Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Overview

Vault of Ceramicus is a tall level that takes a while to traverse around upwards. It’s cramped in a few areas, with lots of tubes. There’s a coin warp reward near the top, and a room at the bottom with lots of gems, that you can reach with TNT and a flying carrot.

Pros

Props for thinking outside of the box. I think levelmakers should experiment with treasure more, as there’s so much hidden potential.

It looks alright, for the most part.

Cons

Slaz failed at making this level work for a smaller party, which was apparently his goal. I can confirm this by playtesting it a couple of times. I don’t think he realised it’s not about forcefully slowing players down, but mainly the size of the map. Even the recommended maxscore isn’t so great. At 5-6 players with 100 as the goal, whoever reaches the gem vault first will automatically win. Which brings me to this point;

Going for the gem vault is worth way more, than aiming for the coin warp. Not only does it take less time, but is a much larger reward. In other words, the rewards are completely imbalanced.

The gem vault isn’t that hard/risky to reach. It may take a few tries and require knowledge of the flying through tubes (press down through a tube while you’re using a flying carrot) and large TNT hitbox trick. But the reward is so high and most players aren’t going to stay at the bottom area, since there isn’t much reason to (small amount of gems and no useful ammo), further reducing the risk. Not to mention the reward is so high, that any gems you may lose from getting shot are miniscule in comparison.

To put it shortly, I think the vault reward is too high. Everytime I or someone else manages to reach to vault, the winner has pretty much been decided at that point. And at that point it becomes less treasure hunt, and more level and mechanic knowledge to win (also, whoever reaches that point first).

The coin warp becomes useless once all the gems are collected in the room. I think a respawning tube of gems would’ve been better, as they would always give the coins a purpose.

The nature of the layout (highly vertical and forcefully slowing players down) makes it difficult to catch up to others, or hit them. Useful ammo is a little lacking, too. As a result, the pace of the map slows down.

A lot of areas look the same, especially the middle area. Part of the reason is the vast amount of tubes sticking out there. When you’re falling down, it’s not easy to see which tube direction goes to where. I think it may have been more intuitive to have the tubes sticking out from where you can enter from, which is far easier/quicker than trying to read small arrows.

Conclusion

Overall, I think this level is okay, but with notable flaws when you play it for a while. It may work better with a larg(er) amount of players.

This level is easily recognizable as made by FireSword: lavish eyecandy, heavy on the conceptual side and with some interesting scripted effects. I found that it played fairly well, with a lot of fighting occuring in the lower corridors. On the one hand this was great, but due to the flatness of the level’s bottom area it was also easy for everyone to just run back and forth shooting with their blaster with no one really getting the chance to grab the dropped gems because everyone was constantly blinking.

There’s plenty of room to move around the rest of the level though, so if the fighting at the bottom gets too intense it’s always possible to roam around looking for potshots and gems people haven’t taken yet. There’s a fair amount of gems in the level and there’s a lot of useful ammo in the upper parts of the level as well which keeps things dynamic. The ammo selection is standard but seekers are relatively sparse but also really useful in the vertical parts of the level which makes them all the more desirable.

The level-ending warp is through a scripted portal in the middle of the level that looks rather spectacular, and puts you in a separate area where not much happens if you don’t have enough gems – in which case you just jump down back into the fight. The portal looks great and somehow even attracts players when they don’t have enough gems. The rest of the level is heavily decorated as well and makes ample use of Castle’s slides, which didn’t look that great, in my opinion; a matter of taste maybe, but I didn’t care much for it. There’s a couple of other areas which looked like tilebugs but might have been meant to look like that, knowing FireSword’s style. I guess I prefer a less experimental style.

Finally, the secret mentioned in the description involves walljumping for a bonus of 100 gems. I think it’s a really bad idea, games where people know of the secret will become “who will get there first” races instead of actual treasure hunts. Secrets are cool, but this one is a bit too big.

It’s things like that – the imbalanced secret, the somewhat-too-avant-garde eyecandy – that don’t really endear me to the level. It’s not bad by any means and will make for good games – and it has that spectacular portal – but there are better levels out there, and in this contest.

Great level, probably my favourite out of all contest entries.

There’s very little to criticize. The level is small and contains a good amount of gems and quite a bit of ammo too, which makes for action-packed games. There’s a clear division between the upper and lower half of the level, with the lower half seeing most of the action when I played it – this of course in part because it’s hard to dodge shots in water, and also because there’s a good amount of gems and ammo to be found.

The top of the level is easy to navigate and contains several pinball paddles which makes it possible to jump huge distances and be very mobile in general. If you’ve got about 6 players (as recommended by the author) games in this level become chaotic, full of action and a lot of fun.

The level looks great, too. Especially the upper half is well-decorated, with the eyecandy never going overboard but still making everything look great. The music fits the tileset and feel of the level really well and is a good choice here. My only criticism on this part would be that the bottom (underwater) area looks comparatively dull. This creates a good contrast between the upper and lower half, but some more decoration would perhaps have been nice.

Overall this is an excellent level that’s among the best Treasure levels out there and I’d certainly recommend hosting it whenever you’re running the game mode on your server.

AngelScript! Woo!

This level is huge, open, and without much of a flow – that is, there’s no obvious paths to take. You kind of just run around and jump from platform to platform (which is hell if you aren’t Spaz, by the way) and hope you bump into gems or other players. Complicating things is the pit at the bottom of the level, which luckily has a big gem-saving script attached to it (I wonder why you didn’t just use warps) so you don’t lose your gems upon dying.

Gems that fall down or towards the level’s side edges because people get shot will still be lost however, which is a major problem as the game goes on and may eventually make the game unwinnable. This is a serious problem that really should’ve been fixed.

Another scripted feature of the level is your blaster, which has only 25 bullets and needs reloading when these are depleted. Reloading requires standing still and waiting while your ammo count slowly increases. This is a nice idea that could work really well in treasure hunt (where you really don’t want to stand still). However 25 bullets is perhaps a bit too few and the short range of the blaster means that it becomes really hard to actually hit other people before you run out of bullets. It’s also impossible to reload while your ammo count is above zero. This often makes it smarter to just jump in the pit and get free bullets rather than waiting for the reload to finish.

Overall an okay-ish level with some innovative ideas, but it really could’ve used some more testing and thinking about the gameplay impact of the scripted features. A shame they weren’t implemented better, or this could’ve been a really interesting level.

I played this online today. It’s a nice level, but it’s so big! You’d need a lot of players to make this play well, as we were with about 6 people and I often went for minutes at a time without really interacting with other players.

The level looks really nice, though it’s a bit “bumpy” in its design – you don’t necessarily get stuck, but you’ll be jumping rather than running most of the time. This is of course in part due to the level’s vertical layout. On the one hand the many obstacles and the vertical gameplay make it hard to get away from others, on the other hand they also make it hard to actually shoot someone. The inclusion of TNT is a nice touch that has the opportunity to mitigate this.

As for the gems, I think the amount is just about right for the gem limit of 150 or more we played with. Things tended to get a bit eventless in the later stages of the game as most gems were gone from the level and people were hard to find due to the level’s size, but that might be different with larger numbers of players.

All in all a good level, but it’s kind of stuck in the “big JDC event levels” niche. Taking on a level of this size is commendable, but for casual treasure servers a smaller level would probably work better.

A large pack usually calls for a large review, but there isn’t anything especially interesting to say of this pack unfortunately. It’s not that it’s bad – it isn’t – but it’s jut a bit …generic. All levels are more or less the same: large, sparse eyecandy, LOTS of enemies, little challenge beyond avoiding the enemies.

Which isn’t especially hard either with Spaz’s karate kick, but many enemies respawn quickly and there are some parts where you have to avoid warps or time your jumps well. As such it happens that you’ve just cleared a platform and are then hurt or killed by an army of baddies spawning right on top of you. Not exactly ideal, but on the other hand they’re mostly placed on flat platforms with lots of space above them so in many cases the best solution is to simply jump over them.

As said, there’s nothing wrong with these levels – they’re just not very interesting to play. Some more variety would’ve done wonders – different tilesets, more puzzles, enemies placed in such a way that they’re harder to avoid. And maybe don’t set the “next level” setting of each level to “Data.j2d” ;)

Well, I’ve seen worse first levels, but this still isn’t all that interesting. The idea of making a boss arena isn’t a bad one, and as part of a larger level pack it would’ve been fine, but standalone this isn’t really worth downloading.

The problem with JJ2’s bosses is that they’re all fairly easy (except for Bilsy perhaps). Their AI isn’t good and easy to fool, especially in large areas where the player (who is way faster) can easily jump around and outrun the fumbling bosses. This level is fairly large, and gives the player several powerups. Coupled with Devan’s tedency to get stuck on slopes this makes it easy to pick his first form off from a distance, and simply jump around his immobile second form killing him with potshots here and there.

There is some added difficulty from a respawning bee in the lower right corner of the level, but it’s easy to avoid and therefore not much of a factor. More bees or a smaller areas would’ve made the boss fight a lot harder (though not necessarily more interesting).

The eyecandy is fairly basic, there are no tile bugs and the textured background works, but there’s not much more to see than this bare minimum. If the level is as small as this one, ceretainly it isn’t too difficult to add some more prettiness to it?

All in all not bad for a first level, but at the same time not worth downloading or playing. Keep it up, though! Such a start does hold some promise for what’s to come.

To be honest, this looks like a typical “my first level” that shouldn’t really have been uploaded here. Everyone starts out like this – trying out various way to build platforms and buildings with tilesets, maybe adding a few enemies to see how they work, no textured background because you don’t know how that works yet.

My first single player level probably looked similar. I’m glad I never uploaded it to this site, because it really wasn’t good, and maybe that should’ve happened to this one too: let it stay on your hard drive, learn from it, play some other highly-rated single player levels, take inspiration from those, and create your next level that is actually fun to play and looks good. Maybe ask a few friends to play the level and tell you what they think, so you can change it based on their feedback and make it better before putting it out there for others to download and review. I’m sure your next levels will be a lot better if you do it like that!

As it is, this one is really not playworthy, though.

I like this pack a lot. It’s just three levels with the default tilesets, but they’re big, fun to play and challenging.

The first level is fairly standard, much in the style of the official Castle levels. The tileset edit is nice enough, maybe the contrast is slightly too high but it looks good and adds a slight twist to the level. This goes for all three levels: large, with a nice palette edit and fun to play even though they don’t do anything spectacularly innovative.

All levels are full of secrets and diverging paths, which is great but sometimes a bit confusing: through the pack I got lost a few times looking for an exit in a dead-end area that didn’t actually have one. There’s almost always a way out that is fairly obvious once you finally find it, though.

I don’t really know what else to say; there’s nothing specific that stands out in these levels, but they do make for a good time playing them and finishing them feels rewarding due to the size and amount of secrets Bloody_Body put in them. I definitely recommend downloading this to all single player fans out there.

Well, that’s a flashback. The first level of this pack (that contains only text in Hungarian, so if there’s any story I’m afraid I didn’t quite get it) is an actual tutorial, much like the original game’s ‘Rabbit in Training’ level and, I’m afraid to say, equally dull. You can assume that anyone downloading levels from this site knows how the game plays, making tutorial levels fairly superficial.

Anyway, on to the actual levels. The first two are perfectly okay and do reach the goal of a making a “remake” of the original episode: they’re very reminiscent of Epic’s style, but a little bit bigger. The difficulty is also slightly higher and the levels are less linear than the original – that is, they are linear, but you’re getting warped all over the place so it’s hard to get an idea of where you are in the level.

The third level starts with a puzzle area that I didn’t care much for. There’s a lot of “okay, where am I supposed to go now?” which isn’t necessarily bad but since there are respawning enemies in the area you can’t easily jump around trying to find the hidden tunnel or trigger zone, but need to be on your toes not to bump in the same enemy all the time, which makes the whole process fairly tedious. There’s also an area later in the level where you get warped to random places by warps you can’t possible see before running into them, giving the whole puzzle a really random feel which gets annoying fast. The boss fight that follows isn’t much different from the original castle boss fight and as such not very interesting.

Overall a decent episode, but with parts that got annoying/tedious due to overzealous use of respawning enemies and warps. Always make the player feel like they’re the one in control!

Download recommended if you’d like a more challenging interpretation of the original Epic style levels.

The title of these levels suggests that the gameplay is inspired by the Flappy Bird games. And indeed the first 10 seconds or so involve the player manoeuvring between pipes like in that game, but fortunately the gameplay similarities end there and the rest of this pack is more of a standard Jazz Jackrabbit 2 single player experience, albeit in levels made with tilesets inspired by Flappy Bird’s graphics.

When I say “standard” I mean to say that the levels play out much like the official Jazz Jackrabbit 2 levels: lots of easily-killed enemies, coin warps, some jumping and trigger puzzles, useless pickups (what have diamonds ever done for me?) and lots of blocks to destroy. It’s good enough in what it does; things never get challenging and level design could’ve been a bit more creative but the levels are perfectly functional as a short casual diversion. The final boss even changes things up a bit by hiding a Schwarzenguard in a giant Flappy Bird which you then have to kill with electroblasters only. It’s things like that that make a level interesting and I’d have liked to have seen a bit more of that kind of creativity.

Sadly there’s not much else of that and coupled with the rather dull tilesets (Flappy Bird doesn’t have much in the way of graphics to steal of course, but that’s not much of an excuse) this pack is fairly forgettable. Not bad by any means, just not very interesting either. But I think with a bit of added creativity Ande300 could certainly make some interesting things in the future.

All in all this is not brilliant, but not bad either. Download if you want to have a bit of casual single player fun, but there are better levels out there.

Haha, I somehow passed by this program by clicking too many links.. It works fine for a 2006 utility and does it’s job, besides Modplug Tracker supporting J2B’s for years now and Bass.dll giving a more accurate touch to all mods while played through JJ2+.

There are a few tilebugs, for example sometimes you can stand in the wall or you can’t jump on a spring, because there’s something over it that you can stand on.
Anyway, for a second map, it’s very good job! ;-)

[Review changed to quick review, see the review rules.

There isn’t much to say about it. It’s simply nice, but the music sounds like satan remixed the original theme. The map is a little bit confusing, too many annoying lizards… There are no other enemies than the reptilian foes, which is sad. The tileset looks nice. Something scares me when I play the level, I don’t know why. Playing it with Lori is almost impossible. Anyway, I think 9.2/10 is a fair review.

It was a kinda short map, the boss wasn’t a big of a deal, but not the easiest. The bee nest was a random thing that wasn’t necesary at all. It is a nice map for a first one.

It is a nice begginer map, even if it isn’t the best or close.

EDIT:
I see you’ve made some positive changes to the level. Generators are present now and have their respawn time set quite low, which works fine in such a small fast-paced level. Just remind yourself to set it higher if you ever build a bigger MP level. Next we have the much desired vertical space in the form of the upper platform and a big ‘chimney’ wall in the middle.

I generally like these changes, but my biggest concern lies with the chimney in the middle as it blocks off the entire path. Maybe try making an opening in it and/or in the upper platform? Death ends and linear movement can easely kill a CTF level.

Another (tiny) problem I found has to do with the PU’s in their enclosed areas on the upper left and right. Now that there’s a platform inbetween them, skilled players can use Bouncers to shoot the PU’s through the wall, making the coin warp obsolete. You may choose and keep it that way, or thicken the walls a bit to make coins absolutely necessary.

Also try and look at the tilebugs in the walls. I know the Holiday tileset can be a pain to do fully right, but this level has some masking problems that adds unnecessary gaps that players can stand on. Just enable the masking view in JCS’ editor window and make sure all walls are straight lines.

My original rating was a 4.0, and I believe the current changes are worth half a point extra. Keep up the good work and I’m sure it can get better!

Original review:
First things first, merry christmas and a happy new year! Now that that’s out of the way, let’s review this teeny weeny level.

The layout is as basic and simplistic as it can get. Well, it’s no ‘Best CTF Party Good Luck’ yet but you readers get the point (haha). One base on the left, one base on the right, the middle contains vines above spikes, a little secret passage, and that’s about it. I missed any form of vertical movement in this level.

Some things felt unexpected concerning tileset usage, especially the houses’ layer-3 usage and the choice of using the ?-block as a coin warp. There are also tilebugs in the ground and an overall lack of variety in available tiles (all spikes have their star animation, not all xmas light colors were used, etc).

Weapon choice is okay for a symmetrical level. Both sides have a weaker and a stronger weapon, and teams are used to switch sides after a round nowadays anyway.

Also, don’t forget to put in Generators in multiplayer levels for all events you’d like to respawn. This level is currently drastically broken due to the lack of them.

I give a 4 and can’t really recommend it in it’s current state. It’ll need some big changes before it reaches the amount of simplistic fun Mulch/Malch style maps do. Please don’t see this review as being too harsh, but take it as a way to improve the level! ;)

It works so… yeah… kinda useful.

EDIT 30th April 2020 – I decided to lower my rating a bit as I don’t think it’s worth a 7 by my current standards, mostly for the reasons all the other reviews with similar ratings have stated, but I’m sure Primpy wouldn’t mind as he’s made way better levels in the meantime. A good level designer’s gotta have a humble beginning I suppose. :)

Maybe I am not the best at reviews, but your map is just a joy to play. However, is not perfect.

Stuff I like:
-Great tileset
-Music matching to the map
-Large map, making it “open-world”
-The level has water
-Variety of weapons
-The map is nicely made
-Lots of details
-I didn’t encounter any visual bugs
-Pinball

Stuff I don’t like:
-The water event doesn’t always work, also the water appears suddenly
-Uhh, sorry, I can’t find any other stuff I don’t like… x(

9.7/10 – I recommend it. It’s perfect for 4-8 players.