Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Let’s say a few words about Evilmike’s CTF level, Helldome.

First off, the eyecandy was great. EM used the Where Bad Rabbits Go tileset to construct an environment indicative of the gates of hell (or at least, how hell is most commonly depicted), and it’s pretty wicked. No pun intended.

Plenty of various types of ammo. Springs are placed so as to help the player quickly move from side to side of the level.

The “deathpit” at the bottom of the level warps you back into the level. Now, I didn’t really like that for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it takes your flag away if you’ve stolen another team’s flag, and that’s very irritating. Secondly, if you (Evilmike) are trying to convey the image of a CTF gone to hell (literally), shouldn’t there be some…I don’t know…death involved?

I also wasn’t a big fan of the music. Sure, it provided an action-oriented environment and it was kind of a little spooky, but it was also a little too ‘technological’ for me. Didn’t fit very well, in my mind.

In the end, I think an 8.2 sounds about fair. Good job with Helldome, Evilmike, and a definite DL rec.

It sure seems like I’ve been reviewing a LOT of Ragnarok’s levels lately, doesn’t it?

Never mind, because most of his levels, including this one, are pretty danged good.

Dusk uses the Traditional Japan set brilliantly, with imposing Japanese palace-things on both sides of the level, a small handful of pagodas housing CTF bases in the middle, liberally distributed ammo pickups and a couple of powerups, namely the RF and Toaster ones.

Eyecandy was placed without qualm or reserve, and it really enhanced the overall appearance of the level. Take, for instance, the rock caves in the upper midsection of the level. Instead of just making a plain old flat wall, Rag punched a cheese grater through the back, creating holes left and right, some of which he placed waterfalls behind. It was the sign of what all good JCSers do, which is work with what they have and make something really good.

One problem I DID have with the eyecandy was that all of the waterfalls seem to be moving at the exact same speed. Seriously. I would’ve liked to see maybe some moving a little faster, some moving a little slower, but instead everything moves at an identical rate. Bummer.

Eyecandy aside, the gameplay was smooth, bugs were generally avoided, and the whole level rocked.

I didn’t download the song (since I’m paranoid about that because I got nasty spyware the last time I tried that), so I won’t include it in my rating. Knowing Rag, though, it’s probably also really good.

Therefore, it seems in the end that Ragnarok has continued his winning ways with Dusk of Serenity, building another champ level that just happened to take DL of the Month in its respective month. Great job once again, Rag. DL rec.

EDIT: Waterfalls fixed. Rating modified.

Whoa. What a level.

I was very much impressed by what Ragnarok was able to do with the JJ1 Battleships tileset, taking it and building a race the likes of which are rarely seen.

Lost Luggage Landfill is expertly built. There’s clever Spring traps that can both punish and reward a player, depending on how they’re used. There’s loop-de-loop segments, where the racers go through one section, then make a return circuit through it. Like basically everybody else here has said, gameplay was completely on point, and this level rocks.

That being said, I was VERY confused by the segment at the beginning (which I am quite disappointed to find no one else addressed in their reviews) with the in-wall trigger crates, which although doubtlessly intended as a whimsical flourish of excellence, ended up frustrating the bejeebers out of me.

Which was too bad. I dunno, maybe I’m missing something important regarding the fancy sequence, but I’d be willing to bet that’s the bug that Daemon was talking about in his review.

Rabbit trails.

Contrary to what he insists in the upload description, Rag seems to have an uncanny knack for building race levels. Lost Luggage Landfill, once past the annoying intro, is a terrific race and a blast to play. Ragnarok’s good, and his levels even better. Download today.

There aren’t a lot of people who build race levels. Still less who actually care about them.

No, I’m completely serious. Next to Treasure Hunts, quite possibly the most irrelevant and unspectacular multiplayer mode of Jazz 2 in terms of quality custom-built levels is the Race category. For whatever bizarre, unappealing or totally unexplained reason, JCSers just don’t want to put in the time and effort required to create a decent course.

Because of this, J2O members generally pay little to no attention on the rare occasions when a race (or a Treasure Hunt, for that matter) is uploaded. After all, nobody ever makes worthwhile maps, so what’s the point?

As a result, the vicious cycle comes full circle, returning to the JCSers who are not properly encouraged to try and make these sparse and often unappreciated styles of multiplayer levels.

My point is compounded by the glaringly obvious fact that, despite being a Featured upload with 446 downloads, Ragnarok’s race level has but one quick review and but one full-length review.

True, that full-length review may happen to be a Featured Review, but that’s mostly because it’s the lone votable review for the level, and is thus the most likely review to be sampled on the front page of J2O, which in most cases greatly contributes to Featured Review status.

The whole thing’s a terrible shame, really, because Nature’s Plot of Land is one of the best races I’ve EVER seen. And believe you me, there’s nary a level to challenge it.

First off, the structure is fantastic. NPoL meshes perfectly with its Mystic Isle tileset, going from expansive, roomy caverns one minute to steep, foreboding cliffs the next, then magnificent waterfalls, then winding subterranean rivers…the list goes on and on and on.

Ragnarok then avoids the classic blunder, the biggest of which is getting involved in a land war in Asia, but only SLIGHTLY less significant is to never put warps where they don’t belong!

Princess Bride quotations aside, Rag chose not to take the cheap way out and use a space-age teleporter in a naturalistic, outdoorsey environment to warp the player back to the start, instead employing a really cool sucker-tube-aided passage that flings the player through still more earthy tunnels, magically depositing them back at the start.

Beat that!

NPoL uses Mystic Isle brilliantly, with just the right amount of eyecandy dotted in various places to make it seem natural. A-plus there.

Then there’s the obstacles. Oh, be still my heart! Ragnarok showed a masterful flair for levelmaking with the obstacles he placed in this race. Spring traps (Cleverly executed ones like the Blue Spring right at the beginning never grow old). TnT booby-trap crates. Freezers to immobilize fellow players, powered-up RFs to knock them backwards (plus an ingenius method for procuring them), Keep-1 springs (A lot of people miss this crucial level-building trick, which prevents springs from automatically killing a player’s left-to-right momentum) that send the racer flying off the edge of a cliff.

The TnT crates are especially devastating in the underwater segment.

I was also VERY happy to discover certain types of ammo that Ragnarok left OUT, namely the seekers and toasters. Seekers used to be my favorite weapon, but they’re so overrused now that I’m absolutely sick of ‘em. Toasters would serve little purpose on a race anyway, so it’s good that they’re not wasted here.

The weapon I was most pleased to find present was the Pepper Spray powerup. Pepper Spray is so underrated, due to its complete uselessness in singleplayer. Nevertheless, it is instrumental in multiplayer, thanks to its minuscule size and difficulty in subsequently avoiding. It works great here.

NPoL had a great song, too. Its fast pace kept me hopping through the stage (as any good race song will), yet it was organic enough to be completely appropriate for this level. Hats off to Rag for an excellent selection.

Not much needs to be said about buggage, since it’s basically nonexistent.

The absolute ONLY criticism I have is the “Bouncy Cliffs”, where one tile is slightly high enough that, without a full head of steam, it requires a few tries to successfully climb up.

Think about that for a minute. THE WORST THING I CAN FIND TO SAY ABOUT NPoL IS THAT ONE TILE IS PLACED ONE SPACE TOO HIGH.

Summary? Nature’s Plot of Land took my breath away, not because it was such a tremendously well-executed upload on all fronts (which it was), but because it went almost completely unnoticed by prospective reviewers. I probably wouldn’t have even played it at all if I hadn’t picked a random level of Ragnarok’s to evaluate, in exchange for his own review on one of mine.

And just think of what all I would’ve missed out on.

7.8?! Heck, no! This race deserves better. So much better.

It was an almost perfect upload, so I’m going to give it an almost perfect rating. Nature’s Plot of Land was a terrific level, and I think it’s just plain ridiculous that people don’t make races like this more often.

Wonderful job, Ragnarok. Wonderful, wonderful job. Two thumbs up, a standing ovation and an immediate and unconditional download recommendation go to you today.

Huh. Well, maybe.

I guess I’ll change the label, just to be on the safe side.

Aha! I see my betatester has been rather busy himself.

Scorpio Key had some great colors, tons of potential-packed tiles, and the example level was cool. I was pleased that the tileset was so well organized, and a lot of new, inviting tiles from other JJ2 sets were provided, i.e. the rope bridges and sunken ship blocks.

The song totally fit, too.

I also thought that Violet’s gravity-defying vegetables were pretty fun.

Perhaps the only reason this upload suffers is because it’s yet another remake of Carrotus, easily one of the most overdone planets on J2O. For the most part, Carrotus remakes drive me crazy, since so many people make inferior and (honestly) poor quality versions.

Not so here. This is a refreshingly clean tileset, it’s redefined how I see Carrotus remakes, and I heartily recommend its download. Somebody’s gonna make an amazing level with this set.

9.0 does sound like a good number after all.

This was a very interesting level.

On the one hand, Blas7er did a lot of things right with this level, providing some nice, visually satiating eyecandy, a few tricky challenges and some classic Jazz2 segments that remind you why they’re called “classic”. The music track, while not very original, was nonetheless appropriate, and gave the level a nice aura. The length was just right for a singleplayer level, although a bit long for a mere demo.

In these regards, Classic excels quite nicely.

Unfortunately, the level also suffers from some rather Classic mistakes, most notably the TSF cats, the extremely limited boss arena and the “Dragon Tower” segment (for lack of a better name) that requires an uppercut/double-jump move to access which leaves poor Lori (for TSF users) out in the cold.

The choice of baddie elements was also questionable, with such strange creatures as lab rats and devil dogs making their presence known here.

In an aside, the Blast’em Block segment at the beginning is very confusing. If you (the author) are going to make it a Bouncy-only block, could you maybe make that a little easier to divine?

Most of these problems can be easily fixed. Add an extra floor tile at the bottom of the Dragon Tower. That way, Lori can get in. Change the Blast’em Block animation at the start to a Bouncy Block picture (the tileset SHOULD have one, but if it doesn’t, then maybe use some combination of text strings to let on to the player that that’s how to get past the blocks).

Change the baddies to Lizards, Tuf/Normal Turtles, Float Lizards, Dragons, and (maybe) Dragonflies.

Take out the coin warp, or at least make it into a side route. I forgot to mention this before, but it was very frustrating to get there and find out I didn’t have enough coins.

Remove the TSF cats (Addon Sparks), please. That way, non-TSF users can play this level. While you’re at it, make sure the level itself is compatible with 1.23 (standard Jazz 2…just download the J2L convertor on this site and use it).

Revamp the Boss Arena. I’m not sure how to give you advice here, since there’s no real baseline Boss Arena rules that one needs to follow, save that there’s plenty of room and that it’s quality gameplay. Just be creative.

On the bright side, I WAS impressed by how clean the level was of bugs. You did a good cleanup job, and I tip my hat.

In the end, I think 6.1 sounds like a decent grade to hand out. Classic, while it suffered from a few sizable errors, was still a pretty fun level to play, and for that reason I recommend a download. Despite the low grade, I see hope for it.

EDIT:

-Warp is fixed
-Baddies are better tailored, although the TSF cat is still there
-Boss arena is slightly improved
-Dragon Tower is fixed
-Bouncer wall at the beginning is slightly better elaborated, though still a problem. (Try using text strings)

Revised rating: 6.9

Sorry, my friend.

Not only is this tileset NOT from Stargate (and I’ve seen almost every episode, believe you me), but it’s NOT worth a perfect 10.

For your (the uploader’s) sake, I will list each problem, then give you a possible solution for it.
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The level was quite small. There were about four or five main rooms on one long, narrow ship, and a little flying around action on the outside. Everything was too one-dimensional.

The solution here is obvious: Make it bigger. Add at least one additional deck to your ship, if not two.

There wasn’t enough ammo. In addition, the fans inside of the ship were a little irritating, and the pipes on the outside even more so. The trigger crates served little purpose, and the Fly Off on top on the ship, in conjecture with the bottomless abyss at the bottom of the level, was very frustrating.

In keeping with the last solution, put some more ammo pickups and sundry in the new rooms you build. In addition, put a carrot or two in. Carrots keep you alive, and to not have even ONE in your level at all is tantamount to a federal offense within this community. Remove the trigger crates, since they do almost nothing.

Remove the Fly Off on the top of the ship, or at least create an MCE Death Pit at the bottom of the level. In case you didn’t know it, the very bottom of Jazz2 levels is NOT an instant death pit. You will hang in place there for the rest of time, and this is an absolute no-no in any level.

Take the interior fans out, please. They’re just plain annoying.
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On the converse, your level DID have a decently good song, being the JJ1 Battleships song. Always remember, Duke, that a level’s song is almost as important as the level itself. Atmosphere can be created or ruined with music, so getting a good background track is essential.

It actually earned you points in my review, which otherwise would’ve graded you MUCH more harshly.

The eyecandy of Star Ship Terra, while not terrible, was nonetheless quite underwhelming. Odyssey is such a potential-loaded set. Use it! There are so many impressive levels using this tileset, so take a page from them (although don’t rip them off outright, ‘cause that’d be rather cheap).

In closing, I would like to tip my hat to you, for beginning your legacy here on J2O. Keep chiseling away at your craft, and watch it improve. Lord knows mine has.

Unfortunately, that also means that, since you’re in the thick of the beginner’s doldrums, you’ll get a lot of negative reviews until your levels start turning heads. It’s all right. Hopefully, you’ll improve quickly enough that you won’t have to get used to the sensation.

No download recommendation at this time, but just wait. Time will tell how far Duke can go.

@Leus,

The White Tile can be achieved in certain tilesets by using a solid color tile in a Layer 8 textured background. If the palette of the tile has been appropriately tailored, it will make the textured BG one color, often white or black.

Anyways, I loved this set, for all of the reasons that Leus mentioned. The hole in the floor (borrowed of course from the Haunted House tileset) was clever, the bones were neat, and none of the colors of Aquarius were hard or unpleasant on my eyes.

My one issue with Rage of Aquarius is that the Castle tileset is so overrused. There’s half a million recolors, palette swaps and custom versions of the set that it isn’t too original anymore, and successive versions have to be REALLY good to capture my fancy.

Fortunately, RoA is.

Good tileset, download today, and start making totally awesome levels with it.

Wow. That’s a great word for this set.

Great colors and excellent eyecandy. I thought it was great. DL rec.

All right, I promised Cooba a quality review for this on the Review Exchange thread, so here I go.

I’ll start this off with Big Apple Beatdown, since that was the first one I played. When I hear about featuring anything related to cities or the like, I think, “Oh, Lord. It’s gonna be another poorly executed Turtleville debacle”.

Thankfully, in this case it was not.

Big Apple uses the Industrius tileset expertly, the level being built in a tall vertical style that evinced the sensation of climbing higher and higher within a city. I liked how I (the player) was constantly moving higher and higher.

Continuing in that vein, it would’ve been really nice to have seen a lot of wide open space at the top, to symbolize having reached the rooftops, as opposed to the current sensation of getting partway up the building and stopping. It kills the mood a little…but not enough to seriously hurt the level. Events are placed well and nothing quirky or stupid was present, so I was, overall, quite pleased with BAB.

And now, for Precinct 83.

Let’s be honest. TechNoir (not many people get the capital “N” right) is a pain in the donkey to use. It’s so limited, the conversions out there right now are incomplete and frustrating, and it takes a skilled levelbuilder to make anything remotely engaging with the set.

That’s why I was so pleased to find Precinct so solidly built and so cleverly executed. While the background does leave a lot to be desired and the eyecandy gets a little monotonous after a while, it’s never enough so to completely turn me (the reviewer) off. Structure is sound, events are pretty well placed, and for a CTF it’s pretty fun.

If you know me, you know that I do very little CTF’ing, so that’s a high compliment.

Anyway, this level was fun, and it made respectable use of a lousy tileset. Definitely a plus in my book.

Perhaps the only real drawback (if you can call it that) is that the musics were…well, not very original. Both levels use the standard TechNoir and Industrius songs, and we’re talking about the standard versions, not some cool remixes. Granted, it was better than using a couple of really dumb or unfitting songs, but it would’ve been neat to see some creativity in that department.

Oh, well. We can’t all get what we want in life, can we?

Is OLC’s Jazz 1 CTF Pack worth a download? I think so. Both levels were playable, fun and clean of major gaffes, so that was good. I had fun playing it, and heartily recommend its download. You’ll have fun. I know you will.

Wow. Has no one seriously written a halfway decent review for this thing yet?

Allow me to put you out of your misery, Dodges.

This is a great level. Not perfect, but great nonetheless. The color palette is oddly reminiscent of Inferno Day, but that’s okay because it’s a good color scheme. Not too many bugs with the tileset. Example level is promising as well.

There’s a lot of good eyecandy present here, which is every levelmaker’s dream. No particularly ugly tiles, no serious gaffes.

Overall, I think it’s worth a download. Blizzard has good eyecandy, agreeable colors, lots of options and a load of design potential. Snarf it up, kids.

Keep in mind that this is a (relatively) older level, and that it’s been God only knows how long since I’ve made a decently memorable battle level.

This was one of the bizarrest tilesets I’ve EVER seen!

The sprites worked fine and the colors weren’t too appalling, but I just wasn’t really drawn to this tileset. It was just a strange tileset.

Better luck next time, I say.

Meh. This is a wierd level. Not only do I not get the point of it, but I found it just plain strange.

Ostensible rating: 3.0

How did this pack go so thoroughly under the radar?!

No longer.

MSM jack rabbit’s Final Flashback pack is good. Not perfect, but nice nonetheless. Many people have requested Jazz 1 remakes, but few attempts are worth playing.

This one is, despite a plethora of fallacies.

For the sake of convenience, I will evaluate each level individually, then summarize the whole thing.

“Stoned Jungle*

Pros: This level does a great job of varying its own structure, moving seamlessly from one style of eyecandy to another. The flow was excellent, the events were well placed, and it was a blast to play.

Cons: The events were well placed, but there were a lot of them. Also a lot of goodie items. While the trigger crate segment had some cool animations, it WAS a little gimmicky.

Great Escape

Pros: Built in the style of a concrete metropolis, GE takes the Pezrock tileset and uses it in a completely new way. Run your way through the city, break into high rises and steal treasure and enjoy the well-executed level.

Cons: I did have a few concerns here. Many of the trees weren’t one-way, so I got hung up on them. Likewise, it was a little difficult to find the route. Some paths were blocked by Blast’Em Blocks hidden too carefully. The TSF cats could’ve been replaced by the 1.23 dogs, making this a standard Jazz2-friendly game.

Crystal Caves

Pros: It was a good long level, but not too long. Execution was good, and I made it through alright. The ostrich and lizard were turned into pseudo-baddies, which was done quite cleverly.

Cons: Ahh, yes. I did have some issues with the Crysilis levels. The excessive gold and silver was very hard on my eyes. While the ostrich and lizard were clever, they more often than not got in the way, which was frustrating. It was monotonous to an extent.

The Lost Rabbit

Pros: Much like the first level, it was decently well executed and innovative.

Cons: It was too bad that I found more to criticize than to praise in Crysilis. The ostriches in the foreground, while clever, were visually unappealing. This level was very gimmicky, and difficult to play. That being said, it could’ve been worse.

Chase the Ace

Pros: Once I made it to the ship, this level was pretty fun. It’s huge, it’s challenging, and it’s cool.

Cons: The airboard part. It was SO frustrating! A tip for the future: Don’t make invisible warp mazes. They just don’t work. There was too much to shoot at here, and it got old fast. The boss was interesting once I figured it out, but until then, it was annoying.

Revenge of the Ace

Pros: It’s a lot like the first one. Big ship, lots to do. Pretty fun.

Cons: You start off the level in the mouth of a Plesiasaurus spaceship. Then you run down its throat, and get pulled through the ship.

Okaaaay.

There was an absurd amount of stuff to shoot at, and things get frustrating. Eyecandy was allright, but not very original.

Fight With Ace

Pros: I love levels where people use custom boss events. If they’re done right (and it was here), they can be pretty fun. Plenty of ammo is provided, so that’s no issue.

Cons: There were way too many Countdown Blast’Em Blocks. I had to spend an eternity shooting through row after row after row just to get to the boss. Then I had to figure out how to activate the boss. Once I did it was fun, but getting there was nightmarish. It would’ve been very nice to see a save point before the boss.

Golden Ball

Pros: A requisite bonus level is, of course, required in any good Jazz 1 remake. Here it is right here.

Cons: Once again, the eyesore eyecandy of Crysilis returns. This reminded me more of a normal stage than a bonus level, and there were so many baddies and pitfalls that it wasn’t pleasant at all.

OVERALL SUMMARY:

I was astonished at the cleanness of the pack. There were very few bugs to speak of, and in the earlier levels at least, I could get around pretty well. Music was pretty good too.

However, Crysilis and Battleships tanked for me, and I had a hard time coming up with positive feedback for them. Fortunately, the common rookie mistakes I was expecting to find seemed for the most part absent (like tileset bugs, inaccessable spots, things like that). Good job on that.

It’s time I wrapped this review up, so I’ll say this in conclusion: It was a good pack, but needs a lot of work. You’ll get it right, MSM. Just keep crackin’. DL rec, because despite its shortcomings, FF was still a good pack.

Wow. I can’t believe no one has seriously given this level a decent review.

So I guess I will.

This level came to my attention through the Top Ten Neglected Levels thread on the JCF, so I thought I’d check FF out and see how it was.

Frontier Falls is simply magnificent. Not only is the level squeaky clean of bugs, but it also has excellent eyecandy, using things in ways most levelbuilders wouldn’t even imagine. Like using a textured BG as a waterfall. Would YOU have done that? Would you?

If you’re not Fawful, then no, you wouldn’t have.

Gameplay is smooth, mechanics are good and it’s quite a pleasure to play. I didn’t download the music (since I’ve gotten computer viruses that way before), but if it’s as good as the level, I’m sure it’s just fine.

I can’t believe nobody has capitalized on the opportunity to score free reviewer points here, because it’s certainly a great place to do so. Frontier Falls is an excellent level, and I heartily recommend its immediate and unconditional download.

Lord in heaven. You guys are all way too nice…

Haunted.it is one of the least remixed songs in all of Jazz Jackrabbit history, so I loaded this track eager for a good, rousing rendition of the scary ghost song.

Unfortunately, all I got was a recital by a couple of strings and the wind instrument section of the orchestra.

That was really unfortunate, since this was a great opportunity to make a neglected song such as this one truly shine. Dr. Eggman’s overture (I call it that in keeping with the orchestral thema) only used a small handful of instruments, most of which sounded like the ones from the original song itself. I didn’t hear a particularly fulfilling bassline. The percussion section was interesting at first, but quickly grew dreary. The organ didn’t appear until a little over two minutes into the song, and by then it was the end. No ominous low notes came into play. The oboe/clarinet/whatever was done to death. The whole song seemed to be light and airy, which is the polar opposite of what a spooky, goosebump song should be.

I was so disappointed, because this could’ve been such a great song. Instead, I was let down in a major way.

Now, I really do hate to be so critical and negative towards anybody, so I’ll point out for your benefit that the song WAS pretty clean and didn’t have any (particularly) ugly samples. There were no detuned instruments, and certain channels didn’t drown others out in the process of playing. Believe it or not, it’s not easy to get channels to sound this good (take it from one who knows)!

Sadly, clean channels just aren’t worth what they used to be.

5.9, and I just can’t bring myself to recommend this for downloading. Sorry, man. I really hate to do this.

But I am anyway.

Okay. That was the word that kept appearing in my mind as I put Dr. Eggman’s song on and prepared my review. The song was okay. No serious gaffes or ugly channels, no bad samples or clunky spots. It was okay.

But “okay” was all that it was.

It seemed a bit slow at parts, like the same patterns were repeating over and over again, with a slightly changed line or a different instrument each time. Call me overly critical (or even hypocritical, if you’ve listened to some of my earlier songs), but did it sound to anyone else like the same thing was repeating? For a four-minutes-and-change song, excessive repetition is never a good thing. Once through was more than enough for me. And it didn’t even GO all the way through, since about halfway through, it just stopped. Went to the next track.

The main basic notes of Marbelara also seemed to get a bit lost in the mix.

That being said, all of the samples worked well together, and if I skipped over the repetitive parts, it was actually a really cool song. Even though it wasn’t terribly original, the melody of Marbelara still poked through at strategic spots, just enough to remind the listener that it was there. I do wish though that more than a few seconds of the original Marbelara song had been utilized.

So, in the end what is my final verdict? My biggest issues with this song were its monotony and its incongruity with the original JJ1 song. My biggest compliments were its nice samples and its lack of gruesomeness.

However, good samples and a clean track do not a good remix make.

6.7. Download only if you really want to.

Sheesh, guys. Who put the 8.5-burger up here?

This level does not deserve that high a rating.

Granted, it WAS a nice level. The gameplay was consistent (not too hard, yet not too easy), the music was good, the tileset used well. There were some things going in Stronghold’s favor.

However, I was much appalled by three things: The wacky lights, the confounding event placement and the quirky nuances. Using darkened lighting is a double-edged sword: If it’s used properly, it can provide a charming ambiance. Used improperly, it will confound and madden the player, leading him/her/it to simply type JJLIGHT or JJINV, and bull his/her/its way through to the end. The lighting events here were frustrating, to say the least.

Consequently, what started out in the upper half of the level as solid enemy placement quickly turned into confused chaos below. I could barely see what I was doing in parts, and it drove me half crazy stumbling around and running into baddies I didn’t even know were there. Particularly irritating were the one-tile holes in the floor, which held invisible baddies and were evidently intended to be some sort of thorn or spike.

These holes lead into the third problem I have, which is that of the intellectually thunderstrucking nuances. Up by the coin warp, I touched a wall and got hurt. I later learned that there was a Schwartzenguard event behind it. When I finally DID access the coin warp, there were regenerating demons, an absurd number of goodies (even for a JJ2 bonus warp), plus a one-way floor that wasn’t properly lined up with the red spring below it. None of the hogshead barrels in the level were one-way events, which caused me to get hung up on them. Similarly, some of the vine/hook conjunction events were a bit buggy, making them hard to use. There were even sucker tube events placed in thin air to prevent the player (me) from accessing certain areas!

And now, since I have totally shattered your self-confidence and destroyed your will to live, let me give you (the author) a few tips to make this promising level even better.

That’s the first piece of advice I have. This is a salvageable level. Believe me when I say that I have reviewed no-hoper levels that were a LOT worse than this. This bodes well for you. Don’t give up on Stronghold, because I’d really like to see an improved version.

Next, clean up the lighting events. This alone will solve half of the level’s problems. Cut the level of darkness in half (in other words, make it 50% brighter than it was before). That way, potential gamers won’t be hit by unwelcome surprises. If you were to gradually decrease the lighting gradient, provide a more gradual transition to semi-darkness, that would be an impressive flourish.

Take out the sucker tube barriers and just build the walls higher (or the floors lower). You don’t have to completely cut an area off, as long as the player can’t get through without cheating.

I didn’t mention this before, but try and tailor the specific baddies to the tileset. Labrats, Skeletons, Demons and Fat Chicks don’t really belong in a castle tileset (There’s very few levels where a Fat Chick does belong, by the way), so replace them with Fencers and Bats. It’s amazing how much sharper a level looks with the proper goons.

Take out a few of the powerups in the warp. Remove two of the three shield events. Seriously, you can only use one shield at a time anyway, so what would you need THREE for? Likewise, don’t regenerate the Demons. It’s hard enough to figure out how to get out of the warp, so don’t make it any tougher. Eradicate the invisible thorns. They’re annoying.

Oh, and take out the funky Jazz Airboard crate. It’s just plain wierd.

On a more positive note, your eyecandy was pleasant, and your music was a smart choice. I’m quoted (or I ought to be) as saying that music alone is worth up to half a level’s score in most cases. A good level with an inappropriate song suddenly becomes a failed level. Likewise, a shoddy level can gain slight recognition if it at least has a fitting track. This level had a good song…with the notable exception of the boss song, which didn’t seem to work very well. Dance music just doesn’t jibe with a castle level. Sorry. I would recommend Warhead.j2b instead. Rename it to Boss1.j2b, and warn downloaders to backup their original Boss1.j2b before extracting. That way, you can have a good boss song (As a couple of my upcoming singleplayer levels will)!

Therefore, in conclusion, I’d like to say that this level, as full of flaws and errors as it may be, is still a quality level. As long as the player liberally adjusts the lighting and uses invincibility in places, Stronghold is a decently fun stage. Look for an even better version in the future, after GreenTechB makes a few strategic changes.

For now, though, I’ll have to give it a 5.8, although I WILL recommend a download simply so that you (the reader) can appreciate its potential.