Multiple, by 
Original rating: 9 (temporarily set to N/A for house cleaning reasons)
The pack is named “Woodlands,” but don’t let yourself be fooled by the unassuming name. This pack actually consists of many, many files which explains its enormous filesize. These files are:
TILESETS
Aztec
Beton
Beton Night
Desert
Glacier
Rocks
Wasteland
Woodlands
LEVELS
AztecBattle
BetonBattle2
RocksBattle4
WasteBattle2
WoodBattle2
WoodBattle3
WoodBattle4
MUSIC
Challenger (J2B)
TEXT FILE
BladesBattle
My first gripe with this collection is Blade’s blunt naming. I normally do not mind when files are given simple names, but unfortunately many files from this pack overwrite others (the tilesets mostly.) I lost about five ancient tilesets whilst installing this pack. I’m sure the pack’s tilesets are better than whatever it replaced, but I would rather have them not replace anything at all. Anyway, on to the step-by-step reviews.
AZTEC (Tileset, aztec.j2t)
“Aztec” is not a new tileset to me at all. In fact, I have used Aztec many times. It is a fairly simple-looking tileset, but with enough skill, a really good level can be made with it. This is similar to many other of Blade’s tilesets – simple but very functional. As the name implies, “Aztec” is a tileset featuring an Aztec (a native tribe in South America) temples and ruins. Also included are some vegitation and things you generally would find in the areas that the Aztecs inhabited. Before downloading this tileset, you have to get one thing straight: if you are looking for a tileset that combines both temple and forest plots so you can make a level with both types, you will be sorely disappointed by this tileset and probably the rest of the pack. Why? Because this pack is about one thing – simplicity. You won’t find any jungle/building/lava pit/ocean/toaster combonation tilesets here. Just simple, high-quality, and to the point works of art. The first thing you may notice when starting to use the Aztec tileset is that it does not use very complex textures. This may be offputting at first, but it really should not be. While it is bare bones in terms of its variaty of tiles, it definitely has nearly everything you could ever want in an Aztec themed tileset. There are six types of wall tiles. One has a brown box in the middle, another bricks, yet another texture-ish roughness, another blank but slightly textured, yet another a skull, and the last one an S (though I’m not sure what you would need an S tile for, I’m sure it could be of some use for someone.) There are many different types of ground tiles for dark and light situations. If you feel the need for some eyecandy, this tileset provides some good, if cartoony vines, and something that is either for a ball game or hangings. There is also a good-looking but cartoony tree, and various other good-looking but cartoony pieces of eyecandy. However, there is one very ugly part of this tileset: the mountains. The purple and dark purple mountains look much more like bubble gum than anything and feel very amateurish. I expect much better from such an accomplished tileset maker, and I was sorely disappointed by this. And also – darnit – Blade elected not to include the must-have sucker tubes. Regardless, this is still a really good tileset that I can see many, many uses for and probably will be used quite a bit.
BETON (Tileset, beton.j2t)
“Beton” is a strange tileset, especially by Blade’s standards. It features a milky-white city landscape with some unproportional eyecandy. There are also spikes. My favorite part of this tileset was definitely the blue-glowing sucker tubes. They contrasted well with the rest of the tileset and gave a sort of high-tech aura to a definitely low-tech tileset. Much of this tileset just consists of land tiles. While I have few complaints about having many different types of land and your disposal, Blade neglected eyecandy in exchange for having such a huge variaty of land tiles. Still, when making a test level with this, it actually looked much better than I expected. I suppose how good this tileset is really depends on the way you use it. For some uses, it could be downright horrible, but for other types of levels Beton could be a godsend of a tileset. Other than the sucker tubes, this tileset pretty much follows the standard Blade formula: simple but effective. The only difference in the formula this time around is that Beton can actually be hard to use. While the general idea of the tileset and how it turns out looks and sounds increadibly simple, going through and finding the right tile for the right situation can be quite a workload. Still, this tileset can produce some good looking levels if enough effort is put into it. This is not my favorite tileset in this pack, nor is it one of my favorite tilesets overall by far, but Beton is still a solid choice. Still, I advise anyone who wants to use it to plan ahead of time or your level could end up looking really bad. A good, solid tileset, that could be terrible in the wrong hands. Still, it has definite promise despite these annoyances.
BETON NIGHT (Tileset, betonnight.j2t)
There is not much to say about night versions of tilesets most of the time. Other than a darker color shade, the only thing that they usually change are some of the eyecandy pieces (for instance, any tileset featuring a sun, i.e. Cool Day, usually changes to a moon in the night version.) Beton Night is not an exception to this rule. There are no new tiles from Beton, or even tile changes, but Blade made some interesting coloring descisions that I think are worth note. First off, instead of simply making it grey and ugly, Blade decided to change the milky-white tone of the tileset to a more managable deep blue. This is probably a good choice, as I can imagine how boring this tileset would be if it was entirely grey. A more appropriate name for this tileset might be “Beton Sunset.” The colors featured on both the sucker tubes and some of the platforms are yellow-gold and purple, colors that are commonly associated with the sunset. I think that I actually prefer the night version of Beton to its day counterpart. It looks more interesting and colorful without sacraficing Blade’s simple style on tilesets.
DESERT (Tileset, desert.j2t)
One would think that a desert tileset would be the perfect tileset for Blade. One would be correct. The simple named (much like everything else) Desert is a very solid tileset that seems to have inspired much of Blade’s newest tileset, Oasis. The ground looks very cartoony, but that does not degrade from the tileset’s quality a bit. In fact, I think that I like it better that way. Sometimes simple can be good. Eyecandy features standard Desert articles. Prickly cacti, desert flowers, and rocks are all present and accounted for. Also included are spikes (every Blade tileset seems to have a great deal of spikes, even a Desert one) and some very spiffy looking brown dunes. What struck me most upon seeing this tileset was that the drawing style resembles that of LeSmashy’s. Simple, cartoony, but really good-looking and functional. In fact, I have my suspicions that Blade may be LeSmashy, but that is another conspiracy for another day. The current conspiracy is how Blade got so good at the kind of tilesets he makes – simple, good-looking, and functional. Desert is this formula at its best. While it may lack sucker tubes (a big BleH for many of Blade’s tilesets), it does have nearly everything else you could ever ask for in a tileset and then some. Plus, it is easy to use. What more could you ask? And don’t you dare say “sucker tubes.”
GLACIER (Tileset, glacier.j2t)
Glacier almost reminds me of an Inferno with ice. The shading is asimilar to that of Inferno (other than the fact that it is blue instead of Inferno’s red.) Also, the land types are like that of Inferno’s. Still, this tileset doesn’t “feel” like Inferno in any way. The sloping land looks great and is as much eyecandy as it is functional land. The 8-bit background, which is ripped, may not look amazing, but it works for this tileset. Also included is a brightly contrasting flower that stands out without looking like a sore thumb, if you will. The exit signs also are very much different from the surrounding scenery, but just like the pink flower, do not look bad compared to the rest of the tileset. It is this level of detail that makes Blade’s tilesets so good. They may not have as great shading techniques as other tilesets, but Blade really knows how to make the most out of so little. If Paint was the best drawing program available, I’m sure Blade would be what Agama is today. Another great, solid tileset from Blade that definitely would be a great addition to any tileset collection and really should be used more. In my opinion, all of Blade’s tilesets are far underused, this one especially.
ROCKS (Tileset, rocks.j2t)
Rocks, which happens to posess the same file name as about ten million other tilesets, is probably not one of my favorite tilesets in this pack. It may look a bit dull, being made of grey-colored rocks and all, but it is fun to use and comes out very well. Rocks has two backgrounds, apparently depending on what kind of level you want to make. One of them is the standard blue background that appears in almost every Blade tileset that has ever been created, and the other is a firey version of the blue background that might just simply be the blue background with inverted colors. Whatever it is, it looks really nice and definitely would lend itself well to any flame-and-lava based level using this tileset. Then again, it might not be so easy making a flame-and-lava based level. After all, this tileset contains rocks and nothing more. If there had been some flame or lava eyecandy hazards included, I would have liked this tileset quite a bit more. However, it does lend itself well to any level which just needs to be made completely of rock tiles. In level making, my level turned out to look pretty bad. This is both my fault and the fault of the general lack of eyecandy in this tileset. This tileset does not live up to Blade’s standards, but then again, those standards are very high. By any other measure, this is a very far above average tileset. It is still excellent, even if it isn’t as good as some of the other files in this pack.
WASTELAND (Tileset, wasteland.j2t)
Wastelands is, so far, my favorite tileset of this excellent pack. It may be because Blade finally decided to make his tilesets a little more high-tech looking, or maybe it is just because Blade accomplished the impossible by making a really good looking tileset that is easy to use and functional. Whatever it is, this tileset kicks hiney. Set in a factory setting reminescent of 7th Lava Fall, Wastelands has a high-tech theme with different pipes and factory-esque entries. All of them look absolutely astounding. The metal parts do not look cartoony, and they do not have that extremely depressing feel that some of the industrial tilesets of the past give off. The spikes, which are disturbing large, also look very good. The ground also looks very spiffy and the masking nears perfection. I think this is the most underused tileset in the pack, if not the most underused tileset period. It has excellent shadings and is overall one of my favorite tilesets of all time. I highly recommend that everyone downloads and uses this tileset. It can make some really amazing levels.
WOODLANDS (Tileset, woodlands.j2t)
Woodlands is an interesting tileset that definitely breaks apart from the pack. It is really the only wood-only tileset that I have ever seen, and it definitely earns props for creativity. The tileset is not only creative, but it is also high-quality. It does not look as spifftacular in JCS as it does when it is actually used, but don’t ever read a tileset by how it looks in JCS. When used, this tileset is excellent. Still, I like this tileset less than Wasteland, mainly because the brown only wood tileset does not look as good or advanced as the neo-metallic Wasteland. Despite this, this tileset, which gives the pack its name, is an excellent one and really should be used more. Blade is the best at this kind of tileset, always has been, and always will be.
TILESET SUMMARY
Sure, Blade may have a simple drawing style, but these tilesets are all astounding. There is no tileset in here that I can not recommend. I only hope that the battle levels included live up to the tileset’s expectations. Temporarily, until I am able to finish this review (I must quit now due to a lack of time), I give this pack a 9.0 and a download recommendation.[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]
