Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

It’s always good to see people release single player episodes. This particular one is quite good too, and I found it enjoyable to play. It comes from Snooze, who is perhaps best known for his CTF packs, New Ages I, II and III. This is his first major release that is single player, and I hope it’s not going to be his last.

The best part about this pack it its atmosphere. It is set almost entirely within a series of dreams, and because of that the levels take on a somewhat surreal tone. Snooze does a very good job at conveying this theme, with the eyecandy being a particular strong point. In some places it does get a bit weird, but dreams aren’t always normal and logical. One thing I thought was fairly impressive is how some of the levels have different areas that look very different, with the background transitioning and the style of the foreground also changing. Most people would just start a new level to convey this effect, so having it happen within a single level makes it very neat.

The gameplay is also good, though it does suffer a bit due to a few problems. One in particular that I noticed is that the instant-death pits are often hard to spot. You never know when a drop is going to be fatal, and because of that the levels can be a bit more frustrating than they have to be.

I also find that in an action oriented pack, having a QoB-style level early on is a bit disruptive to the overall flow of the levels. I’m not a big fan of maze levels, and this one in particular is difficult due to a lot of obscure triggers. The goal is to find 10 coins. I couldn’t, so I settled with 5, then hit the checkpoint, killed myself, and grabbed those 5 again. That’s a bit of an exploit, but at least I didn’t have to cheat. Call it an alternate solution to the puzzle.

I also thought that the hell level was a bit confusing. It’s more straightforward than the QoB one, but the layout is very open, and I found myself at times not sure where to go next. Also, at the end you wind up with a checkpoint and a dead end. It turns out there’s a hidden tunnel by there, but I couldn’t find it at first.

The final level is a bit different from the others, in that it is more puzzle focused. In a way it’s similar to the QoB level early on, but it’s a lot more action oriented, and I at least enjoyed it (though it took me a while to figure out where to go).

Other than that all of the levels are quite well designed, fun, and challenging. And, due to the very original visual design, you’ll always want to know what’s next.

Like snooze says in the download description, it’s probably a good idea to play this on easy mode unless you are pretty good at single player.

One additional comment I’d like to make is that I found it a bit annoying how the main character (and narrator) of the episode often comments on what he sees. Sometimes this is alright, but sometimes it’s completely unnecessary, because the player can quite easily see what the level looks like. I also thought it was a bit funny how the narrator sometimes comments on how cool/beautiful a certain scene looks. These comments seem to pop up fairly randomly, and come across as the authour of the level complementing himself. I thought this felt a bit arrogant.

Anyway, this is still a great pack, and I highly recommend you download it as soon as possible, since you never know when it’s going to be deleted in a fit of rage.

Quite an evil pack. The best thing in my opinion is the execution of the theme. There are some unfair situations, and you may feel the author (or demon) is being a complete bastard at times, but it’s real fun.

I’m gonna have to agree here, this set looks very nice and is very versatile, but a lot of the graphics just aren’t all that pretty. Still, could be fun to build with for some kind of assault level or something. I think a 7.6 is just about right.

Yeah, I can see why you made it because you were bored…

Tileset was okay. The music was awesome, but somehow it was too awesome for the level. Like Jahari said, you flipped and flopped between the 2d and the 3d styling, which can be annoying and clumsy all at the same time. Eyecandy wasn’t really that standing-out, it seemed like you were trying to imitate Disguise and Blade [errm, a little, I dunno] with the tileset feel, which can explain why this tileset fell so short.

However, I did like how you made multiple versions of tilesets, because it’s always nice to have different colors for different level types. The example levels had a nice feel and a good design to them, and that’s good.

So go add a soundtrack that’s a little bit more fitting for this level [I would recommend HGH-WILL.xm, or something along those lines], fix up some nice detailing, and come back. I’ll be waiting!

This is a pretty good tileset, but it needs work. I’d recommend using a yellow background. The red is kinda hard on the eyes, unless it just looked bad because I don’t play in 16 bit.

You should use a consistent style with the tiles. Some are very flat while others are 3d in the “boxy” way like the houses in the background. Choose one or the other. You might try giving everything a cartoony outline like in Worms Armageddon since that’d clean up the pixelation a bit.

As far as usability goes, the tileset seems to have the basics down. I didn’t go through it very thoroughly, but it seems adequate.

The main thing that bothers me about the tileset is the lack of color contrast. I’d recommend using a yellow textured background as a step to improving that.

Good set, very versatile. Could be used to make a lot of things. It heavily reminds me of egypt in tomb rabbit (not much original) and the sand/rocks look like chocolate chip cookie scenery (except dark).

I can’t give this an 8 for those reasons. Still, nice set.

This tileset is pretty good. It has a good theme, and some eye candy possibilities. I think that we will see some more levels using this tileset in the future. The different palettes are nice too.. my favourite one is Silence. And the music used in the example level(s) is awesome too. So this tileset is a must have if you’re looking for new sets.

I voted super super awesome!

DL recommendation: Why yes, ya freakin’—

8.0 (Northscar Needle owns). I’ve felt the artistic appeal of the levels went down for me. The levels look worse to me now after repeat playing and other factors. Since the looks are the most important thing in this pack, the rating takes a huge hit.

Rating is back to what it originally was.

Brilliant level pack!
These levels are definitely worthy of being included in AB10.
GJ Snooze! =D
Download recommended!

Good level pack. I liked the level After Dark a lot, especially. Did you have to use the Sluggion theme, though? I hate that stupid song. Anyways, most of these levels were really good, a few of them I can’t say I loved. Download reccomendation, overall.

The New Ages-series seems to continue on from Snooze. This time the step of improving is long. The ‘story’ doesn’t apparently go ahead anymore though, but instead the levels themselves are epic alone. Which makes it much more entertaining for me at least.

‘Land of Kaamos’, that is probably supposed to be the first level of the pack, creates a very dark and cool atmosphere over the level, that the name stands for. You can barely see the background in fullscreen, windowed players might think it’s just plain black, until the effects of ‘northern lights.’ This level though has it’s fun moments with the gameplay. It might be a bit limiting, but isn’t too crowded at all. Luckily it doesn’t get too tactical since carrots are placed far away from each other.

‘Kurast Bazaar’ is my favorite battle-level of the pack, being another dark level with a mysterious and creepy spirit, enhanced by the good music choice. The level just looks neat everywhere, despite the darkness. I also like how the gameplay doesn’t just stick to the center of the level, but you are able to hide as well. Here you may indeed look out for secrets…secrets that contain PowerUps for instance!

One of the smaller levels in the pack is ‘Water.’ Perhaps the name means a Water Pumping Station, possibly something else. Eventhough it’s smaller, it isn’t much worse than the other battle-levels in the pack. The moving background is a nice effect, but might bore for a longer playing-session. Gameplay is solid, to say at the least. I consider the positions of carrots, PowerUps, and especially ammunition balanced.

‘Desolate Chemistry’ has a very similar concept to the previous level. The gameplay is entirely different though. PowerUps have been thought about well, but instead the carrots are both to the right side of the level. I would have liked another of them to be placed into the empty bottom-left room. For a change, it is nice that this level utilises pits as well.

‘Echo Isle’ is a good use of the Islands-tileset by Blade. Background is very original, though solid walls look bland mostly. The layout is simple, although so it was in WC3. Bonus is though the decent placement and the fact, that the level is only partly symmethric.

‘Northscar Needle’ is probably my favorite level in the whole pack. It is the only symmethric level, but with this gameplay it works. I haven’t seen this tileset used a lot before, especially not this well. This level should be the most practical from a player’s view. The tubes above bases could be easier to reach though.

‘microcrack’ has a more classical Snooze’s layout, that contains two full energies. It reminds me a bit about ‘Teacup’, although this one is just way more open and better-looking. Some electroblaster would be useful here, but it still works with more than 2 players.

At this point you would possibly start wondering, when is he starting to recycle his previous levels? Well, that would probably take a while, since the only unnamed level of the pack is completely different apart from the rest of the pack, and is still fun to play in. Never does the author bore to decorate the levels the way like this either. This level has the bases separated more in vertical dimensions, yet the layout is still horizontal. That explains the situation of the full energy in the somewhat “middle.”

The last level, that is named ‘After Dark’ is perhaps a bit too Eyecandy-focused. That doesn’t mean the level is bad by it’s layout nor that it would be practically useless. It is a more tunnely level of the pack and that way reminds me of ‘The Boneyard’ from NA I. This one is still much better than it. I feel a little unsure about what the name exactly means here, but since the previous levels were mostly dark or twilight, this must be the lighter side of the pack. Refreshing.

I quite much liked the eyecandy-side of this pack, giving a boost to the gameplay-side that wasn’t left unimportant, since the pack finally had some original concepts and stuff to bring with it. The way that pickups were put in satisfies me as well, because it is after all quite important that an imbalance or hard-to-pick-up stuff are sometimes things that ruin levels a bit, or a bit more in general.

This pack is so far easily the best in the New Ages-series. What can I say? Download, host and play this often. It isn’t just about a few good/neat levels, but the entire pack is worth a try. Nice work etc.

P.S. Up for a duel in ‘Echo Isle’? ;0

SJ

Very nice pack. I think that Desolate Chemistry is best battle level and After Dark is best CTF level in this pack.
Nice job Snooze, again :D

when i just saw this upload i was like “haha i bet DS is gonna give this some ridiculously high rating”

Echo Isle – the first level in the pack. kinda linear and generic, it’s a shame that even after all these years people still make such layouts.. 2.5/5

Northscar Needle – the tileset is butt ugly but somehow snooze gets away with it.. probably the best level in the pack gameplay-wise. 4/5

microcrack // – it’s criminal to give such a good looking level a stupid name like this. the layout is nothing special though, better than the first level but still only average. 3.5/5

- – i find it a pain in the (-) to navigate around here when i move really fast. the tileset is cute though. 3.5/5

After Dark – probably the best all around level in the pack. i actually consider this level one of snooze’s finest levels ever, among with saint zipcode, radiation, the boneyard, teacup and clipboard chaos which i consider snooze’s best level, although it feels unfinished… anyways this level owns. 4/5

people keep saying stuff like “this time snooze focused on gameplay” and blablablabla these levels are very simple gameplay-wise.. i won’t rate this since i don’t give a (-) about battle levels but overall i give the CTF part of this pack 3.5 stars and a download recommendation.

Introduction

For some people this pack might be unexpected, but most people(including myself) knew that this pack was coming. After NAII, a pack that a lot of people liked but some people didn’t really like, it’s time for NAIII. And Snooze beats me again.. with 9 levels in a pack and he uploads his pack before I do it :(

Anyway, let’s start.

Gameplay

The layouts of the Battle levels are all relatively simple and solid. Unlike NAII, which had levels with more complex layouts. These levels have better layouts in my opinion. It’s really easy to run around and you don’t bump against things. I would call the levels’ size medium, although Water is a pretty small level. There is nothing wrong with the flow either.

The CTF levels are like the Battle levels: easy to learn, pretty simple, solid and nice layouts. The ways to the base are not extremely simple, but they’re not complicated either. For example, in After Dark the way to the base is not a straight line and it takes some seconds. Otherwise, really nice gameplay in both kinds of levels.

Eye candy

When you play levels from this pack the first thing you’ll notice is that most of the levels have a translucent background. Snooze has paid a lot of attention to the backgrounds in the levels, especially in Echo Isle. According to the author himself it took a day to create it. The eye candy in the levels is pretty original. For example, Northscar Needle not only has a good background, but it also has original eye candy in the walls(in layer 3) Another example is the eye candy in -(no wonder why the level has that kind of name). I really like the pillars there. There is enough eye candy to look at, in every level. microcrack // uses a tileset that has been used a lot before, but still it has some original eye candy. Land of Kaamos uses a tileset that’s really hard to use, but it has been used well. It has some translucent tiles like the sky. Those few things just show the creativity of the EC in the levels.

Placement of stuff

As usual, the ammo placement is good. Although Desolate Chemistry doesn’t seem to have a lot of ammo, it’s spread well. The Power-Ups in that level are placed with thought, even if they’re in dead ends. The other levels’ Power-Ups are placed well too (although Echo Isle has no Power-Ups!)

The Battle levels all have 2 carrots. In most levels the carrots are spread, but Desolate Chemistry has 2 carrots that are pretty close to each other. However, you will need the copter to reach one of them and that might take some seconds.

Most of the CTF levels have more than one carrot, but – has only one (a Full NRG). There are a few levels with one Full NRG and 2 +1 carrots, there is one level with 2 +1 carrots and there is one level with 2 Full NRGs. There is nothing to complain about here, even though I am not a big fan of levels with only one carrot.

Further comments

I really like the fact that microcrack // has sober at the bottom right corner of the level. Kurast Bazaar has the C-C-C-CHAMBER OF THE SNOOZE and there are a few other secrets in the levels. Just Find It Out.

I’m pretty sure that this pack is better than the previous parts of New Ages. I don’t really like giving ratings before something gets uploaded, because then you know what you are going to get. I just want to say that we need more levels like these: they’re awesome!

Here we see another project of Snooze within a rather short amount of time from his previous piece of work. Expectations were set higher than with Vol 1, yet they weren’t still broken too much. Well, how come?

The eyecandy and decoration in each levels is just really well taken care of. It’s after all really smooth, meaning some level doesn’t just lack something major that would make the eyecandy there look really worse than in others. The backgrounds in these levels were sometimes the default of the tileset, but still made nicely, so they wouldn’t distract, confuse, or just cause a level to look ugly. Nevertheless, the sprite-layers weren’t left unimportant at all. Nothing looks unrealistic, repetitive, or unrealisticly repetitive. The amount of tilebugs/misplaces is very minimum. Just the eyecandy overall, with ambient lighting give these levels an enjoyable atmosphere, so you might fancy playing them really often. The most impressive eyecandy I would find ‘Gloriania’ and ‘Dreaming..’ as. ‘The Cliffhanger Ending’ instead would need the most improvement(for the sprite at least).

None of the levels are really full-symmethrical, so the layouts have been sort of just…improvised it seems. But that’s quite refreshing, isn’t it? Although there might be some imbalance in some levels still, for example ‘Gloriania’. Few levels contain greater or lesser interesting concepts like the base-placement in ‘Saint Zipcode’. However some levels have sort of boring layouts, and what r3p’s review made me to notice, some levels just don’t work practically. The much-offering ‘Twilight Park’ was used for a level with horizontal gameplay and tunneling paths, and it doens’t quite fit. Especially ‘Durance Of Hate’ is annoyingly linear and it’s “floors”-design has been used several times in a way or another. The author put some tubes/warps to nicely improve the tactical sides of levels. Some of them might be still a bit questionable though. The Flow in levels overall needs the least improvement.

Ammo was placed quite carelessly at places. What ammo-types to use in each level, wasn’t thought about a lot either, it seems. Just for instance ‘Dreaming..’ contains only three ammo-types, and lacks of gun5/gun8, which this level would need the most. Ammo there is also flocked in large groups, which might not be so good thing. I also wonder why carrots happen to be very close to each other in levels with multiple ones. PowerUps should be finely placed, though in ‘Durance Of Hate’ they could be all in open as well because of the level size. The ammo was placed well in ‘Friendship’, but already in ‘Gloriania’, it was far worse. So it’s kinda variable between levels.

So how were the levels? Here are some short explanations;

‘Friendship’ has a fine default background with a magenta fade. Looks nice overall, but the gameplay is limited and the full-carrot should be placed differently. After that a minor carrot for red side wouldn’t be a bad idea for the sake of balance.

The eyecandy in ‘Gloriania’ is nearly the finest of the pack. Looks like there was some inspiration while designing this kind of a layout. However it will confuse many people for long with it’s warps. The upper full-carrot should be removed, ammo-types replaced, ammo-flocks modified.

‘Saint Zipcode’ uses a tileset-conversion, that offers some nice additional eyecandy for levels using this tileset. It was used well here, although I would wish some more foreground eyecandy. Music fits. Impressive layout and base-placement, lesser carrot to be removed/moved.

‘Trademark’ has an easy, horizontal gameplay. I don’t find the way carrots are placed exotic here. Better sprite-eyecandy here. The background is OK.

The background seems to be a little bland in ‘Durance of Hate’. The sprite eyecandy instead is more filled and looks great. Layout isn’t very innovative, but at least there’s a chance to move between levels with warps/copters. PowerUps for once more could be in open, instead of wall. Ammo-placement doesn’t make sense.

There’s a simple, but good-looking background in ‘Tainted Heaven’, where is probably also the best layout in this pack, not overwhelmingly though. There could be one more PowerUp, most likely Bouncer would fit. The lighting is used in a nice way. Only what I dislike, is the music that freezes after played once.

‘Dreaming..’ could be easily my favorite quality-level in this pack if it had more types of ammo, placed better, and few more PowerUps. Great eyecandy, the lightning doesn’t distract me at least, because it’s in layer 7 and there’s much sprite-eyecandy to cover it. Carrots are both fine, but the warp to the upper one should be moved further from the full one.

‘Cliffhanger Ending’ quite continues the theme to have a “tunnel-level” in the end of the pack, like ‘The Boneyard’ of New Ages vol 1. It anyway doesn’t remind about it much. The background here is original in fact. However, this level might not impress some people at the first sight very much, like me. This layout isn’t confusing(once you’ve learned the warps), isn’t imbalanced or anything, unlike some other levels of this pack. The ammo and PowerUps aren’t so bad, but yet again the full carrot was placed clearly closer to the other base.

I actually expected this to easily beat New Ages vol 1, but it did only by a little in my opinion. The amount of better levels would be as much as in vol 1, related on the amount of levels. These better levels, mainly #3, #6, #7, and #8 have some nice tactics to be used on, and I recommend anyone to give these levels a try. There wasn’t unfortunately any levels that would have a really nice and balanced layout like the two awesome levels from vol 1, ‘Persona Lity’ and ‘Radiation’. The rest here I would consider as filler-levels, that just didn’t manage to have too great quality to be played with joy. I would rate the levels separately between 7.5 and 8.2, but because of Snooze’s patience to save them all for a compiled pack, they deserve more together. Also for the sake that Snooze can create epic multiplayer-levels even.

EDIT: I decided to give a +0.2 for inconvenient justice in placement back those times.

SJ

New Ages II

After months of hard work, the second part of New Ages has been released. I have hosted these levels very often in my server(except the last one) and I’m going to give this a fair review.

Friendship

This level uses the Twilight Park tileset, which is an underused tileset because it’s pretty hard to use. The level is pretty big, but it’s not so high. Just very wide. The layout might be a bit weird at first, but after playing this it won’t be as weird. It’s balanced although it’s unsymmetrical. The flow is good, but some sucker tubes are hard to find if you play this for the first time.

Eye candy is just as good as it is. This tileset is hard to use, but Snooze placed the stones in the walls how you should put them. The layers have been used well, and the background is good. Some nice effects have been made, like the water blocks at the left and right sides. Not much to complain about here.

Then the placement. Because this level is big, it has 3 Power-Ups. They’re placed well. There is also some food to fill up the level with events. The groups of ammo are pretty good, and Snooze didn’t place the same ammo at both sides. That’s something not everyone tries, but it works here. The Full NRG is a bit closer to the red base. But the Seek PU is a bit closer to the blue base. It balances the level.

While this is not something very special, this is still a pretty nice level. Therefore I give it an 8.3.

Gloriania

This name doesn’t say much, except that it might have something to do with glory. It’s Snooze’s second level of the pack using Mystic Isle.

Hmm.. yeah. The layout is something completely different. Pretty hard to learn at first. The author has taken some risks with this layout, but he succeeded. It has alot of warps and some tubes. The level is also pretty big, which is not a bad thing. The flow is good enough with those warps and tubes. The bases are placed at the left and right-middle of the level, and the way to the base is pretty long. There is a warp that takes you to the base, pretty handy. There are tubes to the bases with Freeze Enemies, which is pretty fun and makes it harder to capture if you take that tube. There is also a normal way to the base though.

Then the eye candy. The author has made something original with this tileset: The green things in the walls. Layer 5 eye candy has lots of caves, but the special thing is the FISHTANK VOL 2 at the bottom-middle. In Radiation there was also a fishtank, but that was vol. 1. The interesting part of this level’s eye candy is the fishtank, and the green things are pretty nice too. With a limiting tileset, this has good eye candy.

Placement is something different. The level has groups with different types of ammo, it has 2 Power-Ups but it also has 2 Full NRGs and 1 +1 carrot. Some food has been added too, as well as Fast Fires. The groups of ammo are good. I have noticed that placing different ammo at both sides doesn’t matter that much, this level proves that. The Full NRG carrots are placed well, not just on a random place. The +1 carrot is only reachable by a warp, and that warp is placed fairly.

Overall this is something that’s better than Friendship. Bonus points are given for the weird layout, because this level has a weird layout ;P. Therefore, I give this level an 8.5.

Saint Zipcode

We’re up to the third level of the pack, using Jungle 2.0 while it has stars in the background. Thus, it’s a space jungle. This one has interesting things as well.

What makes this one interesting is the base placement. The level was inspired by One Spot, like you can see if you see the bases. That makes this more a duel level. It’s one of the smallest levels of the pack. Although the bases are both more to the left of the level, this is balanced. This level again has warps. The flow is just good and this level is more cramped than Gloriania. There are also some secret passages and tubes somewhere.

Like I said in the beginning, this is a space jungle. Something that noone tried to make so far. This tileset has stars, and the author used them. It’s original and it’s nice to see. There are lots of leaves in layer 5, and layer 4 has some nice stuff (like waterfalls) as well as the foreground which has a few things. Again there is nothing to complain about.

Then comes the placement. The Power-Ups are in walls, and might be hard to find at first. However, you should see them if you know where they are. They’re at the left corners of the level The level has 1 Full NRG carrot and a +1 carrot and they’re a bit close to each other. With the weird base placement that doesn’t matter much. Ammo placement is just good, and there is some food(again)

Overall, this is an original unsymmetrical level with weird base placement and an original background with stars. Therefore, I give this an 8.5.

Will of Fame

A level that changed name several times. First was ‘Trademark’ then ‘Memories’ and now ‘Will of Fame’ It’s another unsymmetrical level in the style of ‘Friendship’ so not very high but pretty wide.

The flow in this level was a bit bad because of some bad masking, but now those bugs are fixed and the flow is much better. The level is pretty cramped but the layout is still pretty good. It doesn’t have many platforms. The base placement is good, although the way to the base is a straight line. But that doesn’t matter much. Some Float Ups have been used too. This time the level has no warps and only one tube with two ways.

This is one of those underused tilesets. But after I saw this level I wanted to use this too. The level has some original eye candy. While layer 5 is pretty standard which mostly has some black tiles, the foreground has some original stuff. Layer 6 is nice, and layer 7 has translucent stars which makes a nice effect with layer 8. But the green tiles at the right side in layer 4 are also special. The walls have some standard things to fill it up a bit.

The level has 3 different Power-Ups, while you can only get 2 different ones. The reason why this was called ‘Trademark’ first is because of the 4 Toaster Power-Ups in the middle. You can’t get them unless you cheat :P. The level has 2 +1 carrots that are close to each other. It’s something experimental, but it seems to work. The 2 Power-Ups are placed where they should be. Ammo placement is good. This level doesn’t have that much ammo, but there is still enough.

Overall this is something that’s a bit worse than the other 3 levels. But still a pretty nice level. Therefore, I give it an 8.2.

Durance of Hate

The fifth level of the pack uses D*mn+ Cold. This is a pretty big level with big platforms. The filesize is also insane(over 27 kb)

The level is pretty linear, but linearity is not always bad. There are still alternative ways. The bottom area of the level is probably called the ‘Chamber of Torment’ and a textstring also says ‘OBLIVION AWAITS!’ but anyway. The bottom has some warps at both sides. In the middle of the upper area there are copters. The level is not completely linear, just a bit. Putting walls in the middle didn’t help either.

Now comes the interesting part: the eye candy. The level is over 27 kb which is insane for a CTF level. The layers have lots of stuff, especially the bottom. It looks a bit scary at the bottom, but it actually looks pretty nice. All stuff that’s added here looks very nice, and there is not much to say about it. The EC is almost perfect in my opinion, because the level is not flooded with EC(the upper part has not that much as the lower part) The backgrounds are also nice.

The level is big, so it should have a lot of ammo. It also has 3 Power-Ups and 2 Full NRG carrots. It’s enough for this size. Ammo placement is again pretty nice. There is not really much to say here, because I keep saying the same all the time. Oh, there is also some food. Didn’t say that yet. ;D

Overall this is a pretty big level with very nice EC. In my server people liked this level a lot, and I like it a lot as well. Therefore, I give this an 8.6.

Tainted Heaven

The sixth level of the pack is made with Heaven, but the level doesn’t look like a heaven. Anyway, up to the review!

The level has a pretty normal size, it’s a bit higher than 01, 03 and 04 and lower than 02. But size doesn’t matter much. Anyway, the level has some tubes and such. There is also a SECRET CHAMBER OF DURANCE OF HATE. So this level might have something to do with the previous one. The bases are a bit close to each other, but the way to the base is longer than you might expect.

This tileset has the same kind of stones as Twilight Park, they are pretty hard to place. This level has lots of those stones in the walls. The layers have been used well, every layer is used. The backgrounds are not very original, but this tileset is not a tileset where you make original backgrounds with. The eye candy is not as good as in Heavenly Havoc, but it’s almost as good as that.

The level has 3 Power-Ups. The Bouncer Power-Up is closer to the red base, the Toaster Power-Up is closer to the blue base and the Seeker Power-Up is pretty far away from both bases. That’s balanced enough. The Full NRG carrot is closer to the red base. The ammo placement is pretty good (it’s getting boring to say that all the time) but it’s true. The level also has a few apples(only 2)

Overall this is one of the best levels from the pack. Therefore, I give it an 8.7(and that’s almost the highest I give for a single level ;O)

Dreaming..

Another level that changed name several times. While it was ‘Around the World’ first, it got other names as well and ‘Dreaming..’ is the final name of the level.

This level’s layout inspired me a bit. It doesn’t have much platforms but it’s good. It has tubes and warps like almost all levels. The bases are placed pretty well, and the level has a good and a bad side. The right side is the bad side and the left side is the good side. That might explain the name. Anyway, the level has a good layout.

The tileset used is one of those underused ones that I find pretty hard to use. The good side of the level has normal EC for the tileset, and the bad side has some original things. The level’s good side probably has better EC, but the bad side is also good. The backgrounds are nice as well, and I like the storm.

The level has 1 Power-Up, one +1 carrot that’s in a warp and 1 Full NRG that’s balanced. Ammo placement is again pretty good, this level has no RF ammo. That’s something that other levels didn’t have. The only Power-Up, the Bouncy Power-Up, is in the middle.

Overall this is another nice level. Worse than 05 and 06, but better than 01 and 04. Therefore, I give this an 8.4.

Cliffhanger Ending

This level is the end of the pack. It uses Spacey Universe, which is not really overused but you can still do some nice things with it. The name is pretty weird, like almost all other levels of the pack ;P.

So, this is a duel level with lots of warps. The blue base has only one real way to it, that explains that this is for duels. I like the fact that you can RF climb in the level. It’s fun. The flow is good but the level might be hard to learn because of those warps.

Now comes the eye candy. This time layer 5 hasn’t been used for eye candy, because there is some kind of ‘sea’ in the foreground. So the eye candy is a bit different compared to other levels of this pack. Layer 6 has been used for eye candy though. But layer 4 has the most. The foreground has some stuff as well. The spring at 51,46 has been used for eye candy as well.

Placement now. The most interesting thing is that this level has 2 Full NRGs while it’s not that big. The level is made for duels, but duels might take long here. 2 Power-Ups as well. There are Fast Fires(4 at each side) so you can run out of ammo pretty easily as well. The ammo placement is just fine, in other levels it was better I think. This level has less ammo than other levels. I haven’t really tested this level, because it’s the last level of the pack.

Overall this is a nice last level of the pack. Nothing very special, still pretty good. Therefore, I give this an 8.2.

One thing I haven’t said yet is that most levels use lighting effects and they look nice.

Now it’s finally time to calculate ratings.

8.3 + 8.5 + 8.5 + 8.2 + 8.6 + 8.7 + 8.4 + 8.2 : 8 = 8.4.

Bonus:
0.2 for the musics that have been used.
0.2 for the ‘story’ behind the pack.
0.2 because it’s a pack with 8 levels.

So overall, I give this a 9! That’s very impressive, because it’s one point lower than a 10 which is perfect. And I don’t give that. Because I don’t give single levels much higher than an 8.7 it’s also very special. But this pack deserves it. Now I’m ready to upload my pack in a few days I hope. I think that’s not as good as this pack, but still pretty good. So go give my pack a review like the one I give here ;)

Download recommendation: Of course!
Host: Some of these levels are very nice so hosting them is a good idea.

Ill almost never play CTF games so ill dont say anything about the gameplay.. Die hard CTF-ers can rate this better :)

But wat I saw was a pack of very nice looking levels!! Some where Average and some where Awesome! I am sure about one thing, and that is that u spend a lot of time in it!

Ill give N/A but i am sure this gets a nice rating that it deserve!

DS covered everything, so I’ll just give him credit for that…

The levels are stuffed with eyecandy, but are still fairly easy to play…
Although it might at first seem a bit different, especially 05 (Radiation), which has an abhorrent amount of eyecandy. =D

The pack completes itself,
There’s a level for every thinkable taste and the flow is good enough everywhere.

“Betatesting” the levels was a lot of fun. It seemed as if Snooze can just poof and there goes another level…

I think we can safely call Snooze a JCS Hall Of Famer (or sth) by now…

This is definately worth downloading
and is likely to also be a good pack for tournament use.

Here goes Snooze again with a pack of levels. The things I saw about the levels already in the testserver were pretty promising. And what is obvious, is the inspiration and productivity the author had got while creating the levels, yet they still ended up being decent. I just wished a few more levels still if those ones were finished in just a few hours.

The eyecandy is something I don’t really have anything to complain about. An amount of creativity was used and all it adds way more of suitable atmosphere for the levels. Nothing looks confusing for me at least. It might be still a little repetitive, but is barely noticable during gameplay.

The gameplay’s quality is a little variable between the levels. I mean both the quality of gameplay in overall, as well the good thing, which is the variableness of layouts. It’s also good that there is a nice mix of solid and thinner platforms in the levels to make it all exotic and interesting. There’s some floating also to help you to move easier between some platforms. The levels can be learned fast, except ‘Radiation’, that might feel a little confusing at first.

I really expected more from the pickup-placement. It was improved only slightly after the betas. I was looking for something else than linear or squared loose-ammo flocks. Neither do I fancy those flocks with mixed ammo-types. The pickup-choice for each level, and the additional food were a little strange at times. Not much wrong with the carrots, but are the PowerUps questionable perhaps?

But I’m not done yet at all…

‘Question;’ is a level with four levels of height I would say, thus making it very linear. The background seems to be quite alright but not too original. There’s no sprite-eyecandy for some areas like the carrot-spot, but would that make it too confusing if there was? The level has the placement at it’s worst indeed. The two Bouncy-PUs are maybe nicer than Bouncy and Toaster, but they could have a different position in my opinion. The level contains a Blaster-PU too, in open. The author still hasn’t fixed the float-bug next to red base, that I requested during testing, although not many use that route to get up. I neither recognize anything that would make this level “made for Viv-”, except the replaced text-string maybe.

In ‘Complex’ there is a rather empty background, and with it’s current music, and mild lightning, the level gets an ambient atmosphere. There could be a little more of special eyecandy for solid walls. The layout itself is okay, but I don’t get the point of all the tubes. The level isn’t after all very special. Toaster-PU seems to be the only PU here.

Now we come to ‘Persona Lity’ which is my favorite of the pack with it’s great music that I suggested to the author. It was probably a nice idea to use the textured background as transparent for layer 6 instead. What makes me quite like this level that much anyway, is the sprite-eyecandy with darker(distant) and lighter(closer) wall-tiles(might have been used before). The layout is anyway something that just clicks, and I do like the situation of carrots. Ambient lightning is somewhat suitable and sewers are a nice bonus. Even placement is slightly better here than in previous levels, with two somewhat hidden PUs(Bouncy and Toaster) and the shared RF-PU in sewers. A bad thing in the level is the few weird dead ends, in sewers for example.

In ‘Radiation’ the red base wants to be blue in single-player, eek! The level has a decent background with a yellow hue. Eyecandy probably the best of the pack in overall. The top-route between bases is very short, and there’s no obstacle even, so moving between bases is very fast. The match I had here for once proved that it could be actually more a tactical thing about the level. While you’re ready to capture from enemy base, and in case your opponent’s flagcarrier died, you could quickly go back to middle of the level and wait for the new flagcarrier to come out of the basement. And so, you could possibly hurt/roast him immediately, as some people often choose that way to exit the base. The rest of the layout was quite nice after all. The carrot-concept was somewhat a good idea, that let’s you restore health with halfcarrots, while hanging out in either base. You can also go to the somewhat bottom-middle for a fullcarrot. I also liked the PU-choice, and the rest of placement is just as good as in ‘Persona Lity’. You might want to take a bath in the soup also, except it pushes you up, if you try that.

Like r3p said the level, ‘The Boneyard’ has a tunnel-feeling mostly. With P4ul’s special tileset this level succeeded quite well however. Eyecandy is fairly good, but this is the level that has the most of “repetitive eyecandy.” With this I mean for example the “mushrooms” at ceiling or just the solid wall, that has the same tile used for large areas. This might be because of the original tileset though. In this level there’s some linearity, but it seems to be okay this time. There are a few warps to help you moving in the level. I’m just wondering why was the Toaster-PU placed as the only one again. Top basement could be more open too.

Now a summary about the pack would be, that it had quite awesome eyecandy, nearly as good gameplay, and not as good pickup-placement. I was looking for some more creative placement for loose-ammo, and perhaps a little difference with PowerUps or something. This is probably because of the rush the author had while doing the levels, that placement was left rather unimportant. The levels would have separately been worth of 7.5-8.2, but together they deserve more! 8.5! So I also suggest you to download this pack. Each are worthy enough to be hosted or played sometimes too.

P.S. (You know to not do this. At least not here. ~Cooba)

SJ