Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

AMbient lightning…horrible(cant see bullets) not a problem though since the only picks ups are ice, and fastfire, aside from a little pepperspray!
looks alirhgt, but the eye candy is boring… the only reason I dont am not too bothred by the looks is the beauitful colour of the background

the design is that of a single player level… you can pretty much only move in one direction… it took me years to find the base

there are crowded tunnels

the red base area is alright, aside from the fact that you can hardly jump out from it, and you definately cant with lori… meaning you need to take the warp, which of course makes it a lot harder to defemd the base, which is ONCE again “ingeniously” up balanced by the lack of ammo. the spaz biasness is constant thoughout the lvl.

The blue base area is a little better.. it can be accessed from two directrions, but its still quite impossible to leave in any other direction than the left one.. an interesting twist is how this warp leads to the same place as the warp from the other base, though

oh wait, I even found 3 bouncer pickups

no carrots, but thats ok sicne u dont have ammo!

to sum up!!
this is the messiest review ever, and I conclude this is worthy of a… 4

Visual Appeal – 4 out of 5

I like this one, actually. Medivo sure looks good in this color scheme. The walls are now in a delicate teal tint, which looks good enough for me. The background and the layers now use a bloody red color, which balances out the greenness of the layer 4 and looks fairly well. It reminds me a bit of Pyromanus’ Haunted House Hell conversion, which was also a great one. Anyway, there’s not much to complain about here, maybe except for the fact that you could have tried to make the layer 8 background tile (so that it would be useable as a textured one, since it uses the appropiate palette indices), maybe change the rain a bit, so that there would be one raindrop per tile instead of the way it is now, and maybe add a pure white tile to make flashes. Other than that, you did a good job here. The flags got a little distorted, but there’s no real loss.

Usability – 2 out of 5

Well uh yeah. With such a decent palette, I would have expected a better mask going with it. The original Medivo is renowned for having a terrible mask, which can render some of tiles hardly usable. Unfortunately, this tileset gladly ignores that and just uses the same ugly mask. One question, WHY?? This tileset would be so much better if it wasn’t for the annoying mask! A great way to improve over the original fell down the window! Ugh.

• The palette edit granted looks nice.

• More wasted opportunities for improvement, such as the horrible mask.

Overall
Fix the mask and I’ll gladly raise the rating. As for now, I wouldn’t reccomend using this tileset, however nice the palette is.

Uh, excuse me? If there would be an “Overrated Upload of the Week” this would be “deffinately” this. If you guys rate this a 9, would you rate BlurredD’s Diamond Dust conversion a 10? Sigh.

Visual Appeal – 2 out of 5

As the example level was loading, I honestly wasn’t expecting anything outstanding. And apparently, turns out I was right. What here is worth a 9, I thought? The palette change looks like it took less than an hour to make. Everything has turned green (not as bad as in Emeraldus though) the mushrooms and the Small Tree event got distorted, which is not quite how I would imagine a stormy Diamondus. As for the “additions”, they show no effort from the author’s part. These include a poorly drawn rain (always a bad idea to make one tile full of raindrops), a water tile (of similar quality) and a PJ7 “logo” which could have been fit into one tile instead of two. All in all, not the greatest quality here, and I would have liked if the cave spike tiles would have their backgrounds updated (they still use the ones from the old 1997 Diamondus).

Usability – 2 out of 5

No technical improvement over the original…. night version. That’s right, this is a conversion of the Diamondus 2 tileset, which has a few tiles placed differently (which messed up the Dopefish secret in the example level). The way tiles were placed in Diamondus 1 makes more sense (at least for me). Anyway, there are no added extras either (such as the ever-so-universal invisible masks), nor any improvements over the original’s mask, which wasn’t all that perfect anyways.

• Not as bad as the horrible Emeraldus tileset.
• The theme

• Badly drawn additional tiles
• Little bugs in the palette
• Wasted improvement opportunies

Overall
Certainly not the greatest Diamondus conversion in existance. Diamond Dust is much better than this, even though it lacks the storm elements (blur, if you’re reading this, consider making a dd03). Not really worth the download, imo. Try better next time, because you’ve got some potential.

Edit: And the different palettes added as I was writing my review (…) aren’t really better and don’t really do anything towards the tileset itself, sorry ;|

A very nice conversion of the popular Diamondus tileset.

EYECANDY: Changes to the tileset include: different coloured tiles and some really cool rain and lightning effects. It looks really good. 9/10

EASE OF USE: The set is easy to use. You can use it like the old Diamondus sets. Rain and lightning can also be used. 9/10

EXAMPLE LEVEL (NOT COUNTED IN RATING): The level here is exactly like the first Diamondus level in JJ2 except with an Uterus Boss thrown in at the end.

Note: This is my first time rating a tileset conversion so I’m not sure if I’ve done it right.

TOTAL: 18/20 (9.0)

DR: YES

This review was difficult to make.
EYECANDY- The eyecandy was relitivly the same.However, the lightning and rain was a good affect.The blue/green colour change was quite good.I think you could have the level different to the original.the boss at the end was a bit pointless.9/10.

The music gave it a very stormy theme.10/10.

The example level was very good aswell.

i am going to rate this 9.3

Deffinate download recamendation.

[Rating (9.3) clearance. There was not enough support given for the very high rating. Please expand your reviews. ~Cooba]

Heh, the fifth Chinese zodiac symbol (under the blue planet) represents “dragon” ;P

Heh… DDWndClass rulez :D
OMG! lots of anticrash progz which I have to try to break… ;)

This Tileset has a good theme to it.

EYECANDY
The eyecandy was very nice, chinese signs and animations.
8/10

MASK
No mask errors as of yet.
10/10

DIFFICULTY
The Tileset is very well set out, which makes it quick and easy to use.
9/10

THEME
The theme is lik a chinese mountain-type thing. I was expecting lots of other eyecandy like dragons and other zodiac related objects.
7/10

TOTAL
34/40=*8.5*

you know that this is my first level?

Also, try checking out JCS Ref

There is no point in uploading stencils for tilesets, as they can be done easily on a good graphics program.

Ok I’ll Review this level for you.
This is supposedly supposed to be a hotel level. Well, its rather small and you could of made it larger. You didn’t use a textured layer 8 background (which most levels have). There were only about 6 rooms in the entire hotel. There was one room called “Gem Shop”. It wasn’t really a “shop” because you could just go in and get unlimtited gems for free. It would of been better if you had made them cost coins. You could of put a battle room (there’s a sign saying:“Battle”, but I can’t find a battle room anywhere.” There was no music, either. The eyecandy was very poor, there was only items of eyecandy in the level. I am afraid that I’m going to have to give this 2.5.
Try looking at this: http://howtojcs.zeepost.nl/
It will give you a good tutorial on making levels. That’s were I learned to make my levels. I would like to see what you could make after looking at that website.

Purplejazz7

I started playing this. There was an invisible path, which is good enough. There’s a phantom, which is the start of the enemy events. Women statues even speak to you. There’s a mistake. It names Jazz in the phrase “I’m so glad to meet you, Jazz” Even if I use Spaz or Lori. But nobody is perfect. this can go. Then there are some ‘die when you fall’ holes. I like them, but people dislike them, so I will put a switch to choose if you want them or not in my next episode. There’s also a mystic power which carries the ‘stone which looks like leaven’. I call it so. The statue says me that the blocks near Devan’s lair are of titanium, which can be only destroyed with dynamite. It’s good. There are more enemies on the way. There’s a ‘puzzle’ which I must solve. I must bring the dynamite in the crate to the blocks of titanium. Then I must activate it. It’s pretty funny. A silver crate contains more dynamite which unlocks the blue springs. There’s a long firestorm until I get to the crate which opens Devan’s lair. Until this, it’s all good. BUT… there’s the same devan boss which is quite in all of Ischa’s levels. It’s good, but it makes me feel sick. For example, if I pass my days tripping with some little girls, I’m supposed to have fun. But after 14 days eating macaroni only, it makes even this bad. I would like eating something else when I am with them. So I’d like to have a different boss when I play Ischa’s levels. And the theme! THE SPEAKING MOON WAS STOLEN AND PUT IN AN ANTHILL?!? It’s good for babes, but only teens can play this without cheating. Well, my final rating is 6.5. I hope the administrators agree. Actually i’m not sure if it should be downloaded or not.

Hey all!

Eyecandy

It’s quite okay. I had fun playing around the waterfull. It’s so beautiful!!!

Gameplay

Wicked! Very good! This level is somehow spaz based. But play this level with Instagib. You will LOVE this. It’s also really fun to see how you CAN’T really camp that good.

The flow is also very good, running in the suckers/springs!

AWSOME JOB!

Ammo

I liked how you placed everything, but i missed the power-ups. The ammo is fair placed. When your in the little cave, you got plenty of ammo to defend you from a player that’s coming out of the water!

Overall: First level, very good!

7.5!

I did not enjoy this pack whatsoever. No wait scratch that, I enjoyed it, but disliked parts of it which were major enough for me to not enjoy it in the aftermath.
Unlike Ischa, who’s name is now pratically a synonym with “Bad Packs” to me, I always enter Gus’s packs hoping for the best.
Which is why I feel so terrible I left with the worst. I’ll start with something positive, but it probably won’t be too long until I start delving into everything negative (not that it matters, Gus doesn’t listen to the parlent users, I take it)
Interesting Buttstomp technique used at the end. Too bad it’s A) Poorly done and B) The name “Homing Attack” sounds retarded.
It’s a stomp you do with your butt, ergo “Buttstomp”. How the hell does “Homing Attack” relate to that in any way shape or form? It doesn’t even sound all that cool of a name anyways. You ask “Who cares about Buttstomp?”, I ask “Who the hell are you to say the attack needed a namechange in the first place?”
Thats like me all of a sudden going “Who cares about ‘walking’, from now on I’m gonna call ‘Super Hydrosonic Gremwarp’” and expect everyone to follow. Next, The general idea of the plot is very imaginitive and unique, but the problem with it is that it’s not well thought out.
“Team Jazz” are all written like they’re bored to even be there (what a coincidence, so was I). Devan is also poorly written, and it’s hard for me to suspend my belief into thinking that Devan knew his plan would fail. Why would he leave signs saying “I’ve had enough of you meddling! NOW TO SEE THE REAL POWER OF THE PHANTOM!!!”
Looks like even Devan is falling into a routine, which is what’s making SP packs so boring lately.
It’s just not enough to play Situation Madlibs, you have to make the characters
act like they want to be there as well.

Level design isn’t too terrible, but it’s not amazing either. The only real mediocre level in the pack is the last one, where Gus shows he doesn’t know the difference between “Difficult” and “Frustrating”. Listen, just because you toss in a bunch of bees doesn’t mean the level is automatically difficult, it means most players are going to hate your level and will not even attempt to finish it without cheating.
Another frustrating aspect is one puzzle that forces you to type in JJK to redo it.
I’m sick of these. Next time you level makers out there make a puzzle ask yourself “Is there a way I can make this work without making them press JJK?” If not, don’t put that puzzle in. It’s overkill to expect the player to get rid of a whole life just because they couldn’t solve a puzzle. At least use the CTF Base thing, that doesn’t remove a life at all.
There were also a few instances where I asked “Did Gus even test this blasted thing to see if all the rabbits could get through it?” Like in the first level, theres a cliff only Spaz can jump up to. Too bad for Jazz and Lori that the cliff is the only way to continue the level. Maybe Gus should start calling the group “Team Spaz” isntead.

Oh, and I had no clue what was going on at the boss fight with the phantom. Can you people please start giving some instructions on how to fight these “Dodge respawning enemies and do something” bosses? I have no clue what the hell I’m supposed to do, and they’re ussually just JJNEXT fodder.

All in all, the level design is decently average but theres plenty of things I didn’t like about it. These things knocked the score from a 6 to a 4.8.

Personally, I would reccomend downloading it because maybe you happen to like some of the things I dislike (and apparently there are people that do), and generally, the level design isn’t all that bad (but not all that good either). For me however, the cons outweigh the pros, and this is just another forgettable pack I’ll probably never touch again.

Of course, this review is more for everyone else than it is for Gus. No matter what I write here, Gus will find it “offensive” if I don’t give him anything above a 7, and probably wouldn’t take any advice on what he did wrong or knowledge of what he did right I’d put in here.

Diamonds n’ Flags is, in summary, quite a boring CTF level. The author shows some basic knowledge of properly designing the landscape and placement of eyecandy and items; however, the level is more or less linear. And surprise, it uses Diamondus.

There is a cavern twisting up and down to the northwest of the map with a lot of random items placed rather closely together. This would probably make blue’s defense advantaged compared to the red team, whose base is located in the southwest in a large expanse. There the only natural formation promoting defense is a small triangular knoll (wherein lies the coin warp’s target and an rf powerup). There is a also a single tree a bit to its right, with one very long stem and a perpendicular branch leading out from either side, springs leading you upwards towards the narrow blue base or left towards a large floating arrangement of gold coins. These coins do not regenerate, mind you, so good luck getting into the warp (which lies directly under this stash of coins) after the first time.

So the red side has a lot of coins that do not regenerate, weapon 9 and bouncers. The blue side has seekers, bouncers, and rf’s. The northeast corner has a fire shield and some more gold coins. There are at least two carrots. It’s obvious that /some/ thought went into things, such as the bouncer powerup directly by the blue base (which is above what becomes a pit), but you can only get it with weapon 9.

In summary, the level looks meh, about average or slightly below. But there is potential and you’re on the right track, so keep trying to improve and experiment and I think you will see some results.

These jungle levels have very interesting event-usage.

EYECANDY
There’s lots of vegitation and other stuff around;it has much better eyecandy than in the offical epic jungle levels:p
9/10

GAMEPLAY
There’s lots of great ways of using events;one could learn a lot by playing this.
10/10

ENEMY PLACEMENT
The enemy placement is good, but there are too many in some areas.
8/10

TOTAL
27/30 = 9.0

This Level pack has a very fun story:D

EYECANDY
The levels look very nice, especially the level where you have to escape from the castle. The red sky, the layer 5/6/7 background and the overall realism make this level one of the best levels I have ever played.
10/10

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is best in the level where you play as froggy. It had some good crate puzzles and very good level ideas.
9/10

LEVEL DESIGN
The level design is very good in “Crate Zone”. You had lots of trick and traps and it was not too easy but not too hard.
9/10

TOTAL
28/30= 9.3

These levels are exactly the same, just with different tilesets.

EYECANDY
The eyecandy is quite good;I like what you’ve done with the layer 8 background to make a waterfall:D
8/10

WEAPONS
The weapons are well placed, and there is a good selection, but they re-spawn too quickly.
7/10

LEVEL DESIGN
The levels are identical and too small. It would of been better if you had made a seperate level for each tileset.
6/10

TOTAL
21/30=*7.0*

A File needs a rating of 8 or above to get a DR when I review it.

If a File gets under 5 it gets no DR.

This Level pack has some very-well designed levels.

STORY
The plot is quite unique, which is good.
8/10

LEVEL DESIGN
The are some very interesting tileset uses in some of the levels.
9/10

GENERAL
This level pack is very good and must of taken about 6 months to make. Nice work, Gus!
10/10

TOTAL
27/30=*9.0*

[Rating (9) clearance. There was no actual support for the given rating. “very interesting tileset uses” is not enough to base any rating off. ~Cooba]