Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

A beautiful premise with beautiful execution, Threed Realms looks small, then unfolds to be bigger than you ever imagined.
One striking setting and song become several, the new enemies are tricky and cleverly placed, and a ton of checkpoints and shortcuts prevent tedious backtracking.
Replacing the Blaster with the shorter-ranged Melee Sword really changes how you want to approach enemies, and it's a twist that stays fun throughout the whole level.
My favorite part is the boss battle. It's readable without feeling trivial or unfair, and it's really fun to swing at.

With original gameplay, lovely presentation, and the most groan-inducingly punny title I've read in a while, you don't want to miss this level.

All that said, I'm not gonna try to find the remaining 3% of the skulls. I spent enough time looking for skulls back in Monster Bash…

Absolutely amazing.

A bit too expansive for my taste and the tileset doesn't make the best variety for this type of level either. I wandered around aimlessly only to end up dying and not knowing what I missed or didn't miss. Despite this it's a generally good looking level with nice music, so I still recommend it.

Good package with nice usage of the customized tileset. There are a bunch of points where I felt like the levels were designed with only a specific character in mind, and overall the challenge itself and the finale was nothing special. All in all, good addition to the holiday collection!

absolutely impressive level
+ The background(houses,trees) is almost perfect
+ to the tileset mix: its very creative designed.
- the place further up(leftside up,middleside up), could be better i think!!
- i miss a bit, an underground cave
+ Definitely one of the best xmas/snow levels I've ever seen :)

Nice little tileset conversion and level, without any clear goal or direction, but a fun time overall.

This is definitely ambitious and showcases the possibilities of JJ2+ well. The level feels a bit like an example level over an actual Single Player concept, but the tileset itself is more than satisfactory to make playing through it enjoyable. Definitely recommend and it is definitely a top contender for a tileset i'd use for a more advanced level.

Great expansion! Might make use of this myself sometime soon.

I do not play multiplayer so I cannot rate the gameplay itself, but the level showcase, tileset conversion and the music is nice.

After playing the previous pack it was simply more of the same things I didn't like so much, such as the respawning enemies and permafail puzzles. The jokes fell short because of the theme change, but otherwise would have been funny. A controversial pack with its merits and shortcomings, thanks for making it anyway!

Nice small package with decent secrets, design and holiday spirit for the most part. There are some annoying sections that are not so innovative (triggers upon triggers, that last checkpoint that spawns you stuck), but overall I enjoyed it. Good music choices as well!

Nice pack of old levels, theme is mostly there. Some of the puzzles are pretty creative but the permafail and enemy respawns make it a frustrating experience sometimes.

Accurate level description, sums up the entirety of the level. A rocket turtle flies by for no clear reason but doesn't do anything—otherwise, you're collecting coins and then laying TNT. It's reasonably novel but not all that engaging, since you're doing the same thing five times. Graphics are functional but smart tiles would have fewer bugs.

Trivially beatable by remaining directly under the falling coins and buttstomping enemies until ten coins fall.

The trap that scripting springs on unsuspecting level makers is suddenly there's no reason to take shortcuts, other than, well, they're easier. The Medivo level pits you against enemies that have been given boss health bars, but there's nothing to ensure you actually fight them instead of skipping them. Text strings politely ask you to go back if you didn't fight them, but that's all. In the Psych level, an invisible coin warp takes you to a TNT pickup and another warp back, instead of a script giving you the TNT ammo directly if you have enough coins. If the levels had no scripts at all, these would be understandable compromises, but because other things are scripted, suddenly these are points worthy of criticism.

(Similar issues apply to editing tile(set)s—suddenly every drawing made in history is theoretically available, so why settle for a tile that's close enough?)

Focusing on what the levels do do, though, rather than what they don't: this is pretty all right. Lots of pickups, including the traditional JJ2 thing where individual levels focus on individual ammo types. Trigger crates that aren't too far from their respective (clearly marked) trigger scenery blocks and sometimes do interesting things like sit on top of spikes. Level layouts that go in all directions, not just right, and feature tileset-specific obstacles. For all that the bosses are the most memorable parts of this pack, the levels aren't just window dressing, they're worthwhile (if not amazing) in their own right. Generally a pretty good time, though everything (eyecandy, layout, scripting) could take a bit more polishing.

Is this level pack creative? Sure!
Is this level pack good? Ehh…

Pros:
- Interesting boss ideas, albeit simple;
- You can tell that some amount of effort went into making it;
- Levels are visually distinct from one another and can look pretty nice at times.

Cons:
- The level layout is a bit flat, not great but not terrible;
- Lots of tile errors, inconsistent tile usage;
- The boss fights are repetitive and become tedious rather quickly;
- Not Lori-friendly, probably beatable as Lori if you're really good at it;
- If there are secrets, I couldn't find any;
- No checkpoints whatsoever.

While I can't really recommend this level pack, I have to appreciate the effort that went into creating it. These are three original, short to medium-sized levels that try to bring something new to the table, which is very commendable!

Slaz's levels exist in a peculiar intersection of being incredibly specific to JJ2 mechanics while also not specific to traditional JJ2 level design. There are so many events that this level is built around that couldn't easily be substituted, and yet, this is not at all how the normal levels play. V-Poles, one of my favorites, are used frequently to help the player get around. Pickups are simultaneously numerous and infrequent, often placed singly instead of in groups or four or six. Some food pickups are used to mark where players should jump and so on, classic platformer design goodness, while many more are just incidental to keep the player engaged and the screen busy. Secrets are absolutely everywhere but do a good job of being clearly secrets, not the main path, except for the exit from the dark grave area, which is kind of confusing. Collapse scenery is used to great effect in an all-new(?) way to open up the level as you progress through it: there will be multiple horizontal areas built on top of each other, and once you find the way up to the next one, you can trigger collapse scenery to open up more paths for easier exploration later. Sometimes this is paired with buttstomp scenery, which I think works less well because the stomp blocks are much easier to see than the collapsible bridges, and that makes it look like something you're supposed to uppercut. Things that look like they can be shot can generally be shot. There's just an endless variety of things to do, in a variety of possible orders to do them in, letting players take control of their destinies and craft their unique gameplay experiences. But somehow this non-linear experience manages to be crossed with an ultimately linear level with three or four distinct, bounded areas with their own objectives and layouts. It's an impressive balancing act, the moreso for how natural (but rewarding) everything feels.

It's a neat little Halloween themed SP level! I really liked the custom ghost enemies and the atmosphere.

when i first saw it,
i was pretty amazed by this creations!!! so good job!! :)
.
+ i really enjoyed it! it made me fun :))
+ the halloween desingh does fit, and it works that it looks like on halloween!
+ nice idea with the ..ghosts!!! (make sure that /plusonly on ..and /latestversiononly on … is enabled,
to see this 2x enemies in a ..transparent white )
.
- to the level: a few things could be better , i think!!)
.
+ the "coin warp" goes into a cave, inside of this cave , there is a little ufo
hmm.. not sure what it does, i didn't got all the coins, i'll try soon again to find all the needed coins
not sure what this little ufo does! :)
.
..anyway it's a nice idea!!
.
btw you need 60x coins to collect
.
of course i liked it to play it!! :)
thanks
.
your creation was a nice surprise!! :))
.
//message from: 30.10.2023
today i replayed it, and i found all the needed coins, the search was long, and easy to find them
finaly to the cave:
and.. that ufo seems to be a tile, ..and it's not a pickup item.
first, I thought its a new weapon, ..but i was wrong :i
.
and there is a message left: "This tree survived the nightmare."
.
.
btw you can not kill the ..ghosts but you can freeze them.
.
[hidden message] im always so much thankfull!! ,for any new selfmade creations for jazz2! to keep the game allive! :)

Here is the gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwSEQDTlWaU&t=1023s