Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This is really nice level since it has unique gameplay. im not really sure what makes this level unique, since it uses default tileset and all that stuff, but eh, my guess is that its because of the vertical-based gameplay. the layout is symmetrical though, and usually symmetric layouts are very boring, but this one is not. also, the pits are nice touch.

there’s also lots of powerups, and four carrots, which is unique for this size. first i wasnt sure how it works out, but now that i’ve played through level a bit, and been looking around and stuff, i can say that it works out here. the powerups are nicely chosen too, there’s even ice one. there’s also two coinwarps, which lead to carrots i think.

eyecandy is pretty good for this set, since this is quite limiting tileset in some cases. however, fs managed to make a level which looks nice, and doesn’t look boring, so thats nice.

i don’t have anything more to say, except that this is indeed very unique level. download recommendation.

(im sorry about this bad review >:()

RATING Unconventional Coffee

‘Unconventional Coffee’? So complicated name, and so UNUSUAL level!

so:

EYECANDY
Good points:
Very unusual eyecandy. big level. Smart use in one of the Epic’s involved tilesets. Nice!
Bad points:
PLEASE Help me to find bad points!
I didnwt find! :-)
Total: 100/100

GAMEPLAY
VERY UNUSUAL!!
LOTS OF SECRETS!
SO LOVELY!!
Total: 100/100

PLACEMENT
This is the FIRST CTF level i downloadED USING food, some goodies(like Freeze Enemies)
BUT i liked the Traps!!
SMART!! COOL!!
Total: 100/100

Music:
You do a smart way to not select “Colony.j2b”-It’s sucks. but NICE MUSIC!!
Total: 100/100

RATING: 100/100=10
Download? YES!

p.s: you can use “Town House Lite”- TSF Tileset converted to 1.23. I think is better than colon.

Thanks for reviewing guys. There are a few things I feel like stating, one of them is the fact I realized beforehand that hunters would use the pits to regain health. As for the flag carriers having a defensive advantage because of that; I wouldn’t worry about it too much, since hunters at full health will take more risks, so it evens out. Also consider that the carrots are easy to defend, and there’s an ice powerup and ammo to freeze players, so you can kill them even at full health thanks to the pits. I like to think of it as an added tactic, not a problem.

As for the carrot in the coin warp.. yeah I feared it would be too easy to defend, but it’s a safe spot, and a safe spot isn’t much if you can’t stay safe for a significant amount of time. The carrot also makes the bonus worth taking. Besides, it’s narrow and cramped. If you played plenty of team games, it’s obvious how neat being safe for even a short period of time can be.

As for the lack of originality pertaining to the eyecandy: I fully agree, but keep in mind my first intention was to create a fully standard, conventional level as a joke, since I figured R3ptile would be receiving relatively unusual levels, this one would be unusual to other entries since it would be conventional. That idea didn’t hold though.

This is a very unique level, which is appropriate since it was an entry to a level contest which specifically asked for unusual elements. This level is certainly unconventional, with a number of elements that you won’t find in many other levels. Despite that, the level avoids being gimmicky, which is somewhat of a feat considering that it’s hard to build a level around unusual concepts without relying on them too much.

Three full nrg carrots seems to be a bit high for a level of this size, but the large quantity of powerups plus the death pits might help to offset that a bit. Still, I can forsee some problems occurring because of that. If players take into consideration that the pits are bascially full health in exchange for all your weapons, players without the flag might feel that they shouldn’t grab the carrots. This in turn could lead to flagcarriers being rather difficult to kill, and might encourage camping. People playing this level will need to adapt their playstyle so that they grab the carrots regardless of their position, instead of using a more conservative playstyle where they leave the carrots for the flagcarrier and call out when the carrots spawn.

The coin warp also seems like it might be a bit problematic, since once you get up there, there isn’t much of a way anyone can hit you without them entering the coin warp themselves. And the presence of a full nrg carrot up there means that a player who is determined enough could probably hold that position for quite some time, defending it from other players and using the carrot to heal up. Granted, the warp target is right underneath the carrot, meaning that players exiting the warp should be able to grab it before the person defending the spot, but that’s only if the carrot hasn’t been shot out of the way.

This level gets an 8. Out of the four levels that were being judged, this one was my favourite.

Unconventional Coffee is a medium/large ctf level that won R3p’s unusual CTF contest. Its not suprising that it won, since it is of very high quality, like you would expect from a level by FireSworD.

When you first play in the level, you should learn the layout really quickly. Being symectrical, the level’s layout isn’t too original, but this one feels different to other layouts in game. I also like the fact that FS took the time to remake the other half of the layout, instead of taking one half, and then flipping it, like a lot of people do. (Like me :P)
Not a single part of the layout here would be useless to gameplay, which is a huge plus in CTF levels.

The flow here is pefect in my opinion. It finds the exact balance between a bad flow and a fully automatic flow. The death pits are very easy to avoid; so its your fault if you make a big mistake and fall, unless an opponent forces you to fall in them, e.g: If they freeze you with Ice while over the pit. In the middle there is a fly carrot that can take you up to one of the bases. You don’t have to take that route; there is another route around the edges of the level, which takes longer, but is usually a lot safer.
One evil tactic is to shoot the fly carrot into the sewers below, so people have to go down to get it, then be ready to pwn them with seekers as they come up.

The placement in this level is very good too. The contest required a level to have many PUs, and this level meets that requirement. There are 5 PUs in this level, which sounds like too many, but the large amount works here. On the left side there are Bouncer and Ice PUs, and on the right side there are Toaster and Pepper spray. The Bouncer/Toaster PUs can become very campy however, but if you fall down and shoot seeks through the entrance to the PU box you can counter it. There is also a Seeker PU in the sewers. Like with the fly carrot, the sewers can be a deadly ambush spot. This level also has 3 carrots, on on each side, and one in the higher middle. The middle carrot is in a room where you need to one of the coin warps on each side of the level. In this room there is an exit on both sides that take you to either team’s base, like in BBlair. I personally think it should be removed because it makes the room slightly too safe from enemy fire, others may disagree. The ammo is placed in nice shapes, instead of boring, overused 2×2 squares. I think there should be more RF ammo, however. There is also some food to fill the level up with events.

The eyecandy in this level is not the best I have seen with this tileset, but it is still very nice. The certainly liked the background, with those very tall buildings that gives the level a more city-like feel, different from other levels with this set. The greyish fade colour for layer 8 also helps this atmosphere, along with the awesome music. The sprite layer EC is not as great, since it is not very original, but is still much better than in the standard Colon levels.

IMO this is one of FS’ best levels. It will certainly get more attention in the future, since it is being played in the JJ2WC3. I could really give this an uber rating like 9 since this isn’t too original, but it is still extremely good. 8.6 is my rating.

Seeing as how I didn’t review this yet, I’m going to do so now to pass the time.

Coral Coves – FireSworD.

This is probably the best treasure level out there. I’m really glad that during that one fateful night (or day? I can’t remember =P) FS accepted my challenge of using this set and wasn’t scared off by how user-repellant it appeared in JCS. I’d wish I had gotten The Chasm finished in time for it to be released with this, but ah well =P (at least that level DID eventually get released. Like a year later, or something). Anyways, onto the review.

The eyecandy in this level is extremely beautiful, especially in the underwater areas. This is even more awe-inspiring when you consider the tileset chosen, and how difficult it is compared to most the other tilesets out there. FS not only braved the challenges faced when using the tileset, but he mastered the tileset as well. Everything here manages to look incredible without having any negative side effects along with it. The eyecandy is plentiful, yet not overdone, and avoids being confusing or in your face. Truly, if this level doesn’t look like a coral reef in jj2, I don’t know what does. The level definately masters the eyecandy portion of the rating.

The layout of the level is pretty interesting. Its rather large which leads to more exploration and less fighting, which is good for a number of reasons. The level can handle large amounts of players, and appeals to me because I agree with FS’s statement on how treasure levels should be more about hunting for gems rather then hunting the players for them (you have battle mode for that ;D). Because the level is pretty big, it also is less annoying because you’re not forced to be stuck in a small area with lots of other people spamming seekers everywhere, and more strategy can be used this way instead of just shooting everywhere and hoping not to get hit.

Another interesting thing is that the level has enemies. This is pretty cool since it also enables strategy (get hit by the enemies instead of by your opponents to avoid gem loss, etc) although this makes the host at an extreme disadvantage since they are able to get killed by the enemies. However, there is a lite version included that has them removed, so one can’t really complain.

Gems are scattered throughout nicely, and there is a huge amount of them which really emphasizes on the need to collect as fast as you can rather then fight your opponents for them. Ammo is also placed well, and both the gems and the ammo are placed in creative patterns and shapes rather than dull clumps. There’s also more emphasis on strategy placed here with the TNT and the gem barrels, which is definately a welcomed add-on.

Overall, there isn’t any reason why you shouldn’t download this level. It’s the best treasure level out there (why is it that people tend to make the good treasure levels be underwater? ;P), and even if you don’t like treasure this level can still appeal to you for the great tileset usage and atmosphere it contains. If anything, it will definately make you view the tileset in a new light. I’ve played numerous games here, and even though oftentimes I find treasure mode to be somewhat annoying (mainly for the reasons White Rabbit stated in his review) this level is different then the typical treasure in that it shows what treasure really is about: hunting for gems, and because of that, this level provides for fun matches.

That said, I would definately reccomend this level to everyone. It shows wonderful levelmaking skill, allows for great enjoyment, and will hopefully inspire people to either use the tileset or make more treasure levels. You can learn a lot from this.

~Blacky with a very late review

Rating Coral Coves

To start:
Very beautiful made Treasure Hunt level under water. The gems lie hides between reefs and wrecks.

Eyecandy: (20 pts)
Forefront: Very well! Context: Excellently! And have you also splendid, mysterious platforms made. Moreover reefs have decorated the complete level.
Result: 19 pts

Gem placement: (20 pts)
The level have 119 red gems, 4 green, 3 blue, 15 purple, 2 Super Red Gems and 5 Red Gem Rings.
0 Gem Stomps. Nicely, because those are uselessly under water. The gems have been well spread concerning the level.
Result: 17 pts

Gameplay: (20 pts)
Good! You need to search gems into caves, in reefs and ship wrecks. And after you have find 100 gems and must search the exit, it is hard to find it, so the game is not over yet when you have find 100 gems. When Peter and me have played this level, this was happened. I’ve got 100 gems, but was not able to find the exit. Then Peter got 100 and he finds it…! So this level is until the end very exiting…
Result: 18 pts

Other Items Placement (10 pts)
Except gems also TNT has been hidden. If you let descend that exactly at the correct moment, that can cost important gems to your opponent. There are also Bouncers. But I think that the Seeker Rocket a better weapon is for under water.
Result: 6 pts

End result:
Total points: 60
Maximum number of points: 70
Mark: 8,6 (8,5714285714285714285714285714286)
Download recommendation:

Intro:
Garden Brawl
This is one of Fire Sword!‘s best levels that I have seen. Read the rest of my review to find out why.

Eyecandy: 2.5/2.5
The eyecandy is incredibly beautiful. Lots of differnet types of eyecandy such as: waterfalls, trees, grass and diamonds. The background has been done nicely. The layers have all been used very nicely. There are also falling leaves in the foreground.

Ammo Placement: 2.0/2.5
The ammo is placed quite well in my opinion. There is a good amount of ammo throughout the level. Lots of places have ammo in them, so I think the ammo placement is excellent.

Level Structure: 1.5/2.0
The structure of this level is very good but it can be quite confusing at times. But overall it is not that bad. So good job on the level structure.

Gameplay: 2.5/3.0
The gameplay of this level runs quite smoothly and I think that it is very fun to play this level. The gameplay was made very very well in my opinion. So good job on the gameplay and continue to do this in your other levels.

Overall: 2.5+2.0+1.5+2.5
I think overall that this level deserves an 8.5 beacuse it is just excellent. Keep up the good work Fire Sword!

Download Recommendation: Yes!

Host this Often:
If you love battle levels then, yes you should host it often.

This is a truly stunning level. You are fantastic and finatic Firesword.

The eyecandy deserves a 10 without question.

-it is very original looking and very colourful – this colourfulness matches the whole scene that it is a bunch of coral coves underwater, its flawless really.

The gameplay deserves a 9.

-it is very hard to get a 10 for gameplay, and i feel that the hard(ish) to find exit ruins the gameplay a little, as i spent 30 seconds looking for it but i only found it because i tripped into it – this could be quite annoying to someone less lucky.

However, the gameplay is still amazing in itself – the way badies are used in the level so that people can loose their gems from the water creatures (as well as their opponent) is an original factor that i really like. Also, the structure of the level is very good for a treasure hunt, the web of caves is set out very effectively.

All in all, the best treasure level ive ever seen and probably the best treasure level period.

Score awarded: 9.5

My first thought by playing this level:
WOW!! WTH!? This is beautifull!

My second thought by playing this level:
How big is this anyway!? And how long
would it have been to make such lvl as this??

My third thought by playing this level:
OMG where is that dopefish animation? I can’t find it =) And where are the rest of the diamonds? How to get that TNT??

My last thought by playing this level:
Where is that idiot exit!? =P

As you can read, it’s a difficult Diamond Hunt. I was thinking there wouldn’t be an exit, but hey, whats described on that wall there?

You must have put much time in this lvl by eyecandy, cause it rux. There is nothing more to say about it. It’s so beautifull…
Gameplay is great, cause it’s just like a puzzle! Diamonds here, diamonds there, I’m still finding some diamonds!
O, this was the last one =).. I was just shooted pass the exit with these tubes, so you hadn’t enough time to see a sign with ‘exit’ on it. Many corridors and caves everywhere in the lvl. Just like White Rabbit said: sometimes you just swim against the wall, and sometimes you swim trough it. Irritating, but than on the fun way.

Placement is also nice, but I saw there where so much diamonds next to each other, so I got something like 23 allready when I where swimming something like less than a minute.. But then, the line of it just disapeared. Where are the rest of the diamonds!? I still need 77 diamonds! But what are these MCE’s doing here? =)

If you want a REAL Treasure Hunt, host this one. No fighting, but a real SEARCH. Oh and one more thing before I end this review:
.. Nope doesn’t work.
… also doesn’t work…
… OKAY HOW DO I GET THESE AEFPOIJAE TNT AMMO!!?

This level just needs a 8.7, no discuss about it.

Small, comment-sized replies eh :P

I think treasure games can bring out the worst in people. Most of the time, people will just fight each other, steal each other’s gems and they’ll never stop because they want revenge on having their precious gems stolen (of course, it wouldn’t hurt if you took surplus gems from your opponent, as a form of interest). While battle games stimulate the good, old hunter instinct, and CTF games encourage team work, treasure games are all too often about jealousy and greed, which is why I appreciate a level that’s more about gem finding rather than gem fighting.

FS’ treasure level looked overwhelming at the start, and, to somebody who has never this before, Coral Coves often appears full of life. I’m quite used to the eyecandy and enemies by now, but it is still the most realistic JJ2 coral reef I’ve seen so far. While there aren’t that many animations (and I couldn’t find a SINGLE dopefish either, despite the presence of a dopefish animation), the level is full of bubbles, moving sea creatures (beach-going tube turtles not counted ;-)) and there is always a wide variety of tiles, both in background and foreground layers. The blue tiles are used well, with lots of curves and different shapes, and give the appearance of size. What’s not so realistic is that sometimes the same tiles is used over and over again in one place, like the green starfish round pos 132, 22, but it looks pretty enough. The eyecandy sometimes obscure obstacles and may leave players swimming into a wall for a few seconds (like at pos 21, 73) but it’s something people can easily learn to avoid.

Not all tiles of Violet’s CoralC are actually in the level, but FS has used the tileset very well, and there are almost no tile bugs (the only ones I could spot, and I’m not even sure if I’m right, are the edges of the red algae bush at pos 55, 55). Also, the fish are too nicely camouflaged regardless of the background, and you end up meeting a wide open jaw more often than not, which is very annoying if you’re the host. Still this is a minor problem since there is also a lite version. You simply have to look at Coral Coves for yourself to appreciate its eyecandy.

The gameplay of Coral Coves does not stray much away from those of other water levels. As usual, there are very few platforms and most of the swimming takes place in tunnels. The level is divided into two parts, with the right side basically being just one huge underwater cave with a big, coral-covered rock in the middle, and the left side consists of a narrow mouth, leading to the surface, which divides into 3 other tunnels, which then also divide into 2 tunnels each, and so on, until it reaches the bottom of the coastline, 69 tiles down. This tunnel system is excellent at spreading players apart, provided they are willing to do so. The tunnels to the left can get quite tight (wonderful exploration experience, however :-)), and that makes seekers very powerful. Bouncers are also useful when being chased, but RFs and toasters are only really useful on land; toasters for obvious reasons, and RFs because of the lack of straight tunnels and its shockwaves, which bounce you around. The TNT is also quite hard to get in smaller games, especially when there are experienced people around, who will try to avoid fighting there, in case a hurt opponent goes into the TNT hole, busts open 3 barrels and suddenly becomes 100 gems richer. FS tried to ‘entice’ people to get near the TNT by placing two giant gems, and a lot of red gems near the TNT area, which solves the problem for larger servers, where fighting is bound to take place.

Players in Coral Coves should either avoid other people, or make sure to get the first shot, from my experience. Coral Coves’ flow is decent because you can go anywhere when underwater but the level isn’t very fun to play in if there are less than 6 people in the server, because of the humongous amount gems at the right side (two blue gems, a whole line of red gems, followed by gem rings, two green gems, and more red gems, and that’s only in the middle of the tunnel). Whoever gets to the right side first will almost certainly win. Although the left side has more gems, it takes much longer time to collect them, not to mention the fact that the largest gem deposit, 79, 23, is quite far away from the entrance to the left tunnel system.

The best way, in my opinion, to solve this problem is to set a higher gem limit for smaller servers using Controller. Increasing the limit to just 120 already improves the winning chances of players collecting gems on the left side in the lite version.

There’s not much to say about ammo placement. Perhaps there are too many seekers. That only applies to smaller servers, but the concentration of seekers isn’t done that well, because most of them are near the wrecked ship so those who can’t get there in time must be content with finding much smaller amounts of seekers under the surface. The enemies add greatly to the eyecandy, although you end up ignoring them after a while. They can be quite annoying to the host, especially the fish, which are hard to spot. FS claims that the enemies make you able to get into fights without fear of gettin hurt, but they are more of a method of escape from fights, because you can’t hurt others while blinking.

Coral Coves is overall a unique treasure level and it is lifted up to the higher realms of quality due to its underwater tunnels, the highly polished layout and the presence of marine life (despite this, I do not miss them at all when playing the lite version).

FS’ treasure level puts many creative ideas into action, but still feels like a well-made, conventional underwater level. There really aren’t that many new treasure level these days, which helps make this level stand out. If you like treasure, you’ll love Coral Coves. Heartily recommended.

EDIT: I got the longest review!

I’ll try to make this quick, but I’ve been known to get carried away…

First really good treasure hunt level I’ve seen in a while. FS wanted me to review this, and there’s no doubt that it deserves a review. I’ve just been a little busy… okay, so I’ve been playing Advance Wars Dual Strike. Whatever. On to the review.

Gameplay – 9/10
Great gameplay. Most of the level takes place underwater in maze-like tunnels. The level’s pretty hard to learn at first, but after a while you’ll notice that it’s really not that advanced. The layout is made in such a way that there are two ‘sections’ in the level. The main section is on the left. That’s where most of the action will take place. There’s another section to the right which is only reachable by land. The advanced layout and myriad of gems here make this level able to hold 16 players easilly, making it ideal for mass events. Of course, it also works for smaller games, but they’ll be kind of short.

The most original aspect of this level’s gameplay is the enemies. Using MCEs, several enemies including fish, tube turtles, and crabs have been placed in the level. They will hurt you, making you blink, slowing down your gem collecting prowess. They can also kill the server, which can be a problem, so FS conviniently included olcclite.j2l, which has no enemies.

Eyecandy – 9.5/10
This level makes great use of a seemingly limiting tileset. Lots of things have been put in the level to enhance it’s appearance, from gem barrels to fish to bubblers. This is the best looking level I’ve ever seen using the CoralC tileset.

Item placement – 9.5/10
Great. There are plenty of gems here, but not too many. There is also some TNT hidden in the level (I won’t tell you where it is or how to get it, I want you to download the level and read the readme) which can blow up the various gem barrels found underwater. These contain lots and lots of gems, making them strategically important. You’ll also find bouncers, seekers, and toasters (fairly useless, but you’ll still find them).

Overall (not an average) – 8.5/10
Amazing treasure hunt level. Host this. Play this. Review this. Wait and see if I’ll feature Noka’s tileset or this level this month (not even I know which I’ll do yet! Can you feel the suspense? I sure can.)

Overall pros: Great gameplay, really nice looking, etc., etc.

Overall cons: You’ll need a lot of players to really play this level at it’s best, hard to learn, the enemies are annoying for the server but take away from the level when they’re not there.

I haven’t reviewed this. Wow. I think I will now.

One Spot

Firstly, the atmosphere in this level is among the best atmosphere I’ve seen. The backround is really awesome (looks a lot better than the default backround) and the music is pleasant to the ears. The eyecandy is also really nice to look at. I don’t really like the flow of the level. Lots of things could use one ways (66, 28), and I’m not too fond of the placement of the full energy. The layout is alright, I like the originality used in the placement of the bases, which I haven’t seen remade to this day. I also kept bumping into walls and solid tiles as I ran through the object, as several areas are rather cramped. Weapon placement is alright, I didn’t really have a problem with it. The right area could’ve used more ammo though, but the bouncer pu might make up for that. Also, the music has a looping bug, so that = bad =(. Rating for level: Eyecandy: 9.5 Gameplay/Layout: 7.5 Originality: 8.5 Placement of Stuff: 8.4 Overall (not average): 8.3 Final Rating for One Spot: 8.44 ~ 8.4 (-0.1 for the music bug) = 8.3 Additional Comments: Its a great level to look at and maybe play for fun, but I don’t think I’ll have any serious games in here. The looping bug of the music also gives you a limited time to gaze at the eyecandy and marvel the atmosphere before your ears get blasted by an annoying repeating sound.

Medieval Skyscrapers:
I’ve played this one a lot (even had a clanwar in it). Firstly, I also like the atmosphere in it. The level shows off what the tileset is capable of, and it looks like a fortress. Eyecandy and tileset use is great. The layout of the level is better than in the last. It allows for strategy, and still has originality involved in it (though not as much as in the previous level). I don’t like how it is so easy to hide in this level (by flying towards the top corners, nobody ever goes there) and waste time, but bleh. I found the placement of things to be alright, except the underusage of RF. There were so many situations where RFs could’ve saved the day, but because they were placed in the most unused passages, few players had them (In games with a lot of people, you rarely will have time to get them). The lack of RFs got more annoying because the level was so open which maximized their usage. At least there was a bit of pepper in the way for use.. Still, I like this level. It may have lost my clan an important tournament, but I would still play in it. The music is a nice choice, too.

Rating:
Eyecandy: 8.7
Gameplay/Layout: 8.3
Placement of Stuff: 8
Originality: 8.5
Overall (not an average): 8.5
Final Rating for Medieval Skyscrapers: 8.4 ~ 8.4
Additional Comments: Despite the rather low rating the level recieved, it seems like an interesting level to have games in, although most of them would be 3vs3s or more.

The Melting Point:

Firstly, I like the eyecandy in here. A lot of it inspired Zerox. It has a few tilebugs, but I think most of them are fault of the set and its limits to creativity in certain areas. I like the variety of wall tiles used to prevent repetition. Layout is alright. Its symmetrical to prevent bias. I was never fond of Wind Events in CTF (I don’t like levels such as Superconductor for that reason), but here it is reasonably tolerable. Sometimes its annoying trying to get the carrots though. Also, the small L shaped tubes next to each base that jet you out really fast are a bit useless unless you want an alternative route to go up, since most people would just run for the base instead of the tubes. I guess at certain moments they could provide some form of use. This level is rather original, but a lot of the things in it have been remade (like the backround) and a lot ofthem have been done before (the wind thing). I like the idea of having two +1 carrots and no full energy though, but it would be hard to stay alive with powered up weapons firing at you. Overall, it’s a nice level. I might host it time to time, but I would have few if any important games in here since it doesn’t really feel much of an intense level. Rating: Eyecandy: 8.6 Gameplay/Layout: 8.3 Originality: 8.4 Placement of Stuff: 8.2 Overall (not an average): 8.3 Final Rating: 8.36 ~ 8.4 Additional Comments: A pretty good all around level. Too bad few people play it nowadays, since it could be fun.

Non-Typical Battle:

I like this level. It seems like one of those levels you play for enjoyable games with your friends. It’s rather unique, and has a lot of interesting quirks to it like the jail, the interestingly done shield, and the hidden seeker powerup. Eyecandy is good, but in the other levels it was better. The backround is still cool, though, and the eyecandy is still great. Ammo is placed sparcely but often in large clumps. I’m not too fond of the patterns it is placed in, but it is tolerable. Originality is great. The level has a lot of great quirks in it, like jails, the shield, etc. Unfortunately this makes the level seem like its more intended for open servers with lots of people then intense play. Rating: Eyecandy: 8.3 Layout/Gameplay: 8.2 Originality: 8.8 Placement of Stuff: 7.7 Overall (not an average): 8.3 Final Rating: 8.26 ~ 8.3

Additonal Comments: I would play in this level, but most of the games in it would probably be with friends and on boring evenings or rainy days. I still like this level, though.

Final Comments: The thing I love about this pack is that it shines in originality. Every level has something interesting in it, so even if the levels don’t appeal to you, there would still be something cool in them. I urge everyone to download and play this pack else you will miss out on a lot of great things. All of these levels are good.

Final Rating of pack: 8.4, and definately a download reccomendation.

Great Work!

Ok. Since about 6 other people posted really long extensive reviews about this level I’ll just post a quick summary.

The layout of the level is for the most part, nicely done. I played several games in this and found them quite enjoyable. The level is fairly big, but I noticed much of the activity occured in one place of the level (the center, where the seeker pu and carrot are). Some routes are particularly evil like 68,43, but thankfully there’s another route to get down there. To get around you have to do a lot of jumping, but that made things more interesting in the level. Eyecandy is nicely done, but not overdone. I like the use of the green “bushes” and the cave tiles. Overall it was pleasing to look at. With the eyecandy, tileset choice and music, the atmosphere was very pleasant too. Looking at the level there looks like there would be enough ammo, but a lot of times the ammo is placed in big chunks and spread far apart from other ammo, which makes some areas have more of it and some be empty (although I found the empty ones to be within the main battle area, so thats fine). Powerups are also nicely placed. They seem close to each other but thats because the level isnt all that big. Carrots are also placed nicely, and thankfully for that vine, or the 3rd one would have been almost impossible to find unless you knew where it was. The level played smoothly enough, interesting how there were pinball bumps used.

This level is fun to play and is a solid good level, but I think it’s really overrated (I blame spoy for hosting it so often before its release). 8.2 should do, and I would expect to see this level being hosted fairly often in the future (And congratulations on winning the featured download of the month award, because LRK got lazy ;|).

@White Rabbit

I do agree it is very overrated. I also agree on most of the points in your review, except the one that states you think 3 carrots would be too much for the level because of its size; it was hard to stay alive with 2 carrots in the earlier version, and when I added an extra carrot, ( re-spawns slower) people still gave suggestions like adding a Full NRG with the other 3 carrots.

I intentionally added a death trap for evil players despite people’s complaints, but skilled players should get out of it quickly. As you mentioned, there are a lot of fixed routes in the level, which is good for the size, but I designed the layout that way to make it easy to predict the movements of another player. It’s all for strategy.

@Jarno Vos

The main problem with your review is that it focuses mainly on the looks of the tile-set, not on the level.

-fs

Garden Brawl | Review |
- – - – - – - – - – - -

Eyecandy And Other Stuff
7.5

Make A Little Better Eyecandy PLZ.

Color Of Tileset Cool Gray
Hmmmm. What Can i Say Of The Tileset That You Have Used
Nothing But The Color Are Very Great
An 10 From Me.

P.S. And As I Can Give A 15 Should I Do That.

Animating Stuff
9.9

SUPER But Only
Can You Put What Animating Stuff On Your Eyecandy??

Total Score 10
~jarno

‘You can either get out on the way down or fall all the way to the bottom and warp to the top. The problem is, if you’re jumping in from the top, you’ll need to shoot the block before you get out (if you didn’t do that earlier) or you’ll end up in the same place. And your enemy may be prepared for such an occasion.’

Use copter ears if you’re Jazz. Double jump if you’re Spaz. :-P

This lvl is overrated. eats the overraters and runs away

When I started this level for the first time, I just thought: “wow, this looks so nice”. Lately not many levels give me such an impression, so I was optimistic for this one since the very start. And this impression is still keeping up.

Fire Sword has been a levelmaker of quality for quite a while now. The ones that I played already are Higher Fragging Rate and High Volume CTF – both were very good and I always have fun playing them. This level does not only look good, but it’s also great to play.

Carrots around us
The level is medium-sized, yet it features 3 carrots to pick up. You may think that’s a bit too much for duels, but their positioning makes such thinking wrong. It took me a lot time until I found out how to get the lowest-positioned carrot!

Falling
On the right of level, there is a shaft closed with destruct blocks. It’s perfect for escaping from a seeker shooting enemy, if you manage to destroy the blocks fast enough. You can either get out on the way down or fall all the way to the bottom and warp to the top. The problem is, if you’re jumping in from the top, you’ll need to shoot the block before you get out (if you didn’t do that earlier) or you’ll end up in the same place. And your enemy may be prepared for such an occasion.

The getaway
If you look at all those springs in the level, it looks much like CTF at this point. “Speed-tracks” are pretty much everywhere, so there’s no need to stop. Just jump, stomp or shoot when you need to. There are also some pinball bumps. Only a fool would tell they’re randomly placed – for real they help in manouvering in the level. Very well done on that, FS.

k get ammo
I like the ammo placement. It’s a battle level, so you can be armed to teeth in seconds, but you need to jump a bit for that. My only complaint is that there’s too much bouncer ammo in one place. Power-ups are placed well, too. Maybe 3 of them is one too much for such level size, especially they are seeker, bouncer and toaster – if a duel is played and both players have all power-ups, that can result in quite heavy-arms battle. Oh, the seeker power-up can be archieved only by shooting, so getting full ammo for it doesn’t include kicking/uppercutting the PU.

Beautiful beta
Like others, I’m wondering why didn’t Epic leave the tileset the way it was on the two early beta screenshots. Of course, Pyromanus made it a mix between that, final Diamondus and diamonds from 1.20 version, but still it’s just so much better than final version. Fire Sword did great job on eyecandy, so even if you’re alone on the server you’ll probably want to look at everything around while you still can. The point of view on the background layer gives a feel that the level is positioned on a hill. Don’t forget the leafs – they’re an oldie, but the way FS placed them and the direction in which they are moving is much better than what I usually see in this case. The music fits very well and it’s very good as standalone, too.

Ya gotta have it!
Overall, this is a very good level. Basically I would recommend it for duels, but you can also have some great fun with public gameplay. Just don’t use InstaGib – I think that’s a bad style for this one. And you won’t have time to look at eyecandy and listen to the music. ;)

@White Rabbit – I said you’ll have to destroy them if you didn’t do that earlier. Not that it’s impossible in that moment. It can be even done without special moves.

I might review this level too.

Introduction: Garden Brawl is a level by FireSworD, this level is the first on J2O that isn’t an example level with Pyro’s Diamondus ß tileset. I saw this level in AvK’s server too, and had fun playing it.

About the gameplay, some places have springs that lead you to another place automatically. Great. That this level is small, doesn’t mean that the gameplay is bad. The warp above the bouncy pu is evil, because I can’t get on it, without doing the special move of Jazz. It took a while to find the warp to the one carrot, but at least, I did. The layout is pretty good, but it is open in some places. The springs help you get around easily, so the flow is good, combined with the one ways and so used. The vines will get you around fast too. There is no advantage for any character there. The warps are pretty useful, you fall down and get warped to above, where you can fall down again and turn left while falling. Fun.

Like most people already said, the eye candy is just great. There are alot of trees in layer 3, thanks to the leafs and other stuff, you are really thinking you are playing in a garden(if it was real). The waterfalls and stuff are impressive, just… no real complaints. Every layer was used, and the tileset was used till the end. Gj.

The pickup placement in this level is interesting. There are 3 power-ups. There is a tube between the seek PU and the platform. You need to shoot the seek pu, but when you see it for the first time, you really think you can just walk to it and get it from close. The bouncy pu was on the left side of the level, and it’s under the warp. The Toast PU is placed in the bottom-area of the level. The ammo placement is also nice. The carrot placement is good enough. There is one carrot in a warp that took a while for me to find. There is also a carrot on the left side of the level, that’s under the springs with the Bouncy pu and the warp. The other carrot is placed above a vine, somewhere in the top-middle. Some destruct and stomp sceneries make this level pretty fun to play in, because you have to shoot them to get access to a place. There were also some fast fires, and they’re still traditional in battle levels.

The level is pretty original. There were pinball events, that can be irritating at first, but you will get used to it fast. It’s fun if you are shooted and bounce between a pinball event. I like how the warp was placed. I haven’t seen many levels using a warp that’s placed on such place. And, of course, it’s the first level with this tileset that isn’t an example level, like I already said. The other people that are using this tileset(like me), are using the Lava version of this tileset.

Others: a great Battle level that definitely has to be hosted multiple times, and I am pretty sure it will be in AB7. Great work, FS! I give the level a 8.5, and of course you gotta eat this.

Edit: I forgot to describe the 3rd carrot, sorry =O
Edit 2: made a mistake with the eye candy, as I said the trees were in layer 5. Fixed it. Thanks for voting that this review was helpful.