Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

WOW!
Are you kidding me?!?!*

This is just Amazing (yes, with the capital A!).

Violet CLM made a final punch in proving that he is a PROfessional level maker and very talented developer full of ideas. I was observing some of his work before and I really think that the rest of the people whos work I’ve seen can not come even close to his Jazz Jackrabbit convertion skills.

By professional level maker I really mean that his work in this particular area is professional (and by “professional” I really mean professional). The levels can’t get boring at any point (i’d say that they are much more interesting than the original JJ levels), they have their own feel, very innovative, but at the same time you can tell that someone put a lot of thinking in constructing everything to make sense, That include eyecandy, placement and gameplay – everything with a very high standards.

By talented developer I mean that it takes some damn freaking talent to take an old DOS game and convert it to something new, but at the same time balance it right, so it won’t lose it’s own atmosphere and at the same time combine that atmosphere with the one of the different game from a different platform (Sonic, in this case). SWAG is so full of new goodies invented by Violet that it really warms my heart. The popping tiles from the lava (WOW), lava going up and down, destructive blocks, blocks falling down, blocks swimming, riding platforms Jazz can jump on, bunch of new enemies, some of them very complex (consisting of a lot small parts), new pick-ups and so on to infinity…

By claiming Violet’s JJ convertion skills the best I mean that he definitely knows how to convert something, enrich it with his own inventions, and at the same time keep the original feeling. I don’t know too much about Sonic, but playing SWAG I felt like playing Jazz Jackrabbit 1 for the first time, when I still was wetting my bed at night. I do NOT have this kind of feeling when playing the original JJ1, maybe because I already know it too well, and it rather bores me instead of bringing me some emotions. That special magic which was present for that first time is gone, it stays only deep in the memory and will never come back… But SWAG felt so real, so JAZZ JACKRABBIT 1 and at the same time felt so FRESH. It definitely went very deep and freed a little bit of that magic.

Achieving that is a huge success in my opinion.

It’s not hard to not see one thing, not only through SWAG, but also throughout all Violet’s works. While being very keen in converting, bringing back memories and in programming, he is not that good in graphics / drawings. All of his biggest works are based on copying other peoples’ graphics. Usually it is JJ1 (as Violet clearly is way more into JJ1 than JJ2) but in case of SWAG I could see variety of sources. Primarly it is still JJ1, and then Sonic (I’m guessing), but there is more to it. For example Agama’s Heaven (Labirynthion which also include some of the Marbelara tiles which were never present in JJ1) etc. And… I love it! I love the fact that someone can realize that he is not that good in one area and lets the others to do the job, instead of throwing some crappy art which completely doesn’t fit the graphical touch of the base of the tileset. In this case he just took someone else’s great pieces of work and… NOT just throw everything together and be like “Hey everyone! Check out this cool collection of nice graphics”, but blending the gathered material, achieving unique atmosphere of the new worlds. That takes some brain, not just research, copy, paste.

I think in this matter everything is perfect. There are some things I dislike, though:

• I’m not necessarily into the music choice.
• Gravis is my least favorite world, even though I still think that the tileset is perfect. I just don’t like the way eyecandy is placed in here – it’s too messy, platforms look like they have tile bugs (I know this placement is intentional, I just don’t think it looks good), there is too much going on with all that flashy stripes and mini-Jazzes flying all over the sky, the only enemies that fit the theme is that spiky creature and the jumping, annoying blue thing. The red crab (from the first episode) and the Grey Rabbit (even though an excellent enemy! I love him!) don’t fit the industrius-like atmosphere.
• The bonus stages seems to be corrupted. You can walk on all the platforms, there are no borders to stop you.
• The water system in Labirynthion is confusing, especially if you die and restart from a save-point.
• The biggest disappointment was when I finished the first episode… I was fooling myself that there are actually 6 full episodes with the same ammount of levels as in Jazz 1 (but probably that is mentioned somewhere in a description, I just didn’t pay attention).
• Few minor bugs.

Despite all that I am still giving a 10 just because this piece of work deserves it. It is simply brilliant, the author went an extra mile in many aspects of the game, he packed it with completely NEW things unseen anywhere. He never used any of the old enemy from the original game, he even placed a completely new weapon (I love that pineapple-granade! As seen in Technoir used by that annoying pink tank), the secret levels have completely new theme (at least the one in episode 2 has – and oh boy, I was nicely surpriced!)… The only thing missing is new music for each theme.

*What the hell? Such a great piece of work with a rating 5.9? This is the other reason why I’m not going to include all the small details in my rating, since the system here is clearly curropted and allows some weirdos to jump on a piece like this and give it a RIDICULOUS grade for some insane reasons. Game is too hard? Oh no!… There are freaking 4 different types of difficulty to choose from! If you suck at playing just go with the easy one. But apparently Ischa expects from a game to be full of eye-candy and no challenge (how that even goes with your “Challenge/difficulty” category of rating?). All the creativity and work are not even mentioned, all there is are some platforms placed not low enough and Ischa is having problems in jumping onto them. Stupid reveiws like that should be deleted and the authors should be banned.

If you expect from a game just a beautiful eyecandy, then turn on the episode of Care Bears and don’t even bother to start playing any game… GAME MEANS CHALLENGE! Also, in such a big and ambitious projects like this one there is way more to take into consideration than just eye-candy and difficulty. Since you clearly don’t understand that you should really never post any review. Ever.

I didn’t play this level yet, but you are already a winner in my book for managing to use a Burzum track in Jazz2, even if its off his electronic album.

Sonic With A Gun… it’s promoted on the homepage of Jazz2Online, so it must be a very good download! And today I gave it a shot.
It contains a pack of six worlds. Firstly we have Emeraldus, which was a tough start already, it was a hard job for me to complete. The second world of Marbelava was my personal favorite, I especially like the part with the platforms floating on the lava and the ‘eruptions’ carrying a platform allowing you to make it to a higher spot. Gravis was very, very hard because of the – so high that they are nearly impossible – jumps I had to take. Especially the ones with a bad guy waiting you up on top. VERRRRY frustrating. The pinball like places however are a nice touch! Then we have Labyrinthion, which was a labyrinth for sure: it was very difficult to find my way through, you can easily get lost. Noirlite let me actaully feel like Sonic with those ‘loops’. It is however very easy to fall to death. The final world of Fabricant was another big hell to get through, just like in Labyrinthion you could easily get lost and the spears sometimes simply block your way, with just no way through, actually forcing you to pump it full of lead before it finally blows. I think the overall difficulty of these levels is way too high for the average JJ1 player, so that necessitates me to reduce that from the rating of these levels.
Eyecandy is simply great! You really took your time in creating these levels. The backgrounds are very well decorated. I especially like the touch of that mast in Noirlite, which actually moved! That was very cool, I can’t remember seeing that before in a JJ1 level. But what I like the most, is the revamped menu! The Sonic theme of the levels continues in the menu and that was something I never saw before!
I think the overall difficulty of these levels is way too high for the average JJ1 player. It’s a good thing that levels are challenging, but it should not be too hard, especially not in JJ1, where you move so fast and you don’t have that much view around you. If you would’ve created these levels in JJ2 I think it would’ve been a better play, for JJ1 however it’s a total disaster.
Item placement is much better. You’ve spread the collectables well throughout the stages. Because of the hard difficulty however, some extra checkpoints on certain places wouldn’t been a luxury. The (revamped) enemies were great! I especially like the custom bosses at the end of every world.
For the gameplay I already told about issues like the hard jumps in Gravis, getting lost in Labyrinthion and the spears in Fabricant, making the gameplay not very smooth on certain moments, but there is also something I like, which are the 3D bonus stages, once again revamped. Instead of blue gems you have to collect purple UFO’s! And I also like the pinball, of course.

I’ll give you the points for your upload.

• Eyecandy gives you 20 out of 20 points, with extra compliments for the revamped menu!
• Challenge/difficulty gives you only 2 out of 20, because of the difficulty being way too high.
• Item placement gives you 7 out of 10, that’s a bit lower because of the checkpoints which are missing on certain places.
• Gameplay gives you 20 out of 40, because the gameplay is not always smooth, but I really like the 3D bonus stages and the pinball.

That makes it a total score of 49 out of 90.
For the final rating: 49÷ 90 × 9 + 1 = 5.9. See for yourself if you want to give this download a go…

Welcome to the league of (D)raven.

I’m not questioning your scripting skills. The level looks outstanding despite the fact that the tileset is pretty blocky. But I’m here to rate the map, not the tileset.
No more further explanation, this level is mindblowing!
And for this, we thank you. (Or atleast I do!)

Download recommended.

Awesome! It’s good to see you are still making AS levels and this one is just incredible and original. The thing I found most frustrating is that I keep clicking out of the screen but I guess this is also a bit my fault. I’ve only played this SP and I’m looking forward to play with others ;)

Definitely one of the most interesting SP releases in the last couple of years. The time and effort taken to write the incredibly long script was worth it, as this level plays unlike anything that has been made up until now. Expect a certain frustration factor, however the overall experience is ultimately satisfying. Download highly recommended!

We have a way to shoot stuff in the direction of the mouse now?! I sure missed a lot..

I couldn’t play the level since I don’t have TSF, but I watched your playthrough, and it looks like a lot of fun to play in coop! I feel that personally I would get bored on the long parts of boss fights, but playing in coop would stop that from happening.

[Don’t rate levels you haven’t played ~cooba]

Not really the best flagrun level I ever saw. I can play better flagruns in real life with my friends.

Besides, I don’t really like Top Secret 3. It is TOTALLY off the JJ2 style, and it is super monotonous. But it’s your choice.

At least, you can use pickups almost decently.

And one more thing … Begging for reviews doesn’t help!

Good use of classic tileset, although music is unfitting. I’d raise the rating by 0.5 if you used haunted.it

I’m starting to love event mashups. But I’d still love it if you used a tileset mashup, like IC Jungrock or NONKA Letni, or even a good original tileset, like Agama’s Egypt or Swamps.

Then again, I like this level.

Not finished yet? READ RULE 2

You could use AngelScript for the Intro, to remove the stats and make the level skip immediate.

Levels are way frustrating, but well done. All tiles fit, and events work, although there are massive walls and floors being completely stright.

And why Diamondus? Isn’t it Russian Revolution?

Probably the best event mashup I ever saw, and almost all tiles fit. Challenging, but not frustrating. I never thought a classic tileset / classic music level could be that good.

Tiles don’t fit one with another, there is a pointless tile ruining the textured background, which isn’t even used as texture, no AngelScript at all, the level is extremely small, there is only an ammunition, the mountains are floating …

Great Man :D:D

I enjoyed it very much. The levels were short but very fun. Jungle level my favorite. Good music.

Here are all your favourite JDC classics and all 3 editions of the most widely known level by blur called Security Breach packed up altogether. That’s all you need to have a fun-packed CTF party. Download very recommended!

hello?! why the hell nobody review?!?!? oh gees…
EDIT: You’re late, nigga. I was about to delete this pointless crap.

Definitely a few notches above most JJ2 remixes! Good composition work and mixing, though it would be nice if the leads stood out more IMO. I like the drums starting at 2:13.Really disappointing ending though; there’s no interesting resolution. In fact, there’s no resolution at all, it just ends. Overall though, a very good effort.

is it ok to still use this program, even if it’s obsolete?
btw nice prog, i, before that /ready command update, liked this

I thought this was going to be a level to train RF climb (don’t bother making one though, we can train in those levels ourselves). But what I got instead, was a level that looked like a ground force level, that makes you guess constantly and punish you for not knowing. Even for other trial and error levels, this won’t help at all, because most trial and error levels are different in successful paths and fails.

How is this a training to “pro” level? This doesn’t train you on anything. If this level title and description weren’t so incredibly misleading, I may have rated it higher, even though I have a deep hatred for punishing trial and error levels.

What is a real training level? Practicing skills in a level. Guessing is not a skill.

It also includes bonus2.j2b which isn’t necessary, because every JJ2 comes with it.

It would be a terrible level to play race in, considering you need a ridiculous amount of knowledge to win it, and everyone who hasn’t played it before will likely fail. Good race levels are about being open and approachable (not a lot of knowledge required to play well).

Best of all, you get stuck in the pits and don’t even die in them. With plus, you have to keep using kill command everytime. Without plus, you should only attempt to play in SP and JJK, otherwise everytime you fail you have to rejoin/restart the server.

Also, it uses the blocks misleadingly. ! blocks are used for buttstomping/special moves. Use star blocks if they’re supposed to be shot.

What about the good things about this level…uh, a +0.2 for correct usage of layer 4 and 3.

Also, gotta love the “Don’t repost/reupload” because that’s already against J2O rules, it’s like putting “DO NOT STEAL” over picture descriptions on art sites.

Don’t download this, unless you love punishing trial and error levels. Play it in Single player.