Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

The main purpose is to fix the alphabetization in your JCS in case if you already have a huge collection of JJ1 conversions. The thing is that most of these tilesets are actually used in some level packs / levels (NOT counting some garbage levels). If someone is a collector type (like me) and likes to keep good levels on his computer, then he pretty much HAS to have all the tilesets that the levels use (otherwise what’s the point of having the levels…?).

The reason why I keep inferior conversions is because they have unique tile placement, so you can’t upgrade them to the superior counterpart and have the levels which use that tileset still working.

Notice that in case of inferior sets that have exactely the same tile placement (andare just extended with some new tiles on previously unused spaces) are not included and I list their filenames along with the names of the upgraded versions.

Lastly, there are some cases where it is hard to decide which version is better. Most of versions have something unique, that the other ones don’t have. With the new JCS names you can easily compare them.

It’s HOLIDAIUS, not “Holidaeus”, Violet CLM.

WOW!
Are you kidding me?!?!*

This is just Amazing (yes, with the capital A!).

Violet CLM made a final punch in proving that he is a PROfessional level maker and very talented developer full of ideas. I was observing some of his work before and I really think that the rest of the people whos work I’ve seen can not come even close to his Jazz Jackrabbit convertion skills.

By professional level maker I really mean that his work in this particular area is professional (and by “professional” I really mean professional). The levels can’t get boring at any point (i’d say that they are much more interesting than the original JJ levels), they have their own feel, very innovative, but at the same time you can tell that someone put a lot of thinking in constructing everything to make sense, That include eyecandy, placement and gameplay – everything with a very high standards.

By talented developer I mean that it takes some damn freaking talent to take an old DOS game and convert it to something new, but at the same time balance it right, so it won’t lose it’s own atmosphere and at the same time combine that atmosphere with the one of the different game from a different platform (Sonic, in this case). SWAG is so full of new goodies invented by Violet that it really warms my heart. The popping tiles from the lava (WOW), lava going up and down, destructive blocks, blocks falling down, blocks swimming, riding platforms Jazz can jump on, bunch of new enemies, some of them very complex (consisting of a lot small parts), new pick-ups and so on to infinity…

By claiming Violet’s JJ convertion skills the best I mean that he definitely knows how to convert something, enrich it with his own inventions, and at the same time keep the original feeling. I don’t know too much about Sonic, but playing SWAG I felt like playing Jazz Jackrabbit 1 for the first time, when I still was wetting my bed at night. I do NOT have this kind of feeling when playing the original JJ1, maybe because I already know it too well, and it rather bores me instead of bringing me some emotions. That special magic which was present for that first time is gone, it stays only deep in the memory and will never come back… But SWAG felt so real, so JAZZ JACKRABBIT 1 and at the same time felt so FRESH. It definitely went very deep and freed a little bit of that magic.

Achieving that is a huge success in my opinion.

It’s not hard to not see one thing, not only through SWAG, but also throughout all Violet’s works. While being very keen in converting, bringing back memories and in programming, he is not that good in graphics / drawings. All of his biggest works are based on copying other peoples’ graphics. Usually it is JJ1 (as Violet clearly is way more into JJ1 than JJ2) but in case of SWAG I could see variety of sources. Primarly it is still JJ1, and then Sonic (I’m guessing), but there is more to it. For example Agama’s Heaven (Labirynthion which also include some of the Marbelara tiles which were never present in JJ1) etc. And… I love it! I love the fact that someone can realize that he is not that good in one area and lets the others to do the job, instead of throwing some crappy art which completely doesn’t fit the graphical touch of the base of the tileset. In this case he just took someone else’s great pieces of work and… NOT just throw everything together and be like “Hey everyone! Check out this cool collection of nice graphics”, but blending the gathered material, achieving unique atmosphere of the new worlds. That takes some brain, not just research, copy, paste.

I think in this matter everything is perfect. There are some things I dislike, though:

• I’m not necessarily into the music choice.
• Gravis is my least favorite world, even though I still think that the tileset is perfect. I just don’t like the way eyecandy is placed in here – it’s too messy, platforms look like they have tile bugs (I know this placement is intentional, I just don’t think it looks good), there is too much going on with all that flashy stripes and mini-Jazzes flying all over the sky, the only enemies that fit the theme is that spiky creature and the jumping, annoying blue thing. The red crab (from the first episode) and the Grey Rabbit (even though an excellent enemy! I love him!) don’t fit the industrius-like atmosphere.
• The bonus stages seems to be corrupted. You can walk on all the platforms, there are no borders to stop you.
• The water system in Labirynthion is confusing, especially if you die and restart from a save-point.
• The biggest disappointment was when I finished the first episode… I was fooling myself that there are actually 6 full episodes with the same ammount of levels as in Jazz 1 (but probably that is mentioned somewhere in a description, I just didn’t pay attention).
• Few minor bugs.

Despite all that I am still giving a 10 just because this piece of work deserves it. It is simply brilliant, the author went an extra mile in many aspects of the game, he packed it with completely NEW things unseen anywhere. He never used any of the old enemy from the original game, he even placed a completely new weapon (I love that pineapple-granade! As seen in Technoir used by that annoying pink tank), the secret levels have completely new theme (at least the one in episode 2 has – and oh boy, I was nicely surpriced!)… The only thing missing is new music for each theme.

*What the hell? Such a great piece of work with a rating 5.9? This is the other reason why I’m not going to include all the small details in my rating, since the system here is clearly curropted and allows some weirdos to jump on a piece like this and give it a RIDICULOUS grade for some insane reasons. Game is too hard? Oh no!… There are freaking 4 different types of difficulty to choose from! If you suck at playing just go with the easy one. But apparently Ischa expects from a game to be full of eye-candy and no challenge (how that even goes with your “Challenge/difficulty” category of rating?). All the creativity and work are not even mentioned, all there is are some platforms placed not low enough and Ischa is having problems in jumping onto them. Stupid reveiws like that should be deleted and the authors should be banned.

If you expect from a game just a beautiful eyecandy, then turn on the episode of Care Bears and don’t even bother to start playing any game… GAME MEANS CHALLENGE! Also, in such a big and ambitious projects like this one there is way more to take into consideration than just eye-candy and difficulty. Since you clearly don’t understand that you should really never post any review. Ever.