I’m not so lazy this time, so I decided to make bigger review.

DESIGN
Well the idea is quite good and interesting, but the puzzles and uninteresting places, and the level 2, I didn’t find the crate for the computer room, I needed to cheat, few times. Ouch!
7/10

EYECANDY
Ya say eyecandy is bad in first levels, I don’t think so, since those two first levels are from the Jungle Rabbit demo, heh. Eyecandy is good in first levels, and it comes better in the future levels.
9/10

ORIGINALITY
What could I say, oh, this is from demo.
5/10

GAMEPLAY
Wow! This is almost the best thing in this episode, but the level sizes are quite unbalanced so it takes 1 point off.
8/10

INCLUDING
Good Ya included all, and the level are named well.
10/10

PICKUP AND ENEMY PLACEMENT
Lots of enemies. Doh, I played on hard. Pickups are well placed.
8/10

EFFECTS + OTHER
I just give it 8. It’s ok.
8/10

+ or – extra points:
-2 points: Should have a little bit more carrots, and SAVEPOINTS!! When I die, it’s boring to start from the start always.

Overall 7.5714286 Rank:Medium level
Download recommend: yes, but it has lot of trouble-solving, and little hard too.

Argh! What the…? Why marquee remove? Really odd, well if thou don’t like it then I don’t keep it, ok k plz thx.

-Superjazz was here[This review has been edited by Superjazz]

Download this only if you have downloaded the Junglerabbit episode! Otherwise this is funny music, download it anyway.

I’m too lazy to give this a full review with averages and everything, but I’ll try to give a general idea.
This pack is great. It’s far better then any of the author’s previous works, as in it’s playable, it isn’t a ton of hurt events, and it’s not a tileset.
The eyecandy is good. Other then the levels using the author’s own tileset (Spaceport, I think), it was all executed well. I saw no major tile bugs.
The design is also good. There are a few parts I didn’t like, such as the “puzzles” level (whatever you may think, hiding a crate behind layer 3 is NOT a puzzle), and I didn’t want to have to do Quite so much backtracking in the third and fourth levels.
Gameplay is good, difficult but not too difficult (no save points, but who cares?), and with good enemy/weapon/item placement.
The plot is followed through the levels and not abandonded to go off chasing dragons or anything like that. It is helped along by cut scenes, information given to you by “Jungle babe”, and frequent appearances of the Magic Cat him(/her?)self.
If you like single player, go ahead, download this. If you don’t like single player, don’t download this, because it is single player.

My head hurts from playing this… lol
I really don’t want to go into all the details but basically Jungle levels were good (5,7-6,5) but the other levels were very uninteresting and got low notes (3-4). So basically I decided to make an average and give this pack a 5.

Download recommendation: yes if you like non stop shoot ‘em up packs.

Oh and there’re no save posts… so you better watch out not to repeat the whole level from the beginning.

Daniel.

find secret’s for more ammo and carrot’s

I liked to play this episode.
You made a cool tileset, cool levels and the story is good.
Funny music, and like spazz said: it IS cool that you can shoot them demons.

Well nice, it reminds me of Doom, the first game I ever played and love to this day. So here’s big fat 6 for ya!

Not a story? Oh…

GAMEPLAY

I not get bored. Some nice traps by the way, but don’t use a hurt event when you fall. The text string where funny: Help, there to many monsters! Sucker Tbubes where nice made, but the trigger where irritating me!
Rating: 0.5/2

ENEMIES

To many! Just to many, for the rest no comment. In this level there are the foloing enemies: Demon, Skeleton, Tuf Turtle, Sparks, Lizard, Helmut and Hatter. Strange placement, no? Rating: 0.5/2

ITEMS

The ammo is close to none, and Satan, dit you ever heard of carrots? Theres only one save point in the whole level, it must be 2 to 3. Next time, put more ammo in it. Rating: 0.3/2

EASY, MEDIUM OR HARD?

Medium, put more ammo in it, because it can be difficult with so much enemies and so less carrots and ammo. Rating: 0/0

EYECANDY

Close to none, with this “Moebius” titleset there can’t be very much eyecandy, some people rate higher fore the eyecandy, so next time, use another titleset. Rating: 0.5/2

OVERALL

The rating may be a little low by my rating, but overall I’ll give it a 5.
The ideas where fine, but just that eyecandy and the items where low.
Next time, spent a little more time on the items and eyecandy and not only on the gameplay.

Recommendation for downloading: if you’re DOOM fan then you can.

Nice, level has its idea, different funny things (such as “There are too many monsters, can you help me?“lol)
Tileset is average, music is so-so. Original ideas with hurted
obstacles and crates. But level seems to be very empty, not well
designed. (just like DOOM 2d :)).
Although, if somebody likes puzzles and mazes, it will be interesting for him.

So here is your level rank: (max = 1 point)

1. LEVEL INTEGRITY = 1.0

2. TILESET = 0.5

3. MUSIC = 0.5

4. LEVEL DESIGN = 0.3

5. TECHNICAL DELIBERATION = 1.0

6. TEXTS = 1.0

7. PICKUPS = 0.7
(actually there were no any pickups (almost))

8. EFFECTS = 0.8
(cool thing with: “follow me”)

9. ORIGINALITY = 0.6

10. GENERAL ATMOSPHERE = 0.3
————————————-
1+0.5+0.5+0.3+1+1+0.7+0.8+0.6+0.3=6.7

Now it’s time for making Quake :D

Short level! 7 because

-1 Have it larger
-1 More enemies
-1 Have food

Cool anyway!

(Short review! Rating removal. -Trafton)[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

STORY: First a marine person who looks like he’s in chains unless you look closely tells you there are too many enemies. Later you follow him to the exit.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Doesn’t really exist.
Rating: 2.0

TILESET/TILESET USE: This level uses the infamous Moebius tileset, which has something to do with Sonic the Hedge. There is no background or foreground eyecandy, and the walls in layer 4 are all about the same. I suppose we should be thankful their purposes do not change over the course of the level.
Pros: No tile bugs (despite them being barely possible with this tileset).
Cons: Not much to mess up.
Rating: 3.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: There are some enemies which don’t all feel like they were placed with much thought, hardly any items, and a few weapons here and there.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Poorly done.
Rating: 2.0

ORIGINALITY: This level’s most original thing is following the doomed marine, but it’s not done very well – you can easily move backwards and have him move backwards with you.
Pros: A bit of originality.
Cons: Not too well done.
Rating: 3.0

DIFFICULTY: Not too high. About the only way to get severely hurt is not understanding what the author uses as hurt events.
Pros: A few nasty traps.
Cons: Other then that, nothing much.
Rating: 5.0

REPLAY VALUE: I can think of no reason to play this again. It’s not very fun, and there’s no plot.
Pros: Not applicable.
Cons: Not applicable.
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL (not an average): This is a not-too-long single player level without much plot. There are, however, a few nice moments with trigger crates, which is really what saves this level from a worse rating then it gets.
Pros: Trigger crates, traps, some of the enemies.
Cons: Eyecandy, the rest of the enemies, not-working-too-well follow sequence.
Rating: 4.5

Hmmmmm. The average rating ended up being quite a bit lower then the notanaverage rating. Interesting. I’ll raise it a little because I’m the reviewer and it’s my choice.

Story:

You follow the mp character from the old FPS Doom to the end of the level. That’s about it. No story really.

Gameplay/Layout:

One single player level based on breaking scen trigger boxes to continue on to the next part of the level. Wasn’t hard. You should be done within 10 mins at most. If you take longer then 10 mins, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Eyecandy:

None. Yay!

Weapons:

Close to None.

Overall:

Don’t download it. I would expect a lot more from a guy with the nick name of Satan. You bring the dark lord Satan shame.