Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This is my first ctf-level review except DS’s contest where I had been promised to work as a judge. Well, as my first ctf-review, I try to hurry with it a little as my time is running out.

EYECANDY
As I’m not usually so careful about the eyecandy and I like when there is some solid platforms at the background when the level is made of a tileset where it would look nice, I give the eyecandy 9. Well, the clouds are used correctly and I couldn’t have added at least much more than the hills and the rain because I would have used layer 5 for the eyecandy of the sprite-layer. It seems that the layer 1 or 2 isn’t used.
9/10

LEVEL STRUCTURE / BALANCE
The Blue team can reach red’s base a little faster than vice versa but not too effectively. Some of the platforms look a bit too simple and there is no place where you would have to jump, except a few ones maybe, so it might become boring to run through this level on and on. The level should be balanced in the other hand as there are 2 +1-carrots. Most of the float-ups are annoying. There used to be a bug that CrashMash hadn’t noticed before at the bottom-left, where was a tube what the player through-comes when he/she would have entered the tube leading to the Seeker-PU. The player was able to get rid of the tube…at least the easiest was with Jazz, so the player was able to camp and shoot to the incoming players. I didn’t get the meaning of that in the other hand even, but it doesn’t cost anything now as he fixed it anyways.
6/10

PLACEMENT
There is no exotic shapes of ammo…Only lines and squares. The placement neither seems to have any design and some of the ammo could have been spread more. The Seeker-PU which is the only PU, is placed at the top of the level into a closed area. That kind of a placement has been used a lot of times and I don’t like it so much, so it costs you a point. Also when there is a Seeker-PU…Yes not even Blaster-PU it isn’t very wise to place +1-carrots into the level. I will give the whole placement a 5.
5/10

OVERALL: ~6,7
LEVEL RANK: Average level.
DOWNLOAD RECOMMENDATION: Your choice.

ENDING COMMENTS: I heard this level was made in two days and I would call that kinda rushed level. Because of that the Author must have worked all the day but after all it doesn’t look so bad than it could look. Another average level which could be improved quite much. I neither don’t like the tileset so much although it looks nice when there is some solid tiles at layer 5 and 3 however.

-Superjazz

I reuploaded! A bug.

YAY it uses my tileset i must d/l it immediately…
Review coming later
Happened to me: jj2 messed up :(

here’s the review:

BATTLESHIP EPSILON
My tilese! yay! 10 for this level! (joke)
This level has great eyecandy – maybe a bit too much – and is quite hard. Here i also noticed a specific warp system, the warps all looked the same. That was actually a good idea.
While the eyecandy is good, the level because of it sometimes was too confusing (i had to search for the path for quite long). The level is however very good, and the author has clearly put a lot of effort into the eyecandy.
Who said my tileset is bad? It isn’t, only the example level sucked. Here’s a proof of it: this level makes very good use of the tileset.
The boss was interesting, but not too hard, good for a hard level as this as you probably are damage when you come to the boss.
A 8 for this level.

HE** (as the author calls it)
This one also has good eyecandy, but much less than the previous (phew). It looks really hellish, and i particularily liked the caves. Here i also noticed the warps which were quite similar to those in the previous level.
In the beginning of the level it seemed very easy, but as i played more it became harder. Here i also found many trigger crates, which often forced me to think where i saw trigger blocks, which actually was quite good.
The boss was a single bilsy, with a well-fitting end text.
A 8 for this too.

Overall: a above-average levelpack with enough eyecandy for even the fussiest players.
Both levels have very few savepoints.
I recommend adding more in the next levelpack, so you won’t have to restart the level if your rabbit just starts jumping by itself (can happen on my pc).

Very worth a download.

A good level, particularily if you like pinballs. It is long and hard, and the author seems to have worked at least a bit more than most race makers. But for a race, this is very long and hard, might even be too long, as finishing all five laps might literally take half an hour.
+ pros:
Original.
Pinballish.
Hard.

- cons:
Too long for a race.
Maybe a bit too much pinball.
You advance very slowly at some points.

Final rating: 7,7 and a big download recommendation.

The Unnamed Level
Well, time for me to review this new battle level. I see it’s the second battle level made with the Diamondus Beta Night tileset (the first one was ChristMax by Olsen) and let’s see if this level is good enough. CrashMash forced me to write this review and he reviewed mine, so that would be a fair deal.
By the way, why no music? This will lower the gameplay rating by 0.5, you could have at least included a standard music file.

EYECANDY: 2.1 out of 2.5
Well well… let’s just check the looks of this level. I guess it’s a little bit obvious that I will draw parallels with Garden Brawl, since that level could be a standard for all Diamondus Beta levels that will be released in the near future. The eyecandy in this level is certainly not as good as in Garden Brawl, but it’s not bad either. In fact, I really like the eyecandy, since it’s quite clam and the relaxing. I guess the eyecandy level would be as high as in my Diamondus Beta Night level (Bay Of Diamonds) except this level has additional eyecandy in layers 1 and 2, which are looking good and not annoying. The layer 4 eyecandy is decent, although some platforms could be looking a bit better, and there are some minor tiling bugs (most of them in the walls). The backgrounds layers are almost the same as in Bay Of Diamonds, and I like them. Overall, the eyecandy is pretty good. I like it.

AMMO: 1.8 out of 2.5
I wonder if the placement of all the goodies is just as good. This is another level with a 3-PU system, although there aren’t any majors or minors – you could say the Seeker and RF are both major and the Bouncie is minor. You can reach the RF and seeker by one and the same warp, the first time you’ll get warped to the Seeker and the second time to the RF, which prevents camping a bit and it’s original, although I prefer to know where I’ll end up. The smaller amounts of ammo are not really originally placed (almost all of them are placed in squares or vertical lines) and some places are too empty, but since the respawn time is not too long (just 10 seconds) this won’t be a real problem in big events. There are three +1 carrots in this level (no Full NRG) which seems like a nice option to me. They could have been spread better over the level though, since they are all in the upper half.

STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.8 out of 5.0
Structure and gameplay, finally. As I mentioned before, there is no music file in this level, which kills the gameplay experience a bit. I won’t district many points for this but it will cost you 0.3 points. The flow is good, in any case good enough for a battle level. Some of the springs could be placed a little better, but I didn’t experience many problems. A liked the large, open spaces which were all around, and they fit very nice to this battle level. The warp to the PU’s was an original solution, but I don’t really like it since I never will know where I end up. The level had some double pathways on some platforms in the foreground, but there are also a few objects placed in the background, which confused me a bit.

RATINGS:
CrashMash did a very decent job with the production of this battle level. The eyecandy is not as good as in “the other” level, Garden Brawl, but it surely is worth it. The ammo placement is generally good but there could be a little more of it in some places and more originality would be nice too. The flow is perhaps even better then Garden Brawl in some places. I think this level would do nice on a bash event, although too many Diamondus Beta levels would be a little boring. You’ve got yourself a 7.7, by the way.

Score: 2.1 + 1.8 + 3.8 = 7.7
Download: Yes.
Host: Yes, perhaps even on Bash.

Greetings,
~ ChippieBW

grytolle, you have almost exactly copied alexander’s review

Alex, i fixed that ANYONE can get Seeker, and ANYONE can get bounce, tested it by myself.

(NUKE) There’s also RF PU which is very useful to go berserk w/ ;)
Final rating: 8

@Saphir: I know, CM forced me to review:P

(Nuked content, rating removal. Please refrain from just copying someone else’s review and changing the numbers a little. Write your own next time. ~Violet)

The Packy Pack
Since a few months, DarkSonic declared that he was working on a CTF-pack. Now, at the dawn of 2005, he finished his pack and uploaded it J2O. I promised to give him a good and long review, so I will. Here you go.

Street Pass nr. 1
EYECANDY: 1.9 out of 2.5
The levels is made with the famous War Torn Night tileset, and the links with Distopia are automatically established in the beginning. If you look better, you’ll notice this level isn’t very similar too EvilMike’s classic, but I’ll explain later. The eyecandy itself is nicely made, I especially the transparent platforms. It’s not really wonderful, but good enough for the tileset.
AMMO: 2.1 out of 2.5
The first level of the Packy Pack has a three PU system, with Toaster as central Powerup, and a RF and Bouncie as minors. It’s balanced well since the level is symmetrical. The Toaster can be grabbed inside a few sucker tubes, which makes it easily accessible for campers. The others Powerups are in walls and they can be taken by uppercut or Toaster. This seems a little Jazz-biased, but I like it. The carrot is placed in a central spot and the platform prevents it from being shot down, but now it can be camped a bit. The smaller amounts are OK and original, but they could be placed more to the ground.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 4.2 out of 5.0
The level has a really good flow, since the platforms are well placed for a good flow. It takes a while before you know the entire level, but it’s really worth it. The system with the opening doors is a nice idea and it brings a lot of extra strategy to the gameplay (base defender can open the doors when the flag carrier comes from the other base etc.) The bases itself are accessible from three different places, which is a good thing. It appears that CelL selected the music files, and the music for this level fits good. Overall, a nice and interesting structure and nice gameplay.
RATINGS:
Street Pass nr.1 is a nice level with some really original things (like the opening doors and toastable Powerups, which I will probably use myself in later levels). This level is a good opening for the pack, let’s see if the rest is just as good.
RATING = 8.2

Overheated and Freaky World
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Where would a good pack be these days without a level with one of the Diamondus β sets? I don’t know, so here is one. This time it’s luck for the lava edition, which isn’t used earlier in a CTF level I believe. The eyecandy here is quite good for the set, it has nice back and foregrounds and everything looks good. I told you to put a little more eyecandy on the platforms, and you did, but still not enough. The blocks could look a lot better if you added more eyecandy to them, and so would be the whole level. The eyecandy still gets 2 points, however.
AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
This level is slightly smaller then the first one in the pack, and DS has chosen for a different PU-style here: just two Powerups, a Bouncie and a RF, each one near a base. This is a balanced enough, and if you die you have directly access to a Powerup when you respawn. The powerups itself are placed a little bit annoying, because they block the roads. The smaller ammo amounts are placed OK, and so is the Full NRG carrot in the middle.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.5 out of 5.0
The level is smaller than Street Pass nr. 1, as said before, and the structure is a lot more narrow. The general flow in the level is OK since the objects are very soft and not too bumpy, but the spring placement could be a lot better. You bump too many and the location near the Toaster can be described as rather irritating. The music fits too the level perfectly, and I like it much.
RATINGS:
In the first place I would say that OaFW would be the level I liked most, but after a while testing I realized it was not as good as I expected. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong, in fact, it’s still one of the better levels DS made till now. It could have been more, however.
RATING = 7.5

40 Meters In the Air
EYECANDY: 1.7 out of 2.5
Another level with the best new tileset of 2004 (Windstorm Fortress by BlurredD). The eyecandy this set features is really good, and this level has quite a bunch of it. Some places look really good (especially the part in the upper-left corner which I liked very much) but other parts are rather dull (like many of the stony platforms) I didn’t notice any tiling bugs, so I can say the eyecandy is over decent, but not that good. SuperJazz did a better job with the WSF level he uploaded in his pack a few days ago.
AMMO: 2.0 out of 2.5
The minor PU placement is generally the same as in the second level of the pack (both bases have a Powerup near it – yet again the Toaster and the Bouncer) but this time we’re speaking of a big level, so we have another Powerup: a precious Seeker. This one can be reached by two warps in the upper corners of the level. Sometimes you directly fall down to the Seeker and you can take it, other times you’re stuck in a small block and you have to jump up. The Full NRG carrot is placed on a balanced spot, and the other smaller amounts of ammo are OK.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.6 out of 5.0
As the other two levels in the pack, this level has a nice flow and the other forms of gameplay are also fine. The music file used is a little bit too slow for the level in my opinion. The best PU in this level is fixed around the triggers that make you fall down, but I couldn’t figure out how these triggers work. The ones in Street Pass nr. 1 were pretty simple and you knew directly how to use them, but it will take time before I figure these out. This was about the only (big) thing that annoyed me about structure and gameplay, so you still get 3.6 points from me.
RATINGS:
This level was a little less then the two previous ones, I hope the next ones will be better so we have a good ending. If the eyecandy was better and the trigger system would be a little easier to use, this level would get a higher rating. For now, it’s over decent, but not good.
RATING = 7.3

Punished In Space
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Another Odyssey level, yay! This set features a lot of good eyecandy, but not all of it is used in this level. For the platform eyecandy, this level is almost the opposite of Overheated and Freaky World: the eyecandy on the platforms itself is very good but between the platforms it looks rather empty. The background layers are a bit boring, but decent. Perhaps it would be better if layer 8 was more visible.
AMMO: 1.8 out of 2.5
Let’s go on with the placement. As you enter the level, you end up at the bases, which both have one powerup in the beginning: a Blaster and a Bouncer, which isn’t perfectly balanced but good enough. The most important smaller amounts of ammo (RF and Seeker) are all in the upper part of the level, but to make the action more spread around the whole level, the author added some interesting objects in the lower half (RF PU, Full NRG carrot, Bouncie Ammo) which makes the level more balanced.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.2 out of 5.0
The structure of this level is kind of original: the two bases are both placed in the top half of the level (next to each other, but separated by warps) This seems like an interesting idea, especially because the two bases are both no-fire-zones (prevents killing) but I’m not really fond of the idea. The flags are not easily grabbed because you have to buttstomp to get them, and there’s only one entrance to the bases: the bases itself are impossible to camp on, but the warps to it are not. The same thing goes for the base exits, there’s only one exit which is also a good thing for camping. The music file fits to the level, and I like it.
RATINGS:
This level has fairly good eyecandy, and the ammo placement also seems OK. I don’t really like the Base Placement and the entrances and exits to the bases, and I think the lower half of the level isn’t anything special. More base entries/exits would make the level much more interesting.
RATING = 7.0

Plastic Surgery CTF
EYECANDY: 2.0 out of 2.5
Time to go for the last level of DarkSonic’s Pack: Plastic Surgery CTF. The name promises much, but once I play the level I end up in an ancient castle so I can’t really find it what the name of the level is about. Anyway, time for the eyecandy ratings. The eyecandy in this level is pretty good, I like all the stuff in the sprite background layers and the platforms, however they are a bit boring, don’t look too bad. The rain effects in the foreground are also nice. The layer 8 background could be better, though.
AMMO: 1.8 out of 2.5
Yet another two-PU-system, with Toaster and Bouncer! This is starting to become a little bit unoriginal after 5 levels, but at least it’s a decent solution. They’re placed in walls again, and this time you have to reach them by Electro Blaster. The Full NRG carrot (also as usual) is placed in the centre of the level again, which makes it balanced for all players. The smaller amounts of ammo are OK too, they’re placed in semi-original forms and at the right places.
STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.8 out of 5.0
The flow in this level is good as always, and I like it. There are multiple pathways you can choose from, and I guess this is one of the better levels of the pack. There’s not much to say more about the gameplay of this level, it’s just a good as it is. In the beginning I thought the music file sucked but once I listened longer to it, I could validate it more.
RATINGS:
Plastic Surgery is a quite normal, not so special CTF level, but good enough to make it nice to play in. A little more originality would be welcome, however, since the level is a little bit boring. After Street Pass nr. 1 I guess this is the best level in the pack, and a good closing one.

Final comments
After a long period of waiting DarkSonic finally released his Packy Pack and after about 2 hours of reviewing I finished this piece of text. DarkSonic made with his Packy Pack a nice CTF pack which combines the best of DarkSonic in a pack of 5 CTF levels. Not every level is as good as the others, the first one was truly a good CTF level but later the levels became a little more unoriginal and boring. The final level however was pretty good and a nice closing level. Overall, this pack is one of the best packs this year so far (stupid comment) and it’s worth to be played online.
Score: 8.2 + 7.5 + 7.3 + 7.0 + 7.6 / 5 = 7.52 + 0.2 (pack bonus) = 7.7
Download: Yeah, this is a bunch of good CTF levels.
Host: Just a few times.

Greetings,
~ ChippieBW of [si] and XLM.

GAMEPLAY: 7.5
Too many springs. The other things are OK, except for some dead ends. You can get the bouncy PU with Jazz which is good.
EYECANDY: 9
Nice. All layers used. There are double paths. And waterfalls too. There is a foreground layer bug, but eyecandy is excellent.
EVENTS: 8
As I already told you, there is a bouncy and a seeker power-up. There’s a carrot behind the waterfall so look carefully to see it. There aren’t any fastfires and all ammo types except the useless (TNT and Freezer)
Final rating: 8.1
EDIT: Now Jazz can get these 2 power-ups! Rating raised with 0.1 :P

“R3ptile didn’t mention any of that”

“Blue team has a bit advantage with defending because you can just stand below your base”

“Type: Capture the Flag”

Before I review, I’d like to now what exactly is in the pack, what kind of lvls they are (Reptile didn’t mention any of that ;-P) and stuff like that. Is battle or CTF?

“The page you are attempting to access has been removed because it violated Angelfire’s Terms of Service.”

Meh. D=

Oh, forgot…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Edit: Still, thanks to Nightmare for uploading this pack into his site.
No www in this one, by the way.

URL:nightmare-incorporate.com/sj/superjazz.zip

Nice job, Toxic Bunny. I like seeing your tilesets :) .
Here’s my opinion:

Theme:
- Good selection for a theme. Not many people can do a good “castle” tileset. However, there is a bit of confusion between whether the tileset is supposed to be realistic or cartoony.

Eye Candy:
- Great for the things that are there, but there could easily be more add-ins.

- I like the chandeliers, barrels, and stained glass windows, especially. Also a little confusion between 3D and 2D drawing styles (i.e.- between the ground and Destruct blocks). Perhaps shadows would help this.

- Great texturing job (what program?)!

- The arrow signs on the ground outside are hard to see. I think the average gamer would miss them.

- It’s hard to tell what the Hurt scenery is.

- Animations would be a great addition to this tileset

Usefulness:
- One could make a decent level out of this tileset, but it leaves something to be desired. Namely, a lot of event blocks (Warp, Sucker Tube, other Destruct block types, Water Block, Trigger blocks [dotted outline / lock & key blocks]).

- It also supports almost no palette events.

- The inside ground is also unnecessarily complicated. Try organizing the tiles in preset patterns that your level designers will use frequently.

Background & Scenery:
- Very minimal. The background is too plain.

- Having no textured background is acceptable, and this tileset can work fine without one, I think, but there needs to be a lot more than what’s there now.

- The grass in Layer 6 needs to be combined with scenery in other background layers to be effective.
- The trees in Layer 3 confuse the dimensions by sticking out of the lower levels of dirt.

Masking:
Generally quite well done!

- The tile at (27,8) in the set has an unexpected corner. This shows up in the demo level at (43,22).

- Nice rounded mask on outside hill ground!

- A few other random minor blips

EYECANDY: 9
The eyecandy is elite. All layers are used. Sometimes confusing when you try to step on platforms which aren’t in the sprite layer.
GAMEPLAY: 8
There could’ve been more one ways. The tube on the right can sometimes be annoying.
AMMO: 7
To get the good PUs you have to collect 20 coins which is hard for people who get killed quickly. Gun9, Blaster and Toaster PU are free.

This isn’t a fun level. Why? Here’s how you play it: To start off, you begin on a poorly-drawn boardwalk and then have to go through water as a frog. When you emerge, you’ll see this big area full of enemies and stuff, and the TNT spells out [insert vulgar language here]. Then you need to go through this badly constructed sand area with a few enemies and the end is this face with “seaweed” coming out of its nose.
Fun? No.
Host in coop? Absolutely not.
A sad beach? Very.

My review was never posted. Some database troubles or something. I’m in no mood to re-review this level fully so I’ll create a quick review
story-na/10
not needed, it’s more of an eyecandy showcase
eyecand10/10
The author tries to make a realistic jungle and succeds. However, it obscures you’re sight/ confuses you at times
Gameplay-8/10
Go through a lush jungle. Not much in the creative department, but fun nonetheless.I have no complaints, but it’s not completely perfect.
Placement-9/10

Difficulty-9/10
Battling against amazing eye candy is hard, but other than that not all to hard, but not all to easy.
Final score-9
Download reccomendation? Yes

After reviewing the horrible sad The Sad Beach, I decided to continue my night of reviews with TDI 2.As awesome as this ‘pack’ is, I am only reviewing this so I can get the bad taste The Sad Beach left in my mouth metaphoricly
. I am not thanking the author for a good level pack I am jusy sharing my thoughts on it. After that tiny rant on to the review.
Story- 7/10
A cliched tale of Devan( a cliched enemy) going to a Forbidden Zone (a cliched area… maybe I just watch too many shows on TV). As Jazz/Spaz you must go stop Devan(cliched plot point). So I give you a 7 for an average/cliched story.
Eyecandy-8/10
Nothing to amazing, however the scene where Devan tells Bolly to stop you as his gang of Tuf Turtles and a superbot continue forward was a nice touch.
Gameplay-9/10
This is a Mission-based puzzled-filled romp through Carrotus. However it felt a bit to spaz based.
And a few puzzles felt cliched. For example, hunting down crates to open a path felt like a modification to Hocus Pocus, and I’ve played many a game with a difficult Race the Liquid! scenario.
Placement-9/10
My only gripe is that I couldn’t find a Morph box near the race the water puzzle, which was done all to easily as Spaz, yet very difficult with Jazz.
Difficulty-10/10
I had a hard time here, adjusting from Alien Hominid’s(ps2/GCN game) All Action No Puzzle gameplay to TDI 2’s Puzzle/Action Mix took a long time, but other than that the Puzzle’s difficulty comes from about 2 or 3 puzzles, the rest comes from battling the many Monkeys while doing a puzzle.
After I got used to it, the difficulty felt pretty smooth. The only difference I saw on Easy was a sheild for the Superbot fight, most of the challenge I got from playing it on normal remained intact.
Average-8.6
Final score-8.6
Download Recomadation? Yes
Better Than:Island of Dreams
Worse Than:The orginal TDI
Wait for it: Olsen’s(I think, the post was deleted) continuation of this episode.

Here’s my review for what has to be, the WORST level I have ever played.
Story-0/10
None.Whatsoever. There are some cases like in Jungle where the level’s point doesn’t require a story. This level, I have no idea what the point was.
Eyecandy-0/10
I was going to give you one point for an incredibly bad face, but some really horrible msitakes like the background and a rather plain boardwalk took that one point away.
Gameplay-1/10
Find a badly drawn face in a confusing underwater cheese land. Also, a caterpilar, dragon, two bats, and hatter call that cheeseland home. You for some odd reason start the game as a frog, but you change back before anysigns of an actual point to level begin. I found nothing fun in this level.
Placement-0/10
For giving me a useless sheild and some rather uneeded ammo for some weapons gave you one point. However you’re Prize Walkway which is blocked off by annoying warps proved anything you gave me useless. I can find the ending without even using a weapon, so in the one spot where you might need it, you block off. The Prize Walkeay(as I call it) is composed of ammo and carrots and hip-hops and powerups and sheilds and other fun items to battle the immense ammount of enemies in that blocked off area. Instead I have to go through an area with loads of useless one-ups (I think I died ONCE but that was because I was too busy playing around with the smoke rings to notice a few bats)
Difficuly-1/10
I was stumped the first time I tried the level because someone got tipsy turvy on their exit signs and the ‘F’ key. The place the signs point to is just the middle of the cheeseland underwater. For that artifical difficulty you recieve one point.
Average-0.4
Final Score-0.4
Download Recomendation? NO!
I’m Glad I am: Reviewing the unfinished TDI 2 next.
Worse than: Just about everything else.
Wait for it: Anything else.
(The above three pieces of information are based on scores from the same game type)

[Adjusted to use 1 as rating. ~Cooba]