Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

After a review that I disagree with, I’m going to review this. The person who can make weird layouts did it again. This level is already quite old, but just uploaded. With the LaYOutZ CTF Package Birdie showed that weird layouts can work. He’s working on more levels with weird layouts. This level is, compared to Limenade, UndergrondSpacebase – Area 51 and his new level, a level with a less weird layout. Oh well. I’m giving points for every aspect again. Just trying a new review style. Instead of talking so much I will just start the review.

Layout
Starting with the layout, the level is one of those levels that has a bigger height than width. Something that not a lot of levels have. The level has a few small dead ends at Power-Ups, and in the bottom right. The platforms in the level are maybe a bit squared-off, but that’s probably the tileset’s fault. I think the platform on the top is hard to reach, but you just need skills to get on it ;) The layout is pretty open in some places, but not everywhere. Overall there is enough space in the level, so it’s fun to play in it.

Rating layout: 8.1(bonus points are given for the size)

Other gameplay
The level has a nice flow by the use of springs and one ways, combined with some tubes. The dead ends are not necessarily a bad thing, because it can be strategical. You need a copter to get to the top platform with a RF PU on it. This weapon is very good in the level, as in some places you can chase people easily with it. Of course other weapons can be used, but I’d say the RF will be the most useful here. The level also has a few secrets you might want to find sometime. I really like the place where you get shot up by 2 tubes.

Rating gameplay: 8

Eye candy
The tileset is pretty hard to make good eye candy with. If I’d make a level with it I’d probably have a hard time. But Birdie used the tileset really well. The layer use is good. Almost every layer is used. The sprite layer eye candy is excellent, and the layers 3 and 5 make the eye candy better. Combined with a nice background the eye candy is over average in my opinion. I haven’t seen lots of levels with this tileset but I think this eye candy is nice. So I’m not going to say more about it.

Rating eye candy: 7.8

Carrot placement
There are two carrots in the level. One carrot is near the top, under the platform with the RF PU. The other one is at the bottom, above the tube, in the small dead end. 2 carrots in the level is just fine. They’re both placed in the air so they can be shot down. This won’t have much effect, because I couldn’t shoot the top carrot off the platform.

Rating carrot placement: 7.7

Other placement
First off, the level has food. Food in a Battle level is always good in my opinion, especially when the level’s tileset is a nature one. The only kind of food used is milk. There is not a lot in the level, just how it should be or maybe there could have been few more. Anyway, the level has four Power-Ups. Something I used for my last Battle level(which also had 2 +1 carrots) and I think it worked. This level has a Gun9 PU that can be handy for the small dead ends where the Bouncer and Toaster Power-Ups are. The fourth PU is a RF PU that I already mentioned. It’s at the top of the level. The ammo placement is pretty nice. A few nice groups of ammo are placed in the level. The weapon selections are fine. There is no Gun9 ammo, just a Power-Up of it. I think it’s just because it’s not an important weapon here. I know that Birdie doesn’t like Pepperspray/Gun8, so that’s probably why he didn’t place it in this level. A few Fast Fires could have been nice. But then again, I don’t really know where to place them.

Rating other pickup placement: 8

Overall, I think this is a nice Battle level. When I first saw it I was surprised when I saw the size. Now, let’s calculate the rating..

8.1 + 8 + 7.8 + 7.7 + 8 = 39.6 : 5 = 7.92 = 7.9.

Host this: Maybe.. it’s a good option for the Battle Server if it gets updated.
Download this: Yes

it is great.12 levels of mario action!i like mario levels but these rux!the eyecandy is good for a mario level.i dont hear the music so i will not rate it.the gameplay is,like i say before,with much action.you must have your fingers fast to survive these levels.the bosses are excelent,especially the underused rocket turtle boss.anyway,why is bolly in water?he is electronic!this pack is terrific!i think it deserves a 9,9.

download reccomendation:yes for all,not only for mario players.

~~andyjackrabbit~~

LaYOutZ CTF Package

Hm, pretty good package of ctf levels. There are 3 Ctf levels included in this pack which are: Something else, Limenade, and UndergroundSpacebase – Area51.

Something else

Gameplay: The gameplay is actully pretty good in this level. Springs well placed, and very easy to get around. Ctf placement is also very important and Birdie did as possible and as good as he could. The suck tubes when you dall to the bottom is interesting. If yo fall you lose time, makes enemy get an advantage for capturing the flag or scoring. =o.
9.5/10

*Eyecandy:** Hm… This level fits together real well. Every tile and such fits perfect. Backround layers look great. Looks like im inside a computer, =o. Springs placed well.
9/10

*Ammo/carrot placement:**

Ammo placement overall was pretty good. Seek powerup was placed evenly so no team has an advantage. Bouncy Powerups were also placed evenly on both sides. Carrot placement was good. 1 full NRG carrot. Placed evenly so both teams can get to it easily.
10/10

Bugs: NONE

Score: 9.5+9.0+10-0= 9.5

Limenade

Gameplay: This level can get a bit confusing, capturing the flags and scoring. It took me almost 10 minutes to even capture the flag. I have no idea why it tok me so long, maybe becasue at the time I was looking for bugs, but still. Very confusing.
7/10

Eyecandy: Eyecandy, okay job. Every thing fits evenly except the v-poles. They look all crappy together. Get rid of that Birdie. Its crap. The springs and suck tubes fit evenly, and well balanced.
8/10

Ammo/carrot placement: Well, the ammo placemetn fits all together evenly. Carrot placement. There is 1 Full NRG carrot. The carrot in the middle fits evenly. All the fruits on the outside make it look all pretty.There are also 3 powerups. 2 seeks and 1 toaster power up. They aren’t as even as they could be. And 2 seek pu’s seems to be a bit much.
7/10

Bugs! Ahhhhhhhhhh! I found a bug. It;s not that big of a deal but on the left side and right side of that crapy v-pole there is no event. Opps.
-1

*Score:*7/10+8/1 +7/10-1= 7

UndergroundSpacebase – Area51

Gameplay: This level is indeed very exciting. Its sometimes easy to get lost but you can usually get back on track. A bit confusing but not that much. Once you get used to it, the level turns out to be every exciting.
9/10

Eyecandy: This level has good eyecandy. Level fits evenly, tiles fit in place, springs and suck tubes work out well. Eyecandy in this level seemed to be the best. Backround layers
10/10

Ammo/carrot placement: Carrots. There are 2 carrots. One on each side. Well placed and balanced. Ammo placement well placed for both sides. No team has an advantage for the ammo. There are 2 powerups in this level if im not mistaken. Seek and toaster pu.
9/10

Bugs: NONE

Score: 9+10+9-0= 9.5

Overall:

Birdie, great job on the packet. I give you Thumbs up

Overall score:

9.5+7+9.5= 8.67

Download recommendation:

Of course, why wouldnt you?

~HïTçH

First of all i must say this ROXS.
I say this because we have been needing a Hotel Helper for a while and now we finallly have one. I’m so happy. I am always tired of recording the stats on a piece of notebook paper, and now I never have to again .HAHA. Plus this program is very easy to use. All you have to do is put in an x and y number. It’s just so easy.For all you Hotel lovas GET THIS PROGRAM NOW Great job SAL, keep up the good work.

~Hitch

Doesnt work(sometimes it shows that it couldnt get process handle).
Im using Xpeg XP

I think that coinciding genres aren’t as much of an issue as entirely ripping a level’s theme, n00b. Anyway, here goes my review:

Visual Appeal – 4 out of 5

Definitely a large plus at the eyecandy factor, the given levels do have a certain feel. First and foremost, I simply adore the Spacey Universe level with a weird name’s eyecandy. I don’t really care about the fact that blur came up with something similar in his Server Always Wins level, this one provides a good, silent atmosphere reminiscent of rather infamous Termite Haven. The lighting, while could get frustrating, supports the atmosphere. My only gripe is that layer 6 can get confusing since it uses the same tiles as layer 4 does, which at times can mislead the player. The remaining two levels also look fine, but Limenade is kind of generic, and Something Else‘s tileset (Sirius) doesn’t allow for a lot of varied eyecandy, as do Agama’s sets in particular. The music in the levels is very well chosen, and suits the given situations.

Playability – 4 out of 5

The main feature of these levels are, as the pack’s name and a ton of other things say, are the (to say the least) unusal layouts. Especially the Spacey Universe level’s layout is mind-boggling at the first sight. To be honest, I’m hesitating whether the balance would work, but I’ll lean towards %{color: #009600;}yes% in this case. Limenade is also, um, unusual for a CTF level (and probably not less confusing). This time it’s symmetric, although the symmetry works similar to Mike’s Glowing Poison in that one half is flipped. It works well, but it still can lead to some confusion. Something Else has definitely the least confusing, which is certainly a good thing. It allows for smooth, fast gameplay (which I wouldn’t expect from the other 2 levels – no offense), and it just feels, um, cool for the lack of a better word. All in all, um, well laid out.

• A nice experiment with the layouts
• Enjoyable atmosphere
• Should be well balanced

• Can get very confusing

Overall
Definitely an interesting pack. The levels will provide a bucket of fun once hosted, so download this and host already.

I dont have much time, so expect sort of a short review.

Gameplay
The level has a somewhat interesting layout, the flow isn’t all that bad either, the springs put you more or less where you want to go. Although there are some rather questionable features such as the coin warp, because it is so easy to get to your base from the location of the warp you might as well not use it, they will take around the same time.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| – 7.8/10

Eyecandy
The eyecandy itself was fine, but there wasn’t quite enough of it, and that made the larger more open areas seem very empty and I must agree with cooba the palette animation wasn’t exactly helping.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| – 7.3/10

Event Placement
The event placment in the level was rather nice, not too much ammo not too little. the full NRG carrot adds a reason to go to the bottom, and it’s placement in the pit like nblast does help. The choice of powerups is rather good too. The traditional seeker power up, but you also have a bouncer and RF powerup, the bouncers are very good for the underground sections while the RF’s are nice in the more open parts of the level.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| – 7.2/10

Bonus
-I really liked the carrot placement.
– 0.1/0.5

Download recommendation?
Yes, it may not be the best ctf level out there or the prettiest, but it is rather fun for a play time to time.
=D

=)Freestyle.(=

Doesn’t work with XP? ;(

It doest work so i cant rate it ;( (it shoes that it cant get process handle).

This is an OK tileset.

EYECANDY: This tileset uses the graphics from the excellent Jill of the Jungle DOS game. It looks like the proper game but there isn’t a very good background to use in Layer 8. 7/10

LAYOUT: There are quite a lot of empty spaces in this set. Even though that is all of the Tiles from JOTJ, you could have used the spaces for a background. 6/10

MASKING: The tiles have been masked correctly. Automask was not used. Background tiles have not been masked which is good. 9/10

EASE OF USE: The tiles can be animated just like in the game. The set is easy to use. 8/10

TOTAL: 30/40 (7.5)

DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION?

YES!

Right, I will be as positive as I can in this review as negativity is NOT allowed.

This level needs A LOT of work.

EYECANDY: Not good. Backgrounds look really bad. Most of the tiles are just randomly thrown together. This looks like it was made in less than 5 minutes. 1/10

GAMEPLAY: You start off by going in the water and then you turn into a Frog for about 10 seconds (what’s the point?). The only thing to do then in this level is get to an exit that is underwater in what looks like a badly drawn nose. 1/10

TILESET USE: Very badly used. You used about 7 tiles out of the WHOLE set. The background was badly made, you can see lines on it. 1/10

ENEMIES: There was a lot but most of them were in that “Prize Walkway” as n00b puts it. Badly placed. A Caterpillar under water?! What the…? 1/10

OBSTACLES: There was warps blocking off the so called “Prize Walkway.” There are about 4 or 5 warps that will warp you back to the beginning but that’s not enough. 1/10

PICKUPS: Hundreds of useless weapons can be found in this level. There are LOTS of 1UPs in the level which are NOT needed. The placement of the items is bad. 1/10

LAYER USE: Only Layers 3, 4 & 8 were used. Layer 3 was barely used to put in the stairs and one hidden passage to some useless Seeker ammo. Layer 4 contains lots of unecessary events including Sucker Tubes. Layer 8 is NOT good, the background was very badly put in. 1/10

DIFFICULTY: It was too easy, not enough enemies or obstacles. 1/10

TOTAL: 8/80 (1.0)
How do you do ratings under 1.0? I thought that was impossible. I typed it in the textbox and it said invalid. Looks like ratings under 1 have been removed.

Moving on.

DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION?

No.

ADVICE: You cannot make a good level this quickly. You need to use more tiles. Try to vary what you use out of the Tileset. Using the same tiles will make the level repetitive. Also, try to make the level longer, you don’t need to use the default 256×64 size. Change this by going into “Layer Properties.”

Ha Ha, you’ve decided to try again for the 14th time. By now, someone who’s been getting ratings as low as 1s or 2s may have improved. Anyway, the review:

EYECANDY:
Not the worst start, but there’s nothing special there. Just a pack of ‘antholes’ that look like volcanoes and thats it. Nothing else in the backround, nothing in the foreground and the only moving animation used is fire, and thats in the sprite layer.
RATING: 4.5

GAMEPLAY:
Like in most of Ischas levels, the worst problem of all is the gameplay as a whole. For a start, please don’t fustrait the player by all of these ‘challenges’ that end up in you dying. In this case, it is (as always) the increasingly common and annoying ‘fall down and die’ obstacles. If you survive them, you will mistakingly opening a crate full of explosives you need to progress through the level and then reading a small sign that tells you not to, forcing yourself to type JJK. Then, you must dodge a load of flames the width of the level. Finally, you beat up devan retreving back the so called ‘moon’. Another thing is that this would be better in a pack. You would ask yourself, ‘what happened when Jazz was travelling to the anthill?’ or ‘why did Devan steal the moon in the first place?’.
RATING: 2.0

FINAL RATING: 3.2
RANK; 3 Very Bad
DOWNLOAD?: No

I love this program. I was one of the first people to use it abd I must say it works exactly how I wanted it to. Thats pretty much all I have to say D:

Edit: May I note (unless Sal has changed this), that the coordinates (x and y) that you type into the program are to be from JCS and NOT JJ2. It will automatically fix it for jj2 use ;D

Devan does it again! Boy oh boy he does!
I decided to stop my Ischa Boycott to see if Ischa’s level-making skills had improved. Honestly, here’s the blunt, cold, hard, truthy answer: They’re still terrible. Here’s the sugar coated answer: Keep trying! You can do it! B Moe Positive!

Whats so hard about the concept of getting people in the community to betatest your levels? You don’t have a deadline, and you’re apparently not making purposely bad levels, so why not? I know you read these, as you’ve gone to such lengths as to prove a simple line in my review false, so why not actually take the advice? Sign up at the JCF and make a topic that says “Hey, I have a level, does anyone want to betatest who isn’t going to forget 6 days later?”

Onto the actual level. I’ll let stealing a concept slide. I’ll even let underutilizing the FLoating Rock slide.
What I won’t let slide is the level’s poor design choices.
Why in god’s name would you have the player start by WALKING IN THIN AIR, if later on, every pit kills off the player? That is a terrible thing to do. You toy with the player by adding a secret slightly left to the starting position out of sight, after he’s/she’s used to not having anything there. You don’t toy with them by laying down a ground rule (example “You can walk on thin air”) and then a little later break said rule.

Next, whats up with the Stone Lady? She constantly never makes sense. First she addresses you as “Jazz”. The next time you see her she says “If you’re Spaz or Lori”. Later on she just starts spurting out gibberish but makes it sound important by saying “according to me”

The level itself, is a terrible disjointed mess that’s linear the whole way through. Really Linear. Aside from when you need to get up to the next straight path, the whole level is just a straight path. Theres even a section where you push a crate for 20-25 tiles NOT DOING ANYTHING. It’s a waste of time. Dont get me started about the lame tacked on “jump over fire with 1 tile wide safe zones randomly scattered” area. Finally, there’s the boss fight with Devan. Can we seriously just stop using the same arena for this guy? I’m sure Devan-Stories would be more appreciated if the Devan bossfight wasn’t on a straight line of an arena. Seriously, can we also give Devan a little more motivation than “I’M EVIL! I ‘M OFF TO GO DO EVIL THINGS NOW! HAHAHAHA” or any other villain for that matter. Just because Super Duper Badguy Lemon is the villain of a level, doesn’t mean he’s automatically better than Devan. Especially if he has no motivation to actually do the evil deed aside from “I’m Evil!” (That was aimed at everyone else, not Ischa).
In JJ1, Devan’s motivation was that he hated rabbits and wanted them wiped out. In JJ2, his motivation was to wipe out Jazz’s parents so he can wipe out the rabbits without the Green hare meddling in affairs. In JJA, Dark Shell wanted revenge on Jazz for defeating him 2 years prior.
Those are all short and simple motivations that make the villains much more interesting than “I’m EVIL”.

Finally, the Moon is a jerk. Well, the oversized Boomerang that calls itself “Moon”. he could have flown away anytime he wanted too, but didn’t because he wanted to see Jazz beat up Devan. What a jerkface. If our moon was really like that, I would go to space and slap it on where I assume it’s cheek to be.

It should be clear to anyone who has read this- No Download reccomendation.

What kind of occasion is it to upload a level nearly in the same time with so similar genre than an another level? Accident or purposal? I think the last.

Very decent work from our now more experienced group-member. Just hoping Chippie is updating the memberlists as soon as possible so Birdie can become a Distinguished member even officially at the least. I am suggesting people to really download this for a look and review it as well.

I was awakened right the moment Birdie reported to be uploading a pack within an hour in a public game-server. I had high expectations while remembering his previous achievements. And I wasn’t disappointed. A few more levels could have been definitely appreciated with all this quality though. Here are some of my first thoughts on the levels.

Area 51 was already seen earlier in public betatest and the layout was really something that I would have expected somebody else to use multiple times till today already. But it isn’t so apparently, so this is welcomed indeed. The eyecandy is Birdie’s neatest. And with the newest fixes to the layout the entire level does really make sense.

Limenade’s eyecandy is something quite close to Area 51’s quality, but the lay-out could have differed a little as now it does just look like recycled Area 51. The paths are annoyingly long and the gameplay is too much of two-way style.

Something else has a way different and simplified layout, which is still original at places. It’s too squared up however. The tileset would surely offer more detailed scenery. Something should be done for the bottom region especially. Since the tileset is underused, so is the eyecandy. As well it is outstanding.

Nevertheless a high-quality pack with only a few medium improvements asked. Good job Birdie!

Well, I didn’t know about savefile.com, thanks for it, I’ll reupload it. The reason why I used rapidshare is that there’s no delete time (except for inactive files, same with savefile).

Thanks for telling me about Savefile, once more. And thanks for review, Cruk!

I wasn’t going to review this, but the reviews prior to mine have really disappointed me, rating-wise. Especially SJ who used to be one of the more harsh reviewers back in the older days. Perhaps times have changed again?

Visual Appeal – 3 out of 5

..the author tried. This level has little to no any outstanding eyecandy (which isn’t necessarily the tileset’s fault), or any good-looking eyecandy for that matter. There’s the (particularly ugly) animation of the palette tile used rather randomly.

Like in other levels by the author, “some parts look pretty empty while others look like they have random stuff tacked on, and the backround is pretty boring” as Blacky put it nicely. The background is nothing interesting, and the rather odd (pastel blue?) 16bit fade just adds to the empty, boring feel.

Also why does layer 7 move faster vertically than layer 6? It looks nonsensical, really. And on a closing note, the author should have at least taken time to disflip the tiles from the flipped half of the level.

Playability – 4 out of 5

First of all, I have to say that this level does have a very nice flow. I haven’t found myself annoyingly bumping into things, which is a vital thing in a CTF layout. On the other hand, the layout itself is a mixed bag. I do like its bottom part, even if it could use a little more paths, but the upper part just feels random and uninspired. There’s a big open area just next to each base, why not add a platform there?

The coins (needed to get to the player’s own base, which could be useful but not really original) are placed decently, if a little confusing. However, I couldn’t help it but get the feeling that there’s way too few loose ammo in the level. And if there actually was ammo, it would be in a boring square pattern.There could be more fastfires rather than just 3, since it would take a longer time to get a properly fast fire rate. The powerups are Bouncer, RF, and Seeker – no balance problem.

And last but not quite least, I really like the way Yasco places the +3 carrots, and this is no exception. The player requires to drop down a pit to get the +3 and bounce with a spring, which is kinda evil and might encourage camping, but I still like it, so there.

• Has several good concepts, like the +3 carrot placement
• Flows decent

• The eyecandy needs work, and quite a lot of it

Overall
This level was definitely overrated. Not by a lot, but certainly not worth an 8. It’s still a fairly decent level, but there are more worthwhile ones around. And just as well, the “BURN, BABY, BURN”, things are moderately disturbing at the least.

Can’t download it :(
RapidShare sucks. I type in the CORRECT code, yet it still says I typed it in wrong. May I suggest a different site?
How about www.megaupload.com or www.savefile.com?

Anything BUT RapidShare.

@Danyjel: No Problem. :)

I like the music. But, I dunno how to review music. It can’t be used in JCS as it’s MP3 format.

Intro…

Nice trancy technoey song :o… I like it.

Well, the song starts out with the techno organ thing, which sounds nicely cut off with a quick fade out. Then a bassline starts out.. Which sounded quite odd tuune and blurry. It sounds a tad bit too loose and drags on. It needs a bit of a cut off.

The organs overpower most of the song, other than the bass which can get pretty annoying after a little while. The drums could be a little louder than they are now, because they sound good, and would like to hear more of them.

The length of it is good, a nice 7 mins, worth listening to.

I recommend downloading.