Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This is a very nice level. A little hard in parts, but very creative nonetheless.

TITLED Deux is a CTF level, set on an action-packed space station with an agreeable song, well-placed eyecandy and more. The added fact of a version with and without pits only makes it look even better.

Setting/quality

As I explained before, it’s on a space station. It’s not 100% symmetrical, but does have a familiar rhythym to it. Some areas were brighter or darker than others, which added more fun value. I didn’t like how easy it is to memorize the routes, however clever they were. Which they were.

Buggyness/likeability

No real findable bugs that I ascertained, which is nice. I liked how the combination of springs, floatups, and freezing-device-thingamabobs was used to propel you from one part of the base to another. However, the seekers were a bit camper-friendly, which is sad.

Music and miscellaneous junk

The music fit well [razor-ub.it]. It had kind of a futury, spacey feel to it. Exactly the kind I had in mind.
This level runs smooth in TSF, and could work in 1.23 with + [although I haven’t tested yet, it doesn’t appear to have any TSF+-exclusive events]. Yay!

Straight talk to the reader

So, what more could I possibly say? Good work, and bring us some more later? Well I was kind of going to say that, but let’s lavish a bit of praise on the end…
In short, TD is a very well done level with a few minute flaws, but hardly enough to tear it down incredibly far. Dl this now.

This is a cool level.
OLO’s fanolint level is made indeed with the Sonicnathan 1 tileset, a file curiously unreleased to J2O but of fairly nice quality. Music is JJ1 accurate, buggage is low.
I didn’t like the large amount of baddies in the level. This unfortunately seems to be a recurring trend among most jazz1 level aspirations, another of which is a depressingly small amount of singular eye candy. The level had a good style, but seemed to have a large amount of pickups.
In short I liked it, but there are [as always] some things to go back and fix up a bit. Dl rec, cause I’m feeling generous.

EDIT:
Okay, I guess you were right. In some ways…
I fixed up most of those things you pointed out to me. =)

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 fixed the tile bug in that one spot. Thanks for finding it!
Also fixed tile gaps too. =)

I’ve waited a long time for a review that wasn’t thought of as “total crap”. Well, any way. Nightfall in Noobland is a very nice level, set in the outdoor environs of Carrotus and features such things as several powerups, lots of ammo, a couple carrots, plenty of warps and shortcuts and more. It has a lotto potential. I didn’t really think music fit that well, though it was pretty funny. DL rec. andnice level.

Heh. This is an incredibly small tile set…
But it’s a usable one [as extremely surprised as you may be, any tileset can be used]! Jusst barely. It’s a good thing its set to n/a comment, or you might get some baaaaad vibes. Only a few repetitive lines of blocks. Minimal eye candy. If anyone could make a decent level with this, i’d be so amazed. Oh well. Your call about dl’ing.

I liked this [I am referring to all 5 parts in this here review.] upload. And I’m sorry that you’re leaving. Hope you come back again!
The five parts contain Jazz1-accurate songs, which are handy when creating levels themed with JJ1. No glitchy spots, no messed up instruments, this pack[s]‘s got it all! However, some very minute [very much so] deviationson notes does occur,but not too badly. A good addition to the J2O community.

Hmm… I think I saw this in a pack once upon a time…
Nice, nice, nice! Fields of Gold [by Quickz] is a nifty little battle level, with good eye candy, better tileset, hardly buggy, and yet with a strange shortcoming. That shortcoming would be “what’s with the out-of-place music?” I know, it almost sorta fits. But not snugly. The haunted track doesn’t really fit with the heaven tileset. I would instead recommend “hgwill.xm” as a music, as it fits a bit better.
The tileset has enormous possibilities, and sure enough, is used to a good extent. The clouds in the background [forgot which layer…:(] give it a lofty, other-world-above-ours feel. The rest of the level used the flamingoes, the statues, the pictures, the whole lot of it is coordinated pretty well.
FoG didn’t have really any shortcuts, like hidden passages or sucker tubes, which I feel increases appeal to most stages. Level sizing was excellent. Buggage wasn’t really there.
So in short, this level is sweet, though not perfect. Give it a dl, and see for yourselfs!

Hmm…
this prog was okay. Certainly better than some space invader clones I haveseen floating around, but I’m afraidit’s rather primitive. It is almost completely bug-free, except for theone Lark pointed out. Still, it is a fun little program to play,
even though I was never at all good at Space Invaders. :(:(:(
Oh well.
dl rec, I suppose, and nice work.

I liked this. It contains a lot of useful information about things that can be done with JCS. And yes, it includes things that I never knew were possible. Like the weapons launchers [generator on hook spawns seeker turret, etc.]. And the shield bullet spawners. And there’s another glitch my brother discovered: If you freeze a superbot, it will stay frozen for I believe a long period of time!
Anyway, good job, dl rec, and goodnight.

I have no idea why Piccolo keeps up with those annoying reviews, but I wish he’d/she’d stop overrating things. It makes it hard for others to see what it should really be rated.
This one was dislikable, just as the other two were. However, I would have to point out that the Turtemple song WAS slightly better than any of the other previous ones. But it didn’t contribute too much to the pack, and certainly not enough to warrant a dl rec.

Ohh, more of same old! This is I’m sorry to report bad like the others. Especially Muckamuk.I thought it sounded hideous in JJ1!
Still, you could make out the sounds, if only too well. As is with the other Xmas remixes,theonly instruments are air guitar, drums and bells. Not even any work involved, just replacing voices with other sounds. I disliked it, and will give you a 2.0

Paranormalio?! what on earth?
I agree totally with Danyjel, I hated this pack a lot.
The songs were trash. Okay trash, but trash nonetheless. I don’t like cracking down on people, but I gotta ask here “what’s the finking deal!” All the instruments not counting drums are replaced with either the semi-ugly JJ1 guitair or the very-ugly bells. It just doesn’t cut bait with me, and I cannot justify a dl rec. 2.1 sound about right.

Okay, so what we have here is a nice little group of songs, which like MaliceX said, span JJ1 and some JJ2, sadly not JJ3D [I call it 3D Because that’s what it actually is. Go find the leaked version online]. There are 2-3 different variations of every song, each uses slightly different instruments. I liked some of them, like the Haunted ones and the the Diamondus ones. [that’s my opinion, don’t downsize my review because of it]. But, I didn’t like some of the others, like the medivo and letni ones. They weren’t quite so hot to me. But nice work, and n/a dl rec.

Wow. That was the one word that came to mind when I ran this. It delivers what is promised and more (The JCS launcher, however, doesn’t work :() and does so with the touch of a professional.
The episode manager is easy to figure out, it tallies up all the episode files in your Jazz2 directory [as long as you unzip the files there], tells you how many more you can put in there before the program will crash, gives you the options of deleting the extra episodes, or deactivating them [which has the same effect as deleting, except you don’t lose ‘em], tells you the name of the episode, and if it is activated or not. Very spiffy, no bugs detected there.
The Jazz2 launcher is even better: It totals up all the levels in your JJ2 directory and puts them into a giant list. You can delete any number of levels. It will also tell you how big each level is, and when it was last modified. Then, if you select “run”, it will give you a host of options, ranging from using a spy window, to keeping game logs, to detecting joysticks, to detecting hardware, to even safe mode! It bypasses any passwords, essentially pulling the “save and run” trick in JCS, but without the JCS. Very neat! Again, no bugs.
The one thing that saddened me was the fact that despite its amazing potential, the JCS launcher fails to send the knockout blow. It is essentially the same thing as the JJ2 launcher, but runs JCS instead, and obviously doesn’t have the graphics options. But when you hit “run level”, it gives you a runtime 53 error! Oh well, maybe it’s just missing a file or something. But that is a huge bug, and perhaps the only one of its kind in this[these] progs.
Since my primary JJ2 directory is TSF, I of course tested it [all three] there and found to my delight that it worked! Yay!
So to wrap up my critique, I’d like to saya few things about RedJazz’s Jazz 2 Utilities program bundle. Very, very well done, only one outstanding bug, prompt and quick. I was truly amazed by the usability factor of it, and how incredibly easy it was to pick up and learn. This will definitely be a big help in my level testing and episode managing in the future, and I heartily recommend downloading it. It’ll be something you’ll appreciate as I do for the rest of your gaming days!

EDIT:
I need to take back what I said about the JCS bug, because I figured out the problem! Here’s the scoop: The JCS launcher will not work if you rename your jcs from “jcs”. It needs to be named jcs in order to work. SO I’ll raise you to a 10, accordingly. Again, great work!

Wow. This was a nice level to play. Crimiclown’s Devil’s March level [perhaps it should be marsh, instead of march? Oh well. They both work.] is a DOM level, with pits, points, and position. Good eye candy used in manageable amounts. A nice, serene audio song. Not to say that it’s completely without a blemish, but there are few indeed of those. With a working and well-used tileset, this area delivers the goods and more. But allow me to elaborate…

STRUCTURE

The structure was solid. No dead ends, no ill-placed items, no stupid little traps. As I went through and played it, I couldn’t help but notice how remarkably unsloppy the level was. Each event belonged. Every tile seemed to belong.

The tileset picked was a good one, too. Omen Woods: Swamps is a unique and quite usable tileset, and clearly it has been used well here. Masking is good, no real anomalous mistakes here.

GRADE: great

EYECANDY

This level has some nice eye candy. From ghoulish gargoyles randomly littered, to dark caves and open plains, to a misty, fluidic miasma of purple goo at the bottom, DM contains notable detailing. I would have maybe appreciated a little more eyecandy in layers 5-7, but the netting of leaves adds a wee bit of flavor back there. The occasional canopy of fall-thru leaves is nice. The on-and-off addin of a flower here and a tuft of grass there lends March a certain natural “outdoors” feeling. Good work!

GRADE: nice

COLORS

The red and purple background only serves to help the level, as it gives it a scary sort of feel. When combined with the teal-greenish shade of the terrain, and the dark blue cave walls, the tileset and level carry a powerful punch. It works in the level’s favor that everything fits so well. Not to say that it’s 100% perfect. No, it has its shortcomings, which I will elaborate on in one of the next couple sections of my review. But for now, colors are good, and that makes me happy.

GRADE: great

BUGGAGE/SIZE

Buggage was not something I could find in the map. This obviously means that our Crimi has done a good number on weeding out bugs. This definitely increases my approval of it.

Size, however, was not entirely perfect. While it wasn’t extremely small, I felt it could have been just a wee bit larger. Don’t confuse me, it was almost perfectly scaled. It was certainly high enough. And actually the size was pretty close to what I felt it needed. My bigger beef is that 2 out of 3 control points were towards the right of the screen. The other was in the middle. Why? There could have maybe been a point or two over leftwards. There was surely room for that. But they weren’t right next to each other, which is good to hear.

GRADE: great

USABILITY/LIKABILITY

This level is for sure an attention grabber. With its brusque naturey theme, its minimal buggage and practibility, Devil’s March is a very well-to-do stage. Perfect for a level pack, or even just by itself [as it is here]. It has some noticable ideas.

I liked how the warp wasn’t a central part of the level [like soo many designers make it…], or easy to find [which even more designers make them]. The reward was a worthwile one, although it could in theory be possible to just sit in there and camp all day long :(. But hey! It was nice.

GRADE: sweet

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

Well, now we come to problems and there don’t seem to be any major ones. That is why this section is not called “problems”, but “things I didn’t like”. The right-handed control points weren’t very outstanding. No singleplayer start position, although this is only a downside if you actually test levels out in singleplayer. The low number of points is also sad.
There’s not much for me to harp on in this place, but there are plenty of good things to say as well.

GRADE: nice

MUSIC

I liked how the music fit the level so well. Most people would think that a creepy song would befit this level, but really this is just not the case. A watery, boggy song fits just as neatly as does a scary one, if not even better. Great work on the audio selection, and also not using annoying ambient sounds.
Ambient sounds can be tricky to use. Use exactly the right ones, and your level can become alive in a completely new sense. Use them wrong, and the level can seem totally ridiculous. You chose not to risk using bad ones, and did not put them in. While it certainly would have been nice to have some of them, having none is better than having awful-sounding ones. At the peril of sounding like a busted record, sweet job!

GRADE: cool

STRAIGHT TALK 2 DA READERS

To say it again, this level is a wonderfully designed one. From the nice eyecandy, to the good structure, to the appropriate music, to even the few blemishes, this level fails to fail. A refreshing reprieve to other areas of its own kin, Devil’s March by Crimiclown is a very enjoyable level. Download this very instant, before I call the Exterminator!

DL REC: well, duh….

YES!!!

RATING:

9.4

I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I mean it’s a really good organizational tool, but that’s all it really is. Just a reordering of the groups. I’ve done that plenty on my computer.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying to not download it, but it really does not deserve a 10. It’s not that different from my own custom jcs.ini. Still, I gotta give EM credit for writing it and putting it up. Neutral DL rec, as I’m not quite sure what to decide.

EDIT: Oh! I just realized that this was uploaded on my birthday! Wahoo!
No rating effect though, sorry. =(

Well, well! Another level from OLOELO, and about time too.
Pretty good level design, eyecandy was okay. Music was right, and buggage was small. I do think there were a lot of baddies, but oh well.
THINGS I LIKED
I liked how you gave the bg a partial link tone. I know, it would have been nice of Lark to at least put the JJ1 bg in his set, but that has naught to do with this review. I liked how you used the eyecandy pretty well, with some “open”-feeling areas, and some tight-feeling ones.
THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE
I didn’t like how certain areas seemed too small in terms of level design. There were a multitude of tubes at the beginning, which can get to be a bit monotonous after a while. Not a hugely upsetting amount, but a pretty big one.
There were some spots where the tiles just seemed to repeat. But only a few. So to wrap up, and to go and eat my supper, good level, nice design but just a few things to fix. For a brief hiatus, this is pretty neat. DL, but don’t forget to fix it up a bit.
Cheers!
-PT

What the-?
That’s what I first thought when I saw this tileset up on the list. Not only is there NOT an apparent JJ1 Carrotus, but this set is a complete RIPOFF!
I hated it. JJ1 Carrotus is almost entirely a recolor of Diamondus, with a few very ugly useless tiles put in to make it seem like it really was Carrotus. Anims were good, but the set itself was alarmingly Diamondus’like. I recommend against downloading it.