Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I dislike the bottom and middle area designs, but this is the best first ctf level I’ve ever seen.

I was able to rf-sidekick past the walls and enter a +1 area at 43,19 (JCS position); I was stuck there.

If you use the green springs at 10,43 and 72,43 (JCS positions), you’re required to use the poles nearby to reach the ledges above. I’d prefer to reach the ledges with just the green springs.

The areas leading to the bases are extremely campy, so that’s definitely not my cup of tea.

The background eye-candy shows there’s a night-time thunderstorm, and I’d prefer the black tile to be translucent, because the background won’t look so overwhelmingly dark.

Whoever controls the top will control the entire level, I guess.

As for positives, the level is reasonably balanced, and most of the items are decently placed.

I don’t have much of anything else to say about this.

I played a few games here, so I should have a strong-hold on the gameplay.

Starting with EC:

It’s fairly logical for the stronghold theme, but there are some illogical things: The brown pillars near the bottom sides lack shadows when they support stone ceilings that project away from the pillars. Some bg stone tiles are in front of some brown pillars, but most of the brown pillars are in front of the bg stone tiles. Loose sand doesn’t erode easily in waterfalls here, but is that even sand? – Also, the tileset doesn’t have “mud” tiles anyway. The bg clouds are zipping at a very high speed, indicating a very fierce wind, but the surrounding scenery is calm. The stronghold lives up to its name for being able to withstand such wind-speeds. I realize those issues are minor, and they can probably be explained easily, but they are noticeable enough to consider. Anyway, this is just a 2d cartoon rabbit game, so whatever.

I like the bg hills, because they are well executed with plenty of levels of elevation.

Overall, I’d say the ec was executed well, but some minor things are questionable.

Gameplay:

Well, it wouldn’t be much of a stronghold if it wasn’t secure (balanced) and “fool proof”, and this level mostly functions like a stronghold gameplay wise, with fairly balanced teams and item placement. There’re some “secure” control points like the top middle. The escape routes, despite their name, are death traps if your enemy decides to camp their exits, so that’s “secure” too. Contrary to what PurpleJazz stated, I don’t think this level is unsuitable for duels because of the easily controllable top middle, I think it’s preferable for team games because of that. I noticed some places are relatively hard to rf climb up to, but could be easier to reach with wall-jump: Getting up to 92,41 and its opposite side are examples.

That’s all I have to say. A very solid, enjoyable level probably best suited for team games of 3vs3-6vs6.

Frozen batlevators will act like bats out of hell.

Inconsistent difficulty with most of the levels. I aced most of the test, but the last level was a pain in the ().

I think the eye-candy is slightly distracting. I’m not dissing the “rainbow” concept though; it doesn’t lend itself to the game-type very well in my opinion.

The version of top secret 3 you didn’t include is Gus’, not Overlord’s default top3 that’s supposedly “in everyone’s cache or jj2 folder”.

Despite all of the negative points, it’s still a reasonably difficult test to…maybe…play on a rainy day?

No rating. I just wanted to comment.

Played it a fair amount of times, quite difficult but never gave up, finally won. Good job.

Thanks for the mention even though I barely tested this. I just saw it on a server. Still, thanks a lot! – I Love the mention!

When the crate is destroyed with many players close to each other entering the warp, many players can reach the platform, instead of one player at a time, which you intended. The crate won’t regenerate in time to prevent them from reaching the platform together.

Anyway, I think JDC has some more cool new levels to play in events, including this one. Good job!

EDIT: Your text string specifically says: “There is only Room for one”

A bit biased with the rating, but I don’t care. These are some of the best battle levels I’ve played for jj2 so far. Sfalls2 and E. Prime held up quite well through the years. E. Prime IS a classic!

I got to play an ffa here with some others.

I’m reviewing this through exchange.

What caught my attention first is the eye-candy. It’s quite varied throughout: Some places look solid, others look random and more natural. The eye-candy is well justified by the theme, which is about reveling a rain forest.

While the eye-candy is quite varied, the layout also reflects that. Is that a good thing? – While the level generally flows well with practice, the flow is quirky in some places, and I even got stuck near the seeker pu (you know the pos _ ).

Other game-play related things like carrots, power-ups and even food were placed well. I didn’t have much trouble gaining health; it wasn’t easy to become invincible, but not a struggle to stay alive either. The seeker pu, as far as I know, can only be obtained by using the copter to bypass a ceiling spring while you have a sugar rush. It’s not too hard to accomplish that, and I’m thankful such a power-up weapon takes some effort (and luck) to obtain, as seekers are quite deadly with this layout.

Not much else to say really. I encourage that players should try this level more in JDC events, public servers and ffa.

Contrary to White Rabbit’s review: The right side has a higher gem amount than the left if you count the gem barrels and gem deposit, as mentioned in CCRead.

TreyLina: Your opinion on pits makes no sense to me as I don’t see any problem with warps being a means of escape other than defeating the purpose of it being a pit. Also, aren’t players going to use the coin warps as a means of escape anyway?

However, depending on the design of the level, falling into a warp means other players can take advantage of it and camp the warp target (assuming there is only one), thus discourage falling in the warp.

No ammo near jails? why not? give a reason.

Carrots are essential? maybe we can have a jb without carrots!

Shelly: For future levels I suggest better use of the tileset. The way you used the metal beams in the sprite layer certainly doesn’t look very pretty in my opinion, and I’m pretty sure most would agree.

As for gameplay, this level would be a whole lot better if it wasn’t so cramped in a lot of places. Not only is it cramped but it is also very limiting. Limiting layouts can be interesting if done right, but here it’s just a camp fest. The platforms in the middle have terrible placement because it’s somewhat difficult to move around them. I personally don’t mind as I can play anything for fun, but flow is generally highly regarded for mp levels.

Lastly, the gimmicks are nice, but misusing them results in really bad gameplay. So it’s nice the characters all get different stuff but does it balance out? jazz having a bubble shield and spaz getting rf certainly does not.

All of the battle levels play pretty good imo. DDRR has a great camping spot, which might be annoying for some players. Most of the ctf levels have pretty natural designs; GotS is balanced, but I question the others in that area. Neufrlagar and Junkyard Blues have some truly impressive eyecandy imo, perhaps the best I’ve seen so far.

The main appeal for me here is the crazy theme, with the bg layers and some layer 4 eyecandy making the level feel busy, but not so much that they’re distracting or annoying; in particular, the moving white dots and scrolling bg. The layout seems very solid and playable, if not much variation.

Deinspirated Mayhem’s layout reminds me of a mountain. I think that level could’ve worked better with a nature tileset, but that’s just my opinion. Underworld is a small level probably best suited for duels. So nothing much to say really, just two decent levels. Keep it up!

I’m not sure exactly how to rate packs as a whole compared to single levels, so I’ll rate this based on which levels would actually be played. In other words, I would rate highly if one level would be played often, and if I find it fun to play in.

Fawful made some awfully big levels in this pack with awfully complex concepts. There’s definitely a lot of vigor put into some of these levels. If there ever was a need for the exclamation mark “!” this pack certainly deserves it. However, how was that vigor harnessed?

There’s certainly a difference between throwing darts at a dart board and throwing spears at it: Spears will likely destroy the dart board. Overkill is overkill, and I never enjoy playing in epically big or complex levels, simply because it’s harder to roast other players, and it’s often how easy it is to roast that makes jj2 fun. Of course there are exceptions, and many ways to design layouts that allow for them to be slow or fast paced despite size.

I like to compare levels, and I don’t care what anyone thinks of it: Myopia and Starlit Summit are somewhat similar, but there are also differences. Starlit Summit has a well thought out design imo. After playing Starlit Summit a few times in jdc events, it was quite enjoyable, but most players would agree it’s not suitable for smaller games. Some players thought it was still too big. In some games I recall it was extremely hard to score points, and they would end at 3. While being slightly horizontally smaller, Myopia is vertically bigger, has 3 full nrgs (Summit has 4 separate +1s and 1 full nrg), fly carrots and the layout is more open and spread out than Summit. If Summit is barely playable in jdc events, why the heck would I want to play Myopia in one? – Myopia might be OK in jdc events, but I don’t see it becoming an ideal level for them. In fact, some games in Divide and Conquer have been pretty slow paced as well. That aside, the music is nice, and in my opinion faw’s best track so far. By the way, Myopia is blurred vision; the effect presented in the bg is not totally consistent with the concept, but whatever.

Moving on to Downtown Maze: This probably has the weirdest CTF layout I have ever seen. I am pretty sure this level isn’t very balanced. I am definitely not fond of the layout organization. I’m not really sure what else to say about this, but I definitely don’t want to play here.

Neglected future is a level I did get a chance to play, and it was decent, but the layout could be better if it was simpler. For example, there were times I wanted to go straight up to blue base from the blue spring under it, but I was delayed by a green spring. Also, if you use the same blue spring to go towards the upper platform at the right, you’re required to use another green spring on the platform below it, but it doesn’t bring you high enough as jazz (but spaz can double jump). Jazz and Spaz can, however, make it to that platform fast with the aid of the suckertubes, this is a very weird concept though o.O. Another questionable spring placement is at the far right side, where there’s a ‘hole’ by a red spring, and you can camp there or something, but I only want to go straight up. There’s a green spring that can only let you reach the red base area, but reaching the other area not far above requires a bit more effort. I’m not sure if this level is that balanced, but I didn’t notice any balance issues while playing here.

Technoligized Sonicwaves is probably the most well rounded and playable level in the pack. My favorite ec aspect is how the solid tubes and suckertubes are used, just that little detail impressed me. I recall playing at least one game here, and it played solidly.

Klassieker for the Sn00zE has another non-symmetrical layout that is also very weird. I’m not sure how balanced the level is, but the layout is just so wacked out I can’t imagine it is.

Electric Factory has a somewhat symmetrical layout with bases at opposite diagonal corners of the level. No…just no. Of course, faw does not want me to rate this level in the pack? – Beats me.

Hard cheese is quite a solid/standard ctf level with at least one nice tactic I’ve noticed, and this is probably one of the best levels in the pack. However, playing this level really does feel cheesy thanks to the tileset.

Now onto the battle levels.

Pleased with Presents features a concept where players can only fall into pits if they are frozen, this is a very nice idea on how to deal with pits. Playing here a bit I can say it plays decently, even if the layout organization could yet again be better.

Knight FurnFace is the most annoying level I have ever seen. I have always liked wacky, silly or abstract levels as they fit pretty well with jj2, when I made that statement I wasn’t thinking of refined versions of zappo levels. The overall look is amazing, but technically it might as well be crap. Just like those abstract paintings that look like something a child made. The layout organization is nice, and I can see the big idea here. The problem with this level is the execution. Perhaps a different tileset or a different use, and this level could be one of, if not the best looking level I’ve seen so far. So I suggest redoing this level, it potentially has the ‘wow’ factor.

Favorite Park is not my favorite park unfortunately. It’s nice that I can use toaster underwater, and it’s also nice that I can walk and run underwater. So is that even water, and if it is water, why is it there in the first place? – Anyway, this seems like a solid battle level, and it can make for a few fun games every now and then.

8th heaven is a tower level. I mean, it’s a tower level in the sense that there are simply 3 towers, really, just 3 basic towers. The level is quite big, so I don’t see myself wanting to play here often.

Radioactive seems like it could be a decent battle level, but it’s quite…empty. Really, this level is kind of boring.

Moving on there’s a dom and an fr level.

I have already complained about the eyecandy in Hideout Center. Also, this level is a lot more complex than a normal fr level. So I’m really unsure about this.

I had got a chance to play Alien Heart in a jdc event once. While it played decent, there were some annoying things like camping at the seeker pu and +1. I’m serious a +1 and a seeker pu are TOGETHER.

So..some decent levels, and some questionable ones. In my opinion, Technoligized Sonicwaves is the best level in this pack, and the main reason to download Planetary.

Ah, mini levels. Sometimes these are my favorite type of levels since it’s easy to roast other players without much effort, and they work for quick duels. Levels of this size are often used for instagib, to be hosted one after another. A lot of luck is involved, but the sheer randomness makes them fun. That said, these levels look decent, but nothing particularly amazing. Some interesting but weird things like getting stuck to obtain toaster pu (o.O). Mini levels 1 and 5 felt pretty bland, and it isn’t necessary for most of the levels to have symmetrical layouts.

Still, these levels accomplish what they are made for, and that earns this a 7.2 and a dl recommendation.

This is an example of a clever concept with poor execution. It’s quite a cool idea, but this level seems to need a lot more of…everything. I suggest remaking this either with a slightly bigger layout or a more limiting one. Also the ec is decent, but it could probably be better, the bg was nice though.

Sorry PJ, I just don’t think this is quite worth the 8 rating since I don’t see the ‘wow’ factor here. What is nice about the level is the tileset choice and use, while perhaps not perfect has a very nice overall look. The music in combination with the tileset use inspired me. Gameplaywise, despite having 3c + a shield remains solid.

Oooh, I actually like this level. Not that I’d reccomend it for actual play as it’s far from perfect, but there is a certain interest factor here. Next time you make a level try to aim for something more well rounded and make sure you get the level tested over and over and ask for advice. Some advice may not be helpful though.

I look forward to more work from this author.

I have always liked wacky, silly or abstract levels, as they fit pretty well with jj2. This level is creative and wacky. After playing this I thought the layout could’ve had better flow and a more intuitive layout but it was still enjoyable. The gameplay fits the theme so that’s good enough.

Definitely D/L reccomended just for the theme.