Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Quick review.. I was pretty surprised by how this tileset turned out, everything looks really nice. While this isn’t the most versatile tileset, what is included just looks really nice.

The graphcis style here isn’t at all realistic looking, and at the same time, it’s not entirely cartoony, either. I think this is the perfect environment for JJ2, to be honest, because that’s how all the sprites were drawn, and that’s what I like about this tileset the most.. everything just fits, you can place any event in the level and it just looks at home.

I’d say the name of this tileset is somewhat misleading. Here we have a cathedral of sorts. But it’s not like all depressing and gothic or anything. Everything here looks very cheery and upbeat. The tileset has plenty of arches, alters, statues, brick structures and such that give it a very.. I dunno the word.. churchy.. cathedrally.. feeling.. but it’s not like medieval or anything. It has a very modern feel to it, which I really like a lot, because you don’t see that too often mixed with cathedrals. It just looks really nice. And pleasant. I’d say pleasant is the perfect word to describe this tileset.

As for masking and other miscellaneous things, I saw no real problems.

My complaints and suggestions for improvement, well, first of all, I would’ve loved to see some more versatility (is that a word?). Being able to run outside in between buildings would be great, even if you just added some grass here and there, it’d be enough. Also, I would’ve liked to see pole events (well, just the psych pole) work, but that’s okay, nobody really uses them anyway. Oh, and flower pots. I dunno, the flowers and all look like they’re just kinda floating there, it’d be nice if they had some nice pots to go into. There’s no textured background in this tileset, but that’s alright; the background that’s there fits very well.

My final and biggest complaint is the lack of color. Everything’s just brown and green; you seem to have a lot of talent and creativity, so put that to work with colors the next time!

Overall I’d give this a download reccomendation, to check it out, if not make a fun little battle level or something with it.

Thanks!

9 is extreme overrating.

The eyecandy is a mess. This level attacks you with a multitude of colors basically everywhere, with the ambient lighting making it even more chaotic. The amount of decoration in every place feels almost forced to some point, there’s just too much at too many places. While this is apparently a palace, every piece of the layout is random and unordered as if it was a nature level all over.

Speaking of an unordered layout.. this level is almost like a battle level with bases. It would take a while to learn some basic routes and tactics here, let alone master them.. This level may be sure challenging, but it’s on the end of the spectrum where annoying levels go. I’m not sure if anyone would consider playing here.

Overall, a lot of effort went into this level, but in some places it went into details that shouldn’t have been there. Keep making levels, but make them less messy, please.

(PS. The text strings were very bothersome, by the way.)

EDIT: I didn’t mean to say this level is completely bad. It’s obvious that a lot of effort went into it, shows the months gone into JCS’ing. It’s just that the level is more to look at rather than play, which is not too good. Overall, I’m giving this a 7.1 not because it’s bad, but because it’s not very good yet.

As I’ve promised yesterday, I’ll do a review for this interesting new CTF level as soon as it find it’s way to J2O. So ehh, here it is! And yeah, I’ve heard the pretty damn cool music file now :P. Makes me enjoy summer even with the bad weather outside hmm.. But enough of this, let’s begin reviewing!

GAMEPLAY
It think when people look at the screenshots, the first impression they’ll get from this level is the huge amont of paths crossing each other. Well, after some of Faw’s instruction and a little test run on this level, the gameplay indeed proves to be the strongest part. I’ve already played this level in an early testing state and even at that time many interesting spring, tube, and secret paths were done and working well. Although I don’t mind death ends in CTF levels that much, in this level there always is a way to go, thus some exploring is recommended before playing duels/clanwars in this! Overally seen, the gamplay is not as over-the-top as in levels like Nightfall in Noobland, but the many minor and major tricks and pathways (especially the ‘secret’ paths involving the pillars) makes this level interesting to explore, game, and master!

EYECANDY
It has been long ago since I’ve played a new level using the Persian Paradise tileset. I do remember some great classics using this Disguise set though. The set has a good bunch of eyecandy tiles, including some stuff not to be used too often. But ey, it’s about how the level makes use of it, and that’s pretty much alright. I haven’t seen any tilebugs or layer3 errors and whatever. And probably because of the months of work spend on this, every area in this level looks clean to the eye (well NOT including Mario’s face :P)!

EVENT PLACEMENT
Let’s begin with the weapons, as stated in the level description, there are 5 powerups. With the Seeker and Bouncer probably being the strongest (Seeker is always strong and bouncers are handy in the smaller tunnels in this level). Normal weapon pickups are alright aswell, as I’ve never experienced a moment without any usefull weapon. Another interesting pickup is the Full Carrot placed somewhere near the middle of the level, with more pathways leading to it, try to keep that one safe for your damaged teammate in busy games :P. Envoirement events are just as they should, I don’t really give much for lightning effects lol. But generally, I don’t see any factor of events that has to be changed.

RATING
With Sultans GunPalace (still a weird name but I guess that makes it original), you have a huge, balanced, hardcore styled level, in my opinion best played with 2v2 or especially 3v3 games. Duels should be fun aswell if you don’t mind the size. You should first explore some pathways or even open it with JCS if you’re lazy :P. And at last, I recommend download and give a 9.0 for a challenging CTF experience without any gameplay crap that’s trying to be original. See ya in JJ2! ;)

EDIT: The 9 I gave for this level wasn’t meant to be a ‘overrated’, how could it be, cause it’s based on my personal opinion on your level.. I could have given it a much lower score if things like eyecandy or text strings bothered me aswell, but it didn’t. Yeah I’m no expert at level creation, but my score and opinion remains, this level is one of the few I’ve ‘tested’ this year, and it gave me that awesome ‘CTF’ feeling again. :p ;)

This really isn’t what PT32 says, but it’s not exactly a very good pack either. The tileset is a start, and it’s good to see people make tilesets specifically for their packs. The design got repetitive after a while, though it did have its moments (I liked the spike boll maze). Overall, this pack is a good start, and I hope to see more.

An awesome lot of work there :D Thanks a lot DD.

Ah yes. I have returned temporarily, just long enough to review this level pack, maybe longer.

Anyways, from the outset, I’d say that the level pack does a few things right. For one, it only puts the first level in the level list, which is good because it prevents confusion. It also does a very nice cutscene with some great animation and stuff, which somehow manages to go to the next level without the usual end-level fanfare that is found normally.

After that we hit the first level. It looks pretty good, with good music and a nice tileset choice. The storyline is very vague here, but that’s not much of a problem. What IS a problem is a few gameplay problems. For one, insta-death pits galore. Also, it wasn’t totally clear what could and couldn’t be stepped on.

There’s this one graphical element here I don’t like though, which is this repeating land mass which creates depth at the top and bottom of the level, but also obscures stuff and looks odd at the beginning. Otherwise, the only major complaint with this level is that the final boss is an icy pile of snow that shoots flails at you and summons flails from the ground and walls.

The next level is a hotel. I’m not kidding. I have no idea why, but it is. It’s supposed to be a base or something, I think, but I couldn’t help feeling I was playing as Jason or something as I slaughtered tons of what must be tourists. The eyecandy was very busy, and not that good, with screwed up perspectives at different times. The enemy placement wasn’t that good either, with just tons and tons of enemies, even when it didn’t make sense.

So then we magically get onto a satellite in space after that. Then we navigate through three satallites which are actually mazes before we have to take out a very hard “communications array” consisting of three hidden queens. Afterwards, we are treated to a nice “cutscene” (as it’s just a still image) of Jazz jumping down to the planet from the satellite… this looks alright, but is a bit weird. Jazz says he want to take over Devon’s planet. Huh.

So then we’re in central park, which looks really nice, but isn’t particularly good or bad, except there are still a ridiculous amount of enemies.

And after that is the city. This is probably the worst level, as it feels unfinished. Not even any music. Not really much in the foreground, though there is a big background which looks great. This level requires a lot of leaps of faith, often into but often not into insta-death pits. At last we make it through and fight Devon Shell in a big open arena. He then actually pleads for mercy as Jazz says that he is going to take over the planet, muhahaha.

Then there is another of these cutscenese. Then the game crashes.

Yes, when it says “first half” it does not mean “chapter one” it actually means the download is split into two parts. I don’t see why. It would’ve been nice to put a “To be continued…” or something, and quit gracefully.

Last thoughts?

It’s an okay pack, with a semi-interesting storyline I could not take seriously because of the variation and odd choices in the levels. I’d say download anyways. You’ve got nothing to lose, and there’s some interesting stuff anyways. So yeah, not that great, but not bad either. It’s okay. 6.5/10

Well, there’s not much to really say. The levels are exactly the same as the standard Treasure Hunt levels, except with ammo instead of gems. One thing I was very pleased with was that the author did not simply do a mass replace of gems with ammo, but actually took some time to consider placement. Overall nothing really new, or particularly great.

Found this hard to use. :(

I like harder test. Your pack isn’t hard. just for justice.

I like this level.I think it’s really good fun.

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

Ok.I begin it.

MAIN PROBLEMS:
-the levels are too short
-there isn’t any food
-not a good eyecandy
-little ammo

LEVELS:

Level 1: Bad.Short.Boring.

Level 2: Ok.It’s not bad.I hope you’ll create more levels like this.There are some coins,a bonus room, and some trigger sceneries.But you should fix it.

Level 3: Too short!!! There are some skeletons and some warps.And no more!!!

Level 4: Too easy(I think).The boss room is little.No more.

My rate is:No download recommendation.But the second level is a little good :)!

good lvl

[Review changed to quick review. – cooba]

good test :P

[Quick review. ~cooba]

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.