Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

After playing this level online for a bit, I enjoyed the gameplay, albiet it has a very conventional layout that reminds you of several popular levels. The layout is built three linear levels of height. The highest level contains a Full NRG carrot placed above some tubes, which can be shot all the way to the bottom of the level. (JE inspired somewhat?) A useful but quite well known and predictable tactic. However, there are two +1 carrots as a possible back up plan for campers at the Full NRG unlike in JE though, but a smart player could shoot the carrot down and control all three at once.

The middle level is a straight path from base to base, with several holes that can be ran accross or fallen into the go to the bottom height level. Luckily this level does not have an RF PU, else I feel there would be too much chaos on a linear path such as this. However, while there are many ways to the base there’s only one direct way of escaping after capturing the flag; a warp situated in the corner by each, in which an enemy defender will probably be camping the warp target which is very near the base, ready to finish off a weakened player who has taken the flag.

The bottom level contains the two power ups, Bouncer and Toaster. This spot is argueably the safest in the level, and so flag carriers will probably want to hang around here until it’s safe to go RTS. There are two tubes on either sides containing the +1 carrots, and the tube in the middle can be taken for easy access to the Full NRG. Alternatively, a flag carrier could call out a team mate to shoot the carrot down and be ready to catch the carrot when it falls.

Moving on to the looks department. The level uses a tileset which combines some tiles from both 7th Lava Fall and Desolation (ironically, two very similar tilesets), in which this level uses fairly well. I’d have prefered it if this level took a bigger advantage over using tiles from two sets though; and put the two together with more dignity and creativity. It does have that nice UT vibe to it though, probably realised by the music choice.

Who would I recommend this level to? Here, you will not find anything here that would make it worth playing over other levels, which is why I’m not giving it a Download recommendation, however this is a really decent level which both hardcore and casual JJ2 players alike will enjoy. I’d honestly not be suprised if this becomes popular someday. Myself, I prefer levels that take a more innovative/genius approach to their design.

I’m reluctant to do this, but seeing how hideously overrated this level is, I felt like I had to do it. That’s the only reason why I’m reviewing this.

Chilly Swamps is a very small battle level created by now inactive Arti (aka Camou), using the (very overused and kinda boring) Swamps tileset by Agama. Due to the small size, this level feels too crowded with any more than 2 players, so in public servers this would be very annoying to play in. The layout has a “floors of height” design, meaning there are platforms in rows on different levels of the Y axis. This layout is not too interesting, however there are no serious gameplay problems here. It’d be better if the level was larger and had a more varied design. The flow was rather tilty; I had to constantly run and stop, turn around, run and stop, etc. In other words, the level does not flow smoothly like a good level like E.Prime. I also feel the water at the bottom was unnecessary.

Placement is not great. The ammo is not evenly spread; some areas of the level have a lot of ammo while others have barely any. The top left in particular has about twice as much ammo as the rest of the level put together. It’s mainly placed in lines of around 5 or so. Although I prefer large groups, seeing how small the level is this doesn’t really raise much of an issue. There are 3 powers up, the common Bouncer/Seeker/RF mix. Due to the level design, Bouncer will probably favour over the other two. There are two carrots, which are placed ok.

Nothing really much to say in the looks department, for it looks exactly like the usual bunch of swamps. The author did not try to attempt anything creative with the set aside from the weird floating branch platforms, but yet they look ugly and out of place. The only saving grace was the music choice, giving this level a peaceful and enjoyable atomsphere.

In general, I wouldn’t reccomend this level, as it has nothing here that makes it worth playing over other levels already existing.

Interesting background, with a few nice touches to the sprite layer. Although the seeker PU is campy, it doesn’t really matter that much since in Domination you’re a total fool to be hanging around while the Control Points are open to attack by the enemy team. Layout is not anything too spectacular, but is decent enough I guess.

While visually fantastic, the tileset still suffers from a number of problems. For starters, the leaves and the tree do not tile perfectly, and the mask is iffy, although the thing that harms it is it’s lack of versatility. The tileset reminds me of inferno in the aspect that pretty much all levels made with this set will look the same.

This level reminds me of Aend in the aspect that it is open, yet at the same time very tunnely, a common type of layout in a more enclosed level. Since the level is open, there is plenty of room to move around in, yet it’s built in a way that it won’t get chaotic. Theme and EC seem good enough, music is a solid choice.

Due to the very small size yet large amount of PUs, games here will tend to be very chaotic. The float ups, while a nice thought, get annoying after a while and will hinder you if you overshoot the base at the wrong time, leaving it open to enemy attackers. This idea reminds of the tube in QQ somewhat, which can be very frustrating at times.

Fast paced, innovative, exciting, and most importantly extremely enjoyable; this is a very well designed race level, and one of Rag’s best levels to date. If you like the Race game mode, play this.

Quirky, but fun level.

EDIT: I’d just like to point out that the wind tunnel can be ripped through quickly with just a single RF kick, which makes moving between the bases possible in about 5 seconds.

This is an interesting level, with a solid theme and nice little touches, however the layout favours the red team quite a lot.

Sorry for the very long delay, but here is the review I promised. I don’t feel like posting a massive review, but whatever, here goes.

SuperJazz has put a ton of effort into organising and building this pack, which becomes very obvious once you play through the levels. This pack contains a whopping 15 levels, more than any of the other packs released so far this year. The levels are mostly very high quality (Atom Heart in particular), however a couple of them feel little more than “filler material”, just made to fatten the pack up. (The Fights of March :|)

That being said, however, this pack is top-notch. All the levels have some very nice EC (especially Earth which looks awesome); nothing looks unrealistic or unrealisticly repetitive. The gameplay is also just as great, the levels are spaced out well, they aren’t filled with dead ends, they’re relatively easy to learn and flow well in general (Center of the Universe being an exception D:). I have no gripes about the item placement either.

Here’s a brief summery of each of the main levels:

Atom Heart is my favourite level of the pack, by far. It looks great, has a very strategical layout and is quite creative in some aspects, for example the PU placement. [8.6]

The Sun Fired Blanks is a very large level that is also symmectrical, with a linear yet solid layout, however I don’t like the fact you used solid layer 4 tiles in the background. Like the sprite layer eyecandy though. [8]

Center of Universe has a pleasant, calm atmosphere and an interesting layout, but it has practically zero flow which makes it annoying to move around in and seriously affects the gameplay. Aside from that, it does have some nice strategical defensive options. [7.9]

Dim0rphic is another big level, except this level is very hard to learn but is quite unconventional, but a few of the gimmicks here just seem tacked on. I personally hate the the Thermal Carrotus tileset, but at least here you managed to get away with that. [7.7]

Earth is my 2nd favourite level of this pack. There are some very original eyecandy things here, it has superb gameplay and just feels…cool. The layout might be a little hard to learn at first though. Sitll, definately one the best CTF levels released so far this year. [8.4]

The Fights of March is the smallest level of the pack, and to be honest just feels like filler material. It’s not bad, but just feels somewhat worse than the rest of the pack. [7.3]

Greater Legacy is the biggest level of the pack by far, and feels so imitidating with it’s eyecandy and size combined. I really love this level though, it should be great fun in an event despite being hard to learn. [8.3]

The Frozen Throne makes the best possible use out of the Glacier, tileset, and despite being rather small it can work with pretty much any amount of players. [8.2]

Central Shaft has a layout which is very vertical, and is significantly bigger than The Frozen Throne. It’s quite complex and takes some time getting used to but should be fun with several people once it’s learned. [8.2]

I haven’t really had a detailed looked at the other levels, but I image they will be fine too. This pack is still an absolute must-have. Host these levels often.

kthx

I guess it doesn’t look too bad, but it doesn’t offer anything the normal Diamondus set doesn’t other than a slight colour change.

The idea of a pinball table used in this level is pretty poorly executed and doesn’t really work effectively at all in the way this level is designed.

Another great installment in the Devres series. I was hoping for it to be a little longer though. Nonetheless, download reccommendation all the way!

The fact that the eyecandy feels so “in your face” because it is very overdone, and some of the animations and sound effects were annoying enough to distract you from the gameplay, means that this level was just not fun.
The layout is also extremely open, encouraging mindless weapon spam.

If you like chaos, download this, else don’t bother.

Nothing particually outstanding, but still a decent battle level that’s worth downloading and hosting a couple of times.

Well, this is a decent remake, but I felt that more could of been done. At least the author tried not to make it just a meer tileset change by making a few modifications to the gameplay, which improve it a little, although doesn’t effect it drastically. I think this is an ok effort, but is nothing compared to the awesome Charnel Keep.

Eh, pretty bog standard battle level with conventional gameplay, placement, eyecandy, and pretty much everything really. It’s not bad I suppose, but it’s just so normal that it just feels very boring.

These levels were all decent, although it seemed that there was something was missing and I felt some of them were a little lacking in certain areas.

Still, nice job DS. If you ever get bored of the current popluar levels, download these.

FS pretty much said all of the stuff I was going to say but whatever, here goes.

Both of these levels impressed me on first sight. They are both great for JDC events and also exceptional levels for the upcoming AB10. Not much to say, download these.