Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Ugh. I had to restart this review 3 times now because of stupid computer self restarts and internet crashes, so I’m rather frustrated right now. Anyways, here goes:

Since this level has only one review (although its a great review) I decided to review it.

Introduction

“What is this?” is a solid, enjoyable level by Newspaz of J2LC. It’s no wonder it made it into the bash, since this level excels in several categories.

Layout/Gameplay
The layout of this level is interesting. In fact, its a mix of several different types of layouts. There is an open, platformy terrain in the top right, narrow corridors in the temple area, and corridors linking to “rooms” (open areas) in the cavern area. Yes, this level even has a dead end with a carrot in it. This bizarre mix of ideas can only add to the creativity of the level, and through my experience with this level, works alright (although people tend to stick to one area frequently). The gameplay of this level is also nice. There are even springs on the sides of masked objects to bounce you around, which could become very chaotic with several people playing. Although the gameplay is generally good, there are a few
annoyances that could be improved in it. Some springs are rather unneeded (like the one in the very topmost platform on the top right; what is it doing there?) and some could be of a different type of spring (the two red springs in the bottom right room, a blue spring there would suffice). 6, 22 – the area there should be revised. The floatup is too noticable and annoying – it causes a noticable delay before you hit the red spring. The slope should be smoothed out so the floatup wouldn’t be needed and there would be no delay. 57, 30 – Spaz can run and double jump up to the blue springs, while jazz has to go underneath the one ways to get up there. Otherwise, I rarely found myself bumping into stuff or getting stuck, although I think the room in the bottom right could use another exit since its a big dead end (at least have the sucker be lower so you wouldn’t have to climb up to get out.)
Rating: 8.5 (Generally good, and an interesting combination of different things, but it does not come without small bugs/annoyances which horde up together).

Eyecandy
Probably the section this level excels at the most, the eyecandy is probably even more bizarre than the layout, and probably gives the level its name, “What is this?”. Although strange, it’s creative and adds to the already-strange mood of the level.
There is a good amount of eyecandy in the level, and thankfully none of it really gets in the way or blocks view. The eyecandy could be confusing at first, but personally I got used to it quickly. The trees in the backround layer could be moved up more though, since they are barely noticable and the top right of the level is more empty than the rest. There’s not much to point out about eyecandy, though some of it looks particularly random (ferns growing out of the center of stone boulders and rocks growing on tree branches?). To sum it up, the eyecandy has a lot of creativity in it, and is pulled off nicely. The level doesn’t really have much of an atmosphere (except some screwed up jungle perhaps?) but it still looks good.
Rating: 9

Placement of Stuff
Let’s start out with the ammo, since it is battle. Personally, I didn’t find the ammo as creative as the previous two categories. Most of it is seemed to be placed in bunches, forming random shapes, usually rectangles, lines, or stairway like things. The majority of the +3 ammo is in the top section of the level; underneath in the caverns you’d find more powerups and +15 crates (while on the topic, I don’t think having two +15 crates of seeker ammo next to each other is a good idea). I think the top right could’ve used more ammo, since it’s quite empty in terms of events. Powerups (3 of them) were placed alright, I didn’t have any problems with them. Maybe the seeker was a bit easier to get than the rest, and more of a target since it even has a carrot next to it, and a Toaster powerup might’ve been good here (replace the RF with the toaster, perhaps?). Otherwise, nothing noteworthy. With the carrots, I think the one in the top could’ve been further away from the seeker. With the one in the bottom, I found that either it was ignored for most the game because of the inconvenient area it was in, or many people camped at it because it was a good place to regain health in without being noticed. Strategy wise, that could be a positive or a negative thing. Suckertubes were well placed. There also appears to only be 1 start pos, which could explain why people pile up in one area.
Rating: 8.3 (not as creative as the previous categories, and there is room for improvement)

Originality/Fun Factor:
The area where this level excels at the most. One of the most bizarre quality levels I’ve played (even the name indicates it’s strangeness), this level has seemingly random, but yet nicely pulled off eyecandy, and a combination of different layout types. The music choice is even original (although really weird..). As for Fun Factor, this level was fun enough to play in, although after the random level selection in the anniversarry bash forced people to play this level dozens of times it started to get boring.
Rating: 9.2

Overall (not an average):
I like this level, and so do many other people (its average is 8.8 and it made it into the bash). There is a lot of things in this level that make it stand out from other levels of the same set, and there is a lot of things in this level that make it enjoyable. (While I was typing this my computer crashed a 3rd time (4th if you count the internet crash), good thing I was typing this in notepad this time ;D). You should definately download and play this level if you haven’t had a chance to through the numerous times it was hosted. Among all the positive things in this paragraph about the level, there is still always room for improvement.
Rating: 8.5

Final Rating: 8.7 on the dot. This is a great piece of work that definately earns the rating and the download reccomendation I’m giving it, and I hope I will have a chance to review & play more of Newspaz’s works in the future

~Blackraptor.

Edit: wow. It took me an hour and 7 minutes to complete this review. Darn computer crashes..

Yay, the full thing is out. I didn’t notice really any significant change in the first 5 or so levels that were in Part I, although over time standards change and imo the rating of a few of the levels dropped a bit. I’m not going to review the first 5 (and maybe Tropicana Bay, depending if I notice any difference in it) since I already did previously, although the ratings would be mentioned here because they are needed in the overall rating calculation.

Save the Sheep 7.2
Santa’s Stolen Hats 7.7
Head Hunter 8.3
Snowdust: Reloaded 7.5 (the poem for the F-dimension dissapearing too fast wasnt even fixed)
Grand Casino 7

Jungle of Mabaroshi
Wow. There are actually enemies in here =P. Don’t think they’ll appear online though. I didn’t particularly enjoy their placement much either, since a lot of them were either sparcely placed ,or in the case of the insects, attacked you in huge swarms.
The eyecandy here was better than in the previous levels, though.
Rating: 7.7

Tropicana Bay
Already reviewed this.
Rating: 7

The Tale of Moo: An Epic Story

Lots of text signs are too close to each other. Lots of narrow mazes with 0 lighting which I bet most people playing online would just turn off ambient lighting in..Eyecandy needs improvement again.
Rating: 6.5

Alberto’s Chili Peppers
The 5 things you need to get (chili peppers) were hidden more evily this time (i.e instead of being out in the open or needing to beat some puzzle/maze to get to, they were hidden behind layer 3/5 passages or in warps placed in barely landmarked places). I even had to look in JCS to find two of the peppers because the passage was that much hidden. I think this level would be extremely difficult to finish in multiplayer unless you already know where everything is. Also, the text behind one of the signs doesnt appear \o/. Overall, I like this level, but it’s just too hard to complete unless you know where everything is (via JCS) or are just really lucky.
Rating: 7

Mechanics and Astronauts

This level was rather easy to find all the things in. Nothing really unique and special about it; the levels are getting rather repetetive. Eyecandy was tolerable in some places, but needed a lot of improvement in others.
Rating: 6.7

Route 77
I liked this level, dunno why. The cars were moderately easy to find and the music was fun. Eyecandy was alright.
Rating: 7.7

Camping is for Noobs
The last level. I didn’t like the set too much, and I got most the items before I found out what I had to get them for. A rather simple level.
Rating: 7.

Overall: It’s an alright pack I guess. I would’ve given it higher if the concept of it was new to me (rather, if part 1 wasn’t released as a spoiler to the concept). I would have probably had more fun playing these online with more people so there would be competetiveness. It would’ve added greately to the rating if the author of the levels focused more on having them look less empty in several places.

Final Rating: 7.275 ~ 7.3. Bumped up to a 7.5 because these would be funner online. It’s a nice pack with a lot of levels, but some levels need to be fixed up a bit and stuff. Otherwise, download reccomendation.

Chateau – Toxic Bunny

Firstly, looking in JCS, this tileset looks really un-userfriendly. I see random tiles placed in garbled piles and can’t tell what is what. Otherwise, there is a large tile variety, and the textures are great. The theme is semi-original (the way it is pulled off was more original then the actual theme, rather). Masking is alright, although I don’t think the trees should’ve been fully masked (maybe only the tips?). Unfortunately, there is no warpable backround (just a single light blue tile) and not much you can do with the set if you want part of your level using it to be outdoors. There is some nice chandeliers and barrels/bottles, but otherwise not a huge amount of layer 5 placeable things (knights in armor, desks with papers under candlelight could’ve been included or something along those lines). Thus, this set excels in some areas, but (even greately?) lacks in others.

I think I would give this set an 8. It’s still a good set and people should definately download it and give it a try.

For lack of better things to do, I’m going to review this.

Boring Surprise:
The main thing I liked about this level was how the robot boss battle was made harder. I couldn’t actually just keep stomping the robot without getting harmed like in most battles with it because of the schwarzenguard, so that’s definately a plus. Otherwise, it is a rather boring surprise ;d.

Puzzled Breakfast:
I like this level. Most of the challenges come from relatively easy but still fun puzzles and platform/vine hopping over hurt events. The music gave this level a good atmosphere imho. I hope you fixed the bug with the triggers and the save point in this level (I didn’t test if you did) because that could’ve screwed up the level if it was still there. Otherwise, the placement of stuff was good and the puzzles were fun (the “Good Job” or “Excellent Work” text after you complete a puzzle is also good since it congratulates the person and makes them want to keep playing). The level wasn’t too long, but was still fun.

Forbidden Move
The water rising part in the very beginning of the level is cool. The eyecandy in this level was pretty similar to the last level’s except this just uses the night version of carrotus. A lot of the enemies were placed in difficult areas where you usually get hurt, so the level was more difficult and a bit more annoying then last level. 122,25 in jj2 – spaz can just double jump onto the cliff while jazz cant reach it with his uppercut. Otherwise, this was just a normal level.

Trouble Underneath
Aahh carrotus AGAIN. Thankfully, this is only a boss level, and the arena for the boss is creatively made. So yay.

TDI2_04 or something crashes me because I dont have it, probably because moonblaze didnt make it and this is only a demo.

Ratings: (Only doing it for the two non-boss levels)
Puzzled Breakfast:
Layout/Gameplay: 8.7 (fun puzzles)
Eyecandy: 8 (just basic eyecandy)
Placement of Stuff: 8.2
Originality/Fun Factor: 8.7
Overall (not average): 8.5
Rating: 8.42 ~ 8.4

Forbidden Move:
Layout/Gameplay: 7.7
Eyecandy: 7.5
Placement of Stuff: 7.3
Originality/Fun Factor: 7.9
Overall (not an average): 7.7
Final Rating: 7.62 ~ 7.6

+0.2 for the boss levels, which makes the rating (7.6 + 8.4 /2) 8 + 0.2 = 8.2. Too bad the pack is unfinished.

Dx, since when you don’t have TSF?

Since this isn’t reviewed yet, I’ll be nice and give you a rating.

“Diamondusts” has some good points, but also some bad ones. The idea of the level is to manouver over floating platforms without falling down where there is no air so you die. That concept is not that bad, but when I played the level I was more feeling like it was a battle level instead of single player. There are dozens of ways to go, and a lot of pickups. The level is thus unlinear, that’s normally a good thing, but you shouldn’t overdo it. I was rather confused as where to go, as there was stuff everywhere. The objective is simple: Find the exit, which is hidden somewhere. As alternative you can also try to get enough coins for the coinwarp, or find seekers so you can open a passage with lots of useful goodies inside. I didn’t manage any of those two things, I maybe didn’t try hard enough, but I guess if you find enough coins you’ll get seekers so you can open the passage. Apart from that there was nothing which really stood out, just some random platforms with goodies and enemies. I quiet often fell down trying to catch evilish placed goodies, but I think the author wanted to do that to make the player think about what he does collect. I didn’t find enough coins for the warp, but apart from that it was fairly easy. Finding the exit can be a little tricky, as it’s very unlinear, but if you remember not to pick stuff which is near the bottom and makes you fall down, you’ll find it sooner or later. The enemies aren’t really difficult to beat, I think I got hit once or twice or so but that’s all. The eyecandy was not great, but not bad either. The background shows more floating platforms which gives a nice feel, and I found no tilebugs apart from a very tiny one. The story is not very huge, but it’s original. Once, before life existed on Carrotus the planet was moving very fast until it hit Diamondus and slowed down, which created the Diamondust place the level plays in. There’s no plot or whatsoever, but better than nothing.

I see potential in this level, but it lacks a plot, creativity and needs better layout. The author should try out making a battle level I think, he seems to be pretty good for that job. I’m not sure about a download recommendation, decide for yourself.

Sorry, it slipped throug my mind….

Its TSF change the version

No problem, i want to play but i cant cuz its TSF anyway :P

since he isnt reuploading, here is the tileset: http://www.jazz2online.com/J2Ov2/downloads/info.php?levelID=2558

My Eyes notice that you did not include the tileset! Please have that one too!

The Sad Beach? Definatly fitting…
“..A fun level.” Definatly not.
In the water theres randomly placed tiles that look like (I dont think the J2O admins want me to say that word). The textured backround isnt even set to be a textured backround, and its out of place anyway. You pointlessly change into a frog and then back to Jazz when you swim from fishes (that instantly respawn when killed) to turtle. then go through a set of poles and a row of 1ups above you. above that theres some unereachabe ammo, a bird, and some crabs. after the row of poles theres a shield just sitting there (even though yu just killed everything possible). In the water theres an area of floating springs, a timer, and a few seeks or rfs or something. And of course, as Cooba said, a hatter, caterpiller, dragon, and bat call “cheeseland” home. I feel bad for them.
EDIT: I forgot to include that you pointlessly added the beach j2b and j2t that are included with jj2, along with beach2 that isnt even used

Rating: It should be lower than 1, but it cant be. So 1.
DL: NO!
Host as Coop: You’d need to DL it first, so no.

Before I even download it I can tell it’ll be nothing great.

1)I hope that word isnt supposed to be Bonus…
2)“Cool” is your level description!?
3)Its TSF, SP, and uses a non-included tileset.

Due to the low expectations of this level, I will do a QuickReview™

Eye Candy 1.8
You used some kinds of foreground tiles as the background. The whole level is the annoying eye-hurting background tiles. You run along some tunnel made from some tube tiles. There’s absolutely nothing else to say about the eyecandy, because that’s all there is! You only ever used the layers 4 and 8 in the level. Layer 8 background hurts eyes. Is that good, is it?

Gameplay 1.5
Where is it? There’s some guessing parts “Guess which warp is the right one!” The “WRONG SEE YA” instantkill hurt things make this level very annoying. This is NOT FUN. At some points you get RF powerups and then you annihilate all baddies. Nothing stops you. The parts where you guess the right warp from multiple choices, are the only things that can stop you. Yes, the most annoying things in the level that I already mentioned.

Placement of Enemies and Pickups 2.0
I mentioned in the last section that you have two parts where you can get an RF powerup from. And as mentioned, this gets rid of all enemies that come in the way. You have massive amounts of enemies at one spot, they come towards you. This would be a challenge. Well, it would without that RF powerup. You placed NO CARROTS in this level. I won’t substract points for that, because the level’s unbelieveably easy already.

Overall 1.9 (not an average!)
Oh yes, and this is boring. I can tell you that. Just like the above reviewer did. And if this gets more reviewers, all others will also tell this is boring. Because it is.

Please include the tileset (and music, if custom), or provide a link where I can download it. Thanks.

OMG WHY CAN YOU NOT EDIT YOUR OWN REVIEWS!!?? The tileset for Survivor02 isnt in the tileset pack. Other than thatits great. Download definattly recommended

YYYYAAYYY!!First review of level again!!
(sorry) Anyway, this has a hell of a lot of problems.

PROS:

You’ll get loads of downloads because I’ve given you a low rating

Loads of items.

CONS:

No balance between items and enemies.

Level hard because there are loads of multipul choice puzzles and you die if you fail one.

Loads of gaps in the level

No eyecandy on layers 7,6,5,3,2 and 1.

BBBOOOOORRRRRIIINNGGG

I don’t mean to offend but this level sucks and doesn’t deserve any more than a 2.5

This race is terribly short. I managed to do a lap in less than 25 seconds. It’s incredibly not fun aswell. To summarise, a 4.2 is the most I can give you

What a waste of space ;(

This tileset make you go blind. Thank god it’s not all red and blue or this rating would be much lower but 1.7 still sucks.

Another conversion be NOKA eh?

Yes, you’re right, Ceramicus does look like the worst tileset in JJ1 (I thought Letni was until I saw this). Like all JJ1 conversions, they’re converted brilliantly. Many of the features (most not included in REAL JJ1 levels) include sucker tubes, hooks and vines. I want to rate it more than 7.7, but this is the worst JJ1 tileset i’ve downloaded, so 7.7 it is.

Well, I betatested this lvl ages ago, then, yesterday, told myself to review it and reminded myself that you should never postpone until tomorrow what you should’v done today…and then I postponed it till tomorrow. :-( Well, after a loooong time, here is my review:

Cake Cream Snowland (CCS) is a small 71×64 battle lvl. It has 2 carrots and every single power-up that does 2-heart damage, except the blaster PU (that’s 4 power-ups in total). Now that I think about it, 3 carrots would be better than 2, considering the amount of fire-power in the lvl and it’s a pretty small lvl too, so you won’t stay full-health for long. Betatesters screwed up. Again…

The background eyecandy is reasonably nice. The little cake-platforms look nice, although I would’ve appreciated it if they stayed with you at the top of the lvl (make them hiiigher!). The foreground eyecandy is a bit empty and it seems as if the tileset just doesn’t allow Pan Galactic Garble Blaster-type eyecandy. ;-) I still think Arti should’ve taken the opportunity to at least make some foreground platforms inside the many large, thick walls of the lvl, which shouldn’t get in the way of anyone’s sight and still look good.

Weapons placement is ok, except that there are not enough fastfires (you’ll never stay alive long enough to get your private minigun :-p) and there are too many power-ups. It would be nice if you could just force players to stomp a power-up or to shoot it with electroblasters, so ppl will actually take the normal 3x ammo and bouncers from the gun barrel.

Gameplay is where it’s at! :-O CCS has much better gameplay than it has eyecandy or weapons placement. The pole kinda slows you down and there’s a lot of open space for ppl to not be able to dodge bouncer, seeker and RF barrages although I guess public server battle freaks will like the carnage and the multi-kills possible in this lvl. Springs and platforms are sensibly placed, except the kind of floating white stairway in the middle, which is Spaz biased and really forces Jazz to either slow down with superjump…or slow down with jumping from one platform to the next. Spaz can just swoop by with one or two doublejumps. Also, the platform at pos 17, 3 is 1 tile too high. You can still run over it, but if you haven’t got enough speed, you’ll just fall down whether you like it or not (UNLESS YOU’RE SPAZ! :-P).

Frankly, I don’t know why the heck I didn’t mention all the above things when I betatested but this lvl is mostly flawless, but its layout fails to give players anything more to do than to launch mini-ICBM attacks on their opponents from afar. Ok, there’s toaster walls, bouncers from above and suckertubes in the mix. It’s an ok lvl, nothing remarkable, but still better than hanging in front of the TV, duelling battle 1 or writing reviews like this.

CCS deserves a 6.7. This lvl is a judgement call but I hope my review will convince you to DL and try the lvl out.

Bleh, I said I would rate this, But I cant since I dont have inspiration to motivate my rating. I think the level is ok, though, not very funny to play IMO.
I think I liked that windevent most. It is useful like a turret but you can escape from it. I think that was the only area of the level I liked, meaybe with the exception of the bases, which are campable, but not to easy to camp at =P.

Overall I just think it is a bit unoriginal. Sorry WR.

But since I am a suck reviewer I recommend you to d and see for yourself ;)

EDIT:
Well, I changed my mind. I like the level, and whilst 2v2ing there I found there are a lot of tactical aspects I do like, not to mention the way WR doesn’t overdo eyecandy (which is overrated by so many).

The team that has their base to the left has an advantage in a 2v2, I noticed… When you don’t have flag as that team you can just get the RF PU all the time and do kamikaze killing at your opponent (for example FireSworD ;p) who is RTS at the right base :) I consider this as a possible unfairness, considering the other team can’t do the same with bouncers due to base being placed on top of the level.

I also like the way water allows you to camp the carrot with blaster only, or shoot the carrot down into the water for easy laming (however this didnt work in the 2on2 I played, due to carrot desynch :( )

I enjoy the basearea, since the ground is sort of… not entirely flat. this allows you to easily hide from RFs and other straightgoing weapons.

What could possibly be improved:
(+) Make it so the PUs are placed more equal… perhaps 2 PUs of each sort in the level? (much ammo is always good:))

(+) I noticed that in an intense game you don’t have time to fetch the gun4 PU during game, maybe it could be done easier or so? This isn’t necessary, however, since it adds sort of a tactical aspect… “Should I try to take the PU and risk getting late to scoreing /getting ready?”

Perhaps I was just too content with that one game (beating good players is sort of satisfying)… Ill still give it an 8.4… o, I can’t… It’s your lucky day WR, you got an 8.5 instead =)