Downloads » Single player » The Antidote

The Antidote Single player, by IJskonIJn, requires version 1.23

  • Rating: 7.3

Description

This is ‘THE ANTIDOTE’; an old school single player levelpack I started working on for over 15 years ago, and has since been my never ending project. It’s still not finished, the last 3 levels aren’t included because I never finished those and i guess some levels will have some rough edges. Since i haven’t been working on this levelpack for the last 5 years and the project kept me up last night after remembering it, I decided to end it and to upload it here.

But anyhow. The story is quite simple: You receive a letter from Devan in which he tells he has been poisoned by the other end-bosses. He will slowly turn into a devil. He promises to stop attacking Carrotus if you will find the antidote in time. Since this is the only way to end his attacks, an adventure is born.
________

I always loved the original levels and i decided to stay close to the genre, you know, keep it old school. I mostly used tilesets from the original game, since those are brilliant. I guess the levels are quite easy for the experienced players (and let’s be honest, if you are playing this in 2015, you probably are). Your little cousin will enjoy the levels too if you play it on easy or normal. I added quite a few more enemies in the first few levels if you play it on hard, but i never finished adding those to the last few.

As i said, the levelpack isn’t finished. It originally would have 3 extra levels. One of those would have been a slightly different version of Radio Ga Ga (an other upload of mine), an Battery Check Level (made with the tileset i uploaded some years ago), and a Labrat level. The story would have ended with (SPOILERS! (i guess?)) you arriving too late with the antidote and a fight with Devan.

I would love to hear about what you think, so please leave a comment.

Cheers!

EDIT 1: Fixed the bug that was found by PurpleJazz in IJsk Level 7

Contains 27 Files

IJsk level 01.j2l The road to the castle 14.42 kB
IJsk level 02.j2l the moat 9.64 kB
IJsk level 03.j2l Inside the castle 17.00 kB
IJsk level 04.j2l the moat 9.50 kB
IJsk level 05.j2l the road to turtle-city 17.03 kB
IJsk level 06.j2l a part of the story... 1.90 kB
IJsk level 07.j2l in the jungle 24.62 kB
IJsk level 08.j2l Devil temple 13.51 kB
IJsk level 09.j2l Wet feet 17.53 kB
IJsk level 10.j2l On the beach 18.36 kB
IJsk level 11.j2l on board 2.81 kB
IJsk level 12.j2l In Turtle-City 19.14 kB
The antidote.j2l intro 1.65 kB
Easter.j2t Easter 192.80 kB
Simple.j2t Simple 3.24 kB
SwampsD.j2t Swamps Day 196.30 kB
SwampsE.j2t Swamps Evening 196.33 kB
SwampsN.j2t Swamps Night 195.30 kB
Town1.j2t Town House 1 215.00 kB
Town2.j2t Town House 2 215.09 kB
DEADLOCK.XM Dead lock 493.64 kB
HGH-WILL.XM Highland Willows 592.45 kB
Salsa.mod Salsa Music 130.50 kB
click.s3m "Click" - Necros/PM 288.16 kB
creeper.s3m "Point of Departure" 432.75 kB
digsh.s3m Shared Dig 605.48 kB
spring.s3m A Touch of Spring 117.65 kB

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Reviews and comments

    cooba 16 Jun 2015, 13:56

    Finally! Every now and then I’d wonder what happened to this project, glad to see you decided to make a release.

    Just reading the list of music files was a nostalgia blast.

    Stijn 27 Aug 2015, 20:16

    Featured
    7

    This pack was okay. The premise of “an old school single player levelpack” is delivered well; everything is fairly “old school”, from the level design to the excuse plot to the music list.

    The levels are mostly good old platforming with some trigger crate puzzles mixed in. Lots. Of. Trigger. Crates. Trigger puzzles can be okay and they’re pulled off well in a few situations in this pack but after the 5th or so crate exhaustion usually sets in and in these levels you’re at about the quarter-through point then. It’s not the biggest of problems, but it does make you wonder whether maybe leaving behind the old skool style and going for some more innovative puzzles instead might’ve been a good idea.

    Perhaps repetition is this episode’s problem in a more general sense too; I found myself thinking of TSF’s Easter levels a few times, and then especially of those sections where you had to jump up a copypasted set of platforms that seemed to serve no other purpose than to make the level feel bigger. Now I’m not saying that’s what happened here, but things did feel a bit samey every now and then. It’s all perfectly serviceable, but not necessarily fun.

    On the other hand there were many more enjoyable segments as well, with small detours that lead to bonuses and a lot of secrets. These did result in me having multiple powerups (including the Blaster powerup) halfway through though, which made the subsequent levels a lot less challenging than they would’ve been with sparser ammo. A more balanced distribution of weapons would’ve been better, though there’s few things as satisfying as having a fully powered-up blaster and running through the levels destroying everything in your path.

    When it comes to visuals IJskonijn is an alumnus of the Spy school of design, where every layer is layer 4. Especially in the Jungle levels things look appealing at first sight but once you start moving everything becomes super confusing as platforms are used both as tangible objects and background scenery. This makes it quite difficult to see what parts of the level you can actually stand on. The other levels are a bit better in this regard, though some parts go off the other end of the scale and look fairly bland, with repeating patterns, and little eyecandy. A bit less of both (and fewer tile bugs) would’ve made for a nicer middle ground, but except for the more egregious parts the levels do look quite decent overall.

    So what to make of this pack overall? As I said, it’s okay. It’s not bad by any means, and it’s an adequate diversion, but there was no moment during playing that I thought “wow, this is really cool” or anything like it. Good to download if you’re into single player and out of levels to play, but nothing out of the ordinary.

    4 people found this a good review. Did you? Yes/No

    Slaz 10 Jan 2016, 20:13

    8Recommended:

    Well then, I first like to thank you, IJsKonijn, for deciding to upload this pack even though you won’t finish it. Getting to play the finished levels is better than having nothing at all right? So let’s get into some details.

    From the first level on, you imediately notice the “1998 style” all over it. The way secrets are placed in walls, pathways are made, enemies are placed.. It’s all easely comparable to the original SP levels and early custom levels (such as those by Wakeman).

    I didn’t ever think parts felt copy-pasted like Stijn did, everything seemed pretty unique to me while in TSF’s easter levels I definitely felt doing every section about 5 times. I do however agree that the crate puzzles get exhausting and that usage of layer4 tiles as back and foreground is very, very confusing sometimes. Those are my biggest downsides for this pack too. Especially in the Jungle level (though Diamondus had it’s share), it’s very hard to navigate and I got confused all the time. Though on the other hand, it indeed looks beautiful!

    Ammo is okay for a traditional SP where you don’t need all too much, the RF’s aren’t available too early so you can’t abuse RF jumps too much. Toaster may be too much which I don’t like, as it’s by far the easiest weapon besides Blaster. Food is plenty and good for several sugar rushes, and the traditional coin warps are there but with a nice twist in one level. I loved having 3 different reward choices inside the coin warp with 3 possible accesses if you got all 30 coins.

    Best to me personally may’ve been the Beach level, as it didn’t suffer from the 2 main problems (crate puzzles and layer4 usage) that much, and good levels using the Beach tileset aren’t common due to it’s usage being challenging. I also enjoyed the last level a lot, with it’s non-linear layout being a surprising difference from earlier levels in the pack.

    I definitely recommend this pack to anyone who digs traditional SP levels. Even though the pack isn’t actually finished and the story ends abruptly, it’s not that important as the levels are enjoyable enough even if they were released as stand-alone. I believe a 7.7 is a fair score, but don’t let that make you think this pack isn’t special at all, as it definitely is!

    1 person found this a good review. Did you? Yes/No

    snzspeed 27 Aug 2015, 09:00

    9Recommended:

    new sp episodes ftw. I enjoyed this one even if it doesnt use new jj2+ plus things.

    This is a short review. It has less impact on the upload's score.

    Seren 3 Jan 2016, 17:25

    8Recommended:

    I found this quite enjoyable. It may not be overflowing with innovation, but it shows a consistent individual level making style rather than an imitation of Epic’s. Stijn’s review lists most of my issues, I’d also say throw out the secrets one is forced to find to continue. Also there really could’ve been an outro level to finish the storytelling.

    Did you think this was a good review? Yes/No

    Superjazz 9 Jan 2016, 15:43 (edited 28 Jan 16, 17:46)

    7

    This is a fairly fun single-player episode, although it’s nothing too special. The levels follow the oldschool formula of level creation and even use mostly just the basic epic-tilesets. The episode was visually good though as well, sometimes maybe a bit overdone since it was hard to see where to go actually. Nevertheless I liked these levels.

    Did you think this was a good review? Yes/No