Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

the lonely mameluke riding a path would be proud of this level :D

maybe there are still missing ones, but i think it’s an improved list of sounds. thanks for it.

soon will be a second upload, i’m now working on a level with rage of aquarius tileset, with a more complex story. when i have time i’ll repair this level, thanks for the advices (:

How did this pack go so thoroughly under the radar?!

No longer.

MSM jack rabbit’s Final Flashback pack is good. Not perfect, but nice nonetheless. Many people have requested Jazz 1 remakes, but few attempts are worth playing.

This one is, despite a plethora of fallacies.

For the sake of convenience, I will evaluate each level individually, then summarize the whole thing.

“Stoned Jungle*

Pros: This level does a great job of varying its own structure, moving seamlessly from one style of eyecandy to another. The flow was excellent, the events were well placed, and it was a blast to play.

Cons: The events were well placed, but there were a lot of them. Also a lot of goodie items. While the trigger crate segment had some cool animations, it WAS a little gimmicky.

Great Escape

Pros: Built in the style of a concrete metropolis, GE takes the Pezrock tileset and uses it in a completely new way. Run your way through the city, break into high rises and steal treasure and enjoy the well-executed level.

Cons: I did have a few concerns here. Many of the trees weren’t one-way, so I got hung up on them. Likewise, it was a little difficult to find the route. Some paths were blocked by Blast’Em Blocks hidden too carefully. The TSF cats could’ve been replaced by the 1.23 dogs, making this a standard Jazz2-friendly game.

Crystal Caves

Pros: It was a good long level, but not too long. Execution was good, and I made it through alright. The ostrich and lizard were turned into pseudo-baddies, which was done quite cleverly.

Cons: Ahh, yes. I did have some issues with the Crysilis levels. The excessive gold and silver was very hard on my eyes. While the ostrich and lizard were clever, they more often than not got in the way, which was frustrating. It was monotonous to an extent.

The Lost Rabbit

Pros: Much like the first level, it was decently well executed and innovative.

Cons: It was too bad that I found more to criticize than to praise in Crysilis. The ostriches in the foreground, while clever, were visually unappealing. This level was very gimmicky, and difficult to play. That being said, it could’ve been worse.

Chase the Ace

Pros: Once I made it to the ship, this level was pretty fun. It’s huge, it’s challenging, and it’s cool.

Cons: The airboard part. It was SO frustrating! A tip for the future: Don’t make invisible warp mazes. They just don’t work. There was too much to shoot at here, and it got old fast. The boss was interesting once I figured it out, but until then, it was annoying.

Revenge of the Ace

Pros: It’s a lot like the first one. Big ship, lots to do. Pretty fun.

Cons: You start off the level in the mouth of a Plesiasaurus spaceship. Then you run down its throat, and get pulled through the ship.

Okaaaay.

There was an absurd amount of stuff to shoot at, and things get frustrating. Eyecandy was allright, but not very original.

Fight With Ace

Pros: I love levels where people use custom boss events. If they’re done right (and it was here), they can be pretty fun. Plenty of ammo is provided, so that’s no issue.

Cons: There were way too many Countdown Blast’Em Blocks. I had to spend an eternity shooting through row after row after row just to get to the boss. Then I had to figure out how to activate the boss. Once I did it was fun, but getting there was nightmarish. It would’ve been very nice to see a save point before the boss.

Golden Ball

Pros: A requisite bonus level is, of course, required in any good Jazz 1 remake. Here it is right here.

Cons: Once again, the eyesore eyecandy of Crysilis returns. This reminded me more of a normal stage than a bonus level, and there were so many baddies and pitfalls that it wasn’t pleasant at all.

OVERALL SUMMARY:

I was astonished at the cleanness of the pack. There were very few bugs to speak of, and in the earlier levels at least, I could get around pretty well. Music was pretty good too.

However, Crysilis and Battleships tanked for me, and I had a hard time coming up with positive feedback for them. Fortunately, the common rookie mistakes I was expecting to find seemed for the most part absent (like tileset bugs, inaccessable spots, things like that). Good job on that.

It’s time I wrapped this review up, so I’ll say this in conclusion: It was a good pack, but needs a lot of work. You’ll get it right, MSM. Just keep crackin’. DL rec, because despite its shortcomings, FF was still a good pack.

imo this was pleasing to listen to :D gj or sth!

Wow. I can’t believe no one has seriously given this level a decent review.

So I guess I will.

This level came to my attention through the Top Ten Neglected Levels thread on the JCF, so I thought I’d check FF out and see how it was.

Frontier Falls is simply magnificent. Not only is the level squeaky clean of bugs, but it also has excellent eyecandy, using things in ways most levelbuilders wouldn’t even imagine. Like using a textured BG as a waterfall. Would YOU have done that? Would you?

If you’re not Fawful, then no, you wouldn’t have.

Gameplay is smooth, mechanics are good and it’s quite a pleasure to play. I didn’t download the music (since I’ve gotten computer viruses that way before), but if it’s as good as the level, I’m sure it’s just fine.

I can’t believe nobody has capitalized on the opportunity to score free reviewer points here, because it’s certainly a great place to do so. Frontier Falls is an excellent level, and I heartily recommend its immediate and unconditional download.

Please check neobeo’s post in jcf in the JCS forum. there are sounds what you even missed i think. :o

edit: http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=13205 <- there

EDIT: I meant neobeo’s latest list which is way more complete then this.

Lord in heaven. You guys are all way too nice…

Haunted.it is one of the least remixed songs in all of Jazz Jackrabbit history, so I loaded this track eager for a good, rousing rendition of the scary ghost song.

Unfortunately, all I got was a recital by a couple of strings and the wind instrument section of the orchestra.

That was really unfortunate, since this was a great opportunity to make a neglected song such as this one truly shine. Dr. Eggman’s overture (I call it that in keeping with the orchestral thema) only used a small handful of instruments, most of which sounded like the ones from the original song itself. I didn’t hear a particularly fulfilling bassline. The percussion section was interesting at first, but quickly grew dreary. The organ didn’t appear until a little over two minutes into the song, and by then it was the end. No ominous low notes came into play. The oboe/clarinet/whatever was done to death. The whole song seemed to be light and airy, which is the polar opposite of what a spooky, goosebump song should be.

I was so disappointed, because this could’ve been such a great song. Instead, I was let down in a major way.

Now, I really do hate to be so critical and negative towards anybody, so I’ll point out for your benefit that the song WAS pretty clean and didn’t have any (particularly) ugly samples. There were no detuned instruments, and certain channels didn’t drown others out in the process of playing. Believe it or not, it’s not easy to get channels to sound this good (take it from one who knows)!

Sadly, clean channels just aren’t worth what they used to be.

5.9, and I just can’t bring myself to recommend this for downloading. Sorry, man. I really hate to do this.

But I am anyway.

Okay. That was the word that kept appearing in my mind as I put Dr. Eggman’s song on and prepared my review. The song was okay. No serious gaffes or ugly channels, no bad samples or clunky spots. It was okay.

But “okay” was all that it was.

It seemed a bit slow at parts, like the same patterns were repeating over and over again, with a slightly changed line or a different instrument each time. Call me overly critical (or even hypocritical, if you’ve listened to some of my earlier songs), but did it sound to anyone else like the same thing was repeating? For a four-minutes-and-change song, excessive repetition is never a good thing. Once through was more than enough for me. And it didn’t even GO all the way through, since about halfway through, it just stopped. Went to the next track.

The main basic notes of Marbelara also seemed to get a bit lost in the mix.

That being said, all of the samples worked well together, and if I skipped over the repetitive parts, it was actually a really cool song. Even though it wasn’t terribly original, the melody of Marbelara still poked through at strategic spots, just enough to remind the listener that it was there. I do wish though that more than a few seconds of the original Marbelara song had been utilized.

So, in the end what is my final verdict? My biggest issues with this song were its monotony and its incongruity with the original JJ1 song. My biggest compliments were its nice samples and its lack of gruesomeness.

However, good samples and a clean track do not a good remix make.

6.7. Download only if you really want to.

Sheesh, guys. Who put the 8.5-burger up here?

This level does not deserve that high a rating.

Granted, it WAS a nice level. The gameplay was consistent (not too hard, yet not too easy), the music was good, the tileset used well. There were some things going in Stronghold’s favor.

However, I was much appalled by three things: The wacky lights, the confounding event placement and the quirky nuances. Using darkened lighting is a double-edged sword: If it’s used properly, it can provide a charming ambiance. Used improperly, it will confound and madden the player, leading him/her/it to simply type JJLIGHT or JJINV, and bull his/her/its way through to the end. The lighting events here were frustrating, to say the least.

Consequently, what started out in the upper half of the level as solid enemy placement quickly turned into confused chaos below. I could barely see what I was doing in parts, and it drove me half crazy stumbling around and running into baddies I didn’t even know were there. Particularly irritating were the one-tile holes in the floor, which held invisible baddies and were evidently intended to be some sort of thorn or spike.

These holes lead into the third problem I have, which is that of the intellectually thunderstrucking nuances. Up by the coin warp, I touched a wall and got hurt. I later learned that there was a Schwartzenguard event behind it. When I finally DID access the coin warp, there were regenerating demons, an absurd number of goodies (even for a JJ2 bonus warp), plus a one-way floor that wasn’t properly lined up with the red spring below it. None of the hogshead barrels in the level were one-way events, which caused me to get hung up on them. Similarly, some of the vine/hook conjunction events were a bit buggy, making them hard to use. There were even sucker tube events placed in thin air to prevent the player (me) from accessing certain areas!

And now, since I have totally shattered your self-confidence and destroyed your will to live, let me give you (the author) a few tips to make this promising level even better.

That’s the first piece of advice I have. This is a salvageable level. Believe me when I say that I have reviewed no-hoper levels that were a LOT worse than this. This bodes well for you. Don’t give up on Stronghold, because I’d really like to see an improved version.

Next, clean up the lighting events. This alone will solve half of the level’s problems. Cut the level of darkness in half (in other words, make it 50% brighter than it was before). That way, potential gamers won’t be hit by unwelcome surprises. If you were to gradually decrease the lighting gradient, provide a more gradual transition to semi-darkness, that would be an impressive flourish.

Take out the sucker tube barriers and just build the walls higher (or the floors lower). You don’t have to completely cut an area off, as long as the player can’t get through without cheating.

I didn’t mention this before, but try and tailor the specific baddies to the tileset. Labrats, Skeletons, Demons and Fat Chicks don’t really belong in a castle tileset (There’s very few levels where a Fat Chick does belong, by the way), so replace them with Fencers and Bats. It’s amazing how much sharper a level looks with the proper goons.

Take out a few of the powerups in the warp. Remove two of the three shield events. Seriously, you can only use one shield at a time anyway, so what would you need THREE for? Likewise, don’t regenerate the Demons. It’s hard enough to figure out how to get out of the warp, so don’t make it any tougher. Eradicate the invisible thorns. They’re annoying.

Oh, and take out the funky Jazz Airboard crate. It’s just plain wierd.

On a more positive note, your eyecandy was pleasant, and your music was a smart choice. I’m quoted (or I ought to be) as saying that music alone is worth up to half a level’s score in most cases. A good level with an inappropriate song suddenly becomes a failed level. Likewise, a shoddy level can gain slight recognition if it at least has a fitting track. This level had a good song…with the notable exception of the boss song, which didn’t seem to work very well. Dance music just doesn’t jibe with a castle level. Sorry. I would recommend Warhead.j2b instead. Rename it to Boss1.j2b, and warn downloaders to backup their original Boss1.j2b before extracting. That way, you can have a good boss song (As a couple of my upcoming singleplayer levels will)!

Therefore, in conclusion, I’d like to say that this level, as full of flaws and errors as it may be, is still a quality level. As long as the player liberally adjusts the lighting and uses invincibility in places, Stronghold is a decently fun stage. Look for an even better version in the future, after GreenTechB makes a few strategic changes.

For now, though, I’ll have to give it a 5.8, although I WILL recommend a download simply so that you (the reader) can appreciate its potential.

Pretty darn good. The middle part was a little off-key to me, but the rest was pretty spiffy.

Not a whole lot of Crysilis in there, is there? It’s basically a stripped down version of Tubelectric with the chimes of Crysilis whenever appropriate. Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

The mixing quality of this file is horrendous. It’s extremely rare I give out ranks of 1, but rest assured. This deserves it.

I can see why you said not to play this song in your description. It’s the original music file converted to IT format with electric guitars and rock drums — neither of which are used effectively.

Simply terrible.

An interesting take on an old favorite. It uses all the instruments from the original song in interesting ways, but the song still sounds a lot like Robert Allen’s piece. This is neither good nor bad, but does lead to some mild disappointment. On the plus side, the song is not bad. Just not very interesting.

And master Luigi Elettrico back with his new remixes…

Very good one, I still listening it! ;)
Keep remixing…

+ Collaboration works!
+ You can see where other people are
+ Animation works!
+ Tweaks like Warp-lines.

- No planning => you get \“Asinine Armory\” =)

nice one (: the story is short but good, i liked some your ideas, i’ll use them in my upcoming level, btw i’ll mention you in credits for inspiration. thank you!

This is a really nice piece of work for people wo can’t get the JCS to work offline. And with this, you don’t have to have JJ2 to create levels for fun or for friends. 10/10 for me.

SUMMARY:
EyeCandy: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Music: 7/10

TOTAL:
8.5 + 8 + 7 = 23,5/3 ~ 7.8
But my rating is 8. It’s good level.

*Sorry for bad english, if what))

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