Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Nice techno sounds and fast beats. GJ!

Very cool level. Good eyecandy and it was fun to move around. But I got lost all the time when playing it so as a battle level I didn’t like it as much as I had expected.

I did really like the eyecandy in this level! The combination with the foreground & background layer + the 3 warp spots in this small level make it somewhat confusing to play & learn.

When I saw the fix thing in the tileset i thought OMFG why I didn’t see that? But it was almost nothing to worry about ;)

Thanks for the nice ideas, Good teamwork!

Wouter: i added some crucial tiles.. so it is also an improvement on the normal pallette. btw, the contrast from the diamondus 1 pallette is better too

tis tileset arrangement is good

i think tis could be useful aswell as unuseful at times i will give tis a 9

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

Pt.. i removed some seeks.. (note that there weren’t a lot off seeks and there isn’t a seek power up what also prevents seek spam)

also.. the tileset is not an fix.. but only som add-ons

there are now 3 spots off seekers.. most times 5 to 7 missiles on each spot.

(ignore the text saying it’s an fix.. i don’t know why i named it like that.. but i removed the maskings from the foreground things atleast.. you shouldn’t rate the tileset parts anyway.)

Well, very…. interesting level…
Not what I expected, Aurora Citadel is a Christmas level using the Holidaius ’98 fix tileset [which doesn’t really appear to BE fixed, but ow] and is very unusual. Why? no layer 8 bg. The level is devoted to seekers, having so many spots with them that I lost count. The amount of hidden shortcuts and side routes amazed me. The eyecandy was quite nice.
So to finish up, I will give a rating of 7.9, and a neutral dl rec, because the level was good but the high concentration of seekers unnerved even me.

Just some tips: It is A CHRISTMAS, not AN CRISTMAS ^^. Also I is spelled in CAPITALS. ^^

Gameplay

The flow is good, I also recognise some of FF’s famous sucer tube-spring cominations. What bothers me most however, is that the middle platform in this level only contains 2 ways to go down, which are at it’s both ends, while there are more ways to go up. I would have like to seen a 3rd and maybe also a 4th way to get down from there.

Eyecandy

The eyecandy is pretty nice, especially for this tileset. There is plenty of back and foreground, while layer 4 also posseses great eyecandy.

Originality

There isn’t a lot of originality in this level, that is also what I miss the most.

Sorry for the not so long review, Im busy :p

Gameplay: 7
Eyecandy: 8
Originality: 6

Final Grade: 7

I recommend this download for playing public in the Holidays.

Now, these are some nice tileset edits, or pallette edits orso…
The only question is, why are 1 & 2 just the normal Diamondus tilesets?

Wouter.

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

Faw tried here. While the new additions may come in some use, nothing really here is added to increase the overall usage of the set. It’s not a bad attempt, but really doesn’t achive much. The 4th pallette looks quite nice though, although a little twisted.

FawFul: There’s nothing absurd about Stijn’s review. He’s entitled to have an opinion about your work, and to defend it. Just as you are entitled to disagree with his rating and his arguments. However, you’re overreacting. I don’t see how did you infer hostility from Stijn’s review – your comments about personal attacks and distrust are out of place here.

Master Sven: Please don’t jump into the gray area of public debate.

Certain people: Please do remember that downrating a review just because you disagree with the rating is wrong. Like Stijn said, read the review first, and think about what you’re doing. Grytolle, who took time to read through Stijn’s review (even if he still downvoted), is a good example.

I want this mess to cease, starting now. I don’t want to see this kind of situation to happen again, so please let us cooperate.

i did read before downrating stijn’s review… i don’t see why other tilesets than the original would be relevant for the rating of this one

for the rest i think the screenshots look cool, but i won’t review since i don’t make levels anyway.. maybe that’s why i don’t see why it would have been good to reorder the tiles either

This is yet another Diamondus edit with yet another set of new palettes and yet another rearrangement. Basically it contains most tiles the IC edits of Diamondus add and then some, but in another tile configuration, making it impossible to use these sets to “upgrade levels” using that – practically standard – edit.

The new tiles are put throughout the tileset randomly at places that used to be empty. I’d have preferred to see either a total rearrangement (as this breaks backward compatibility anyway) or at least the new tiles in a logical order and arrangement. The new tiles are basically a pitch black layer 4 background tile and corresponding stuff-with-black-background tiles and some versions of the vegetation tiles with a blue background. There’s some waterfalls too but those are also in other Diamondus edits and are ripped anyway so I don’t really see that as something to recommend this set for.

Then there’s the palette edits. One is obviously based on a Diamondus ß palette (or maybe it has been used before, it looks awfully familiar at least); the other one is dark with red sky and water. There’s no example levels so I can’t really judge but as far as I can see the combination isn’t that pretty and a more subtle contrast (or also adding red tones to the other tiles) would’ve worked better.

In summary this tileset edit is minor at best and does not offer any advantages over already existing Diamondus edits. The palette edits are not that interesting and the tile arrangement doesn’t work that well either. You’re better off using one of the other Diamondus-based sets out there.

edit: in response to those who apparently can’t take it if I write a well-argumented review that doesn’t happen to give a high rating: how about actually reading my review before wrecking the helpful index :)

I didn’t quite share Master Sven’s enthusiasm for this set. It was, I’ll admit, a fairly good remake of the set. An extra cave type [really just a black wall bg], some modified trees, a couple added tiles here and there, it’s basically just a re-edit of the orig Diamondus palettes upload [also done by Faw, I believe, good job on that one…].
Nothing much notable about this one, except maybe the nice color variations and minimal buggage. No music was used, in fact no example level was used at all either! This strikes me as unusual.
So in summary, I liked this a lot. Not certainly enough for an 8, but I liked it. Positive DL rec, I guess. :) Oh, and a 7.0 rating.
EDIT
I did read Stijn’s review! And I hold no grudge against him for it. I just don’t happen to agree with his opinion…

I was awaiting this tileset. The pallette swaps are very nice and really add to your level’s atmosphere. Also I am quite a diamondus fan and this conversion gives me the opportunity to build better levels with this tileset. I would like to say to everyone: Download this and make at least one level with it, cuz its nice.

EDIT: I Agree with FF. Also I really hate PPL who give helpfull ratings for tileset reviews. (-)

BIAS: you shouldn’t say DOWNrating but just giving a helpufull rating…

Nice tileset conversions. You’ve added some crucial tiles and made two nice pallette swaps. Especially the brightgreen-grey version appeals to me. You have no reason for not downloading these.

Yeah, I’d have to agree with cooba there, it’s not all it’s mocked up to be…

Quality was allright, in that it was a decently playable ctf level, but while playability wasn’t the issue, eyecandy was…
My eyes were severly abused by your eyecandy. It wasn’t innately bad, in that it wasn’t inappropriate, but you used it [the eye candy] very poorly, lashing the user with too many bright colors and useless junk. Definitely some work needed.
Music did not fit with the level at all, it should’ve had an Arabian feel to it, not this “new discovery” idea.
Like cooba said, the level is structured with baselike concepts, which would take a while to get down pat. What’s with the off-limits areas? That’s just stupid. Could you maybe just not have put them there at all? But, I will comment on how good the concept was, on how funny the scrolls were [Kill the chickens! KILL THE CHICKENS!!!], on how well overtly structured the level was, so there were positive things here.
To sum up, I think you could’ve done better. You are very skilled at this, it’s just not the best it could be. I’m tempted to say I understand how you feel, but I say that to everyone so it gets old fast. Just keep a’hacking away at it, and it’ll be even better then before!
Readers, you decide if you want to download. It’s a good level, but the bad factors cancel out the good.

Okay, Faw, your level’s not bad. Pretty good, actually. Eyecandy was excellent, music fit very well, and tileset was maximized in terms of performance. I think I’m actually gonna hafta give you an 8.9! Because I didn’t really see any foreground eyecandy, and this bothered me, and the intro part might cause impatient people to leave the server [their loss :(]. But I can comfortably say that this is a good level, keep it up, and a definite download recommendation.

I think This Tilesett not realy Good. i dont Like CTF levels but No bad level :D

9 is extreme overrating.

The eyecandy is a mess. This level attacks you with a multitude of colors basically everywhere, with the ambient lighting making it even more chaotic. The amount of decoration in every place feels almost forced to some point, there’s just too much at too many places. While this is apparently a palace, every piece of the layout is random and unordered as if it was a nature level all over.

Speaking of an unordered layout.. this level is almost like a battle level with bases. It would take a while to learn some basic routes and tactics here, let alone master them.. This level may be sure challenging, but it’s on the end of the spectrum where annoying levels go. I’m not sure if anyone would consider playing here.

Overall, a lot of effort went into this level, but in some places it went into details that shouldn’t have been there. Keep making levels, but make them less messy, please.

(PS. The text strings were very bothersome, by the way.)

EDIT: I didn’t mean to say this level is completely bad. It’s obvious that a lot of effort went into it, shows the months gone into JCS’ing. It’s just that the level is more to look at rather than play, which is not too good. Overall, I’m giving this a 7.1 not because it’s bad, but because it’s not very good yet.