Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

The level is a bit empty of interactivity toward the start, and I don’t think Devan was necessary, but otherwise I’ve got nothing to complain about here… the eyecandy is solid and the gameplay is great. The pathways tend to be just narrow enough to invoke the feeling of being in a (jungle) cave but not so narrow that they become uncomfortable. There’s a lot of variation in stuff to do, in particular the rolling rocks that are executed incredibly well: you know they’re coming and they land where they’re supposed to land and they’re minor inconveniences in-between. You’re forever changing direction as you navigate the level and it feels very nice and organic. Sometimes there are some interesting jumps. Secret areas tend to be fairly rewarding and not very hard to find, which is a combination that leads to a good feeling of fun. A lot of mileage comes from hollow logs, often in combination with sucker tube events, and they give the level a memorable uniqueness without ever venturing into being overused. The tileset is used to pretty much its full effect and there are a number of spots where there’s a tree or a some platforms or something to make sure the level never spends too long on one thing. A fine example of pure JJ2 leveling.

I… I guess? Ultimately this is a puzzle level masquerading as a quick prank. The presentation is rather bare-bones but there’s a bit of thinking to do anyway. Sort of a very low budget somnium. Winning kills you, always a sign of a good level.

The problem with this map is that it’s thirty seconds long. It’s incredibly easy to jump over every obstacle without even noticing them, and there’s no reason not to. You did make an effort to vary things with slopes and pillars, and the start area is neat, but there’s no getting over the fact that everything can be gotten over.

This level is ambitious! Not only does it blend a bunch of sets into one, it even adds some cute details like snowy roofs, snowman portraits, giant sewer shells, and toilets(?). The palette does visibly suffer in places, but I’m willing to forgive that from someone who’s not necessarily an experienced pixeler. The warps inside the giant labrat bubbles are also pretty cute and are pure style with no concern for necessity. Places where tilesets mix together, particularly the houses, tend to be pretty interesting, and the layout makes an effort to keep you on your toes by constantly changing direction.

And yet… besides the witch at the start, there’s not really a lot going on here in terms of gameplay. There’s a long path toward the start that’s totally optional and loops back to around where it began, and you have roughly a 50-50 chance of deciding to visit it. After that the level starts resembling nothing more than someone playing Snake and desperately trying to avoid hitting themselves, with the path doing its best to take up every inch of available space, including a surprising number of flat horizontal lines. There’s very little to interact with besides vines and enemies. Despite constant attempts to vary things up a little with the eyecandy (and even those could be more psychedelic: tilesets mostly stick together and are bordered by straight lines, you don’t see a lot of stuff blending together organically) there’s just not a lot that really stands out as you play. It’s ambitious, like I said, but there’s a lack of elegance to go with that.

Reviewing tests is inherently difficult because people’s skill levels vary so dramatically, but when a test claims to be “Easy” in the title and is so clearly not, some annoyance is warranted. Individual parts are too long and have no clear theme. The prostitution reference is tasteless. There’s no single player start position. Eyecandy’s okay.

A vehemently multilinear level from Slaz… the layout is less of a path than a playground, many of the branches too short to be considered branches at all. The universal idea of Head Right To Win keeps things surprisingly understandable, though, as I never had any trouble figuring out how to advance the level after I’d finished harvesting all the items in whatever area I was in. Sometimes it takes a little work to get back to the start of another alternate path, sometimes it’s very quick, depending mostly on how much verticality is involved.

In typical Slaz fashion, the walls are packed with little alcoves covered in layer 3 containing this or that extra pickup. Sometimes, especially toward the start of the map, the pickups advertise their presence by being in bigger and visible areas that you need to find the right tunnel into, but there are also plenty of times you just have to know to check every wall (and sometimes ceiling). In my experience, the openings to the more visible secrets tended to be exactly where I’d expect them to be, so I didn’t have to come at the same area from three different walls before finally getting in. None of this is especially innovative, of course—it’s sort of the most basic possible type of secret—but it’s so plentiful that it’s hard not to have a good time exploring absolutely everywhere.

The level distinguishes itself more by its frequent use of scenery blocks… all the main types are present, even speed blocks, though Slaz wisely (or possibly due to the limitations of the tileset) chooses not to bother with any weapon-specific blocks. Sometimes there are blocks for blocks’ sake, because shooting blocks is simple fun, and other times they play a more significant role in the level’s layout. Here the level stumbles a little bit… a trick used frequently is to put a crate or two on top of some destruct blocks, with the idea being that the player will shoot the blocks in order to open the crates. However, usually (unless maybe if playing as Lori) it’s easy to get to the crate without bothering with the blocks at all, which is particularly odd if the crate contains a green spring. This may be partially a result of the layout seeming a little more open and less claustrophobic than some of Slaz’s previous maps, though I also wonder if the crates may have been originally planned to be the gift boxes from the HH17/HH18 packs, which open only upon falling.

Other elements are pretty ordinary for a JJ2 level. Ammo is plentiful, powerups are easy to get, and enemies are not generally placed to poise any real threat. There’s a bit at the end that looks like a house with a chimney, but otherwise eyecandy is more or less what you’d expect from a basic tileset like this one, with no issues but nothing memorable/innovative. Most praiseworthy are the hand obstacles… the level is unscripted, so they can’t be shot, but the delay in their animations between appearances is so short that they’re nearly impossible to miss, When I did get hit by one, it felt like my own fault, not the inevitable consequence of a nasty design.

No I did NOT enjoy. It was a good test but damn it tested my patience and my anger management. I’d play this if each jump had a checkpoint lol XD

Also it’s missing music :(

Hey all!

Eyecandy

It’s horrible. I can see Ðx was very lazy here, but I believe his intention was to make a challenging level instead of a good-looking one.

Gameplay

Wicked! Very bad! This level is somehow not intuïtively to play, because you get stuck in random spots and the invisible floors/walls and the sucker tubes are annoying as well. It’s not fun.

The flow is stupendous!

Music

The music choice is very good, I love the music so I give you +2 points for that.

Overall: Not recommended.

4!

This level manages to stay relatively true to a traditional JJ2 single player level while introducing plenty of new twists on top of it. There are the usual enemies (with a black coat of paint), coins and gems (ehh skulls) to collect, and crates to stomp in order to progress. On the other hand there are sticky swinging platforms on rails, black blobs a.k.a. void that hurts you, rewarding praying spots, bombs that make the ground act like a springcord, and more.

Overall the level design is linear with some secrets and small detours here and there. Not very difficult but enough challenge to keep you alert at all times. The environmental hazards are definitely going to hit you more than the enemies. Especially those blobs placed right above springs were tedious to avoid with proper timing.

The aesthetics stand out with visual props everywhere. The repetitive music is not really a problem since this level took me just a bit longer to complete than the original JJ2 levels.

I did experience some FPS drops to around 15 – 20 in a few places when a lot of void blobs were on the screen at once. Different computers and OSes perform better or worse, but it shows that scripted levels can be CPU heavy at times!

And at last, the boss is original in that it doesn’t have it’s head as the weak spot. Video games quickly make you learn that heads are what you’d hit for the biggest damage. Not here! It’s innovative and makes you use different parts of your brain to beat it. Also, it’s weak spot is also it’s safe spot at times.

Thanks for reading this drunk nighttime review, now go and play this!

Good level design, good mechanics, good aesthetics (if you like pastel goth, that is), good final boss. If you’re into JJ2 Single Player levels, this is a must-play.

That’s a really cool edit of my sets. Really, I absolutely love how you used the mountain from my roller coaster set as a way to add a more rich and detailed background, making it look like you progressed further into the island. And the sunset is gorgeous. Thumbs up.

I wish I could download and try the level but my new computer doesn’t even have a slot for the good old Jazz 2 disc. So I can only comment on the screenshots unfortunately.

Also I don’t know the official site policy on editing sets, but anyone reading this comment has my full permission to update and change my sets as they please.

Really fantastic use of one of my favourite tilesets!

Also, pretty fun layout, particularly a fan of the right-hand side.

Definitely suited for higher numbers of players.

+ Visually decent in the night version
+ Good selection of weapons and powerups

- Fairly quirky flow, hard to move in smoothly
- The vines at the top of the level are mostly on the way, rather than adding more gameplay depth
- The buffer tubes and spawn positions are quite evil, it takes a long time to attack the enemy base after dying
- The lower levels feel too cramped and it’s easy to hit the ceiling while moving
- Some things are a bit unintuitive, such as the floor below the bases which is not one way

/ Seems to be playable in 2v2 and 3v3, but 3v3 might get a bit cramped
/ The day version might be a bit harsh to the eye, the night version works better

From contest feedback:

+ Fairly original and inspiring level theme
+ Original choice of weapons
+ Generally solid layout with lots of potential if some improvements were made

- The big white blinking clock in the middle of the level is quite harsh to the eye, even if visually original, it could be less distractive
- Some things like the vines blend too much with the level primary colors, makes them hard to see
- Powered up roller weapon seems a bit overpowered in this map, it’s flying around literally everywhere
- The tiles could be used better in the sprite layer, looks a bit dull visually

/ Playable only in 3v3 apparently

From contest feedback:

+ Inspiring level theme and impressive visuals
+ Uncommon and interesting powerup choices, balanced pickups in general
+ The movable carrot gives more room for strategic play around it

- The flow is rather quirky and hard to get used to, lots of climbing on the sides of the level
- Some areas require very precise movement like the middle with blue spring and flipper pads
- The top of the level may get a bit campy and generally feels to be a bit isolated from the rest of the level (the level might be a bit too tall in general)

/ Playable in 3v3, not working in 2v2

Not rating it, because we’re in the same level group.

From contest feedback:

+ Interesting layout with a few influences from other levels
+ Much room for skill moves like RF-climbs
+ Balanced with both open and closed areas

- Fairly peculiar flow, hard to get used to
- Feels sometimes a bit cramped with the ceiling scenery, especially in the middle
- The top area of the level feels a bit redundant and isolated

/ Playable in 3v3, not sure about 2v2

Not rating it, because we’re in the same level group.

From contest feedback:

+ Strategic layout and very different from other contest levels
+ Uncommon and balanced weapon/pickup placement

- Huge FPS drops in 8-bit mode for some reason
- The level gameplay centers around the fly carrot too much, also because the only way to get rid of it is by going underwater
- The level feels unfinished and empty in certain aspects, there isn’t much visuality nor scenery in the level
- There is only one exit from the bases unless you have a fly carrot, which makes them quite evil dead ends

/ Seems like it could only work in 3v3, partly due the fly c as well

I’m looking forward to see a more finished version later on. :)

From contest feedback:

+ Good usage of the tileset, visually decent and no distractive elements
+ Solid layout
+ Well placed platforms and ledges that allow diverse skill moves
+ Quite balanced for all characters

- The level seems slightly imbalanced regarding open/closed areas, there is only little room for safe play

/ Works only in 3v3 probably

Not rating it because we’re in the same level group.

From contest feedback:

+ Fairly balanced layout with both open and closed areas
+ Pretty smooth and friendly flow with lots of diversity
+ Lots of room for strategic play and skill moves like RF-climbs
+ Balanced weapon and carrot placement
+ Visually impressive but not too distractive, no harsh colors

- Takes some time to learn completely, some areas are not so easily distinguishable
- Some tubes are sometimes hard to move in
- Some scenery is hard to distinguish as foreground from sprite layer, like the ceiling tubes at the top of the level

/ Seems playable in 2v2/3v3

From contest feedback:

+ Good strategic depth regarding the full carrot, possibility to shoot it down with certain weapons or block access by freezing springs
+ Well balanced weapon and powerup placement
+ No area is too easily campable but there are a few spots for breathing
+ Impressive visually without being too distractive to the eye

- The springs next to bases are sometimes hard to land on

/ Seems playable in both 2v2 and 3v3
/ The level is fairly big in size, but at the same time very open which compensates for it