Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Good level! =D

.

[Rating (1.0) clearance. One character is not enough support for a rating, let alone for extreme ones like 1.0. – cooba]

Let me be honest here…This level is a tad overrated. I’m glad some things were fixed, like the filename and bugs, but the level as a whole isn’t that great.

Graphics: This is where the level suffers the most, I think. Don’t get me wrong, the eye candy’s okay, but there’s just too much of it! It’s hard to make out what can be jumped on and what can’t, and it obscures items and enemies.
GRADE: C+

Music: Standard jungle theme. It’s not bad, but you could have done something better.
GRADE: B+

Playability: This level can be beaten, which is good. Just be prepared to deal with unseen enemies unless you have a very sharp eye.
GRADE: A-

Structure: Felt kind of tight in places, as if trying to keep you from dodging obstacles and such. It doesn’t really do you many favors. It’s not terrible, but please do keep enemies and movement in mind when making other levels.
GRADE: C

Placement: Most of the items were easy to reach, but I couldn’t find the coins needed to open the bonus warp. That might be from my rusty skills, but eh. I’m not too concerned. There should be more weapons and maybe a few extra carrots, I ran out of toaster ammo before I reached the end. Also: NEVER put enemies on top of or near checkpoints! That’s just bad design right there. Also, take away the platforms in the boss area, the boss isn’t going to jump after you and the lack of platforms allows for better maneuverability.
GRADE: C-

Difficulty: I’d say about average. A player with decent skills in JJ2 should be able to beat it without dying.

Verdict: I’d say, try it at least. If you like it, that’s fine. Me, I don’t really like it. It’s not terrible, but it could be improved.

FINAL GRADE: C
RECOMMENDATION: No

Last time i did review this, i wasn’t very positive about it. Maybe i did got the old version or so…

But now i am very happy with it :D It fixed my trigger event problems (didn’t show that event :O) in JCS.

The added text is nice and can be usefull even for experienced JCS’ers. Some info about MCE could be nice to just as Sonicnatan Suggests.

Nice!

Very good level! I don’t know,how do you remember construction of JJ1 Battleship.

An idea with powerups instead Gun-crates is really nice,almost like ammo-orbs from JJ1

But to the battle this level is little bad. You could make your own Battleship in Single Player type. When I’ll make Episode Six,I’ll do it definitely.

Music is good,you choose good Battleships remix,based on orginal Song15.s3m(Battleships)

Tileset,well you choose nice set,but why always everyone make so slow animation in each level. Faster animations are more effective,ex:25-30 fps.

On like-boss in the end of Battleships level I advise put a Tweedle Boss and near him put Activate Boss event.
When you destroy Tweedle(he’s invisible)you could put destroy scenery on wall and behind it finally put End Area event. I know this is little stupid idea,but I’ll rather use it.

OK,I think you worked hard on this level,because is little tiring to make an ideal copy of JJ1 Battleship.From my all positive comments,I’ll give you 8.0 rate.

There are currently two reviews with completely different viewpoints. You, as a potential person who reads these things to be informed of what to download, may be completely confused and conflicted by this. “Which review is closer to the pulse of this pack’s quality?” you may ask. I’m here to say “Stijn is. Listen to him” as well as bring my own opinions to the table.

Dark Forest Adventures is comprised of four core levels and then two repeats that are actually quite good because they offer a different take and add new challenges to the original (fledgling level designers take note- this is pretty much how you can reuse levels and get away with it.) These levels mostly feature Mario-esque pixel perfect platforming and traps (Bowser would be proud of the way Devan refurnished Carrotus Castle) only in a JJ2 set of mind. Instead of the platforms going right floating over a pit, they’re strung across large expanses of forest, caves, and castles having the player explore an area in pretty much every direction. While its not perfect, its still a refreshing ride to play through these levels. Also littered about are some decent puzzles that give the pack a nice sense of variety.

Unfortuantly there is only one tileset used for this pack making the two castles and the outside bits look a little samey respectively but I think that can be outweighed by the fact troglobite went out and made it himself putting forth some extra effort very few level makers actually take by making his own set. Even if it isn’t really up to par, I can’t think of a pack in recent memory that had tileset developed specifically for playable levels. Further proof of this guy’s great creativity is the story giving proof to what I’ve been rambling about for years: You don’t have to be EvilMike to make a good Devan story, you just need a good story. The twist was unexpected and wonderful, and the fact that the villain had some actual motivation beyond “RAWR IM EVIL. TRY AND STOP THIS TEAM JAZZ!!!1” should be applauded.

In a time thats currently comprised mostly of decent one off levels and awful JJ1 remake packs, its great to see someone combine the ‘decent’ and the ‘packs’ bit to create something worth your download and time.

I’m guessing the name of Dark Adventures is cribbing from the rather fun “Dark Forest Adventure” pack. Mostly because theres no adventure and its hardly ever dark! Whats the deal? as Seinfeld would inquire.

In fact continuing on with my one note all text Seinfeld impression, whats the deal with these levels? They’re short, bland, and pretty awful. Except for Mission Impossible which not only was out of place, but was semi-decent at the start making me think some thievery Limbo of the Lost style was at work here (it goes back to being awful halfway through so my fears were put to rest).

How awful are these levels. Lets take a quiz. You are playing a level where you hold right and shoot things, ocassionally having to hit a spring or stomp something.
Do you
A) Like it
B) Dislike it
If you chose B, you can be rest assure that the first two levels hold nothing for you (despite the second starting to show some deviation from this, its a lie). Also, do you like awful boss arenas? No? Well then the two boss fights (one is Uterus in a tiny cramped box like area, the other is Devan in an arena where he’s more likely to jump through walls than actually attack you) will do nothing for you either.

Level 3 offers a different variation in which you occasionally go left to shoot enemies and hold down the directional button. Awesome. For the record, Level 4 is just the Devan boss fight.

I cannot recommend downloading this, but to Esteban I say keep trying, the first part of Level 2 showed some promise.

thanks for the advice. this was mostly a test to see if the concept was good. When i made it i just used the first 10 minigames ideas i had, although i have about 25-30 to pick from for a final version. I will most likely do like 3 versions of the final product and get testers to pick out the best.

A minigame compilation pretty much lives or dies by its minigames. The concept of having to complete games to win a race is very cool, but many of the minigames here are pretty awful. Im not sure I completed mutation lab correctly (and it also felt quite slow), vault doesn’t seem to work right (and is impossible to return to the top to change the combination), the warp/spring one, the frog game, and moneybags are frustrating, dull, and far too time consuming, and the maze is kind of confusing (why are there two exits if only one works?).

Some people here will be like “focus on the eyecandy!” and I’m here to tell you “NO.” Do not listen to those people. They are bad. For two reasons: 1- This is an in progress proof of concept. 2- Even if they looked pretty, most of these games woukd still suck. I liked the signpost one although the final stage was a bit too complex (there was about 4 different ways those arrows could be interpreted) and I liked the water leveling one.

I think for a race-minigame hybrid to work, the minigames need to be challenging, but at the same time fast-paced. Adding some freeze events into the Signpost game would add some challenge and still keep the speed intact provided the player minded to avoid the hourglasses.

Axe everything but the signpost, water rise, and cat minigames (since those would work well, however at the same time all need some degree of fixing), and try coming up with some speedier concepts for minigames.

I have a seperate idea on how to change the minigame select mechanic although its not really necessary at this point and I doubt you’d want to hear me ramble about it anyways.

Yea-yea….VERY low QUALITY of this level…And why this level has DEATH-HOLES?

The level“s just too SIMPLE.

SHOULD YOU DOWNLOAD?-I dont tthink so…or NEVER.

I’m not sure but think 1.5 suits good.

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

Radio GaGa is a rather odd level in the sense that its not as different as the description would lead you to believe. It is however a rather solid first showing. Despite being rather linear and keeping the player confined, Radio GaGa is a fun and quick diversion. That and some original ideas sprinkled in earns Radio Ga Ga a download recommendation.

Is very cool, but this test is easy xD

[Quick review. ~cooba]

This is very cool battle. I now host on my server :D

Good things are:
-Excelent JJ1 animations
-Good pallette
-Nothing missed JJ1 stuffs.
-Moving platforms!
-Lot of JJ2 thibgs:vines,h nad v-poles,JJ2 blocks,3D background,very good.

Bad thing are:
-Not orginal JJ1 Industrius background and this is only that ;)

The final rating of this tileset is:
9.2

That is a low quality level, with almost no playing value.

Eyecandy-it doesn’t really have eyecandy, everything is too plain. I think you should spend more time on your levels, this one was probably done in 15 minutes. It looks unfinished.

Gameplay-it’s hard to play in a level that has dead-ends, to win you can just camp at the seeker area, the level’s just too simple. It has 2-3 warps, several PUs which are all easy to camp at.

Should you download-No, you’ll most likely just lose your time.

Overall-I think a 2 suits it well.

This is actually a pretty good pack, that does have some weaker points which fortunately don’t distract from the things that make it fun.

The story in a nutshell: Devan kidnaps Eva, you travel to Devan’s castle, meanwhile Devan conquers Carrotus Castle, you return there to save the day. There’s an interesting plot twist at the end I won’t reveal here, but all in all it was a nice variation on the generic “Devan attacks world you save it”.

The pack starts with an introduction level, using still frames from the JJ2 cutscenes to introduce the story. It’s a nice idea and works well enough, but sadly the pictures suffer from colour reduction and rather MSPaint-like fuzzy edges, so it doesn’t look all that great.

The other levels all use the same tileset, presumable made by Troglobite himself. While serving its purpose of creating a world of castles and gardens, the tileset is mediocre at best and doesn’t allow for much interesting eyecandy. Still, I’m reviewing the levels here, not the tilesets, so that’s not really relevant. A disadvantage of using this one set though is that the whole pack looks rather dark and plain, and that every level looks the same. Some variety would be an improvement here.

As for the gameplay, this is obviously influenced by EvilMike’s episodes, even copying one of the puzzles (the spike bolls in Devan’s Castle) almost tile-for-tile. Most elements however are either standard stock-puzzles (exploding trigger crates with TNT, for example) or self-invented. I was particularly surprised by the “timed shot” in the Saving the Day level, which I found really clever and fun. There are a couple more such puzzles and constructs that make the levels fun to play, though sometimes they can be a bit too hard. Luckily there are plenty of carrots and extra lives, so this balances out quite well.

The level design is usually fine, though I think it is a bit “platformy” at times. Lots of small platforms just floating in the air, without much sense of an overall structure. It would be a good idea to try to design the level as a whole, and to make it really look like a castle structure-wise, instead of bit by bit.

I don’t want to spoil too much, since a great deal of the fun factor in this pack is in the surprise of yet another fun gameplay element’s introduction.

All in all this is a fairly good pack, with mediocre eyecandy and average to great leveldesign, that will certainly be enjoyable to play through. Though the levels may get boring after a while, there’s enough fun stuff in here to warrant a download recommendation.

The program works nicely. It wasn’t entirely clear to me how exactly it was supposed to be used, but the big question mark button quickly guided me to the “How to use?” explanation, which explained it.

Essentially, though, this is a more difficult way of editing the files than with the old-fashioned notepad or any other text editor. For files such as these being able to move or delete large blocks of text at once, instead of line-for-line, is just more convenient, and notepad excels at just that. This would only really be useful if it did more than just text file editing; for example, importing IPs from JJ2+ logs or something.

As it is now, this is a useless tool that, though easy to use, is worse than the pre-existing tools. Therefore I can not recommend downloading this.

By the way, please make the window bigger by default, and allow me to make it full-screen. There’s no reason not to do so.

n00b,

the reason for the delay was that I had already used up my upload limit for june.
Use the TSF editor, if you don’t want to play them in order [surely you had the sets before this?!]. If I can figure out a way to make save-and-run work for jp, I will notify you and update the file.

EDIT-Well, I guess I’ll just do that then. I don’t know why I created a separate directory, maybe cause my homecookedlevels list takes 2 minutes to load because there’s so much on it, and I wanted to make it go quicker, but yeah. I will definitely update the concept I had.

EDIT-Faw, I am currently working on an updated version of the level. Better set, it should be a dramatic improvement. This level does need work. But I am very busy now that school is going, so don’t anybody get mad at a late arrival time for levels. I am also currently working on Turtemple, the up-and-coming release, helping OLOELO bigtime on his project, working on the new Fanolint, and trying to squeeze a battlepack in the spare time. So don’t get all huffy.

Considering that this tileset is pure garbage, you did a good job. It looks like it did in Jazz 1. I say give it a download if you want to see a decent level made out of a bad tileset. I’ll say N/A for now as I’m not sure what to think.