Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Thx u, i hate this bug. This was rly unfair.. And now i can play with lose hearts :)

[Start making your one-liner reviews quick PLEASE. ~cooba]

Aah, another Christmas-y level. While this is not the first Christmas level this year, let’s hope it’s certainly not the last either.

Gameplay: Nice
This battle level has a typical DS-layout. Not too complex, yet it does the trick of looking very carefully built. Icy Environment carries an action-packed feeling, created by the large amount of useful ammo. Three different power-ups (no seeker) add to the tactical use of weapons.

The level is basicly divided into two areas. The lower level and the rest. The lower level isn’t much interesting, since all of the PU’s and carrots are above it, but it does have various ‘shortcuts’ to the above level, including the outer edges both leading to two of the three carrots present. The third and last carrot sits safely on his platform high in the level.

On the lower section are two crossing tubes, one propelling you upward and the other propelling you to the other side. Both are handy to escape a rabbit on your tail, since they can give you quite a head start if you keep on running afterwards.

There are three PUs to be found. Bouncers come in handy for shooting the people on the platforms below. RF missiles can easily haunt a player down walking either in the top or bottom paths, since they’re long and straight. The Toaster PU comes in a little less handy, but can still be used in a way only the Toaster can be used; just block the path of narrow corridors with tons of flames. A player is almost bound to run into those soon enough.

Overall, nice gameplay and use of ammo dispersion.

Atmosphere: Even nicer
This level has a typical DS-atmosphere (where have I heard that before?). The tileset is used to the extreme, providing us with lots of goodness for the eye. The platforms can easily be made out for solid walls and it’s quite obvious what is supposed to be the background.

Speaking of which, the background is plainly gorgeous. DS makes use of the tileset like rarely anyone has ever seen before, creating an original background, as well as ‘wall-eyecandy’. Simply charming little details fill your heart with Christmas spirit as you run by killing rabbits.

The music choice is a whole different story, though. It seems DS is rather fond of his collection of Sonic the Hedgehog tunes. I myself, however, get rather bored by these tunes easily. Several DS levels already include music from this franchise, and I can’t really appreciate this. It does add to the feel of the level, on the other hand, but I personally would rather play without the music on.

Overall: Very nice
Icy Environment gives a whole new, refreshing look to Nippius. Festivity is in the air and this should occasionally be hosted, especially during the season.

Download Recommendation: Yes
Of course.

Score: 8.1
This level, Icy Environment, gives a whole new twist to Christmas levels in a way that neither the Holiday Hare 94 nor the Holiday Hare 98 sets could bring.

tis tileset arrangement is good

i think tis could be useful aswell as unuseful at times i will give tis a 9

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

Pt.. i removed some seeks.. (note that there weren’t a lot off seeks and there isn’t a seek power up what also prevents seek spam)

also.. the tileset is not an fix.. but only som add-ons

there are now 3 spots off seekers.. most times 5 to 7 missiles on each spot.

(ignore the text saying it’s an fix.. i don’t know why i named it like that.. but i removed the maskings from the foreground things atleast.. you shouldn’t rate the tileset parts anyway.)

Well, very…. interesting level…
Not what I expected, Aurora Citadel is a Christmas level using the Holidaius ’98 fix tileset [which doesn’t really appear to BE fixed, but ow] and is very unusual. Why? no layer 8 bg. The level is devoted to seekers, having so many spots with them that I lost count. The amount of hidden shortcuts and side routes amazed me. The eyecandy was quite nice.
So to finish up, I will give a rating of 7.9, and a neutral dl rec, because the level was good but the high concentration of seekers unnerved even me.

Hello
Now i need to say some words too:

I know my bad english, but i think its not to hard to understand

We started developing the Tool on September of 2008, the first versions we had a lot of friends and a funny time, the first sever got be hacked, we started agian, the second too, now we are on the 3rd server, we use a better system, this new works without problems now.

But what i not understand why none of you understand the big diffrence to the + mp3 support, this support is quite not for single player games, its an additional tool for Online playing games, we choosen the ‘Secret Filed’ in Jcs to enter the title, the reason is:
This filed is not often used and no one who is not using the tool is really attaced.

So finally i think its better to play online with a streaming title from YouTube or the Server else to download a title choosen from the JJ2server witch needs 10 minutes or more (the most time is the sevrer with level cycling faster)

I’m happy to see some persons respect our work on this Tool and be quite more happy if you one day use it

Edit: I forgot to say, online I see more Servers using our Tool else using the + mp3 support (This is not a attack to + users or the developer its only a fact)

Marry Christmas
Sfaizst

Edit for PT32 (and others who are thinking so too):

Hmm, i hate to repead me, but i think you not understand me, the diffrence IS to play from youtube or a server, i personally hate it to hear no music from the server when I’m playing online, i have some mp3s on my Pc too, but when i wish to hear the mp3 or mod file the server selected i need a lot minutes to find it,… to download it and to implement it to my JJ folder, as well my so small disk space is going down too.

The JJ2mp3 support is smaller then 2Mb , so smaller as the most Mp3s you can find in the internet
(I know, we all have HDD problems, HDDs are the most time in new PCs over 250gb big but we have no place for a Tool what needs at this 250gb 0,0008% of it)

And as well i think this with the illegal content you can find in links on the readme or in this tool arent the problem here too, just look on the page of the list server digiex, go to the
Forum —> Games —> Jazz Jackrabbit 2 —> what do you see??

But finally i think you not want to understand it so no word what I’m saying here will change ur oppinion about this tool

So a nice 2009
(I really hope something will change 2009)

Dreamless, a single player level pack made by none other than snooze. Will his ‘legendary’ status aid him in making a good single player pack or will this be yet another popularity hit?

Gameplay: 50-50
One thing that concerns me most about this pack is the gameplay. Simply put, I don’t know what to think of it. The pack carries a heavy mix of feeling rushed and feeling well constructed. Some area’s feel like they serve for no other purpose than to add an extra mile to walk, while some really add to the fun.

Without doubt, the worst thing of this pack were the pits. Some are obvious, but most of the time, you would drop down from a vine and fall to death, simply because you were looking for some more treasure. It IS a platformer, after all, so ammo and gems are always welcome. As recommended, playing on Easy will serve you a lot more justification when looking for aid in this particular pack.

The levels have a really odd feeling to them. It’s not really based on enemy killing, but the puzzles also don’t prove much of a challenge (though that might be just me). The puzzles may be fun at first, but when you think back, you’ll head go “pfft, I knew that” most of the time. Regarding the puzzles, by the way, there is a certain degree of complexity that nobody could guess if they hadn’t heard of that before. For example, there’s this puzzle where the player must use the Electro Gun to shoot a checkpoint beyond a wall and then kill himself in order to get there. Not only is this quite far-fetched, but it can also cause quite a lot of frustration for people new to the Single Player packs presented on this website. On the other hand, the idea itself is very original but feels like an elite player gadget.

The pack is driven by a storyline. A mediocre one at that, but it does the trick. It’s not like this hasn’t been done before, but the aspect of it being all a dream makes up for it. Either way, it is still a ‘bad guy has to be defeated’ story. From snooze, I would have expected something a little lighter and funnier, but then again, no. This is exactly what I was hoping for.

A few things about playing this pack kept annoying me. The pits, as said before, but also the amount of text strings. For example, cutscenes can also be implemented in tilesets. Also, as EvilMike said, some of the ‘protagonist thoughts’ are annoying for the fact that the player may think completely different from what the protagonist is thinking.

Overall, the pack played average. There were too many things bugging me, I’m afraid, and I’m gonna have to stick with the rushed feeling I had in the beginning.

Atmosphere: Good
The one thing that stood out in this entire pack was without doubt the atmosphere. There are two sides to this. One being the excellent use of tilesets, the other being the way in which the levels are presented.

Snooze is of course known for his multiplayer levelpacks, which often feature levels that make an unexpected use of particular tilesets. This results in ‘wow-ing’ the player and therefore earning fantastic scores in the eyecandy department. This pack follows the tradition of unexpected tileset use (with a few exceptions, more on that later).

The level with the Star Wars reference feels the most left out. I simply don’t think it stands out too much in comparison to the other levels. Even when you’re ‘shot into space’ and ‘the view is amazing’, it still feels odd, even for a dream.

On the other hand, the ghostship level is by far the best use of tileset I’ve seen in a while. A completely unexpected turn of events for the Beach tileset (though a previously released screenshot shows us a little spoiler). The level is fairly translucent, making the background visible, showing occasional other ships passing by (maybe too occasional, I personally would make the layer wider to prevent it from becoming boring). The level carries a mystique feeling, which I really enjoyed.

Also, as I said before, the cutscenes especially feel rushed. I would have used a tileset cutscene myself, simply because the cutscenes now look like they were added in ‘just because you needed a cutscene’. They don’t feel like part of the pack, which they of course are. Especially the opening level felt like a big disappointment and almost made me quit on the spot.

Overall: Good
The Dreamless single player pack surely feels like a step forward in the SP setting of J2O. I surely hope that snooze will continue his work and improve upon the critique he has received. Good job.

Download Recommendation: Yes
Though on the hard side for newcomers (even in Easy), learn to think out of the box. Forget the Epic SP packs and use your brain. You’ll have to with this pack.

Score: 7
I was thinking about giving this a higher score before, but this pack had just too much worrying me. I do sincerely hope that you build on these ‘flaws’ (don’t want to call it mistakes or faults) and make even nicer level packs. You have my faith. :)

(Rag, eat your heart out. 5000 characters!)

while this may seem like a good idea, it really isn’t.

What this Does
This is basically a utility designed to play live streaming MP3 or youtube audio over a server. It is however, poorly exacted. Why would i want to use this? Jazz2+ supports MP3 already and even in I’m using the normal version, I think a regular song would work better. I know this came before MP3’s were in Jazz2, but even so, I shouldn’t really want to use this. It’s an inconvenience to have another window open along with anything else your running. The library does have a lot of songs to it, but I don’t really like a lot of them. I may be wrong, but haven’t I seen some of these songs uploaded to J2O? The youtube thing doesn’t really add anything. The one thing that really rates this down is the fact you gave out links to places where you can download ALL version of Jazz without permission.

Overall, I don’t really see the point in this download and I think using Jazz2+ or searching for a song on J20 or Mod archive is a better choice. No download recommended and please take down those links!

Just some tips: It is A CHRISTMAS, not AN CRISTMAS ^^. Also I is spelled in CAPITALS. ^^

Gameplay

The flow is good, I also recognise some of FF’s famous sucer tube-spring cominations. What bothers me most however, is that the middle platform in this level only contains 2 ways to go down, which are at it’s both ends, while there are more ways to go up. I would have like to seen a 3rd and maybe also a 4th way to get down from there.

Eyecandy

The eyecandy is pretty nice, especially for this tileset. There is plenty of back and foreground, while layer 4 also posseses great eyecandy.

Originality

There isn’t a lot of originality in this level, that is also what I miss the most.

Sorry for the not so long review, Im busy :p

Gameplay: 7
Eyecandy: 8
Originality: 6

Final Grade: 7

I recommend this download for playing public in the Holidays.

I see no point in this upload.
It is no different than the latest JJ2+, infact it’s worse.
I wouldn’t normally do this, but the fact that you put an illegal link to JJ2 in your level IN MULTIPLE PLACES disgusts me.
For this reason, I will give you a negative dl rec, and a rating of 1.3, because it could be usable by some inconceivably long stretch of imagination, but is a terrible waste of disk space. I hope the admins will remove such content from J2O.

Just to make it clear that this is NOT an attack in any way on djazz. I simply see no good in this download.

Edit: to Sfaizst:
But the point is…There IS no difference between this and JJ2+, because JJ2+ ALREADY provides mp3 support! I don’t even use Youtube, and having more windows open simply makes the game even slower. I see no point, and cannot recommend a download! Thank you for your politeness though.

————————————-
I’m not even going to try to argue this point anymore, because it’s going nowhere fast. Thanks for your courtesy, but we shall have to agree to disagree.

I didn’t exactly expect Snz to do so great making the leap from MP to SP all of a sudden.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. The atmosphere might not be there for everyone, but the levels are very interesting and it often feels like nothing in the levels is insignificant.
Awesome job, do make more SP, but don’t forget about CTF.

Hmm….
Interesting level. It is a level with CTF bases, super red gems, a tricky and confusing race, and battle possibilities all rolled up into one. Unfortunately, this makes the level a bit cramped, as evident when played.
There’s one whole quarter of the map I haven’t even figured out how to GET TO yet
The pipes can be annoying, esp. if you are trying to pinpoint one to enter.
Eyecandy is classic, not very original.
I wish…..I wish…..I wish you would fix these things up.
I’m afraid I’ll have to hand out a no-dl citation, because it simply is too crazy to conceive playing on. Hope you can fix it, and look forward to seeing a better version!

Very nice job! Eyecandy was excellent, levels were awesome too, music fit, a few rubbish things [like the DEATH PITS], but worth a dl.

quite evil yet awesome pack, make more sp snz :D

I’m still rather pissed off about the hatemail, but you people should realize that that doesn’t affect this rating. Either way, this levelpack had some key features for singleplayer, eyecandy, enemy placement, ammo placement. The thing that brings your score down painfully is your lack of creativity! I mean, we’re in a dream world, shouldn’t anything be possible?

JJ2 logos falling down, randomly falling out of dreams into senseless puzzles.
I know this will sound very contradictory, but your levelpack made too much sense!

Even though you didn’t do a swell job on this levelpack, thanks to the dream theme, if you make another, make it like this! (No death pits, though)

The only setback you had was your dream storyline. I’m sure I would’ve given this a 7.5, at least, if this was in a regular setting.

to defost: not all these levels have far less ec then what i usually do. only the unimportant levels like the ones with cutscenes.

anyways, thanks for reviewing. now i atleast know to not include instant death pits in the next ep ;0 which will come in 2 weeks i think..

Personally, I don’t really think quite as much of this pack as others do. It was a pretty solid pack overall, but suffers from some big problems.

The first thing I noticed was a stark contrast between the eyecandy in these levels versus the eyecandy in Snooze’s other levels. These levels have far less. You can probably use “but it’s set in a dream world” as an excuse, but come on, you comment on how “realistic and vivid” the dreams are.
Of course, the levels don’t really look bad, just plain. That’s not really a bad thing, but it detracted from my enjoyment a bit.

The second thing I noticed was a pit which had absolutely nothing warning of its existence. I later found out that these pits were prevalent throughout the pack. This really hurts the pack – taking lives away from the player just because they were unable to guess at the existence of a pit really won’t positively impact their opinion of a level (or level pack).

My next quibble came with Dream Drift II – the “QoB level.” You have to find 10 coins, but, like EvilMike, I couldn’t manage. The layout of the level is very confusing, and the seemingly random triggers just made it much worse. It’s just one level, so it’s not really that much of a problem.

And then, as I went further in, I noticed another problem – you never know where you’re supposed to be going. You could roam around for half an hour trying to find a trigger crate, because the levels are just so open and maze-like. This is very frustrating, and, in many cases, didn’t make sense.

Another thing that bothered me was the enemy placement. There aren’t a whole lot of enemies, but there are quite a few, and I didn’t think they were placed very well. The long lines of Hatters in Dream Drift (I), the huge balls of float lizards in Dream Citadel.

However, don’t let the above text fool you into thinking that it’s a bad pack. Far from it; it’s pretty solid. I just only mentioned the bad stuff, because the good stuff’s already been pointed out by other reviewers: there’s unique tileset usage (just look at the ghost ship), some great atmosphere, and a very original and prevalent theme.

Introduction

After making lots of Multiplayer packs like the New Ages series (and some levels for Codename: Alliance) Snooze has created a Single Player pack/episode. But the main question is: is Snooze good at making Single Player levels or should he focus on Multiplayer more? Keep reading for the answer.

The pack starts with some introduction levels. There’s not much to say about that, except that it shows what you can expect from this pack and it’s part of the story.

Then comes ‘Street’ a Townhouse 2 Night level. It’s relatively short, but it’s still pretty fun. Be sure you don’t fall in the pits (as I fell in them right before the end of the level) the level has some nice secrets and overall the level wasn’t too hard. It’s just that I’m pretty bad at Single Player (but I played this on Medium)

I quote: ‘After the normal city, your dream changes into something futuristic..’ that’s Dream Drift (part 1 of the 3 that are in this pack) It’s another pretty short level (if you know where to go) It could take long as it took a while to find out that you have to freeze a spring near the end. The part with the springs is probably the hardest, but still pretty easy. This level has more enemies than the previous one. I especially like the area at the top (which is the end of the level) Another quote: This view is beautiful.. wow.” It’s exactly what I thought when playing it.

After Dream Drift, there’s a big and long level called Dream Drift II. You have to find 10 coins, and some of them can be really hard to find. On my first try (in a previous version of the level) it took me about 20 minutes to get all the coins.. then I died at the boss battle at the end so I had to get the coins again. On my second try I had 8 coins and couldn’t find one of the other 2 (I had to get that one before the last one) This level doesn’t have too many obstacles except spikes and a few enemies, but it’s still challenging. It’s easy to get lost, but the level is not as evil as QoB.

The Voice is Calling is a level that introduces the enemy (more about that later)

After that it’s time for a level called ‘Beach’ which shows some interesting tileset usage. It’s not too hard, and although it looks big it’s not too long. It’s good that the level has different areas and those areas all have different things (and secrets)

Then comes ‘Inside the Ghost Ship’ another Beach level and it’s, one one word, awesome. The theme is something I haven’t been before with this set. The collapse scenery at the start and the disappearing pole are good examples. And the choice of enemies too. This level also has some good ideas, like the trigger crate near the gun crate that you have to hit by shooting a turtle shell. This level has many enemies, and I lost 3 lives in it. But this is undoubtedly my favourite level of the pack.

Dream Citadel is the next level, and it’s another nice-looking level. The level itself is not too difficult, but you have to find a way through the destruct scenery (which is pretty easy anyway) A textstring in the level says: “Warning: unless you have 5 coins, dont go past this area” then you have to go up and find a warp to a trigger crate which opens the triggers at the end of the level.

The Demon’s Castle has an impressive intro with some cool light effects and a short dialogue between the main character and the enemy (not going to spoil what it is) This level also has some cool tileset usage (like the corkscrews that almost no-one uses) The level is a bit shorter than it looks, but it’s still fun. It’s not too hard either (in my opinion) One of the better levels from the pack.

Then comes The Demon’s Castle? A level that’s not too long but if you want to find every secret in the level it would take a long time. This has some more impressive tileset usage, like the tubes and translucent blocks in layer 5 and the crystal window. This level is not too hard if you have maximum fast fire, but it’s still really fun. The level ends with a boss battle, which shouldn’t be too hard either. Well, if you thought that was it, think again..

Dream Drift III is possibly the most evil level of the pack. When you start you will immediately see some enemies that will most likely hit you. And then you’ll get to a puzzle with lots of spikes and trigger crates. Then comes the evil part: ‘Use your guns wisely..’ you probably won’t have too many gun9 ammo by now as there’s only 6 ammo at the start of this level (maybe from the previous levels) but use it to hit a save point. Then you’re supposed to die (so if you have 0 lives that kind of sucks) Then you get to a warp which leads you to a short maze with destruct scenery and hurt events. That’s not too hard though. Then comes a part with different routes. I’m not going to tell what’s there in every route. But the main route leads to some hurt events and a carrot crate with some bees. Then comes a small maze with some spike bolls and hurt events, and you have to get up without being hit. The last part of the level requires you to find 3 coins. They’re not as hard to find as in Dream Drift II. After you’ve found 3 coins, you’ll go back to the area where you had to shoot the save point. Then, after that, you have to search for a warp that leads you to the end of the level.

The ending level describes that the battle is not over yet. But what will happen next? Find It Out.

So overall, this pack gets a really high rating because I was impressed (and I don’t play a lot of Single Player!) Snooze shows that he can’t only make Multiplayer levels. I give this a 9 and a download recommendation.

It’s always good to see people release single player episodes. This particular one is quite good too, and I found it enjoyable to play. It comes from Snooze, who is perhaps best known for his CTF packs, New Ages I, II and III. This is his first major release that is single player, and I hope it’s not going to be his last.

The best part about this pack it its atmosphere. It is set almost entirely within a series of dreams, and because of that the levels take on a somewhat surreal tone. Snooze does a very good job at conveying this theme, with the eyecandy being a particular strong point. In some places it does get a bit weird, but dreams aren’t always normal and logical. One thing I thought was fairly impressive is how some of the levels have different areas that look very different, with the background transitioning and the style of the foreground also changing. Most people would just start a new level to convey this effect, so having it happen within a single level makes it very neat.

The gameplay is also good, though it does suffer a bit due to a few problems. One in particular that I noticed is that the instant-death pits are often hard to spot. You never know when a drop is going to be fatal, and because of that the levels can be a bit more frustrating than they have to be.

I also find that in an action oriented pack, having a QoB-style level early on is a bit disruptive to the overall flow of the levels. I’m not a big fan of maze levels, and this one in particular is difficult due to a lot of obscure triggers. The goal is to find 10 coins. I couldn’t, so I settled with 5, then hit the checkpoint, killed myself, and grabbed those 5 again. That’s a bit of an exploit, but at least I didn’t have to cheat. Call it an alternate solution to the puzzle.

I also thought that the hell level was a bit confusing. It’s more straightforward than the QoB one, but the layout is very open, and I found myself at times not sure where to go next. Also, at the end you wind up with a checkpoint and a dead end. It turns out there’s a hidden tunnel by there, but I couldn’t find it at first.

The final level is a bit different from the others, in that it is more puzzle focused. In a way it’s similar to the QoB level early on, but it’s a lot more action oriented, and I at least enjoyed it (though it took me a while to figure out where to go).

Other than that all of the levels are quite well designed, fun, and challenging. And, due to the very original visual design, you’ll always want to know what’s next.

Like snooze says in the download description, it’s probably a good idea to play this on easy mode unless you are pretty good at single player.

One additional comment I’d like to make is that I found it a bit annoying how the main character (and narrator) of the episode often comments on what he sees. Sometimes this is alright, but sometimes it’s completely unnecessary, because the player can quite easily see what the level looks like. I also thought it was a bit funny how the narrator sometimes comments on how cool/beautiful a certain scene looks. These comments seem to pop up fairly randomly, and come across as the authour of the level complementing himself. I thought this felt a bit arrogant.

Anyway, this is still a great pack, and I highly recommend you download it as soon as possible, since you never know when it’s going to be deleted in a fit of rage.

Quite an evil pack. The best thing in my opinion is the execution of the theme. There are some unfair situations, and you may feel the author (or demon) is being a complete bastard at times, but it’s real fun.