Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Fantastic remix!

Yamato castle uses tiles from Captain Claw (and used excellently) which is an instant plus for me.
The music in the level is also great.
You have to collect 20 coins spread throughout the map and submit them to the judges in order to win. Took me some time but I eventually won (around 1 week before this review). The coin counter at the left upper corner is a nice addition. Carrots/food/gems were well placed throughout the map (thank god for that ICE PU).

Overall the layout and areas were fun and the visuals were a pleasure. The level isn’t easy but it’s worth giving it a shot.

But I’d like to list some WTF moments:

-There was only one coin which was inside a wall (next to a spinning spikeball) which I couldn’t figure out how to get without jjnowall/jjfly.

-At some point you will become a frog and the way to unfrog back (figured out after a couple of deaths) is to fall into a PIT that warps you to eva. What makes it worse is that the arrows (in the area where you play as a frog) point to the OPPOSITE direction of where that pit is located.

-There were 2 coins which when you got close to them the screen would show an IMMENSE annoying light

-I thought the sucker on top of the switch puzzle had anything to do with it, like having a trigger in it or something (the raven out there made it even worse)

-the boss is kinda WTF, mainly because of the camera, but I don’t blame a 10 year old level

Gameplay:

This map seems more suitable for 3v3 than 2v2, due to the high vertical height where there’s a lot of space to hide. The layout is based on different horizontal levels with platforms where you can usually reach a higher level using the springs.

Bases can be reached from the top, middle or bottom (a tube containing a +1 carrot). The base can be camped by hanging on the vines above it. Due to the choice of power-ups in the map the bases are not too campy, though. The most useful ammo for camping the area, seekers (on base) and bouncers (from the vines), both come without a power-up. There are pepper and rf power-ups in the bottom corners, and toaster at the top instead. Pepper and rf are especially useful in the open area at the top. While it may seem counterintuitive at first to position rf and pepper/fireball symmetrically to each other, as rf is generally stronger, fireball can be really useful for blocking the way from bases at the top, as there’s a position where fireball covers the whole width of the area.

The full NRG carrot can be shot down through a bridge thanks to a script. It can be shot down either directly or through the walls around it, for which there are electro blaster pickups near the walls. The walls are quite fast to reach from the bases. Any player could die, get some electro blaster pickups and shoot the carrot down within three seconds. Gameplay here would therefore revolve around controlling when exactly the carrot spawns, and/or always having a player around to check if the carrot is up or down.

Eyecandy:

The eyecandy makes use of the good variety Lava Fortress has to offer, from wall columns and industrial background layers, to lava waterfalls, natural or flowing from pipes, or having pipes underneath them to collect the lava! The waterfall at 48,83 seems to be coming from behind a wall, but its origin is somehow missing from the background at the top. The rest all looks quite logical (and fireball pu in a pool of lava, how cool is that!) The vines are a bit difficult to notice due to their color in the tileset, but luckily they are only used at quite an obvious place above the bases.

Summary:

Recommended level for 3v3, should be played with /fireball on. A non-campy map without many overpowered power-ups, and a very interesting carrot area.

The level seems fun at first, but I don’t like grinding and turning to a frog over and over, I didn’t like this as much as I like Stone Abyss levels, but i guess it’s just not my type.

I like every single bit of this level. The enemies are cool, the sonic loop stuff and the stuff that you cling to blew my mind. Not to mention the amazing boss with some cool physics. Tileset was great too. background might have been slightly distracting (it’s damn good) but it wasn’t a problem. One of my favorite single player levels ever.

I know it’s a pretty late review but here we go.
Intro: Intro is nice.

Level 01 cooba :
Overall a nice, fun and well designed level! The snowman, penguins are pretty cool. The level introduces us to Gift boxes which is a nice gimmick. The crystal shards area was pretty cool too. Checkpoints might have been spread out too far though.

Level 2 Jelly Jam, Level 3 Primpy,Level 5 Slaz:
Overall nice levels! There isnt something extremely super ultra mega remarkable around them (they all fell the “same” because of the lack of scripting), but they were fun and definitely an integral part of the pack.

Level 4 Blackraptor :
The level is very very visually pleasant, great eyecandy everywhere! It’s the most beautiful looking level in the pack.
But the tunnel part…
The goddamn tunnel part….
That was the biggest pain in the ENTIRE pack, I cant count how many times i failed that part. It was extremely confusing and non-intuitive, and the dark ambient lightning make it even harder. Even with a guide it still took me many tries to get past it.
The second part is nice, but it was difficult mainly due to the “death pits“and it was a bit confusing. (also the first part had some confusion factor too)

Level 6 PurpleJazz:
Best level in the pack without a doubt. Well designed and beautiful looking, literally EVERYTHING about this level is great. The boss is amazing too, but I didn’t even know about it until months later (apparently I inadvertently skipped the boss without knowing it even existed)

Level 7 ShadowGPW:
The level was generally good,but the difficulty comes from the spam of ravens. The level had way too many ravens, like, WAY too many ravens, so much ravens that it became an annoyance. So that’s a downside to the level.

Bossfight PurpleJazz:
Amazing bossfight, definitely one of the best bosses in JJ2. I personally find it pretty difficult (I reached the boss with little to no ammo) so I couldn’t really spam seekers or all that crap. The final phase is definitely brutal, he attacks so fast that when you go left to dodge his stuff, by the time you went right to the boss he already has started another attack so you either dodge all the time or you spam your weapons against the boss while getting rekt at the same time. So i had to endure a long fight with blaster and spam all my stuff at the end phase. All the attacks are cool and the boss animation/graphics are pretty damn good.

Overall I like this pack, lots of hard work went into it. Sure, it might have some flaws but I find that the good stuff in it overshadow them. I mean when was the last time we had a big collaboration pack? I would definitely LOVE to see another pack from the community, and hope that all levels include scripted enemies/gimmicks(PJ’s level is a perfect example)

Download recommended!

Fun levels, JJ1 tilesets and enemies give it a nice theme. Though I expected a second phase for the boss.

Cool level, challenging and enjoyable! Music is nice too. The hardest parts (and most annoying) for me were the slow swinging ball platforms as you’re most likely going to get knocked out to your doom by a bee or miss landing on it after detaching off the vine. Other than that, the level is very enjoyable. Download recommended!

The levels aren’t interesting, but I enjoyed Titanic Tube Tussle and Heck’s Pinball. They also have too much ammo/enemies piled together. I’d only recommend this pack for the final boss, as it’s one of the coolest bosses I’ve ever seen in JJ2! And thus the rating.

Cool level, I like the tileset and the music is lovely. Enjoyed the text strings and the gimmicks such as shooting the trigger crate with bouncer. The level isn’t linear which is cool gameplay-wise, but at some point i got lost and had to jjflyjjnowall somewhere. It also has some nice secrets. The boss is just… wtf?

While the excessive visuals do lead to problems such as fps drops and distraction, the gameplay is nonetheless solid despite a few minor flow issues. I enjoyed the design of the base areas and the carrot area very much, as they offered quite dynamic gameplay with a variety of tricks and tactics to deploy, and aren’t overly campy. Give it a try!

Personally I really like this map and think it should have gotten more recognition.

Great use of a small layout with pretty quirky gameplay.
Uses semi-symmetry in a way that everyone can enjoy!
Great amount of ammo for the level too, although I’ve never liked gun9-ing powerups.

This didn’t get as much recognition as it should have;

by far one of the best uses of Orbitus I’ve seen, as well as a very unique use of the diagonal tubes + custom weapon.

a highly innovative layout that doesn’t have a single spot that i’d call out for being more boring.

my only complaints are probably only nitpicks that id care about

great level, awesome background.

too simisymmetrical.

great level, but i dont approve of simitry.

nice level, but you can only do so much with perfect simitry.

great level, but you cant stand on the lower branches of the trees. should be able to, its a bad tilebug this way.

Besides mainly opinion based stuff, Orbital IV has a very solid layout. I think the Update deserves a higher rating.

Nice level, although I think a touch too big for purpose, and I think the pickup placement could have been ever so slightly more intuitive!

I think if the top layer was removed this would actually serve as a pretty good 3v3 level. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing this in a JDC event.