Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

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

I'd give it a 10 but sometimes the tiles don't connect perfectly visually. I changed such visual imperfections so many times I'm okay with the few that are still in the level. Maybe I'll fix it later but the level is complete other than that in my opinion. So a 9.6!!!

EDIT01: I edited the visual imperfections and it's a 10 now within the limits of not using angel script. Maybe that's why 9.5 is still a good rating, a turbo 9! ;) I don't miss anything in the level though, so no angel script needed, but I still think it could be cool. I also might have missed a detail, although I think I fixed it all. But just to be safe I don't give my own level a 10.

EDIT02: I also played the level with a controller (more difficult for me) and realized one part would be too difficult for normal difficulty, so I added two save posts. If someone already downloaded and reviewed the old version they got a pm of the change. But I changed it an hour after the initial upload. Now the level is perfect and it's solvable with just using a controller only, from start to finish. I'll leave the rest of the reviews to others, I'm done with it (except playing the level and making/watching a YT video about it probably)

EDIT03 It's really finished now with the 2nd level added. Last time I still improved things after uploading, but this time I had some more experience to make less mistakes. So although 1 fix or 2 might happen, I don't think much is needed. A 9.6 and after I recorded a run-through video for YT and upload it I might have to fix some things, it might get a 9.9 or 10.

EDIT04 On a final note, I'm fine with the overal score right now. AngelScript is also added so it's better although the process of making it was a bit more difficult. That might affect my score a little bit, it's now just an 8.7 imo. The average score shouldn't get lower so I closed the reviews for now. I expected around a 7 although my own rating is higher, but sometimes you get rated lower than you expect and it's fine. I'm already happy it's not lower.

Friends this is my very first time playing a fanmade level of JJ2. AND I LOVE IT.

I play JJ2 since ¿2005? but it's only now that I am diving in this beatiful community.

I played a couple of levels of this episode, and I had to stop to come write this review. This is truly awesome, it reminds me of Dune and I'm going crazy with joy right now. Friends today I regain my childhood. Thank u so much

I totally recommend this episode and totally plan on play the entire series
Congrats and thanks again! <3

Now this is a duel level that manages to pay tribute to the clear source of influence while being also very original on its own in terms of layout and visuals. It is everything but a remake of the original. I would dare to say that this is even the ultimate battle duel level for me or at least very close to it. Despite its small size, there is potential for slightly bigger games here as well, although a crowded JDC event could quickly start to feel overcrowded.

To elaborate, Titan Armory is a duel level that enables insanely fast gameplay in battle duels, where every room and corner of the level has its risks and benefits. The level flow may take time to get used to, but once fully learned it should be possible to move around the level at ease, although a couple of spots feature a quirkier flow that are always challenging to all players.

So is there any space to hide in and think for a moment or play defensively? Not really. I counted that there are a total of 2 spots that are only slightly more covered from open fire, but even those are still not completely risk-free. In other words, this is a level where offense is the best defense and I really mean it. Is that a good thing? In my opinion that is a great thing, considering how campy battle duels can often get in other levels, but I understand that not everyone may think the same way.

Relatively fast respawn times of pickups mean that it is difficult to maintain full control of the level, but players with a strong offense will be hard to counter here regardless. Basically the faster you maneuver in the level, the harder you are to kill, but it also requires that your maneuvers are meaningful. Basically you need to be on a constant move and think of counter-moves at the same time to survive and eventually out-maneuver your opponent.

The tubes that surround the level are the key to victory in most cases, as they not only give you quick access to higher ground and counter-play, but you also gain quick vision of around 30-50% of the level to better locate your enemy. Didn't spot your enemy while at the tube? Then they're most likely on the other side!

RF weapon enables fast turns in movement by its recoil (and RF climb maneuvers in a few spots), which further boost the gameplay speed here. The downside of the flow here is that it heavily favors Spaz, while players using Jazz/Lori will fall behind in terms of maneuver.

The level's visuals are also a great upgrade compared to the influencer, Triton Armory, as MLLE has enabled us to further mix tilesets and increase the depth of level backgrounds. That part has also been executed really well here, as there are no spots that feel too empty eyecandy-wise and yet nothing is too distractive.

So by that I conclude that this was clearly my favorite battle level of the year 2024 and one of my all-time favorites from PJ (but I have many of those xP). While one may think that a small battle level cannot be better than a large one with lots of different features and varying visuals, I tend to think of the level as a whole, and in this case the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Download and playing highly recommended!

PurpleJazz strikes again, but this time with more than just a pinch of salt (a shoreful of it)! xP

Puns aside, I think this one is yet another solid CTF level by PJ. It features a theme that is well executed and original to some degree, although I have to admit that there are two other levels that this level reminds me of in terms of layout traits and visuals; Vanilla Shores and Sand Castle. Perhaps those two were a source of inspiration/influence here? Just guessing.

I suppose the level isn't exactly duel-compatible due to its fairly large size, especially within the horizontal dimension. Judging by the looks of it, 3v3 games should work just fine here, although I haven't got to try that yet. It was definitely a fun level to play in JDC events though. Some spots around the upper parts of the level seem like they have some camping potential in them, but nothing that would be impossible to counter.

Overall I think the gameplay in the level flows well, with a balanced amount of open and closed areas. Even around the more closed areas there is sufficient space between different platforms, so the level does not feel too cramped or awkward to move in anywhere. Though I have to admit that since there are a lot of similar looking platforms throughout the level, there is some potential in getting disoriented flow-wise. But not that it would be a severe issue.

Otherwise, the level features neat visuals that make especially the background unique. I think the weapon choices are also well-thought and support a balanced gameplay, together with the reverse bouncers and boomerangs as the custom extras here. I am very much looking forward to play more games in here overall! Good job PJ!

Joke levels can be hard to review, so I'll just say that some parts were dull and some were funny. My favorite moment was slooowly pushing a box while a trigger rock inexorably rolled towards me.

2024 was quite the year for high quality CTF levels (and certainly battle too)! It was also a strong year for Dragusela and I think the strongest one from him so far! While there may be a certain bias from me towards my fellows in XLM, I genuinely think this is the most successful CTF level from Dragusela yet!

Since this is a fairly big level, it may not be suitable for duels (haven't tried yet), but the layout is still very solid and balanced which should allow enough room for versatile gameplay overall. I know it took quite some testing and effort to get the flow and balance right, but the result was clearly worth it! The flow has been optimized close to perfect, besides a few minor issues here and there. The level contains also multiple landmarks to ease learning and navigating in the level despite its size.

And boy does the level look pretty! The three main tilesets, Psych, Beach and Castle are blended perfectly together. The river, reflections, trees, mountains, clouds all tweaked to perfection in the aerial view. The only nitpick I have is that some of the key components were recycled from recent levels, mainly xlmthurism I guess. But the result is outstanding nevertheless.

With that said, I think you should definitely give this level a try in case you haven't yet! I am also looking forward to playing more games here in the near future. Well done Dragusela!

In 2024 there were a lot of high quality CTF levels produced throughout the year. However, I think this was clearly, albeit not overwhelmingly, my favorite CTF level of the year. The World Spear features a unique layout and characteristics that really make it distinguishable from the rest, combined with fast gameplay and top-notch visuals.

The only minor complaint I have, is that the flow could be slightly more optimized in a few places like for example around the full carrot. But by now I am able to find my way around it, so probably not worth modifying. Perhaps some of the areas also feel deceptively empty visually, but that is probably due to the high amount of contrast between the solid walls and the background walls. Since some of the previous levels by Warren have had too distractive eyecandy in some places, I definitely prefer it this way.

Although The World Spear is essentially a level made for team games, I've even played duels there, which seem to work just fine as well. Those little extras like the opening label, custom sprites for springs and the mascots next to CTF bases combined with a unique layout and inspiring visuals make this level a true phenomenon of its own. Download very recommended!

As the name suggests, this is truly the ultimate mashup of the classic JJ2 Diamondus, Diamondus Beta and beyond. When I made Thunder Cliffs with this tileset, I found it so versatile that it was sometimes quite difficult to find the exact combination of tiles that I was looking for, eventhough I knew that it was there in most cases. Sometimes I even had to consult DoubleGJ personally to figure out how to link certain tiles together, but in the end everything was doable with relatively low effort.

The example level is also really nice, combined with its many scripted features that I had overlooked before. Those scripted features and the Diamondus Funk music track give quite some extra spice to the level itself, which make it much more exciting gameplay-wise compared to an average example level with minimal effort to describe the basic usage. I would consider rating the level alone something between an 8.5 and a 9 for my tastes, but of course combined with the tileset the whole is much more than that. Double Good Job (pun intended)!

I'm not exactly sure how I should review a JJ1 level, as I had never played a custom JJ1 level prior to this one. Even the previous time I played JJ1 at all was years ago. But I am amazed by how modern technology makes it possible to play JJ1 even with custom levels and especially on a web browser! If that wasn't the case here, maybe I wouldn't have even bothered to pay the effort to get JJ1 installed along with Dosbox, etc. Also as I have minimal memory of what the official Marbelara levels looked like or how they played out, I can't really compare this one to them, but I'll just review it as a standalone level.

On to the level, it seems like the level gives enough room for the player to roam around and explore different areas with creatively placed secrets, as typical to a JJ1 level. Maybe some of the &amp;quot;indoor areas&amp;quot; were even slightly closer to the official JJ2 levels by design, which impressed me.

While playing JJ1 after a while, I definitely was not used to the slippery controls and restricted vision in the game, and I found myself dying quite a lot especially in the beginning. Luckily the level offers plenty of save points and carrots to give a chance to the player to survive throughout the level, especially on lower difficulty levels (I played on medium).

I suppose the level visuals are quite standard to a JJ1 level or maybe even slightly improved from that, I cannot tell for sure. But just saying that I find the level also visually pleasant and nothing is especially bothering me about it. Although the level is relatively big to enjoy the gameplay for a while (I don't know what are limits of how big a JJ1 level can be?), the fun often ends rather suddenly. But this was also certainly an interesting experience!

Are you a fan of JJ1? If so, then this is for sure worth a try for you as well!

Good morning Jazz2Online (at least at the timing of writing this review)! I had a go at this level a few weeks back and quite soon after entering into the level, I found out that it is a vanilla SP level with a fairly classic style gameplay. What in my opinion was not quite as classic, was the way the level environments changed suddenly by unexpected warps, but I got used to it by some point and managed to find my way around the level.

The level is also just pleasant to look at, although nothing is exceptionally visually outstanding. I don't typically create or play a lot of levels using Townhouse tileset, so I'm a bit unfamiliar with the standards, but at least it seems like the background skyscrapers are done with care and there are even some shapes that seem original. The only thing is that some of the horizontal layer speeds seem too fast, as is the case with many classic levels using Townhouse.

Maybe the level is a bit too platformy for my tastes, especially considering those thin floating platforms on the air. But strangely enough I did like some of those trigger crate puzzles around the level, even with the mile-long vine-hanging areas. I suppose overall this is around the average quality you could expect from a vanilla level and it was worth the try for me. I guess whether or not you'll like it depends a lot on what you expect from the level, so to whomever is reading this, consider giving this one a try as well!

A decent level, going a bit overboard with the difficulty and trolling. Certain parts are fine, but I really hate the reliance on buttstomp jumping through respawning Floating Suckers. Also, the area with the bumpers, I literally had to use the fly cheat, because not matter how I timed it, the moving platform you are supposed to use, to get above the flipper bumpers, always passed through me, like it wasn't a solid platform, so add that to the irritating sections of this map too. Other than that, it's a fine level. Slightly too overreliant on buttstomp jumping over spike pits for my taste. Take it or leave it.

Well, this definitely looks like the most competently created upload by this user. The level layout while linear is pretty solid. The difficulty and the main annoyance is the heavy reliance on respawning enemies. Add to that, like Primpy said, all levels lack checkpoints, which isn't an issue in level 2, because it is so short, but level 3 would become irritating pretty fast, if you constantly had to restart it. The bees in level one are particularly irritating, since the respawn timer is set so low. You get quite a few areas, where you would need the uppercut jump to reach, and naturally a beehive with a respawning bee is there, with somewhere around a 5-7 second respawn timer. So by the time you reach the platform with the uppercut jump, the bee can already respawn and hit you, causing you to fall back down, and repeat the process. And let's not even talk about the level 2 boss fight, which is just pure tedium, collect 15 coins, 1 by 1, doing so with jumping on the cheshire cat hooks that fade in and out, with Dragon Fly enemies right next to them naturally respawning and spikes below. Meanwhile the Caterpillar is puffing the smoke rings, to make the process so annoying, I can't see anyone finding a reason to bother with it.

Unfortunately the levels lack any form of secrets as well, so while the level layout is actually good (slightly reminiscent of the original levels but more linear), it is a very "what you see is what you get" sort of experience. Sure there are some unaligned or misused textures (and a part in the Medivo level where you can get stuck on the chain next to the wall) but the levels are put together competently, surprisingly so, considering what the users other creations look like. These levels don't have that cheap "I made this in 20 minutes" feel to them. So while they aren't perfect and have a lot of questionable design choices, they clearly have a thought process behind them, rather than looking like the first draft of a prototype of a demo level.

If those rather significant annoyances weren't part of the levels, this could get a recommendation and even a higher score. But with the way it is, feels more like above average/decent levels, designed in a way that irritates the player, if anything. Though from that perspective it is unique.

It's like listening to an album you somewhat enjoy, but through low quality crackling speakers, or dropping a sandwich in the dirt and trying to eat it like that, the fundamental content might be decent, but a variety of factors drag it down, so you can't enjoy it in it's best form.

The Halloween Contest rules noted that "Scripted gameplay modifications are permitted [w]ithin reason. Please submit a Battle level, rather than an example level for your new cool gamemode mutator." I have lingering doubts about whether Astral Witchcraft really obeys this rule, but fortunately I'm not judging the Halloween Contest, I'm just reviewing a battle level. Or a CTF level. Or both.

There's a lot of room in this world for battle levels with deeply strategic layouts, hidey little corners where you need to use the exact right weapon to hit people, powerups and other resources you need to dominate control of to win. This isn't any of those things. This gives you lots of power right from the onset, and while there are definitely extra ammo types you can find to make you stronger, you can still get by without them. You're always a killing machine. There are always likely to be enemies in front of you, no matter what the minimap says. But the weapons are cool and new, so this feels exciting. In retrospect, this is kind of what I was condemning Titan Armory for…?

Visually I don't have much to say other than it looks incredible. There's rotating stuff! Tendrils of greenery! Colors that pulse with the music! Whatever is going on in the background! Eva out for a night on the town!

The buttstomp blast takes a little longer to charge than I'd like, and the center area for getting the green ammo is oddly hard to reach. That's all I've really got.

Necropolis is a perfectly fine level that doesn't have an obvious major appeal, and so suffers a bit in a landscape of levels that show off a bit more. Yes, there are neat touches here… I like the named areas, the Tomb Rabbit mummies, the cool way that the background clouds avoid the moon. None of them are necessary but it's neat that they were done anyway. The enemies in the background have been done several times before but they're still executed just fine, especially getting to see the black raven flying in front of the moon. The layout is actually quite distinct, though I think it's too flat at the bottom. The big open top is good for copter ears, although some fastfire pickups wouldn't go amiss. The weapon choices are odd—bouncers AND rollers, rfs AND nails, with only one obvious place that the nails are even useful—but they do generally fit the layout, filled with big open spaces instead of walls for the long-distance weapons to smash into. Everything is perfectly nice, just not quite exciting.

I missed this one when it came out. It's obviously much more visually detailed than A Titan, Ornery, with a more novel color palette and just more of everything everywhere. The stark contrast on the background mountains evoke DOS gaming or, yes, with help from the buildings, Batman: The Animated Series. The tubes are a lovely, reasonably subtle use of chromakey. Despite the different tilesets being blended together, nothing ever feels out of place, and there's just enough brightness contrast that it's easy to tell what's solid despite the panoply of decorations. Everything flows perfectly and is, as minmay noted, dangerous… my only worry is that it might be slightly too dangerous and there's not enough room to breathe or hide. That said, it's exciting/fascinating to see a level whose layout is fundamentally just a series of floating little platforms and yet still feels so deliberate.

There's a temptation—a narrative, perhaps—to say that Silent Cathedral is green!Hellfire, and I can't deny the resemblance. The use of Damn walls without Damn floors, in combination with Beach wood (especially diagonal wood), is of course very familiar. The big painful liquid at the bottom is another big tell, plus the occasional big vertical drops to the liquid (four in Hellfire, three here). Both levels have a number of one-tile-wide chimney areas with ammo pickups or carrots, though Silent Cathedral has them at the ends of vertical areas, and Hellfire's generally take more work to fall into. They're similarly sized. The cinders… I mean, okay, come on, that's just blatant.

On the other hand, there's undeniably a lot of Castle and Haunted House in this level that simply isn't present in Hellfire. And even little bits of Colon—there's one area with Colon streets on top of Castle bricks that doesn't seem to appear anywhere else, and is probably unnecessary, but still looks cool. So maybe the answer is that Silent Cathedral is a mashup of lots of sources, like a lot of recent multiplayer levels, and one of the sources it's mashing up is Hellfire. This answer would be more satisfying if I could identify specific other levels it's sourcing from, but look, there are a lot of levels out there, okay? Anyway, the birdcages feel nicely original, and it's neat to see the faster boomerang—zoomerang?—from Saline.

After all that I don't find I have too much to say about Silent Cathedral as a battle level. It has some interesting spots, like the boomerang powerup. I'm fond of the top of the level. I don't really see the point of making levels this size at the moment, like it's just going to relegate them to being performance art. It's fine. It's pretty.

A really cool looking level. Fun to play. Slightly on the easier side, but that isn't really an issue for me. Plenty of secrets to find. Music is decent, but somehow it didn't feel like something that belongs in Jazz Jackrabbit. Can't really say there's much to complain, a well crafted fun level.

unrelated: I'll be honest, I enjoyed the old rating system better, now I'll have to uprate or downrate maps if they fall between the 0 and 0.5 point categories

It's tough to talk about the eyecandy in a level like this that uses a new, lovely tileset, because the temptation is there to blame it all on the tileset, rather than the level author. But we've all seen plenty of hideous levels using Nick's original sets, so it can't be that simple. So much of this level depends on how detailed the background is, filled with so many different layers with all different speeds. Numerous cave extensions use layer speeds that are not quite 1/1, artfully creating depth—this kind of layer use can be some of the most time-consuming but it can also look the best, helping the level to feel like a real place and not just a 2-dimensional cutout suspended in space. There's plenty of detail on the floors too, with animated grass and stacks of rocks, and the ceilings are all jagged in ways that don't interfere with gameplay. (On the other hand, I don't love the walls that appear jagged but are actually smooth due to invisible masks. And for that matter, I don't believe the level is really a mountain.) Everything feels deeply natural, in a detailed way… it's plausibly organic, not designed.

Unfortunately, the same can be said for the layout. I've been wandering the level for a while now, trying to review it, and nothing sticks out at me except for the giant empty space toward the left. Everything else feels like an inpainting algorithm. Lots of tunnels and thin wooden platforms everywhere, sometimes a powerup, and I'm just not convinced this all forms a cohesive whole. The thin vertical bits with the seeker ammo are kind of nice, though I don't even know that seekers are all that meaningful here. Making a Battle level is a different experience from a CTF level because there's no obvious structure you can depend on: you're not drawing paths between two bases on opposite ends of the level, you have to come up with your own flow. And I haven't been able to find the flow here.