Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Danyjel’s articles bring a smile to my face. They’re so wonderfully messed up. No offense or anything, just… hehe…

Ok, now I feel like i’m obligated to do a review. Here goes.

The song starts off with the normal Technoir beginning. At 0:05, the “ARE YOU READY?!” sample from the Tubelectric JJ2 remix plays. It’s kinda dissapointing because it just blurts out, there’s no fade. After that sample, the music just kinda jumps in. No fade or intro, it just begins. At 0:52, the part that makes the Technoir theme my favorite, the “j-j-jackrabbit” sample plays. At first I was psyched to hear it, then after listening again it sounded too low quality. Perhaps Lark could’ve resampled it using his own voice and applying a few effects. However, it’ll have to do since most Technoir remixes i’ve heard (read: one) don’t have the “j-j-jackrabbit” sample in it.

All in all, it’s a good looping remix, just a bit too short in my opinion. 6 out of 10 +.5 because I feel Danyjel underrated a bit. This remix has the honor of staying in my Winamp playlist (\o/). Download recommendation if you liked the original but don’t like it too much as to be attached to the orignal and not accept any devations from the ordinary. Or something. Use in your Technoir level or any level using a tileset with a tech or abstract theme. Sprinkle some on your pizza!

Hmm… Another Lark’s mix.

Well. It seems to be made for Jazz2 levels, it has well-working loop and no ending ;). And that’s well. We don’t have many of them. But… of what quality..?

Firstly, Lark’s Short Song Syndrom approved to be real. I think all of his recent works (Cerebrum, Tyrian the Level mix, Rock Garden Mix and this (in difference of other, longer tunes, there is not written “Lark” in title of song ;p). Length of this one is 1:26, how everyone of you admits, isn’t much.

Okay, let’s jump into the song. Hmm… Like almost all Technoir remixes, it begins with its background melody. Alex’s Diamondus voice with quiet reversed cymbal and snares… We’re in song. Beats, snares, hi-hats… But… It sounds like I am somewhere in middle. Main Technoir lead is playing, but… from middle. Lark then modified that one lead pattern to nice, well continuous melody. But still, and that’s big minus, we have no lead beginning. And that minds.

Okay. After this comes again original and then (differentely) modified lead. Then comes background with percussion, where can be heared that those two backgrounds are a bit off-tuned. Normal man does not catch it, but after I think 20th listening… It minds… But only a bit, I am not sure if someone different will hear it (just if he will want).

After break, there are orchestra hits patterns. With same orchestra hits samples and Robert’s vocal as in original. Hmm. On rows where are those orchestra hits are also cymbals, which makes the tune more alive, but after ending of those five cymbals it’s more dead than normally. That minds.

It’s once repeated and then lead ends by five radical orchestra hits. Background is still playing and it makes perfect loop.

My review now looks like I hate Lark or this tune. That’s not truth. I just seem it as average.

Tempo is okay, with reservation to hi-hats, repeating every two rows. It’s a bit slow, too… But okay.

Samples… When main passage of song is made from original samples… That’s just bad. But all others works well in this song. Very well.

(+) Most of samples
(+) Lark’s new melodies
(+) Perfect loop
(-) Lead begins in the middle
(-) Original orchestra hit sample
(-) It’s a bit off-tuned
(-) Too short

Now. Download recommendation… Yes or not..? It’s on you. It could be usable for games, which it’s dedicated to. it’s not so poor. But don’t expect hit.

I made a level with this tileset and I just wanted to do a tileset review. So here it goes.

Possibilities
What you can do with this tileset is already clear for me. Levels with this tileset will probably have something to do with water(the levelname). Levels made with this tileset so far had words like sea, harbour, bay and coast in their names) and the tiles are of high quality. The tileset has some tiles I find unneeded, but that’s probably me. Eye candy isn’t that hard to make with the tileset. The caves could be hard to link sometimes, but I don’t think it’s a real problem.

Easy to use, or not?
At first I found it hard to use, but that was mostly because I didn’t check the masks. If you can make the ground well, you’ll have no problems in using this tileset. I thought I’d never use the tileset but I did. Heh. I think the tileset won’t be easy for everyone, I’ll say it’s medium. Don’t use it if you still have to learn alot in JCS. If you make eye candy layer 5 should be used alot in my opinion, or layer 2/3. In a level, layer 4 should have objects in the sand. Be sure to check the masking!

Eye candy
The tileset’s eye candy is very good. What I did with the tileset wasn’t even the best possible. I’ve seen better eye candy in the previous levels created with the tileset. Animations are possible too, they’re very nice! The backgrounds you can make with the tileset are pretty good. The clouds can be used, but also the water with objects in it. The objects even have shades! =D. By the way, the objects to put in the sand look nice too, but don’t overuse them or place too many of the same one too close to eachother.

Masking
The tileset’s masking is very nice. I had trouble finding the right masks, like I already said, but it’s fine. The backgrounds’ masks are nice as well, especially the clouds. They look very nice and fit exactly.

Conclusion
This tileset is very nice. It’s one of my favourites. I wouldn’t mind to see more levels with it. (Only 1 CTF, 1 Race and about 3 Battles are made, and of course the example level) The example level was great. The tileset is 3D, has alot of features and I recommend everyone who’s quite good in JCS to use it. It’s not overused at the moment. Any type of level can be made with it. Download the tileset if you haven’t already. My review comes quite late but I just wanted to make a tileset review. This is even my longest tileset review ever.
Final rating : 8.8. Very impressive.

If it had a virus I think it would’ve been removed already. But I assure you there is no virus. Anyways its quite useless now. Unless you want to apply a possibly upcoming patch. shrugs

Yeah. I made a review!

Now on to the review.

Eyecandy:
The eyecandy was excellent. There is lots of eyecandy such as: trees, hills, a bunch of different signposts, some destruct blocks, some buttstomp blocks etc.

Graphics Quality:
The Graphics Quality is excellent. It is a bit cartoony but that dosen’t make it bad Graphics Quality.

Example Level:
I like the example level. It shows how to use this tileset very well. The hills are used in the background, there are some trees which I agree with Neon PSY that the apples look like they are part of the trees, some destruct blocks and also some butstomp blocks.

Music:
The music is an excellent choice. It fits the level very well. Good job on picking the music.

Conclusion:
This is one of the best tilesets i’ve ever seen! Keep up the good work LRK.

Overall Rating:
I think this level is good enough that it deserves an 8.0

Download Reccomendation:
Yes! This tileset is excellent. I think everyone should download this tileset. I hope to see ons of good levels made with this tileset. I might be one of those people.

Man, when was the last time I reviewed a SP level? I don’t know, but it was a LONG time ago. But now I’ll try to make a decent review for this Single Player level.

Introduction : A Diamondus level that’s quite old. Fun to see it nowadays. The level is small, and the name describes the level alot ; you have to jump alot.

Difficulty:
The level was quite easy for me(except the boss) I am quite bad in Single Player, but the level was easy. The boss was too hard for me, though. There weren’t alot of enemies.

Eye candy:
The standard Diamondus tileset isn’t the best one for eye candy but it could be much better. It’s quite simple, and almost no layers were used. The most eye candy is in layer 4 and there is a simple background with trees and so is the foreground. Nothing special, but also not horrible.

The level itself
The level is quite open and has a few secrets you’ll have to search for. The level has got alot of platforms and also a lot of spikes. The bonus is decent, but I couldn’t find 20 coins when I was first playing it. The ammo chosen is not bad at all, and the amount is so-so. There wasn’t alot, but the level is small so I guess it’s okay. The level could use one Power-Up except the Gun9 one, though. It hasn’t got puzzles or trigger crates. The amount of carrots is good, but there is only one Save point. This can be a major problem if you fight the boss and lose; you’ll start from there again. Although the distance between the Save point and the boss isn’t that long, I don’t like it. That there is a Bolly Boss isn’t a problem to me.

Overall, I think it’s a decent Single Player level. It has some good points here and there, but also has its bad points like the eye candy. My final rating is a 6.7.

Download Recommendation : I’ll give N/A although some people might want to download it because they’re Single Player fans which I’m not. I don’t really know why I reviewed this but I just wanted to test if I can still review. =P

The level was bigger before. I just lost some of the level for some wierd reason. The level used to be better. ~Bloodrabbit

True Madness? Not even. True madnes is when you’re snowboarding down a mountain in your EXTREEEME Loonatic underwear being chased by 3 pirates to get to… Right, anyways what Iluz has made is a normal test like level, which is enough to bore you to death, but like Kramer did with the blue flower stuff in Batman Begins, Iluz has weaponized an otherwise rather harmless level. Not even Low Detail will save you from this, oh and near the end when Jazz is trapped in the pit of doom, don’t fly you’re way out wait a bit and get hit by a smoke ring, thats EXTREEEEME!
Right, since the level’s design is linear and puts you in two situations where the objective is “Don’t get hurt!” and one situation where its “Copter ears? Erm… I’m Spaz… But I can doble jump to the end of the pit and then double jump out of it. And Lori can just sidekick her way out.” The only challenge comes from not being swift, and not being distracted. It took me about 4 minutes to have my eyes hurt so I just jjgod’d my way out of the level(I for some reason always wanted to destroy every last being in the pit)
And then you are treated to a sucker tube ending and then you’re done.
You get a .1 because gameplay and level just plain sucked, the eyecandy did more harm then good, and heck I had more fun playing A Sad Beach(You’ve done the impossible since I promised never to mention a Sad Beach ever again so an other .1 for you). In fact a Sad beach is more fun than this.
Download Reccomendation: HECK NO. Unless you want something thats trippy for about 5 seconds(See:Smoke ring part) then I would never hit that Download button. EVER.
To Iluz: the gameplay could be improved if the situations were much harder(For example, have all of the spike balls go fast, and have the bird part be in a smaller area so the enemies have an advantage) and NEVER HAVE THAT HORRIBLE FLASHY TILE THING EVER EVER AGAIN
[Edit- Some inconsistences and a spelling error]

[Adjusted to use 1 as rating. Original rating 0.2. ~Cooba]

CrimiClown, first of all, the bees spawn in the same time as normal bees do in Diamondus levels. And usually a story line is not necessary in a small single player level, which is really something you shouldn’t minus a whole score for. And what is wrong with adding the Bolly boss? I can add whichever boss I like, you little (PA). And since it’s in a cave, it’s not a too preposterous idea.

(Flame tag removal)

Yours truly,
Lance Aaron, (PA)

[Personal Attack edit. Yours truly, your site admin. Please refrain from attacking site users. It’s that rules thingie we have, you know. It’s also recommended you treat reviewers with some civility, even if you disagree with them. They did take time to grade your level. Would you have preferred to have no reviews at all? – FQuist]

This will be a pain for every epileptic, please put in a normal background.

I typed jjq after 20 seconds when my eyes began hurting.

Starting Comments
Not bad… Could use a story…

Diamondus Hike
It all starts in Diamondus, and it ends there as well… (Well DUH! one level…) You just jump around, climbing high platforms and using springs in a smart way. Just a simple level, with a random (?) endboss. Enemy placement was good, but mind that bees shouldn’t respawn that fast. Give people some time to look around after killing something. Ammo placement was alright.

Score: 7

Good thing
Nice placement on the coins.
Bonus Points: 0.5
Bad thing
The Bolly boss. In a Diamondus level, it is best to use the Schwartzenguard or Bubba Boss. If there was a story involving the Bolly to be there, I would have approved.
Bonus Points: -1

Score:
6.5

Download Recommendation:
It was fun to play, so, yes.

Further Comment:
Learn to add a story (I know it was 7 years back when you made it, but even so…) and to use the correct bosses.

Starting Comments
I luuuv your tilesets! :)

Well, this tileset has about everything an average levelmaker would need. Some vines, invisible tiles, masked messages… :P Yep, not too much, good platform blocks… Well, this is worth a 7.5!

Good thing
Cornerless pieces of wall. I need that a lot… In Natures Ruins you have the vertical outside block, the horizontal outside block, but NO cornerless block, making in impossible to make bigger blocks! Good job on this one!
Bonus Points: 1.0
Bad thing
Missed the V- and H- Poles. (Although you can use the pillars for the ‘castle part’.
Bonus Points: None, no substraction either.

Score:
8.5

Download Recommendation:
It is worth a try to make a good level with this one.

Further Comment:
GO LABRATKID! I love your tilesets! COMMANDER KEEN 4 EVER!

Well you should make Textures…
The tileset is big enough to build a good lvl…Yes it really looks like Cartoony tileset But…Cartoony tilesets are often easy to make…so try making The Real World! hehe…here 8 is good enough… 9 is too much!

Hahahahahaha

The music is awesome

I’d give you a 10 for the use of it but OI cant because imrt tirexcd

DL recommendation everybodys

Wheee! A tileset!

Tiles: Like the Labrat said, This is a cartoony tileset. Although it seems to fit Jazz 2 in the strangest way. Like the apples in the begining match the tree as if it was part of the tileset, kinda. The grass is a bit low I think it could have seemed less….mowed down.

Eyecandy: Not much here for foreground, just some rocks, trees, and very small flowers. Very fine trees and rocks and flowers, but There could have been more. Although, aplied in the right way would be fine for a ok level. Alot of some of the stuff is for layer 5, including the waterfall which is only animated on a log type bridge (And not animated too well, but I don’t care).

Event tiles: He has vines and destucts. No hurts, or hooks. The hooks can slide…but no hurt tiles? Come on! We all need those!

All in All: I like this, And If I like the tileset I keep it, If I don’t it’s binned. So guess what this is going to stay on my hard drive. And who knows? I might just make a level out of it. You get a fine…nine.

Excellent!
(Unsupported rating (9.7) removal. ~Violet)

Hm. I actually like this set more than several of the higher rated TSF sets (was bored so I was browsing through them) so I’ll review this.

First, I like how you drew the ground tiles. They look nice. The level has a nice, nature feel, though more tiles could’ve been addded in to further enhance the feel (like better and bigger trees). Poles, destruct blocks, vines and text signs are there, though arrow signs would’ve been appreciated. More leaf tiles could’ve been used here because in its current state levels would look kinda barren using this set. This set only also has 450 tiles, making there no reason for it to be TSF since it doesnt even have half the tiles the 1.23 limit has. Either more tiles should’ve been included in to take advantage of the TSF feature or this should’ve just been converted into 1.23. I don’t like the rain much here too.

Overall, I like the set, but it doesnt really feel finished and is lacking tiles. I think this could’ve turned out great if it had been expanded and the quality of the new tiles stayed relatively the same. Currently, this gets an 8.2, and a download reccomendation.

this tileset is pretty good! or…
I mean REALLY good. I think its attracting there are so many tiles and that’s cool cuz you can everything you have dreamed about to do with other tilesets..+6 for that thats not all! it’s so good so there is other COLORS! haha. that could be good if you are allergic to bluegray! :P +1 for that! and then my favourite: the exploding jazz and the animations. all signs is also cool i think so that together is: +2 SO! Rating: 9!!!

en liten hälsning till den duktige makaren! ;P öh.. ja.. jag har hört mycket tunga vingslag på senaste tiden! du vet UGGLORNA! säl för det!uhm..det var nog allt, gör fler!(tilesetts) :):)
(Rating (9) removal due to IP match. While an IP match does not automatically cause a rating removal, it does tend to bias the reviewer, and in this case you are rating the upload 1.5 points higher than the highest rating from someone whose IP does not match that of the uploader. In order to be allowed to review the uploads of close relatives, friends, or whatever your relation is to zapS, you will need to present a detailed, unbiased review at a slightly higher standard than usual.
If you wish to protest this removal, I am willing to discuss it. Please contact me by private message. Otherwise, either leave this notation here or write a fully unbiased review. ~Violet)

Cataclysms asked me to review this, and who am I to refuse? This is my first review after a long break, so don’t expect super duper quality ;)

[I played this in the Medium difficulty level]
Frog Chase (which is a rather unoriginal level name) is a level in which the player plays as a frog and has to collect coins to reach the level exit. The coins are either hidden or guarded with enemies (or both), and it’s quite a challenge to finish the level without dying once (at least it was for me).
The level itself is linear and rather short, even when travelling through it in a slow pace (e.g. when you try to find secrets). When you walked through the whole level, you will encounter Bubba, who is accompanied by a Tuf Turtle and a Bat. He’s standing on a floor that collapses after half a minute or so, so you’ll have to withstand him (remember you can not destroy or harm enemies while you’re a frog) until the floor collapses and you will be warped back to the level’s start, where you can either collect coins you didn’t collect yet (there are 10 coins, and you need all of them to finish the level) or warp to the level exit.

The level idea is quite original, I must admit – it’s all been done before, but together it’s a nice change from the usual run-through-the-level-and-kill-everything gameplay. However, the level suffers from several bugs. For example, you are chased by a floating lizard through the whole level, but you also encounter several exploding TNT bombs – a smart player will use it to destroy the lizard and make the level a lot easier. This might be an intended effect though, as the level is hard enough without the floating lizards – bats are a real pain in the (-) when you can’t destroy them. Another bug involves Bubba – as you know, he easily jumps through solid ceilings and that way he’ll probably disappear sooner or later while fighting him. The layer work could use some improvement too: you can see half-hidden events here and there, which looks strange. By the way, please always place one-way events on the large four-branch trees.

Apart from that, the level is pretty decent. Average eyecandy (nothing special, but it does the job – try to use tiles in ways they aren’t meant to be used next time, it usually turns out great), some bugs, a few easy puzzles, and a high score on the originality scale – a seven would fit. Download this if you like to play something different.

I like to trawl through old downloads from time to time, this one didn’t get a suitable review yet, so I’ll be nice and write one (what good guy I am).

Playability:

Normally an average level, but considering Unknown only had two hours to make it it’s quiet good. It’s your basic running around and collecting things level, but with some nice find-keys-to-open-doors-elements and falling turtles at one point (I liked those). It wasn’t all that long, but still quiet fun for an old SP fan like me. The level was also unlinear, another good point.

Rating: 7.0

Balance:

Not really difficult, however, my skills suffered from my inactivity from playing JJ2 and thus I was beaten by the boss three times. :p Most people could beat it easily though. For newer players who like levels that aren’t too hard it’s good.

Rating: 6.2

Creativity:

You can’t expect a lot from a level that took two hours and for that Unknown did a good job. The unlinearity and the falling turtles were nice, and I liked the key puzzle things. It’s not highly creative, but enough to keep one playing for a while.

Rating: 6.7

Eyecandy:

Standard eyecandy, but like I said, you can’t expect more from a level with such a time limit. I saw no major tilebugs, and everything looked fine.

Rating: 7.0

Fun Factor:

Many will miss the difficulty of today’s level packs, but I liked it. There were no annoying situations were you get stuck and don’t know what to do, there were always areas I didn’t explore yet. Short, but fun.

Rating: 7.0

Overall:

A nice little level, old, but fun. At least for me.

Screenshots:

Me kicking the boss right before getting pawned:
http://people.freenet.de/liljulez/phil/120%20minutes%20in%20heaven%202.JPG

Evil trap:
http://people.freenet.de/liljulez/phil/120%20minutes%20in%20heaven%203.JPG

What happens if everything goes bad:
http://people.freenet.de/liljulez/phil/120%20minutes%20in%20heaven.JPG