Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Pretty much agreed with FS, the layout is decent but the level itself suffers from poor flow in areas, and the bottom section feels very closed off from the rest of the level. The powerup corners are a bit lame since they’re a spot for seeker ammo.

I did however very much enjoy the use of RFs off slopes here, something you don’t see much of!

Pretty innovative level; the anti-grav takes a lot of getting used to and can feel very slow at times. It is very fun in general and definitely a concept I’d like to see more of. I still feel like this level could greatly benefit from more ammo, and a few minor flow tweaks. – All in all, 8.2!

Definitely one of the more interesting levels I’ve seen. I’d give this a much higher rating if it was a tiny bit less evil, as this is an incredibly daunting level the first twenty or so times you play :D

But once you get past that it’s ace, and pretty one of a kind. Kudos SE!

There are a few issues pertaining to over-shooting springs and some questionable balance, but this is an all-around solid ctf level, with a few rf-climb tactics etc. This is one of the best jj2 ctf levels I’ve ever seen.

As promised, the fixes warrant this an 8+ rating in my opinion.

Overall solid level.

Please be careful with background scrolling speeds though.

TDE has a few quirks, like solid invisible surfaces and a few minor questionable balance issues pertaining to the C and base placement. However, the layout/item placement is technically very solid. The eye-candy/theme also satisfy.

this level had lots of bad springs, but all the worst got removed, ok level now, nothing remarkable.

It’s simply perfect, it feels as if it was an official level, and it implements a feature that i’d like to see more of in multiplayer matches

Visually great. Gameplay is good. Nothing more I cant ask.

I always looked at this tileset and thought that it has completely no theme. But upon working with it for a while, I discovered that actually it also has no usability. Some good art, but not put together well. Tons of tiles are missing, some don’t appear to have any use, and their placement in the set makes no sense.

This is one of my favorite duel levels. I find that thanks to very low carrot spawn times it enforces uniquely fast pacing. A nice degree of ammo control can be achieved but is not impossible to overcome. And the layout provides interesting fight environments while remaining fit for the theme.

I like this level a lot. I think what it’s missing is some more interesting fight environments, as currently no matter where you encounter an enemy, the fight is likely to go down more or less the same way. I also think the theme could benefit from more distinctive looking eyecandy, since at times it feels like a mismatch of colors and materials.

This level proves its excellence time and again during JDC events. The gameplay is in no way innovative but it is good and what battle events needed. The weakest point is the visuals – in particular it can probably take a while to learn navigation in the upper parts of the level due to areas looking samey.

This is an enjoyable level that’s somewhere between old-school and modern battle design. Despite having a lot of small platforms, it forms a very coherent layout. At this size I’d like to see some PU types repeated though, or faster spawn times. The tileset is used creatively and supports a strong theme, but not without tons of tile bugs.

Honestly, I can’t tell why this level has such a high rating. I just couldn’t enjoy it: Bad visuals, frustrating level design, unfair deaths et cetera. I won’t go too much into detail, long story short I was very underwhelmed by this level.

I’m just going to cut right to the chase with this one:

Positives:
+The technical feats. This stage is by far one of the most heavily scripted stages I’ve ever played, and I’ve played Ozymandius! Loop-de-loops, custom enemies, a custom boss, disappearing platforms that lower down a bit when you step on them (SURELY those must be scripted, anyways… either that or it’s a JCS technical feat, and either way it’s good stuff), and that’s not even the full list! If there is one thing this level deserves a play for, it’s this.
+Tile-set looks nice (hey, it’s also a tileset upload, so I pretty much HAD to mention it, lol). Oh, and the tile-set usage is pretty great too.
+Stage is perfectly playable as all three characters
+This stage has a TON of unique branching paths. Replay value is always a fun time, and this stage doesn’t disappoint with that. Exploring this stage is, quite frankly, much more enjoyable than simply trying to beat it, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing
+Some of the sections are really nicely designed, especially on the lower paths. For that matter, the way you reach some of the lower paths is in of itself pretty well-done
+Gem mechanic is an interesting concept in theory

Negatives:
-Oh gosh the MIDI music, why
-The upper path pretty much allows you to ignore all the enemies. Okay, I know, it’s Green Hill Zone and all that, but if you’re playing as Jazz or Lori this is a bit of a big deal since you can ignore about 50-75% of the level. This is honestly a big part of why I didn’t enjoy the stage as much on my first run through: I decided to try to see if I could ignore the enemies, and, well, I could. It’s MUCH more fun if you don’t ignore them.
-In practice, the gem mechanic feels a bit… pointless? I mean, you could use it for some neat self-imposed challenge stuff, but for regular play it doesn’t seem to really change how you go about playing the level much, honestly.
-Some of the enemy placement is a bit obnoxious.
-For that matter, some of the enemies themselves are a bit obnoxious, though that’s mostly because they’re faithful to their source material in fairness.

Overall, do I recommend a download?

Yes.

Absolutely.

This stage may not be perfect, but it’s great stuff.

(As a side note, why does this stage seem to have more to do with summer than most of the other Summertime Jazziness entries, despite its relation to summer being more incidental due to its tileset’s appearance than anything???)

MAJOR UPDATE: This review has now been changed a decent amount to accommodate for the improvements made to the level, and the score has been bumped up. I may make another small update if/when I manage to completely, 100% beat the level rather than simply getting decent progress like I have in my previous attempts, but I’m pretty sure this is roughly my final thoughts on it now in any case.

Let me start by saying this: This level has a ton of variety, nice tile-set usage, clever concepts, neat scripted enemies, and generally speaking, I would probably recommend giving it a go. Just to give you all a summary of what I like about it before I delve into details on the positives and negatives.

That being said, with the latest update, while some of the issues have been fixed, a few other issues still remain. I definitely had quite a bit more fun with it this time though.

Positives:
+Excellent tileset usage. It’s a bit of a tricky tileset to use right from what I’ve used of it myself, so this is maybe a bigger deal than I make it sound like it is, honestly.
+The concept of the level. Going around collecting gems while defeating enemies to get ammo to open up more passageways to get more gems and defeat more enemies. This is fun stuff, not gonna lie.
+Nice level design with clever placement of enemies, gems, and other items. This makes the already nice concept even more fun.
+That jump boost item is FUN. Seriously. Okay, okay, it’s a small thing, but the little things count sometimes.
+The rocket booster moving platforms are neat
+The stage tells you your progress, and even tells you how much more food you need for a sugar rush! Both nice touches.
+Nicely scripted enemies with neat concepts

Negatives:
-When Tweedle turns you into a frog, some locations make it way too hard to get back to Eva. I can’t confirm for sure, but some may even make it impossible (certainly FEELS impossible at times in any case)
-A small thing, but some more music variety and/or a longer song would admittedly have been nice
-After a certain point, exploring the stage starts becoming somewhat less fun, mostly because, best as I can tell, the stage isn’t really all that big (best as I can tell, I actually encountered most of the major areas of it in one run or another, even if I still haven’t beaten the stage properly yet). Since the core concept of the stage is exploring around to try to find things, this… kind of makes the stage start losing its charm after a while, unfortunately.
-The ammo is a tad bit too scarce for my tastes. This isn’t an objective flaw, especially with how the stage is designed around said limited ammo, and it’s a pretty small issue at that, so I can’t fault the stage for it too much, but it did hinder my own personal enjoyment of the stage a bit.

Overall, would I recommend a download? Yes. There are a ton of cool concepts here, the stage is mostly well-designed ENOUGH, and generally it’s pretty enjoyable. Still not perfect, but, at least in my opinion, a fair bit better than it was before the update.

P.S. This doesn’t honestly feel like it has much to do with summer, in regards to its status as a Summertime Jazziness entry. Still not a bad stage tho.

Should… should this even be allowed in the contest?!? It starts out with what essentially amounts to plagiarism of another stage (which, mind you, it’s supposed to be a remake of that stage, so I think it’s fine for this stage to EXIST, but I question whether something like this should be allowed in a contest), and also seemingly has nothing to do with summer outside a few references to it within the stage itself.

That being said… there were a few decent challenge ideas here and there. Nice variety. Tileset usage ranges from good to terrible, and I say that as somebody who has made stages on both sides of that spectrum myself. Some areas are nicely detailed with tons of tiles, whereas others… pretty much just use one tile everywhere and call it a day.

On the other hand, some of the challenges, such as, hilariously enough, the stage’s final non-boss challenge, as well as one early on with bees, are pretty easy to basically just ignore. The stage also doesn’t feel like a particularly cohesive experience. Oh, and the “purple ice hurts you” thing is a bit annoying should you fall into the areas with them, since you’ll have to slowly wait as your health bar lowers because they don’t just flat-out kill you instantly.

I know I’m not particularly elaborating on this one much, but there really isn’t much to say about this one, it’s pretty much just an average stage with some okay ideas and nothing more.

Overall? Meh. I have no idea whether or not to recommend a download, so I’ll tell you this: Do you think a stage with a few passable ideas, a few clever ideas, and some bad execution of those ideas sounds like a stage you’d enjoy? If so, maybe give it a download. Otherwise… shrugs

The temperature gimmick in this level is great and works really well – you need to stay out of the sun which necessitates some strategic movement but at the same time it’s not so unforgiving that it becomes a nuisance.

The rest of the level is a little bland, though it looks atmospheric enough. The dragonflies got a little old after a while because there are so many of them – more variety in the enemies department would’ve been an improvement. They’re also a little too easy to shoot with mouse aiming… honestly I think difficulty-wise turning it off would be better. There’s also a Bubba miniboss which was fine, and a final boss consisting of four Bilsies. Bilsy is never a good time but this version of him is passable, once you figure out you need mouse aim to kill him.

Honestly the main issue is that it’s so short – I’d have enjoyed more of this! The level feels like an intro level (minus the bosses) and I think you could build something bigger out of this that’d be even more fun.

Excellent level and tileset. The whole thing looks beautiful and is challenging without being too difficult. The lavish eyecandy is a little confusing in the beginning but gets better after that. Most importantly, it’s a lot of fun to play and has some really good and surprising scripted features that add to the level without being a distraction.