Gameplay: 4/10
The levels are very open, and there are tons of paths. This is a very nice feature to have, but unfortunantely, it’s overdone in this pack. Almost every level can be beaten mainly by holding down run, jump, and shoot. It’s fun to explore the levels and find the massive amounts of secrets, but there is very little point if you just want to finish. There are more carrots than could possibly be needed. (I think there were 8 1+ carrots right next to each other at one point) Power-ups are also too easy to get. There was a rocket turtle, but he can be ignored, because there is no need to fight him. He merely leads you to the end of the level. Also, the last level just ends. No boss. Which is kind of a let down. The one cool gameplay moment was a fight against a Bilsy and two stand monkies, which was surprisingly challenging compared to the rest of the levels. The secret level is also very good, because you have to find coins, which gave you reason to look around and appreciate all the little nuances of the level. If the other levels were more like this, and there were less goodies, gameplay could rock.
Eyecandy: 8/10
Not too much to mention here. The tileset choices were good, and eyecandy was nice with being particularly outstanding. There were a few small places where things seemed too square, or ended to abruptly, giving the level and artifical feeling. I also noticed that at position (78,51) on Lv5, there’s a six-legged jaguar. I nearly blew by it when playing, but something looked out of place, so I stopped and examined it closer. The extra legs fit surprisingly well, and, although I’m not sure if jjlover intended for it, it’s pretty cool.
Buglessness: 4/5
When I first tried to open the level through home-cooked levels, I got an error about running out of animations, and the game crashed. Not sure if this is just me, but opening through JCS fixed it anyway. Also, in the last level, there’s a bird morph. If you die while you are a bird (kinda hard with the full health carrot) You can respawn as a bird, and have to redo the start of the level as a bird. This will also prevent you from collecting two power-ups, which can be frustrating.
Total: 16/25
16/25=64.0%=6.4/10
If you take the time to appreciate these levels, they are a great download. However, they offer little in the way of unique features or interesting gameplay.