Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Blood Libel Battle, by Violet CLM, requires The Secret Files, with JJ2+

• Rating: 8.2

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• angelscript
• halloween battle contest

Description

Some fool built a city on the side of a hill. Now it’s falling apart. And what’s this about blood and bones? Oh, it’s a halloween battle, that’s what.

This level is fundamentally Sisyphean: there’s a full energy carrot at the top, but if you get it, you’re sent all the way back to the bottom and have to climb back up again. But there are probably other players lurking along the way up, ready to fight you. This works fine in Battle and Domination; it would probably be pretty weird in LRS, because if there are too few players, they can’t easily threaten each other.

This is a layout idea I’ve had kicking around for a while, similar to RAID: Mirrow Legends for being a very layout-centric battle, but without pits this time! By accident, though, it turned out similar to Y-mas. The bottom right corner started out as a riff on Warden Woods but changed, and the top right corner is similar to that one EvilMike battle.

Because it’s so vertical, it’s got some similar gameplay to vdom1 and vdom3 (attacking people climbing from below you; dropping bombs from high above). And it’s yet another level with an optional airboard, and all those small jumps and small platforms I’ve taken to using. What I’m saying is I’m recycling a lot of ideas, even before you start on the blLIB vs blCON comparisons. But hey, it was an excuse to finally MLLE-ify PJ’s spike bomb, which you may remember from Crown of Thorns and Outgrown, and code up a little variant on Naps’ bouncers that I’d been thinking about.

I don’t think the swinging platforms are very essential here, but this is my first time seriously using off-grid events, and they felt like an obvious use of off-grid events, so here we are.

Credits & Acknowledgements

Weapons edited from PurpleJazz and Naps. Tilesets by Lynx and Skulg. Music by beatrix quinn from SLARPG soundtrack.

Contains 16 Files

bllib.j2l	Blood Libel	23.68 kB
BLGfuture2055.j2t	Future2055	257.69 kB
Death Metal.j2t	Death Metal	39.15 kB
DuoBouncers.j2a		4.20 kB
SpikeBomb.j2a		0.56 kB
Dungeon2.ogg		2212.46 kB
bllib.j2as		2.69 kB
DuoBouncers.asc		7.55 kB
MLLE-Weapons.asc		47.25 kB
SEweapon.asc		14.07 kB
SpikeBomb.asc		4.01 kB
SuperToaster.asc		1.96 kB
duo bouncers.gif		1.02 kB
blood libel.ini		0.43 kB
spikebomb.png		1.07 kB
MLLE-Include-1.6w.asc		24.49 kB

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Reviews and comments

minmay 2 Nov 2024, 18:12

8.5

Just reading the name "Blood Libel" and the tagline "This level is fundamentally Sisyphean" felt like taking two verbal punches in the face, and the level itself lives up to them.

I love when levels try weird gimmicks, and I found these gimmicks play pretty well! The layout delivers the feeling of Getting Over It With Violet CLM without having awkward flow, and I died plenty despite the presence of an almost-instantly-regenerating full carrot.
The duo bouncers are a great idea, I've played a lot of levels with both regular and upside-down bouncers and every single one of those levels should use these instead. Also I like how the ammo sprites remind me of particle physics.
I'm less impressed with the bird and the moving platforms – using the platforms feels a bit too slow and precise for multiplayer. And I'm sure there's some cute stuff you can do with the bird, but with the duo bouncers already letting you attack people above you, it mostly just feels like a shield.

This level's visuals are downright surreal compared to the other contest entries', and it's all the better for it. Of course there's the superb custom palette and the very very bright red moon/sun/whatever (ooh, ALPHAMAP!), but I also adore the smaller details like the guts-colored sky growing closer as you ascend, and the water splash animation being recolored.
It's also excellent with landmarks, every spot looks unique and the layout was really quick to learn.
I do think literally raining blood might be a bit too on the nose, but it does look good.

Overall, this is for sure the most original entry and my personal favorite, I'd be delighted to lose to it!



cooba 8 Nov 2024, 01:45

9

I had been replaying some older Violet levels this summer and noticed that there is a gap between her SP and MP works – in that the former usually go pretty wild with tileset combinations, while the latter tend to pull their punches in this department. This level in particular, though, does not disappoint.

Although Violet remains careful and prioritises player visibility, the eyecandy in bllib is visibly more diverse – eclectic even, considering those poor disturbed Diamondus trees – than in blcon, even though the latter features 400% more textured backgrounds. The music does a lot of the heavy lifting as well, but the overall impression left by Blood Libel is one of vague, but intense discomfort and dread. And with that eyebrow rising title? Playing this level hits different this week than the last, for reasons I should not elaborate upon.

This is by far the most interesting layout from all the contest entries, built with, and around, one specific gimmick in mind. Navigation is easy, and means of climbing upwards are plentiful, with one direction but many possible paths. Violet is weaving new cloth with familiar threads here – in addition to everything listed in the download description, a seasoned JDC player will be reminded of Ascendance Cliff, Tower of Death, but also The Fingers of Icarus, and even Penelope and/or Falkenstein: The New Order. If the opening post of the contest thread was written specifically to entice Violet, should I be surprised that Violet’s entry seems to be created specifically to entice me, as an easily flattered level designer? Who could possibly tell.

Across all the entries for the Halloween contest, this one is my favorite, and is therefore declared the winner.

Bonus points: The Spike Bomb looks really good in blue.



Superjazz 13 Apr 2025, 16:07

7

This one is a battle level that I am a bit torn between liking and disliking. While I do enjoy the theme and certain gameplay aspects of the levels like the swinging platforms and no-clip sucker tubes, I can't help but feel like the overall gameplay is perhaps a bit too quirky and old-school for my tastes. But that doesn't mean it is a bad level.

The biggest issue I have with the gameplay is the layout that reminds me more of a single-player level or even a race level, rather than a battle map (even the respawn area at the bottom left reminds me of Race1.j2l a bit). I think this level could actually even work much better as a race level (from the bottom-left to the top-left corner) with some adjustments.

From my perspective, it is difficult to create levels with vertical gameplay that would play out smoothly. While there are certain good elements for quicker access to the upper ground, like the sucker tubes and such, I feel that the overall flow could be much more optimized. The flow seems to be favoring Spaz quite a bit more than other characters.

Another issue for me are the cramped passages under the "hill", that just encourage camping in those areas. Especially the area with the Gun8 power up that seems to be extremely difficult to counter from below, although reverse bouncers give a small chance at that. The upper left corner of the level seems also relatively campable, although there are slightly better chances at countering that. There's also that passable "pipe" at the top of the level where I'm having an issue with the tileset masking that gets me stuck momentarily when jumping against the ceiling.

But on the positive side, I like some of the extra spices added to the gameplay, like the double bouncers and other ammo choices, swinging platforms for elevation, long sucker tubes that go far across the level in order to quickly gain higher ground, airboard access that took me a while to notice and figure out, etc.

I find the level's visual side to be decent overall, but maybe a bit lacking in certain areas. Perhaps I'm just not the biggest fan of the core tileset used here. However, I do definitely like the overall blood moon-theme and the way it has been executed.

I do realize that whether you'll like this level or not depends quite a lot on your tastes and what you're looking for in multiplayer levels. This definitely ain't the optimal duel level or a fast action-packed level, but perhaps a more tactical one where wise choices with control for objectives and zones matter. Actually out of custom game modes, this level could do potentially well in LRS-based game modes that encourage finding good camp spots and other key objectives quickly.