Holiday Hare '17 by J2O Community - Download Information

Holiday Hare '17 Single player, by J2O Community, requires The Secret Files with JJ2+

Rating: 8.8

Description

To celebrate the release of GoG’s Jazz Jackrabbit 1 & 2 last month we proudly present, Holiday Hare ’17!

The Jackrabbit family wanted to celebrate the holidays however someone has stolen all the presents. It’s up to Jazz, Spaz and Lori to reclaim them all, however they never would have thought they would face such a fierce enemy! Who is behind it all and how do we stop it?
You can find that out in seven new and amazing maps by seven different level editors, together with new scripted enemies and a brand new scripted boss!

Requirements:
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1.23), Jazz Jackrabbit 2 : The Secret Files (1.24) or Jazz Jackrabbit 2 GOG Edition.
The latest version of JJ2+.

Level design by:
Intro & level 01 cooba
Level 2 Jelly Jam
Level 3 Primpy
Level 4 Blackraptor
Level 5 Slaz!
Level 6 PurpleJazz
Level 7 ShadowGPW
Bossfight PurpleJazz

Additional artwork by:
Roobar
PurpleJazz
Biohazard UOI
Sir Ementaler
Violet CLM
p4ul
Fool (Boss sprite – https://fool.deviantart.com/ )

Scripting by:
cooba
PurpleJazz
Sir Ementaler
XxMoNsTeRXM

Thank you for all your patience, have fun with the Christmas themed level-pack and we wish you a happy 2018!

Changelog:

Update 8 (23/12/2024): The bats no longer have glitchy animations.

Update 7 (18/12/2022): It seems plus version 5.10 broke the script in the final level (HH17_Guardian.j2l), so this has now been patched. Please re-download the zip if you intend to play this episode again. Furthermore, some minor changes have been made to level 6.

Update 6: Fixed a bug in level 6 that let you bypass an entire section of the level.

Update 5: level 5 updated with minor improvements

Update 4: level 3 updated with minor improvements.

Update 3: Fixed some minor tilebugs in level 6.

Update 2: Added a missing file (Jazz1Enemies_Nippius_SnowGoon.bmp), which the absence of made the snowmen enemies in level 1 invisible. (12:34 GMT+1 31/12/17)

Update 1: Fixed issue of level 4 not cycling to the correct level. (10:51 GMT+1 31/12/17)

Credits & Acknowledgements

cooba, Primpy, Blackraptor, Jelly Jam, Slaz, PurpleJazz, ShadowGPW, Sir Ementaler, XxMoNsTeR, Fool, P4ul, Violet CLM, Roobar, Biohazard UOI

Contains 88 Files

HH17_Ending.j2l	Season's Greetings	2.03 kB
HH17_Guardian.j2l	Icicle Grotto	6.34 kB
HH17_level00.j2l	Welcome to...	2.99 kB
HH17_level01.j2l	Hoarfrost Hollow	20.13 kB
HH17_Level01_Save.j2l	Save Your Game	0.65 kB
HH17_level02.j2l	Jingle all the way	11.54 kB
HH17_Level02_Save.j2l	Save Your Game	0.65 kB
HH17_Level03.j2l	Bitter Mint Mountain	15.47 kB
HH17_Level03_Save.j2l	Save Your Game	0.65 kB
hh17_level04.j2l	A Nightmare Before Christmas	189.58 kB
HH17_Level04_Save.j2l	Save Your Game	0.65 kB
HH17_level05.j2l	Come Home For Xmas	16.65 kB
HH17_Level05_Save.j2l	Save Your Game	0.65 kB
HH17_Level06.j2l	Snowball Valley	55.11 kB
HH17_Level06_Save.j2l	Save Your Game	0.65 kB
HH17_level07.j2l	Bah, Humbirds	14.50 kB
HH17_Level07_Save.j2l	Save Your Game	0.65 kB
BioWinter.j2t	BioWinter	128.35 kB
CandionV.j2t	CandionV	161.48 kB
cksigil.j2t	cksigil	13.54 kB
CrysilisV.j2t	CrysilisV	140.23 kB
CrysilisV3.j2t	CrysilisV3	141.06 kB
DiambXmas.j2t	Diamondus ? Xmas	246.98 kB
Dreamland.j2t	Dreamland	116.13 kB
EasterWinter.j2t	Easter Winter	245.71 kB
eyes.j2t	eyes	5.40 kB
HolidaiusD.j2t	JJ1 Holidaius Day	73.99 kB
HolidaiusN.j2t	JJ1 Holidaius Night	72.97 kB
IC - Carrotus1.j2t	IC - Carrotus1	241.13 kB
ICInfernoI.j2t	Inferno 2.0 Ice	246.83 kB
Jazz1Nippius.j2t	Jazz 1 Nippius	93.94 kB
Lomat.j2t	Scorpio Key	269.49 kB
Psych3N.j2t	Psych 3 Night	190.41 kB
xlmdamnice.j2t	Damn + Ice	226.07 kB
XMas 2 Feaw.j2t	Holiday Day1 Feaw	239.58 kB
XMas 5 Feaw.j2t	Holiday Night Feaw	239.52 kB
Xmas Carrotus.j2t	Xmas Carrotus	193.82 kB
HH17_Dragon.j2a		223.41 kB
HH17_Icicle.j2a		0.59 kB
Jazz1Enemies v03.j2a		42.34 kB
kangaroo.j2a		3.06 kB
SExmas.j2a		13.38 kB
HH17.j2e	Holiday Hare 17	38.05 kB
Remixmas.j2b	The ReMiXMAS	173.51 kB
Christmas-X-Core_JJ2.it	Christmas-X-Core (JJ2)	610.01 kB
Colon2.it	Medivo	758.80 kB
vibe-fs.it	falling snowflakes	3.00 kB
JT_BREEZ.XM	Mountain Breeze	623.64 kB
night18.xm	Christmas is here	1088.05 kB
boss.s3m		87.81 kB
XMas 1.s3m		134.53 kB
underground.ogg		4742.31 kB
HH17_Ending.j2as		1.32 kB
HH17_Guardian.j2as		28.02 kB
HH17_level00.j2as		2.26 kB
HH17_level01.j2as		13.27 kB
HH17_level02.j2as		3.40 kB
HH17_Level03.j2as		4.86 kB
hh17_level04.j2as		9.81 kB
HH17_level05.j2as		5.41 kB
HH17_Level06.j2as		35.32 kB
HH17_Level07.j2as		3.53 kB
hh17enemies.asc		29.13 kB
Jazz1Enemies v03.asc		58.52 kB
kangaroo.asc		15.05 kB
TrueColor.asc		27.30 kB
Jazz1Enemies_Nippius_SnowGoon.bmp		19.39 kB
ckbattle.mo3		1309.91 kB
ckbroken.mo3		3645.42 kB
hyo-flak07.mo3		860.96 kB
lemonade-snowmelt.mo3		100.07 kB
HH17_XmasPalette.pal		1.01 kB
HH17_Balloon.wav		98.78 kB
HH17_caveamb.wav		212.53 kB
HH17_Crow.wav		160.37 kB
HH17_Glass1.wav		204.09 kB
HH17_Glass2.wav		35.48 kB
HH17_Glass3.wav		45.03 kB
HH17_Glass4.wav		44.85 kB
HH17_lowind.wav		438.07 kB
HH17_Null.wav		28.04 kB
HH17_Roar.wav		572.27 kB
MLLE-Include-1.4.asc		9.55 kB
HH17_level02-MLLE-Data-1.j2l	MLLE Extra Data	3.80 kB
hh17_level04-MLLE-Data-1.j2l	MLLE Extra Data	61.17 kB
hh17_level04-MLLE-Data-2.j2l	MLLE Extra Data	76.69 kB
HH17_Level06-MLLE-Data-1.j2l	MLLE Extra Data	16.60 kB
HH17_Level06-MLLE-Data-2.j2l	MLLE Extra Data	10.78 kB

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Reviews and comments

PurpleJazz 31 Dec 2017, 12:03 (edited 31 Dec 17, 12:04)

Don’t know how to solve the puzzle in level 4? There’s a guide for that (spoiler warning).

Tik 1 Jan 2018, 02:40

Featured

Coming in as someone who has very little experience with JJ2 since the advent of the more advanced features in jj2+, I was pretty quickly blown away with Holiday Hare 17. For the record, I played in Normal difficulty in TSF, and I was pretty rushed, but managed to complete the pack in a couple of hours (what a way to start the new year!) Keep in mind that some things that are not as surprising or impressive anymore for people who’ve kept up to date with the game are all pretty new to me.

Here are some things I didn’t like:

On two occasions from the very beginning of the level I was stuck, with no clue as to what to do to go further – one of these occasions was the very first level! Not a great way to start out, but I am hoping there was something obvious I was supposed to do that I overlooked.
Not enough 1up’s – the only place I found any were in sixth level. This is an annoyance I’m only realizing after not playing jj2 in a long time. Level 4 ate my lives quickly and when I finally lost all of them on Level 5, I got an Out of Memory Fatal Application Error and had to start from my save. That bug itself I won’t discount points for, but it’s still frustrating that towards the end I was compelled to cheat when my hearts got to 1 so as to not have the game crash.
Sometimes it felt too hard given that I was playing on Normal difficulty and this tried my patience
At times I was left wondering where to go next – I’d find a trigger crate and then retrace my steps wondering what new thing had opened up, unaware of where to go
The tilesets were mostly great but the usage was sometimes quite boring

Neutral notes:

Because of the hurried nature of this and the variety of level designers, there is sometimes a very sharp disconnect between difficulty or design as you progress.
Some of the obstacles felt a little unfair/gotcha-y with combinations of platforming challenges and enemy placement
The weapons usage started out feeling purposeful and good but very quickly took a turn into seeming (for the most part) disorganized
The Christmas themed enemies were great but when an unedited enemy came around they felt weirdly out of place (bees, guys. snow bees).
The music change during hoverboard sections felt out of place
Storyline doesn’t really make any sense to me :)

So, here’s what I liked (and it’s most of everything about this):

The tileset choices and edits are wonderful, I was delighted and impressed over and over again
The scripting, custom enemies, items, I loved it – I was gushing every time something new came along
Even though the disconnect between level design was so stark sometimes, it was kind of welcome and made every level feel fresh
The final boss battle was unlike anything I’ve seen in jj2
Even just levels 4 and 6 alone make this worth playing. Level 4 especially was gorgeous, sprawling, fun, creative, challenging, long but not tedious (although the music got pretty old after a while..), and is exactly the kind of thing that keeps me coming back to play jj2. Level 6’s outdoor areas also left me feeling impressed, but I’ll let you see for yourself
Good replayability – there is heaps I didn’t manage to see, and I’ll probably play it again this coming December and try to take my time a bit more

This was just all around good fun. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get to play it before Christmas (but who can blame them). I don’t think projects like this are released often at all anymore, and this blew me away and left me feeling inspired. The bad things about it are altogether quite minor and the gameplay makes up for it. Please download this!

Stijn 31 Dec 2017, 13:38

The fact that this project was finished at all, in 2017, only a little over its deadline, is a cause for celebration – earlier collaborative projects have usually ended in difficulties or run into multi-year delays, and this was basically thought up and finished in less than two months. So, well done to the authors on that basis alone.

But is it any good? Yes, it is – the levels are fun to play, have exciting custom enemies and pickups in them and especially the later levels display some beautiful script-based visual effects as well.

That said, the quality is a little uneven, which was always going to be the case with 7 different authors and little time to forge the separate levels into one unified episode. Blackraptor’s and PurpleJazz’s levels are sprawling, scripted affairs while Jelly Jam’s, Primpy’s, Slaz’s and Shadow’s levels are more in the spirit of the Epic MegaGames school of design and consequently a little less exciting, though still mostly pretty good. Cooba’s sits in the middle of these with some light scripting to spice things up.

I think this is actually one of the strengths of the episode, as it keeps things varied, and the difficulty curve is mostly a steady climb from the early, relatively middle-of-the-road levels to the later ones that have new challenges and gameplay concepts (though Shadow’s is a return to the norm). One constant factor are the winter-themed enemies, which are mostly souped-up versions of vanilla enemies such as fencers and doggy dogs. These were great, presenting somewhat more of a challenge than their vanilla counterparts without becoming too difficult (I played on easy). Then there were the Christmas presents, a new type of crates that only break when falling on the ground. These afforded some mini-puzzles where you have to figure out how to get them to fall down, which was also a fun diversion. And there’s also the boss fight at the end – I personally never really care for boss fights, but this one seems well done and wasn’t as unfairly hard as custom bosses often are.

One recurring problem is a lack of signposting. The most egregious example is probably the already infamous tunnel in Blackraptor’s level, which was unclear enough that it necessitated a step-by-step guide (see PJ’s comment). But Slaz’s level also had some annoyingly hidden warps. This kind of problem is often solved by playtesters identifying the issue, something there was probably no time for in this case. So it’s an understandable issue, but annoying nonetheless, and I had to skip part of Blackraptor’s level because I just couldn’t figure out how to continue.

So all in all, this is a varied, enjoyable episode that’s slightly hampered by its lack of testing, but a lot of fun to play anyway. Without discussing every level in detail, I can say that there’s something in here for everyone – even if you don’t enjoy single player usually, you’ll enjoy checking out the new concepts and enemies this episode brings to the table. So click that download button, you won’t regret it.

Bloody_Body 9 Jan 2018, 16:48

Seems like I’m a slowpoke as I’m a little bit late with this review – most of pros and cons have already been described, but, WOW, this experience was amazing!

What I liked
As I’m a big fan of traditional JJ2 gameplay, I always wanted to see more content – more enemies, more mechanics, ect, though I wanted them to fit the original gameplay and Stadler’s drawing style. Among my favorite mechanics of this pack I can name the presents that open only after hitting the ground, ice blocks that break with a sound of broken ice, enemies sitting on moving plates, infinite corridor and some new mechanics of old enemies, especially the one of floating suckers. This levelpack is a good example of common work’s effectiviness. The work of programmers is obviously skillful. Skripting is probably the strongest point of the pack.

What I… Er… Not disliked, but my inner perfectionist makes me mention that.
There are some new enemies (or better to say, our old acquaintances from JJ1) – the only thing I don’t like within them is the fact that their grafics differ from later Nick Stadler’s works. Enemies and tilesets of JJ1 and JJ2 don’t fit each other. The dragon boss is a masterpiece, thow his drawing style is also different. These small style discrepancies slightly damage the harmony of the level sequence. Gameplay also vary from level to level, but it’s not a problem since each level was made by different author.

My game crushed at “Bah, humbirds” level, but when I was replaying it, everything was OK. Most likely, crush was a result of my own PC issues.

I strongly recommend this episode to all SP fans! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!

ForthRightMC 14 Feb 2018, 11:23

Superb pack! I really like it.

10/10 HYPE

By the way, I inserted dragon explosion sample in code of Guardian level. Now I know how to insert custom sounds in JJ2 using AngelScript.

SmokeNC 18 Sep 2018, 16:58

I know it’s a pretty late review but here we go.
Intro: Intro is nice.

Level 01 cooba :
Overall a nice, fun and well designed level! The snowman, penguins are pretty cool. The level introduces us to Gift boxes which is a nice gimmick. The crystal shards area was pretty cool too. Checkpoints might have been spread out too far though.

Level 2 Jelly Jam, Level 3 Primpy,Level 5 Slaz:
Overall nice levels! There isnt something extremely super ultra mega remarkable around them (they all fell the “same” because of the lack of scripting), but they were fun and definitely an integral part of the pack.

Level 4 Blackraptor :
The level is very very visually pleasant, great eyecandy everywhere! It’s the most beautiful looking level in the pack.
But the tunnel part…
The goddamn tunnel part….
That was the biggest pain in the ENTIRE pack, I cant count how many times i failed that part. It was extremely confusing and non-intuitive, and the dark ambient lightning make it even harder. Even with a guide it still took me many tries to get past it.
The second part is nice, but it was difficult mainly due to the “death pits“and it was a bit confusing. (also the first part had some confusion factor too)

Level 6 PurpleJazz:
Best level in the pack without a doubt. Well designed and beautiful looking, literally EVERYTHING about this level is great. The boss is amazing too, but I didn’t even know about it until months later (apparently I inadvertently skipped the boss without knowing it even existed)

Level 7 ShadowGPW:
The level was generally good,but the difficulty comes from the spam of ravens. The level had way too many ravens, like, WAY too many ravens, so much ravens that it became an annoyance. So that’s a downside to the level.

Bossfight PurpleJazz:
Amazing bossfight, definitely one of the best bosses in JJ2. I personally find it pretty difficult (I reached the boss with little to no ammo) so I couldn’t really spam seekers or all that crap. The final phase is definitely brutal, he attacks so fast that when you go left to dodge his stuff, by the time you went right to the boss he already has started another attack so you either dodge all the time or you spam your weapons against the boss while getting rekt at the same time. So i had to endure a long fight with blaster and spam all my stuff at the end phase. All the attacks are cool and the boss animation/graphics are pretty damn good.

Overall I like this pack, lots of hard work went into it. Sure, it might have some flaws but I find that the good stuff in it overshadow them. I mean when was the last time we had a big collaboration pack? I would definitely LOVE to see another pack from the community, and hope that all levels include scripted enemies/gimmicks(PJ’s level is a perfect example)

Download recommended!

DynamiteK 2 Jan 2018, 03:45 (edited 2 Jan 18, 03:46)

***SPOILER WARNING!***

I enjoy a good custom map now and then and this one at first looked like it as going to hook me in hard! This mod is certainly a gorgeous looking masterpiece but…
I have a good few issues.

Level 1:
Good – For a first stage the snowy design is very eye-pleasing and the music matches very well (than again most of the songs do XD) I also loved the minor nod to Carrotus in some of the design. The presents mechanic was introduced very well and was easy to understand.

Bad – I found the first stage far too difficult for an opening map. Some of the gimmicks confused me at first and weren’t implemented safely (like warning the player they’re going to be trapped in ice and spikes will be below them) not to mention the crystal maze was very tedious and awkward to fly through. Also unless I missed a few, there are like 2 or 3 checkpoints and they’re spaced out FAR.

I don’t even know if stage 1 can be completed on Turbo.

Level 2:
Good – This is how you make a level. Fun, lengthy but not overwhelming, weapons, a good few checkpoints and health. This level while a design-clone of the funky stages personally felt way fairer and much easier. Plus, the ice dragon mechanic was introduced nicely as you get the bouncer just before it!

Bad – I actually had a hard time finding major issues with the second map. Probably the fact that you can goof the graphics if you touch a smoke ring but that might be Jazz+ doing that.

Level 3:
Good – This stage has a fantastic remix of the Candion theme and it fits really well since this level does not joke around! The fact that weapons are so plentiful made this level far superior to the first map.

Bad – Of all of the boses to clone… why the tentacle crab spawner thing from the beach bunny stages. That boss is not fun and here with a smaller arena does not improve that at all. Plus this stage is much harsher than the previous stage… sometimes harder than even the first map… Also this map introduced the worst enemy ever to exist. The bloater… Glad ice freezes them so you can get past!

Level 4:
Good – The auto-move section was a really funny concept and I enjoyed watching Jazz bounce around like a pinball whilst collectin goodies along the way

Bad – You know what I said in Level 1 about being careful when introducing new mechanics? This level does the complete opposite. The innitial staring area is heavily confusing I got lost for a good 1-2 minutes. It was only when I saw an arrow buried in all of the clutter did I realise I needed to ground-pound. Then comes the cave… oh boy… THE CAVE… Actaully that mechanic was really cool but the signs are a bit too hard to read… Add a few carrots in that area and I wont complain much about it. :) The section that gave me WAY to much grief were the jumps at the end… sheesh is that too demanding!

Level 5:
Good – … There was a good point? Where?

Bad – The starting room, like the previous level, had me confused as to how to complete, the arrows were no help at all. The excessive usage of the Rapier turtles is not what I call fun, especially when they can easily glitch into blocks or literally phase through them from areas that have like 3-4 tiles blocking them! And finally… couldn’t you pick a less painful song to have on loop? I’m sorry but stage 5 was a humongous let-down.

Level 6:
Good – Funnily unlike 5 this map is the opposite. A very well made map! For one thing the blizzard effect was exceptionally neat and it added quite a bit more depth in its design! Secondly the ice physics was again a lovely addition. Thirdly schwartzen turtles actaulyl PUSH giant snowballs at you! Fairly smart! And lastly this level tells yo that bloaters are weak to ice and fire attacks.

Bad – Like all good things in life, a bad time comes… firstly the music in this stage is possibly WORSE than stage 5. Not only that but if you kill the Ice queen and then exit the stage it has a chance to crash Jazz2. Lastly the only small segment that gave me grief were the spike platforms in a spiky room with ice dragons… a little annoying but do-able :)

7:
Good – The remix design of the ice stage from Jazz2 is really well made and it looks like it was straight from the original game.

Bad – Personally I didn’t find this level interesting. Very few elements stood out to me like “Wow this is fun!”. Also this level is exceptionally unfair in the difficulty department.

8:
Good – The boss dies

Bad – The boss dies really easily… No really… pummel it with seekers, bouncers and flame and it’ll drop dead faster than the actaul final boss of Jazz2.

Over-all I found this mod to be far too hard in its difficulty. I know its a fan mod but when the easiest difficulty is so hard that I would have game-overed a few times, its just not worth it. And to pour salt into the wound, you CAN’T SAVE in a level! I’m chalking that up to Engine limitation but the lack of saving mid-level really urks me the wrong way. Thankfully after every level there are save levels to help fix that issue… though loading causes the game to crash…

Do I recommend it? Only if you are a hard-core Jazz2 fan or love hard maps, otherwise just steer clear and play Holiday Hare 98.