Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I think we can already see some trends emerging, in the sense that those available sprites which look somehow generic – shield diamonds, bridges, birds – are going to be used to create new events, while the existing stuff seems generally content to remain the way you might expect it to. This level does contain some inventive switching of behaviors – a giant gem speeds up your music at one point, and some glistening yellow specks restore your health – but for the most part it’s a fairly standard JJ1 level, some experimentation with multiple paths, which has a little fun with creating strange moving events near the end.
I like some of the ideas in this level more than others… the rabbits seem somewhat familiar, however replaced, but again, that sort of thing is probably going to be standard until someone gives us the ability to create/insert new animations into level files. I’m not positive about the author’s claim that this is longer than most JJ1 levels, either. Most of its length seems to stem from the fact that you can go in multiple directions a lot, although they always seem to end in dead-ends, allowing only one final route through the level which would seem somewhat quick if taken by itself.
I noticed a number of masking bugs in the level, as well, although this is somewhat of a minor point. J1CS does not allow you (I believe) to view the collected mask of a level, only individual tiles as they are being placed, so it was probably easy for the author not to notice that many of the walls in the levels had unmasked portions. Fortunately this never affected gameplay, but still should have been noticed and fixed.
The Return Home, is in every sense, an early JJ1 level. Standards have not yet been developed and the idea behind new events is “whatever doesn’t look horrible”. Presumably, unless J1CS somehow dies off, our level making psyches will eventually mature and this will be seen as a childish attempt, too much in common with the original game, perhaps, not enough experimentation, eyecandy too bland. (Granted, Diamondus is somewhat limited in terms of originality, as far as I can tell.) So be it. A first step is important.
AtomicFeline’s creation offers nothing special in terms of level design, and is not particularly inspiring by itself. it is a good effort. Hopefully more shall follow.