Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Both the tileset conversion, and the map are awesome. I don’t know how to describe this but awesome. Good job.

The map is very nice (aldo those flying things gave me a headache :D ). The eye-candy is very nicely done, and I liked the weapon placement. I also like the way you’ve combined the carrots with the death pits. Overall the map is very interesting (at specially the background). It will be interesting if this map makes it on some of the servers.

PS: Somehow i don’t think this is a perfect 10 (sorry, but keep up the good work)

What is this version,Evilmike!?I’m sorry for this bad english!

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Good job,Evilmike!Good pack!Sorry for this english!

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

Good tileset,good level,ThundarWhalker!Excuse for my bad english!

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

Good!

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

Good,Ktos!But level must have name in properpies.Sorry for my bad english!

This is my level uses Storm carrotus by Duke,Crazy rabbit;music by ? and jcs.ini by Nicola.Sorry for my bad english!

Good Ninja dodo!But you don’t write why work!Sorry for this bad english!

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

I just came back from my trip to Ðx’s cave swamp, as I played this because the level is another one of the SP nominations in the 2011 JCS awards. So let’s review!

The first thing that got my attention were the deathpits. It took less than 10 seconds to notice that the whole level is based around one huge deathpit. In this case it’s a river, and the player has to cross it. This requires focus, planning, and precise jumping.

This level is clearly meant as a good challenge rather than a rollercoaster ride. It consists of short ‘tests’ with savepoints inbetween. There are some lives and carrots scattered and there is plenty of ammo to help you roast the flying enemies. Some gameplay elements included in these tests are moving platforms, precise platforming in low space, and stomping enemies to extend jumps. Most gameplay appears original to me, but some elements are just well known ways to make SP levels harder (or more annoying?).

The eyecandy is simple and effective, which is good for a level that lays focus on gameplay challenges. The whole background is covered in a dark brown color, and the green vine tiles are used to cover enemies. This all including the music are very fitting for a cave level.

I recommend download only if you want a good challenge. It took me 1 gameover and after that I used (or abbused?) the first part of the level to stack up extra lives. Worth 8.0 for the inventive gameplay!

Aha! I see my betatester has been rather busy himself.

Scorpio Key had some great colors, tons of potential-packed tiles, and the example level was cool. I was pleased that the tileset was so well organized, and a lot of new, inviting tiles from other JJ2 sets were provided, i.e. the rope bridges and sunken ship blocks.

The song totally fit, too.

I also thought that Violet’s gravity-defying vegetables were pretty fun.

Perhaps the only reason this upload suffers is because it’s yet another remake of Carrotus, easily one of the most overdone planets on J2O. For the most part, Carrotus remakes drive me crazy, since so many people make inferior and (honestly) poor quality versions.

Not so here. This is a refreshingly clean tileset, it’s redefined how I see Carrotus remakes, and I heartily recommend its download. Somebody’s gonna make an amazing level with this set.

9.0 does sound like a good number after all.

This was a very interesting level.

On the one hand, Blas7er did a lot of things right with this level, providing some nice, visually satiating eyecandy, a few tricky challenges and some classic Jazz2 segments that remind you why they’re called “classic”. The music track, while not very original, was nonetheless appropriate, and gave the level a nice aura. The length was just right for a singleplayer level, although a bit long for a mere demo.

In these regards, Classic excels quite nicely.

Unfortunately, the level also suffers from some rather Classic mistakes, most notably the TSF cats, the extremely limited boss arena and the “Dragon Tower” segment (for lack of a better name) that requires an uppercut/double-jump move to access which leaves poor Lori (for TSF users) out in the cold.

The choice of baddie elements was also questionable, with such strange creatures as lab rats and devil dogs making their presence known here.

In an aside, the Blast’em Block segment at the beginning is very confusing. If you (the author) are going to make it a Bouncy-only block, could you maybe make that a little easier to divine?

Most of these problems can be easily fixed. Add an extra floor tile at the bottom of the Dragon Tower. That way, Lori can get in. Change the Blast’em Block animation at the start to a Bouncy Block picture (the tileset SHOULD have one, but if it doesn’t, then maybe use some combination of text strings to let on to the player that that’s how to get past the blocks).

Change the baddies to Lizards, Tuf/Normal Turtles, Float Lizards, Dragons, and (maybe) Dragonflies.

Take out the coin warp, or at least make it into a side route. I forgot to mention this before, but it was very frustrating to get there and find out I didn’t have enough coins.

Remove the TSF cats (Addon Sparks), please. That way, non-TSF users can play this level. While you’re at it, make sure the level itself is compatible with 1.23 (standard Jazz 2…just download the J2L convertor on this site and use it).

Revamp the Boss Arena. I’m not sure how to give you advice here, since there’s no real baseline Boss Arena rules that one needs to follow, save that there’s plenty of room and that it’s quality gameplay. Just be creative.

On the bright side, I WAS impressed by how clean the level was of bugs. You did a good cleanup job, and I tip my hat.

In the end, I think 6.1 sounds like a decent grade to hand out. Classic, while it suffered from a few sizable errors, was still a pretty fun level to play, and for that reason I recommend a download. Despite the low grade, I see hope for it.

EDIT:

-Warp is fixed
-Baddies are better tailored, although the TSF cat is still there
-Boss arena is slightly improved
-Dragon Tower is fixed
-Bouncer wall at the beginning is slightly better elaborated, though still a problem. (Try using text strings)

Revised rating: 6.9

Way too full of very simplistic errors. Animation speeds are wrong (esp. the boss), animations are wrong, blaster uses the RF sprite for no clear reason, and there’s really no level design to speak of. At the least, glance at the tiles and make sure they look like they tile right before uploading. The bonus level has boundary issues.

I see a lot of good design principles that are let down by poor execution. You definitely have a sense of what kind of challenges are germane to single player — respectable enemy placement, some precision platforming, triggers, collapse scenery, and other such things — but it’s all done way too quickly. The running section (you should know, btw, that fast feet events don’t actually do anything in JJ2) is ended by a wall which signals that it’s dangerous once again and there’s an enemy coming; that’s a great touch. I see tiles being used for specialized purposes, and definite hints of JJ1 design philosophy (e.g. the secret level hidden behind the end of level sign). As PJ said, you just need to spend a lot more time polishing your levels and making the good ideas that you have more appealing to look at and play. Choosing different tilesets will also benefit you tremendously. Inferno is difficult to use even for experienced level designers, and the other sets you used aren’t really very high quality. Find a nice good-looking, easy to use set and see if you can’t find some inventive graphical tricks to complement your level design intuitions. Keep it up.

Nice as it is to see a custom Battery Check level (this is possibly the first???), this really has no other redeeming qualities. It’s tiny, tiles don’t match up too well, and there’s little challenge and absolutely no use for the batteries. But please keep practicing: we need more Battery Check levels!

The atmosphere’s not bad, although you owe the tileset a large debt there. Eyecandy does get repetitive. Occasional tile bugs but fewer than usual for Carrotus. Not nearly enough ammo (pretty much just powerups), and too many walls, especially that carrot portion. No incentive to hang around the dangerous pit area. Good ideas, but too cramped.

A small level that takes no real risks and could use a bit more polish. The ammo placement is bizarre — somewhat sparse, but with lots of pepper spray and even some TNT — and the path to the blaster powerup is way too long and slow and unbranching. Not fond of the upper right. Eyecandy is serviceable, if unadventurous, and there are good areas.

The authorship looks a bit too much like a he-said-she-said situation for me to try to resolve, and there’s not much to say about the gameplay here, but I do like the eyecandy. :) You(?) make Top Secret look pretty.

The issue with alternate palettes is that the tileset is 100 rows and I already had to truncate its background somewhat to fit in that space. Creating a more straight up Carrotus expansion with regular palette and background but all the expanded walls/bridges/vines/thorns/etc. — CarrotusV, obviously — would definitely result in TSF-only territory. If there’s demand I guess I could do that, but it wasn’t my top priority.

The graphical quality of the tilesets is a bit iffy and the level designs are rather simple, but the overall atmosphere achieved in these levels is still amazing. Like Another Story, it’s more a cinematic experience rather than an active one.Very few levels since gave me the same feeling of immersion in the environment as these did here.