Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Time for another contest level-review. While looking again to the level carefully although I have had several games there before, the level wouldn’t look that sweet anymore.

Just about the decoration in the background, Sky, “hill-trees”, “tall trees”, they don’t really fill the background enough and it gives a little bland atmosphere. However the fade-color for sky is nice and leaves in front fit. Lightning was used for the cave-region which is alright. I would have wished a little more of waterfalls to the foreground for instance. The ceiling shouldn’t be as linear everywhere either. Also spotted few bugs like at the bottom I could see a very thin line, barely noticable, under the layer 7 decoration. Another thing was at 26,37 which has waterfall-tiles placed both on layer 4 and 5 as double.

Like me, Enigma wasn’t fond of creating a fully symmethrical level for now. It is indeed fine that there are some differences with the sides. However annoying is that the level remains quite linear and that the springs kinda assist you everywhere instead that you would have to do a little jump-work while climbing up to the upper levels. Also I would find the large space between ground and ceiling quite useless unless I was Jazz. Then again being Spaz makes you able to double-jump from tree-tops and such to higher level without springs. Overall the layout makes you very vulnerable to rf-missiles for example and generally it’s just difficult to run away with low health from an opponent here. That’s why this could rather support team-games where there could be always somebody to save the flag if the carrier feels himself chased. It seems to be also possible to cover self with the barrels at bottom, from bouncer attacks especially. The blue base might be possibly a bit easier to camp as well as the hole to the top-level isn’t as close to the base as in red side, not as open either. I earlier had a thought of somewhat this kind of basement for one of my levels. Seems it doesn’t have anything really wrong though I wouldn’t have put the bases technically as close to each other. So the level does give some tactical impressions anyway. The level should actually have only one start-position per team, but looked like there was a “Jazz” start-position forgotten to the top-left weirdly.

While moving through the level, it quite soon becomes clear that most stuff is pretty much placed in a balance on both sides, like carrots. About the j2mc-version, the fast-respawning basic carrots are a freshening choice although a few levels probably had that already. The ammo is placed either separated along a certain path, or in small flocks, that unluckily are, “squares.” The two barrels to the bottom were a nice idea as earlierly mentioned. Anyway all this is done reasonable well, nevertheless anything of it is really SWEET.

Something like 7.5 was my original plan about the level but guess it’s a 7.7 as it took the third place in the actual contest of total 12 entries. The music was originally used in Jazz Unleashed Demo, but is good and suits so that’s something positive too. Overall I feel that I criticized the whole level pretty much but ended up in such an uh…high rating. I just prefer the two older ctf-levels by Enigma over this; The Marshes of Twilight, and Celestial Wargrounds. Download recommendation on all three of these however.

Oh well, then I can’t let it work coz I got just the Secret files! and Jazz 2 normal doesn’t open on my PC so Is there one in the secret files ?

[…eh? 1.23 tilesets work fine in TSF and so does this conversion. ~Cooba]

That was close! Its tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tough!
Jump up rotating floors not that good… or bad either.

Firstly…………………
(Normal Ratings and Comments)

Gameplay:

Remember the 9 roooms. they were fully filled with ammos(2) and springs(-0.5) just nothin’ after and no any powerups either except for that stupid shooting that go through walls that you must use the ammo to get ‘em.(-1)

Rating:0.5

Eye Candy:

Okay, by Cooba I’ll tell. Only layers 3,4,8 were used +1 and the Places were not gone and they were some also no nedd exept for springs that remind me of frustfration(I mean my fav. pkmn)
Rating:+1

Warps: I won’t write about exept in the improving comments.N/A

Triggers and animations:

Used Just for Frustfration;

Animated Blocks In bouncer room was terrible! Plus that your GEM-Trigger crate was no idea. coz, Gems aren’t suitable for battles. Rating:1

JCS: Environment: Just annnoing with those FRUSTSPRING[frust*spring frustfrating spring].EDIT:THey were no need and no Copters as usual as any battle level.

rating: 0.4

(Part One, Finished)

Secondly………………………..
(Improving comments)

1-Please Don’t put spring annoying this way!

2-Use Warps for the powerups

3-No frustrating animations

4-Fun isn’t easy… it’s not hard either its a join between two.some hard and some easy. profeesionaly meduim, not either medium.

5-I am not cruel! THat is final rating and i wrote the comments!EDIT: I’m creul when some one edit my reviews

EDIT:

6- The editing of removal clearence lowers the level from better to false

(Part 2, Finished)

————————————————
(Final Rating)

Final:1. Happy?
Download:NO

(Part Three, Finished)

Lastly——-The boring edits for rating removals that makes troubles:

[…rating (2) clearance. This rating lacked any kind of support. All the review says is that the level is frustrating and the eyecandy is tricky, which clearly isn’t enough. Also, when reviewing, use only the rating YOU think you would give. ~Cooba]*Donda97*: Could this be deleted?

[No. You still need to write more in your reviews. ~Cooba]

I don’t think that this is not much……….

That’s a cool application. But I don’t like it some way. It ‘turns off’ all instruments except drums.
Medivo music sounds creepy.
Beach music sounds like the normal one.
The… umm.. (beep) music sounds weird.
Credits song (or Pull Back The Bass) sounds like normal.

Anyway, good job. :D
RJ

FIRST GLANCE: Another remix by accomplished remixer and legendary member Lark. Wonderfully done.

DETAILS: The opening gives us leaves rustling in the wind and birds chirping. Soon, a guiter strums in a basic tune. The xylophone kicks in, sounding off the melody of Diamondus. This sounds like it belongs in Sims 2, either that or a band playing in Central Park. The song has a happy feeling to it, and you could get carried away from what you are doing to listening to this. Truly wonderful. Before you know it, the song ends, and… well, you’ll have to hear it. ;)

I give this an 8.5 out of 10, and a high Download Recommendation. You NEED this song in your WinAmp or XMPlay playlist.

Awesome.

This is a very interesting program which I think is the beginning of some fantastic developments which could be created in the future.

The effects vary a lot- if you were to run this program on one level and then skip to the next level, the next level’s music will all be done using the first instrument in it.

If you only enable it after the music has played for a while, it will use a variety of instruments making the music sound.. well.. DJ’d.

A brilliant discovery. The Jazz Jackrabbit 2 music will never be the same again ;)

It is also very simple to use (of course).

I give it no less than it deserves- 8.7 and definately a download recommendation. This tool is great fun!

NOTE: It takes a while to learn how to use ModPlug. 3 years later, I now make funk tunes.

Anyways, to the review:

Its basically the JJ1 version of Diamondus slapped together with the JJ2 version, mixed together and rearranged. It sounds much more nature-like with the sound effects and guitars and the rest of the samples sort of flow along with the feeling. I like how the song constantly changes key and changes the tune from JJ1 to JJ2 again and again.

However, the tune is just borrowed from the origional Diamondus songs. The song would sound better and interesting if the tune was changed so that it still sounded like Diamondus, but the tune would be a tiny bit different (Like Dr Eggman did with his Elettrotubo song). The same goes for the bass aswell.

GOOD POINTS:

More Nature-like version of Diamondus
Samples flow along with each other
Changes key

BAD POINTS:

Tune and bass same as Diamondus
The guitar samples and the bass sometimes clash (something I didn’t mention)

RATING: 7.9
RANK: 7 Good
DOWNLOAD?: Yes

WOW! This is a BIG improvement on Bjarni’s previous levels.

JUNGLE RABBIT REVIEW:

I haven’t played the multiplayer levels yet so I’ll review the SP levels now.

EYECANDY: You used all the Layers which makes the eyecandy look great. The backgrounds are nice, I like the Jungle background. 7/10

GAMEPLAY: It got a bit repetitive as you were mostly destroying blocks and enemies. Also, you were going up & down quite a lot. 6/10

OBSTACLES/ENEMIES: There was a bit too many enemies used in the SP levels. I had to use Spaz’s kick move to kill them all. Killing them with weapons was a bit hard especially when there was about 100 of them. There was obstacles in the level as well. There was a Trigger Crate in one of the levels which you had to blow up with TNT. There was lots of Destruct Scenery also. 7/10

PICKUPS: There was loads of Seeker ammo. Not that much is really needed. It was needed to beat the witch. There was a Shield in the Water level but I couldn’t work out how to get it. It was sitting on a Electro Blaster icon block. So maybe there’s some EB ammo somewhere. 6/10

MUSIC: The music did get a bit repetitive as only the JJ2 Jungle music was all you could hear. Try to use different music for other levels as well. 6.5/10

TOTAL: 32.5/50 (6.5)

DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION: N/A
Yes requires at least 7.0

This was a bit better than SSB but not much.

REVIEW OF SOME DEMO:

LEVEL 1 – WELCOME TO THE GARDEN

Not enough eyecandy was in the level. Hardly anything could be seen in the background. Too short, I had no idea where I was going. Too much Seeker ammo, this wasn’t needed.

LEVEL 1 RATING: 2/10

LEVEL 2 – MARINATED RABBIT

Still not enough eyecandy. Hardly anything in the background. One of the Text events was too long. Too many enemies in Hard. I had problems finding the exit. Try putting an exit sign in the level so we know where to go.

LEVEL 2 RATING: 3/10

LEVEL 3 – SUPER SPAZ BROS

Already reviewed this so I’ll keep this short. Eyecandy not good. Blue background and clouds can be seen. You could have removed the Bonus level so that the game would not have crashed. Too many enemies. Useless pipe at beginning. Would be better with Sucker Tube events. Devan on top of castle was pretty cool.

LEVEL 3 RATING: 3/10

LEVEL 4 – [CENSORED] DEMO

Too short. No obstacles. There was a Devan Boss AND the Robot Boss which was not needed. You only need ONE Boss not 2 at once. Nice background. Layers used correctly.

LEVEL 4 RATING: 5/10

LEVEL 5 – A COLD DAY IN HECK:

Too short. Too many enemies, Bats & Ravens. Useless Freezer Power-Up can be found at the end of the level. I quite like the title.

LEVEL 5 RATING: 3/10

LEVEL 6 – POKEMON WORLD

I like the Pokemon. Level was quite short. There was a bug with the Devan Boss, he ran off the screen. Level could not be finished so I had to JJNXT to move on. I did like the way you used the Pokedex to say about the Pokemon and the different enemies.

LEVEL 6 RATING: 5/10

TOTAL: 21/60 (3.5)

DR: No

So NOT good.

SUPER SPAZ BROS REVIEW:

EYECANDY: What eyecandy? All I could see was a blue background and clouds in Level 1 and a black background in Level 2. I couldn’t see the point of that useless pipe at the beginning. It would have been better if you maybe put some Sucker Tube events there. 1/10

GAMEPLAY: I had this whole pack finished in 30 seconds. All the levels were too short. There was a bonus level in Level 1 which can be accessed by collecting the very poor placed 125 coins. This bonus level contained 28 useless 1UPs, some pointless powerups and some useless ammo like Seekers, Flamethrowers and TNT and a Shield with about 100 extra time clocks but the shield didn’t work back in Level 1. 1/10

PICKUPS: OMG!!! There was way too many. I already mentioned the pickups in Level 1. In level 2 there was another 242 1UPs and nothing else to pick up. 1/10

OBSTACLES/ENEMIES: What obstacles? There wasn’t any. There was too many Floating Lizards at the start of level 1 which you could just fly over on the Airboard. Too many in Level 2. There were 2 Bosses, Devan’s Robot and Schwartzenguard. These were too easy. The 3D Spike Ball was moving way too slow to cause damage. 1/10

MUSIC: The choice of music here was not good. Carrottus does not fit in a Mario level. Medivo didn’t fit very well in the 2nd level either although it was dark. 1/10

TOTAL: 5/50 (1)

DR: No

When you make levels you need to spend lots of time on them. My level pack took over 1 month to make and I had to keep testing to make sure that all the levels work.

OK, I tested this in Winamp and JJ2. It works in both of these! So this music could be used in a JJ2 level. I do like this music but I dunno how to rate music so I’ll just leave it as N/A.

[While the tune works in WinAmp and JJ2, it gets distorted while being played in those. To fully experience the song’s quality, do listen to it with Modplug Tracker like the author recommends. ~Cooba]

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to use Modplug Tracker. Tried it once, just couldn’t understand it. I also tried Modplug Player but I just didn’t know how to use it.

LOL. I had no idea how to use JCS when I first got JJ2. I made a level once in about 1998 but the background was so bad coz I had nothing in Layer 8. Now I have got better at JCS as I submitted my first ever level pack to J2O.

Anyway, this level was quite bad but this was your first level ever and I don’t think we all knew how to use JCS in 1997, 98 or 99.

[Seeing as JJ2 was released in 1998, I indeed doubt anyone in the community knew how to use JCS in 1997. ~Cooba]

LOL. I couldn’t remember when JJ2 was released. But I still don’t think we all knew how to use JCS when JJ2 was released.

Upon jam’s request I have redownloaded it, this time with the proper readme ;).

HotelManager 2 does exactly what it says on the tin- it manages hotels. It allows you to add accounts for each player, add and substract coins, add items when they buy them and keep track of where they live. Creating a list of items is extremely easy and detailed in the readme file, which makes everything convinient. There is also a warper program included, allowing the server to warp to another player immediately in-game by typing “warp #”.

However, there are a few things I didn’t like that prevent me from giving the program a 10. Adding items could have been done even easier by adding an option that lets you type the item name and cost in the program itself; it wouldn’t have been that hard to program. Also, when you’ve renamed your Jazz2.exe, for example to combo 1.23 and TSF, some features crash the game (either that or it just doesn’t work with TSF.) And lastly, clients can get a negative amount of coins according to the program, which doesn’t make much sense.

But all in all, the program does what it says apart from a few inconviniences that can be fairly easily rectified by the user. Therefore, I rate this program a 9.2, and it definitely gets a download recommendation, as it makes running hotel levels a lot easier.

I really enjoyed this.

MENACE TO WONDERS REVIEW:

EYECANDY: Really nice backgrounds, some fantastic Tilesets used very well. All the levels look great. 10/10

GAMEPLAY: The levels were quite long. The puzzles made them quite a bit harder. 7 fantastic levels. I’ll go into more detail about the puzzles later. You can also replay the whole pack again to try and find the 21 TNT to access the Bonus Level. 9.5/10

OBSTACLES/ENEMIES: Lots of obstacles. I especially like the Collapsing scenery in Level 4. Enemies were very well placed. Not too many or too less. I loved the way you used the crates to make it appear as if there were enemies coming out of the crates. 10/10

PUZZLES: I think all the puzzles were great. I liked them all. My fav puzzle in this pack was the Maze. I love Mazes. I really thought the first puzzle in Level 5 was great, getting the first set of blocks to match the other set. Very well done. 10/10

MUSIC: I didn’t hear any music in Level 5 & 7 but I did like the music in the other levels. 9/10

TOTAL: 48.5/50 (9.7)

DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION: YEP!

Some may not agree with this rating but I like this pack.
I hope this review is good enough.

[While I appreciate that you put effort into this review, it certainly lacks support for the given rating. Feel free to rerate, but keep in mind that you need to clarify why is the eyecandy nice or why was the gameplay good. ~Cooba]

A small, symmetrical but nice level by Quickz.

Gameplay: This is nice. A Good flow and no deads ends. The level is very open and allows a lot of room for movement and if you fall down somewhere, you can just continue running to where you have to go because all the paths go to the same place. The springs are placed well and prevents dead-ends. The only thing that irks me are the walls to the right of the blue base, and same for the red base, that lead to that wooden bridge. It kinda disrupts the flow. Maybe you could have used diagonal tiles instead, or floatups.

Ammo placement: Good! They’re all placed in shapes and in big amounts, which is enough for 3vs3’s. You have to jump to get them though, theres nothing you can just run by to pick them up (except for the springs, where you just fall down/go up :P) Good PU choices, and no Seek PU :D The warps to the RF PU’s are very close to the other 2 PU’s though, so you could first get the other one, run back a little and get the RF PU.

Eyecandy: Not the strongest part of the level, but the gameplay makes up for it. For some reason I do like it, because the level is easy to navigate because of the eyecandy. It’s very easy on the eyes, but some parts are just empty and the layer 5 usage is basic. The trees and stuff atleast fill the level up.

Buggys: Couldn’t find anything like tilebugs, but it’s kinda Spaz biased. Jazz CAN reach everything, but it’s easier for Spaz.

Download Recommendation: Yes!
It’s nice to play in and the gameplay, flow and ammo placement make up for the eyecandy.

Cool. Ignore the stupid anti-virus error. It works. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to use this program. I’m trying it right now.

I’m thinking it’s for Multiplayer or something like that. Is that right?

I dunno what happened to warper.exe. When I extracted it from WinZip my anti-virus software put it in quarantine. Stupid thing.

RATING: N/A for now.

Hey well I haven’t completed it yet but I like the cencept of it, very fun.

Although there is a simple bug in that special area in Toads House, once you exit it you get teleported back to the warp that you used to come into it, which warps you back into Toads house.

So I like it, people may think I might be going soft but it’s my first review.

I give it a 7

[Rating (7) clearance. You need to specify why do you like (or dislike) a level when rating it. ~Cooba]

I don’t really know how hotelmanagers work, (i only know the deposit thingy) but everything i would need about it is in it, so i couldn’t go lower than 10, as in perfect.

Download recommendation only when hosting hotels alot

[Rating (10) clearance. If you don’t know how does something work, don’t rate it. And saying that everything you need is there doesn’t cut it, you need more support for a rating, yet alone a 10. ~Cooba]

What the…? My 1.23 version seems to have disappeared.

Thanks Cooba, I will remember that next time.

I have started on World 2 now. Tileset I am using is MEZ01.