Single player, by 
As always, it’s nice to see new Single Player releases and this seems like quite a large pack. It’s indeed not the first attempt at a Flashback episode remake. It seems lik the JJ1 shareware episode holds lots of nostalgic value to a lot of players.
Starting off in Diamondus, you’re ironically greeted by a familiar stoned Caterpillar protecting it’s apples, for some weird reason. The first few minutes of gameplay got me in the flow with enough secrets to explore and groups of enemies to hit. Bees were plenty so be prepared for them! I loved the placement of hard to get purple gems (mostly in corners), seems like a homage to EvilMike’s Devres series. I also loved the Text apology of wind events not pushing left.
While the Diamondus levels had minor tilebugs with some foreground, overall eyecandy placement was pretty well done. Sure most walls seem plain, but that’s made up by the placement of foliage in the play area. The Tube levels had some confusing background/foreground at times, making it really hard to see where to progress and where you can stand on. The multiple pathways including some Pinball stuff felt nice, especially the row of tubes near the end with a backtracking warp, encouraging to try them all to see where they lead. Those long 3D Spikeballs were both hilarious and annoying at the same time.
Medivo had a significant difficulty spike. Bats are hidden all over the place and spikeballs swing into you unexpectedly. Luckily there’s some Toaster ammo to get rid of them. The 2nd level focuses a lot on Airboard action which is a nice touch.
The bosses felt quite generic yet their arena designs made up for it a bit. They also have respawning enemies which force at least some movement from the player.
Biggest problems I experienced with these levels are about enemy placement and the lack of weapons in the earlier levels. Not once, but a lot of times I jumped down and got hit by walking enemies. Medivo also had some bats above springs that only muscle-memory a well-timed buttstomp could clear out. For the weapons, RF’s weren’t really useful in Diamondus, so I pushed through with a Blaster until the Tube levels got me at least some handy Bouncers. Spaz seems by far the best option for this pack, though I got through fine as Jazz missing some high placed pickups.
I do recommend this for a good burst of SP gameplay that’s both nostalgic and fresh. I don’t think this is the best Flashback remake out there, yet still a nice addition to play. Hard mode does indeed give some challenges to seasoned players (I lost 3 lives), but the other modes were pretty accessible apart from (maybe) some jumping/pinball stuff in Tubelectric. Well done Mike and good luck with future JCSing!
