Single player, by 
This was on the front page for top rated single player d/ls and I’ve never heard of it til now, so that makes it a good candidate for me when I’m in the mood to dig up my jj2 and play it. Really I was only going to write a quick review but its pretty limiting to explain my rating for a single player campaign :/.
There’s some minor overlooked bugs in the first level with some foreground eyecandy. I didn’t like the small turtles with the hurt events at all especially in their choice of placement which was sometimes cheap. I think the diamondus levels got progressively better as I went along, and I started to notice the cool layouts because of the sparsity of eyecandy to look at. The levels felt really nostalgic to play, even though they were built for JJ2, although sometimes I did feel that they would be better suited or I would’ve liked them better if they had been made in J1E. The difficulty was also challenging and good, but those damn mini turtles really got on my nerves sometimes.
The tubelectric levels were more confusing than the former, and some parts I thought looked almost downright ugly. The crate you must break immediately after morphing into a bird to reach is placed in a very narrow area and its impossible for jazz to uppercut and destroy it. Like the diamondus levels, tubelectric got progressively better as I went through it, both in their gameplay and appearance. The difficulty was again fairly challenging, most of the damage i took was probably either from the abundance of sparks in narrow passageways and the laser turrets which basically reprised the role of the miniturtles from the last planet.
Turtemple was my favorite planet. I really liked it in the original game and I like how the levels were crafted to resemble its design. Also, the eyecandy was done better here. I did manage to get stuck in one of the collapsing scenery blocks, around after the text sign specifically mentioned me not to :(. Not really your fault but the green palette edit of turtemple kind of hurt my eyes to look at. The boss battle was anticlimactic for me because I was loaded up on fastfires and a powered blaster by that point.
The first industrius level had too many narrow passages for me. I think the author himself might’ve thought that at one point, cause the next level is noticeably more open with broader corridors. However, the layout of both levels was pretty simple and linear, with the obstacles (crates) being placed out in the open and fairly straightforward to navigate. I thought the hidden powerups here was a good idea.
Generally I liked the layouts of the levels, you were right to call that they felt like JJ1. However the eyecandy was on average pretty dull, because JJ1 style eyecandy looks fairly barren and dull on a bigger screen. There is a slight variation in that category, sometimes the visuals bordered on ugliness and sometimes it was nice like in the later diam&tubelectric levels and turtemple. Mostly it felt plain for JJ2. The pickup placement in the style of JJ1 worked out better than the eyecandy did, but not quite as well as the layouts. Also, I had a recurring problem where the levels would loop to themselves unless I used the jjnext code. Instead of cycling to the end credits or looping back on itself the last level crashes trying to change to a level that doesnt exist.
Overall, I think the biggest benefit of this pack is also its biggest curse. While many of the aspects of JJ1 translated well into its sequel, sometimes it didn’t turn out quite right or felt dated. However, there was a great sense of nostalgia in experiencing this pack, and i’m curious how these levels would be had they been made for JJ1. Also I don’t think this stood up too well against the test of time, 5 or 6 years ago I probably would’ve given it at least about half a point higher, but I did enjoy it and it’s distinct retro style.
-br
