Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Funnily enough, until writing this review I haven’t realised that this is SuperJazz’s first Battle upload since a year and a half – apparently I wasn’t the only JCSer to take a small break in 2010. :P While 4th Reich was a good level (even if the name raises an eyebrow or two) I wasn’t really the biggest fan of it, even if it did use my tileset rather well.

Conflux, however, is an improvement from 4th Reich in pretty much every aspect. The theme, which is that of a “freak magical accident” is strong through and through, with multiple “elements” mixing smoothly but never really clashing with eachother. I think SJ could have done some more mixing, though, because as it is, the level is pretty much split into a Castle section, a Diamondus section, a Hocus section, etc. The spectacular background offers a glimpse of what could have been if SJ gave himself more freedom ;) The music fits the level (or should I say, the level fits the music?), but after it loops once or twice, even the biggest HoMM 3 fan will be a little sick of it.

This is a big level. The size is 140×80, but it’s more open and straightforward than E. Prime, which is 140×90 but doesn’t feel as big as Conflux does. For the most part, the gameplay is exactly what you’d expect from a well designed battle level – it flows well, it’s fast, plenty of carrots and powerups, etc. There’s a number of twists on the formula though, and one of them is the Bouncer powerup – you need a Sugar Rush to get it (inspired by Rainforest Revelry perhaps?). With the Bouncer PU, you can now shoot the previously buttstomp-only Fire Shield. It’s a cool sidequest, even if not very practical in the long run: the freely available RF powerup will be a better weapon than Bouncers, and the shield isn’t a very big deal, considering the bottom 25% of the level is underwater. Two of the five carrots are located there, by the way, and I don’t like the bottom left carrot – it’s hidden, it’s easily campable, and the area it’s placed in is boring.

Other than that, everything else in the level really clicks together, and the other small gimmicks (there’s a hidden warp, the Toaster PU which is a bit tricky to sidekick, the hard-to-reach carrot) are amusing and you can tell that this level was polished a lot. My favorite part is how the Castle part closely follows the mannerisms of other battle levels using Castle (namely battle1), but doesn’t rip them straight. I had fun playing this in this year’s bash and in various JDC 20 events. This is SJ’s best battle effort yet and it shows!

By the way, If you have used the leaked version you’ll have to set your settings on this version and press “Save settings manually” under the settings menu.

of course i used your tileset, it has a very good atmosphere. thanks for TreyLina for the review, i tried to correct some mistakes i have made in the map. now it has to work in 1.23 also. give it a try :)

Thank you for using my stuff! {:-D

If you made it in TSF JCS, it only works in TSF. However, there is a TSF to 1.23 level converter out there by ZapS I think. Levels that run in 1.23 work in TSF as well, of course. EDIT: Like I said, 1.23 levels will work on TSF as well. I know that because I have done it before many times.

Well, I decided to try this level out…

Gameplay

I played this on hard mode. It was rather cheap a few times, with the hidden bats, although there wasn’t much and the large rows of multiply enemies weren’t really necessary. Overall the enemy placement was decent though. But the confusing EC did ruin the gameplay a bit, it is really misleading when you play the level for the first time. Not good. It would be nice if there was a wider selection of ammo, too.

The level is pretty linear, you will always follow the same path, but you can try and uncover the secret paths to get the coins. I didn’t bother getting them all though, so I don’t know what the reward is. I thought that if you didn’t manage to get across the vines of the level, it would take you to a somewhat long but rewarding path which was an actual cave. But all it did was take me back up to try again. Not even any rewards. Dissapointing.

While you can play with all characters, it’s not really balanced. Spaz is going to stuggle to get across the vine part of the level, and there’s not any exclusive rewards for him. There isn’t really any character exclusive rewards/parts at all, so that decreases the replay value more (for me, at least). There’s a part where Jazz/Lori will struggle to get up from a bit, from a small platform to a bridge if you want to reach the coin across. I don’t find the struggling type of balance very fun, though.

Eyecandy

Ugh…like I said before, confusing for when you play the map for the first time. Like you think some areas are solid, but they’re not. There are also quite a noticable amount of tilebugs. I found a missing tile and cut-off ends of eyecandy.

The background was okay, although I think it needs a bit more life to it. Maybe the sky could move slowly. It’s not very forest-like either. Sure, there are some trees, but not much within the foreground.

Music

It’s pretty cool, but it doesn’t set the feeling or atmosphere of the level.

I think you could have potential with single player levels, if you keep the advice in mind. If you want to play this level, prepare to be misled by bad (confusing) EC placements. It’s not terrible, but it can be annoying at times. Thus, try if you really want to.

EDIT: Well, after the update I played it again. There’s still some tilebugs and misleading eyecandy, and the new music choice doesn’t really fit that much either, although it’s a bit more appropiate than last time. There’s also a blaster pu down the vine area, I wasn’t really thinking of that kind of reward though…but whatever. I noticed a few other minor changes too, such as some other ammo. Not a huge improvement, but better than nothing.

thanks for this tileset i used it for my level and gave credits to you :)

[Review changed to quick review, see the review rules. ~cooba]

it is a very original looking tileset which have almost everything a normal tileset has,it is very useful

thanks for this good tileset my next level will use this conversion ^^

nice boss fight, maybe the coins should re-generate a bit later but i liked it :)

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not a bad one i like these tilesets and you made the levels well :)

good one! :)

i don’t like the tileset, but to be honest it’s fun to play :) all in all nice work.

very good tileset!

again a good level :) boss fight is very creative :D

i liked your level what you had uploaded some days ago, so i thought i’ll look for more stuff and i found out, that i like your levels :) this map has a really good atmosphere, the tileset is good also. the music also fits well with the map. i see, you like these wind effects. in this one, it is better than new world, frustrating but a good challenge :) the favourite things in this level are the windy outside and safe-cave-inside switches and the boss fight at the top. good work!

man, this level has no logic. you had just put some tiles and events without a meaning. next time, spend more time on creating a level :)

this is a very good campaign i hope you’ll finish it :) i’m waiting :P

my favourite tileset in jazz2 very-very good work :))

i have tsf, so i didn’t have this problem. by the way, i think it’s a fun level i liked it. played on medium and hard also, i can say the difficulty was okey and well-balanced. the eye-candy was good, it wasn’t boring sometimes those windy parts were a bit frustrating but it was ok :D i liked the part to get to the extra live :P there were only small bugs in layer6 that didn’t look the best, also some hatters were stuck in one block, you could use dragons instead of them. the spike animations were a bit fast, and i missed only one thing.. coins :)

all in all it is a good level, worth downloading keep working :)

Compare n00b’s Colonial Building Remake.