Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Ok, I’ll be gentle with this. This won’t be a regular review of mine because… well, this level’s short and seems unfinished. Instead I will just point out the things this level can be improved upon (if necessary I’ll do it in dutch, the filename is dutch)

Lay-out

The lay-out on its own is straight-forward: walk straight forward, enter a warp, walk some more while killing baddies till you meet the boss. The main thing is it’s way too short. I can understand the author intended it for beginning players, but still, it can be made just a bit longer. Also, you can just jump over the boss area and fall endlessly.

Tileset Use and Eye Candy

The second worst offender of this level. The background immediatly shows the author needs to learn some skill before publishing her work: none of the layers have been resized, so the sky doesn’t look the way it should. The eye candy is basic, and incomplete: I see turnips and carrots with out their tops. I’ve also spotted some tile bugs here and there.
At least she know how to make animations: those twinkly stars. Unfortunately she didn’t see the stars are masked

Events

That’s the worst offender. Anyone who’s played this level may have noticed that at the end, the boss music plays, but there’s no boss. Well, a quick trip to TSF JCS reveals why: it only appears on easy mode. That makes no sense! It’s a training level, why is it set on easy only? Better would have been to set it on hard for more experienced players. As for the rest, the only thing worth mentioning are:
- there are hardly any enemies, no ammo, just a shield and just one piece of food: a coconut.
- there’s a gem crate near the warp, with heaps of gems (15 of each)
- the boss area has End of Level. events. The boss doesn’t show up, but come on! This makes the level less than a cakewalk.

Miscellaneous

What do you know? The next level setting is missing, as well as the music. And as noted it’s TSF only (v. 1.24!). That’s all.

Verdict and Final Thoughts

I may have seemed harsher than usual, but believe me: other are even worse than me. I know the author is inexperienced, but it’s usually a good idea to learn some skills first before you publish a level. Sorry to say this,
but this is just junk. Here’s some tips, if you want to be a good level maker, follow them:

1) Learn how to resize layers. It’s easy, and for layer 8 it’s a cakewalk: just check “Texture mode” to resize to 8 × 8. All textured backgrounds have that size.

2) See how tiles fit together. It’s easy to make a level ugly if you just slap some tiles on a level.

3) Make some smal levels first for practice, but don’t publish them. Instead, show them to friends and ask what they think of it, learn from it. Make each level longer than the last, trying something new each time.

4) Find out the filename of the level, and the music you want to use. The level is for the Next Level Setting (setting it blank doesn’t mean it will loop) and the music is selfexplanatory

- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3

“Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Row gots a level for uhhuhuhhhs.”
You’re the first with Christmas levels, and I’m happy the levels from Santa are arriving now =) I hate the old levels cause I’ve played them to much =P.

Review for: “Noel’s Passage”
Eyecandy…<>
You can see that Row did his best for this level, cause the lvl gots lots of eyecandy stuff. There are christmas trees, caves, snow on the front layer, and he even put a Santa Clause on the background. With pressents and his reindeers, of course.
TO BAD: At every tree, you’ll have to look at the ground. You’ll see a big bug! Shadows are wrong.

Gameplay…<>
I like the big level. It’s very big and contains many secret passages and warps. Found the carrots allready? MJAM!
TO BAD: WHEEEEEEE! There is no Coin Warp! BOOHOOHOO!

Placement…<>
Every battle lvl needs ammo, P-ups and carrots, and this one contains it. Row also put food and drinks in the lvl, and he have chosen the places very good. And it’s good Row, that you didnt put RF-up or SEEKER-up in this level. I hate those ups =P Only love them when I have them =D
TO BAD: There is nothing bad or to bad, just okay.

I think those things I told you would tell everybody enough to download this! Isn’t that a pressent of Santa? =)

Download Recommendation
Rating a 7.7

Carrotpie

Wrong version, it’s 1.24.

I don’t really agree with Reggen. The level is awfully short and very boring. There was not a wide range of enemies and there were very small ammounts of items in places. I was told not to use a Mez tileset when I did the level LOCKED IN A LAB and got a six. There was also no eyecandy.

Even with eyecandy, you’re not going to get anywhere with Mez.

I hate those bird samples. I hate that slow tempo.

Okay. No rhythm here, annoying bird samples, too slow, too long. Only one lead sample used, no bassline.

(+) Includes bird samples, which you can save to your disk
(-) That other.

Download recommendation? Maybe on April Fool.

First review in…
count fingers
a long time.

Anyway, this font does in fact look a lot like the b&w lettering in JJ2. The only complain that I have is that it has a few holes here and there. Still, it’s fairly legible, and fun to use, though if my opinion deters you, read somebody else’s.

Edit: Since a lot of characters are missing, I’m bringing the rating down to 8.2

I will also review this level, because it’s a CTF level.

Introduction: a level by ÄÉæÛÕ, with the Mystic Isle tileset. Not his first upload here, and considering the ratings, it’s not a bad level. I will find out if it really isn’t.

I’ll start off with the layout. This level is open, and has alot of vines and stuff that can help the flow a bit. There are some things I dislike, like the hooks in the level, which you need to get to the warp with the full energy. Some one ways in the level will help the gameplay too. There are also tubes in the level, that will help the gameplay even more. One thing that’s a bit bad is that there aren’t many springs on some places. It’s not too hard to get to each base, like WR said, it’s pretty easy for Jazz-users. The triggers in the level can be useful, some aren’t.

About the eye candy, it’s pretty good. This tileset is limiting, but what’s used, looked good. I liked the figure in layer 2, there are good animations in this level. Layer 3 has ground tiles in it, and also water and some secrets which aren’t too hard to find out. Layer 5 also has some dark tiles, and it looks good. The background in the level isn’t bad. Almost every layer is used. Only layer 1 isn’t. Overall the eye candy is good, I have no complaints.

About the placement, the ammo placement is decent. There isn’t many ammo, but there are also some strange events, like a 1Up, Fast Feet and time clocks. There are 3 Power-Ups. The Bouncy pu is more at the left side of the level. The Toaster pu is placed at the right side of the level. The Blaster pu is in the bottom-middle of the level. I don’t see a use for the TNT in this level, but it can sometimes be fun. There is also food, there isn’t too many, so it’s good. The Full Energy is in the warp, that’s not easy to access. There is also a +1 Carrot in the level. That carrot is secret. The ammo is placed fair, I can’t say a team has an advantage. The ammo respawns too fast, though.

I can’t say alot more about this level. It’s decent. I can’t say this is download recommended, but it’s also not a level that isn’t worth it. So I’ll give it N/A. About hosting, you hosted it already and I was there, but afterwards, don’t host it alot more.
My final rating is a 7.1.

Mario music plays
It’s a me! A Neon!
With an-a reveiw for you-ah!

First glance: Very nicely put together. Not much eyecandy but oh well.

Gameplay: I thought this level was put together well, Although space wasn’t filled up that much. Yet there was still good flow.

Eyecandy: A good amount, but not enough.
Mostly consisted of bamboo and dirt.

Weapons: A good amount. Not much to say here. But, there you go.

Final: 8

Review time!

Starting off with the layout, it could be much better, but its still decent. The level consists of ten or so medium sized platforms. While platformy layouts usually aren’t a good thing, AEaeUO did a nice job here. For the most part, the platforms seem to flow together smoothly. There are, however, a lot of things about the layout that I dislike. Firstly, I think the full energy area is way too hard to get to. I also think that this level is somewhat Spaz biased (most platformy levels are, to be honest). There are also several places where I wouldn’t mind seeing springs, for example, the very bottom right of the level. As a plus, there are team based routes. There are triggered walls added near both bases that benefit the team defending that base by making the route to it much shorter and more efficient.

There are a number of suckers tubes inside the platforms that help navigation a lot. The problem is, though, there is no indication that they’re there. Once you’re aware of where they all are, though, you’ll dominate in this level greatly. I would’ve liked to see arrows or something where the sucker tubes are; this way you wouldn’t have to memorize so much stuff.

The minute I saw this level, Diamondus Warzone immediately came to mind. A lot of aspects seem to be borrowed from it. There’s the full energy area, which is essentially a hollow rectangle floating casually in the main part of the level. It contains three crates of ammo (bouncers, freezers, and RF missles, respectively), and a full energy carrot. It can only be accessed by a warp, and can only be exitted by a warp. Nextly, there’s an area at the bottom of the level where there is a plateau. You can run under the plateau and collect electroblasters, and you can also stand on top of it.

Moving on to the eyecandy, it is pretty decent, but, like the layout, could be better. The tileset is somewhat limiting, so rating too harshly on the level’s overall appearance wouldn’t be fair. Nevertheless, though, there are some aspects of the eyecandy that I absolutely adore. For example, as Violet called it, there’s a wonderful abstract cow. If you look at the bottom left of the level, some cave tiles in the foreground make up what appears to be a bull’s head. Look under the bull’s head and you’ll see a tile bug, though. I suppose the background is good enough, but I wouldn’t have minded if there was more there. There are two background layers; one consists of a series of interconnected vines, and the other is made up of a mountain range, with pillars sticking out of it. Layer 8 looks fine. It fades to a pleasant, dark blue color. Some areas of the level make good use of lighting effects; namely the areas around the bases. There’s also a good amount of moth events scattered around, which, as always, can enhance a level’s overall feeling greatly. While I would’ve liked to see some more eyecandy in the foreground and on the grass (flowers, etc.), the overall appearance of this level is pretty good. As for major bugs, I only found one: if you jump in the small area behind layer three above the toaster powerup room, you can see your ears.

The item placement here is interesting enough. If normal ammo wasn’t enough, AEaeUO included things like fastfeet, stopwatches, extra lives, and a variety of foods. As for ammo, you can find every type in the game here. However, the only weapons that get the honor of having their respective powerups added in are blasters, bouncers, and toasters. There’s one normal carrot, and one full energy carrot. The +1 carrot is sort of hard to find due to the layout, and is guarded by a text message condemning me as Ted. As for general placement, it is pretty good. Ammo crates and barrels are a bit overdone, however. Lag might be a problem here if there are too many players.

As for my closing thoughts, this level is good. There are some comical text events here, too (would’ve been nicer if “vanish” was set on them so you didn’t have to read them over and over again). The music choice is great. This level gets a download reccomendation from me.

Final rating: 7.2
Overall pros: Nice flow, good eyecandy.
Overall cons: Somewhat lacking layout, surplus text events.
Overall cnidarians: Alaska.

Ahh. Really fun level. Aeiuo had this up for some time, and I got to beta test.

Eyecandies:

Very well done. Smooth, not too annoying, and goes well. 8 of 10.

Music Selection:

Goes good. 7.5 of 10.

Gameplay:

Now here is where the fun begins. Aeiuo put in a lot of neat gimmicks, like a gem that runs away from you. Also, he used food. Not that many CTF levels use food. The level also has practical things, like great weapons selection. 8 of 10.

Hype:

Hype is basically the rating of the level prior to me rating i, which is 6.7 of 10.

Tilt:

Aeiuo is awesome, and this level only further proves that. 9 of 10.

Overall:

This is a level i’d love to play on any server.

8 + 7.5 + 8 + 6.7 + 9 = 39.2 / 5 = 7.84 = 7.8.

Download Recommendation.

I didn’t reduce the rating because of the vine, but I still wanted to mention it, so I put it under Cons.

Rating changed to 6.7.

I’m going to keep this review short and to the point.

Pros:
1. Good eyecandy, but there is a lot of empty spaces. Fortunately, that’s not much of a problem thanks to Moonblaze’s tileset.
2. Nice, big area to copter around in, for jazz users. :-)
3. The lvl has many secrets and surprises. When I was shooting pepperspray in front of me a turtle shell suddenly fell down. There are lots of other neat things althouh most are useless (fast-feet, shield clocks, 1ups, a silver coin).
4. LRK is Ted.

In the middle we have the gameplay. Sometimes it flows beautifully, sometimes you hit a wall when you least expect it. There are springs when you need them and vines when you don’t. The bottom part of the lvl is as flat as the horizon, which will not lead to good strategy or tactics.

Cons:
1. Despite the large, open areas, Jazz is at a huge disadvantage on the ground. There are many, many places he cannot reach without stopping and uppercutting. The full nrg warp is especially hard to get into without double jumping.
2. Suckertubes lack direction. Ppl don’t know where the suckertubes will take them until they attempt to enter it. Put arrows at the exit and entry points so ppl know if they can enter the suckertube from their direction or not. The tube at 129, 13 is also Jazz-unfriendly.
3. Sparse ammo. This is quite a big lvl, and therefore suited to lots of players. Lots of players, however, means that ammo will be used up rapidly. There is not enough ammo to go around, not even for a 2v2.
4. Some eyecandy bugs. Pos 107, 46 is one example.
5. The red spring at pos 185, 25 is useless unless you are on the red team. It would be better if you just placed a suckertube accesible only by the red team instead of a spring, so blue players won’t get confused and run into a dead-end.
6. Pos 22, 38. The suckertubes there needs to be fixed. One is set to Y speed -8, which should be changed to +8.
7. The next lvl setting is not set to arealang but to actf, which I don’t have.
8. The swinging vine, or any swinging vines in JJ2, does not work in MP.

I’m giving this a 6.7 because there are many bugs and flaws in this lvl that could have been fixed easily if you had betatested it (if you did betatested your lvl, then you should definitely switch to someone else… :-P).

I wouldn’t recommend downloading Arealang until the bugs have been fixed. After that, it’s an ok lvl, not great, but fully playable and enjoyable.

EDIT: Changed rating to 6.7. I give DL recommendations to all lvls at 7 or above but big fans of CTF may want to have a look at this.

Let’s rate it:

Eye Candy:
I like the space eye candy, I love it a whole lot that should get from me:
8.7

Layout:
The Layout is the best thing about this level, well, it is, defentily is, yes! I love it a whole lot:
9.8

Weapon Placement:
I like how you place the weapons in the level, I love it! Yeah, there are may weapons, I think some are even hidden.
9.9

Powerups:
That’s good, there are two powerups that I found, I like it! Absolutily!
7.0

The Carrot Powerup
Well, that’s good, full healed, one actually that’s not good, no good at all:
4.5

The Flag’s Place
I like how you place the flags, yeah, it’s diffucult to find, nothing wrong here!
10

Tileset Choice:
Good choice, I like your choice
7.6

Music Choice:
I’m not interested in music but this music is absolutly perfect
10

Avarge Rating: 6.75= 6.8
If you’re looking for a good level this is the level you’re looking for.
Download recommanded: Yes
Put it into server: Yes

~The Blaziken Master

Yes, all typos made by Spotty were completely intentional. If you’ve ever talked to him on MSN, you’d know. ;-)

[test edit. ignore me. ~cooba]

Jarno vos, that’s the way Spotty talks. There are no accidental typos in Spotty’s speech! ;-P

When I start the program, I’ll get this message:
Component ‘richtx32.ocx’or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid.

please update the file and put this component into the download.

Carrotpie

Well, let’s begin:

1st Level: Mission

Layout:
The Layout is good, I like that a whole lot! 7.8

Eye Candy:
Not bad, not bad at all, well, I like it!
10

Story:
The story isn’t perfect, just halfly!
5

Overall Rating: 7.6

Level2:

Eye Candy: Well, I like it but it’s not perfect! It’s better than in the other level!
8.9

Layout: I’m lovin’ the layout, oh yes, it’s perfectly perfect. But not a 10 I deposte, maybe a
9.5

Enemies:
They are many, not too many for me, I love it! :D
8.7

Weapons: I like how you set weapons, I love that too! Well, good work in that!
6.7

Ammos: Many, not too few not too many overall, it’s good event!
9.9

Foods: No foods? Eh….
0

Suck Tube: I love these, I defentily do, well, I love it!
8.7

Boss: He is strong and hard to beat, it took me long time to beat it! :(
9.8

Overall Rating: 7.775

Tileset Choice: 8
Music Choice: 9
Overall Rating: 8.09375=8.1
Rating Recommand: Yes! :D
Good luck with your next produtions!

Bjarni: To update to version 1.23, download and install this file: http://www.jazz2online.com/J2Ov2/downloads/info.php?levelID=572

I apologize for being off-topic.

By special request from Danyel, It’s my turn to review. That, and this download doesn’t have a rating yet and I’m trying to catch up anyway :p

Melody

If the name didn’t give it away, this is another remix of the Jazz Jackrabbit theme we all know and love. It starts off shallow, slowly fading in till 0:54, when the real song starts. Nice for keeping the intro limited to 1 minute or so. The intro is basicly the first part of the intro of the original (I think I lost a few readers) over and over. If you’ve read my review of Dan’s Tubelectric Remix, Dan uses the same tactic: switching instruments. Nice strategy, as it helps keeping the song from growing dull. From 0:54 the actual song kick in, it somewhat follows the original(with a piece omitted). At 1:29 we get an intermezzo (quiet period) followed by, in my opinion, an annoying part if you use stereo headphones: The section 1:34 to 1:46 has the melody focussed too much on the left. Kinda painfull as it’s kind of loud. Followed by another intermezzo and at 2:04 we get an orignal solo piece till 2:28, with the same problem: focussed too much on the left. At 2:34 it resumes with the same melody as at 0:54. It goes on like that till 3:27, where we get another original solo (focussed too much on the left again, could ya guess?) It’s quiet long too: to 3:50. Then comes the outtro, which follows the outtro of the original faithfully, only with fade-out. Ok, i’m done.

Instruments

Switching instruments seems to be Danyel’s favored strategy for making remixes, and with the in-game songs being so short (a few exceptions here and there), what else can ya do aside from creating original melodies? I can’t exactly indentify the exact instruments, all I know is that the ones in the background are bassed in the beginning, sounding somewhat heavy and dampered. My guess is they’re synthesized. One instrument that caught me off guard was the piano, used for the original solos. As said before it’s quite loud. It’s also used at the very end, with heavily bassed instruments in the background, it’s a nice contrast wth the clear piano.

Tempo

All I can is: it’s steady. No changes or anything in mid-song. Compared with the original, this remix is a tad slower.

Verdict

A nicely done remix overall, the only problems are that on occasion, it’s focussed too much on the left and the piano’s a bit too loud when that happens. Still, the original pieces are an added welcome. Recommended listening with reservations, be sure not to use stereo head-phones :)

- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3

Wow Great Levels. Violet CLM

And By Some Levels Have You Used
A Hocus Pocus 3D Tleset (9.7 For The Tileset That You Have Used)

Eyecandy Ehhh
What Can I Says Over The Eyecandy EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Nothing :P (8.7)

By The Things That Spotty The Ghost Says
Have You Typed Words Wrong!

~Jarno