Featured
8
Well what we have here is a pretty nice looking and polished level that’s in singleplayer mode, something I don’t see much nowadays. Cold Flash (i keep spelling it as cold lake :/) uses an edit of the diamondus set I’ve never seen before, a relaxing tune, and a custom boss music. It’s fairly sized, though pretty straightforward, and is good for a quick fix of singleplayer JJ2.
One of the reasons being, is the consistency of the level design throughout. The detailing on the eyecandy is good but not spectacular, although I really liked the look of both the background and the boss arena, however its done well throughout and without bugs or any ugliness. The only complaint I really have is that the rain in the foreground looks too mechanical or patterned. It results in looking kind of unnatural, but this didn’t bother me much.
The gameplay of the level is pretty solid as well. There’s nothing I found new in it or jaw dropping, but if you’re in the mood to play some good ol’ sidescrolling action this satisfies the craving. The whole level mostly consisted of traversing areas in a usually linear fashion or finding some crates. There we’re plenty of checkpoints placed throughout and although some of the enemy placement could be tough the number of them you face at a time is mostly restrained. This is quite a contrast from the SP I usually play, which includes my own levels :P I mostly breezed through this level, with a few occassions during when I fell to 1 health and had to be more careful. The boss was a nice touch, especially as this was a small(er) standalone level and so really needed one. The custom boss music was also a perfect fit and I really think more people should use this as an example and take advantage of this option to use custom music for boss fights. I also liked finding the secrets placed in this level. The horizontal green spring in the one at 143,28 shoots me into a wall though.
Item placement was also good. I felt it may have been scarce sometimes, but the ammo I thought was done well and fit the situations presented in the level.
Overall, as I’ve said already I think this is a polished and well done level. In my eyes I couldn’t find any single major weakness or significant problems that would impede my enjoyment playing it. It’s only ‘flaws’ is that it isn’t really outstanding in any way, that it could use more improvisation and bring something new to the table. Also, for a standalone it is quite short. I would’ve loved to see it in a pack of levels. My rating averages out to a 7.7. I think you should try making a single player campaign, and I hope your experience in level design encourages you to experiment more.
-br
abgrenv
24 Aug 2012, 11:27 (edited 30 Dec 12, 14:12)
8
I really enjoyed your level. Though the lack of health made it a bit hard despite the fact that it was quite and easy level. The boss was a bit tough to fight underwater. Apart from that I must say it’s worth downloading this level.
EDIT:
I remember that I couldn’t write a full review because of some kind of error on the site when I first checked this, but now I’ll do it.
Eyecandy: I really liked the eyecandy in this level. It really looked cool. All layers were used. I found one tileglitch though at (12;32) though it’s nothing important and hardly noticeable. Also I think the tileset you used was a perfect choice.
Gameplay: The trigger part was a good idea. I found it really enjoying. The secret places were well placed and visible most of the time. Some were tricky though but nothing impossible.
Pickup placement: Apart from coins I found all the pickups that a normal single player level needs. They were placed well and as I’ve mentioned there were quite a few secrets with these pickups. Most health carrots could be found there actually. RF missiles were useful against the boss.
Enemy placement: They were well placed in my opinion, especially the dragon flies. Since there were some places with small moving space, ground enemies could also be dangerous if you moved too fast. Difficulty was also appropriate since the amount of carrots made up for the little health you lost.
Music: I liked the music, it went well with the level though I found it a bit loud compared to the effects of the game but who cares anyway.
Download definitely recommended. This is fun level that you will enjoy.
Cold Flash is a nice level with the classic Diamondus tileset in ice cold style.
Eyecandy is used generally well, especially at Layer 6, 7, and 8, but I felt there was some missing, like diamonds in the wall. But then again, the rest of the eyecandy is good. The music fits too.
The gameplay was solid. Some enemies were too easy to kill and others were harder to kill. The items were placed well, but there were too much seekers which made the level and, thus, the boss fight rather easier. Speaking of the boss fight, I think the Full C made it too easy, still a nice a boss though.
Download recommended?
A good classical made single player level. If you are looking for turtle massacre, definitely worth to check out.
9
Really good. I enjoyed this level. Also i like the icy version of diamondus.
Bloody_Body
1 Apr 2017, 14:54 (edited 3 Apr 17, 12:55)
8
It’s an average-sized level which uses a slightly-modified original tileset, underwater part and has a boss (which is situated under the water). Let’s observe upsides and downsides of this level.
PROS
I’m always glad to see singleplayer levels that use skillfully-modified original tilesets. Good-looking recolours and eyecandy bring peculiar atmosphere to any level and that’s exactly what I liked most of all in this work. It’s rainy out there, not “rainy cats and dogs” but raindrops group in jets and it’s cool. The background uses slowly moving translucent picture of sky which is supposed to represent fog, as there are tiles behind it, but sometimes it looks like the cave has glazed windows.
Some enemies are placed into the walls, Tuf Turtle at 174*14 pretends to have a workout on a treadmill :) Some enemies hide behind the waterfalls, so it can be difficult to notice them sometimes. I aslo liked the secret placement and those hidden tunnels in the walls.
CONS
If eyecandy is what I liked most of all, gameplay was the most annoying thing.
I was irritated by the necessity to look for a warp to proceed further. Once I had to waste several minutes before I noticed two arrows pointing at a tile between them. There are dragonflies in the level, but bees could make the gameplay much more challenging, though I actually hate these nasty enemies that respawn from bee hive all the time. The blocks with exclamation points on them are used as trigger-blocks, this is widely used by lots of JCSers (and even JJ2 developers, remember Easter levels?) when they are too lazy to simply copypaste a block with a keyhole from one tileset to another. I won’t deprive points for that, as I have to rate the level, not tileset. Utherus can be found in its natural habitat- under water, which surely makes the boss fight harder but it could be a way more challenging if the arena wasn’t so big that you can escape from the boss to take a breath and collect some ammo. The boss tune is too calm and peaceful, so you can’t feel that it is the most important part of the level where you have to face the strongest enemy. More than that, the player has to backup original boss1.j2b file what is definitely not very convenient.
CONCLUSION
I would like to give this level at least 8.0, as I adore this picturesque world of a cold underground lake, but due to described gameplay issues I’d give only 7.5. In other respects the level is nice, and I can recommed it to all the singleplayer fans out there.
Played this today and its quite nice.
Eyecandy:
I like it a lot, there’s been quite an effort put in eyecandy. The level looks rather beautiful. There were few tilebugs found but hardly noticeable and it doesent really look ugly either. Background really looks amazing. I think there was a lot of effort used for it. The enemies in walls looks rather good too, i liked it, but more on that below. Nothing much to say here actually, the level looks fantastic.
9/10
Gameplay:
Quite good. The trigger part at the start is quite nice. It did get me lost for some time but it was my fault for not looking at the arrows. However monsters were really easy to beat. Dragonflies and Fish were more or less the only ones that could hurt me. There were some spikes in the water that i thought could hurt me but when i fell on them it didnt. Nothing much to say here either.
8/10
Enemy placement:
Well as i said enemies were rather easy to beat for me. Perhaps the reason for it is because i was able to shoot most of the enemies standing 1 tile above instead of coming down, and the other part was cuz i have just recently played blacky’s map which was quite hard. Enemies here are placed okay just some were easy to pass due to 1 tile height advantage. Boss in the water was a very good idea, and few turtles placed along with him was really good too. But adding seekers AND a full carrot made it rather too easy for me, i didnt even need the carrot since i lost only 1h. Still i very much like the idea .
7.5/10
Pickups:
Very good. I didnt quite understand what do i need RF for, used it once to RF climb into a secret area with blue gems but later i found out that it was connected to the lower passage. You even added a RF pu. I like the idea of putting toaster boxes in a “cold” lvl. Seekers came rather handy against dragon flies and Fishes. i managed to get 1 sugar rush which was okay i guess, i didnt really need it thou. I found most of the secret areas and they are very well placed it really made shoot some walls and explore the whole lvl. there were some monsters in the walls which i thought were also secret areas and i spent so much time looking for secret passages, then i gave up and thought “il just check in jcs” when i saw it was just eyecandy the first thing that crossed my mind was “FUUUUU”. Anyways pickups are very well placed, secret areas were very well hidden, i think i found most of them.
8/10
Music:
It’s quite nice. I think i might use it for some lvls i create. It didnt have any boring parts and it can really set up the mood for the level.
8.5/10
Overall Rating: 8.2
Download recommendation?
Yes. The level doesn’t really have any kind of a story, but it is really fun to play. I would definitely recommend it.
PT32
5 Mar 2012, 19:01
@Blackraptor:
Hold that thought. “World of Jazz” will be coming out later this year.
Single player, by 
