Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

You have to appreciate a level that knows exactly what it wants to do, and then does it. Lori Fortress has you climbing up from the bottom of the level to the top, sometimes on thin platforms and sometimes in tight caves, optionally collecting a bunch of gems, but mostly dodging the bullets of enemy Loris who move in predictable patterns. That’s it. You couldn’t build an incredibly long level on this formula but it sure works at this length.

I do appreciate that Primpy has followed my lead in how to make a level: grab a bunch of art and/or gameplay mechanics from a totally different video game, stick them into JJ2, and call it art. And as long as something within those grabbed details is somewhat related to a contest theme, that counts. Here, charged with making something Lori-related, Primpy has placed a bunch of enemies using Lori graphics, because Cave Story(+) had a level where you fight some enemies based on its own blonde girl character. You play as Lori too, for extra measure… there are blink-and-you-miss-it dead bodies of Jazz and Spaz at the start of the level, which is kind of morbid, but hey they’re video game characters: they die all the dang time.

Although the level art is ripped directly from Cave Story(+) (and very cleanly done), and the boss behaves somewhat similarly, the level layout is thankfully all original. Gone is the (more memorable) initial part of Wind Fortress, where you try to navigate the bottom of the floating island using brief boost charges, which is very hard as a tiny robot but would probably be very easy as a copter-eared rabbit. Instead you’re climbing and dodging. The level goes back and forth between multilinear bits and bottlenecks, most notably toward the end when you have to find a trigger crate. The actual area with the trigger crate itself is very well done, a tiny loop that avoids excess backtracking and also clearly shows you what trigger crates do (open doors that look just like this). If you’re trying to explore to collect 100 gems you may get a little turned around, sometimes falling down and having to retrace some steps, but if you’re just focused on heading upwards at all times, you should have no trouble navigating.

The Lori enemies originated in my level “Fooball Field,” where they were but one obstacle among many, sparsely placed and usually quite easy to shoot without getting shot by. Here they become of a main event and, appropriately, are much harder to deal with, though rarely in a way that feels unfair. Lori’s kick becomes a good tool against the walking enemies to quickly take them down before they can turn around again. Bullet trajectories are more likely to get in your way instead of being warnings that you maybe shouldn’t go somewhere until killing the enemy. The ammo types provided are also well chosen, including ice: if you can freeze an enemy, the next hit does just enough damage to kill it outright. The boss is kind of a letdown, most of its difficulty coming from enemies sometimes being drawn behind it instead of in front of it, but hey, bosses are hard to make.

This is a level that cares a lot about (a very specific flavor of) gameplay and executes it well, with bonus Lori theming, and eyecandy that never gets in the way. Some of the gem locations are maybe a little too out of the way, but the gem system is entirely optional, so whatever. Nicely done.

Tomatoe (sic) Garden plays as a series of distinct challenges, mostly separated by warps, yet curiously without any checkpoints. There’s a gravity puzzle, a search for the hat with the right colors, some trigger sceneries to go back and forth between, and a hunt for an invisible fast warp event. The hat challenge I’m kind of sour about, because it meant that for the rest of the level, I stopped being able to trust warps as unambiguously sending me forwards. For all the level’s visual decadence, it can be hard to tell different areas apart, so I wasn’t always sure whether I’d completed the latest challenge or taken the wrong warp somehow. Checkpoints or some other good marker of success (such as NOT warping directly onto an enemy) could make a difference here.

The other challenge that bothers me is the trigger scenery one, which uses both trigger crates (okay) and invisible/unmarked trigger zones (not okay). There’s just no indication I could find that says what door has opened when or why, other than a general feeling of alternating between going left and right. But the gravity puzzle felt fine, the block pushing felt fine, other stuff felt fine, it’s just I didn’t take so well to the stuff that seemed to revolve around the player guessing.

And yeah there are some enemies, mostly hatters, but they never strike me as a main focus so much as a general feeling of “single player levels are supposed to have enemies.” (Probably a good thing, though, because, again: no checkpoints.) There’s even a caterpillar toward the end, probably just because Psych levels tend to have caterpillars. The enemies do (all?) seem to regenerate after a while, which is a clever choice in a level where the player can be expected to wander through the same areas a lot, trying to guess where to go next.

It must be said this level looks really good, both before and after the palette swap that inexplicably uses a separate .j2l. There’s something of beta psych in the blue&purple sky, but the broader green&burgundy (and later green&purple) palette feels original and also well executed, especially in combination with all the mountainy background layers, the vines, the waterfalls, and so on. This is a lush and vibrant take on Psych, which is no surprise from an author with a known talent for visuals in general and visuals in Psych in particular.

Although the speed with which this level was made doesn’t really show up in the graphics, there are some moments it’s harder to forget in the gameplay. Zone events are simply not as easy to find and touch as they should be, even in cases where it seems pretty clear that this is unintentional. Text signs can only be read while jumping, the fast warp is easy to miss, and of course trigger zones are total mysteries. There’s a hat with no layer 3. You can get stuck in spikes, or at the top of the level if you don’t guess the right way through the gravity puzzle. All these little glitches could be corrected quickly, but as Primpy says, they’re reminders that this wasn’t thoroughly tested.

I haven’t mentioned Lori at all in this review, even though this level was ostensibly made for a contest about Lori-related levels, and… well, yeah, “ostensibly” is the right word. You’re intended to guess you’re intended to play as Lori, and that’s the most connection there is here. Playing as Spaz does let you double jump straight to the end of the level, so there’s some gameplay justification there, but not in a way that would have been hard to patch out. Even without scripting it would have been easy enough to enforce playing as Lori using start positions and morph monitors, but that didn’t happen here either. Even the second level, which introduces purple to the palette, doesn’t take the opportunity to introduce yellow as well. No matter its other merits, this level’s Lori theming feels no more than an afterthought.

Erathia brings a new dimension to nature themed maps. The background is eyepleasing – there could possibly be a tad more contrast, the background/sprite soil look quite similar. The gameplay is where this level stands out. It has an unique layout and quite the campy carrot placement. However, the +1 carrot makes up for it. Fun to Play. DL(Y)

Nice tileset chandie! I really like this design. I can use it on my future levels.

8.2/10

Download recommended

A medium-sized level with an interesting character swapping gimmick. The level tileset is a bit hard on the eyes and you might get a little lost at times but other than those two nitpicks, it’s a fun and clever level. Recommended!

Is it just me who prefer the old Inferno tileset more than the final one?
Anyway this is a good tileset

This is another large, high quality battle map by Loon, which offers a very comfortable gameplay that seems to be influenced by various other famous battle maps, like Wilderness, Virtuosity or Fall Era (though correct me if I’m wrong). The level is also visually pleasant without any distractive graphics. Btw the level looks funny in guide.mut.

I fricking love this tileset

its kinda empty in my opinion.

xlmpeace- i think its too dark ,its hard to see floor. For ctf is inportant to see well terrain. Many mask bugs on wines, right carrot is placed too close to base, its unfair for other team. xlmwonder- eyecandy is pretty good, but there is bug at 15,25 you stuck in wall if you touch it :/ i would recommend you to start to use one way event too.

It’s an okay level. The palettes used are pleasing to the eye and the gameplay can be fun at times, but it’s very obviously unpolished and not thoroughly tested. Overall, a short, vanilla-esque experience with some scripted elements.

Very nice pack! I really like scripts, eyecandy and so much more…

9.5/10

BTW I used in my own version of Warpspacer tiles from Diamondus (bigger texture, trees, mountains and so on).

WOW! Nice pack! I really enjoyed your first xlm levels, even when I still remember the moments of inserting darker version of your previous level, “Diamond Cutter Factory”, without your permission.

By the way I’ll give you 8.5/10.

I enjoyed playing this level, you had a pretty original idea, lots of Lori clones shooting various weapons. It was a bit difficult to finish it, in fact I died 4 times and I often fell off the platforms. Anyway I liked it a lot, you deserve a nice 8.5

Pack looks awesome! Great work!

7.7/10

Also, why did you take screenshots using Single Player mode?

Well, the level and the eyecandy look pretty good. Dragusela, I’ll give you 8/10, and Download Recommended.

Also, I’m gonna make alternate version by using other recolor of the tileset. We’ll see…

EDIT: Finished Alternate Version but without permission. But how to merge it – I don’t know. Next time I will be careful, otherwise – ban hammer…

Superb level!

9/10

Also, the music is made by Alex Brandon himself.

Hey I really like this episode.

I’ll give you 7.5/10

Also, I would remake it using IC tilesets from Impressive Flashback and even add more MLLE layers.

These levels are pretty good, my favourite one is “Diamond Rabbit”, which I got from level pack of The Secret Files version, also i used some AngelScript codes like palette changing and Schwartzenguard as a shell after he is defeated. Also I can use not-buttstomp Bolly and Bilsy which ignores bullets.

This pack is pretty much a legend by now. Back in the day, I always wanted to play through EvilMike’s five-part level pack, but could never make it far due to the immensely high difficulty. I finally decided I’d actually complete the entire five-part saga and have indeed just beaten episode one. So, what did I think?

Episode One did not live up to the hype at all.

It’s a “Hard” level pack. So what does that mean? “Hard” should mean that, if you play this pack, you will find it very challenging to beat, but all too often in my experience, “Hard” actually means “Loaded up with impossible bullshit that will kick you in the nads repeatedly for no reason when you’re trying to play.”

That is to say, Super Meat Boy is challenging. Many levels will take you 30+ tries before you beat them, but if you fail, it’s never because the design is unfair, and you get an unlimited number of retries to ensure you can get good at the game over the course of playing it.
I Wanna Be The Guy is bullshit. You will repeatedly get cheap deaths from hazards you never knew were there, everything is going to kill you, and any death means you restart the entire game from scratch, meaning it’s impossible to learn and improve by playing.
Both of these games are hard, but only one is fair, and only one is a game I would recommend people check out. Sadly, this level pack leans far more on the I Wanna Be The Guy end of the spectrum than I would like.

In this level pack, you will very frequently be presented with situations where it is impossible to venture forward on your first go without taking damage. Carrots are only very sparingly given, 1-ups even more sparingly, the levels are massive, sprawling labyrinths, often ending with their hardest sequence yet — for instance, in The Castle, there’s a section very reminiscent of a Test, requiring very precise manoeuvring or you’ll be sent back to the start. Except in this level pack, because “Fair” is an alien concept, you will be insta-killed. There is a checkpoint very shortly before this Test section, but unless you’ve completely aced the entire pack up to this point (which would mean you don’t have much pack left), you will only get 3 or 4 tries before you run out of lives and are forced to start the entire level over again, with none of your ammo or fastfire.
And I haven’t even gone into the fact that a few of the levels just have a really poor sense of direction. “Okay, where do I go next?” was a question in my head a good few times while playing this, and it wasn’t a question that I was able to answer for several minutes in a few cases. That’s never really a good sign; to my mind, good/fun design requires clear goals, but with obstacles along the way that the player must clear. Navigating a giant maze trying to find which door was opened by the crate you stomped after you’ve already searched extensively two or three times over (not counting your first go-through that led you to the box) is not fun gameplay.

While writing this review, I was discussing the level pack with Seren over on the Discord, and they pointed out one section in The Castle where there’s a very, very difficult jump. Screenshot courtesy of Seren: https://i.imgur.com/gwqA1st.png
A bat is present in this section (killed before the shot was taken) who you can stomp on to gain the height necessary to clear the jump, but it’s not a generator, it’s a one-and-done. If you kill the bat without using it for the jump, or you stomp it but whiff the jump, then you’re pretty much buggered.
The wall to the left is a ricochet wall, so you can’t use RF missiles to clear the jump, and it’s set up such that Spaz’s double jump won’t make it. The only way, according to Seren, is a golden jump, which is a fairly advanced technique that I don’t imagine most players are aware of.
So, if you fail at this jump ONCE, then you’re effectively softlocked out of progressing unless you can pull off an obscure, difficult technique… Or if you save-scum, which wasn’t possible when this level was released (the level is too large for vanilla JJ2 to load saves properly. JJ2+ fixed this, many many years after this pack released).
This is a pretty good example of the kind of bullshit this level gladly throws at you in the name of being “difficult”. To my mind, this isn’t true “difficulty”, because it’s not a challenge, it’s the level simply being unfair. In most games, a difficult challenge is presented after a checkpoint and you usually wouldn’t have a limited number of lives. This way, you can repeatedly try this difficult challenge and become better as you retry. This level isn’t interested in being fair in this way; checkpointing is sparse, 1ups are almost never given, and even carrots are rare. I’ve harped on this already, but it bears repeating: This is not a fair level pack.

Frankly, I can’t imagine why this level pack is so well regarded, because back in the day, you couldn’t save during levels in this pack. Nowadays, you can easily save scum it to take the edge off, and honestly, despite getting very frustrated with this pack at various points, I did find myself enjoying many portions of it, but the tedium of save scumming doesn’t do the frustrating nature of this pack any favours. And yet, without save scumming, I would never have managed to beat the pack.

This sounds pretty awful, and it is, but there is a lot of good in this pack; the story is told well, the environments are well chosen and work well together, the music is good, the variety of gameplay styles and environments is good, and the way you essentially return to earlier levels at various points creates a strong sense of continuity and the illusion of a connectedness of the world that the pack creates. I probably should have just walked away on my 20th or 30th save scum in the temple, but I felt oddly compelled to soldier on. Playing this level pack wasn’t a joyful experience, but it was certainly a compelling one. Perhaps just out of spite for the level itself; if it was going to be relentless then so was I.

This is not a bad level pack. It’s one that could do with a once-over to remove some of the most unfair/unavoidable hazards, tweak a few weird obstacles (such as the bat in The Castle not being a generator), make the direction in certain levels clearer (in The Castle in particular, there isn’t a strong indication that you have to use the TNT to blow up the gargoyles, which can easily lock you out of progressing. There’s even a text field that tells you about this, it just isn’t used in the level), add more checkpoints, and grant infinite lives in AngelScript. Most of this could easily be applied only to the “Easy” difficulty, to preserve the original experience for any masochists out there (or the few people who are just that good at the game), but personally I would put these improvements on as standard, only taking them away on turbo and maybe hard.
But for me, these problems impede my enjoyment too much for me to say I liked the pack.

If you’re very, very skilled at Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (and I’m talking speedrunner levels of good at the game), you will probably get on fine with this pack. If not, you will find this a very frustrating experience severely lacking in fun, and as that was my personal experience, I can only possibly give this pack a 3/10, for my personal enjoyment of the pack. Harsh, yes. But so is this pack, so it bloody deserves it. :P

And yet, despite only giving this pack a 3/10, I’m giving this a download recommendation. Why? Many people in this community are just that good at the game (just look at the other reviews), and for those of us who aren’t, this is still a highly-influential Jazz 2 custom level pack, and to a certain extent its reputation is deserved; it’s full of interesting ideas, its story is well-woven, and the way you return to previous levels is very cool. There’s a sense of immersion, and you really feel like you’ve been on an adventure by the end of it.

I do not like this level pack. But if you’re reading this review, you should probably try the pack out anyway. Don’t be ashamed of save-scumming, because this pack is very unfair at times, and don’t feel bad if you decide it’s just not worth continuing; for many people, it will not be worth it, because for many, it will not be fun. But you should try it anyway, because if you do like it, you’ll probably like it a lot.