Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

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.

Large level with lots of things to do and some interesting scripted features. What took away a lot of the fun was that enemies (some of which are quite difficult) respawn. This would be okay if it only happened after moving away but they can respawn right where you’re standing now which feels unfair. Otherwise, a fun and innovative level.

This is not a great level, but it has something of an early 2000s aesthetic, which I found enjoyable nonetheless. With that I mean that it feels like a level where the author was learning as they went, throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks, with things like a “candy pool” that are mostly useless but add a little flavour, or unashamedly giving you all powerups just before the final boss fight.

Those are not necessarily good choices – the boss fight is really easy with full ammo, for example, but it hits that sweet spot for me. I realize that my preferences are particular in that regard though, and from a more objective point of view the level just isn’t that good. Most enemies can be avoided by jumping over them, some obstacles (e.g. the red clouds) can similarly be avoided by simply letting yourself fall down, and there’s a scarcity of ammo in the first part of the level that is only made up just before the boss. The level looks okay but could have used a few more background layers and more varied platform shapes.

So in that sense it’s a rather mediocre level, and if you don’t have a fondness for lo-fi, retro-style levels I wouldn’t necessarily recommend playing this. But it’s clear that the author had some ideas and wasn’t afraid to experiment with them, which is great and bodes well for future levels.

This is not a remake.

Tileset:

*There’s only one tile for the wall and it’s not varied enough.

*The spikes bland in too much. You should have used a different color.

*The lava flow appears to be in the background (there’s one part where there’s a vine in front of it), but for some reason it’s in the foreground. It’s not transparent enough and the objects behind it can hardly be seen.

*The bats have a weird color palette.

*The pinball bats’ color palette is like you forgot to set it.

Level:

*There’s not enough space for the enemies to move. The helmuts get stuck in the overused diagonal tiles. The tuf turts just stand in one place or change direction in miliseconds.

*There are too many elements. There’s one room with pinball; another with swinging vines, which are really out of place in a lava cave with no plants; the next with a hover board, which glitches with the swinging vines.

*You put items on lava and there were many parts where you need to exploit the faulty hitbox on diagonal tiles to not get hit by spikes.

*The bonus room was empty. So collecting the coins was a waste of time.

Overall, the whole level feels overcrowded.

The description says it works with the normal jazz2, but it doesn’t. The music doesn’t play, JCS crashes if I try to open the level with it, and there was another error at the end with the final passage not opening up. I had to check with TSF JCS to see where to go and realized I was stuck and have to restart the level in TSF if I want to complete it.

I’m not much of a multiplayer, but I definetly like this level. It’s very atmospheric and this atmosphere is intensified by music. I’ve noticed a teeny-weeny tilebug here: https://yadi.sk/i/zZ0gLKSD3a2ipR

10 years later, we’ve gone full circle.

Just replayed this level after a long time, and I don’t think I ever took the time to finish it back then.

The difficulty isn’t that bad compared to todays SP standards, but some careful movement and planning is still advised due to the obscure enemy placement, especially the bats. Ammo is plentiful though, so using Seekers and Bouncers made things a breeze. Also, the level is Spaz only and those stacked Tuff Turtles are mere fodder to his sidekick!

I like how the start of the level is a tiny little hub where you need to open 2 crates, and the method to get the last coin is pretty well done. I found at least 2 little secrets in walls so there’s stuff to explore too.

There’s not a lot of negativity I can say about this level, other than the fact that it’s short and that the boss was surprisingly easy and not that well-made. I recommend this to kill a few minutes, but eventually the followup “Cave 2” is a big improvement.

I love pyschomondus..

Gorgeous.

Original quick review: When I saw a new SP release by this author I thought that I’m about to write a full review. But this time gameplay was pretty standart and I found it diffucult to write much. I would say one thing – the levels are fine and relaxing. I would give this upload a DR in order to help it become more popular. Maybe I’ll write a more thorough review later.

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Well, now I’ll try to write a full review.

This is a remake of “Jazz in Time” episode. So, I’d like to compare this episode to it’s original prototype. In fact all of the levels of Ürdüng Chronicles #2 are bigger than original ones. The size of the first levels in JCS can be the same as the size of original levels, but they have more playing space and thus it takes more time to complete them.

First two colonius levels are comparetively linear but the further we go the more chances we have to lose our way. The last level is the biggest one and it may take some time to find your way through it. At the end you encounter Utherus Boss. Due to small size of arena and the presence of water in it it’s slightly harder to defeat him than in original episode.

What I liked

- There are a lot of secrets in each level. It’s not easy to collect all the coins you need to get access to bonus area, so if you wanna kill time you can try this challenge.

- It’s a little bit more difficult than original episode.

- I liked the eyecandy. Everything is tidy, tiles fit each other well. I aslo liked some original decisions like manholes between the floors of houses.

What I disliked

- Couple of times I had to use JCS to find the way. You may get lost and find yourself wandering for a long time especially in 3-rd and 5-th levels. It may make you feel bored of gameplay’s repeatability. However, if you’re more attentive than I am, you’ll probably be able to use arrows to navigate the level.

Conclusion

If you’re tired and sleepy, if you wanna have some rest or you need to kill the time, this episode is for you. I reckon this episode deserves firm 8.0 and a DR.

I’m too lazy to write a full-fledged review. Honestly, it’s one of the best JJ2 SP levels I ever played, the only problem being the lack of checkpoints. Once you die, you have to start over from the beginning. Other than that, fantastic level, I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a fresh JJ2 single player challenge.

I can tell this was made in about 2 minutes lol. Work on it and you’ll probably get a higher rating.

Looks like JJ2 is popular in Romania. :D
What about this upload… It’s just an original episode modified by a beginner in order to understand how JCS works. It’s a normal part of learning but it’s obviously not worth to be downloaded. I don’t want to demotivate you though. Keep trying and one day we’ll see a decent level made by you.

It’s literally just the first episode of JJ2 but you start as a frog. No effort put into this whatsoever.

Based on the level names, I assume you are romanian?

(oops, sorry for breaking the rules)

I like how these levels feel rather retro but with a modern twist in terms of visual design. All four have very solid layouts with some of Snz’ signature levelmaking flair. These will be a fantastic addition to your Battle rotation and are best enjoyed in a well populated server, so be sure to invite your friends!