Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Good Map For CTF Spyro,It is bit small but cool !

Fixed Now ! You can play the lvl with the full files

This is among the best custom content I've had the privilege of playing, all the contributions from everyone involved in making this have so much quality put into them that I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience from start to finish. Clearly a lot of effort has been spent testing this episode and giving it a high amount of cohesion even though the levels have different authors (and sometimes multiple authors) who imprinted their own personal styles and design philosophies and also which import lots of custom content into them. The many scripted bosses in particular have been a standout and really showcase how fun boss fights could be with some ingenuity and care put into their craft. I also appreciate that the episode provided a good challenge but never felt like the difficulty curve was unfair or that the levels asked too much of me even though I haven't played in ages.

I highly recommend Holiday Hare 24, regardless if you are someone new who is checking out custom content for the first time, have played this game for years, or are returning after a long hiatus to relive some cherished memories and fun times. I think there is something for everyone found here, and it's a great celebration of the holiday spirit of this community.

Your screenshots show that the level uses a custom weapon, but you don't include the script file to make that work. If you're using MLLE, try the "Tools -> Package in ZIP file" dropdown menu option: that will give you all the right files so that other people can play your level.

That said, we can basically play the level, since there's not enough here for the secondary weapon to really matter. The initial section is a bit interesting because you have to jump onto the sides of the pillars, then from the sides onto the tops, dodging (or stomping) the skeletons. But everything is buggy. Destruct scenery doesn't really work (https://www.ninjadodo.net/htjcs/ht/anim.html), hooks don't have the Hook event, the sky doesn't tile correctly because you didn't resize the background layer. It's good that you have different challenges, that part of the layout is interesting, but the basic technical details aren't here. Read some tutorials, study some other levels that do the things you want to know how to do, find a friend who can verify that you actually included the right files to play your level.

Not Bad Idea,LoL

I Have a question !
how to upload the mutator in the single player mode ? (i didn't find any mutator option in the mlle level maker)

I forget script files !

very cool ! this level is a merge of funny and lightness of playing
I liked it

Really awesome!!! I'm gonna play it some more around Christmas.

Your screenshots show that the level uses custom weapons, but you don't include any of the script files to make that work. If you're using MLLE, try the "Tools -> Package in ZIP file" dropdown menu option: that will give you all the right files so that other people can play your level.

In description it says Battle, but you labeled it as 'Single Player'. Maybe edit the upload?

Good tileset.

I have to admit that I didn't at first quite understand this level and was therefore more confused than impressed by it, but during the past months I have started to like it more and more. I felt that the layout is rather maze'y and perhaps too cramped in certain places, plus I wasn't so fond of the tileset and so forth. However, the fact that this level has abolished the standard set of JJ2 weapons and replaced them with completely custom scripted weapons that support the layout and gameplay overall have quite made the difference between a good and an average gameplay for me.

And that is what this level is really about; It's about minmay's astronomical witchcraft in AngelScripting and making magic real in JJ2! The custom weapons, which I don't know how to call, have been designed cleverly to offer the players true tactical weapons to overcome their opponents in the level's creepy corridors and silent stairways. Although the weapon choices are few, they offer everything needed to make the good maneuvers in this level, much better than a classic set of e.g. Bouncers and seekers would do. There's even the really cool concept of a chargeable ultimate buttstomp strike to unleash your whole magical potential and the custom minimap of the level to ease navigating.

There is so much to describe about the cool scripted gimmicks here, which do not limit to just the gameplay features, as they also make the visuals come to life and dance to the music track as well. Even the mezmering background is mighty impressive on its own.

Although I haven't got to play the level for long yet, I did enjoy it for the shorts moments I got to try in the recent online events. I think I definitely prefer the CTF version here though (with the Halloween Evas), as the level kind of loses a part of its profile in a battle-based game mode, albeit that is playable too. I suppose the level wouldn't really work in duels, but I haven't tried that either yet. Maybe the only real complaints I have to the gameplay are the slightly too narrow pathways here and there, plus the minor dead ends at the center and top-right corner.

Still, outstanding work minmay and a strong download recommendation from me!

As far as 1998 levels go, this one's pretty good.

The level is fairly short and simple, but its geometry seems to have some thought put into it. Tree branches are used interestingly as a sort of obstacle, with enemies often placed just below them. The level only ever contains Seeker and Electroblaster ammo, which you will definitely need for the tricky enemy placement, though I wish the Seeker ammo was a bit more sparse, as this weapon tends to trivialize fights.

Unfortunately there's no pickups beyond weapons, health, and a total of 4 coins. This makes the already small level even more basic, as there's pretty much no exploration involved. The coin placement is pretty cool, though. They take a little bit of figuring out even on JJ2+'s 800×600 FoV. There's no checkpoints either, which wouldn't be much of a problem considering the level's length… except there's a boss at the end. The arena is small and has a few respawning enemies, so I barely survived it without losing a life. Knowing that I'd be sent all the way to the start was probably a major factor to how much effort I've put into this boss fight…

Default music and sparse eyecandy certainly scream 1998. The same trees on a background and foreground layer at the same time make the opening section a bit confusing. There's also a nasty tilebug with one of the flowers.

It's okay for what it is, a somewhat decent 5 minute romp.

This level just blows my mind
From eyecandy to special weapons its just CRAZY good
I liked the color swap and the blackout of the background when that happens
Also the flying yellow thing and the ultimate rocket weapon's effects are crazyyyy cool
And my favorite is that robot arm thing powerup that shoots around
10/10 for me

This level truly silenced me in awe in terms of visual concepts when it came out on the last day of the year 2024, especially by its breathtaking background visuals that for the most part are fully original and unique in JJ2 (for now). I don't know the source of the background cliffs and lava pits, and I suppose they weren't self-drawn either, but they do really fit into the overall visuals and atmosphere of the level! The background graphics and also some of the sprite- and foreground graphics add a certain extra dimension to the visuals, making the level look way more 3-dimensional than an average JJ2 level and that is truly special!

If I had to describe the level looks by some other reference, that would probably be something like Mines of Moria from LoTR movies, but with a strong green tone. And speaking of green, I also agree with Violet that there are strong ezhf.j2l vibes to this level on the sprite layer in some places, but I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. Guess another way to describe the level would be Green Hell!

Besides the astonishing visuals, there is also a solid gameplay design. However, due to the rather large size of the level it can really take a while to get used to the layout, and players new to the level will find themselves lost easily, especially since there aren't too many unique landmarks to be found around the level. But I do understand that the level size allowed Loon to experiment and utilize the massive tileset combination to its full potential.

Even if the level is large in size, there are hardly any places in the level that would have a quirky flow. There has been a significant effort to get the flow right, and that is something that Loon consistently delivers. The only real issue with the layout that I have found is the very top corner above the RF Powerup, which seems to have a lot of camping potential. Luckily since this ain't a level designed for duels, it probably isn't as much of an issue in the big games that this level was designed for.

This level was definitely fun to play in the last JDC season's final events and it was my favorite Loon level from last year. With that said, I can strongly recommend downloading and playing this level at the next opportunity!

I saw a quote recently that stuck with me: "As a designer, I'm a very good developer."

This feels like a level that was developed more than it was designed. It's a series of (unrelated) ideas, fairly novel, executed in a technically correct way. You collect coins but you use a float lizard's copter to get multiple chances to collect those coins. You try different ammo types on some ? blocks. You carefully manage both your food counter and a float lizard. You pay close attention to arrow colors and go through a relatively interesting frog morph puzzle. You, uh, okay, I dunno what's supposed to be going on in the boss battle: you just shoot it and it dies.

Visually it's fine. Nothing about it is particularly attractive, and the thin lines of the forest are kind of hard to pick out against the background, but all the tiles line up together that I noticed and everything's used how it's meant to be used. The visuals are a vehicle for the gameplay—that's totally fine, normal stuff for single player.

Everything seems to work, except, as noted, the sugar rush puzzle, where it's too easy to do things in the wrong order. I'm just not convinced by the argument that it works if you do it properly. If people can do it improperly, unless they're doing it improperly really deliberately, then that's a failing of the design, not of the people. It's fine for a puzzle to include ways to fail, but the trouble is, a failure takes so long to recover from that it's just not enjoyable.

Otherwise, though, yes, everything works. But the thing I keep coming back to is: is it fun? Well… not necessarily. The ideas are a little too bit just the raw ideas without enough concession to gameplay. I do think the frog puzzle is fine, but I don't know why I should care about the (bizarrely long) sequence of following blue arrow signs instead of red arrow signs. There's nothing actually enjoyable about shooting a block with different weapons until it explodes, even if it's technically executed perfectly. What most of these ideas need is to be better integrated into a level with more traditional gameplay… rewards, filler, however you want to describe it. Look at the Fortress of Floods, for example: it starts from a basic idea like you'd find in this level, "go up faster than the water does," but merges that idea with traditional JJ2 gameplay to form an actual game that the player plays, instead of dutifully following the instructions to act out the developer's idea.

This is complicated stuff to describe or implement, and I recognize the danger of subjectivity in ending my review by saying "this isn't fun." But I think there's good work here that just needs some more time to cook.

A Titan, Ornery and Titan Armory were my two favorites in the JDCE 34 mappool, so it was a real clash of the Titans (pun intended)! I found both of the levels to be extremely entertaining to play battle duels in. While Titan Armory is a level that requires fast and intense maneuvers from the players in a small skirmish arena, this level is more about psychological play and cunning tactics, and so both of the levels brought something unique to the mappool.

Since Titan Armory was more polished on the visual side, I think that won the clash from my perspective, but that doesn't mean that this one would look bad either. It just feels that some parts of the level feel a little empty visually, even the background a bit, although that may be justified to some extent by the use of the massive lightning concept and a limited tileset.

But even without the visual side polished to the full potential, the gameplay here greatly compensates for that, with all the best traits and influences from classic battle levels that allows for enough room for strategic, yet skillful play.

The custom weapons, Elektrek Shield and Fusion Cannon, bring a nice spice to make the gameplay even more interesting and unique. While the Fusion Cannon's purpose and efficiency may be debatable, I think here it serves especially well as a decoy weapon due to its slow speed. You might fire it in a wide open area and make the opponent think they know your location in case they see the projectile, but you may have already changed directions, which might surprise them.

All in all, A Titan, Ornery is a very enjoyable level to play in duels and slightly bigger games, but bigger games may be chaotic. Also happy to see that the lightning concept from Thunder Cliffs yielded another similarly themed level, with a funny execution. Download and playing recommended!

Well, I've seen worse first levels.

The layout feels largely incidental, very likely made up on the fly as the author was checking out what JCS can do. There's a sense of sections, where one concept is immediately dropped forever as another one comes up. This might be seen as a positive, as it technically keeps things fresh. However, given the nature of these gimmick, it doesn't feel intentional to me in any way, just classic "my first JJ2 level" shenanigans.

First section starts you off having to collect coins to progress, and you have to do this while falling. This is most likely why the level is supposedly "4 Jazz", but I played Lori who also has a copter ears move and even so I found it impossible to collect all of them on the first try (and you do need all of them). So you have to go back, and the method to do this feels counterintuitive, mostly because it's placed near a tree. JJ2 experience says the tree branches are one way platforms, but not this time, and it almost feels like intentional padding.

Here the player is thrown into what feels like JJGBA's shop intermissions, except everything is free. Worth noting is that this establishes that ammo is only provided in this level as part of puzzles and progression. I don't like this in general, as I feel utility is secondary to combat value for JJ2 weapons and should be mostly limited to secrets, but even aside from my personal preference this level does the cardinal sin of not respawning things necessary for progression. Instead, whenever there's a task you can fail, you're provided with suicide spots. Even in vanilla JJ2, there's a quicker and more elegant way to do this via CTF bases, so I'd recommend that next time if you don't want to delve into scripting just yet. Then again, JJ2+ death pits are easy to place even in JCS.

The next section I can only describe as things copied and pasted almost at random, just to fill space and play time. This is probably where jjturbo9 figured out how to copy things. The regular path is supposedly very hard, and well, it's not a cakewalk with all the bees, but you also get plenty of carrots and because these are the same repeating chunks of tiles you know what to do after you've climbed the trees once. As for the other path, I'm confused if the "secret" is a secret at all, given how obvious it is and that the level outright tells you about it twice. I guess not, since it's more or less assumed as necessary for the next section. The highlight here was having to get a Float Lizard to follow the player, and then avoiding smoke rings on the way up. I know I've seen this combination of ideas before, but not a lot.

It's at this point that the level uses the Sugar Rush mechanic as a means of progression. It's a novel idea, but because it's not scripted in any way, it doesn't do its job. Any character other than Jazz can just blast through, and even with Jazz it's entirely possible to tank enough hits to speed to the other side. Out of all the things in the level, this is where Angelscript would most come in handy.

The worst path though is the maze. On the technical side of things, it's actually the most impressive part of the level: generous use of new tiles, a frog puzzle that feels quite advanced for someone's first JJ2 level, and a decent sense of player jump height. However, all of this doesn't help that this is simply a maze through and through, something not very well suited for JJ2. If it was populated more interestingly, perhaps. But right now it's only a bit more palatable than Queen of Board (which sucks and I'm not open to discussion about it). The biggest problem is the concept of wrong turns. Sure, they're clearly marked. But it's still a ridiculous obstacle, with a punishment incommensurable with the kind of mistake you're doing. Furthermore, the Trigger Zones aren't properly placed – it's very easy to end up stuck in one of the appearing blocks, and then the only way out is cheats or level reload. Near the end, you get an option to backtrack. It's fool's gold. Whatever you might've missed, the level has so few items that it's definitely not worth having to go through the entire maze again to get back on track. A shortcut that opens up once the maze has been completed once would be nice.

And finally there's the boss arena. Is this a spoiler? There's no story, so I don't think so. The area is absurdly large considering the boss itself is stuck on a small platform. Well, at least you can't go so far away that the boss would despawn, so points for that I suppose. Miniscule ammo amounts in the level don't matter either, since you get the best powerup in the game just handed to you.

Now, as a final note, I'm not the type of person to complain that "you didn't use the tileset conversion that I'd worked so hard on, weeehhhhhhh" – but the yet another new Diamondus edit included with this level feels extremely superfluous. It's just FawFul's old edit with a few tiles changed, and most of them are really unnecessary. I recommend trying out the custom MLLE level editor, which lets you use vertically flipped tiles with a single key press; you wouldn't have to include every tile you're flipping in the tileset. You can also easily place a player character sprite onto the sprite layer and color it like a multiplayer skin however you'd like, it's just a few script lines! I know it feels impossibly hard at first, but it's really simple once you check out a few existing JJ2+ examples. Also, placing flowers on tree branches is certainly a… choice. Mistletoe, I guess?

jjturbo9, I hope my review and its rating doesn't discourage you from making more JJ2 levels. Rather, my intention is to give you an incentive to strive to be better, to learn more and especially learn from other custom levels. It's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock 'n' roll), but since you already went the extra mile to make your first level bigger and better designed than most first levels that land on J2O, I'm certain you can get even better!

Uhm, you know you can't rate your own levels right? :D

Overall it's a pretty cool level, with some nice sections. Some complaints though, I don't know if it is to troll the player, or just an accident but the first text tells the player to follow the red arrows, otherwise the present is opened too soon. Obviously in this case it isn't an issue since you won't soft lock yourself, you'll just take 1 damage. But later you can get killed by trigger blocks locking you withing spikepits if you aren't sure the text advice was trolling you, or they accidentally wrote the incorrect color as information.

Also in the same area, it would have been nice to give a hint that the crate contains a green spring, since shooting it instantly (and instinctively) will force a restart since you'll have to kill yourself on the spikes since you can't get out of the area any more.

Other complaint. when you get to the "forest" area, the text tells you to go through the rabbit tunnel, said tunnel allegedly contains 96 food pickups. So you need 4 extra for sugar rush. You'll later get to an area, that can only be passed through while having sugar rush. Now the issue is, that you are supposed to get the rest from the forest area, which you skipped through the tunnel. Apparently it is supposed to contain 3 extra food pickups, the 4th one supposedly being right before the area that needs sugar rush. A helpful text is even there to advise you to pick up the 4th food item, after collecting the ones from the forest. You even have destructable blocks that make sure you don't pick up the 4th food item by accident (since you can only reach the area through a Float Lizard copter).
Now for the issue, I actually activated the sugar rush in the forest area, before picking up the 4th food item. So there are either more food items in the tunnel or the forest, or a more annoying issue, that being that dying, doesn't reset your food pickup count. Meaning that when I refused to go through the rabbit tunnel, I reached one of the food items in the forest and picked it up before dying. Therefore breaking the intended sequencing of the level.

Is it partially my fault? Sure, but not going through the tunnel to avoid the forest isn't even a big deal. You go through a bunch of bees, but the respawn timer is actually generous, and you even get a sufficient amount of health pickups. So technically the area is completely passable without avoiding it, especially considering that you have to go there regardless anyway.

So yeah, some sequences can work in an unintended way, which will make the experience a bit worse.

Other than that, it's a decent level, a bit standard apart from some scripting and unique sequences but definitely fun to play.

Edit: just noticed the uploader claiming it isn't the first level from him, I gave the 7.5 with the context of the level being the first creation of the uploader, with that in mind, I'll slightly reduce the score