Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Normally I reserve time for a long, slightly thought out review when I review Ischa’s packs.
However this pack, does not deserve a long, thought out review. i’ll do the best I can however.
Alright, so basically these levels are linear to the max. Honestly. Finding the challenges never strays you off from the main path for very long, but the problem is sometimes there are cleverly hidden due to the fact you’re so bored out of you mind you pass over the little nook the challenge’s warp is at.
None of the boss arenas are very exciting, you’ll probably JJNEXT all of them. Oh, and the Devan battle’s pre-requisite is very annoying.
The placement is horrible, you’ll agree with me once you get hit by a turtle in a suckertube.
Hmm. That’s the best I can squeeze out of the pack.
DR? No.

Don’t forget to rate it.

Introduction:
Ever feel like headbanging to the original Muckamok theme, but feel the tune is inappropriate to do so? Well, this tune is right up your alley, then!

Song Analysis:
Remember what I said about the original version, FOD? “This song would be freaking sweet with the right samples.” Well, guess what? I still think that holds true. This version is quite vastly different from your original “The Muckamok Rock”. Too different to compare, really. As the original version was rock, this version is somewhere between heavy metal and rock ‘n roll. However, the arrangement of this song is done up quite well. Nothing clashes and everything sounds great as far as I can tell. Except around 1:22.60(Pattern 16) where you inexplicably up the pitch on the guitars… Doesn’t sound that good. Additionally, the song is a bit repeatitive with no real “breakdowns” to it. A breakdown or two somewhere in there would not only prolong the life of the song, but make it sound all the more groovy, in my opinion.

Sample Analysis:
As stated, none of the samples clash, hiss, crackle, or sound bad at all. Your choice in samples is pretty nice. All the guitar samples are nice and crisp, as heavy guitar samples should be.

Final Analysis:
This is a slight step down…from the “original” version of “The Muckamok Rock,” in my opinion. Gone are the organs that made the first cut so absolutely awesome. Gone are the cut-off guitars. Gone is the arrangement…
Man… Listening to v1.0, I think I do prefer it to this one…but this one is pretty slick in and of itself, too.

Score: 5.0
“Arrangement” Points: -0.2
Total Score: 4.5

Recommendation?:
I’d recommend this, yes. It’s a neat, metal arrangement of Muckamok. But I’d also like to re-recommend the first version, too, which can be found here:
http://www.jazz2online.com/J2Ov2/downloads/info.php?levelID=3683

————————————————

The “Simon Cowell” of Jazz 2 Online‘s Music Scene… Joseph Collins
“Dr Lithius” or “LithiuServer” on Jazz 2

You people and your “Put Lori in 1.23” requests… =P

In addition to being able to now see every single sprite in every known version of Jazz Jackrabbit 2(yes, this includes the “prototype” version where Colonius 2 uses the music file mislabelled as “Medivo2”, though there is a little palette curroption in the menu sprites), you can also now rip each and every sprite with ease, as well as edit them just as easily. With this, combined with the Jazz Creation Station, I’d imagine someone with enough diligence could easily make a whole new game using the Jazz 2 engine.

All and all, this is one of the best tools to come out for Jazz 2 ever. I haven’t tested the manipulation capabilities of it personally, so I probably shouldn’t give a score…but I gotta say, I can’t think of anything more useful that could come out. Maybe a sound manipulator or something to rip/replace sounds… Dunno.

————————————————

The “Simon Cowell” of Jazz 2 Online‘s Music Scene… Joseph Collins
“Dr Lithius” or “LithiuServer” on Jazz 2

All I can say that hasn’t been said before is HOT DAMN!

And bring on Lori nows!

(Unsupported rating (9.5) removal. ~Violet)

Dosent werk on guest account :P

No, we wouldn’t. It’s just a simple matter of replacing sprites, probably Jazz’s, and making more to fill in the superjump.

Yays! Wait, we’d need the source code for that.

Greatz0r. Except for some ungood things like autosave it’s awesome program, due to its simplicity. Now… We finally can have Lori in 1.23 XD

Much better than your Langunicus remix! =D

Before and after ICE Man’s successful attempt at extracting JJ2 sprites, we’ve had several questions about the editing of those sprites. If someone asked ‘Can you edit JJ2 sprites?’ just one day ago, the short answer would be: ‘no’. But if that question were asked today, the inquiring person would be pleasantly surprised.

Neobeo once told me that he wasn’t a very good at writing forum posts. Once he simply let someone else do the writing for him and then copied and pasted it into one of his own posts. But this is not the case with Jazz Sprite Dynamite. I’ve seen the thread http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=14900 and it introduces people to the program quite well. (Also, those screenshots looked very, very delicious.) Before I saw the thread I thought the program was not for me but was convinced otherwise 15 seconds later.

The readme was incredibly helpful and I got started in no time. All you do is back up your anims.j2a and load up the program. From here on, you will see a main screen, where the actual sprite and editing tools are, as well as some scroll bars. The top bar is the set ID, where one or more animations are kept. The middle bar enables the browsing through of animations, and the bottom bar enables you to view individual sprites in an animation. Think folders, sub-folders, and files.

After you set the ‘Make file read-only’ option to off, from under the File menu, you can start editing. You only have a limited number of colours; the same number JJ2 has (duh). There are lines, circles, rectangles and various other nifty editing tools for you to speed up work, but most of the time you’ll just have to edit sprites pixel by pixel. Fortunately, JazzSD is quite fast and you can see your results directly on the little screen to the top right. To save, you only need to switch set ID or close the program. What I don’t quite understand is why the Save option exists…I strongly recommend keeping the edits you made in memory and NOT savew whenever you switch set IDs and have the program prompt you for a save/cancellation if you decide to close it without manually saving through.

You won’t, however, be able to run JJ2 without first ‘patching’ it, which JazzSD does for you in ways I don’t understand (having an unpatch function is a nice bonus since it involves one less file to back up ;-)).

It all works seamlessly. I don’t even know how to test for bugs…the program seems too simple for that. I just pick a colour and click on the main screen, save it, and watch it all in JJ2…! Then there are the advanced functions, such as hotspot, coldspot, gunspot, boundaries, which will be needed when editing specific sprites such as missiles/bullets and, I think, sprites of a certain size. The readme is a lifesaver on this one…and it’s not even finished yet.

Did you know that the hot/coldspots for the 10, 20 and 50 coin bonus warps are at 24, 45 and 24, 54 respectively? Only the 100 coin bonus warp has its hot/coldspots at 28, 39 and 28, 54 respectively. (It’s also worth noting that the checkboxes for hot/coldspots work, but the gunspot will not disappear whether the box is checked or not).

Even if all you’re going to do is muck about with weird new sprites like me, you should still give it a try and download. You can export your amazing/abysmal new sprites as .gif/.png files and you can also import .png files.

Oven-warmly recommended and a 9.2. I think we have a strong candidate for this month’s featured upload. Let’s just wait for the updates.

Oh yes, btw there is a secret at position 94, 70 – its not a tile bug.

Use freezers on the spring and u can fall down through the secret passage way…

Beoordeling ‘Recharge’

BEOORDELING PRACTISCH: Deze tileset is niet al te practisch. Hij is tamelijk klein. En er zijn geen wapen- of sleutelblokken. En een achtergrond is ook niet mogelijk!
Cijfer: 3

BEOORDELING MOOI: Echt mooi is ‘ie ook niet. Het zijn alleen maar paden en muren. Meer niet.
Cijfer: 3

BEOORDELING ORGINEEL: Orgineel is het ook niet.
Cijfer: 3

BEOORDELING VOORBEELDLEVEL: Is er niet. Zo’n voorbeeldlevel heb ik nodig om te ontdekken hoe ik een tileset moet gebruiken!
Cijfer: 3

EINDCIJFER: 3
Downloadaanrader: nee

Who did the music remix, by the way?

I think you guys are going a bit harsh. The snare is a bit long, but the rest of the song makes up for some of it. And true it does need to have a bit more fill in. And I wish it looped but the song is still good to just listin too.

I got another idea for a myth: how long can Jazz hold his breath under water? Or how many tiles does Spaz run per minute? Or:
is JazzBusters complete stupid?
Myth comfirmed.

This is going about nothing… Please start a message at JCF, or just STOP with this nonsense. Jamie and Adam do things better =p

Rating ‘The Invasion of Deserto’

RATING TILESETS: The tilesets are good, but they are too much use for so much levels.
RATING: 7.3

RATING MUSIC: The music choise is better. It’s good chosen.
RATING: 8.3

RATING OBSTACLES: The levels are sometimes VERY, VERY hard. And since I play your episode, I knew how I can use the Rocket Turtle! I have used him in ‘Devan Shell Search’, my first episode.
RATING: 10+

RATING STORY: It is a good story, nothing more to say.
RATING: 9.5

BONUS!
I give you a bonus of ½ point in case of the Rocket Turtle.

FINAL RATING: 9.3
DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION!!!

Note that this is a parody of a level from Invasion of Deserto.

On first impression: These are well built Race levels. But this is on a design-only perspective. i will have to play the level online to fully experience the action.

Oh and first review & download. In yer face Nostradamus

Final Review:

Since this pack is so humbly amazing I had to find things to critique. I will bring those up now, and then you can continue the amazing storm of PRAISE that I am spewing. Boomerang’s checkpoint gimmick loses it’s steam the instant you figure it out, if it even fooled you at all. Luckily Boomerang isn’t a one-trick pony, and theres more to the level than that. My next complaint goes out to the Citadel: It felt too slow to me. While Noomerang was fast paced, Citadel seemed a tad bit slow. It may have to do with the constant jumping you have to do in the level.
From here I’ll pick at minor details that don’t really diminish much, and then go all out in a final round in which I point out every single reason why you need this.
The ammo in Boomerang, at least in my experience, isn’t all too useful after the first lap. It could just be the motley crew of players, but after the first lap, there wasn’t much change in the order the players were in. Plus getting the Powerups requires slowing down. This is a double edged sword for inexperienced players. If you slow down, theres no garuntee that you’ll make it to the top of the pack. And if you don’t, a more experienced player will probably get it, and use it against you.
Which is a double edged sword for me, since I enjoy unfair advantages but dislike double edged swords.
Next, the presence Electroblasters in Velocity feels forced. Not too sure why though.
Also, the muck pit near the end in Boomerang leads you into the wall. The Muck pit slows one down enough, and does not need this added punishment.
Finally heres the part where I rain down immense praise, mainly because from this point anything negative will be mystically replaced by immense praise.
The dark tunnels and platforming aspects of Boomerang are [COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY WONDERFUL]. I have never seen such [DESIGN IN A RACE PACK]. Probably, because I’ve never played alot of them. While CItadel sufferes from some [AMAZING] [MANDATORY DESIGN CHOICES EVERY GOOD RACE LEVEL HAS], it picks up halfway through and is a highly enjoyable, albeit slow race. Another thing, Boomerang’s checkpoint system is [HIGHLY INNOVATIVE. HOPEFULLY OTHER PACKS WONT BLANTLY RIPOFF THIS KIND OF IDEA]. Plus Boomerang has the immense feeling of speed, and if you’ve kicked into the ‘runner’s high’, the unworking speed shoes will make you feel like you got an extra burst of speed. One of the pits is highly cleverly placed, and deffiently seperates a cluster of racers.

Despite some flaws, this pack is highly enjoyable. Don’t mind most of my negative veiws, I’m just a soured critic.
Download reccomendation all the way.