Quite like the gameplay. I'm still oddly fond of layouts with lots of vertical movement, and it's super easy to learn.
Visually, I love all the kooky gadgets in the walls, the Labrat-esque palette, the upside-down powerup, and the stop signs. However, I think the background's too austere – there's a cute textured background and a cute parallax layer matching the layout of the foreground, but that isn't quite enough for me to absorb an atmosphere from, and I'm left reading the level as mostly-disconnected floating platforms.
This minimal background decoration also results in a lack of visual cues for your position after jumping left off the top carrot platform, but I guess there's always the F9 display for that.
Zeno
Battle, by cooba,
requires 
The Secret Files, with JJ2+
Description
Remember Achilles and the tortoise? 3000 light years later, they’re still at it!
The little sideproject for Jazz’s 30th anniversary continues, this time with another small (nominally 160×120, albeit a much smaller playing area) level, with another purposefully minimalist background. I feel like this one outclasses Starling as a duel level on several levels though.
(Very) loosely based on level 5 of Agama’s Night World.
Have fun, and also have a happy new year.
—
December 28th reupload: Reintroduced a carrot that went missing (thanks FawFul).
—
April 9th 2025 reupload: Fixed a couple of tilebugs, added slightly more Firework ammo (thanks Violet).
Credits & Acknowledgements
Original Tubelectric conversion by proud2beamerican. Noirlite and NoirliteHidden tilesets by Violet. "J1 Muckamo" conversion probably by Michiel. That one animation from Exoticus converted by Violet. Katana from OMF/Diamondus converted by NOKA. Custom weapons courtesy of Seren. Collectively playtested by: Bee, FawFul, Krzysiek, Loon, minmay, Necrolyte, PurpleJazz, Spyro, Teso, Treya, Warren. Miscellaneous pre-ODT feedback by Violet. Music from Unreal Tournament.
Contains 15 Files
 mlKnight5.j2l |
Zeno | 87.66 kB |
 J1Tubelec.j2t |
J1 Tubelec | 255.82 kB |
 SEenergyblast.j2a |
169.04 kB | |
| SEfirework.j2a |
5.19 kB | |
 nether.it |
Nether Animal | 1282.09 kB |
 mlKnight5.j2as |
5.47 kB | |
| SEenergyblast-mlle.asc |
1.03 kB | |
| SEenergyblast.asc |
12.62 kB | |
| SEfirework-mlle.asc |
1.13 kB | |
| SEfirework.asc |
8.25 kB | |
| SEweapon.asc |
14.07 kB | |
| SEenergyblast.wav |
1726.55 kB | |
| SEfirework1.wav |
175.22 kB | |
| SEfirework2.wav |
140.57 kB | |
| MLLE-Include-1.7w.asc |
27.82 kB |
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Reviews and comments
minmay 28 Dec 2024, 01:26
7.5
Violet CLM 25 Feb 2025, 06:50
Zeno is probably the 2024 level I can most easily imagine myself making, if one day I decided to get really into springs. It's a very vertical map, to be sure, and this relies on springs to get you around, and those springs tend to be perfectly positioned, taking you to just the right heights and with just the right amount of horizontal displacement. It's deeply satisfying, the moreso because the layout is still interesting and varied, you're not just taking springs from one long smooth platform to another like a 2002 CTF. Over and over exploring this level, you expect something to go badly (perhaps a fall to your death?), only for the level to save you by being designed just that carefully.
Besides the springs, there's also a smattering of energy blast. I'm less sold on that… I can't object to the powerup area after making Scorpio Key (and there's plenty of electro blaster, including very close by), but there's not much energy blast ammo in the rest of the level and it's just not going to last you long enough to do anything cool. The area above the powerup, with the firework ammo, is likewise a bit awkward despite some revisions… the firework ammo itself seems very appropriate though. Other powerups besides the energy blast powerup are pretty much just sitting around in the open, which feels nice, you get to keep getting stronger as you move around without having to think about it too much.
Visually, Zeno stuns in its layer 4, the bright Labrat colors standing out really well against the black, and the tunnel starfield amazing in how well it works for how simple it is. minmay may be right about the intervening layer, though… the not-quite-1/1 speeds work well enough for the pipes, but the rectangles are always a little weird how they don't quite serve as backgrounds to whatever layer 4 area they're associated with. And yes, sometimes you lose track of where you are in the big emptiness. Layer 4 looks so good though, obscure graphics source and all; the stop signs are as cheesy as ever but they sure do their job.
Zeno is deeply cool and has a very clever level description. Maybe some more firework pickups though?