Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

The odd feeling given by Infiltration Mission is of a Jazz 2 level made by someone who has never played Jazz 2. On some level, it’s trying to do the same thing as Maze of Steel, focusing on gameplay and spike balls with little break between sections. But there’s less variety here, and somehow the eyecandy here works against itself… the graphics are too detailed to pretend it’s a test level, which is what it’s unconsciously trying to be, yet not detailed enough to treat it as a normal single player level. The level design feels more appropriate for a game with a smaller resolution. The boss is an interesting concept, but intolerably slow (especially when compared to the pace of all the rest of the level) if you didn’t collect every coin along the way.

Absolutely stunning, those are the first words that come in mind playing with this level. The eyecandy blast in your face. Blade proves once again that he knows what he is doing. Even after 10 years of absence he still has the tileset tricks. I’m so happy that this came out. We gonna see a new breed of amazing levels with stunning visuals.

What I also like is that Blade provides a small tutorial on how to use this set and how to work with it. This is not only great for the skilled and experienced level designer but also for the newbie this is good.

And ofcourse as an extra bonus from a good tile builder, he gives us a 2nd variation that I even like more :-)

The level it self is good and hard. You might give up on it a bit to quick, even on easy mode. I didn’t like the claustrophobic mazes, it felt a bit hard to navigate as Jazz Jackrabbit but eventually I got through it.

It’s hard to know how to react to RabbitCity 2 (Remastered) because on paper it sounds like such a great ride. Its storyline could make an action movie blush—enemy invasions, identity theft, a secret submarine escape through an underwater minefield, escaping a falling elevator after a bomb attack, defending a boat from a flying robot, sneaking past surveillance cameras, fighting through train cars, restoring power to an island, chasing an airship in a helicopter, and more. The story visits multiple locations and sets up a nigh-constant series of new objectives, and I struggle to think of a JJ2 episode with a larger supporting cast.

And yet…

There’s a term “programmer art” which comes to mind when I think about this episode. The whole episode uses basically a single tileset (with some slight variations for specific areas), which seems to have been compiled specifically for this episode, which gave the author more or less full access to everything ever drawn and the ability to pick graphics that suited each purpose perfectly. The downside is that the graphics don’t always match up too well. Art style can vary a lot, and the levels are incredibly visually busy, to the point where it’s easy to lose track of what’s actually important to look at. Fewer hues and higher contrast between foreground and background would together make this episode much easier to look at.

The other main visual issue is that everything always looks the same. Some moments of exploring underground caves are fine, because they use the tried-and-true Carrotus tileset, but everything else uses the same few wall textures, the same set of background elements, the same doors, and so on. The episode spends so much time in each area—police station, warehouse, island, etc.—that it can be easy not to notice at first when you’re leaving one area for the next, and the fact that all locations use the same artwork really exacerbates this issue. (This is admittedly useful for certain important elements—it’s nice that doors use consistent images—but not so much for basic walls and backgrounds.)

A similar issue can extend to the gameplay. While there are certainly some interesting, memorable, and rewarding moments—exploring a sewer with limited oxygen, fighting off enemies on trains, navigating as a submarine, leaping for ladders hanging from the underside of an airship—they can be few and far between. Most of the episode seems to be spent shooting the same small catalog of enemies in interchangeable small horizontal passages, and it is very easy to grow fatigued by this, especially given the episode’s lengthy overall playtime. When you’re not blasting through the same enemies over and over, you’re going on constant, poorly-guided quests for the next trigger crate or key or ID card. (By the time your inventory contains red, green, and blue cards, all of which open some doors but not others, their targets distributed seemingly at random, the episode has all but crossed into self-parody.)

Interestingly, the reason for the endless horizontal areas is that RabbitCity 2 Remastered is clearly trying for a certain verisimilitude in its layouts, reminiscent of The Lost World Episode but in cities instead of natural environments. (Familiar tropes from other older JJ2 episodes, such as key cards and trains and exploding reactors, help with this impression.) This is a commendable goal, and sometimes it really does work, and sometimes it really doesn’t. The worst offenders are when aiming for realistic human (…rabbit) architecture results in incredible degrees of repetition. A hotel building has you climb countless identical floors with identical rooms, searching for the few that are unlocked in search of… something or other, I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing there. But by far the worst offenders are the elevators. Over and over again, RabbitCity 2 Remastered decides that the best way for you to spend your time would be to take a slow elevator ride from one area to another. At one point you even ride down an elevator, meet an NPC, ride back up, discover a door is locked, and ride right back down again. At another point the characters even comment on how slow the elevators are, an odd moment where you have to wonder how much the episode’s author is or is not in on the joke. (Later they comment on how ugly the airship is and how a room’s proportions are unrealistic—again, is this self-realization or mere randomness?)

The elevators, though, are only the most obvious examples of what is probably the episode’s worst annoyance: it’s constantly stopping for nonsense. Every time you find a key card, adjust the water level, or whatever, the action abruptly stops to send you to a new .j2l where you have a chance to save, then back to yet another .j2l in exactly the same place you were, but with one tile in a foreground layer changed. (Just like Tomb Rabbit—but isn’t this sort of thing exactly what AngelScript was introduced to prevent?) And this happens over and over and over. Maybe there are about two hundred playable levels, but there are only maybe ten or so actual areas to explore—again, all of them visually identical—and you keep running back and forth within them to meet the next NPC, pick up the next key, or find the next trigger crate that gives no hint for which door it might randomly unlock.

Also taking up their own levels (with save spots between them) are cutscenes. On some level I feel bad about blaming the author for the cutscenes, because they suffer so clearly from amateur translation. And yet there are so many of them and they fail so completely to convey any appropriate emotions. Between the ridiculous dialogue and the overbright, overbusy graphics, it’s impossible to care about the hundreds of dead bodies you pass over the course of this episode. And sometimes the cutscenes even go out of their way to waste your time, like when a floppy disk (yes, really) needs to be formatted before it can have a database installed on it, both of which operations have their own progress bars. Does the author seriously imagine the episode’s player enjoying this sequence? Is the fart joke supposed to be just that humorous? Or is it really just a middle finger to the player for expecting their time playing the episode to be respected and rewarded? (And why are there two different police stations, anyway?)

The reason I have so much to say about RabbitCity 2 Remastered’s mistakes is that there is a decent experience buried underneath it all. But the author has thrown so much nonsense on top of it, made it such a chore to play, and supplied it with such inappropriate visuals, that there’s no reason anyone should make the effort to find it.

VERY detailed set with LOTS to choose from. It captures the theme very well! Magnificent!

Simply beautiful. Do I even need to write a full-fledged review for this? Just look at it, it’s gorgeous. The best fan-made JJ2 tileset by a mile. Great job!

I am making a snow level what is longer than this.

This pack starts off rough. There are some scattered humorous text strings, which I appreciate, but otherwise the standard levels are primarily straight lines with turns at various intervals. (The first level doesn’t even have any turns at all, though you do spend it going left instead of right, which I suppose qualifies as novel.) There are a lot of enemies but none of them present any real challenge because the open level design gives you full control over whether they live or die, and the ammo, while quite plentiful, isn’t really necessary. Introducing pinball elements to the Damn tileset is an interesting notion but ends up being more inconvenient than interesting. Eyecandy is highly conceptual—an island with trees with in the background, multiple parallax layers used for lava to make it look 3D—but not very detailed, so the levels don’t tend to be too interesting to look at.

The closest this pack has to a standout regular level is Titanic Tube Tussle, which has full-screen background layers, lots of direction changes, and enemies you actually need to pay attention to. The concept is straightforward but not bad: hit trigger crates to change which tubes are solid, so that the route ahead of you is forever changing. It works for a while but probably overstays its welcome, though the author does make a good effort to change things up after a while by introducing airboards to the mix. Where I think this level is lacking, though, is that even though you’re stomping a lot of trigger crates, you’re still not really thinking at all. The level looks like it should be a puzzle, but everything you need is always right in front of you, and you don’t have the agency to make your own way. Maybe you’ll feel impressed with the author for how well they arranged all the trigger scenery events, but it’s all on the author’s side and you’re not really contributing much. Also there’s surprisingly little backtracking until an airboard segment near the end, despite the trigger-crate-heavy level design almost begging for a chance to make areas harder each subsequent time you visit them.

What you’ll remember from this pack is the final boss, which takes some inspiration from Gunstar Heroes and such but is still an original experience for Jazz 2. The boss has a bunch of different stages, which is something people generally enjoy, and they all(?) make good use of patterns instead of pure random attacks, meaning you feel you have a reasonable chance of beating the boss without taking any damage if you just get good enough at figuring out how it works. (This is further encouraged at higher difficulties, where carrots are reduced or nonexistent.)

Download reluctantly recommended, but let me be blunt… unless you’re intending to write a review, you should probably just skip to hgfRMfinalboss, because the rest of the pack isn’t going to hold your attention.

It’s hard to play this level and not wonder why it exists. That’s not intended as a dig at its quality but merely an observation… on the one hand, its main focus seems to be making Rabbit in Training a harder level by introducing more enemies and spikes, but on the other hand, sometimes this transitions into adding new areas to the level altogether. There’s nothing inherently wrong with those new areas, but what does their inclusion say for the feasibility—or sensibility—of the “Advance Edition” project? Is adding totally new areas to individual levels really within the scope of making them harder, or does it mean the level author should just focus on original works without the odd crutch of the official levels’ old designs? By doing both things, and relying on Rabbit in Training as a hook to bring people in to try all-new details, is the author somehow cheating? I don’t exactly have answers for these questions, but basically, this is a confusing gameplay experience.

Which is kind of unfortunate, because if you pretend for a moment that Rabbit in Training never existed and everything is new to you, this isn’t exactly a bad level. The challenges are not new and original, perhaps, but they’re perfectly functional and enjoyable. And for all the weirdness of passing in and out of the Rabbit in Training layout, it’s never really a problem, except for the text signs, which range anywhere from unintentional humor to complete unhelpfulness.

I don’t think I’ll intentionally come back to this, if only because the weird insistence that people use Hard or Turbo makes it a lot harder to play than the average level. But it’s not a bad start.

P.S. if you’re going to use a bizarre tileset rearrangement of dubious usefulness, at least include it in the zip for people to download.

Aww, this is really cool. I did want to call out the lack of graphics at first, but I quickly got used to it, and I think while playing this level you have to realize that anything more detailed wouldn’t really fit here. Instead this level is all about gameplay: dodging spike balls, finding hidden walls, and making it through two different timed segments, each of which even uses a different timing mechanism! Trigger crates, coins, and carrots feature prominently; ammo is sparse but appropriate; other nonsense is mostly done away with.

This is not a traditional JJ2 level by any means, but it sets out to do a specific thing with a specific sort of gameplay, and does it very well.The puzzles are neither obtuse nor perfunctory. Some of the different areas I really don’t think I’ve seen done before. Just a fun time all the way, provided you like this kind of gameplay to begin with—I don’t know how universally this will appeal to people, especially with how cramped much of the level is, but it works for me.

There are certain issues, of course—I’m not really sold on the JJ3 music’s appropriateness here, and the tileset should be included in the zip file, and I’m not wild about how the Spaz-only restriction was implemented—but none of them really take away from the unique and successful design of the level as a whole.

Download is surely recommended for tough guys.

Mostly technically proficient, quite versatile, and has a relatively simple, developed art style. While the leaves and water/waterfalls may try to emulate a certain style, I don’t like them. This is a very solid set that falls a bit from perfection in my opinion.

This displays a pretty good grasp of the basic technical side of making a level, but a lack of content, challenge, and graphical detail makes it hard to recommend for download. The author has figured out how to use various events, including vines, various enemies, and warps and warp targets. Tiles mostly connect to each other properly, and there are no obvious gameplay bugs. Unfortunately the level still isn’t very pretty to look at, despite some attempts at variety with occasional easter eggs and carrots, and there’s just not a lot to do in it. You can beat the level in less than fifteen seconds if you’re not trying to collect every item and shoot every enemy, and the enemy placement isn’t really sufficiently complicated to be dangerous even if you are trying to do everything. There are various good instincts on display, such as the coin warp and the level direction switching from right to left partway through, but ultimately, this particular level is very short and not very memorable. Hopefully the author will put a little more time into their next effort, focusing particularly on length, fewer straight lines, and more variation in tile use.

Despite all of its flaws, I did enjoy this level. Despite the rather spartan visuals and simple gameplay, it was a decent attempt at bringing Castlevania style gameplay and atmosphere to JJ2, perhaps helped by the excellent music choices. I thought the ending was rather anti-climactic though; a final boss would’ve been nice.

Perfect editor for modern JJ2+ levels!

10/10 HYPE HYPE HYPE

Download surely recommended

All right, I have played it through, and here is my review of the level:

Pros
Really amazing stuff – the maze , dangers, enemies and Bolly boss at the end, so much work. I appreciate it.

Cons
Spaz only level and the tileset. I was using MLLE to insert more extra tiles from Mez01 tileset, like texture background and stars in one of the background layers. Also, I used the better music with the same name on modarchive – “Castles in the Sky” by DJ Speedstar.

Anyways, I feel it mediocre. I give you 6/10.

Download is surely recommended for tough guys.

Good luck on more levels!

_

[Please provide more support for your rating. For more information on writing a proper review, see the review rules.

The ending was a bit anticlimactic and there were a few dick moves placed here and there but it’s overall a good SP level :)

So I thought I’d return Slaz the favor and do a quick review of his level in return.

This level offers very enjoyable vanilla experience. It has a good pace and balanced gameplay with slight difficulty spike towards the end. I managed to get through on Normal with 1 life lost and no saving. Tileset was well used (especially for such a limited one) and overall it was pretty to look at. Additional falling lava tiles gave it the right eyecandy polish it needed. Also well placed and just right amount of goodies and enemies. There are no scripts obviously, but it still manages to do quite a few original things, like when you have to shoot the block by bouncer through tight crevice for metal crate on top of it to fall down and get destroyed by generating TNT event. Also plus points for humor.

Now to few things I didn’t like. One of them was a long lava section on the bottom right of the map, which was kinda hard. I got lucky and got a sugar rush right before it on my second life, but otherwise it could’ve been a bit annoying. I understand it’s important for pacing to mix easy and fast sections with difficult ones that require more careful approach, but I think at least one more carrot along the way (on normal) wouldn’t hurt.

Also the final “boss”. What was the point of that? I mean, even in vanilla, we have ways how to make him work in a way of chase challege, like EvilMike did. If you want to provide a classic boss room fight, wouldn’t it be better to pick one of the working bosses instead? I kinda imagined he was there for story reasons, like, to steal the ring again from you after you went through all that trouble to bring it back, but there wasn’t any text before, nor after, the fight to confirm this.

To conclude, as I didn’t really find anything wrong with it, I wouldn’t mind giving this a full rating, but I’ll substract a point for a boss, lack of originality and for maybe being a little too short. If you want to play something new and unique that would stand to today’s plussified standards, you should probably look somewhere else. But if you’re looking for a quick SP vanilla fix, this is just perfect.

Let’s briefly list the pros and cons of this level.

Pros

- Well, the level is rather difficult, but this is indemnified by unlimited lives. And there are enough of savepoints – not too much, not too few.

- A lot of things depend on difficulty you choose. “Hard” adds lava tiles that definitely won’t make you feel good, “Easy” places springs at the tops of some spikes (but this won’t prevent you from loosing a heart if you jump on them) and adds a lot of cannonball platforms that prevent you from falling into the spikes or bottomless pits.

- The boss (Devil Devan) isn’t modified, but the arena is. The vines, yeah. They make the things harder. Generally speaking, you have to climb the vines all over the level (and look out for blue vines – you can’t keep a grasp on them)

- I also liked level’s music.

Cons

- The gameplay is a lil bit tiring. You literally don’t have a chance to catch your breath when you simultaneously have to avoid a couple of respawned bees and to maintain balance on a cannonball. It’s not the best option for those who like fast gameplay.

- All those morphing TV-sets that can be found all over the level are useful only if you don’t play as Jazz.

- I really don’t think that adding some food to the level would spoil it.

- Though the difficulty has a strong influence on the level itself, it doesn’t look like it changes anything in the boss fight. Thus, Boss seems too miserable after you accomplish the level on “Hard” difficulty :)

Conclusion

Nice level. Pretty challenging and not too big. Check it out!

Because this level pack is quite lengthy and levels vary in quality, I’ve decided to review each level separately. On the other hand, I didn’t separate it further into gameplay/eyecandy etc. categories as I wouldn’t have all that much to say about each of them in every level. Let’s get to it.

Down the Rabbit-Hole
By far the least enjoyable level of the pack, at least for me. I admit I’m not huge fan of puzzle games or mods, however I can appreciate them if they’re done right. Making puzzle game requires more effort than any other type of game, level and puzzle design have many rules a level designer has to adhere to to make level enjoyable, not confusing and not too much or too little difficult.
This level feels more like a maze then a puzzle, there are series of switches throughout the level, but in 90% of cases no indication whatsoever what they switched. This may not be a problem with smaller scale puzzles but in levels this big, it gets very confusing very soon. There are also many hidden places, again with no clue for the player. This is ok if you’re making a secret but not if the hidden path is imperative for progressing further.
There is very little eyecandy here but that is rather tileset’s fault, otherwise it’s quite pretty and I like that author tried to distinguish certain areas by color so they wouldn’t blend so much.
I have to admit I didn’t have the patience to finish this level in the end, and that even with frequent consulting the source map in jcs (due to high amount of switches and warps I still couldn’t figure out what to do next). However you’re given warning at the start that it’s only for patient people and also you’re given an option to skip it entirely at the start of the pack, so I won’t include it into final verdict.
Verdict: 3

Mine
This is where the fun starts. This level is very cramped place with some really tight spaces to go through. Sometimes you’ll block your way with a box or something and have to go around and also your maneuvering is limited so you have to be more careful in fights. Fencer and bat enemies are well chosen for this. Bats are very annoying as they are blending completely with purple background but I guess that was the point. Graphics are a bit boring sometimes with nothing in foreground or background layers and repetitive tiles but that’s more because of tileset’s limitations than anything else.
Verdict: 5.7

Psychotic Brain
One of the better ones. Very nice looking level, despite ever present pink goo. Author makes a good use of tileset’s assets in all layers considering how limited it is.
The level is kind of mazey, you have to collect coins and destroy bunch of crates spread throughout the level to progress further. As with DtRH, there’s little indication about what crate opens what and navigation here may get confusing due to little variability in graphics but the level is not that large, so backtracking isn’t such a big issue. Also I think that due to some bug a few enemies reappeared in my playthrough at certain points, which made backtracking much less dull than it would otherwise be (they were not generating events, I checked in jcs).
Verdict: 7

Kisten Karussell
This level is kind of forgettable due to being one of the few with classic tilesets. The best thing here is pacing, there’s lot of enemies, goodies and weapons everywhere, so it plays good even if it drags for a bit longer than necessary.
Carrot walls at the end are annoying, I missed one crate and had to backtrack good half of the level to open the wall and get to the boss (and of course there are no clues about crates locations).
The boss is well done, Schwarzenguards are usually a good way how to make easier bosses more challenging and requiring more maneuvering without making them super tough.
Verdict: 6.5

Spaceship
Not very long and very well paced level. There are some puzzle elements here and there but less than in previous levels. It is more linear and more centered on combat, there’s little backtracking here. Also music works well in combination with ambient lighting and chosen tileset, the final result is quite atmospheric and it makes the level feel somewhat epic. Definitely one my most favorite levels here.
Verdict: 9.2

Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen
This is a strange one. My first reaction was it’s downright ugly, but that is again because of limited tileset.
This is very linear and short left-to-right flying level. When I think about it, the tileset is actually well chosen with this concept in mind (or other way around). It feels more like a quick intermission bonus area. Also the checker pattern on walls in combination with flying and forest and mountains in background kind of reminded me of Harry Potter quidditch scenes, which is a neat touch.
The only problem I had with this is the animated mountains background which just looks weird, I think the tileset wasn’t designed with this in mind.
Verdict: 7.2

Blizzard
Very nice looking level, author makes a good use of all layers here. The music is well chosen, together with foxes and cottages it gives the level kind of laidback atmosphere, like a sleepy winter refuge deep in the mountains. There is a bit backtracking and sometimes I wasn’t sure where to go due to many branching paths, but nothing really difficult.
One notable thing here are reappearing smoke ring events which could get quite annoying as they are pretty much invisible with white/blue everywhere. But they make the level a bit more interesting so it’s not all bad.
The Boss here depends on whether you’re using fireball kick trick or not, I can imagine it could be quite difficult without it, especially with smoke rings flying around. At this point I was already packed with weapons and fast fires and spammed him with RF missiles, so I can’t really tell.
Verdict: 7.5

Kanal Krümmung
It was my first time seeing this tileset used in a level and I think it is utilized quite well despite its limitations. It can get quite boring (the tileset) after a while but there’s lot of pipes in all direction and enemies in them, some of them hidden, to keep your attention. Otherwise nothing much to say about this one.
The boss is well made here with a low ceiling and some reappearing rats at the back. It could have provided a good challenge haven’t I spammed him like the previous one.
Verdict: 7

Sandsammler
Again a very good use of tileset here, especially the sand. The platforming sections with disappearing blocks, elevators and moving spikes provide for a nice change of pace, even though they can get quite frustrating. I liked the fact that there is always one stable block you can stand on and calm down before continuing further (or save you game). The bad thing is that there isn’t any pattern in these disappearing blocks so jumping around them is kind of a guessing game. In my opinion it’s better when all blocks have animation of same length so you can learn their pattern while retrying.
Verdict: 8

Magic Moshrooms
Not very memorable level. Diamondus gets old fast and bees and turtles are as annoying as ever. Inclusion of crabs and Uterus boss and those magic mushrooms is a nice touch though, it kind of give it this feeling of ‘something isn’t right here’, like in Dreamscape. But otherwise quite forgettable level.
Verdict: 5.2

Frosch Flöte
Definitely one of the most original levels here. As if drowned castle and frog morph wasn’t enough, there’re also pinball bumps and paddles thrown into the mix, which allow for some interesting platforming when you jump from below the paddle to get some speed. As you cannot fight it’s quite short and linear, you’ll run past most enemies (mostly fish) as fast as you can before they’ll even notice you.
The only problem I had here is with the last two consecutive paddles, which seemed impossible to me and I had to resort to cheats in the end to get past them.
Verdict: 8.2

Kairo
Quite memorable level, for good and bad reasons alike. On one hand there are some unique ideas here like shafts where you have to look for a draft wind to go up, on the other end there are problems like hidden crates in the sand you have no chance of noticing unless you pay super attention. I also didn’t like the use of a tileset very much, it could use a little bit more variety, especially with yellow bricks in layer 4. I’m not talking about foreground/background eyecandy here, as I know Egypt Cave tileset doesn’t really have any.
What I like on the other hand is the boss here which was pretty much the most challenging for me. The good thing about Queen is that you can’t spam her, so you have to beat her in a traditional way. Reappearing dragonflies in the walls proved to be quite a challenge, you have to shoot the queen and be prepared to move away each time she stomps or you’ll see a sparkle in the darkness indicating a dragonfly generation. Also they dragonflies are placed in a way that you can kill them with ricocheting bullets from the shield with the right timing. Great work on this one.
Verdict: 6.5

Japan
This is a linear rocket turtle chase level. The idea here is that you’ll chase him towards the end where he gets stuck in the wall and you finish the level by Area End Level event. This is a neat idea though the problem is, you don’t have to do anything to trap him in the wall, he’ll always go there. So at my first playthrough I didn’t even know I’m supposed to chase him, I just let him go and played through the level at my own leisure. I still enjoyed the level even then though. The level is beautiful and together with calm music it gives pleasantly serene atmosphere. Normally there’s supposed to be boss music playing but due to some loading error it skipped back to standard level music so I kinda enjoyed the level in a way I wasn’t supposed to.
I guess to make one play this level in a way it was intended, some angelscript would be needed to kill the player or close the path for him should he stray too far from the boss. Or have a metal crate at the end of the level that would trigger the wall to entrap the boss, otherwise he would get away – something like that.
Still a neat idea though, also plus points for using blue ghost enemies, they actually kind of fit in here.
Verdict: 7

Nikolaus
Christmas themed Candion level. Good work with the tileset, nothing in background/foregroung layer but it still looks nice due to good looking textured background in layer 8 and solid wall tiles in layer 4. Also pink snow is a nice touch and I liked that candies match the level theme. Otherwise pretty standart level, it is quite linear with no puzzles, but has a good pace.
There’s Xmas Bilsy as a boss but nothing unusual about him either, except one generating floating lizard in a wall in a top right corner. The arena is maybe a little too cramped and complicated for a boss like this, but you can always rush him or use a fireball trick. So nothing too bad.
Verdict: 8

Party
A really unique hotel level, it’s all just one big house, or several interconnected houses. You’re party crushing a club full of lizards, monkeys, and several tileset characters and your goal is to get to the largest party at the end. There are MANY enemies on the dancefloors and picking them one by one can be quite tiresome. You can just disregard them and go on, or if you absolutely need to kill them, dynamite works great here. The problem is, you have to get quite close and the explosion will probably throw you right at them, hurting you in the process. It would be great to be able to use some bomb weapon you could throw right in the middle of the crowd without risking getting hurt, something like what was used in Tweedle Wheedle level by Bloody_Body.
Still fun though, even as it is. Only issue here was an atrocious red/yellow/blue tapestry backgroung in some rooms which just burns my eyes, but that’s the tileset’s fault, not creator’s.
Verdict: 7.5

Dampflokomotive
A really cool train level made in dark industrial WTF – Deadly tileset. It’s very linear with no puzzles and little platforming due to no verticality, you’re just traversing a train from left to the right. At the start you’ll get a Chuck bird who’s gonna be great help in a cramped train car corridors if you’re careful and won’t lose him.
It’s just pity the creator didn’t feel need to make a real wheels for train cars which would make it look even cooler, but I understand that making tileset adjustments can be quite time consuming.
Verdict: 7.2

Baumkrone
I always liked rainforest tileset in JJ1 and its JJ2 conversion is absolutely gorgeous. It’s good that creator realizes this and have tries to utilize it to its full extent. There’s lush jungle in the background, leaves and vines in the foregroung and even raindrops in layer 1 which finalize the deal. Monkey and Dragonfly enemies feel of course right at home here. Just beautiful.
The whole level is very vertical, you’re moving up all the time and it feels like one big treehouse with interconnected bridges and platforms. It all looks very complicated, what with all those overlapping vines and leaves, but it’s in fact quite linear for most part.
There is a Schwarzenguard boss at the end with one additional one at bottom as a support. He’s standing on top of a tree and you have to jump on the spring to ba able to shoot him while evading attacks from both of them. Fun stuff.
The only bad thing here is Diamondus music. I’m sick of that stuff.
Verdict: 9.7

Gift
Very cool, even if a bit too long level. Good work with the tileset, there’s nothing in foreground but it still looks pretty well. There’s giant ground mass slowly moving through the air in a background layer and rocks with structures and toxic waste pouring machinery sticking from them here and there in layer 4, together with well picked music it all gives a feeling of this dangerous alien planet in a post apocalyptic state with mutants (in form of Tuff Turtles and Fat Chicks) and monkeys all over the place.
There’s a lot of platforming here based around the idea that you cannot fall down as there is sludge lake at the bottom. Thankfully it doesn’t instakill you but instead warps you back to the start or the last checkpoint. Later half of the level is all about making it across big gaps on lizard copters while evading enemies along the way. It may be quite hard, though definitely not impossible. You also get as many tries as you need as long as you don’t bump into enemies too often. It’s a nice challenge well befitting the endgame towards which you’re getting close.
Verdict: 8.2

Hölle
The last level, and damn, it sure feels like it. This level got the most attention in terms of atmosphere. JJ2 Hell levels look like a friggin’ paradise compared to this hellhole. There’s lava everywhere, hooks, pentagrams, your copies on hover boards confusing you when you touch them, everything bubbling and flashing and exploding and ominous sound playing in the background… It’s a mess and you have to get through somehow.
The level is very short though, it’s basically just prolonged boss room. The idea here is that you have to go to these pentagram blocks which open a way further and warp you at the beginning at the same time. Then you have to repeat the level towards the next block until you get to the boss (all enemies are of course reappearing). It feels like you’re opening these seals one after another and slowly working your way towards the master of hell itself.
The final arena with Devil Devan is well made, it’s big and you have a lot of room to maneuver around. You can get to the top parts on hooks but it can be quite difficult while fighting him and you may just want to stay on the ground instead and fight him there, which means the whole potential of the arena is kind of wasted. There’s also lot of reappearing ravens everywhere which can often kill you more efficiently than Devan himself. Maybe redoing the arena so there would be less of careful jumping and platforming and removing some of these Ravens (or setting them on hard) would make final fight slightly more enjoyable. Being as it is, spamming Devan with RF Missiles seemed like the best solution.
Verdict: 8.5

Conclusion
I really enjoyed this pack. Most of its flaws are lack of eyecandy, especially in foreground and background layers and sometimes maybe sticking too close to traditional gameplay – a little angelscript here and there would be nice, even if copied from other levels. However I have to give a credit to creator for having a courage to work with custom assets, many of which are not very easy to use in big single player levels.
Most of the levels play very fluently and it seems the author has a good understanding of balanced level design and pacing in traditional JJ2 platforming. Placement of enemies and goodies is usually spot on and there are plenty of weapons and carrots all around so you don’t have to play extra carefully for fear of getting hurt. The author doesn’t experiment too much but for what he’s trying to accomplish, he’s doing well. Now if only he’d understand puzzle design so well…
Final verdict: 7.5

Never liked labyrinth-like levels (sorry for tautology). But they aren’t that bad for a beginner.

Most of the bosses are pretty easy to beat. For example, if you’re fast enough to reach Bubba and Bilsy before laser shield expires the fight literally is won within 1 second.

I liked the mechanics of the last boss though.