battery.j2l | Battery Jazz | 16.07 kB | 12 Apr 2024 |
deantubec.j2l | Dean Tube | 12.89 kB | 12 Apr 2024 |
homec.j2l | Forrest Jump | 11.23 kB | 12 Apr 2024 |
forest2.it | Greenland | 1515.97 kB | 05 Sep 2022 |
M16a.mod | 241.34 kB | 11 Sep 1998 | |
homec.j2as | 1.29 kB | 12 Apr 2024 |
Context: https://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/3742/lost-levels/
Two maps I whipped up about two years ago and decided to upload, as well as a much more recent map, an attempt to make Battery Jazz into a proper level even though it was never meant to be anything more than a test for a different game.
As for the specifics:
Dean Tube (deantube.j2l) – originally dated 21.10.22.
Not much to say here, just added a bunch of collectibles and enemies, sometimes verging into enemy spam territory.
Forrest Jump (home.j2l) – originally dated 23.10.22.
Yes, I changed the name. It’s a double reference to the movie Forrest Gump and a stage from the videogame Rayman M called Forest Jump.
As for the level itself the most notable thing is the second half, which was the very first time I ever made my own level geometry and it shows. Very spacious with lots of airborne platforms and not much else.
Battery Jazz (test.j2l) – originally dated 03.04.2024.
And suddenly we’re two years later!
So yeah, as I revisited those earlier levels I decided to try playing around with test.j2l and found that its layout could be conducive for a maze-like level. So I made a level where you go around the map looking for switches that will open the electronic gates that block the exit.
It probably doesn’t feel much like Battery Check, though.
I also added a brief extra section after the original map, which is mainly there to provide a proper endpoint for the level.
I like the basic idea here but I don't like any of the execution. There's not enough recognition that the base designs might not be perfect.
Dean Tube is just as visually confusing as ever, perhaps even moreso, but now with lots of enemies and powerups. The EB powerup makes sense because of the sparks in the walls, but after a while it's clear there are just powerups for the sake of powerups. Enemies are placed without regard for which tileset they're in—having sparks and pacman ghosts in the same level feels especially egregious. None of the original level's weirder features are normalized, there are just more events. Even the missing animated tiles aren't fixed.
Forrest Jump (I do like the name) does a bit of decent background layer work, even though it doesn't seem to understand the concept of animated tiles. It connects the last loose bit of layout to the rest of the level and adds a lot of carrots. But mostly it's barely changed. Inner wall tiles still appear freely on the sides of walls, branches still sprout into nowhere, walls are still mostly gemless.The idea of following an extremely cramped level section with an extremely open level section is kind of interesting, but little about the new area feels purposeful or elegant (especially the swinging platforms), and the way out is marked with an arrow made of pickups, but if you eat those pickups before hitting the trigger crate, what are you supposed to do?
I didn't get very far into Battery Jazz. It's a bunch of weird mechanics poorly matched to limited use of the tileset. Smart tiles would help, but besides that, most every problem in it would be solved by just making a Battery Check level instead.
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Eat your lima beans, Johnny.
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