Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This level is nothing short of amazing, as is often the case when a skilled JCS’er picks a good tileset like Desolation.

The extreme level of detail proves what the Desolation tileset is capable of in the right hands, and this is just hammered into the player’s mind the longer you play the level.

The ONLY thing I don’t like about this level is that it’s passworded. That is always a mistake, and in this case, limits the level to a maximum of 9.0, but it would get 9.7 from me otherwise.

I’m quite heavy-handed with bad tilesets and stupid acts (passwording levels is a stupid act), but thankfully, this isn’t too much of a problem this time.

[Please rate levels for what they are, not if they’re passworded or not. ~cooba]

This is significantly better than the standard Jungle tilesets that came with JJ2, and also way better than many of its competitors.

Those that have read my reviews on Blade’s tilesets may notice that I don’t pull any punches when reviewing a pathetic tileset. That’s just how I operate. Thankfully, I don’t have to do that here, since these ARE examples of good tilesets.

The day version is the one I like the least, but that’s not a problem, as the other two are amazingly good. The evening version accomplishes amazing atmosphere with skilful use of the scenery available (such as the waterfalls and foliage).

The storm version is easily the best jungle-themed tileset when it comes to storms, as it takes the good lightning from Windstorm Fortress and combines it with strong rain. Put the six rain tiles in a 2×3 layer with both tiling options and some good automatic speed settings, and it looks like it’s chucking it down.

On top of all that, it’s ultra-strong at making trees. If you’re interested in a dark jungle environment, the evening and storm versions are almost essential. Quality-wise, this is close to chasing down Swamps of the Sleeping Jaguar. This is worthy of a strong 8.7.

Considering that this pack is unfinished, nice work.

As for the levels that are finished, they’ve all been done especially well. Custom tilesets for most of them, no wonder it took so long, efforts like that always do.

By far my favourite tileset in the pack is the elevator tileset. That tileset is capable of going toe-to-toe with the tilesets made by the J2O elite (Agama, BlurredD, Blackraptor, EvilMike), and that’s not an easy thing to pull off. It seems Kejero also went crazy making the level as well, as it’s a 31k monster and doesn’t lack on detail ANYWHERE in it.

This pack is worth no less than a 9.0, as it is of superb quality, mercilessly smashing lesser packs into the ground.

Oh, BTW, there is a way to play this with TSF. Don’t select Lori as the starting/default character, and if you have to transform back into Jazz, stomp the monitors. If you shoot a monitor as Spaz, you’ll turn into Lori, but if you stomp it, you’ll turn into Jazz. Handy or what?

Some of the levels are of mediocre quality, others are of poor quality. Some good marks there, nets a respectable 4.5.

Different story for the tilesets. Man, those tilesets are HORRID. Thank God that Tazar made the “Mario/Sonic Megamix” tileset.

This would get a 5.5 if the levels were not passworded. The passwording knocks a good ~20% off the final rating.

The only thing I really enjoyed from this pack is the song “Deadlock”.

[Please rate levels for what they are, not if they’re passworded or not. ~cooba]

The tricky thing here is as far as the art style Disguise likes to use is concerned, it puts him right in the middle of the scale.

On one side, the super-high-quality Desolation, 7th Lava Fall, Sirius etc tilesets made by Agama, BlurredD and the J2O elite. On the other side, the somewhat less capable (no names mentioned). Disguise falls right in the middle.

Thankfully, what Disguise lacks on art style, he more than makes up for on the others (layer management, diversity of tiles and environment). He manages to justify the lack of quality with functionality, which is a good fall-back plan to have.

As a result of that, I give this tileset a 6.2.

Hm, yet another tileset that received over double the rating it deserves.

Even a very capable JCS’er like EvilMike couldn’t do this tileset justice, and you know what he’s capable of (DevRes). If one of J2O’s elite JCS’ers can’t make a level look good with your tileset, that’s (quite bad).

This tileset has extremely low quality, if it has any quality at all. I give this a 2.2.

I don’t pull any punches if someone’s work is of (subjective) quality. Get used to it.

[You’re going to have to pull punches if you want to stay around. Severe negativity removal. ~cooba]

(Review changed to quick review, since no justification is given for the rating. ~Violet)

My last rating was too heavy-handed, and I’ve re-rated it at 5.

Please don’t ever remind me of that experience. I now hate those comments just as much as you guys did.

Review edited, my original one was way too brutal, sorry.

Just don’t bring the topic up again, ever.

Edited review, original one was too savage.

Sorry about that, just don’t ever bring the subject up again, please.

Well, I like the interesting approach with the music, with each level using just ambient sounds and a song constructed entirely from ambient sounds, although the .avi files are using an obscure codec that the newer of my computers does not and cannot have.

As for the tileset… there is no quality to speak of. The tileset looks like it was drawn by a total novice.

The installer package (the .exe file) method of packaging JJ2 levels is impractical and unusable in most situations, in addition to the uninstaller file using the common “uninstal” mis-spelling (I’ve seen this too many times before, C&C modders have done this too).

Overall, it nets a maximum of 5.0, only because the horrid tileset handicaps the rating.

[Offensive finger pointing removal. ~cooba]

(Rating (5.0) removal. At no point in the review do you mention the levels. ~Violet)

This is what we like to see from Jazz2Online. This is by far the best single player episode that I’ve ever seen.

Difficulty-wise, I find it almost impossible. I’ve had to resort to using the invincibility cheat just to make it playable, and it could at least do the decent thing of being playable with Lori, but ultimately, that’s a small price to pay.

This pack clearly isn’t short of detail. The levels look like they took months to complete considering their size (50k+), and the insane levels of detail and animation. The ominous feeling is best experienced at 2AM, when it’s just you and the episode, especially the “Pride” level. You don’t know what true creepiness is until you try that.

Obviously, there are some less capable levels, but I find this is only true with the Mario-based levels. I, for one, find the “Hellfire” level unplayable thanks to the song alone (it induces hostility in the room, and can turn a player into a psychopath. Seriously guys, don’t ever use that song), but hey.

The star of the pack, for me, is the Phantasmagoria tileset. That is a must-have for anyone trying to make a dream level, since it’s just a big hodge-podge of places that Jazz has been before, and is a sure-fire way to make a good-looking dream level.

This pack nails an ultra-strong 9.5.

The original comment is now dead and gone. Please don’t ever remind me of the abusive comments that I posted.

This pack gets a revised rating of 5.5 from me, as a result of me being too heavy-handed.

Re-rated pack at 8, since it deserves that.

Removed heavy-handed comments. Don’t continue the discussion, please, that topic is over.

Re-rated pack at 6.2 due to my original brutality. That attack run is now dead and gone.

Removed original heavy-handed comment, and re-rated pack at 7.

Don’t bring up the now-dead subject of my heavy-handedness again, please, for everyone’s sake.

Original review was too heavy-handed. Pack re-rated at 6.

Please don’t ever bring the subject up again, for everyone’s sake.

Comment edited, original one was too heavy-handed.

Re-rated pack at 7.7.

I’ve played all Battle level at the Bash, and this was one of the few levels I really liked to play in.

Music:
Easy points up for grabs as always
10/10

Eyecandy:
I liked it. The eyecandy and the way of using it really lived up to the name of the level.
Almost no tilebugs or whatever. It seems also the best that could be done with given tileset, so
9,5/10

Gameplay:
Everything felt allright in this medium sized battle-level. It wasn’t especially Spaz-biased or so (except the bottom-left corner).
The long food-trail in the left which lead to the carrot and two coins felt a bit slow at the beginning though (probably a few more sucker-tube events?), but I liked it otherwise; not many levels have something along those lines.
The two green springs with the Toast PU were usable in a good way if you know how. Not too bad :)
No bad things to mention.
9/10

Pickup placement:
Pretty much nothing to complain about. The fly carrot isn’t used too often but fits here well and really has some use if you know what to do with it and when to grab it (and how to get rid of it if needed, considering there was only one place with Fly Offs).
Can it be better with given layout of the level? Probably not.
9,5/10

Replay value:
Well… what to say. It felt better balanced than previous named and I can there are places were you would use either Jazz, Spazz or Lori.
9/10

47/50

Penalties: None

9,4/10

DR: Yes!

I’m sorry, this is unplayable. You neglected to add an Activate Boss event. Sure, the contest deadline is passed, but just add one so I can play it.

EDIT: Found it, but I still can’t play because I can’t get to the moving box.

EDIT2: Playing all characters, no matter how fast I moved and stomped onto the stomp scenery, I can never catch the “This End Up” box. It’s always too far away. I even tried playing Jazz, using smart moves to hit the Robot Boss while it was being belted along, so I could use my heli move to fall down slowly, but alas the box was still too far along the belt to access.

awesome one of the best ones great eye candy and all can’t say much leaves speechless. download!