Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

NOKA, check your private messages ;) By the by, Ceramicus has already been converted by CelL, but he only did the basic stuff.

sob Ok, next time, I won’t review until it’s been converted to 1.23 Then I won’t have to edit my reviews anymore…

First impressions:

NOKA should make a habit out of starting the examples with the lay-out of the level it’s based on :P Of course it starts with the JJ1 Type intro (Now approaching… NOKA, keep that in ;)) As I further got into the level, I noticed everything was there, including some extras: vines, hooks, that sorta thing. What surprised me most was that NOKA went through the trouble of creating not only a non-standard 3D background, but a mountain background with pots too! Those are very welcome additions to Ceramicus, as they make it more appealing to use.

Conversion Completeness:

Ceramicus has to be the planet with the least amount of tiles (Tho Fanolint and Lagunicus aren’t that far behind it). That makes it quite easy to get all the tiles. And he did get everything, and more: he outfitted them all with 3 different backgrounds: none, the standard one and the green background. Good job :)
I forgot to mention: the original Ceramicus didn’t have slopes aside from from those “trees” He was kind enough to put those slopes in :)

Added extras:
Of course the usual addons are there: vines, poles, destructible blocks, trigger block (even the empty one), sucker tubes (magic perhaps?), non-standard 3D background, JJ1 type sky and the biggest treat of all: a mountain background with pots! Further things are the animations for that background, a red star and a moon, that “Now approaching…” thing (NOKA, make that your trademark ;p) and the JJ1 HUD! On a side note: my guess is that NOKA used a 3D renderer for the background and the planet sphere. Just guessing :p

Masking:

When I check the masking, I always check for smoothness (no bumps, you hear?). Luckily, this set has no such bumps. One warning tho: the new slopes are uneven on the edges, whatever you do, for long slopes, repeat the mid-section. Of course there’s a hidden mask message, this time telling you about his plans. Read it, at least I did :P

Night version:

The night version is basicly the same as the normal one, only with a different palette (duh). My only complaint is that this time, the background is dark enough, but the foreground is a tad too light. (with his Diamondus conversion it was the other way around). Not a big problem, since the sky helps determine the atmosphere more than the foreground :)

Verdict:

Yet another wonderfull conversion by NOKA. Not only has he converted the planet with the least amount of tiles (least appealing to convert, even less to build with it), he added enough extras to make it very appealing to build with. He has certainly earned my respect, and can’t wait to see more of his work soon :) NOKA is well on his way to rival Violet, better watch out ;p

- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3[This review has been edited by JelZe]

Ok, why hasn’t any onereviewed this yet? Too lazy, or is this just too hard? O well…

I may sound biased like this: even without looking at the level, I strongly recommend downloading this. Why? It’s a Golden Oldie of the Jazz 2 City era, it’s a history lesson for the newbies and a piece of history for the “oldies” (that includes me ;p) Now, on to the review. since it’s two levels, I’ll be brief :P

Castle Falkenstein

This level’s a challenge. Using the castle 1 set (and Tubelectric music, which somehow somewhat fits the nature of this level), this level will drive the impatient to insanity :p This isn’t a straight forward level at all, lemme warn ya. Your first “mission” is to find all 20 coins to enter the bonus warp. Easier said than done, with the traps around: spring, spiked pits and hidden enemies. Even worse: you’ll have to backtrack once you find the trigger crate to the last coins. The second part is more of a doozy: find a way down the bridge and to the exit (Hint: try shooting). That part more filled with bonusses for willing :P

Nothing to complain about: eye candy is good, lay-out great… A reason for concern is that room with the last coins mentioned earlier. That is room is accessible, via triggers (part 1) or the one way bridge (part 2). And here’s the problem: when you lose a life, all triggers, goodies, etc. are reset Should you get into that room, there’s no way you can get out once you’ve entered part 2. Shamefull, and it could have easily been avoided by removing that one-way bridge.

Overall, short but challenging, and makes finishing the level worth it.

Rating: 7 (-.5 for that room)

Falkenstein’s Dungeon

More of same thing :p No looking for coins tho: Just find your way to the end of the level. Of course this level has a boss: the SchwartzenGuard with an added challenge: spiked pits :P

Of course no level is pefect: faulty next level setting when played in TSF (labrat2.j2l). I’ll let this one slide tho, since when this level was made the players were “young and foolish” :p

Rating: 6

Verdict:
A blast from the past, which everyone should see. This level is old, but still fun :)

Final rating (J2O): (7 + 6) / 2 + .5 (brownie points :P) = 7
Final rating (J2C): two stars

- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3[This review has been edited by JelZe]

The level, it’s an original idea, but the slowness is annoying.

The eyecandy is OK.

And that’s all.

-

This was the first race level I ever downloaded, in either 1999 or 2000.

Mikee, you probably got it from Birdman’s Nest, his site, which was the first JJ2 site I ever went to besides The Daily Carrot.

It’s a good level, but the eyecandy is not-so-good. Good obstacles. I know the password to your levels, I don’t make them so easy to guess. O.o; I accidently pressed enter while opening your level.

(Unsupported rating removal edit. As a note, a blank password often means the author later chose not to have one, as JCS does not support actual password removal. ~Violet)[This review has been edited by Violet CLM]

Yay! 1.23 now!!!11

Time for the review:

Firstly, the tileset is now 1.23, though the levels are still TSF made, so they show up completely blank in my jcs. I can still review the tileset like this, but it’d have been better to review the tileset by looking at it and how it is used in the example level. Oh well, I should probably give NOKA more credit for turning it into 1.23 than critisizing the fact that the levels are TSF. Back to the review:

Tiles included: Hmmm..lets see. The pine trees, the weird oval looking trees, the tree trunks with the eyes, tree branches and tree stuff, cave bg, kill rabbit posters, lots of ground and wall, trigger tiles, green high grass, plants, the ground turning into bridge, diff. signs, arrows, mushrooms, statues, sparkles, custom made poles, custom made destruct blocks, hooks and suckers, flashing arrows, foreground gems, backround stuff, the sun and cloud, waterfall stuff, two useable bg’s, jazz jackrabbit figure, mini-turtle, NOKA sign inside a television, NOW APPROACHING DIAMONDUS poster (this looks cool, I like it) and Violet CLM rules, NOKA Sucks sign, and some other stuff I missed. This is the most completest Diamondus tileset I have.
Pros: Everything.
Cons: The waterfall anim coulda been better.

Color: Looks great, the night version looks ok (it could’ove been darker, but its fine the way it is for me) and the tileset is pleasing to look at. Can’t say much more.
Pros: Fairly large color variety, 3 different versions with different colors.
Cons: for some reason I had to narrow my eyes when looking at the evening version, but it could’ove been the lighting in the room, or just my eyes

Masking: Looks ok, some of the ground is masked a bit strangely (particulary the holes in the walls, but then when you think about it they’re masked like that for the better to avoid bugs and getting stuck. I like the fact that the wall the pole is coming out of is fully masked, so you won’t “miss” the pole or accidentally put a pole event on the tile that’s half wall half pole. The devan, text, rabbits stink, jazz and checkmark signs are unmasked. I though that the rabbits stink sign would be masked so you could destroy it (since there are two animations for it, one where its not destroyed, one where it is.) Some mask messages and stuff, well done.
Pros: Good masking, some precautions taken to avoid glitches
Cons: Nothing major.

Animations: Since the rabbit stink sign isn’t an animation in this set: Sparkles, large variety of destruct blocks (yes it is large), trigger blocks, arrows (and there are a lot of them), flashy things in bg, a lot of waterfalls, and stuff. Yes, there are a lot of animations, even most of them are small, the set gets a very high mark in this area.
Pros: lots of animations, destruct block variety
Cons: Most are small

Overall: Looking over the tileset I found it 9.2ish. Color is a plus, animations is a plus, tiles included is a very high plus, but some minor things could of been improved (like the waterfalls). Still great though, the best Diamondus conversion I have.

9.2.

Time to review a good/very good level. Let’s start.
Gameplay: This level has good gameplay. The CTF bases were good placed in a small level. The springs were good, enz. Nothing bad about this.
Eyecandy: Eyecandy is very good. There are lots of dark places and all layers were used. That’s very good.
Pickup placement: Ammo placement was very nice. Not many ammo for a small level, great. The full energy was good placed on a small platform in the middle of the level. At each side of the level was a power-up, and the selection of RF and bouncers were good chosen.
Others:
Download: yes
Host this: yes you can host this sometimes and it’s good for duels.
Rating: 8.2
Edit: It’s not old.[This review has been edited by da man]

Another interesting level.

Gameplay – Okay
The sucker tubes annoy me. I kept accidently touching them when trying to innocently navigate the level, and it made it hard to get to where I wanted to get. I’m also anti-deadends in battle / CTF levels, unless it’s strategically done. Another thing I dislike is the spring that has a long delay on it. That disrupts the flow. Overall, the gameplay is decent, but confusing.
Layout – Bad
Ugh, so confusing… I all ways get lost, and the springs and sucker tubes annoy me. It’s interesting, but it’s just annoying and confusing.
Eyecandy – Good
Well, here’s the good part of the level. The eyecandy is fairly good. There is a foreground with some pipes, and some background layers with background stuff. There is some stuff in the sprite layer, too, making the eyecandy look overall pretty nice here.
Ammo placement – Good
Good ammo placement, I guess. It’s original. Rather then rectangles of ammo, there are some straight lines of ammo near the ceilings of the level. There is only one powerup that I counted, which is a well hid bouncer powerup.
Overall – Okay / good
Download reccomendation – Not really. It’s your choice.
Host this often – Probably not.

Interesting. Unfortunately, people have higher standards among levels now.

Gameplay – Good
The gameplay is good, for a frog race…. frog races are very slow moving, and they get very boring, especially because they can only be played in splitscreen. You should make your races so you get a coin every time you finish a lap, and then when you have three coins, you are warped to a room with gems so you can win the level. Or, you could do it with trigger zones, which is a bit more complicated. I understand that back in that day, nobody really thought up of those ideas, which is okay. Anyway, there are multiple routes for completing this level, which is also all ways good in races. They both seem to let me complete them with the same amount of effort, which, unfortunately, isn’t much. At the end of the laps, you find Eva, who kisses you, allowing you to complete a lap. Pretty standard race, really.

Eyecandy – Good
Not bad at all. Diamonds in the walls, trees, grass eyecandy, a background, etc. I would like to complain about some of the trees, though, especially the reddish brown ones. They look rather ugly. The eyecandy is overall pretty good for a level of it’s time.

Size – Bad
It’s too small. Frog races don’t need to be very big, because frogs can’t move fast, but this is still a little too small for my liking.

Ammo placement – N/A
No shooting = no ammo.

Biasing – N/A
No Jazz/Spaz = no biasing.

Overall – Good
This would be fun to play in splitscreen, but it just wouldn’t work online.

Download reccomendation – If you’re like DX DC and you play splitscreen a lot offline. Otherwise, leave this alone.

Host this often – No, because it’s not playable online.

6.9, rounded up to 7.0.

No, DX DC, this is 5 years old. He made it well before you.[This review has been edited by labratkid]

This is amazing. When did you join this site? Because I downloaded it from a private website. I also downloaded your Falkenstien things.

I created this level in 1998!! I got full marks on Jazz2City with it…. This is THE original Frog Race. Before ANYONE had ever thought of making a race as a Frog. I Stand firmly and squarely behind my level. [besides the zipfile has a different name, so there’s no issue!][This review has been edited by Birdman]

I’m prepared to have fun with this review.

GAMEPLAY:

The layout puzzles me. Everything seems to be placed randomly and then somehow connected together. I don’t like the way the layout looks nor all of these narrow passages I keep encountering. But at least the flow is better than it was before; it still needs a little work, but it’s a start. Balance, however, is still a big issue. The red base is at the top right of the level with some options as for escape routes. In contrast, the blue base is in an enclosed area at the bottom left with one way in and one way out. It seems that the blue base would be much easier to defend than the red base. But I have to say, the layout actually isn’t overwhelmingly unbalanced for a level with bases placed diagonally, considering the routes base to base and everything. Moving on, spring placement is better than before, but could better yet. For example, around pos 94,13, one spring in the center of the platform would have been much better than those five springs. And I just don’t see the point of having more than one spring in a row in this level.

EYE CANDY:

At least the tileset was used correctly (finally), although the eye candy still isn’t that good. Well, that’s not entirely true; the chains in the foreground weren’t made well. Other than that, the eye candy is repetitive throughout the entire level. In all, the background is the only thing in this level which keeps the eye candy from being horrible, even though the BG is nothing special.

CARROT AND AMMO PLACEMENT:

I never liked trying to grab a carrot from a small hole. This level has a full energy in that scenario. Albeit, this carrot is nearly the same distance from each base. I would have to say the same applies for the bouncer and seeker powerups more or less. As for ammo placement, there’s enough ammo around the level, but it wasn’t placed strategically or anything. The ammo is just there for the sake of being there.

HOST THIS OFTEN?

Still no. Dx might finally be getting through. 6.2 is my rating. Think of it as a 6.3 rounded down.

Wow!
This is the most complete JJ1 conversion I have ever seen!
First, the tileset has all the basic needed things for a conversion- the ground, the basic eyecandy, ect. Next, the tileset has some things I have seen in conversions before, but not in all conversions- the original JJ1 exit sign, jazz sprites, ect. Also, the tileset has some things I have never seen in a JJ1 conversion before- the ‘approaching’ screen comes to mind. The author even took the liberty of adding new tiles- sucker tubes, vines, ect., some of which actually look good! There even are two pallet-changed versions (an evening and night version). While I am not too fond of the effect, I do congradulate the author on the effort. After all that work, simply changing the tileset(s) from 1.24 to 1.23 must have been pretty easy! So, in conclusion, I have lost track of what I was saying, so I will just get it over with and give this a 9!

END REVIEW

Due to circumstances beyond my control I have to rewrite an entire review. ;.;

See, this tileset was TSF only (and Cazz, 1.23 sets work with TSF too!) but since it’s rebuilt in 1.23, allowing me to view it in its full glory… sob

Conversion Completeness:
Simply put: everything is there, every tile and animation you can find in JJ1 Diamondus. Even the Katana returns (One Must Fall 2097 cameo :p)

Added Extras:
A lot, as said in my previous review. I’ll just name the extra things you can find: JJ2 Diamondus arrows (no JJ2 mushroom, Flash), poles (both H and V-poles work, only vines and hooks need masks to work), destructable blocks (all types), sucker tubes, JJ2 style 3D background (which works in 8-bit, ditto for the JJ1-type sky), two JJ1 Jazz sprites, a poster with Devil Devan, a monitor with Noka on it and a Turtlette, Letni style banner (which reads: Violet CLM rules, Noka sucks. Vanity is ruling ;p), and a JJ1 style planet intro (Now approaching…) Phew
And there’s a evening and night version too (like Holidaius ^., tho the night version is a bit too light) O, I seem to have missed an invisible masked block. O well :)

Masking:
Nothing wrong with the masking, even tho the signs aren’t masked unlike in JJ1 (who says they have to be, they’re just in the way anyway :p) And hidden messages in the masking is a fad nowadays: first Wisey, Violet and some others, and now him. It’s basicly a story about how rolled into Jazz Jackrabbit. :)

Verdict:
Violet, watch out! Noka has made a stunning first impression with this tileset conversion. Even though things didn’t start well (the set being TSF thing), he took the effort to convert it to 1.23, which scores very high with me. A definite download recommendation!

- JelZe GoldRabbit =:3[This review has been edited by JelZe]

Hmm, and ok CTF level, lets review:

INTRODUCTION:
This a ctf level created by Da man, and it is probably one of his best level, i think.Download or not? my review ( will/should ) tell it to you.

GAMEPLAY:
Hmm.. gamepaly is very bad.. springs aren’t well placed at all.There are blue springs in places were you could use green springs, and the result is annoying ( springs take you too high, etc) there is not any dead near red base, but there is an a dead end in blue base.I think that gameplay needs lots improvement.
Pros: well, at least there is no obstacles in flat ground so you don’t have to jump over them.
Cons:Dead ends, other things..
Rating: 5.5

BASE / CARROT / AMMO PLACEMENT:
Ick. ammo placement is horrible. There is some ammo, but its mostly badly placed like packs of five seeker / five bouncer, there is little bit too much ammo in it, i think, ( for this level )
actually, i think that is best to make ammo packs like this:

***
***

See? these are easy to collect by one jump.And they look little bit nicer ( i think )
Anyway, i think that ammo palcement is little below average…
Carrot placement is bad too, there is one Full energy carrot, what is in a cave, what has a dead end, that is bad, very bad.Base placement is bad too, like i said in the gameplay section, one base is in a somekind of cave with two dead ends.One is there by no reason, and the CTF base is in the other one.Anyway, i think that you should focus more on placement next time, and you would receive much higher ratings.. trust me.
Pros:At least, its ok.
Cons:very bad placement. ( see my placement section )
Rating:5.2

EYECANDY / LAYOUT:
Hmm.. its boring.Almost every time is same, and i saw some unmasked castle tiles, but there is so small amount of them.There should be more.It wouldn’t be so boring then.There is good things too, at least i see background eyecandy in layers 6-7.Focus more on eyecandy next time.
Pros:Background layers.
Cons:Boring eyecandy..
Rating:5.7

CONCLUSION:
Hmm.. its a CTF level, ( above average.) i don’t think its worth to download, but if you’re collector of CTF levels, you should download this.
DOWNLOAD RECOMMEDATION:No..
FINAL RATING:5.5 ( 5.5 + 5.2 = 5.3 + 5.7 = 5.5 )

~ThE ChaiR

yes its better but i want to
betatest i did (YEAH) but i said ther is a bug. then i must go to sport :(
and you upload it??? with the bug? OMG!

1-some bugs
2-good eyecandy :D
3-good amoo placed mayby to close to eachother
4-hmm not bad gameplay
5-no coins for coinwarp
6-good carrotts placed :)

i wanted to give it a 7 but because ther ar is a bug i give it a 6.8->6.7

here a 6.7

and a nice level!
whan good level without bugs and yor ther :D!

PS: make it bigger ( it was not small or big but make it bugger for the fun :D )

~Ðx

Hey all
Look at my new website
http://www.freewebs.com/jazzdx/index.htm [This review has been edited by dx dc]

Eyecandy – Very bad
There’s not much here besides blocks. Very ugly.
Gameplay – Very bad
Not much here. Just a symetrical (sp?) arena that flows poorly.
Ammo placement – Okay
Okay, well, the ammo placement is okay. It’s original.

1.) Put backgrounds into your levels in layers 6 and 7.
2.) Make bigger levels. Spend more time on them.
3.) Make the levels look nicer.
4.) Make sure they’re easy for Jazz to play in, too. Put springs.[This review has been edited by labratkid]

Ok, time to review again! This time a short one.
Gameplay: The gameplay here was boring. It had no springs and many vines. There were also very small platforms.
Eyecandy: A small level like this can’t have good eyecandy. At least, there were some caves. That’s the best a small level like this can have.
Pickup placement: There was some ammo here, and one power-up, the blaster power-up. A small level like this can have one power-up and it doesn’t matter which it is. There were 2 carrots with at each side one. I think one is enough in the middle but this is too many for a level like this.
Host this: No!
Download: Only if you are dumb.
My rating: 5.2.

Ok, Time for a review!
Gameplay: This level has great gameplay. The platforms had a good size so that you can`t fall off quickly. The springs placement was good, too. The warp to the blaster power-up was the only con here because it was more close to the Blue Base.
Eyecandy: There was very good eyecandy here. I liked it very much. Some good pipes, dark tiles enz. Just very good.
Pickup placement: This level had not many ammo and one power-up, that`s the only con here but ok. Not all levels have a power-up. the other ammo placement was good. Maybe too less but ok. There were a few Fastfires, they were good placed and 2 carrots. The 1st carrot was more close to the blue base, which was also a con in the gameplay. The other carrot was good placed in the middle.
Host this: Yes I think you can host this.
Download: sure.
Final rating: 8.0

Why coins, Dx? I don’t wan’t to put an warp in it! And I made it in less then an our! So I think it’s good for so fast!
But am I good in making 1-player LVL’s?
I didn’t know…

weeeh eh oo

1-bad eyecandy
2-bad gameplay
3-no coins
4-very small
5-little bit boring

why did you made this :(
you can make good single player levels but this is not good :(!

a 5.7 from me!

~Ðx

Coins for a COIN WARP for power up or full EC

now you know that yor good in SP levels
[This review has been edited by dx dc]