Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I know it’s a pretty late review but here we go.
Intro: Intro is nice.

Level 01 cooba :
Overall a nice, fun and well designed level! The snowman, penguins are pretty cool. The level introduces us to Gift boxes which is a nice gimmick. The crystal shards area was pretty cool too. Checkpoints might have been spread out too far though.

Level 2 Jelly Jam, Level 3 Primpy,Level 5 Slaz:
Overall nice levels! There isnt something extremely super ultra mega remarkable around them (they all fell the “same” because of the lack of scripting), but they were fun and definitely an integral part of the pack.

Level 4 Blackraptor :
The level is very very visually pleasant, great eyecandy everywhere! It’s the most beautiful looking level in the pack.
But the tunnel part…
The goddamn tunnel part….
That was the biggest pain in the ENTIRE pack, I cant count how many times i failed that part. It was extremely confusing and non-intuitive, and the dark ambient lightning make it even harder. Even with a guide it still took me many tries to get past it.
The second part is nice, but it was difficult mainly due to the “death pits“and it was a bit confusing. (also the first part had some confusion factor too)

Level 6 PurpleJazz:
Best level in the pack without a doubt. Well designed and beautiful looking, literally EVERYTHING about this level is great. The boss is amazing too, but I didn’t even know about it until months later (apparently I inadvertently skipped the boss without knowing it even existed)

Level 7 ShadowGPW:
The level was generally good,but the difficulty comes from the spam of ravens. The level had way too many ravens, like, WAY too many ravens, so much ravens that it became an annoyance. So that’s a downside to the level.

Bossfight PurpleJazz:
Amazing bossfight, definitely one of the best bosses in JJ2. I personally find it pretty difficult (I reached the boss with little to no ammo) so I couldn’t really spam seekers or all that crap. The final phase is definitely brutal, he attacks so fast that when you go left to dodge his stuff, by the time you went right to the boss he already has started another attack so you either dodge all the time or you spam your weapons against the boss while getting rekt at the same time. So i had to endure a long fight with blaster and spam all my stuff at the end phase. All the attacks are cool and the boss animation/graphics are pretty damn good.

Overall I like this pack, lots of hard work went into it. Sure, it might have some flaws but I find that the good stuff in it overshadow them. I mean when was the last time we had a big collaboration pack? I would definitely LOVE to see another pack from the community, and hope that all levels include scripted enemies/gimmicks(PJ’s level is a perfect example)

Download recommended!

Superb pack! I really like it.

10/10 HYPE

By the way, I inserted dragon explosion sample in code of Guardian level. Now I know how to insert custom sounds in JJ2 using AngelScript.

Seems like I’m a slowpoke as I’m a little bit late with this review – most of pros and cons have already been described, but, WOW, this experience was amazing!

What I liked
As I’m a big fan of traditional JJ2 gameplay, I always wanted to see more content – more enemies, more mechanics, ect, though I wanted them to fit the original gameplay and Stadler’s drawing style. Among my favorite mechanics of this pack I can name the presents that open only after hitting the ground, ice blocks that break with a sound of broken ice, enemies sitting on moving plates, infinite corridor and some new mechanics of old enemies, especially the one of floating suckers. This levelpack is a good example of common work’s effectiviness. The work of programmers is obviously skillful. Skripting is probably the strongest point of the pack.

What I… Er… Not disliked, but my inner perfectionist makes me mention that.
There are some new enemies (or better to say, our old acquaintances from JJ1) – the only thing I don’t like within them is the fact that their grafics differ from later Nick Stadler’s works. Enemies and tilesets of JJ1 and JJ2 don’t fit each other. The dragon boss is a masterpiece, thow his drawing style is also different. These small style discrepancies slightly damage the harmony of the level sequence. Gameplay also vary from level to level, but it’s not a problem since each level was made by different author.

My game crushed at “Bah, humbirds” level, but when I was replaying it, everything was OK. Most likely, crush was a result of my own PC issues.

I strongly recommend this episode to all SP fans! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!

***SPOILER WARNING!***

I enjoy a good custom map now and then and this one at first looked like it as going to hook me in hard! This mod is certainly a gorgeous looking masterpiece but…
I have a good few issues.

Level 1:
Good – For a first stage the snowy design is very eye-pleasing and the music matches very well (than again most of the songs do XD) I also loved the minor nod to Carrotus in some of the design. The presents mechanic was introduced very well and was easy to understand.

Bad – I found the first stage far too difficult for an opening map. Some of the gimmicks confused me at first and weren’t implemented safely (like warning the player they’re going to be trapped in ice and spikes will be below them) not to mention the crystal maze was very tedious and awkward to fly through. Also unless I missed a few, there are like 2 or 3 checkpoints and they’re spaced out FAR.

I don’t even know if stage 1 can be completed on Turbo.

Level 2:
Good – This is how you make a level. Fun, lengthy but not overwhelming, weapons, a good few checkpoints and health. This level while a design-clone of the funky stages personally felt way fairer and much easier. Plus, the ice dragon mechanic was introduced nicely as you get the bouncer just before it!

Bad – I actually had a hard time finding major issues with the second map. Probably the fact that you can goof the graphics if you touch a smoke ring but that might be Jazz+ doing that.

Level 3:
Good – This stage has a fantastic remix of the Candion theme and it fits really well since this level does not joke around! The fact that weapons are so plentiful made this level far superior to the first map.

Bad – Of all of the boses to clone… why the tentacle crab spawner thing from the beach bunny stages. That boss is not fun and here with a smaller arena does not improve that at all. Plus this stage is much harsher than the previous stage… sometimes harder than even the first map… Also this map introduced the worst enemy ever to exist. The bloater… Glad ice freezes them so you can get past!

Level 4:
Good – The auto-move section was a really funny concept and I enjoyed watching Jazz bounce around like a pinball whilst collectin goodies along the way

Bad – You know what I said in Level 1 about being careful when introducing new mechanics? This level does the complete opposite. The innitial staring area is heavily confusing I got lost for a good 1-2 minutes. It was only when I saw an arrow buried in all of the clutter did I realise I needed to ground-pound. Then comes the cave… oh boy… THE CAVE… Actaully that mechanic was really cool but the signs are a bit too hard to read… Add a few carrots in that area and I wont complain much about it. :) The section that gave me WAY to much grief were the jumps at the end… sheesh is that too demanding!

Level 5:
Good – … There was a good point? Where?

Bad – The starting room, like the previous level, had me confused as to how to complete, the arrows were no help at all. The excessive usage of the Rapier turtles is not what I call fun, especially when they can easily glitch into blocks or literally phase through them from areas that have like 3-4 tiles blocking them! And finally… couldn’t you pick a less painful song to have on loop? I’m sorry but stage 5 was a humongous let-down.

Level 6:
Good – Funnily unlike 5 this map is the opposite. A very well made map! For one thing the blizzard effect was exceptionally neat and it added quite a bit more depth in its design! Secondly the ice physics was again a lovely addition. Thirdly schwartzen turtles actaulyl PUSH giant snowballs at you! Fairly smart! And lastly this level tells yo that bloaters are weak to ice and fire attacks.

Bad – Like all good things in life, a bad time comes… firstly the music in this stage is possibly WORSE than stage 5. Not only that but if you kill the Ice queen and then exit the stage it has a chance to crash Jazz2. Lastly the only small segment that gave me grief were the spike platforms in a spiky room with ice dragons… a little annoying but do-able :)

7:
Good – The remix design of the ice stage from Jazz2 is really well made and it looks like it was straight from the original game.

Bad – Personally I didn’t find this level interesting. Very few elements stood out to me like “Wow this is fun!”. Also this level is exceptionally unfair in the difficulty department.

8:
Good – The boss dies

Bad – The boss dies really easily… No really… pummel it with seekers, bouncers and flame and it’ll drop dead faster than the actaul final boss of Jazz2.

Over-all I found this mod to be far too hard in its difficulty. I know its a fan mod but when the easiest difficulty is so hard that I would have game-overed a few times, its just not worth it. And to pour salt into the wound, you CAN’T SAVE in a level! I’m chalking that up to Engine limitation but the lack of saving mid-level really urks me the wrong way. Thankfully after every level there are save levels to help fix that issue… though loading causes the game to crash…

Do I recommend it? Only if you are a hard-core Jazz2 fan or love hard maps, otherwise just steer clear and play Holiday Hare 98.

Coming in as someone who has very little experience with JJ2 since the advent of the more advanced features in jj2+, I was pretty quickly blown away with Holiday Hare 17. For the record, I played in Normal difficulty in TSF, and I was pretty rushed, but managed to complete the pack in a couple of hours (what a way to start the new year!) Keep in mind that some things that are not as surprising or impressive anymore for people who’ve kept up to date with the game are all pretty new to me.

Here are some things I didn’t like:

• On two occasions from the very beginning of the level I was stuck, with no clue as to what to do to go further – one of these occasions was the very first level! Not a great way to start out, but I am hoping there was something obvious I was supposed to do that I overlooked.
• Not enough 1up’s – the only place I found any were in sixth level. This is an annoyance I’m only realizing after not playing jj2 in a long time. Level 4 ate my lives quickly and when I finally lost all of them on Level 5, I got an Out of Memory Fatal Application Error and had to start from my save. That bug itself I won’t discount points for, but it’s still frustrating that towards the end I was compelled to cheat when my hearts got to 1 so as to not have the game crash.
• Sometimes it felt too hard given that I was playing on Normal difficulty and this tried my patience
• At times I was left wondering where to go next – I’d find a trigger crate and then retrace my steps wondering what new thing had opened up, unaware of where to go
• The tilesets were mostly great but the usage was sometimes quite boring

Neutral notes:

• Because of the hurried nature of this and the variety of level designers, there is sometimes a very sharp disconnect between difficulty or design as you progress.
• Some of the obstacles felt a little unfair/gotcha-y with combinations of platforming challenges and enemy placement
• The weapons usage started out feeling purposeful and good but very quickly took a turn into seeming (for the most part) disorganized
• The Christmas themed enemies were great but when an unedited enemy came around they felt weirdly out of place (bees, guys. snow bees).
• The music change during hoverboard sections felt out of place
• Storyline doesn’t really make any sense to me :)

So, here’s what I liked (and it’s most of everything about this):

• The tileset choices and edits are wonderful, I was delighted and impressed over and over again
• The scripting, custom enemies, items, I loved it – I was gushing every time something new came along
• Even though the disconnect between level design was so stark sometimes, it was kind of welcome and made every level feel fresh
• The final boss battle was unlike anything I’ve seen in jj2
• Even just levels 4 and 6 alone make this worth playing. Level 4 especially was gorgeous, sprawling, fun, creative, challenging, long but not tedious (although the music got pretty old after a while..), and is exactly the kind of thing that keeps me coming back to play jj2. Level 6’s outdoor areas also left me feeling impressed, but I’ll let you see for yourself
• Good replayability – there is heaps I didn’t manage to see, and I’ll probably play it again this coming December and try to take my time a bit more

This was just all around good fun. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get to play it before Christmas (but who can blame them). I don’t think projects like this are released often at all anymore, and this blew me away and left me feeling inspired. The bad things about it are altogether quite minor and the gameplay makes up for it. Please download this!

The fact that this project was finished at all, in 2017, only a little over its deadline, is a cause for celebration – earlier collaborative projects have usually ended in difficulties or run into multi-year delays, and this was basically thought up and finished in less than two months. So, well done to the authors on that basis alone.

But is it any good? Yes, it is – the levels are fun to play, have exciting custom enemies and pickups in them and especially the later levels display some beautiful script-based visual effects as well.

That said, the quality is a little uneven, which was always going to be the case with 7 different authors and little time to forge the separate levels into one unified episode. Blackraptor’s and PurpleJazz’s levels are sprawling, scripted affairs while Jelly Jam’s, Primpy’s, Slaz’s and Shadow’s levels are more in the spirit of the Epic MegaGames school of design and consequently a little less exciting, though still mostly pretty good. Cooba’s sits in the middle of these with some light scripting to spice things up.

I think this is actually one of the strengths of the episode, as it keeps things varied, and the difficulty curve is mostly a steady climb from the early, relatively middle-of-the-road levels to the later ones that have new challenges and gameplay concepts (though Shadow’s is a return to the norm). One constant factor are the winter-themed enemies, which are mostly souped-up versions of vanilla enemies such as fencers and doggy dogs. These were great, presenting somewhat more of a challenge than their vanilla counterparts without becoming too difficult (I played on easy). Then there were the Christmas presents, a new type of crates that only break when falling on the ground. These afforded some mini-puzzles where you have to figure out how to get them to fall down, which was also a fun diversion. And there’s also the boss fight at the end – I personally never really care for boss fights, but this one seems well done and wasn’t as unfairly hard as custom bosses often are.

One recurring problem is a lack of signposting. The most egregious example is probably the already infamous tunnel in Blackraptor’s level, which was unclear enough that it necessitated a step-by-step guide (see PJ’s comment). But Slaz’s level also had some annoyingly hidden warps. This kind of problem is often solved by playtesters identifying the issue, something there was probably no time for in this case. So it’s an understandable issue, but annoying nonetheless, and I had to skip part of Blackraptor’s level because I just couldn’t figure out how to continue.

So all in all, this is a varied, enjoyable episode that’s slightly hampered by its lack of testing, but a lot of fun to play anyway. Without discussing every level in detail, I can say that there’s something in here for everyone – even if you don’t enjoy single player usually, you’ll enjoy checking out the new concepts and enemies this episode brings to the table. So click that download button, you won’t regret it.

Don’t know how to solve the puzzle in level 4? There’s a guide for that (spoiler warning).

EDIT 30th April 2020 – My opinion on the map has changed a bit, but it’s mostly still pretty good. Despite what I said in my old review, this wouldn’t be something I’d use in a duel tournament. Though, there’s no use in me judging the level by requirements from a contest that ended years ago. It’s still overall a very good battle with good powerup and carrot placement. You capture the classic levelmaking style very well with this level and improve on it.

Castle bunnies for life – This level has good gameplay, I like the concept and theme but I dislike the ammo placement and that you don’t have ceiling. It could be buggy sometimes. I give it 7.7

Hell’s foundery – Better level than castle, but again you don’t have ceiling. I give it 8.7.

Average rate is 8.2

I like it. Open spaces and smaller corridors make for a nice change of pace. Eyecandy isn’t great, but that’s not what the game is about.

This is a cool level. While it may have a somewhat dated design and appearance, it has a certain charm which is not present in levels today. The layout offers quite a fair amount of freedom, and is easy to navigate. There are some campy areas, but not in a way that it’s really a massive problem and in fact safe areas are a nice feature in CTF. B+

cool game

OK, the music file works now. Here’s a quick review.
Two very nice levels, Lux Aeterna is probably the best of the them.
There is a cool secret in the LA level but I won’t reveal it, don’t wanna spoil it for the other JJ2 players ;)
A rating? Hmmm… would an 8.0 do?

well, i am a jazz player and ive mostly only tested it with jazz :P the spaz players never complained about it

This is totally unbelievable. Shadow relasing a new battle pack? Is that a UFO outside my window? Shadow releasing it as a new ML upload? I think the UFO is landing. Skulg joined ML a year ago without practically anyone knowing about it? Someone’s coming out! OMG RUN!

So, Street Wars: Redemption is here. So, I failed to run away and have now become brainwashed and a mindless slave of the aliens. I liked the original Street Wars and gave it a 9.2 (back when I was a newbie and couldn’t really get to grips with JCS). I now think that I over-rated it, but Redemption has 3 new lvls which should boost its rating up a bit (say, by 0.2 points……darnit, just gave it away!).

First review? Yay!

I’m actually really confused by the way the lvls are linked up together. I don’t see why Shadow wouldn’t set the next lvl settings to mlnec1, mlnec2, mlnec3, etc, to mlnec5, which will of course go back to mlnec1. Instead, mlnec4 goes straight back to mlnec1 while mlnec5 goes to mluptown and that’s just plain confusing and prevents ppl from playing all 5 lvls in one go. Also, looking in JCS, the 3 new lvls have each got 2 different versions, which makes the whole thing even more confusing. This does mean that each lvl will provide a slightly different style of gameplay, but it would be much easier if Shadow just perfected all 5 lvls and only made 1 copy of each.

None of these lvls are particularly Lori-friendly, which is u.n.a.c.c.e.p.t.a.b.l.e. for TSF lvls. Oh well, screw her. No ratings deducted here, but I think this should serve as a warning to everyone who releases TSF uploads.

None of these lvls are particularly Jazz-friendly either, and it is here that I get annoyed. There are simply not enough one ways, vines or springs of appropriate ‘strength’ to give Jazz at least a decent chance vs Spaz in Redemption. Some places seems specifically designed to force ppl to use double jump, which I take it as making the whole lvl a bit more challenging and interesting for duels but what about poor Jazz? I am not going to screw him off (ahem). I don’t know how much Shadow betatested this pack, but he and/or his betatesters clearly didn’t bother playing properly as Jazz in these lvls.

Hot Town and Rocking Streets are still my favourites when it comes to eyecandy, but the new-comers aren’t bad either. The skies are always of interesting colours, most, if not all, layers have been used and I’m glad to see that all background layers have been devoted to…being in the background. It’s always nice to see that some JCSers, like Shadow, aren’t cheating by using layer 5 as unmasked layer 4, which is a particularly easy and cheap way to create good eyecandy. The lvls do not always use all of the tiles available, but so far, I haven’t seen more creative and original use of Townhouse, probably because there are so few Townhouse lvls…sigh. Sometimes, however, the new lvls’ eyecandy get a little repetitive. Shadow has done a lot of realistic tile-placement, which makes buildings look like buildings, cities look like cities but it make everything look a bit squared, rectangular and un-varied. Downtown is a good example of a lvl that desperately needs urban renwal. (And I’m not sry for the bad joke).

The gameplay of all lvls are generally good to great, if it weren’t for the fact that Jazz unfriendliness prevails. Some springs can get in the way, but at least they’re easily accesible. The semi-secret passages are pretty cool too, and they also serve as eyecandy. The different versions of the 3 new lvls make for different kinds of gameplay and weapons placement. Uptown (mluptown) shows ENORMOUS differences from mlnec3 and it is clear that mluptown is the better version. It’s got better placed springs, more ammo, more eyecandy, etc, which makes me wonder what mlnec3 is there for. Get rid of the bad versions, I say!

The weapons placement seems to focus on getting the player killed and preventing him from getting healed. The bonus warp is a REAL PAIN to enter because there are too many easily accessible power-ups and far too few carrots. And carrots, btw, are for wussies, not *ussies. Shadow should consider his use of language. Sure, everyone has enough ammo to blast the whole Townhouse tileset to smithereens but hardly anyone’s going to be alive afterwards. Well, they’ll respawn, but you get my idea. Another weird thing is that the bonus warps sometimes give players power-ups that they could easily stomp/kick/shoot/uppercut/TNT/freeze for free, outside the bonus room. The bonus warps, which are a hefty 50 coins, are clearly not good value. Shadow has one or two lessons to learn from Tesco, ahem.

I still think the original two lvls are the best of the whole pack so I don’t see why they should be “redeemed” by lesser lvls. It still means that Uptown, Downtown and Metropolis Carrotius are good lvls and all TSFers should DL Street Wars: Redemption. 8.2 and a DL recommendation. Now, let’s get that taser out and free my brain…

EDIT: @Shadow: In that case, why haven\‘t you noticed that you keep falling 2-3 tiles short every time you make a particularly large jump? Or that Jazz almost always need a second step when it comes to some red springs? And, btw, the reasons why Spaz players don\‘t complain is probably because the lvls work fine with Spaz. ;-P

J2o no longer allows multiple reviews.

Because he can.

Why do you make these lvls 1.24 >(

*******

Why dont you make them 1.23?

Hey! I just found something that i’ve downloaded but havn’t rated.

EYECANDY 21/25

Great basic street eyecandy. Beautiful backround eyecandy and a textured sky. Layer 2 included

ITEMS 20/25

Well, we have a variety of items (Including food, which is very rare in battle levels). There is much ammo and hidden PowerUps.

GAMEPLAY 18/25

Not the best i’ve seen, but a repectable score. There are a few warps and springs. Bonus points for steam coming off the top of buildings.

SIZE 19/25

Both sizes are respectable. Could be a tiny bit bigger (I like big levels)

TOTAL = 78/100

RATING = 7.7

FINAL COMMENT: Very good. But an extra point would have given you a higher rating. At least your level gets a (high) download recommendation.

Wakeman rated this upload with three stars on Jazz2City.

Wakeman rated this upload with two stars on Jazz2City.