Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

First impressions count. Generally if a level doesn’t impress me after 15 minutes, I don’t bother with the rest.

I suppose it depends on what you consider the start… but let’s just say I made an exception for this pack because others rate it so highly.

The story intro is pretty redundant as it is basically the story of the original game and it is even more redundant because it doesn’t seem to have any meaning in relation to the events in and flow of the levels and story in general doesn’t appear to play ANY part in the levels themselves to begin with.

The first actual level starts well with an interesting bit where you’re dropped in a cell where after a few seconds the floor collapses and you fall onto spikes, barely making your escape by shooting through a wall.

However, it’s downhill from there. The rest of the episode seems to be “run, shoot the baddies, run some more, jump, shoot more baddies… etc”. Now some people seem to like this very much but I don’t find it interesting. It’s not quite boring, but it’s also not particularly exciting. If I wanted more of this I’d just replay Jazz. I found myself skipping ahead with jjnext a lot to see if there were any original bits in later levels… I did find some but not enough to outweigh the general standard okayishness of the rest.

Music is good, eyecandy is mostly good, though a bit empty in places and yes, the install and readme are nice and fancy.

The fortress was more fun but it went way overboard with endless generic triggers, locks and doors and no apparent progression.

Then there’s the multiplay levels. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to combine single- and multiplay levels in one pack but anyway… they all seem decent enough.

On the whole a well-made pack that’s worth the download but not the pack to end all packs…

I haven’t played the original Hocus Pocus so I cannot comment on how wel it resembles it…

I enjoyed the episode right up until I got to the switch combinations with the white bottle. I really hate that kind of puzzle. It basically forces you to systematically try EVERY combination until you get the right one. I used jjnext every time I encountered one of those from that point on.

I thought the big pixels on the tileset were a bit anoying but I guess that had to be done to keep the scale the same as the original.

On the whole a fun episode. Shame about the combination-puzzles…

[edit] With the combination puzzles out of the way I must say I quite enjoyed it.[This review has been edited by Ninja Dodo]

Wow!
I remember the old set and this is definitely a huge improvement.

The sand color is much nicer now. It was originally lime yellow now it’s a much more eye-pleasing orange. Jaws has added loads more stuff to bury under the sand – very nice – and also added quite a few excellent animal animations. I also really like the half-eaten surfboard and the blue flag. It would be great if you could add a red flag as well though. That way you could use those flags for CTF levels.

One thing that bugs me a bit is that the lines on the ground are too straight. This would be normal for a building, but not for a beach. If you’re ever going to update the set, add some randomness there please.

I don’t think tilesets should have all tiles mirrored as it’s a waste of space. The flip tile button is there for a reason and it only creates an error if you use it with a trigger animation. Some things can benefit from mirroring but certainly not ground…

An 8.2 from me.[This review has been edited by Ninja Dodo]

“too much springs”
That’s the idea. It’s different. That doesn’t necessarily mean bad, you know.

Anyway, I liked this level. It’s a strange concept but I think it’s fun.
The level is also well designed and the Amazon tileset still looks great.

One thing I didn’t like was the horizontal springs though… sometimes you find yourself bouncing in directions you don’t want at all…[This review has been edited by Ninja Dodo]

When Jaws first told me the concept of this song and I heard some of the samples I thought he was both crazy and never going to be able to make a decent song out of it.

…but he did!

He’s still crazy though ;)[This review has been edited by Ninja Dodo]

You really have to include the sets needed for the pack. Sure Agama’s are possibly the best custom sets out there but that doesn’t mean everyone has them installed. I had actually but I reinstalled Jazz recently. Having to search for the sets before I can start is HIGHLY annoying.
I downloaded Agama’s sets though and tried the pack anyway. To my suprise I got another missing tileset error in the third lvl…

Anyway, my impression from the first two levels is that they were very well-made but lacked direction and purpose. I think it would have been more interesting with some sort of story.

Great story, cool level design, interesting challenges, good eyecandy and I love those tomator-animations!

Great work.[This review has been edited by Ninja Dodo]

hm, I think when you’re reviewing a tileset it’s important to also view the example level if there is one. Sometimes a set may seem too simple but when you see the level it turns out you can do really cool stuff with it…

This is the case with this set imho.[This review has been edited by Ninja Dodo]

Jaws fixed the level after he read your review, Violet. So that’s why Tublear encountered destruct scenery and you didn’t :).

I’ll review this later.

Awesome tileset. Great details everywhere. Love the part where you’re in the backyard or whatever with grass twice as high as jazz.

nice levels too…

Very nice. Cool music, cool tileset, cool design.

I haven’t played a lot of CTF levels so I may not be a good judge of this one, but…I have to say I like it. The level is really nice. Moving from base to base is fun, weapon placement is good. There aren’t too many ways in and out of the bases, etc…

The only gripe I have with it is one of personal taste. I really don’t like it when people use the standard sets. There are so many good custom sets out there that I really don’t see the point in recycling the original sets over and over again.

Still this is only a minor problem, so you get an 8.5 from me.

Actually a very nice tileset. Really well-made.

I especially like the elevator thingy…

wow, you must have a fast connection, spazzboy. It took me like 40 minutes to upload it.

As for music not working, I don’t know, maybe you should check in the jazz options whether music is on at all and at a high enough volume.

btw, if you want a real challenge, go for hard mode. It’s there for a reason. Or the hardest; playing with Spaz in hard.

[edit #1: Bunny Elmer, since you are wondering… No, I did not steal the 3D model of Jazz. I created it from scratch myself.]

[edit #2: Seems I’m able to log in again… The links in the old download were broken so I replaced it with working links and also added some nice screenshots.]

hm, let’s see…

The set itself looks great but when you see what you can do with it in the example level it’s downright amazing.
The environment looks great and the animals are really cool. Most of them are animated too!

The user-friendlyness is also very good (a rare thing with tilesets) because everything is placed in a logical place, right where you need it.[This review has been edited by Ninja Dodo]

Wow…

Not only do you manage to turn each of your sets into a true work of art, you do it at lightspeed as well. What is it? A new tileset every month, maybe?

As for this particular set…
this IS ancient egypt jazz-style (I love all the bunny murals and statues). I was planning to make an egypt set myself. I’m not so sure anymore…:D
The village is also very cool.

If I would have to think of one thing that could have been better (but this is really nitpicking) you could have made some more of the egyptian gods (not just Anubis lying down and the cat-god statue).

a well deserved 9.5. :)

The first level is cool. Good looking, nicely designed, great music, etc…
The water in the second level was so weird that it was hard to see the level. That made the level a bit less fun. Besides that, though, the level was pretty good.

A very nice pack.
Nice boss combinations, good level design and nice use of tilesets.

Sorry, you’re right. I should shut up and let people do their own rating…

a 7 is complying to the standards,
an 8 is rising above the standards,
a 9 is setting new standards,
and a 10 is impossible.