Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This is just an intro sequence. It requires some levels.

[Rating (1.0) clearance. I admit that Gus didn\‘t make it too clear, but this is supposed to be the intro sequence for \Tomb Rabbit\. – Cooba]

When reading the title of this level I was afraid that it would be a clone of MULCH, but it’s a little larger than that. Only a little though; it’s still rather small level.

The level layout is rather interesting and while not entirely original, it is certainly a strong point of the level. Basically, the route from base to base is U-shaped, with parts of the level unlocking as you go. This is done via trigger zones, so it might be a little confusing playing in this as the level is different for everyone.

The level is divided in two halves; the top part contains the bases and carrots, the bottom part contains the powerups. Though both teams can eventually access all of the level, the blue team gets to access the bouncer powerup first, while the red team first encounters an Electro Blaster powerup, which is a little unbalanced. Consider putting in two powerups that weigh up to each other, such as a bouncer/RF combo, instead.

Additionally, the level contains two 1-heart carrots, which I think is a bit much for such a small level. One carrot is really the limit for levels like this. The amount of ammo placed in the level is okay, maybe a little too much, but nothing problematic.

Gameplay problems aside, there’s still the eyecandy. The level uses JJ1: Battleships and for some reason I always find levels using that look somewhat the same. “Small Symmetrical Space” is no exception from this rule and adds a few not-too-serious tile bugs, which are however amplified because there aren’t many tiles in this level to begin with :P

I can imagine having a few short rounds in this level for fun. Due to the small size it might be fun with a lot of people, though that’s more the result of it being small than of the level design itself. The level itself is nothing special, with mediocre gameplay and eyecandy, and I wouldn’t really recommend download it.

Fawfull: The tileset was made far more by other people than you.

@FawfulCC: Christ man, music is for listening. Try listening to it.

Once again I am quite wary of not only this pack (which barely made a 2 and has zero satisfaction) but also its sole review which for whatever reason decided to comment more on the eyecandy than the gameplay. This speaks volumes in more ways than one, and perhaps one of the reasons I don’t trust JJ2 reviews anymore. I run from A to B and its boring? Really? Great, no really it is. No no don’t go on, I’d MUCH rather hear about the terrible eyecandy, since you know it’s not like I have to PLAY this pack or anything.

Which is actually quite true, there are long stretches throughout JJ2 The Movie where you are not doing anything at all.
In an attempt to make the pack feel more like an actual movie, level designer Krinya forgot the fun and the pack suffers because of it. For example, there is a level consisting of nothing but Jazz falling. This nearly sounds like a half hearted joke, so I will repeat that line again with more emphasis: One level in this pack consists nothing more than of Jazz falling for nearly 45 seconds in front of a bland background while you sit and watch. No measures where taken to make this concept fun or at the very least engaging. Some form of obstacles would have been nice. There are many more instances throught this pack that require minimal work on the players part such as the downhill-roof slide in the first “scene”.

The levels consisting of gameplay are no better being extremely linear and discouraging exploration (the hologram castle warped me to my death just because I felt like exploring a tower a suicidal person jumped off of). They offer little challenge, variety, and half the time I was merely going through the motions not even knowing if the path I took was actually going to lead to the exit. It also feels like the levels were designed with the intention of being a part of a mobile phone game for an extremely low-end phone as there tends to be no more than one enemy on-screen at most times. There are also a few instances where the faulty level design got me stuck without having any plan of getting me back out, a sign of a lack of beta-testing for sure. Theres a “maze” puzzle early on that seems to really nail down the feeling of pack, allow me to describe it to you in case you have yet to play the level. Jazz must retrieve a remote which is in a tiny dirt maze of sorts. The remote is safely tucked in the middle and is easily accessible. There is a burning oil barrel at the top of the maze which requires more effort to get to and does nothing but hurt the player. Forget telling Krinya to spend time on the eyecandy front, Sonicnathan, more time needs to be spent on making levels worth playing.

The dialog during the city levels in scene-1 try to humorously mask the laziness in playing the same dull level repeated multiple times but ultimately fails. Unlike in Haunted Castle Manor where humorously pointing out bees don’t belong in an old castle was fun because the bees added to the gameplay, the minor additions to the second and third repeats of scene 1 do not. Not only that but the plot is completely inane and doesn’t seem to follow any sense of logic at all. Jazz despite signing up for a movie doesn’t seem to know the script. The director seems more concerned with killing Jazz for whatever reason instead of making a competent film. When Spaz shows up you really get the feeling this is some elaborate snuff film. Not to mention that despite being called “Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Movie”, the movie’s plot doesn’t seem to follow anything from the actual game.

As if the poor level design (which breaks simple rules such as “You won’t have paths leading to bottomless pits at the level’s bottom”) and nonsensical story (the broken english wasn’t even that bad, the problems lie mainly with a broken plot) weren’t enough, the pack’s eyecandy is atrocious. Ahaha, did I say eyecandy? I meant Eyesore, shield your eyes kiddies Uncle n00b has just set his review phaser to “scathing”. Rocks float magically midair, poorly done backgrounds, tiles that don’t even finish connecting to anything, a mentality that only uses tiles to barricade you onto a single path, a hologram level that actually hurt my eyes while playing (no joke), and the god awful concept of an “invisible bridge”. You can probably make a bridge using Top Secret 3, its been a while, but I’m positive. If you can’t, just make a walkway. Invisible bridges are the level equivalent of closing your eyes falling back and expecting a complete stranger to catch you. I may be over reacting, but still, it bugs me.

All in all JJ2: The movie feels a lot like an old pack I made back in ’04 but never uploaded called “Operation P.I.G.” simply because the pack was meant for my entertainment, and my entertainment only. As I am prone to do, the pack was made completely terrible on purpose set to the story of a rather bad essay I read in class about an invention that makes pigs fly. The only difference between Operation P.I.G. and this pack however, is that JJ2: The movie isn’t an elaborate joke (at least not that I’m aware of) and doesn’t even include all the tilesets needed for the levels while nonsensically including tilesets prepackaged with JJ2 and TSF. No less than four times and perhaps a bit more while playing the pack I had to stop and hunt for the next tileset JJ2 said was missing like I was running errands for a pregnant women who got a new bizarre food craving every few minutes. I’m not sure if any of you have done that, but rest assured if the stories I have heard are true it is not fun. But I did unzip the tubelectric tilesets that came with the pack just in case my old ones deleted themselves (Read: Sarcasm)! More time needs to be spent on fleshing out the world in which the level is set both gameplay-wise (this comes first- remember that.) and eyecandy-wise, and the plot needs to at least have some kind of logic applied to it. I really never felt like I was actually acting in a movie outside of scene 1, it really felt more like Jazz wandering movie sets on his own accord while cracking one liners as the director followed him around with a cellphone camera.
Even without fancy mathematical algorithms, I can tell this pack is worth a 1.7 and nothing more and perhaps quite a bit less.

Airship…

Gameplay

This level has not got the flow I expected. In some parts there is allmost no flow as there are too many obstacles and in some parts there is just a huge gap with nothing. Speaking about gaps, when you leave the schip at the bottom, you just fall in something white at the bottom of the level and respawn {pits)but these pits seem to make this level more one wayed. To my experience, it also seems the blue team has some advantage accourding to how this level is designed.

Eyecandy

You did great for whatsoever you can do great with this title set. It does not really have a great eyecandy. The background is quite boring with some clouds and some moving spaceships which you can only see at some places. There is not really a foreground and the level looks quite black.

Originality

There are some mentionable things in your level, you made an entrance to the spaceship by ‘climbing’ up an anchor and you made a bonus warp which has the amount of coins in a text message which looks quite good. In the bonus part there are some chests which contain…shields! I think those shields give you a too great advantage, as players have to shoot you about two times as much to kill you, even if it is for only thirty seconds. I also got stuck somewhere where you could climb over some ropes and warp when you would fall, when I got on the spring I got right in the roof without touthing other buttons. Your level has some great features but it’s quality is decreased with the bugs it has.

Gameplay: 6
Eyecandy: 7
Originality: 7

Final Grade: 6.7

Well I like it. Good job. Not perfect but I like the idea.

It is brilliant!
I really enjoyed this castle level.
this is the best, and longest single player level of thet I played.

it’s a bit hard, but not impassible, i did it, the 4. try, becouse i left some cousines.

rating:

good:
-backround
-layer 3,4 decoration
-enemys
-long level
-not boring
-texts.
bad:
- i don’t like when i need serch cousines.
- a bit of hard.

hm?!

Note- I only played the single player variant of this level, if there are any changes in the multiplayer variant this review does not take note of them.

Windmill Country is a collect-a-thon level tasking the player with finding 100 coins much like the sublime Haunted Castle Manor. The storyline is about a lazy miller who asks you to find 100 euro (aka coinage) to pay off a villain who stole said Miller’s windmill. The process of getting said coins is quite dull and mundane. Unlike HCM which kept things tight and intertwined with twitchy action, Windmill country is far too open for its linear design and the action is dull at best. HCM relied on stock enemies for sure, but Windmill country has you fighting only Tuf turts and fat chicks. Not only is the action bland, but so is the manner in which you find coins. The majority of coins are laid out for you in bunches and rows, and very few require any puzzlework at all. The coins that do offer some interesting objectives but nothing that requires any braincells. Along with the long stretches of nothing interesting and all-too-few “puzzles”, Windmill Country has an extremely short length.

The level’s only saving grace is the quite awesome villain chase at the end of the level. While the concept is far better than the execution, it is still quite nifty utilizing the activate boss event to change the music for a cinematic touch and a payoff doused in absurdist humor. I would love to see Ischa (or heck, any other level maker) flesh this concept out in future packs.

The foreground and tileground eyecandy is quite empty and desolate, and really doesn’t offer much at all. The windmills in the background look fantastic though this more a testament to Gus’ tileset. Also, kudos to Ischa on the choice of music which if nothing else, really compliments Gus’ tileset style.

Windmill Country is hampered by the “Antz” effect of having a far superior product released shortly after it, without which some of the flaws may not have been as noticeable. Still from the few bits of brilliance here, and Chazz’s HCM it is clear that these collect-a-thon levels have some staying power and I’d love to see Ischa to take another crack at this subgenre again.

I was wary of this upload at first. Considering the quick review found that the level was worthy of an 8.2 for soley having “lots of stuff in it” and the second review for whatever reason placed eyecandy above gameplay, and then mentioned that invisible poles somehow looked good (what madness? they’re invisible!), to say the least I was highly skepitcal.

That being said, playing this level was quite fun. By making the majority of the coins gold (and thus meaning you really have to find a little over 50 coins instead of 100) and leaving about half in plain view and the other half requiring some brainwork mixed with enough action that the coin hunting doesn’t feel soulless, Chazz has found a winning design. That doesn’t even mention the at times humorous and thought provoking text strings (just how old are those vases?) which at times takes jabs at the level’s design choices. Also, about those invisible poles, while I would have liked a better explanation the concept does look quite cool when in motion. While there are a lot of enemies there are never so much in one particular area that it feels like a chore to take them out, although having to wipe them all out again on a second run-through to find missing coins is a bit annoying.

While the carrot-on-a-stick gameplay is addicting and the level design quite marvelous, the eyecandy of the level leaves a bit to be desired. While I didn’t notice it a first, it begin to dawn on me that the castle’s bricks were highly repetive and background was just not interesting (probably because it looks like its the same as what was used in the official levels). However there are little if any tilebugs, and the ones I noticed were just me being nit-picky.

All in all, this level, while short, is quite fun. I’d like to know how long Chazz took on this level since if he can crank out fun releases like this in a short amount of time it could just be the kick the dwindling Single Player scene needs.

Good level.Not boring and there are a lot of things in it.No more.

If this is you’re first time making levels let me say good job! This is above average by far. I also played this in medium.

Eyecandey:
Great. You used a background similar to the official levels so it has tilebugs in them. But other then that no tilebugs! Everything fits together. The background looks good and you even used the foreground. (Which looks very good)The bricks look good and I like the tileset usage. The eyecandey can look repetitive in some areas but considering you don’t have much to chose in castle, it looks good. I liked it, good tileset usage, low tilebugs. Great eyecandey. I’d give it a higher rating if you used windows in the floor. (The bar ones)
7/10

Gameplay:
I don’t know why but I got hooked. I had fun with the level. I have no clue why but I got hooked. There were some nice puzzles but they were to easy to solve. Enough enemies to make me die, and interesting concepts like invisible poles. (I like the idea as it looks good.)I’d give the gameplay a 8 if there wasn’t for one thing. The warp. If you haven’t collected 100 coins by the time you get to the warp your have to restart the entire level and with the re-generating enemies,, the lack of carrots becuase you used 70% of them alreaty and because it takes another 4 minutes to reach the warp again makes it very annoying. You should have placed it closer. The level is about 7-8 minutes long. So I’ll give you an 8 for puzzle usage, the fact I got hooked and because I love the text strings.
7/10

Enemy placement:
Great. Enough to kill me even with all the carrots. Half of them re-generate with can get annoying but it adds a challenge if you don’t get all the coins. A wide variety was used and they all fit in. (Except the bees) So I’ll give you a 8 just because there are to many re-generating enemies which can get annoying.
8/10
pickup placement:
Good. The coins were well hidden, good ammo placement, extra lives were to easy to get. Also there is this one area that has 3 power ups and you have to go though there. Don’t do that! There’s also way to much food. I got 2 sugar rushes! Nice us bombs though. Considering all the enemies I think the carrot placement was great.
7/10

*Final Score:28/40 *
Total:7.7
Rank: b good
D/R? Yes. The gameplay is just fun and addicting. even if this pack is short lived while it does, it’s fun! Download this one right away

Rating Sector Probe 68-A

To start:
An incredible Battle level, which is created with limited tiles in the tileset. I cannot do this… but you…

Eyecandy: (20 pts)
The Eyecandy is surprising nice! There are no much tiles in the tileset, but when you play the level, you don’t see it. The Eyecandy is very, very nice. And also unusual, with a very real space theme: it’s dark, there are stars on the background… and so on. I will give you seventeen points from the possibly twenty!
Result: 17 pts

Gameplay: (20 pts)
First it confused us a bit, but when we know how we have to fight, it is a piece of cake. But sometimes it could be almost impossible to jump to another platform. They are far distanced. But if you are an advanced jumper, this level has a good gameplay.
Result: 15 pts

Ammo placement: (20 pts)
Ammo is good placed. You have placed ammo into these levels and you spreaded those items very well. But one pity: there are no secret places…
Result: 16 pts

Carrot placement: (5 pts)
You may look for carrots if you are badly hurt. The carrots aren’t very far away from each other. That’s a bit of a pity: it could be challenging to search for carrots while your opponent is chasing you… with the gun…
Result: 2 pts

Conclusion:
These levels are so good, that it is not necessary to make a calculating for your figure. If THIS is not the best Battle-level from all over the world, I’m an idiot.

Total points: 50
Maximum number of points: 65
Calculating: 50/65×9+1= 7,9
Mark: 7,9
Download recommendation:

Now this is the way that levels with limited tilesets should be done.

Wraith has been creative here, and all layers have been used at least a bit. The atmosphere over here is dark anyway, so the background doesn’t need more detailed scenery into it, which would perhaps make it confusing. Overall, the look of the level is really neat, sprite layer eyecandy boosted with several other layers and animated tiles.

The layout may confuse you at first, but nevertheless you are going to learn it fairly fast, since it’s simple, although unusual. It could be annoyingly hard to jump between platforms by default, but here the author made those platforms connect wisely with eyecandy. So as you may guess, this level comes with a warp-pit(and I’m looking forward for a deathpit-version), that brings you to same target always however. The bad thing is the target is bugged for now and easily campable.

Once you get hurt, you may look for 3 carrots that aren’t very far away from each other. Two of them are placed at more difficult positions even. Food is brought here with a nice variation of ammo(ice too) to fill the open space. There could be also a secret flycarrot put in, but then the movement would have to be restricted radically.

This level might be actually fun to play in, and fits for any amount of players in my opinion. The demostyle-music makes sure you don’t get bored too quickly. And note that the Jazz-character is great advantage here. Download this and give it a try!

Quite simply, this is just THE BEST tileset I have ever seen this year.
The eyecandy is EXCELLENT! The mix of nature and industrial works really well here. Also, the tiles taken from other sets including Redcounter really fits in.

9.8, just because the flames aren’t masked but you can get round that by slapping on some “Bees” events.

I must say this tileset has it all and is very compatible in in many ways. One of the best tilesets i’ve seen since Agama’s tilesets. I hope to use this tileset in one of my future levels and make good work of it. I recommend everyone to download it as it is a must. I’ll rate it a 9.5 as it deserves it.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 the Movie is a interesting concept that fails to get 2 stars.

Eyecandey:
I’m sorry but this is just bad. There are some interesting eyecandey parts like the disco room and traffic lights but other then that there’s nothing new. There’s tilebugs in almost every level and in the city levels you tried to put all the background tiles in one layer. It comes out in a sloppy, looking weird way that makes no sense. Plus in some cases you used 1 tile for a maze or for a pit or something like that. Other times there’s just no enough eyecandey. Like the base level. Top Secret has over 500 tiles and you used about 50 of them. The level looks boring to look at and just plain rushed. There’s also little foreground. Sorry but 2 months may sound like a lot but for a pack this big you may need a year before you really get it good. I’ve been working on a pack for about a year and I’m still only about half done. Finally most levels are empty. So overall the tilebugs and back background just suck and by todays standards that’s just not acceptable.
2/10

Gameplay:
Bad. Most of the levels involve going from point a-b with weak puzzles and couple of enemies along the way. Half levels don’t take you to the next and one of them doesn’t have a tileset for it. Some levels have no puzzles and just involve running from point a-b. Also one of the levels involve re-doing the level which was annoying. There were no coins warps and almost no secrets. Overall the levels are just boring to play.

1/10
Enemy placement:
Very few. There wasn’t a level I could dye on. There are so few enemies that it’s almost impossible to die. Not enough to come even close to killing me.
1/10
Pickup placement:
No carrots, extra lives and very few carrots. (Which aren’t needed) I mean come on! A full energy carrot in a level with no enemies? Almost no food and empty levels are included!
1/10

Final Score:5/10
Total: 1.7
Rank F
D/R? No but keep trying. I hope the second movie will be better.

il review later , good job on stealing the music from madness combat 4 ;p , and useing it for the movie intro :P

Good tileset.