Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This is an interesting Castle-based level from a relatively new levelmaker. It’s always nice to see new levelmakers, and this level definitely is promising. Regardless, it is a bit small, and does need some more work before it can be considered a full-fledged level.

TILESET/TILESET USE: The tileset used was the default “Castle” tileset by the Epic Team. Everything seemed to be put together relatively well, although there were a few somewhat questionable tile uses and the level was hard to place in a natural environment (what is it? A floating castle? What’s above it?). However, eyecandy was still nice. The Castle tileset is not exactly an amazing or underused tileset, but still this level managed to make okay use of it.
Pros: Everything seems to fit together.
Cons: Nothing amazing.
Rating: 6.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: This area probably needs some work before it can be perfected. Basic ammo placement was more or less good, but there was little powerups (which isn’t a bad thing for such a level). Other stuff was placed more or less well, with a few small inconsistincies that I noticed. Nothing big, though. Sufficient, and slightly above average.
Pros: Well placed.
Cons: Still not perfect.
Rating: 5.5

ORIGINALITY: Like many levels recently, this level is neither particurally original, nor particurally unoriginal. The level’s top eyecandy was something I have never seen before, but the rest was a pretty basic castle level. Needs more foreground eyecandy.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: The level is small, but what is there is enjoyable. Flow is, as always, less important in battle levels than it is in Capture the Flag levels, but this level has an okay flow. There were a few warp uses which seemed a bit odd, but nothing which hurt this level badly. Layout was good, and although the level was small, it was pretty fun to play, especially when quite a few people were playing the level at once (such as in an online environement).
Pros: Nicely done.
Cons: Small.
Rating: 6.0

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This level is small, but it is pretty fun to play more than once. Especially when you can get several people into the game.
Pros: N/A.
Cons: N/A.
Rating: N/A.

OVERALL (not an average): This level is very much promising. It may use a fairly bland Castle tileset and may be small, but it is nonetheless not a bad play and worthy of a look. I can not see it being hosted very often but it definitely shows promise if the level author keeps making more levels and improving. This is a fun level, more or less, though it needs some work. A better atmosphere is needed, in addition to a larger level and some light improvements. Other than that, well done.
Pros: Shows promise. Not bad gameplay.
Cons: Still needs some work. Small.
Rating: 5.7

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

EYECANDY: C+
Tileset use: C
Eyecandy look: C+
Creativity: C
Bugs: B

PLACEMENT: C
Weapons: C

THE FINAL GRADE: C+

THE FINAL RATING: 5.7

+ PROS: Fairly fun and definitely a promising level.
- CONS: Nothing amazing, still. Small. Weird atmosphere.

- Trafton

First of all, this is actually a level pack using “JJ1: Diamondus” and “Forest” by Blade, NOT Diamondus.

“The Evil Forest”
TILESET/TILESET USE: Definitely improved over the author’s past works. The tileset used is “Forest” by Blade. Everything comes together to look correct, but it just is not very interesting. There is not much extra eyecandy to keep people interested in playing the level, which makes it a little less fun than it could have been. Eyecandy here is more or less average – good and well-fit, but nothing beyond the basic requirements.
Pros: Everything seems to fit together.
Cons: Nothing amazing.
Rating: 5.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: Like everything else, the author seems to be improving in this area. Weapon placement actually was not bad at all and seemed to be well-considered and everything. The same goes for enemy placements, though a bit less so. There were too-easy-to-get bonus items (mostly one ups), but those are excusable. For the most part, this area is improved vastly.
Pros: Well placed.
Cons: Still not perfect.
Rating: 6.0

ORIGINALITY: Not terribly original, but not terribly unoriginal either. This level does not have anything that seperates it from other levels like it, but that’s alright. There is not much of a storyline, either. Again, excusable.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Sufficient. There were a few places in which it was confusing as to where one would go (like where the sign ambiguously says to “go underground” – there is a place nearby where you buttstomp). Still, generally, the level was pretty plain as to the direction to be taken. Gameplay was made a bit less linear by the option of taking one of two routes, but they both ended up in the same place.
Pros: Interesting two-route idea.
Cons: Confusing at times.
Rating: 5.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This level is not a great replay, mostly because it lacks anything spectacular. It is solid, and indeed enjoyable to play, but still – there just is not anything that would make people want to play it more than once. It is worth one play, but not way too much more than that.
Pros: N/A.
Cons: N/A.
Rating: N/A.

OVERALL (not an average): Improvement is the key to honing one’s JCS skills, and this definitely shows improvement. With a little more effort and time in JCS, the author can definitely improve. Over the course of the past few days, the author has raised his rating average quite significantly. It used to be barely a 2 and now is above 5 – well done. Still, this needs work before it can get better ratings. Some areas were confusing, and the level just does not have anything amazing. Still, with some more work, this is very promising.
Pros: Great improvement.
Cons: Still needs work.
Rating: 5.2

GAMEPLAY: C
Flow: C -
Layout: C
Creativity: C -
Bugs: B

EYECANDY: C
Tileset use: C
Eyecandy look: C -
Creativity: C -
Bugs: B

PLACEMENT: C+
Weapons: C+
Enemies: C+

THE FINAL GRADE: C

THE FINAL RATING: 5.2

+ PROS: Non-linear. Improvement.
- CONS: Nothing amazing, still.

“First Time at Diamondus”
This is the level using “JJ1: Diamondus”. The major bug I found is that the next level setting points to “The Evil Forest.j2l”. The correct filename for the next level is “Forest.j2l.”

TILESET/TILESET USE: Much like the last level, there is nothing extremely amazing about the eyecandy, but it all seems to fit together. There was obviously some extra work put into the eyecandy in this level. There are some improvements in tileset use, and I must say that this is fairly above average for tileset use. Unfortunately, there were still some areas in which tile use was questionable – more than in the previous level. Still, eyecandy was generally better than the last one.
Pros: Everything seems to fit together.
Cons: A few questionable tile uses.
Rating: 5.2

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: This area was a tad bit worse than the last tileset in this area, speciafically in enemy placement. Why? Mostly because the author did not use stop enemy. The enemies in this level go through springs and into areas they should not be in. This does not effect gameplay really badly, but still enough to knock down the rating in this category somewhat.
Pros: Well placed, mostly.
Cons: Enemies had problems.
Rating: 5.2

ORIGINALITY: Yet again, not very original. There just is not anything here that would make this level any different from your basic generic JJ1: Diamondus level. No storyline here, either, to speak of.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: This level seemed a bit shorter than the previous one, but gameplay was somewhat less confusing. There is only one route this time around, so it is a bit more linear, but generally gameplay was somewhat better. Overall, this level probably has as good gameplay as the previous one.
Pros: No major bugs.
Cons: Short. Nothing amazing.
Rating: 5.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Pretty much like the last level, this is an okay level, but nothing amazing enough to warrant a second play. It’s enjoyable the first time around, more or less, but probably is not a great second play.
Pros: N/A.
Cons: N/A.
Rating: N/A.

OVERALL (not an average): These two levels definitely show that the author is improving, and quite well. This level specifically is okay, and probably somewhat above average. Keep improving like this and I’m sure you will be quite good someday. Keep up the good work and don’t give up! :)
Pros: Great improvement.
Cons: Still needs work.
Rating: 5.5

GAMEPLAY: C
Flow: C
Layout: C
Creativity: C -
Bugs: B

EYECANDY: C+
Tileset use: C+
Eyecandy look: C+
Creativity: C
Bugs: B

PLACEMENT: C+
Weapons: C+
Enemies: C+

THE FINAL GRADE: C+

THE FINAL RATING: 5.5

+ PROS: Well done. No major problems.
- CONS: Nothing really all that amazing.

OVERALL PACK FINAL GRADE: C+

OVERALL PACK FINAL RATING: 5.7

- Trafton[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

This level just does NOT agree with me for some reason. I’m not sure why. It looks alright, and in theory should play OK, but it just does not “feel” right to me. Oh, well. Here we go.

TILESET/TILESET USE: Eyecandy was nothing special. It uses BlurredD’s new “Psych3 Night” tileset, which looks quite good, but it did not come out looking extraordinary in this level. In fact, it came out looking a bit messed up. I am not sure why – it just did. Perhaps it’s just me, but much of the level ends up disagreeing with me in this sort of way. It should play well, but it just does not. Regardless, eyecandy was alright, but not great.
Pros: Good looking.
Cons: Nothing amazing.
Rating: 7.2

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Weapon placement was perhaps the best part of this level, more or less. Weapons were placed fairly strategically. There were not too many of them, but there were enough to maintain a good battle without having “ammo drain.” Weapon placement did not, as many other categories did, suffer from the strange “should do well but doesn’t syndrome” that the rest of the level does, though.
Pros: Well placed.
Cons: None to speak of that are very major.
Rating: 7.7

ORIGINALITY: Not terribly original, but not terribly unoriginal either.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Gameplay, unfortunately, suffered from this strange “should do well but doesn’t” problem even more than eyecandy. Flow was the main problem, but layout was not wonderous either. The springs were all seemingly placed in just the wrong place and I often could not get to places I thought I could. Platforms were mostly one way-ed, but some were not, which became confusing. Still, gameplay was decent and well-done enough.
Pros: It should have played well.
Cons: Yet it did not.
Rating: 6.7

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This level looks like it would be okay to play, but it gets boring a bit quick, primarally because of the forementioned disagreement. This could, however, just be me, and the level needs long-term road testing before a verdict can fully be passed in this area.
Pros: N/A.
Cons: N/A.
Rating: N/A.

OVERALL (not an average): I am not sure what to think of this level. It suffers from the same problem that I run into every once and a while. The level should play well, but it just does not feel right. Moreover, this problem is even worsened by the fact that half of the time it is just me and half of the time others agree. For now, though, I will leave it with a seven. I will play this every once and a while for the next few days to get an idea of whether it is just me or there is actually some flaw with this level.
Pros: It looks like it plays well.
Cons: But strangely, at least to me, and at least today, it does not play well.
Rating: 7.0

GAMEPLAY: B -
Flow: B -
Layout: B -
Creativity: B
Bugs: B

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

PLACEMENT: A -
Weapons: A -

THE FINAL GRADE: B

THE FINAL RATING: 7.0

+ PROS: Well done. Should play better.
- CONS: At least at this moment to me, it does not play very well. Long-term testing required in order to get whether this is just a one-day thing or there is something wrong with this level that makes it feel like this.

- Trafton

P.S. Happy birthday, NinjA.

I must admit that this is a lot better than I expected. It shows quite a bit of effort and while it is pretty small, it is well-done.

TILESET/TILESET USE: Tileset use is actually pretty well-done. It uses CelL’s first version of the “JJ1: Battleships” conversion. It is overall a very nice looking level, even though there is not anything much extrodinary about the level’s eyecandy and overall look. Still, it’s enjoyable and nice-looking.
Pros: Good looking.
Cons: Nothing amazing.
Rating: 7.2

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: This category, of course, includes enemies when I am reviewing single player levels. Placement was quite well-done in this level, notably enemy placement. There were not any carrots or save points, but that is not too bad, because this level is not that big and is not all too hard. I finished without losing any lives when I was trying, but it was not too easy. Overall, this level is a good balance of difficulty but reasonableness. I would say that it is an easy level, but occasionally playing an easy level is not that hard.
Pros: Well placed.
Cons: None to speak of that are very major.
Rating: 8.0

ORIGINALITY: This level is based in space, which is not that original. Still, it is well-done enough to be enjoyable and original enough.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: When reviewing single player levels, gameplay and design is sort of a melding of other various categories, including enemy placement. Overall, this level has some pretty well-done game design. While it is small and not that hard, it certainally is an enjoyable quick play, even if it isn’t that lasting. Problems? There are a few. When the level ends, it attempts to go to title.j2l, which, under most circumstances, does not exist. It would have been better if the level had been set to loop back to itself, but that isn’t a huge problem. There are a few areas in which where you are supposed to go is difficult to realize, but that is the minority. The other factors, which include level layout, are pretty good. There is not much of a storyline, but since there is only level in this case, that is not much of a problem.
Pros: Well made.
Cons: Smallish. No next level.
Rating: 7.7

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This level is small, but fun enough to play again.
Pros: Fun to play.
Cons: Nothing amazing.
Rating: 7.2

OVERALL (not an average): Overall, this level is pretty good. There are a few problems, and there is the fact that it is only one relatively small level that should be considered, but it definitely is enjoyable for a quick play or two. It’s easy and fairly brainless, but sometimes when you are tired, that is all you want in a level. Most of all, however, it is fun and shows effort, which is all that can be asked. It would have been nice if this level was part of a larger pack or was longer, but I’m glad that the author is making more levels, because if he was to make a pack, I’m sure it would be quite good – this is.
Pros: Shows a lot of promise.
Cons: Small. Only one level. No next level setting.
Rating: 7.5

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

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

PLACEMENT: A -
Weapons: B+
Enemies: A -
Other: A -

THE FINAL GRADE: B+

THE FINAL RATING: 7.5

+ PROS: Promising.
- CONS: One fairly small level. Nothing extraordinary. No next level setting.

- Trafton

I’m not a huge conversion fan, but this is a fairly good one, and definitely an improvement over the original version of this tileset.

MISSING TILES: I could not find anything that was missing. It all seems to be here. Well done, CelL.
Pros: Everything seems to be here, although I am no expert at JJ1.
Cons: None.
Rating: 9.2

ANIMATIONS: Although I have a very limited experience regarding Jazz 1 and tileset conversions, I think the fireball in this tileset is supposed to be animated. Other than that, I think it is all there.
Pros: Almost all there.
Cons: Isn’t the fireball supposed to be animated?
Rating: 8.5

COLORS: Great looking. Well converted. Nicely done.
Pros: Great conversion of colors. Looks quite spiffy.
Cons: None to speak of.
Rating: 9.0

ADDED TILES: Conversions never seem to do well in this category, and I wonder why. Regardless, there are some things added: blocks, vines (which look awful), poles (ripped), signs (JJ1), and sucker tubes (miniature versions of the others). I think that is it, although I don’t know all that much about JJ1. Good in this category, but still disappointing. There is no harm in adding tiles, especially good ones.
Pros: Some things were added.
Cons: Quite a few things still are missing, and some of what is there is either ripped or looks pretty bad.
Rating: 7.0

MASKING: I got stuck a few times during testing, but not enough to have any major problems. The CPU thing was a bit messed up, but otherwise, well done.
Pros: It looks good.
Cons: CPU needs work, and a few small other inconsistincies do, as well.
Rating: 7.5

OVERALL (not an average): Definitely better than the original conversion and good overall. While it is not perfect and does suffer from the problems of many other conversions, it overall is quite nicely done. Good job, CelL.
Pros: Converted well.
Cons: While the conversion is pretty much perfect, the added tiles and JJ2 compatibility is a tad lacking.
Rating: 7.7

SCORECARD
Bugs: B+
Eyecandy: B+
Background Eyecandy: N/A
Foreground Eyecandy: N/A
Masking: B+
Tile Variaty: B+
Tiles Included: B+
Quality: A -
Conversion Strength: A
Added Tiles: B
Masking Conversion: B+

OVERALL: B+

FINAL SCORE: 7.7

- Trafton

The author seems to not enjoy the above reviews, so I hope that this review might be considered slightly more acceptable. Regardless, I will not modify my score because of the author’s aditude, whether positive or negative.

TILESET/TILESET USE: I only have the tilesets for the first two levels, which use Carrotus and Castle. Tileset use in both of them is more or less poor and badly done. There are a few areas which look okay, but most of it generally by rule of thumb is bad. These small areas of quality do, however, show some promise, but unless the author picks a better mood when responding to friendly criticism, this potential will probably never be reached. Still, mostly, the levels feature bad eyecandy.
Pros: A few OK areas.
Cons: And quite a few really bad ones.
Rating: 2.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Definitely the weakest aspect of this pack as a whole, weapon and item placement was overall quite poor. There was quite a lot of clumping going on here, and multiple powerups in the same area. There was vast underuse of basic weapondry, which makes the levels look poor as well as hurting the gameplay value.
Pros: None really.
Cons: Clumping.
Rating: 1.2

ORIGINALITY: Not original at all.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Gameplay and design need work and quite a bit of it. The levels feature some fairly basic layouts in addition to being generally poor in nature. The other factors here further damage the quality of these levels, as weapon placement is somewhat important to gameplay. The level quality is poor, as well, and there are only a few areas in which much skill was demonstrated. With work, however, the author could show promise. Above all, though, they need to calm down and accept criticism on first levels, which are very rarely of any quality whatsoever. And this is no exception.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.2

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Not very fun to play.
Pros: Not really.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL (not an average): All in all, this is a fairly poor pack. This, however, is acceptable on the first upload. No one can be miraculously talented the first level they create, nor the second, third, and rarely fourth. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but they are rare, and generally with their own exceptions as well. Practice, as the old saying goes, very well does make better, but never perfect. If it was to make perfect, after all, my job would be significantly more tedious than it already is (aside from the repeated carpal motions it entails). This, as any first pack, shows quite a deal of untapped promise. However, it is still in nature a poor pack. More effort, and a great deal of a better position on the receiving of criticism, is required before the author can receive better ratings and improve their skill.
Pros: Shows some promise.
Cons: Poor overall.
Rating: 1.7

GAMEPLAY: D -
Flow: D -
Layout: F
Creativity: F
Bugs: D -

EYECANDY: D -
Tileset use: D -
Eyecandy look: D -
Creativity: F
Bugs: D

PLACEMENT: F
Weapons: F

THE FINAL GRADE: D -

THE FINAL RATING: 1.7

+ PROS: Promising for a first level.
- CONS: Needs quite a lot of work.

- Trafton

I can not say that I quite as much like this level as Violet, even. Don’t feel discouraged that your first level is not very good, though – first levels are rarely good. Keep making levels, but spend more time on them next time.

TILESET/TILESET USE: Diamondus is used. There are no major tile errors or anything, but the level still does not look very good at all. The entire thing is quite bland and there is no background eyecandy. I have to disagree with Violet about the score here – I can not say that I like the eyecandy at all.
Pros: Does not look awfully buggy.
Cons: Looks poor, regardless.
Rating: 3.5

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Shields, some basic ammo and powerups accessable by warps. That pretty much sums up the weapon placement in this level. Low-quality and not well-done.
Pros: The basic ammo placement was OK, sort of.
Cons: Easy shield.
Rating: 1.2

ORIGINALITY: No.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: The entire level consists of one flat surface with a few warps coming out from it to other areas. Most of the game, of course, will be played on the flat surface. There is not anything enjoyable about this level to speak of. A lot of stuff is destruct scenery, which is fun to shoot, but that wears off quickly and the level becomes boring.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.2

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Unless you have the amazing ability to entertain yourself with destruct sceneries for long periods of time, replay is probably going to be torturous..
Pros: Destruct sceneries might interest some people.
Cons: …Maybe four people.
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL (not an average): Despite the destruct scenery and occasional semi-entertaining text signs, this level is fairly poor. Do not be discouraged by your first level getting a low rating, as it does not mean future levels will necessarily also get low ratings. Spend more time on your levels next time and you’ll probably get higher ratings. This does show some promise, mainly in the realm of eyecandy, but I can not recommend this for download in its current state.
Pros: Not bad for a first level.
Cons: Not all that great either.
Rating: 1.5

GAMEPLAY: F
Flow: D -
Layout: F
Creativity: F
Bugs: D -

EYECANDY: D
Tileset use: D -
Eyecandy look: F
Creativity: F
Bugs: C

PLACEMENT: F
Weapons: F

THE FINAL GRADE: D – (rating below adjusted due to blandness)

THE FINAL RATING: 1.5

+ PROS: Promising for a first level.
- CONS: Not all that great. Needs some work. But keep working on levels – this definitely shows promise.

- Trafton

I was one of those early #jcstalk beta testers, and I must say that I was impressed then, and I am definitely impressed now. This tileset has been labled as having many similarities to “Chocolate Land”, but they are really different once you begin using them. Chiefly, you’ll definitely have to look at the example level to understand how to use this tileset – it is not as easy as it looks, but it turns out looking great. This tileset, as many others, contains two versions – light and dark. The dark one is possibly a little tad bit too dark for me, but I have not seen it heavily in use (it kind of looks burnt to me). However, other than those very small problems and the fact it is pretty hard to use, this tileset is fantastic.

THEME: To be honest, I am not exactly sure what the theme of this tileset IS. According to Wisety, it has no theme. And I suppose that might be true. The good thing about this tileset is that it can be used in nearly any way possible. There is plenty of room for creative eyecandy use. It is generally difficult to rate a theme that does not exist, and as such, I might as well leave the rating part of this at N/A. Still, it is best used as a haunted forest-y tileset. (Oh, and from what I’ve seen, the theme is NOT underwater. Though I might be missing something.)
Pros: N/A.
Cons: N/A.
Rating: N/A

GRAPHICS: This tileset’s best area is definitely graphics. The entire thing is well-done and good-looking. Well, at least the day version is. The night version obviously was done more or less in a rush. Everything was darkened down and has a “burnt” look as opposed to a quality well thought out dark version. All of the pieces in the day tileset are well-done and come out looking quite spiffy when used in a level. Everything is well-drawn and shows good detail. Nice job.
Pros: Well-drawn and everything.
Cons: The night version is blah.
Rating: 8.7

INVENTORY: Pretty much everything is here, though nothing much extra is included. Oh, yeah – it’s missing a hook, too.
Pros: Almost every required thing is here.
Cons: Missing a hook. Nothing extra.
Rating: 8.0

ORIGINALITY: This certainally is an original tileset. I have never seen something like this done before, and there is not much competition to speak of. The idea of having the required “ground background” if you will is new, but looks gopd.
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A
Rating: 8.7

COMPETITION: Since there is not much of a theme, there isn’t really competition.

EASE OF USE: It is good that the instructions are included, because otherwise this tileset would be quite difficult to use. While, by nature, this tileset still is not the easiest to use, extra points are awarded for including the strip-form instructions. There is not much that could be done to make this tileset any easier.
Pros: Strip instructions included.
Cons: Still fairly hard to use.
Rating: 8.0

MASKING: Masking was very well done, but not perfect.
Pros: Few, if any, errors.
Cons: None to mention.
Rating: 8.5

OVERALL (not an average): This is really quite a good tileset. I hope this will be used often, because it is of very good quality and definitely should be used. While the theme has not really been done before, this tileset does not look so unusual it can not be used. Rather, it leaves room for the person to make whatever sort of level they want to using pretty much any theme such as this. I would recommend avoiding the night version, which is poor overall, but otherwise this is a great tileset that will surely become a classic.
Pros: Very good.
Cons: The night version is highly blah.
Rating: 8.5

SCORECARD
Bugs: A
Eyecandy: A
Background Eyecandy: A
Foreground Eyecandy: A -
Masking: A
Tile Variaty: A
Tiles Included: B+
Quality: A
OVERALL: A

FINAL SCORE: 8.5

- Trafton[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

It took quite a while for me to convert this from 1.24 to a somewhat unstable 1.23, but I did it. And I suppose it was worth it. This is not a bad level at all. In fact, I must say I like it. Still, it is not the best.

TILESET/TILESET USE: The tileset used was Blade’s somewhat overused “Wastelands” tileset. This tileset has clasically looked somewhat bland in color, and it still does in this level. Frankly, eyecandy is by far not the best aspect of this level. Some may like the metallic look of it, but I can not really say that I do. As for bugs – this level does not have many, and none of them are noteworthy enough to make the eyecandy quality worse. Overall, good, but nothing spectuacular eyecandy and tileset use.
Pros: Very few tile bugs
Cons: Uninteresting eyecandy.
Rating: 6.7

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Weapon and item placement was good enough. There was not all that much ammo in some parts of the level and, like with many battle levels, the main concentration of placements involved powerups. There was not too much clumping going on, which is a good thing. Some areas, however, had too little ammo, and I thought that there was generally a lack of non-powerup ammo (even if it is not used all that often, it is still nice to see well-placed basic ammo). Food was also used, though not in sufficient quantity to cause sugar rushes.
Pros: Placement is generally well-done and thought over.
Cons: If you dislike food, you might object to this level. Possibly too little basic ammo.
Rating: 7.2

ORIGINALITY: This level is not that original. The theme is pretty much what the tileset provides – a wasteland-like factory – and has been done many times. Eyecandy was nothing original, nor was gameplay. While it was somewhat enjoyable, there was just nothing new or fascinating in either gameplay or eyecandy.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: This level disagrees with me for some reason. I am just not sure why. The flow of battle levels is no where near as important as it is in CTF levels. Still, it is generally a good thing to have a nice flow in a battle level. And, for one reason or another, I did not feel as if this level had a very good flow. Layout also did not seem as anything special to me. This is all relative, and the level did not have that bad of a layout or a flow, but for some reason it did not agree with me in several respects. Regardless, the build quality of this factor is worth a 6.7.
Pros: Pretty well done.
Cons: The flow just felt odd.
Rating: 6.7

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This level does not offer much to make people play it over and over again. Sure, it is solid and well done, but there isn’t anything INTERESTING that makes people want to play it much. I can see it being hosted a bit, but I doubt it has much staying power.
Pros: Good level, good eyecandy.
Cons: Nothing new.
Rating: 6.7

OVERALL (not an average): This level is not bad, but offers nothing that is very new. It is also 1.24, and therefore deserves to be smacked with fish. Still, it’s worth a download for TSF battle fans or 1.23 battle fans with enough time on their hands and Overlord’s TSF to 1.23 convertor.
Pros: Overall a good level.
Cons: Nothing really amazing.
Rating: 7.0

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

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

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

THE FINAL GRADE: B+

THE FINAL RATING: 7.0

+ PROS: Solid level.
- CONS: Nothing new. TSF.

- Trafton

CraccoBoy: that link does not work for me – Can Not Find Server.

And now for the review…

#1: A fairly boring level featuring nothing but a few uninteresting platforms, some ammo, and an OK background. This just was not a very enjoyable level, bland, bland, bland.
#2: Don’t have tileset.
#3: Crashes whenever I load it for some reason.
#4: Some water and a sucker tube surrounded room. Nothing interesting, much like all of the other levels. There is no ammo, but a lot of springs. Snore.
#5: An interesting level with warps and some odd-looking eyecandy that detracts from the quality of the level (yet again). Again, there is no ammo in this level, but fortunately the general flow and quality of this level is slightly better than the previous ones.
#6: Another level featuring absolutely no ammo. This one has an OK flow, though not much. Again, there are quite a few platforms in this level, and it is small. There isn’t anything interesting in thsi level still, and well…no ammo still. Snore again.
#7: Crashed.
#8: Uses some trigger zones, pyramids, and such things. Nothing outstanding here either. There are quite a few platforms of varying size, but again, this is a very linear level with nothing to distinguish itself from any of the others.
#9: Belt rights, waarps, and more. Flow was alright with Spaz, but when I played as Jazz, it was more difficult to get from place to place. This could be because double jump comes in such use in this level.
#10: Crashed when I attempted to load it, even after I did find the tileset, which took awhile.

Overall, this is an interesting pack. If I could get all of the levels to work, it might be a bit of a higher rating. Invincibility carrots, as Violet said, do not function in multiplayer, which causes problems here. This is an interesting idea, but from the levels I have seen, the levels feature a lack of creativity. They all feel like they use the same formula, and turn out to be linear and uninteresting. If you are going to make small levels such as this, try to put more effort into the eyecandy and gameplay. Still, this is not bad for its minute size, and is worth a download if you are a fan of the gameplay type. Overall, I give it a 5.5 and a download recommendation for fans of the gametype.

Well, this is not much of an improvement over the author’s previous works, but it does show some effort. Still, it needs quite a bit of work.

TILESET/TILESET USE: The used tileset was “Diamondus”. Not only is Diamondus generally overused, but this level does not use it all that well, and it ends up looking pretty bad. While there are not tons of tile errors, there are a lot of parts that look questionable or generally bad that severely detract from the overall look and feel of the level. Not very good eyecandy.
Pros: Does not have tons of tile errors.
Cons: Boring eyecandy. Questionable tile uses.
Rating: 4.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: There is some good weapon placement, but mostly this level consists of a lot of badly done clumping. The basic ammo placement is good, but definitely good have been better. There are far too many powerups for a CTF level and a small one at that.
Pros: Basic ammo placement was livable.
Cons: Clumping.
Rating: 4.7

ORIGINALITY: This is not very original at all.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Gameplay and design is where this level performs worst. The most noticable problem is that there is quite a good deal of flag bug. In order to prevent flag bug, the level must be surrounded by a 3-tile mask on every side of it. Because of the flag bug, this level is everything but unplayable. The rest of the level does not fare well either. There are warps to the start where there should not be, and the “warp center” sort of messes up any strategy that could be planned. Gameplay is possibly the weakest aspect of this level.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 2.0

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This level is not enjoyable at all to play, which obviously makes for a poor replay value. Mix that in with the flag bug and you’ve got yourself a 1.7.
Pros: None.
Cons: Not interesting, bad eyecandy, flag bug…
Rating: 1.7

OVERALL (not an average): This level has quite a few problems. It is buggy, has flag bug, and even the values in which it is not flawed greatly it shows very little quality in. This level does show a tad bit of effort, but not much. I would recommend that the author test their levels more thuroughly and next time put more effort and time in JCS into them or they will continue seeing poor scores.
Pros: None really.
Cons: Flag bug. No pros.
Rating: 2.7

GAMEPLAY: D -
Flow: D -
Layout: D -
Creativity: D -
Bugs: F

EYECANDY: D -
Tileset use: D -
Eyecandy look: D -
Creativity: D -
Bugs: D

PLACEMENT: D
Weapons: D

THE FINAL GRADE: D -

THE FINAL RATING: 2.7

+ PROS: None to mention.
- CONS: Flag bug, poor eyecandy, poor gameplay, poor placement. Nothing really good about this level. Spend more time on your levels in the future, please.

- Trafton

I have played this online and I must say, for a first level this is quite impressive. But it still needs work.

TILESET/TILESET USE: This level uses the classic Tube Electric tileset. The worth of this tileset is somewhat debatable, as it has been used quite a bit in the past, and has gotten a bit old. This level, unfortunately, makes no attempt to make Tube Electric look any better. The eyecandy is generally all-around average, and the level takes no chances with eyecandy. There is pretty standard Tube Electric eyecandy here – nothing to write home about.
Pros: Does not look awful.
Cons: Not very interesting eyecandy. Not very interesting tileset.
Rating: 5.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: This is a fairly small level with slightly above average weapon placement. Some areas, weapon placement was quite good and obviously had thought put into it, but in others weapon placement was lax and clumped. All in all, this measure came out pretty much slightly above average but nothing interesting.
Pros: Not horrible.
Cons: Clumping.
Rating: 5.2

ORIGINALITY: Originality is definitely not the strongest category for this level. It uses “Tube Electric”, which is quite overused, and makes no attempts to make Tube Electric look any more interesting, nor is gameplay very well done.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Gameplay and design was OK. The big problem with this level is that it is fairly small, but if you can see past that, gameplay is alright for the size. There are a lot of areas in which there was not all that much room to move around, but after you get used to the layout of this level, it is not so bad. It shows promise, but it definitely needs some tweaking before it is good enough to get a higher score.
Pros: Good layout for a battle level, sort of.
Cons: Small. Flow problems.
Rating: 5.2

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This level is not all that fun to play more than once. This could be because there is not any interesting eyecandy, and because the level does not provide anything new or interesting. Regardless of the reason, this level is not enjoyable to play frequently.
Pros: I suppose it is somewhat interesting.
Cons: But not really that interesting.
Rating: 4.0

OVERALL (not an average): All things considered, this level is slightly below average overall. It is not bad for a first level and definitely shows some promise, but the level needs to be larger and more original before it can stand a chance of getting a better score. Still, if you are the kind of person who enjoys seeing promising first levels, this is definitely worth a look.
Pros: Not bad for a first level.
Cons: Not all that great either.
Rating: 5.0

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

EYECANDY: C
Tileset use: C
Eyecandy look: C
Creativity: C -
Bugs: B -

PLACEMENT: C+
Weapons: C+

THE FINAL GRADE: C

THE FINAL RATING: 5.0

+ PROS: Promising for a first level.
- CONS: Not all that great. Needs some work. But keep working on levels – this definitely shows promise.

- Trafton

I dislike reviewing TSF things, mainly because I have to transfer them to another computer with TSF in order to rate them, but I felt that as a non-biased reviewer, sort of associated with J20, who steals other’s reviewing criterea, I should rate this since it is plainly quite overrated. Here is a space tileset, and not a very good one. Still, it shows some promise

THEME: The theme for this tileset is perhaps the most common in JJ2’s history – space. The problem with having such a common theme is that there is a lot of competition. To be more specific, the theme for this tileset is a space STATION. There really is very little difference, but oh well. Anyway, for a space tileset, this is not high-quality. It feels kind of like a space station, but still, there are so many other kinds of space-y tilesets out there, this offers far too little to be worth consideration.
Pros: It is kind of like a space station.
Cons: Not very well-done. Too much superior competition.
Rating: 5.2

GRAPHICS: The most important thing about a tileset is probably its graphics. The quality, appearence, and overall ability of the graphics pretty much decide how useful a tileset is. Unless there is one area in which it is particurally poor in, a tileset generally will get a high score if it features a high score in the category of graphics. Unfortunately for this tileset, its graphics are by no means its strongest category. While some parts are drawn well, and there is a variaty of different sorts of colors, shapes, and so on, the tileset just can not compete with tilesets in a similar field. The author’s previous work, “Vector Reality”, was (in my opinion) superior to this one, but there are a few things that have been improved since it. The gradient looks sort of odd on this tileset, but not awful. There is not much in the way of things to put in the background. It is always important to have background eyecandy, and this tileset does not have much. While some parts of it are well-done, most of it comes off looking pretty bland.
Pros: Some of the things within the tileset are done well. Things are not the same shape and color.
Cons: Graphics quality just was not anything interesting.
Rating: 5.7

INVENTORY: This tileset does not do bad at all here. It has all of the standard things – polls, destruct blocks, etcetera. Still, some of the “extras” which are nice in space tilesets are missing. For instance, there are no conveyer belts, nor anything really high-tech looking. Also, the “countdown” destruct scenery in this is kind of hard to distinguish. Oh, and did I mention the lack of background eyecandy?
Pros: Almost every required thing is here.
Cons: There are no belts, nor are there any fabulous extras. A lack of background eyecandy. Some of the countdown blocks are hard to read.
Rating: 6.0

ORIGINALITY: There really is not much original about this tileset. It’s a space tileset. There have been plenty of space tilesets before. Nothing new.
Pros: Not much.
Cons: Everything here has pretty much been done before.
Rating: 3.7

COMPETITION: There are plenty of other tilesets that happen to fall into the same realm as this one. And they are mostly better.

EASE OF USE: Due to its simplicity, this tileset is more or less easy to use.
Pros: Easy to use.
Cons: …Mainly because it takes no chances.
Rating: 6.5

MASKING: In testing, the only thing that really caused problems were the vines (they looked pretty suspicious in JCS). Otherwise, this tilest has OK masking.
Pros: Generally OK masking.
Cons: The vines, and a few other things, need some work.
Rating: 6.0

OVERALL (not an average): This is a small tileset of average quality. Really, one can do a lot better than this. If more time, and more quality, was put into this tileset, it might have came out better. But it did not, unfortunately.
Pros: It’s not horrible.
Cons: Lack of background eyecandy. Generally not high-quality.
Rating: 5.7

SCORECARD
Bugs: C+
Eyecandy: C
Background Eyecandy: B -
Foreground Eyecandy: C -
Masking: B -
Tile Variaty: B -
Tiles Included: B
Quality: C+
OVERALL: C+

FINAL SCORE: 5.5

- Trafton

Well, in my endless quest to rate uploads which have not been uploaded, I arive at this. There are a few reasons why this might not be reviewed. For instance, the entire pack is zipped up and then zipped again. Yes, the ZIP leads to an installer program. Normally, this would be okay, but that is not exactly what you expect from a not super-amazing spectacular release such as this. Anyways, now for the review.

Killerbattle1.j2l, or “Kill You”
This interestingly titled level uses Mez02, which is quite overused. And the eyecandy is not anything amazing. The beginning part was OK playing but the rest was just…err…read on.

TILESET/TILESET USE: Tileset use was quite mediocre. Mez02, which is already plenty overused, was not used in an interesting nor creative way. In fact, it was used pretty plainly without any interesting eyecandy.
Pros: The level did not look awful.
Cons: No interesting eyecandy.
Rating: 5.2

WEAPON/ITEM/CARROOT PLACEMENT: Placement was, yet again, mediocre. At first, there was a nice arrangement of basic weapons surrounding a carrot. This looked nice, and if all of the rest of the levels’ eyecandy had been like that, I might have liked this pack more. But they were not, by far. Most of the rest of the level is completely over-ammoed, with clumped powerups and stuff. Some areas just completely lack ammo.
Pros: One area of good placement.
Cons: And quite a few areas of poor placement.
Rating: 4.2

ORIGINALITY: This level has no originiality of any sort.
Rating: 2.7

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Gameplay is chock full of bugs. There are many areas where one can easily get stuck, and abound places where someone can sink into the ground tile, much like the spikes in Psych. Gameplay, when it is working, was not so good. This was mainly because there is not anything to keep the player entertained.
Pros: None really.
Cons: Buggy and bad.
Rating: 3.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Basically not enjoyable to play more than once.
Pros: None.
Cons: Everything.
Rating: 1.7

OVERALL (not an average): This level is…well…not so good. It may look OK at the beginning, but it quickly falls into mediocrity as you play on.
Rating: 4.5

GAMEPLAY: D
Layout: C-
Creativity: D-
Bugs: D

EYECANDY: C -
Tileset use: C -
Eyecandy look: D+
Creativity: C -
Bugs: C+

PLACEMENT: D-
Weapons: D-
Carrots: D-

THE FINAL GRADE: D+

THE FINAL RATING: 4.0

Killerbattle2.j2l, or “???”
Fantastic naming here. Anyway…

TILESET/TILESET USE: Mez01 is used, and not particurally well. The destruct scenery looks weird, and the dimensions are entirely wrong. Yet again, this pack just does not have good eyecandy.
Pros: The level did not look totally awful.
Cons: Eyecandy bugs galore.
Rating: 5.0

WEAPON/ITEM/CARROOT PLACEMENT: Yet again, this pack has a below average placement level. There is less ammo in this one than in some, but all of it is still clumped and poorly done. Not good at all.
Pros: One or two areas of good placement.
Cons: And quite a few areas of poor placement.
Rating: 4.5

ORIGINALITY: Yet again, this level lacks originality. Mez01 just does not allow for any.
Rating: 2.5

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Yet again, gameplay was nothing impressive. There was a chat room which asks that no one shoot, even though there was not much preventing one from shooting in some areas and sidekicking in all. Chat rooms just are not a good idea in modern levels. The rest of the level had fairly bad gameplay, as well.
Pros: None really.
Cons: Buggy and bad.
Rating: 3.2

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Basically not enjoyable to play more than once. (Hey, I said the same thing for the last level, didn’t I? Imagine that.)
Pros: None.
Cons: Everything.
Rating: 1.7

OVERALL (not an average): Yet another not-so-good, not very playable, and very buggy level.
Rating: 4.5

GAMEPLAY: D
Layout: D
Creativity: D
Bugs: D+

EYECANDY: D+
Tileset use: D+
Eyecandy look: D+
Creativity: D+
Bugs: C -

PLACEMENT: D+
Weapons: D+
Carrots: D+

THE FINAL GRADE: D+

THE FINAL RATING: 4.0

Killerbattle3.j2l, or “Egypt XXL”
I had no idea Egypt was measured in shirt sizes.

TILESET/TILESET USE: Finally, a more flexable tileset, “Egypt” by Agama, was used. Unfortunately, this level came off looking a lot worse than all of the others. There was little eyecandy and what was there looked horrible.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 3.7

WEAPON/ITEM/CARROT PLACEMENT: Carrot (or “Caroot” as I seemingly accidentally type it several times) placement was no where near the most interesting aspect of the level. Not by far. Weapon placement was also uninteresting. Powerups dropped by trigger crates and nothing else. The worst placement of any levels so far.
Pros: None.
Cons: Read above.
Rating: 2.0

ORIGINALITY: HAHSAFSAHADHDFAGAGAAHJHAHAHAHAHAHAHAFDA
FDHAFDHAHGADFHGFALOLGADOHLFAOROFOLROFLO
RLOLHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHADGHADFGIAGHAD
FGIUADHGKHADFJGADHASDDFSAFASDFDASGADSFA
SDFASDFDASFDASFDASFDASFASDFDASFDSAFDASF
SDAFDASFSDAFASDDFSAFDAS.
Rating: 1.5

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Gameplay? Gameplay?! HAHSAFSAHADHDFAGAGAAHJHAHAHAHAHAHAHAFDA
FDHAFDHAHGADFHGFALOLGADOHLFAOROFOLROFLO
RLOLHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHADGHADFGIAGHAD
FGIUADHGKHADFJGADHASDDFSAFASDFDASGADSFA
SDFASDFDASFDASFDASFDASFASDFDASFDSAFDASF
SDAFDASFSDAFASDDFSAFDASHAHSAFSAHADHDFAGAGAAHJHAHAHAHAHAHAHAFDAFDHAFDHAHGADFHGF
ALOLGADOHLFAOROFOLROFLORLOLHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHADGHADFGIAGHADFGIUADHGKHADFJGA
DHASDDFSAFASDFDASGADSFASDFASDFDASFDASFD
ASFDASFASDFDASFDSAFDASFSDAFDASFSDAFASDD
FSAFDAS. (Translation: bad.)
Pros: None really.
Cons: Buggy and bad.
Rating: 1.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Absolutely none.
Pros: None.
Cons: Everything.
Rating: 1.2

OVERALL (not an average): This is definitely the worst level of the pack so far by far. And that is saying quite a lot.
Rating: 1.5

GAMEPLAY: F
Layout: F
Creativity: F
Bugs: D -

EYECANDY: F
Tileset use: F
Eyecandy look: F
Creativity: F
Bugs: D -

PLACEMENT: F
Weapons: D -
Carrots: F

THE FINAL GRADE: F

THE FINAL RATING: 1.5

NOTE: This is, of course, not the entire review. I will review the other three levels soon.[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

Random review pulls through yet again, with a true classic. Well, at least the name is classic. The rest of the level is, well, pretty good. It is definitely worse than it was when it was originally uploaded. Still, it is an enjoyable bit of nostolgia.

TILESET/TILESET USE: BioLab is the used tileset. It looks okay, but nothing really ultra-amazing, per usual. After all, it is an old level. The tileset is more or less good, but there are a few limits to its usefulness.
Pros: Spiffy-looking.
Cons: Nothing that by today’s eyecandy standards is amazing.
Rating: 7.0

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: Being that this is a race level, there is nothing special about weapon and item placement. What is there is placed well, though this is not a significant part of my grade whatsoever.
Pros: No comment.
Cons: No comment.
Rating: No comment.

ORIGINALITY: The level itself is not extremely original, but the name is. I suppose that is worth something. For its day, I am sure this level was quite original.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: Gameplay, even after these years, was still quite outstanding. There isn’t anything much more to put here. Simply, these are great levels.
Pros: Great design.
Cons: None really.
Rating: 8.5

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: Far underplayed, in my humble opinion. This is a really good race level which is fun to play over and over again. Sure, it gets boring after a while, but not very quickly. Well done.
Pros: Good level, good eyecandy.
Cons: None to mention.
Rating: 8.0

OVERALL (not an average): EvilMike’s classic race level, J2O’s tenth upload, and the best named level in existance. This still remains one of the best race levels there is out there, even after all of this time. Any self-respecting race fan (all four of you, that is) has this in their arsenel and hopefully will host it frequently. Truly one of the great race levels.
Pros: The review speaks for itself.
Cons: Some quality loss over time.
Rating: 7.7

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

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

PLACEMENT: A -
Weapons: A -
Carrots: N/A

THE FINAL GRADE: B+

THE FINAL RATING: 7.7

+ PROS: A truly historic race level.
- CONS: None really to speak of. Maybe a few too many springs for some. Not everyone likes race.

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

When you’ve got breakfast foods as a beta tester, what can go wrong?

I’m sorry. That did not have any relevance, but I wanted to say that for some reason. Anyway, this is a fairly spiffy Infinite Spaz level that shows quite a bit of skill. It uses the somewhat (okay, maybe a tad bit more than somewhat) overused MEZ02 tileset by Mezz (of course). And it uses it very well. The waterfalls are well-done and this level, unlike many other MEZ02-based levels, actually is not bad-looking. Background eyecandy is present and accounted for. Now that I’ve gotten that done with, time for the review.

TILESET/TILESET USE: MEZ02 is an easy tileset to use. However, it is also an easy tileset to abuse. Rarely do you see a level that truly looks very nice that uses this tileset. Sure, MEZ02 rarely looks really amazing, and this is not anything super-wow-gee-whiz-that’s-cool, but it is very nice for the tileset which is used, which definitely gets it bonus points in the tileset use category. Overall, spiffy.
Pros: Looks nice, especially considering it uses a GASPGASPGAPGAPGAPGPAGPAGPAPGA Mezz tileset!
Cons: Mez02 just is not capable of anything amazing.
Rating: 6.7

WEAPON/ITEM PLACEMENT: I have to say that this level has some pretty nice weapon placement. It also uses food which is, while not really necessary, an eyecandy improver. The debate over whether or not food is good for multiplayer levels is a long-running one. After all, most players do not consider sugar rushes when they are strategizing what to do next. Also, it’s impossible to tell the difference between someone with a sugar rush and someone without. For those who oject to food in multiplayer, you will not like this. Still, generally in this sort of small-ish battle level, the food plays very little of a roll and is just there for some harmless, if rarely useful, decoration. As weapon placement goes, this level yet again was fairly good. The only thing that was odd was that there was a seeker powerup in the middle of the level, but still that did not detract from quality. Placement is nicely done. Three cheeses for Infinite Spaz.
Pros: Placement is generally well-done and thought over.
Cons: If you dislike food, you might object to this level. The seeker powerup’s positioning felt odd.
Rating: 7.2

ORIGINALITY: Originality is really a tough thing to rate on this level. I have never really seen this kind of eyecandy used that much in a Mez03 level, so I am confused as how to go about rating the eyecandy’s originality. As for gameplay: there really is nothing super-original here. It is a basic level, more or less. There are not many surprises, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. For now, I just will not rate level originality.
Rating: N/A

GAMEPLAY/DESIGN: The first thing one notices about this level, after the eyecandy of course, is that it is not that big. In fact, all of it is one room with many platforms and “tunnels” to go through. There is no hiding in this level, so do not expect any cool strategic duel action or strategy of any kind. Where this level truly shines, however, is a quick battle with a lot of people and not much lag. In that case, this is pretty much a no-brainer. For games featuring less people, however, this is not the sort of level you want.
Pros: Good layout for a battle level, fun to play.
Cons: Small.
Rating: 7.0

REPLAY VALUE/FUN FACTOR: This is probably the area where the level fares the worst. Sure, it has some interesting eyecandy, but the level is small enough that constant play will become quickly tiresome. It is true that this sort of level is indeed original in many ways, but not enough to take away from the fact that this just is not a level that you can play many times without becoming tired of it. I can imagine, however, this being hosted frequently and it would be enjoyable to play it occasionally – just not a lot at once.
Pros: Good level, good eyecandy.
Cons: It is small, so replay is not great.
Rating: 5.0

OVERALL (not an average): Small battle levels featuring little more than a few platforms seem to be the level of choice for new levelmakers who have some degree of talent but not enough to make a full-fledged level that is worthy of getting a good score. It is not often you find a level that is of such high quality and diminuitive size at once. It is obvious that plenty of thought and effort went into this level. While my score is significantly lower than the average of the previous scores, that is mainly because of the fact that this is a really small level and does not require as much work as a large one. Regardless, everyone should play this, and this is possibly one of the best levels of this size to come along in quite a long time. Download recommendation? I suppose
Pros: This is a really good level, especially for this size. Better eyecandy than 90% of Mez02 levels.
Cons: Can’t really be played a lot. Small.
Rating: 6.2

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

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

PLACEMENT: B
Weapons: B-
Carrots: B+

THE FINAL GRADE: B

THE FINAL RATING: 6.2

+ PROS: Even for its size, this is quite a good level. Mez03 rarely looks this good.
- CONS: Limitations of the tileset have some pulldown effect on the overall eyecandy of the level. The level is quite small, which some may not like. Since it is so small, you can not simply play it over and over without becoming bored of it. Regardless, it’s still not good enough to warrant much play at all. Too small, but still features a lot of quality stuff. Keep up the good job.

NOTE: Score accidentally set incorrectly on first review – my apologies. Also, the level rating seems out of proportion to the scores on the grading sheets. This is because of the size of the level itself, which is not taken into consideration except in the final rating, as well as a few other measures.

- Trafton

EDIT: The more I play this level, the more I find a few problems with it. Various score corrections having to do with this have been aplied. The problem with small levels such as this is that with more play, they tend to worsen in quality. I recommend that you make a full-sized level.

EDIT 2: Hahahaha, I’m sorry for calling you Wisety. I had copied another review of mine to use as a template and left that little snippet behind. My apologies, Infinite Spaz. Goes off laughing to death at his own stupidity.

EDIT 3: I would consider a full-fledged level a level with more than one room. You know what I mean. ;P[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

Ah, it looks like another default tileset redoing (if you will) by BlurredD. My hands are tired from reviewing Spaztic’s megalong megaspiffular SXR pack from yesteryear, so I will make this unusually to-the-point and, most of all, short. Yay.

THEME: The theme seems to be Psych in a storm. I suppose I am a little surprised since I never knew what Psych would exactly look like during a storm, but it looks pretty cool. I prefer the night version because for some reason it appears a little less dreary. Very well done, but I’m not sure how to rate the theme exactly.
Pros: N/A.
Cons: N/A.
Rating: N/A

GRAPHICS: This is, after all, a redoing of an original tileset. Still, the graphics look very nice. Well done, and the added tiles look quite nice.
Pros: Well done graphics.
Cons: It’s a remake, so it is not technically entirely original.
Rating: 8.0

INVENTORY: Everything from the original Psych, of course, is here, and a few added tiles such as rain are also included. I didn’t really think anything more that is not included in this version needed to be added, so I am perfectly content with this.
Pros: Everything needed is here.
Cons: Nothing to note.
Rating: 8.5

ORIGINALITY: It’s a remake, so there is not that much originality. I suppose the idea behind making a stormy Psych is new, and I haven’t seen many Psych remakes, so this is alright in orginality. Again, however, it is not technically orginally BlurredD’s.
Pros: It is original for the type of tileset it is.
Cons: It’s not that original.
Rating: 7.0

COMPETITION: Competition would be the default Psych tilests, I guess. And since this is simply an adding onto them, the competition is pretty much non-existant.
(No pros given)
(No cons given)
(No rating given)

EASE OF USE: Psych has never been a very easy to use tileset, and this does not do anything more to make it easier to use. But that just is not the point of the tileset. The point is that it is a very cool tileset.
Pros: Good.
Cons: Few.
Rating: 7.2

MASKING: Masking is more or less the same as it was in the original Psych. The added tiles have good masks. The spikes still have slight problems.
Pros: Good masking.
Cons: Spikes are not totally fixed.
Rating: 7.7

OVERALL (not an average): This is a good remake of Psych, I suppose. I’ll be brief, and say my final rating is 8.0. Well done.
Pros: Well done remake.
Cons: Not much original material.
Rating: 8.0[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

Now that after sixteen bajillion (bajillion is now a measure of time. Complain and suffer.) years, SXR has finally been reuploaded by everyone’s favorite Spaztic Face and BOBBT so I can finally get my vengeful, greasy, bony, loathesome reviewer’s fingers on it and boy, oh boy, what a whammy it still is even after all this time. Spaztic asked me not to rate the menu level so, naturally, I will. Now on to the review!

THE SXR EXPERIENCE: UNZIPPING
Unzipping went smoothely, aside from the muskrats attacking.

Level 1: The Menu
Much like Spaztic said it would be, this level is a bit, well, behind the times. It features an ultra-spiffy (or not) graphic of credits rolling by and looks like it is straight out of one of the more high-class cruddy hotels from 1999. But at least it is high class. The menu actually works, but well, this is definitely not a very good credit level. But at least it is there.

Under Lock and Key
The second level, entitled “Under Lock and Key” and using the Castle tilset, is also pretty well-done and stuff. The eyecandy was a bit subpar, but I suppose that is because of this pack’s age. After navigating your way through the lower dungeons (hint: it is not as hard as you think, and it definitely invovles fighting quite a few less enemies than you may think. Look for secrets.) you find yourself running through several corridors and up a few vines before falling into a fight with two robots being controlled by four Devan $hell. After defeating the Devan quadruplets’ mechanical monstrocities, the level ends, and on (in classic Jazz 2 single player progression) to Carrotus you go…

Carrotus Chaos
“Carrotus Chaos” is an accurate name for two main reasons. The first being, obviously, it uses Carrotus. The second is that this level is quite chaotic. If you thought the first level was difficult, you may find yourself dying quite a bit in this level. There are plenty of Tuf Turtles and various floating baddies that will rain on your parade, along with some sparkly miscellaneoties (if that’s a word) that distract. Beyond that, it’s a fairly straightforeward process with a few save points along the way. At the end, you warp back to what may confuse people since it is the start, but a trigger has opened which lets you exit the level. At the end, it ominously warns that harder levels are in the future. We’ll see.

Mines of Moria
Ah, Mez01. If there ever was a tileset that truly reperesented everything that was 1999, this hotel favorite would be it. Simple, easy-to-use, and groundbreaking back then, this tileset was both easy to use and hard to make a bad-looking level out of, so experts and new levelmakers alike enlisted it as a tileset of choice. This level, “Mines of Moria” is another level to count among the Mez01 levels of greatness. After a series of various annoying puzzles, I must admit that I was tempted to completely skip this level. Some may have more patience for this sort of puzzle than I, but I finished it anyway. Not my favorite level of the pack, but for the puzzle-obsessed, you’ll like this (I like puzzles slightly more than action, but this was a bit of overdose.) This level takes forever to get through, and may make some like this pack a lot less or a lot more. It is in many ways hard to tell.

Sandy $hells (KILL THE CENSOR)
After the small cramped areas of the previous level, the openness of Sandy $hells (without the $, but I had to use it because of the stupid censor headed censor) (uncreative name alert) was welcome indeed. Also the lack of so many puzzles lended some hand to this level. The start of this level bares mild resemblance to that of “Marinated Rabbit” in that there is about equal time before you get into water, but otherwise this level is quite different from all others. This level is in general good, and other than using the infuriatingly pestering “BeeBoy/Bees” event, the only real felony this level makes is using the bad worn-out “Sea Monkey” (a standing monkey under water) joke. A solid level, if I do say so.

Holy Tree!
“Holy Tree!” (I don’t even want to know) starts off with a sign saying that you must defeat “Diamondus and Midivo (sic)” to get to Shellion and Eva. Another save Eva plot line, but at least it was one of the earlier ones, sort of. This Diamondus level is more or less standard, with good eyecandy and quite a few enemies (mainly Tuf Turtles and Bees) along with plenty of “Kill This Rabbit” signs. Do not even consider trying to go through the level without killing many enemies – they will simply come back to haunt you, literally. A good level, though maybe a bit hard.

Tree Glee
“Tree Glee” (pfft) is yet another Diamondus level. Upon beginning it, you read a sign declaring “Just because you’re out of the Mystic Forest doesn’t mean you’re out of the enormo Diamondus!” While I am unsure how “enormo” Diamondus happens to be, this level is indeed a fairly large one. The general part of the level is more or less standard, with unsurprising eyecandy that throws you back to…well…the last level that you played. Still, the level is definitely unique from the other one. Overall, a good level, if not unimportant, which I won’t go into extraneous detail on.

Knight Fight
Knight Fight is staged in (surprise) Medivo (not Castle.) It’s a fairly standard level, too, featuring a lot of spikes, hidden passages, helmuts, and of course…cheese. Come prepared to be hit by a lot of spikes, because there are quite a few of them. As with all of the other levels here, there are a lot of spikey things and various other objects to massacre yourself on. Come prepared to jump from thing to thing in order to avoid dying. This level has gameplay similar to all of the others, so I won’t say any more except the word fish. Fish.

I somehow managed to forget the name of this level.
This level uses the Candy tileset. Nothing much to mention here, other than I think it would have been better to play around Christmas. That and the Tuf Turtles look funny turning one way and the next rapidly on top of oreos. Yayayayayayaya.

Radical and Funky Fresh
Radical and Funky Fresh, which sounds like a deoderant slogan, uses the Psych tileset. Dragonflies, hatters, and caterpillers…oh my.

Tech Centra
Pressed for time as I am, I will just say that this level uses a techno-ish tileset I always forget the name of and is otherwise a good if standard level. Whee.

The Final Level
MCE bosses are never very reliable. Neither are springs. Some of them reversed in this level, and after I killed one of the Jazz clone bosses, they just revived. Still, this is a fun boss fight with a few tricks involving the springs. Could have been better, though.

…Or not. (Electric Slide and more)
A not bad at all Tubeelectric level tacked on. Since I hate it because it made me think I was finished, I will say no more.

A few more good levels occur after that. Due to lack of time, again, I am unable to review them in length. Play them yourself.

The ride home
As with any good story, there is a nice ending. You are transported home on a sucker-tube based space ship. This was well-done and looks spiffy.

Overall
I suppose in some ways, this pack has became worse with time. This is the natural cycle of things. Regardless, this remains one of the most all-time spiffy packs and I seriously recommend download. Great job, Tic. Keep making more stuff.

+ PROS: This is truly a great pack in almost every way.

- CONS: Not as good as it was in 1999.

Due to the number of levels in this pack, I will not use the grade system.

THE VERDICT: My final rating is an 8.5 and a download recommendation. Truly a classic.

- Trafton[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

Indeed, it is rarely a good sign when a level author boldly claims that his or her creation “may work in multiplayer.” So I entered this level with modest expectations and I still was disappointed. Personally, I think the “1 person bud i dont now his nickname” person who helped with this level took a very proactive step in remaining anonymous. This level shows a lack of effort, among other things, and one of the most unintentionally funny plot lines since Plan Nine from Outer Space. If you are still interested, read on. If you dare.

STORY: The story is possibly the best part of this entire pack in the sense that it is the most entertaining, though not intentionally. The story starts with you, Jazz the hero, learning that Devan (as in, Devan Shell) has captured the “Pinces Chip” (sounds like a seafood dish.) After that, you run off into “P*k*m*n land” (Pokemon, perhaps?) and battle a few Queen bosses who just happen to be floating around. One does wonder, however, what Pokemon Land and fighting queens has to do with recovering the seafood platter (or whatever it was) from Devan Shell. The entire story comes off as boarderline funny, but not good enough to actually be that humerous. In retrospect, though, it is pretty entertaining indeed.
Pros: There is a story, more or less.
Cons: The story rivals that of some low-budget science fiction movies.
Rating: 1.2

TILESET/TILESET USE: Two different tilesets are used across the four levels that make up this pack, “Chip’s Challenge” by Link (which, unsurprisingly, is not included in the ZIP) and a Pokemon tileset by Splash. The tileset use is…well…dismal. The levels consist mainly of badly placed tiles and a background that is both disturbing and odd at the same time. Tileset use just is not good.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.0

WEAPON/ITEM/ENEMY PLACEMENT: First the player gathers a lot of gems, ammo, and so on. And then you fight queens. And just as you are feeling some degree of accomplishment from beating the boss set, you get a fantastically ungratifying no level found error. Why? Because the next level setting is non-existant. So you loose everything you collect. Oh well.
Pros: Things exploding like gems are entertaining to a certain degree. Kind of.
Cons: Everything else.
Rating: 1.2

ORIGINALITY: Well, uh, it’s…original…in…some ways…I guess.
Pros: None.
Cons: Tons.
Rating: 1.0

DIFFICULTY: This level is certainally difficult, but not because it is hard. Playing this pack through is really the challenge.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.2

REPLAY VALUE: Any humor or entertaining “wow, this is so bad, it’s good” sentiment will probably fall apart about two minutes into play, leaving you with a bland, unentertaining level pack.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.0

OVERALL (not an average): I’ve made my point clear. Even for a first upload, this is poor. Avoid this pack.
Pros: No.
Cons: Yes.
Rating: 1.0

GAMEPLAY: F
Layout: F
Bugs: F
Level Quality: F

PLACEMENT: D-
Enemies: F
Weapons: D-
Other stuff: D-

EYECANDY: F
Look: F
Bugs: F
Tileset use: F

OVERALL: F

This just is not a good level. Put a lot more effort and testing into your levels next time. Good luck with further level making, but remember – perfection takes patience, practice, and possibly bribes. But mainly the first two.

- Trafton[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]