Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

The last time I reviewed, Surinam was not independent yet. Better said, a long time ago.

Santranigus V

This level was made by White Rabbit. Using EvilMike’s level guide, he made a level and uploaded it. I have seen this level in his server and I tested it a bit. Now let’s start with the review, okay?

EvilMike’s opinion is that eye candy isn’t too important to make a good level. I personally don’t like that fact, because I like eye candy alot. Now let’s see how the eye candy is in this level.

For this level, the Swamps Day tileset is used. This tileset offers you alot of eye candy, but in this level the eye candy is not the main part. The eye candy in this level is good enough, and I have no real complaints. The tileset and layer use is good as well. Almost every layer is used and alot of different tiles are used. I don’t know what to tell about the eye candy, so I’ll go on with the next part. The only flaw is probably that I think there isn’t enough, but it does its job.
Rating : 2.4 out of 3.0.

The gameplay is the part where’s focused most on. This level’s layout looks good. The level is not completely symmetrical. There are some good routes, and some ideas are used as well. For instance, the spider web wind turret at the top-middle. The spring placement is good, and there are no real dead ends in the level. The bottom has 2 warps you need to get something I mention later in this review. The flow in this level is good, which is needed. There aren’t alot of obstacles between the bases, but the wind turret is an example of an obstacle because it slows you down. The bottom area of the level is water ; like the warps at the bottom-left and right. Some one ways are placed here and there, and I don’t think the level is too cramped in some places. I think the gameplay here is a strong part of the level.
Rating : 3.3 out of 4.0.

Now let’s go to the placement.

When I saw this level the last time before it was uploaded, it had no food. Now it has alot of food. It’s not really overused, so it’s the first good part. Second part is that the ammo placement is good, and it’s good spread. The level has 3 main power-ups, and 1 gun9 PU at each side. The main PU is the Seek PU, which is hard to get if you don’t have a bad timing. You have to use the warp at the bottom-left and right and you have to shoot gun9 fast. The minor PUs are the Bouncy and RF PUs that you can find above the water, then at the left and right sides. The full energy carrot is at 61,65, and it’s just above the water. It’s possible to shoot it down. The +1 carrots are above the gun9 PUs. Some ammo is on the ground, other ammo is in the air/in the water. There are also some crates but they aren’t a real problem. The flaws are probably that the PU choices are unoriginal and that some people have trouble with getting the Seek PU. That’s no problem in my opinion, though.
Rating : 2.3 out of 3.0.

Others : this concludes a good new level by White Rabbit. I was trying to use a new system so you can blame me if this new system sucks. This level prevents alot of camping, but it’s still possible. I will now give you my final rating.

2.4 + 3.4 + 2.2 = 8.0 out of 10.0.

Host : sometimes. This level is something new you might want to try once. It’s probably a good level for 2v2.
Download : Yes.
I edited the review to mention what can be improved, but that’s one of the worst part for my reviews.
EDIT : I added 0.1. Just because.
EDIT2 : an 8.1 looked too high, now it’s 8.0 again.

Indeed Arti zip is Damaged, fix it please

Very nice!!

Eyecandy: This is really nice. A lot of lava holes in the wall for eyecandy and you added a lot more stuff. Even though they are there to point out a suckertube, the blocks thingies do look a little bit weird. You did include those x shapey things, which look good :)

Gameplay: Is nice, but not really good. A lot of dead ends. You could use springs to make them jump up, because left and right there are dead ends… Mostly at least. Nice use of sucker tubes!

Weapons: Good placement, some places there is A LOT of them. You put in PU. I don’t think there is anything wrong apart from a lot of them in one space, while sometimes the other parts of the level are almost empty.

Bugs: Completely down in the level, with the red springs where you jump to the rope, Spaz can make it but Jazz can’t. Pos 37.93.

And great chatroom :)

Nice level, but try to work on dead ends :)

Note: I think you are allowed to use music as long as you give credit.

EDIT: Because I kept changing my reviews to some other bugs I either saw after posting it or things I forgot.

Okay…

Conversion:
The conversion looks fine, although you edited a few parts. The parts were you, in battle2, could see if you had to use a certain item have been removed!!. You have to know that you have to use a TNT. This is not good… For the rest it is good and you also made a few spots easier to reach. The tiles are good and I couldn’t really see any tilebugs.

Eyecandy:
People said that eyecandy was important. You did add eyecandy, but not much. The background looks a little bit weird. It is kinda distracting, but yeah. You also put in 2 of those things in the springs thing as a subsitute of the red springs, which have disappeared.
I think this is kinda better. You dont crash into the ceiling now :\ But it could be done better. For example, you put a blue spring on the right, put it on the left too? So people can get the same height. The eyecandy with the, first tnt, block on top of the springs area looks a little bit weird.

Sorry, but eyecandy is really important. They said the same to me and stuff. Your conversion is good, but some stuff you changed is a little bit wrong. Try your best to add more eyecandy.

QUOTE: BTW: Arti, look around, theres still plenty of TNT. (I wanted it all gone but others complained before)

I mean the blocks that indicate that you have to use a TNT to destroy something.

OH! Yeah, They are 4x blocks, but a little bit TNT same. But it doesn’t indicate that.

Hmmmmmm. the beeps are WAY too loud. if u could lower the volume of those it would really help alot. otherwise its a good dancish song =)i believe that it is sample 2/channels 1-10. dany, its very ovbious, but still w/e. plz lower the volume a bit

Before I start this review, a short note to the author: Please don’t take this review personal, I don’t write it because I am mean or something, I write it so you know what’s wrong and how to improve your levels.

For a first level, this isn’t too bad (I’ve seen far worse). It has, however, several problems. The first one is that it is way too short. After killing a few baddies and collecting some ammo you get warped into the boss arena, where you fight the Robot. After that the level ends. I think it took me 1 or 2 minutes to play through this, a good level should take at least 10 minutes of length. The second problem is that it is way too easy. The robot boss was never really hard to beat, and the few baddies don’t really add a challenge either. When making Single Player levels, always try to give the enemies an advantage. For example, look at the bat. What things can the bat do which Jazz can’t? It can fly, and it can fly “through” walls. If you now place a bat under the floor Jazz has to be quick to buttstomp it before the bat gets him. Also tone down on carrots and goodies. Always think to yourself: Does the player need the goodie I’m going to place? If you can beat the robot without a full energy carrot, then don’t place one. Third problem: Creativity. The only thing you do is run around, collect ammo, kill baddies and shoot the boss to pieces. Try doing something which hasn’t been there before. A good idea would be to make a puzzle. Puzzle’s always add a nice touch to a level, and there are endless possibilities. Problem number four is Eyecandy. The tileset you have used is a little crappy, the tiles look ugly and I often couldn’t tell the difference between the background and solid tiles. There are plenty of good tilesets around here at J2O, search a little and you’ll find one which suits you. The last problem is the lack of story. There is absolutely no point of killing those enemies and the robot, no goal, nothing which keeps the player trying to win to see how it ends. A story doesn’t have to be complicated, a simple reason why you’re doing the stuff you do is enough in most cases to get a decent level. It shouldn’t be as dull as “Devan is back and you have to stop him!” though.

I hope this helps you to improve your skills, just keep trying and you’ll become better. ;)

Download Recommendation: No

I finally found a good Tubelectric conversion !)

I’ve also found the most UNUSUAL Tubelectric conversion. You’ve included the turrets with ammo. Also, there are more animation tiles and eyecandy tiles.

One of the problems is that the wall turrets (The ones facing side-ways) follow the direction of the black backround bricks so the turret has to shoot the minute the one it shot before goes (Confused? Basically, it means that the turret has to shoot without pausing).

Despite that, this is probally one of the best Tubelectric conversions i’ve seen.

i added the music and tileset now

Include Tileset and music

Danyjel pretty much said what I was going to, honestly. But. . .I’ll try and add on to that.

Introduction:
Long story short, this is a simple, four-channel version of “Jazz Be Damned” by Alexander Brandon. Or is it?

Song Analysis:
I consider myself very familiar with the works of both Alexander Brandon and Robert A. Allen. . .but this file. . .sounds like nothing from either artist. Nothing I can trace to Jazz Jackrabbit 2, anyway. I just don’t know. . . It sounds nice enough, and all, but it just doesn’t sound familiar.
Also, as Danyjel said, “instrumental does not always mean a low count of samples.” Honestly, any song that does not have lyrics to it is a freaking instrumental. Heh.

Sample Analysis:
The one and only sample used in the song is a very nice sample indeed. Not much else I can say about that.

Final Analysis:
I’m not at all entirely sure what this was supposed to be, regardless of the title. I also, as I’d mentioned, can’t trace this back to “Jazz Be Damned” at all, so. . . Going by that, I’m going to have to give this file a 3.7. It’s pretty, but it’s entirely unfamiliar-sounding. . . Worth a download, though.

————————————————

“I am the “Simon Cowell” of Jazz 2 Online‘s Music Scene.”
~ Joseph Collins

“Dr Lithius” or “LithiuServer” on Jazz 2

Man, this is AWESOME! I just don’t understand the episodes part. Is it supposed to tell you when you finish an episode? If it’s supposed to, somethin must be wrong with my Jazz Jackrabbit 2 game. I also loved the battle levels in “The Fortress”. This has got to have been the best(and longest) thing I have downloaded yet. Rabbit Honor Gaurd is excelent, but a bit hard. That doesn’t change my rating though. I like challenges.

Ok.

Eyecandy:
Hmm, there is not really much if you fall down, but there is in the rest. Like in the water and top, but it really isn’t much. The waterfall looks a little bit weird. Try fixing it?

Okay…

Gameplay:
So… you can fall down and stuff. The level is a little bit linear. You did a good job on changing the direction, cause you can go to the right and down :) But, You can just go that way and keep going that way until you meet a wall. On the right side on the top there are vines where you can get stuck :\ So… this is not so good.

Meh…

Weapons:
Whoah, not much. You also did ice and a ice PU. A lot of people don’t like Ice in battle, so sorry :( But there needs to be more ammo. You did put a PU for the .. firethingie that goes through walls.

Alright.

Bugs:
Only the stuck in the vines and you could keep falling… In the water there are place where you get ammo… but get stuck if you go in them anyway. So mainly the stuck bug. I only saw a few tileset bugs you did, but other than that it is fine.

A Okay :)

Sorry. Try to download some of those high rated and see how many ammo and stuff they put in it. You do nice eyecandy, but a lot of places in this level are … empty.

Hmm, lets start.

Eyecandy:
This level mainly uses ONE tile for the ground and stuff. Nothing special and no other pretty things. You did do a background.

Alright…

Gameplay
The level is very lineare and it is very hard to get around. There are a lot of deadends. Try to avoid dead ends! But this might be fun for a blaster fight or a toaster fight.

Meh, not so good.

Weapons:
Only crates. While you did place weapons, there is way too less of them. And I’d try to stay away from ice. You did put a few toasters, so that gets you point :)

Nice, but could be better

Bugs
Only some tileset bugs, but couldn’t really find the rest.

Good!

Ok.
Sorry, but try to do more eyecandy and place some more weapons. Look at some recommended downloads to see what people are looking for.

A Remix :)

I too like how it sounds and I have to agree with Blackraptor with the beep thingies that lead it.

The music sounds very happy. The sounds are very nice and it isn’t too repetitive, but sometimes it is. I really like it. Although I can’t put up my volume too high because off the beep. I think that is one of those things that could have been a litle bit softer.

Very nice remix. It is a kinda Club thing :)

If you didnt notice there are two key words… “OS X” and “OS 9”… those have to do with Apple computers and therefore wont work on Windows.

Wow. DN2 was one of my favorite games. I actually might make a lvl with this since I know the DN2 design style so well. (Or maybe convert the other DN2 tiles) BTW: Puffie, theres no Prison in E3.

The Tileset:
Nice. I would like to see the camera looking up tiles. and the turret looking back and forward. Also, theres anothe type of “orange thing”
9.5 EDIT: I gotta give it a 9. ALL the shaft tiles are missing.

The 50% Set:
Ick. Not useful for anyrhing. lot of stuff to small to use. Lots missing too. This would really hurt the rating. Id say 5 but im not adding that in.

The ex lvl:
Nice. Shows off some features with the cameras and stuff. I dont think im allowed to base rating on this though. 9.5

Music:
Maybe its just my laptop, but its quite choppy and skips a few notes. Id say 9 because its better than a converted IMF/MIDI and ive seen a custom made PERFECT midi of this.

Overall: Well, theres only one thing that counts, the main set, 9.5 EDIT: Changed to 9

Download highly recommended especially for a DN fan.

This has a hell of a lot of problems.

DIAMONDUS:Firstly, this is missing many of the features in JJ1. But you couldn’t help that. Anyway, many of the items were only possible to collect in JJ1. Then there’s the bonus level. What was the point of putting in houndreds of birds when you can’t get them all? Well in JJ1 there are houndreds of birds but you can get them all.

TUBELECTRIC: This is just a dissapointing as Diamondus. The shooting turrets are missing which makes the level easier. Both the levels are too dark and you changed the end of one of the levels.

MEDIVO: Even more dissapointing, no swords which make the levels easy and no lava which light up the level. The Helmuts made it even more easy.

GUARDIAN: Bad choice of boss and is activated too early.

Yay, you helped me for one time, the WINNER. =D
I might add that I updated the level, like mentioned in the description. This is mainly for Chip, because he hated some things that lowered the rating alot. So, maybe he can re-download the level and check again or something. (Unless he is too lazy)

(comment that has nothing to do with rating)
“And I dno why I just said that. Anyway, nice level, and I snuck on in my schooltime to write this. So flame the WINNER if it sucks.”

The only thing I can say to this is: I like how sometimes people find sneaky ways of flaming me without admins noticing. Especially when I did nothing!
(end of comment. Begin review)

Eye Candy 8.0
I see you are really limited to the eyecandy offers of this tileset. I mean that the tileset doesn’t have lots of things to do good eyecandy tricks. The lack of animations. I found none. There’s a little confusing part at the bottom. The bottom-middle, exactly. Anyone could think “I can go through that!” but they can’t.

Gameplay 7.0
I decided to agree with Chippie a bit, and hate the springs. I really hate them at the bottom. As mentioned in the eyecandy section, you can’t go through the bottom-middle, although it looks like you can. You actually can go through it from a 1-tile high passage. WHY did you do a 1 tile passage, although you could have made all of the tiles at the bottom-middle able to go through? The annoying springs do a good job on hiding it. Nobody can notice it, because they just get bounced up by the springs.
Now for the suckertubes in the base area. I dislike how you can use a suckertube to easily catch the flag, and the only way to defend it is to shoot seekers all the time, hoping someone goes through the tube and gets hit.

Placement of Stuff 8.5
What idea made you have a blaster powerup as the “middle-powerup” and bouncer/toaster powerups as the “side-powerups”? It’s simple to say that toaster and bouncers are better than the blaster. Except if you keep bashing the spacebar (or other fire button) like mad. You should have fastfires, if you have a blaster powerup as the middle one.

Overall 8.1 (not an average!)
So this concludes the review of another XLM level. You did a better job than other XLM people.

Space Station: Milaria
DarkSonic frequently asked me to review this level of him (mainly because I reviewed nearly all of his better levels so far) Anyway, it’s one of my rare reviews these days cause I’m too lazy to write any others and I’ve got better things to do with my precious time, but I promised DS to pull another one off for his latest level: Space Station Milaria (I’ll refer to it as Milaria for the rest of this review) Let’s see if I’m still able to review.

EYECANDY: 1.8 out of 2.5
In one of the textstrings around the level, DarkSonic mentioned that he was inspired by Zaitox for this level. Once you start the level you’ll indeed see a large similarity between the two levels: both use the same tileset. The eyecandy itself is different from Zaitox: DarkSonic did use other backgrounds are there are actually some original things, like the yellow bars in the background and such. After a few minutes of playing however, you can get the idea that the eyecandy is a bit boring. Some tiles don’t seem to match, but I guess that’s more a fault of the tileset maker than DarkSonic’s. Overall, I can say the eye candy is pretty good but not really one of the best.

PLACEMENT: 2.1 out of 2.5
Maybe some more original things inside the placement stuff? Who knows. At least there’s some originality in the Power-up placement: Instead of the ordinary Seeker/RF-Bouncie-Toaster Power-up system, DarkSonic used a Blaster powerup as central PU. The usual Full NRG carrot is placed just a few tiles above the central PU, which could make the tiny place a good spot for camping. The other smaller ammo is placed quite nice and in original shapes, mostly in vertical shape (along the walls and the central pillar) I don’t have any major negative comments about the placement, ammo is nicely placed however the carrot near the main PU is a bit nasty and asking for campers.

STRUCTURE & GAMEPLAY: 3.4 out of 5.0
On with the major point of this level: structure and gameplay! Well, the level is about 95% symmetrical, and the red and blue half are divided by a large on-tile-thick pillar in the middle. This pillar has two open spots, one with the carrot and main PU (middle of level) and one on the bottom, which can be heavily guarded by two turrets, a nice position for a camping defender. The level is more open than other levels of DarkSonic, and he even managed to make it more original by giving all the platforms in the level “a purpose” (there aren’t floating objects in the sky anymore, but they seem to have a function in the space station. So far the good points. Not everything is good about the structure, and I will start with the very annoying springs in the lower corners of the level, which actually make me want to lower the rating of the level with one full point. The problem is: you approach these springs with high speed and once you hit them, you bump into a wall. You have to break if you want to take them correctly and then quickly move in the other direction. I know this is kinda original but it just kills a lot of the flow. As Ragnarok pointed out earlier, some parts of the level are a bit unneeded and the roof is still a bit Squared-Off. Overall, the flow is decent, but not quite good, and some parts are questionable. I like the music which is used here, but I don’t really think it fits to the level.

RATINGS:
DarkSonic did a brave job by releasing a new level which is slightly different from earlier levels he produced. However, all new designs have a difficult start and so does DarkSonic’s. The level would/could have been a lot better if the nasty spring situation would have been improved, and some other parts too (read review) I think I’ll give this around a…. 7.3. Yeah.

Score: 1.8 + 2.1 + 3.4 = 7.3
Download: Yeah, it’s a quite nice new-style level by DarkSonic.
Host: Maybe a few times.

Greetings,
- ChippieBW

EDIT: I see that you re-uploaded the level, which you really didn’t have to do for me alone =P. Anyway, now it’s been improved, I need to recheck it. Some factors in the level could raise the rating a lot, the placement of the springs is one of these things. The situation as it is after the change is really A LOT better, and after re-playing it, it enjoyed me more. There are still some small flaws in the level, but it’s truly a lot better now. Rating has been raised with 0.5 points. Good job.