Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Temple of Karnak Battle, by White Rabbit, requires version 1.23 with JJ2+

• Rating: 7.8

Description

Temple of Karnak is my submission to Purplejazz’s battle level contest, and also a small tribute to both Tomb Raider and Tomb Rabbit, the latter having a huge influence on the making of this level.

It is loosely based on a Tomb Raider level, ‘Temple of Karnak’, and of course inspired by all the temple levels of Tomb Rabbit. If you’re familiar with Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, you may notice that the Great Hypostyle Halls and the Sacred Lake are included. There’s also a lava room, a sand pit room, and a small area seemingly straight from the last temple of Tomb Rabbit, just to bring back those memories.

Some people may not like it, but Temple of Karnak has a lot of parts reminiscent of a single player level. This is to keep the Tomb Rabbit atmosphere intact, if I managed to create any at all, that is. I did try quite hard, and I even used music by Gnosis, who composed ‘Empty Forest’, the tune used in the Central Cave of Tomb Rabbit.

Finally, I hope the level’s qualities shine through the sometimes ugly side of the tileset! :-P

NOTE: You will need to run Carrotade because the level utilizes pits.

Minor change: one of the pillars is now more Jazz-friendly.

Credits & Acknowledgements

Kejero for the tileset and Gnosis for the music

Contains 3 Files

wrkarnak.j2l	Temple of Karnak	14.37 kB
Egypt_Light.j2t	Egypt_Light	181.15 kB
daemon.xm	Daemon	907.13 kB

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Reviews and comments

P4ul 28 Apr 2007, 12:05 (edited 28 Apr 07, 12:06 by Booshi)

Featured

8

Eyecandy


What could be said about the ec in this level, if it looks just like one of THE classic SP episodes on J2O. It’s normal use of the KejeroEgypt tileset, which may not be too shocking today as it once was, but it’s good enough nonetheless
One of larger errors here, though, is that there’s a lot scarab symbols. You may ask whats wrong with it, well nothing too much if they’re placed further away. But here you see the scarabs everywhere D=. Also the use of the water block events is a little questionable, because imo it should be used when the water tiles are in front of the player, not in the back, because it looks odd.

Gameplay


The layout here is a bit different from all battle levels, there are a few dead ends with powerups and +1 carrots. The level is platformy, but the eyecandy helps covering it up a lot. Also a lot of platforms means more freestyled gameplay, without fixed routes (hence why lvls like BBLair and DW are so strategical). The level also contains (only) two pits, one of them in the lava room, and one hidden on the right, in the area taken from the last Tomb Rabbit level – the one with the crate puzzle, the first mummy encounter and the pit with bees.

I don’t like the ammo placement here though. It’s just scattered chaotically across the level, there’s a lot of ammo basically everywhere, and it comes in mixed groups which makes the ammo placement hard to remember overall.

Summary

• Original idea
• Interesting gameplay
• Classic eyecandy



• Chaotical ammo placement
• The scarabs are overdone D=

Overall
This is a very original and interesting level, which should be used in some dedicated server loop, not to mention the soon coming ab10. I give this an 8 mainly for the sheer originality. Aside from a few bugs it’s a good level and fully deserves the rating.



Technopauluz 30 Apr 2007, 22:23 (edited 1 May 08, 11:53)

7

Introduction:
White Rabbit has done a nice job, making a kind of Egypt looking temple with a not so easy tile set.
Here goes the review…

Eye candy:
Getting out the maximum what u can do with the tile set.

*Layer 1: N/A
*Layer 2: Ok
The Lava looks not so good but its not your fault that the 2×4 blocks don’t fit.
*Layer 3: Nice
Layer 3 was nice, it covers some tiles, there was some nice translucent light and a Lava fall.
*Layer 4: Middling
This layer is pretty normal is has some eye candy but not much, i didn’t like the water.
*Layer 5: Very Well
You used this layer very well!, it makes the pillars looking good, there are some torches added, a fence, some falling sand and other fixes.
Some tip about the water; make it translucent, use it in layer 3 and cover it in layer 2, that will help ;)
*Layer 6: Great!
*Layer 7: Very Good!
Both layer 6 & 7 are making a great difference in the background.
*Layer 8: Well Done
In combination with the other layers its looking good.
*Animating Tiles: Medium
You did use some, but you could use some more, like moving zombies, worms, and some others.

Summarized:
There are a lot good things to say about the eye candy in the layers, there are some improvements but u can see that White Rabbit is skilful in using layers.

!http://bp2.blogger.com/_cI1gdj2JQao/SBmt6jmdmeI/AAAAAAAAAJs/Fzy-jGCCUw4/s200/Jazz+Layout+(s).jpg! Layout:
Greatly affects the game play

*Level Size: O.k.
The level is 150 by 100 tiles what good enough for this battle lvl.
*Masking: Super!
I almost don’t have to say anything of this, only that Spaz could be stuck in the small tunnels.
*Masked looking of the level: Good
I see some platforms, some pillars and tunnels. There is quite variation.

Summarized:

Although every layout is unique, I didn’t have some good or bad things to say on these…

Game play:
The most important thing of all

*Easy to navigate: Can be better
This is something that u might be improve; above in the level there are a few dead ends, but there are goodies to, the warps are confusing in the beginning and a bit vague (a warp tomb?), The pillars might be nice but they are a bit frustrating to because sometimes u can’t see where u jumping on. I recommend that u remove that lava river since u almost cant see where u can get out of it, the hidden tunnel makes it even more difficult. Walking back in the tunnel right under may be not so easy or you must know the hidden sugar tube.
Maybe there are some others that i forgot…
*Jazz-Spaz-Lori Balanced: Medium
I noticed that W.R. did make a pillar more Jazz/Lori friendly, but in my eyes Spaz still has a better chance to getting through that pillars.
*Easy movement: Average
There are some improvements here to; some pillars and vines are very small, this is good for single player games but in battles you must move easily. Another one is the lava fall but I did talk about that already ;) At last something important about the V-poles; if u on it, it will greatly slow u down and you’re an easy quick bite for a other player :O And if ur hit, you will go down again :P making yourself again a target for the others… My tip; Remove the poles and replace them for a blue spring ;)
*Correctly Working of events: Correct
No Problemo 
*Prevent getting stuck: O.K.
Only in the small tunnels Spaz can be stuck. When I did play the game, I got stuck by the small pillars (left above) when I was shooted by an other player, I don’t now why…
*Finding & getting (hidden) goodies: Good
Both Carrots and Upgrades are good balanced in getting them, an exception is the seeker PU
That is easy to find but pretty hard to get. (Shooting at full speed on the wall with upped bouncers.)

Summarized:

I did try to give some comments on this part, what u do with this is on you ;)

Placement of Events:
A widespread element of the Game play

*Power ups: Right
They are spreaded pretty well (not in the tunnels but that’s not such problem :D), I did’t see any strategy though…
*Weapons: Poor
All weapons are just mixed spreaded somewhere and aren’t balanced in the level.
*Carrots: O.K.
3 Carrots, they are spreaded good, ill guess some are more popular to get than others ;)
*Springs: Middling
Some places can use some more.
*Starting Positions: N/A
Lucky that there is a warp by the only starting point there is, but its still a chaos if u start with 10 people by that V-Poles :P

Summarized:

Some extra time in this could make it even better…

Originality:
What kind of extra’s has your game what other games don’t or rarely have?

*Special Effects: Very Good!
I did see good working lightning and flicker light, and a simple but effective trigger zone by the sugar tube. That brings me on the idea to use that to! Tnx for that :D
*A overused tile set?: Sure Not!
I never saw a battle game used this set, maybe because its leaking on some events, or because its to hard to use it for much JCSers…
*Events matching the theme: N/A
*Nice fitting music: Excellent!
Yes! this music fits perfect by the theme! Its not a real killing battle music but that’s not a problem :)

Summarized:

Good Job, how more must I say?

Conclusion:

Interesting; Some very good things, Normal things and things that can be inproved…
2.6 of 3 for Eye candy
0.8 of 1 for Layout
1.1 of 2 for Game play
1.2 of 2 for Weapon placement
1.4 of 2 for Orginality
I give it a 7.1!(rounded up 7.2)

Download Recommendation:



fearofdark 2 May 2007, 19:28

8

Blah blah blah…
The Review:

TEMPLE OF KARNAK:

EYECANDY:
The backround layers may not seem so appealing. Layer 8 has been covered up and layers 7 and 6 consist only of bricks. Layer 5 is a bit more interesting. You may find some flames and some light rays. However, the backround layers sort of make the sprite look good. This may be because layers 7,6,5,3 and 2 all move with layer 4. The best bit about the eyecandy is there are different zones around the level. You may end up in a room of lava or a blue room. The bad news is that the lava obscures your view, which can make you fall into the pit (I guess thats the fun really), but thats the only real problem.

Overall, the eyecandy looks really good. But the lava obscures your view.
EYECANDY RATING: 9.2

GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay was very interesting. There were loads of platforms and vines, so that you could jump everywhere. But aside from the vines and everything, this level includes some concepts that not many other battle arenas use, such as trigger zones and pits (which may become more popular later on). One of the pits is even hidden. The level also has dead ends and areas where the player could get trapped or some kind of tactic could be used using the warps. But, there is one place where if you try really hard, you could get stuck (pos 7,51)

Overall, the level is very platformy. However, uses some origional concepts such as triggers. But there is a bug at pos 7,51.
GAMEPLAY RATING: 9.0

ITEMS:
The item placement here is mixed. It’d be OK if there were a small amount of players, but there isn’t enough ammo for more than 6. Thats bad because there is enough of everything else for 6 players. The ammo placement is slightly origional. Instead of being in clusters, 80% ammo is placed on platforms. All of the ammo is placed in groups of less than 3. Another mixed thing is that in some places, there is no ammo at all. This could provide a good game strategy, but can also make the level feel empty.

Overall, not enough ammo and ammo placement a bit dodgy.
ITEM RATING: 6.0

FINAL RATING: 8.1
RANK: 8 Very Good
DOWNLOAD: Despite the item placement, this is a really good level and should be downloaded (but get carrotade first).



White Rabbit 22 Apr 2007, 19:44

I knew asking people in JJ2 servers to review it would lead to poor efforts on their part. :-(


Teal Blaze 22 Apr 2007, 16:29 (edited 22 Apr 07, 19:16 by Cooba)
At first look i coudn’t distinguish background between walls, but it is playable and after a little playing, it is clean. Ammo is scattered by small groups 1-3 each, but for good player that is not a problem.
[Unsupported rating (8.0) clearance. Please provide more support for your rating. For more information on writing a proper review, see the \Review Rules\. – Cooba]