Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

fonky

Its cool… I like it… Idea about light levitation ball was fun…I enjoyed playing this pack…I think you need download it…

J2O doesn’t allow using commercial tracks in uploads. Please reupload with a different track.

Trying out the Quick Review medium here. Traditional Japan does a lot of things really well, and the only part that falls flat is the coloring/shading. All the right tiles are there, anything a level builder might want to do is possible, the ideas are great, the background amazing — it’s just that it’s too bright and not very attractive. Pity.

Gus tilesets, despite his community acclamation as “most improved,” are always rather hit or miss, and I find that a good scale for judging their quality is how much time has elapsed since his last release. In this case, it doesn’t seem to have been long enough, and Gus has largely reverted here to his old, lazier habits of tileset creation, including the incredibly thorough isometric perspective from Pyramid 3D, A Candion Day, Ancient Tiles, and so on. At least in layer 4, Technology (to which I feel it is fair to abbreviate it) is geometrically pristine and well-thought-out but offers little to nothing of any interest. I’m not sure if this is a set drawn with nothing but the sprite colors, but it definitely looks that way, especially since the sprite colors themselves are just as unsaturated.

Technology offers you three ground types (grass, rooftop, and rooftop garden) atop three soil types (dirt, light gray solid, dark gray solid) with, presumably, all the appropriate connecting tiles you could ever want. The attention to detail in this department is so thorough that there are tiles for the transition from layer 3 to no layer 3 in the bottom right corners of dirt walls. The dirt has no texture — nothing in the tileset does, apart from the big yellow blocks and a couple background bits — but its edges are curvy in contrast to the straight lines and exact, divisible angles that are most of the rest of the set. It’s competently drawn, and yet, as I’ve stated with regards to Islands of the Sapphire Sea, the graphical style does not appeal to me and it’s pulled off better there anyway.

All the nature stuff looks good. The grass is nicely wavy, the broken glass is amazingly well done, the girder bridge from the example level is very attractive (although it would be better were the angle on the isometric perspective a little less extreme.) There are some nice bush tiles and a bunch of alien plants which are inexplicably unanimated but otherwise quite nice. Apart from lamp posts, there’s really nothing comparable for the street/rooftop tiles, which don’t even offer the luxury of being sloped. Gus provides some giant 2×2 block tiles of a few different styles to vary up the technology parts of layer 4, but the isometric perspective looks its absolute worst here: the yellow block edges don’t look 3D (or look 3D in the wrong way), the beveled pyramid edges are difficult for the eye to process, and the metal block edges are obvious victims of resize and skew tools. For no ground type is there any opportunity for soil variety as you see in Carrotus or Diamondus or the like.

The tile order in Technology is atrocious. Let me see if I can figure it out. We start with the basic masked tiles for the main ground types, well and good. The main parts for the rooftop, though, are at 1,2 and 1,8, separated by a lamppost and not connected to the tiles that are their more obvious cousins. This slows things down immensely. Immediately below this are some tiles for layer 7, and then the alternate rooftop garden floor tiles, along with some missing tiles (such as corners) from the themes already introduced. Some stuff I don’t recognize (more lampposts?), more tiles from layer 7, and then layer 8. Next are some miscellaneous eyecandy tiles for layer 4 — fences, layer 3 tricks, and another lamppost — and then an alternate layer 8 and a bunch of tiles for layer 6, followed by more layer 7 and more layer 4 eyecandy, followed by a whole new layer 4 theme that goes on for many rows of tiles (the 2×2 blocks). Also, slopes. Then more layer 4 eyecandy (bushes) and all of a sudden layer 5 appears, along with more layer 6, and then the tileset finishes itself off with more layer 8, event tiles, and a cave for the grass walls. In short: it’s absolute chaos. Layer 5 is the only one whose tiles are in any way kept in only one part of the set. Basically they’re in the order Gus probably drew them and no effort was made to help the user find anything.

I’ve brought up the background some times now, but I didn’t want to mention it while discussing layer 4, because they’re really different, even though they use the same colors. Layer 4 is a passable, uninteresting tileset with limited eyecandy and an over-reliance on isometric walls. Layers 5-8 make a gorgeous background — which long seems to be Gus’ speciality — that can be manufactured in many different ways and is all very innovative and complex. The tile order gets in the way, of course, but if you can figure out what goes where you end up with something very pretty for which the limited palette really does work. Layer 8 is untextured and is an effect Gus has played with before, where there are several layers of buildings (previously mountains) in front of one another with different single colors. It looks cute and trippy. The rest is rooftop gardens, highways, aliens, buildings, and so on, and it’s all really good. If anything, the mistake the rest of the set makes is that it doesn’t realize that backgrounds are an inherently different graphical style and tries to be a zoomed-in version of the background.

In sum, the set looks gorgeous, but the less time you can spend looking at layer 4, probably the better, because there’s little there to distinguish it from any other tileset and it’s just too angled. The isometric perspective can look great when it’s more subtle — see Medivo, HH98, maybe Colon but your mileage may vary — but this is too extreme. What this tileset would work really well for is a cutscene or an intro level or something similarly nonplayable. Let a camera move around through this futuristic city, put on some appropriate music, add a lot of text events, and then throw the player into a gameplay level. That’d be gorgeous. But don’t attempt to do anything else because the tileset will only frustrate you in your attempts.

If it was finished and the story was more clear I would give it a 10++. Too bad it isnt, but the levels you did finished are like the work of god. Your levels doesnt only got nice eyecandy and gameplay, they also got an amazing atmoshpere. Nice job

dude all the levels in the pack are finished, you dont have to use ANY cheats to beat the levels :P (unless maybe youre playing as lori, and in that case i dont really care) i just didnt feel like feel like doing the rest of the levels like i planned in the story since i have no interest in this game anymore

i never had any bugs when playing through these (esp. ones that crashed my game) so its prob a problem with your game, but if you find something specific let me know i guess and i’ll get around to fixing it…

also, i know the levels can get frustratingly hard sometimes. i didnt make this with the intention that the people who play this, beat it in one sitting. try focusing on beating a few levels at a time, its much more rewarding imo :)

-blacky

A JCS masterpiece, don’t let ThunderWalker’s absurdly low rating fool you. All of the levels have fantastic visual designs, Pride in particular being the most atmospheric Jazz2 level ever made, and Phantasmagoria being a very creative work of art with it’s all themes in one design. Absolutely esstential.

I still don’t understand why I didn’t rate this before. I just say: Good job! This pack is awesome!

The first level in the city was pretty cool. The eyecandy was good, though you could have made it a bit less cluttered. Also, one thing that this pack seems to suffer from is a lack of consistency with platforms and such. If I jump on an awning and it supports my weight (using the city level as an example), I expect all other awnings to do this. This led to frustration right away as I’d try to jump on to an awning only to fall through, or a fencer would jump through yet I couldn’t jump to him. I think the background buildings in the city could have been put in a moving layer. Everything just seemed static and cluttered, though it looked nice. The more cluttered something is, the more likely I am to be distracted which leads me to crash into some baddie that could have easily been avoided. Also, bats going through the floor is one of the most annoying things ever. I could have made it through this level without cheating.

Next level…pipes and tubes everywhere. Very very nice eyecandy. The atmosphere was fantastic. I got frustrated with it eventually, though. jjnxt …

From this point on, the story kicks in. As Blackie said, you have to guess at what’s going on. Jazz has doomed himself to some sort of hell in his mind – kinda like in PoP: The Two Thrones EXCEPT THERE’S NO WAY OUT OF THIS ONE. You die and die and then jjnxt. Good eyecandy in the hell level, though. The virtual reality level (Nippius, I think). Was very good. The level that used the Sirius tileset by Agama was…confusing. I tried cheating through it, but it was no nonlinear I couldn’t find the exit until about 5-10 minutes later.

The bonus level is clever, though once again frustrating. You introduced a lot of new gimmicks that I really liked – the cobwebs, deer heads, etc. Like the others I eventually skipped it.Death pits are just not my thing – not after all that work/trying to cheat my way through. The eyecandy was decent, though I’ve seen better use of SwampOTSJ. If your other levels had been more like the bonus level I might have enjoyed this pack more. I understand that it’s in “as-is” format. I’m not going to rate it because of that.You put a lot of effort into this, though. Item placement was excellent. Enemy placement was annoying, and it became monotonous in the hell level as well as the Sirius level.

I recommend giving this a try, but prepare to be frustrated.

I thought it was great episode. too bad that its kind of unfinished, so thats why im not giving it a perfect score. Still these levels are truely masterpieces.

EDIT: I played this a while ago, I realised this probably influenced me so much that I didnt even realise it at first.

My initial reaction to this pack was that it was yet another sloppy mash of gimmicks and Babelfish translations, but I was wrong – veeeeery wrong. Never underestimate the Polski.

You start out on a lava planet that seems pretty dangerous. The lava is the least of your worries, however. You’ll end up hurting yourself more by destroying the cleverly placed blocks that are there to help you avoid the lava! The eyecandy of this first level is pretty good. Overall, it’s very well thought-out. My only annoyance with the pack in general is the placement of ammo. It can be excessive at times, but I’m very conservative with my ammo, so maybe I’m just overreacting. This level has one major flaw: at the beginning it says you need to fine an invincibility carrot in order to enter the lava. I only found one, and it was out of reach. I ignored the lava for the entire level and there was no consequence for doing so. I didn’t miss any coins or important triggers. The lava was pretty to look at, though.

The next level is really cool, though short. You have to sneak past the guards and security system of a facility in the lava planet. I had the feeling of being very sneaky while playing this, and the music was a nice touch.

In the inner part of the facility, you have to get to the reactor and destroy it. There are all sorts of clever MCEs to help you accomplish this in ways you might not expect. The final battle is challenging, but you’re not likely to die from it.

After you escape the facility, you have to go throughout a city and disable bombs. At the beginning, you have to escape using the copter. It’s a big of a shock, because there are blocks in the way and the copter only lasts long enough to get past them. The city itself is beautiful. It’s a very nice tileset edit that combines Townhouse, Colony, and a photograph for the background. The level design is excellent. Everything is cleverly placed.

The next level…well…I’m working on that. The author forgot to include the Discofever tileset, so my game crashed =( !!

K, got the tileset now. The discofever level has a weird storyline that is introduced abruptly even though it fits in the plot of the pack. I didn’t really care for this level. It’s mostly there to add story.

Overall, I liked this pack – point being that I had FUN. It may not be a work of art like some things I’ve played, but it was very creative with its use of MCEs and event placement. The story made sense in the end, but with a little adjustment most of these levels could have been standalone. Ammo placement was decoration, at best. The only time I found it useful was fighting Devan (or whoever the turtle is at the end). The secret areas were good. Food placement could have been better. I never had a sugar rush – even when I could have used one. The text signs could use some cleaning up. Have someone who knows fluent English fix them for you, Speaktrap.

It’s fun. Download it.

Wow im really wondering why this level pack doesnt got any reviews after playing this. Its an amazing pack, nice job. The only thing thats missing is a story and you should also fix some (little) tilebugs. Besides that work a bit on your english grammar :P

Edit: SADLY SEE WHAT I CANT DELETE MY REVIEWS!!!

I appreciate the reviews.
I have already made a few changes and I got the text working. Also some collapsing scenery, boll platforms and Spike bolls are added in. I’d re-upload it soon.

Also note that this level is supposed to be narrow with a lot of spikes. You are moving through caves, through mines!

When I looked this upload,I was disappointed,but not by the program. I am talking about reviews. I see a few “1.x” reviews that make me really angry. You all take for a reason why you gave the rating 1 the fact that “JJ2+ already has MP3 support and it’s useless now.” I see something bad in it. Isn’t that really bad for a reason to give a rating 1? If I remember good,cooldude’s review for a program by a “good” player saying “i dont see any use in it” with rating 1 was deleted. So why these reviews are not deleted? Maybe because,well,a newbie (no offense) uploaded this? Or because “respected people” wrote the reviews?

Again on the reason: “now we have plus who needs this” isn’t an excuse to rate this 1. Why don’t you go and rate Carrotade and Grytolle’s versions 1? They are useless,we have plus now!

Why not? Because Blur and Grytolle uploaded those?

I don’t really think Blur stole the MP3 idea,but what if he did? Would anyone say “BLUR STOLE IT BLUR STOLE IT”? No. Why? Because Blur is respected community member. And what if Djazz and Sfaizst stole it from Blur?
Everyone would go like “THEY DID IT THEY DID IT” theory.

You now see what I wanted to say. Rating this 1 and getting away with it because a newbie uploaded this,isn’t really nice.

Now on the review:
I like the idea. It has some bugs,but it’s nice. I think I can ignore the bugs and give it 7.6.

Delete this,I don’t care. But it will show this again.

You should get some better testing and spend more time on your levels, because this is very mediocre and needs improvement in many ways. The level is small, unbalanced and a bit too open considering the size. The eyecandy is very poor. I don’t really see why anyone would want to play here, seeing as it doesn’t have anything going for it. Sorry =/

Hey, I dont like this lvl! A lot of bugs also game play here wont be fine, some things look very strange.. even lvl name Desert Street? wtf ;o

lol…Link from Legends of Zelda…xDD

The program extracts pictures as .PNG files. When I try to edit them with Paint and save them as bitmap files that JCS supports and when I build the tileset,the tile background looks different than normal purple used and the mask gets completely opposite. Help!