Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Starting Comments:

A single player pack? We’ll see what it has to offer. :)

Played with: Jazz
On difficulty: Medium
Playing time: 20 minutes

Playability:

What we have here is a nice little single player pack with simple SP levels. Nothing more, but nothing less either. You do most of the standard stuff like shoot baddies, find coins, collect food and stuff. That sounds pretty dull, but I found playing pretty much enjoyable. There could’ve been a few more puzzle areas, but overall it’s ok. Pickup placement was nice. Sadly, after the sixth level JJ2 crashed because the author forgot to put in the tileset for level seven. :(

Score: 6.2

Balance:

The pack was pretty easy. The enemies aren’t placed in strategical locations, and for many, this will be too easy. There are some maze-like elements, but still, the difficulty could be boosted.

Score: 5.5

Creativity:

It was not all that creative, but somehow I liked it. There were also a few puzzle-like areas which gave some changes and made it more enjoyable. The story was not all that good though, and the eyecandy could’ve been better aswell.

Score: 6.0

Eyecandy:

Eyecandy was bad. Most tiles did fit together, but it was way too less decorated and it all looked boring. Needs work.

Score: 5.0

Story:

There was a tiny little story, but it wasn’t that amazing. Devan finds out about a relic called “Lightgazer”, with which he can catch souls. Jazz needs to stop him. I wonder what Devan does want with those souls, but who cares. During the levels you sadly feel nothing from the story. At least there was some kind of plot.

Score: 4.5

Overall:

A nice little level pack, nothing great, but enjoyable, at least for me. The eyecandy and story need work though, and it could’ve been more difficult aswell. Too bad, I had liked to play it to the end, but the tileset’s missing. :(

Overall Score: 6.5

Download Reccommendation: Yes

EDIT:

For a first work with JJ2 this is kinda good I must say.

Your problem about the jars floating around has something to do with layer properties (PM me if you want to have more information).

It’d be nice if you could include Plastic Dreams in the zip and re-upload it, so I can finish the pack.

Trying to find a good story is annoying I know, but like everything else in JCS, if you work hard enough you can actually come to great results.

Like I said, if you want help with layer properties you can contact me via private message or email me on pht2@gmx.de.

Your tilesets still fascinate me, keep up the great work!

Pardon the short review, but I really can’t think of anything to say, this is great.

.:First feel:.

Wow! Great as always, maybe this is even your best yet!

Review coming later…

@Jarno: It’s actually more of hard rock… you sure you actually listen to a download before writing something?

This is a pretty darn good battle level! And this is why.

TILESET USAGE:
Although this tileset is somewhat difficult to use, Labratkid pulled it off very nicely. There is a nice slowly moving background and there are no noticable bugs with the eye candy. My only problem as far as eye candy is that layer 3 sometimes has bugs where you are partly in front of and partly behind a wall at the same time.

MUSIC CHOICE:
Argh. Although this music seems fitting for the theme of the level, hearing it more than once will cause you to lose your sanity. After hearing it loop about twice, I was annoyed enough with it that I had to turn off the music and put on some MP3s. In other words, I don’t like the music. At all.

WEAPONS AND AMMO:
Everything here seems balanced and well placed. I don’t have anything to really report here. GOOD JOB, LARK.

OTHER CRAP:
There are two coin warps. One of them costs 20 coins, and one of them costs 50. They each give different goodies (I forgot what they are ;D), which is nice for if you are in a rush and need some big guns. Or, if you are trying you luck, you can go for the full 50 coins. I LOVE THAT.

SUCKS/NOT SUCKS:
This level officially does not suck.

MY VERDICT:
Download this level. Although it’s a bit small, you can have quite a bit of fun in it. And best of all, IT’S FREE.

I promised Scizor CT that I’d review this level and be totally honest. I warned him he might not agree with some of the points a I am about to state but thought it alright if I did. Well, here goes!

Lava Lagoon has been under construction for a while. It has been worked with on and off, according to Scizor CT. Usually this happens when one has little inspiration to start off with; the level work progress is slow, and often the level doesn’t turn out very good when done, I am not totally sure why it happens like that though.

I played here recently in a 2vs2. The gameplay here is different, not greatly original. Most of the levels gameplay seems to be inspired from BBlair and Moree Mines because the layout seems to be slightly symmetrical although there are noticable differences on each side. Scizor CT borrowed a tactic from Zaitox, he put both bases near each other but not to be reached as easily which makes it very balanced, considering the layouts weird design. A shield was added Moree Mines style, which is an…Uhm unnessecary style, but not an issue which would destroy the gameplay to some extent. All you need is one or two bomb sceneries to prevent one from using obtaining the shield by shooting it.

It is a relatively large level with plently of open space in areas. Some platforms are useless and would rarely be touched by anyone in any type situation, for instance: both platforms at the upper right and upper left sides. This is one of those levels that requires you to learn to like it as there are some areas you might find annoying until you get used to them. There is a middle area not far above each base with the two skulls on each side of the walls; Coming out of a base there you might find yourself bumping up against them, they are almost like dead ends. The areas around both bases is very interesting, but the way the lava is placed there will make your eyes hurt! >< However, the gameplay in each base area makes it so that Lava Lagoon has arguably the best base placement, ever. Mainly because of a few small platforms in each base area, they are placed in ways which makes one have to navigate around them to reach the base(s), this makes each base simple to defend, but don’t worry, if you’re attacking a base, there are two routes to choose from to escape when you have the flag. The shield offers Lava Lagoon something really nice: When you’re low on health and have the shield, there’s no need to worry if anyone is at the full nrg, the two +1 carrots, the powerups, or any important place. The +1 carrots are placed at each side of the level, you obtain them only by going through sukertubes. The full nrg placement is typical, the middle not far below the shield (It’s like Scizor CT planned its placement there, for the sake of using the shield to take the carrot without any worries of taking a risk).

I’ve already mentioned that the lava at the bottom is annoying, better use low detail. Some of the “open” areas (Check out the area with the RF powerup at 86,65) may provide a certain feel to the level but many players probably won’t notice.

The ammo placement is good enough. The ammo is organized in cliched patterns though. The powerups: Toaster, Seeker and Bouncer all require you to use electroblasters to obtain them. The levels two most essential weapons, which are Electroblasters and RFs seem to be placed in the level sufficiently.

And finally, the concept, the main feature that sets Lava Lagoon apart from any other level. Hopefully this is a concept that will catch on, maybe we will see it more in the future…Nah. The concept is blowing up walls by using RFs. The +1 carrots, the shield, and even some paths yet to be opened, all require you to use RFs to clear the way and make them accessable. Most of this concept involves just ‘chewing’ up the level by blowing out little chunks out of walls etc, the reason is making the level slightly more realistic. A lazy player can blow small pieces of a wall and leave some destructable scenery behind, which can look quite ugly.

Download Lava Lagoon and make sure you play it a few times. It may bore you at first, but it’s all about its gameplay.

-fs

im still working on BlA5tFiRe(2)

Dance In Temple – By Danyjel

Firstly, the 2nd pause in the beginning, after you get the techno-sounding sample into the beat doesn’t really fit in. Even though the original turtemple had the break in the beginning, I don’t think you should’ve put it in that far into the beat, its just like expecting the song to reach its starting point peak but instead just stop.

Other than that, I like how the beat goes from there on. It sounds catchy and good. Some parts sounded a bit bland maybe though (Ch. 12 for example, could’ve used something in the backround).

Anyways, looks like you did quite a bit with the song, including making the speed faster. Good Job!

Some final comments to make, although the song sounds good, I don’t like it as much as some other works of yours like ChrisiLiz or Electronique Army. Maybe its because I don’t like the original turtemple song as much as the Chrysilis or Tubelectric one?

Final Rating is a 7.5. This is good remix and I definately reccomend people to download it. Again a good job done by Danyjel.

Blade’s 11th set. Here goes.

First impression of this was great. The tileset and the atmosphere are outstanding here. I wanted to make a level with the set right after I finished the example level!

Personally, I like the Cartoonish style of the set, because different tileset styles are always welcome. This set has lots of potential for eyecandy, because there are many cool pirate stuff you can place everywhere.

Palette events need some work (The snow doesnt look too bad though, and I don’t play in 8bit anyways so I dont care much about the water =P). The sand could also use some shading or texturing too since its just one color, but at least it doesn’t look bad.

Like Blade mentioned, this tileset is hard to use, but you can make some great things with it (like the example level shows). I have no problem with the masking.

Personally I think a textured backround would ruin the atmosphere of the tileset, so I’m not going to dock any marks off for the lack of one (I like the normal cartoon-like backround anyways).

Tiles Included: 9.2
Masking: 9.5
Color: 8.3
Userfriendliness: 7.7
Overall (Not an average): 9.5 (I really like this set)
Final Rating: 8.84, bumped up to an 8.9. I really like this set and I would definately make levels with it in the future, good work!

As I see it, this is one of those tilesets you’re going to love yet hate at the same time.

Pros -
Huge variety of eyecandy. This is the sole reason that I love this tileset. All the stuff you can little the ground with is great. Unfortunantly almost all of that variety is on the tops of platforms, meaning the walls and stuff are left with nothing. I’m sure it can be worked around a bit by placing ledges in the walls, but it makes it rather annoying.

Theme. Comeon, it’s islands with piraty stuff. How can you resist? I think most people are missing the point and saying that the theme is only pirates, whereas I see it as more of the island aspect. Besides, if you want to make anything at all on an island, this is gonna be your only choice.

Cons-

Man, is this tileset difficult to use. You’re almost forced to sacrifice a background layer right from the start to make some areas peice together right. Even worse is the technical aspect of peicing platforms together, which becomes a real chore. Often time you’ll either have to scrap that spot or the solution ends up being just two rows aboce were you were looking…in the middle of the Eye-candy section. The end result is very nice, but getting there is nerve racking. You have to practice alot with the tileset, and even before that you have to have a mastery of working with tilesets to begin to make something with this.

Walls are bland. No texture, no shading, nothing. Just a flat color. At least the caves are alright.

Overall-

Wow, when was the last time i reviewed a level on j2o? absolute ages. Andf rarely have i seen such a level that impressed me so much i had to review and give my viewpoint on this breakthrough of tileset making!

Wow. That was what I literally said when I played the demonstration of what heights this level can go up to in level creating. It just blew me away.

In this swingin’ jazzy beach piratey level with a lot of eyepoppin’ eyecandy, this tileset is huge with enough eyecandy to even please Cooba. Treaure chests, skulls, plants, ships, islands, water tiles and way more. Also the tiles are shaded and also can have a background for those who favour eyecandy in layers 5-7 instead of patching up attemps to create better eyecandy. This is a very good tileset, not only with the eyecandy options but the numerous options that can be made with thses tiles! Not to mention the music that goes perfectly with this snazzy beach theme.

The eyecandy can be a little confusing although, with all the pathways and trying to find that right tile which is only 2 mm long and its hidden with a treasure chest, be more organized plz thx, it will save my eyes from getting a more magnifyable version of my glasses which are meant for FAR distance ;p

Overall I highly recommend this tileset for a download recommodation.

Blade, I look forward to reviewing more of your tilesets.

~KILLERRABBIT aka Dragoon

Its been a while since I last reviewed, and this level only had one decent review in which the rating stayed. I was bored (or am) so I wrote this… Here goes..

Eyecandy:
My Rating : 9.0
Comments :
The thing I disliked were the areas where the blue tiles looked as if they went into thin air, without edges. On the other hand, there was a nice original background. And the lighting effects were really good. It made it look like another dimension with black holes… Except they didn’t suck you in… ;(

GJ.

Gameplay:
My Rating : 9.0
Comments :
Well, good way of anti camp, and its easy to attack the base, that makes it more exciting and less camping. A symmetrical level, and the anti-camp at the carrot is interesting. You can rampage in with bouncers or RFs for a quick way to destroy the camper. The only reason in the upper branch of the level with the Seeker PU, is the Seeker PU. The ammo there is all over the level. The seeker PU is easy to camp. But the other PUs are hard to camp. Because if you come in with bouncers, the enemy is DEAD. ;D
The flow is decent and the springs and tubes and everything are nicely placed.

GJ again.

Placement:
My Rating: 8.0
Comments:
There aren’t any things I particularly like about the placement, or hate. (This is for ammo if you haven’t noticed, dingbat) The level is nice.. But I can’t really rate it, apart from the patterns in placement..

Layout:
My Rating: 8.0
Comments:
A bit platformy at places, and some annoying walls. The slopes can prevent camping. The seeker PU, should have at least loads of ways to prevent camping there. But I like it I guess. ;) Well, good level.

Download : Yes
Host : Yes

NOT Security Breach v2
Ah well, time to review another level, it’s been a while. This time it’s DarkSonic’s “Not Security Breach v2”, which is made for the JJ2WC CTF Contest. It got a third place, so this will be worth to review.

EYECANDY: 2.1 out of 2.5
The Eyecandy is very good for the given tileset. We all know it’s a JJ1 Tileset, so it has some limited possibilities, but DarkSonic did the best he could. Although there are some levels with better eyecandy with this tileset – I’m thinking of one of Ragnarok’s levels, but I can’t recall the name – this level’s eyecandy is just good and never overdone. The advice of adding Project Hog/Fog to the level was taken very greedy, which results in a large number of light effects in the level. I recommend a modern video card for this, even my GeForce FX5200 128MB wasn’t able to run the level with a constant 70fps (I had some drops to 60-65 sometimes)

PLACEMENT: 1.9 out of 2.5
Not much to say about this. The Powerup-system brings in three Powerups (Seeker, Toaster and Bouncie – classic situation) and one Full NRG carrot. Nothing special about this, it’s not very original but it’s good enough and easy to learn. The placement of the normal ammo is a little bit more original, the different forms of ammo look quite good and are interesting.

STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.8 out of 5.0
As you can expect from DarkSonic’s levels, this level has a very smooth gameplay and layout. All bases are accessible from multiple directions (above, from sideways and from a sucker tube which pumps you through the flag) and there aren’t much places to camp. All places are quite easy accessible and there’s almost no Spaz biasing. Good job. The music file is not really special, something more powerful would fit better to this speedy level. About the text strings, they are a good attempts but the humour is a bit weak. I can’t say much more about the layout, it’s typical for DarkSonic and so not very original.

RATINGS:
Not Security Breach v2 is one of DarkSonic’s better levels, with decent gameplay, good eyecandy and well placement. If the next levels contain some more originality, it could actually turn out to be a TIPPED download. This isn’t one of those, it’s a 7.8 though.

Score: 2.1 + 1.9 + 3.8 = 7.8
Download: Yes.
Host: Yes.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW of [si] and XLM

Hey, Labratkid, RUNESCAPE is COOL! Mort MYRE TOO! :P

I liked the tileset, even though i may not revieuw that, i like it :P

CrimiClown, even makes the bad guys SMILE!

=[Owned]=

Now this is good! Congratulations, Blade, you’ve nearly captured the Jazz2 artistic style! I think this tileset is a new landmark in the advancement of custom tilesets.

From now on, I’ll use this as a reference point for reviewing and drawing future tilesets!

Good stuff:

Excellent artistic style that matches JJ2!

Some of the best “3D” work in the sprite layer I’ve ever seen

Eye candy (all the pirate things are really well drawn and look catchy!)

Background layers are extremely well done. This tileset is one of the few that fit a non-textured background very well. I know that frequently people put textured backgrounds in where they aren’t necessary, just because it’s hard to do, not because it adds much to the tileset. But I think this set does just fine without one.

Very flexible ground tiles. I especially like the way you used a darker “path” in the sand to show the mask intuitively.

Includes all the major event tiles, except sucker tubes (which is ok, I guess)

Good masking, overall. Were the skull and other eye candy objects in the sprite ground supposed to be masked?

Bad stuff:

Too cartoony. This set needs at least SOME texturing and shading.

It’s a bit confusingly laid out. I think it’s probably pretty meticulous to build levels with.

A lot of the ideas are stolen from official tilesets (although that’s better than stealing tiles themselves or stealing ideas from other homemade tilesets, in my opinion)

The “interpolation” is nice, but I think you should use it throughout more of the tileset; one particular thing that needs more is the sun.

Needs more animations! The flag is great, but this set seems to be a still-life or something. I think it would be much more effective as a more animated set. I realize that you’re approaching the tile limit for 1.23, but I think that animations would be worth removing some unneeded tiles for!

I was desparately hoping to see a pirate in person while I was playing the demo level, but alas, me hearties, ‘twere none in sight!

Other Comments:

You know what might be cool in here? A little whale in the water that shoots water up through its blowhole that you could use the Float Up event on :) .

The demo level seems be too crowded (too busy with eye candy), but I won’t count that against you. I’ll just score the tileset itself.

In short, I think ye did a fine job, there, laddy. Howe’er, the set needs a bit ‘o texture, methinks. Ya set such a good piraty mood for me, though, lad. Perhaps we could join arr forces sometime on a Jazz2 adventure. Thank ye so much fer bringing such life ta this ‘ere tileset collection!

idea brought by Me Axe(shaney) and builded by Matt it was officially a one level thing but when we saw what succes it was we launched even more

i also if you can read good what you problally cant ,see the credits go to mat

What is so interesting in re composing MODULES to MIDIS?

I wont download this, because i like more the Module musics…

For an IT module, that’s a bit way too many channels to be used as a maximum. (Then again, I never knew how they were made.)

Samples: 9/10
Okay, personally I like the selection of samples used, but there’s something about the sample (that squarey one that plays the saw melody in the original version) that doesn’t quite sound right. Good sample, but personally it doesn’t fit with the rest of the song’s pace. Other than that, all of the other sounds are excellent, even though you decided to re-use one of them from the original s3m.

Structure: 9/10
A little derived to the exact same pace of the original, but the extension and some note arrangements kind of worked out real well. (Extended, and doesn’t sound repetitive, to me anyway) Despite the high number of channels, the melody is well-developed as it progresses. Not bad for a re-sampled remix.

Umm… (can’t think of anything else to rate.)

Yeah, 9 outta 10. :)

I suggest you to do something about your Chronology and English.

100000 years ago the world was still in an Ice Age.

And by the way, your level is extremely twisted. It doesn’t even deserve being called a level.

Uh… there is definitely something wrong with Lagunicus…

The whole meter of the begining is pulsing incorrectly…

I’m using VUPlayer… anyone else experiencing this?

It’s Blade. And he has another tileset. Only this time, it’s different… the name is way too long. Let’s just call it “Islands” from now on. Blade does!

GRAPHIC QUALITY:
Blade retains a very consistant graphic style throughout the set, which is a good thing. The cannons and gold coins are going to look like they were drawn by the same person as the bridges and pirate flags. It’s all generally drawn in the fashion of a generic flash animation, but with a little more detail, and obviously somewhat smaller. Some stuff, like the treasure chest, and the pirate flag, ends up looking really awesome.
Unfortunately, that’s not always true. The cartoony flash animation look has one major side effect, and that side effect is a lack of shading. Textures in Islands are essentially two colors, one light and one dark. Of course, this only works in the case of fixed-size objects, a category the ground does not fit inside of. So the walls are one color with no texture at all. A gray color. And it looks bad. The sand on top of the walls is a lighter gray color, made better by the variety created by various small objects and pathways, but still a textureless fill tool. It generally looks annoying.
To improve the quality of the platforms, there are small pathways added, doubtless inspired by such impressive tilesets as HH98 and Townsville 1. They are the same color as the walls, and do not always manage to look 3D against the textureless sand, but are still a nice touch which more tilesets could use.
I want to clarify that for the most part, the shading does work. On smaller things like the fence posts, you don’t notice the hideous deficiency, and they look great. The barrels look fine with the three shades of brown. The hanging plants are iffy. But the wall sucks, and the sand is annoying, and the caves aren’t too good, and the background makes me want to hide my eyes or at least stand inside of a cave area. Not a very good sign.
Pros: A lot of stuff looks great.
Cons: But on the bigger stuff, the lack of shading strikes back, and is the cause of great ugly. Especially with the background layers.
Rating: 7.2

MASKING:
Masking gets top marks, especially because this is such a complicated tileset. Everything comes in multiple variations when required, and all the slopes are well aligned with their connecting tiles. No jags anywhere. The only downside is the automasked background, which can cause annoyance for those who want to be inventive with the tileset.
Pros: Everything is perfect.
Cons: Automasked background.
Rating: 9.2

COLORS:
Unacceptable. This is the modern age of tilesets, and Blade seems not to have even a rudimentary grasp of tileset palettes. Nothing works. Poles don’t work, snow doesn’t work (it’s brown, which could be imagined as falling sand, but the shading is wrong), pinball doesn’t work, it’s a beach tileset and the water doesn’t work! And there’s no textured background!
Fortunately, the colors actually used by the tiles of the tileset are better. Everything is more or less about the same level of saturation, so your eyes are unlikely to hurt, unless you’re looking at layer 8. There is a definite color scheme – gray is ground, green and blue are background, brown is decoration – which is maintained all through the tileset and limits confusion. The gray is a bit boring, unfortunately.
Pros: Working color scheme, no glaring inconsistencies, stuff works together.
Cons: Boring ground, tileset seems to have used the Remap Tileset Palette button.
Rating: 7.0

VARIETY:
If your favorite subject is variety, this tileset is your dream. There are scads of bits and pieces of eyecandy strewn throughout the tileset. Grass, pathways, barrels, bridges, distant islands, pirate ships, flags, poles, netting, rocks, plants, treasure… I could go on. There is tons of stuff to be found here. The tileset may be slightly less pleasing to those who enjoy making new and different unintended environments, but there are a number of interesting looking things (the netting looks quite promising), so I won’t rule out that possibility. As mentioned in masking, there are variations of tiles to fulfill different purposes, and lots of objects can appear with all sorts of backgrounds. Even the caves, I’m pleased to report, don’t need to be placed in layer 5. But the animations are slightly lacking (the pirate flag is the only one you’ll notice without looking closely), so levels may look somewhat dead.
Pros: Lots and lots of stuff!
Cons: No actual pirate ship to roam around in, but I guess the tileset is pretty big already. Maybe a TSF edition. Only one main type of platform (the sand).
Rating: 8.8

TILE PLACEMENT:
Um. Well. He, uh, tried.
Don’t get me wrong. A lot of the tileset is arranged fairly intuitively. Most of the cool eyecandy tiles to place on the ground are all in the same place, the tileset is recognizably divided into, uh, divisions, and things generally connect well. The background eyecandy area is a little iffy, but it should be possible to piece together.
Unfortunately, all the careful order comes apart where it matters the most, in the formation of the ground. It would take a long time of staring morbidly at the tileset before I’d attempt to piece something together, and it still might be using reference from the example level. Various pieces of wall are thrown together with no connecting tiles nearby, leaving little more than a jumble of tiles which use approximately three colors total (four with transparency). If a few eyecandy tiles could have been sacrificed to make the layout more intuitive, that might have been a good thing.
Pros: Most things are put together well, logical division.
Cons: The wall fails my inspection. Or maybe my inspection fails. I’m not sure which.
Rating: 7.0

OVERALL: I want to like Islands. Its a Blade tileset. It uses ideas I’ve had for a while and puts them to good effect. But something went wrong with the shading, and the tileset needs to be blindly fumbled together, to the point where I don’t think I’d ever use the set. (Before anyone complains, I have used Blade tilesets before. I used Forest. Twice. And Aztec!)
I would indeed suggest that you download it. It’s a great example of what tilesets can be if people put some work into them. It’s a great tileset to LOOK at. It’s the sort of thing you might find in a game. I can’t imagine putting this much effort into a tileset. It just didn’t all work out perfectly in the end, that’s all.
Pros: Very good underlying idea, enormous amount of effort seems to have been spent, uncommon theme, lots of variety in eyecandy, excellent masking, generally a well thought out and produced tileset.
Cons: Not my graphics style, too many unshaded surfaces, complicated theme leads to complicated tileset.
Rating: 8.1