This was a very interesting level.
On the one hand, Blas7er did a lot of things right with this level, providing some nice, visually satiating eyecandy, a few tricky challenges and some classic Jazz2 segments that remind you why they’re called “classic”. The music track, while not very original, was nonetheless appropriate, and gave the level a nice aura. The length was just right for a singleplayer level, although a bit long for a mere demo.
In these regards, Classic excels quite nicely.
Unfortunately, the level also suffers from some rather Classic mistakes, most notably the TSF cats, the extremely limited boss arena and the “Dragon Tower” segment (for lack of a better name) that requires an uppercut/double-jump move to access which leaves poor Lori (for TSF users) out in the cold.
The choice of baddie elements was also questionable, with such strange creatures as lab rats and devil dogs making their presence known here.
In an aside, the Blast’em Block segment at the beginning is very confusing. If you (the author) are going to make it a Bouncy-only block, could you maybe make that a little easier to divine?
Most of these problems can be easily fixed. Add an extra floor tile at the bottom of the Dragon Tower. That way, Lori can get in. Change the Blast’em Block animation at the start to a Bouncy Block picture (the tileset SHOULD have one, but if it doesn’t, then maybe use some combination of text strings to let on to the player that that’s how to get past the blocks).
Change the baddies to Lizards, Tuf/Normal Turtles, Float Lizards, Dragons, and (maybe) Dragonflies.
Take out the coin warp, or at least make it into a side route. I forgot to mention this before, but it was very frustrating to get there and find out I didn’t have enough coins.
Remove the TSF cats (Addon Sparks), please. That way, non-TSF users can play this level. While you’re at it, make sure the level itself is compatible with 1.23 (standard Jazz 2…just download the J2L convertor on this site and use it).
Revamp the Boss Arena. I’m not sure how to give you advice here, since there’s no real baseline Boss Arena rules that one needs to follow, save that there’s plenty of room and that it’s quality gameplay. Just be creative.
On the bright side, I WAS impressed by how clean the level was of bugs. You did a good cleanup job, and I tip my hat.
In the end, I think 6.1 sounds like a decent grade to hand out. Classic, while it suffered from a few sizable errors, was still a pretty fun level to play, and for that reason I recommend a download. Despite the low grade, I see hope for it.
EDIT:
-Warp is fixed
-Baddies are better tailored, although the TSF cat is still there
-Boss arena is slightly improved
-Dragon Tower is fixed
-Bouncer wall at the beginning is slightly better elaborated, though still a problem. (Try using text strings)
Revised rating: 6.9