Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

I was hoping to provide some feedback as a betatester before the release, but it seems I spent too long trying to say something other than ‘it’s too hard’.

There’s a sense of adventure about this episode, brought out by the portals in the three towers. Most of the episode doesn’t actually take place on Nippius, so you never know what lies ahead. In many ways, Devan’s Fortress is Mike’s take on the Central Cave. However, there are two things which detracted from my enjoyment of The Fortress of Ruin:
One is Mike’s chosen style of level design. The other is JJ2’s technical limitations.

While individual levels each have their own theme in terms of obstacles and puzzles (and of course eyecandy), I’d go so far to say that gameplay is unvaried throughout the episode. The balance shifts between fighting enemies and avoiding traps from level to level, but there is usually plenty of both. As a result, there is always something in the way, always something to avoid or watch out for.

How do I deal with ravens? I shoot them from afar, or I get their attention and uppercut them. How do I deal with skeletons, turtles, and other ground enemies? I shoot them from afar or buttstomp them. Fish and crabs? I use seekers if I don’t want to take the time getting the angle right. Of course, it would be too straightforward to shoot at things on level ground, so half the time I’m jumping up and down from the same spot to clear my path, only to repeat the process again and again.

The traps and obstacles are more cerebral. Sometimes things will look very intimidating, but you can get past most without getting hurt, provided that you pay attention. Whether it can be achieved for all of them, I personally don’t know, as I passed some of the more difficult ones by deliberately ‘bouncing’ off spikes. There’s also far too much instant death in the levels, further aggravated by the inability to save in bigger levels. A good knowledge of both rabbits’ abilities is essential.

With so many creative ideas being successfully implemented, why must there be a constant? Why is essentially the same deathtrap over and over again?

It would not be 100% hyperbole to say that every level is Mike’s take on Central Cave. Progress was laborious and repetitive, with too many sections thay could easily have been taken from test levelss. I think arjan’s review is quite perceptive, in that the episode is indeed heavy on arcade gameplay. You meet some static characters in your journeys, who provide useful hints or just small talk, but the actual story is played out in cutscenes. However, ‘fast paced’, is the last phrase I’d use.

I have been thinking that The Fortress of Ruin would be less extreme if the entire lives and saves system was rid of, and replaced by checkpoints and infinite lives. The game would be saved when you reach a checkpoint, and reloaded when you die. The two problems of excessive saving and losing your progress would both be eliminated. This doesn’t change the levels in any way, but I do know many people enjoy the kind of gameplay present in episode 5.

—EPISODE 5: The Fortress of Ruin—

I’m one of the people who tested this episode before it got released. Evilmike said it would take at least two hours to beat that. For the people who read this, scratch the two hours and make it six. That’s right, this pack will take at least six hours to beat depending on how skilled you are.

I wrote a review of episode 4 and I said that I was a little disappointed with it because of the lack of originality the first three episodes had. Now we come to those unavoidable questions:

Does this pack contain original things? YES!
Is this pack the longest of all? YES!
Is this pack indeed the hardest of all? YES!
Is it better then episode 4? YES!
Is it the best of the series? NO! I mean, YES YES YES!

STORY

After the war your nameless character fought on Carrotus, he’s going on a hunt to find Devan Shell and kill him. He’s hiding on the planet Nippius. the problem is, his lair is sealed. To unseal them, you have to defeat three bosses in three fortresses in one large central castle.

Yes, the story sounds very simple but it’s been expanded greatly in the story cut scenes. After each fortress Devan speaks to you and tells you something interesting. All the loose threads of the previous episodes find themselves weaved together here. Still, this episode is less story heavy then the other episodes and feels a little more arcade.

EYECANDY/MUSIC

Both of these are some of the greatest choices I’ve ever seen. All the music fits perfectly with the levels. It really feels like you’re playing the last episode and the end is near. Yet it isn’t because there are so many levels in this pack.

The eyecandy is just as great. There are dark spooky houses, an ice fortress, an acid lake and many more. Some of these levels are very colorful, others aren’t but they have some very nice special effects like thunder, or dark trees on the foreground. You will really enjoy the looks of most of the levels. There are a few levels which are less creative but it’s barely noticeable.

GAMEPLAY

The most important part of each Single player game. Is it fun to play? The answer is yes. the pack started with a bit standard levels but the more progress you make in the game, the better this packs becomes. Each level has its own creative things. In one level you’ll find yourself flying through crazy obstacles as a bird, in another you’ll race against a raising water level only to break some blocks with your flamethrower at the top. Of course the flamethrower is unusable under water.

I won’t spoil everything but there’s one more part I’d like to describe. At one part you are standing on a breakable floor. Run too fast, and it breaks and you will die. So you have to walk slow. This seems very easy but it’s not. Above you, there are breakable walls and floors as well. and all the way at the top is a crate you have to stomp. So you have to run, only to break the bricks above you, but you have to be aware that you don’t fall into the chasm underneath you. To make things harder some trampoline are added which you have to use to get to the top. This are only a few parts of the many creative parts in this pack.

This pack is hard. Very hard. I think that all the latter half of the pack contains levels that are all harder then the hardest levels of the previous episodes. I found myself trying to get past some obstacles two hours long. That’s right, some levels will take two hours to complete. While it’s hard, it’s never frustrating. It’s rather addictive actually. There are these crazy parts in which you find yourself making progress after very much practice. After you finally complete these levels, you’ll be very satisfied. It isn’t advice able to play this all in one sitting because then it may get frustrating after a while. I’d also like to add that this pack doesn’t contain slow crate pushing puzzles. The pack is very fast paced and I like that.

So is the gameplay perfect? No, it isn’t. Some obstacles are extremely hard to avoid. They are certainly possible but it requires some great skill and some crazy jumping moves. Other areas just screamed for carrots on easy mode at least, but there weren’t any. you’ll also find a few enemies which I find a little unfair, but that’s only on normal or hard. I won’t say that easy isn’t hard though. I played this on easy and most parts will take some great practice. It is recommended that you play the previous episodes first, but if you don’t care for the story and just want to have some single player fun, go ahead and download it anyway!

Another low point were the final two bosses. These bosses were exactly the same as some of the previous episodes, only in a different setting. I can’t really say which ones because that would be some kind of a spoiler but I was a little disappointed with them, especially after all the creative things I had seen before. And then it’s inevitable: you become a spoiled brat and only want to see more of it.

RATINGS

Story: 9.5/10
Eyecandy/Music: 9.7/10
Gameplay: 9.9/10
J2O rating: 10/10

It’s kind of sad Mike takes a long break from level making now, so let’s hope that JJ2+ will eventually add some nice single player features. But I don’t know if that’s possible.

You know what? I found 1013 coins at all… and I was playing with Lori.

Well that’s a matter of time zones, really. It was ready to be uploaded, so I decided to upload it on the 27th based on CET, since that’s a good a time zone as any. Never mind that I’m 8 time zones behind it.

Mortalspaz: It crashed because the levels are big. That’s why I put a warning in the download info. Sorry. You don’t have to start all over though. You can cheat (jjnxt) to get to where it crashed. It doesn’t really count as cheating if you’re just skipping to where you left off.

Well after much turmoil and pain, I’ve completed to final episode and all I have to say is, wow.

Story
The story takes place right after the events of Resistance. You are on your way to Nippus to stop Devan once and for all and to get your revenge. You are told to keep Eva’s ring on at all time. When you arrive, you are greeted by Devan’s armies and you right to get in his fortress. There, you have to disable 3 seals that seal Devan form you. You find strange portals that suck you in and the rest is great. Trust me, there were times when I was tempted to jjnext the levels so I could see what was going to happen next. The story sucks you in and never lets you out. The plot twists along the way are great and I never saw them coming. The ending is a little bit a cliffhanger, but nun the less great. Overall, great story and a great way to wrap up the Invasion of Deserto.
10/10

Eyecandey
The eyecandey is definitely up to Mikes standards. The backgrounds are awesome in every level but the jungle level and storm level really sticks out in my mind. The levels look great. Lots of layers are used and it looks like. Now for layer 4. The first levels look great. The Fortress that Devan is hiding in looks well and it designed greatly. Lots of animations make it look great. When you go through the first portal, we go to the jungle level which looks great! The lighting really adds to the mood and the castle looks nice. The fortress look great with a nice background and a really advanced look. The island levels looks great as everything looks natural and looks like what a real island would look like. The next level fortress is a little plain, but still looks nice. Acid lake looks nice but it doesn’t look natural. It think it was meant to look that way but the eyecandey is still nice. The third fortress looks incredible. I mean really the WTF tileset was used greatly here and it looks so cool. Oasis looks great but the layout looks weird. Still nice with lots of eyecandey. The forth fortress looks great, with a nice use of the Temple tileset. looks nice and really looks nice a fortress at times. The platforms that move are also cool. There’s more levels, but they basically re-use other levels which is ok since they are meant to connect to each other with some areas connecting to other areas. All these levels have 0 tilebugs and the amount of Eyecandey sets the standards. Nice work Mike!
10/10

Gameplay
I have to say one thing right now, this is one of the most original packs I have ever seen in my life. Ever other level something is introduced that i have never seen done before in any pack before. The difficulty is also very high, even harder then the Rebirth of Evil which was hell to get through. There will be times when you want to throw something at the screen. That being said, it’s still very fun to play. Next thing is the size. Every level takes a while to complete. Average level length is 10 minutes or longer, meaning that this won’t be done in one sitting. (It took me 4 days!) Lets start with level one which is pretty basic. Nothing special but still fun. It’s a little hard, but not to bad. Nice puzzles involving find crates and breaking them. When we get to the Fortress of Ruin, the difficulty spikes. It’s hard with lots of spikes and traps. It’s very wide open though and still fun. Once you find the portal, you go to the jungle which has some nice twists with playing as the frogs and the birds. It’s hard, but fun. Fortress of storms is still hard, but has a great concept of being strong winds on the roofs, making navigation harder. The puzzles are still nice with lots of exploration needed. For the first boss, I was hard! It was a tuff boss but you first have to him. Once there, the wind is going which means on hit my the boss or the turtles, and your going over. I was happy that it was hard and I even got a continue screen! Beat, you go back to the castle where you find some freezers which have something so cool. You use them as a light in the dark tunnels which is such a cool idea. Second portal takes you too the island. This has a cool concept of finding gems to open a path. Then you find shoes and using a glitch, you have now walk underwater! This is a great idea and i loved it. The bottom part is very hard, using lots of crate puzzles a clever shield puzzle to get to the end. Dreampipes is next which is by far the hardest level in the pack. You have to race the water to get to the top and destroy the blocks using the toaster. This is hard and it takes MANY MANY MANY MANY attempts to get it right. This one isn’t as fun but the originality is so great, it out ways that. Next boss is Ultres and it hard. This time you are doing the opposite buy race the water down while avoiding spikes. I got down there with one health. You then fight the boss on a small platform. It’s hard and it’s wise to get down there before the waters gone as I just spammed seekers until it died. It’s hard, but not impossible. Next portal takes us to acid lake. This is a great concept where you have to ride a rock down the lake while dodging obsticals. It’s fun but hard. If you fall in, you loos a heart and you can try again. You can avoid loosing a heart by buttstomping as soon as the warp is done. Then we go to the WTF level which is very hard. It uses mainly Spaz as you have to time your jumps to go up the springs while dodging spikes. It’s really hard, but once you figure it out it isn’t that bad. You also have to dodge pools of toxic chemicals buts that can be impossible sometimes. Then we have a concept where if you fun to fast on the bridges, there break and you fall. It’s a great concept and it’s fun to do. The puzzles are nice as you have to find crates to open paths and to go to different parts in the levels. The boss isn’t hard that hard as long as you have lots of freezers. Then you go through the srpings without setting them off. The concept before the boss is that if you butstomp, you die. which is hard but like I said freezers and your fine. The platforms break away in the boss room if you fall and there’s spikes on the roof to stop the buttstomp trick. After a trip through the castle we end up at Oasis where we have to find 50 coins to complete the level. It’s a fun concept and there’s more then 50 coins to be fair. Takes some searching, but it’s fun and challenging. The 4 fortress seems unfair at times with spikes coming out of no ware. Still that doesn’t way down the fun factor with find more crates and jumping across disappearing platforms. It’s a hard one, but not as hard as some of the other levels. The battle with Devan is hard. Lots of carrots are there on easy. There’s two Blisy bosses throwing fireballs at you which adds to the challenge. Defeating him then takes you to rocket turtle which you fallow to the castle. there all you tricks will be put into affect where you chase the boss threw the fortress. If you beat him, you’ve beaten the episode. The rocket turtle is hard and it took me a couple of attempts. When you do defeat the boss, it’s rewarding. Some other things to say. First, I love of how I used me other ammo. You will be put in situations where you will want to use you special ammo which is something i don’t so much. Even in the first 4 I played through most of the game using only my blaster. Second, we have problems with saving but no marks off as that’s Jazz 2 problems. The music is also well choicen. It stays with the mood and it’s kick ***! Overall, this gameplay is great with good puzzles and some great level design and the secrets in the game will bring to back for more.
10/10

Enemy Placement
This pack proves that the enemies in jazz can be hard to deal with. The enemies are put in hard locations and you have to somethings think about how you want to kill them and what to do to get by. This adds a lot as it helps the difficulty and doesn’t make the pack boring. The enemies fit pretty nice and there’s quite a few of them. The enemies are also used in some boss battles which add to the difficulty. These enemies are put in great locations and they managed to give me a continue screen.
10/10

Pickups

Carrots: The carrots are put in nice locations. You will be running around with one heart a lot, but the carrots are nice and put in locations where if there’s going to be a challenge, enough carrots are given. They can be few at times, but the placement is great meaning that you will survive.

Ammo: Ammo is again nice. There’s a lot more then in other episodes, but that’s good because a lot of the time you will be using it. Enough is given to survive and there are put in great locations.

1 ups: they are all hidden but a lot of the time they are put in easy locations which is nice because you will need them so you don’t get a continue. Nice locations and there’s enough to help out.

Food: There’s lots of it and I have to thank Mike for that because I got through a lot of locations using Sugar rushes. Lots is given but you will only get one every 3 or 4 levels.

Coins: A lot of levels have warps with coins which add to the replay. they are well hidden and they really add to help with the replay. Nice work there.

Powerups: I only found one but I know there’s more. This is great as it adds more replay to try and find these powerups which I may do.

Other Stuff: Gems are here which is nice. There’s lots of them but not a gem overflow. Nice verity of reds greens and blue even though you will find lots of reds. Save points are a problem but that’s not a problem in some cases as it’s level design and most levels not have save points you can save in without crashes. Overall, the pickups are in great locations and trying to find them add to the replay value which is very important. Great work!
10/10

Final Score: 50/50
Rank: S
Score: 10
DR? I know some parts of this review can seem biased, but it’s hard not too. This pack is so fun and has so much originality that it deserves a ten. The pack is hard but fun and the replay is great, meaning you will want to go back and find all the secrets. This gets a DR and is a great way for Evilmike to end his series. Bravo and I thank you for your hard work to bring us this pack. Nice work and I hope you don’t stop making levels!

So i have played through the final release in the Ressurection of Devan Shell series, The Fortress of Ruin.

This was a very well put together single player pack, and it far tops its four preceding episodes.

Eyecandy 10/10
The eyecandy throught all the levels is excellently done, even the saving area zones look attractive, and for that i give a perfect score.

Story 10/10
The story is this final episode was very well done, in fact i would say it was the best done of all single player packs i have played up till now, and leaves you asking no questions in the end.

Level Layout and Aspects 10/10
The levels through Fortressof Ruin were very well thought out and organized, and had very cool design features. I especially liked the fortress featured throughout the levels, especially the speech interludes.

Playability 8.5/10

Overall this pack has very good playability but some parts can be very difficult, especially traversing the fortress and the 5 boss fights.

This is a very very good pack and i would 100% recommend downloading it, even if you havent played any prior episodes.

Since this is mostly the work of epic, I’m not going to rate but I will give an overview of what is included.

Eyecandey
Barley anything was added at all. Eyecandey was plain already but almost nothing was added to it. No layer 3, 2 or 1. Not even much to layer 4 is here.

Gameplay
Again not much was added to the gameplay. No puzzles ot even a boss is there. Since Tweedle doesn’t work, it would have been nice to put SOMETHING there. The only thing that adds to the gameplay is the enemies which I will talk about. The level is also too short.

Enemies
Some were added but there isn’t enough to kill me. No challenge at all. Only haters and dragonflies. and hard mode doesn’t add that much.

Pickups
Again barley any of them were added. Just a little here and there. Not enough food or ammo.

Other things
There’s no start Position for spaz. Just needed to say that.

Final Comments
Again I’m not going to rate because of how little was changed. If I did rate, this would get a 1 for boring gameplay, lack of eyecandey and a short experience. If you want to see a decent re-make of this level check out my finished secret levels. (A review would be nice :)

SUPERNEAT!!!!!!!
ALL OF THE MUSICS ARE INCLUDED!!!!

Yes, I mean “Latest”. This is the beginning of a long series.
Relay on fearofdark: Easy to use? Try the “Tidy” version I’ve just made.
Relay on Gavalant: It’s a huge honor for me to have Gavalant, one of the Elite tileset creators in the website, to give me a high rating. Thank you.

Hi Gus! (maybe, Ciao? xD)

I was wondering, how you had time to making all tihs tilesets and single-player modes :).
I remember your Campaing Mysteries – it was very good level pack with full of puzzles and “mysteries”.
Also, why I’m asking about that?
Because you have your own style od graphic. Now, in Casualty Mines I see, that your style is geting mature and mature. What’s more, there are many fantastic layers, good color palete, and also your “world of stone, lava and wagons” had good atmosfere. I like your “gus people”. I don’t know, how I can call them xD. I think, that I like your style, because you made thousands of similar things. This is not disatventage! Some of world famous artist were drawing without variety in technic. They were beautiful, because their works were having their names. This is like in CraccoBoy old levels. All his thinks were nice, because he was characteristic with non-convential ideas :). I would be waiting for the compilation of “Gus world”. Try to make one-big-level (minimum 80 kb).

What’s more, this is one of the best mine tileset in jazz2online i ever seen. Why? Because there is many good eycandy like houses or funny trees in background. Yeeeees… your background is perfect :). I think about from-the-blue-to-color-of-background. It looks professional. rocks also rulez.

I give you 10.0, because this tileset shows, how much you done from your start with jazz to this tileset. Try to make another one :). But, if it’s your last tileset, I must tell you, that you are abonding us with nice class.

Good luck!

Its simple and it works. What else could you ask for.

Very nice level and tileset, Dod ;)

i could be better for me if it was 1.23 x_x

I cant install it. :(

“Some additional stuff I forgot.’ nice. :P

Nice. The first level in an import of the stage. Which I love Mega man so of course I would be into it but them a 2nd stage is a remake of the first one. Its also very well done. The doors even open and close when you walk by them. If you like this stage back on the NES then you will like this pack.

[Review changed to quick review. For more information, see Review Rules. – cooba]

Don’t listen to the people, don’t make a TSF version.
Everyone else – want to use this tileset? Get over yourself and download TSF already.

Very well done. This is an excellent looking tileset with many creative possibilities and features. The floor tiles particularily are excellently made (particularily ramps), there are many features, such as water, lava, honey??(or whatever that yellow stuff is) and some buildings. There are even some characters for a possible story as well. It’s also very easy to use compared to many other tilesets. One of the most artistic tilesets so far of the year, as far as I can recall.

I think, however, that it could be improved in several ways. As Evilmike said, the lava/water tiles could hold more opportunities, and the tileset is missing some decent spike tiles. The tileset is also missing some decent destructive blocks and poles. As several other reviewers have mentioned, this could easily be made into a 1.23 tileset, and there could also be a night version, or other versions of the tileset. I also don’t like the masking for the ladder tiles, seeing as you have to walk into the wall to climb them.

FINAL RATING: 8.8
DOWNLOAD?: Most certainly yes. It could be improved still, but this is most certainly a must download for anyone looking for a decent, canyon/mine style tileset, or just anyone looking for a decent download in general.

Vista, I geuss?

This is a very good tileset and one of the best ones I’ve seen in quite a while. I love the style, and I was quite surprised at just how good it was. It’s a definite improvement over your previous tilesets, which had a bit too much of a “paint shop pro” look to them. This one on the other hand, has a very unique and professional look to it. There’s really no fault I can see in it, other than maybe the grass, which is a bit too bright green, like it’s toxic or something. Also, there aren’t really any good “spike” tiles: there are tiles for lava pools, but that’s a bit limited in how it can be used.

I hope by “My last creation.” you mean it’s your latest creation. It would be a shame for such a great tileset like this to be the last one!

One thing that would be nice is a 1.23 version, like dodges suggested. You’d have to cut stuff, but it’s been done before.

I’m giving this a 10 because even though it’s not perfect, it’s close enough. And I love the art style.