Review: hunt for red october

Author: Qaz
Year: 2001
Genre: Single Player
Filename: redoct.j2l
Download: J2O

This level is being reviewed because it is the only JJ2 level where you get to pilot a submarine. Plenty of levels have had cutscenes which take place in some sort of vehicle, but this is the only one which lets the player actually control the thing. It's probably one of the coolest gimmicks ever done using JJ2.

Hunt for red october is a pretty strange level, all things considered. It was made by someone whose only other releases (that I know of) are completely forgettable; at best, they mediocre. Indeed, even hunt for red october has its issues: the gameplay difficulty tends to be unbalanced due to a lack of carrots, and the tileset usage, while entertainingly unorthodox in parts, can be bland and even sloppy. If it wasn't for the submarine segment, which takes up the bulk of the level, this level would be forgotten today.

The authour created the submarine segment in this level by using a number of clever JCS tricks that have to do with layering (background and foreground), and a number of invisible tiles. The overall result is quite compelling, and someone not familiar with the methods used here would be left wondering how it was done. There are, of course, a few cracks in the illusion, but it's as good as it can possibly get using this game engine.

The choice in using the Tubelectric tileset for this level is an interesting one. It has the necessary tiles to make a good submarine, but it completely lacks the material needed for an outdoor setting, which hunt for red october seems to be try to convey regardless of this limitation. The result is a rather surreal environment, with trees growing out of metal tubes, and subterranean caverns lined with red bricks snaking their way beneath the ocean.

The level ends in a boss fight against an enemy submarine. Innovative as the rest of the level, the boss fight manages to use a normal boss enemy in a unique way, turning it into a missile turret. Gameplay-wise it's actually kind of awkward, but the sheer fact that a submarine battle could actually be pulled off in JJ2 is entertaining enough to make the fight worth it.

Overall, this is an astonishingly unique level that is all about showing just what is possible if you are creative enough in making levels. I can't give it a perfect 5.0 due to the gameplay issues, but this is still one of those levels I recommend to absolutely everyone.

Good:

• The one and only submarine level
  
• Defies normal conventions of what is possible in JJ2
  
• Can be a real inspiration to level makers
  
• Surreal eye candy can be entertaining
  

Bad:

• Lack of carrots and checkpoints creates artificial difficulty; save often
  
• Submarine control can be awkward, getting stuck in corners sometimes
  
• Some sections, particularly the tunnels, are ugly
  
• No music (at least, none included in the zip file)
  

Score:

Review: Darn Mosquitoz

Author: [Dr]Dre@m
Year: 1998
Genre: Single Player
Filename: C_diam3d.j2l
Download: J2C, Mirror

This level is an old favourite of mine, and is probably one that most of you haven't played before. It's not perfect, and even has couple of serious flaws, but it also has a certain charm to it which I think is lacking in many other levels. Perhaps this is sentimentality speaking, but I think this level has a very unique style of design, and one that engages the player far more than most levels. And despite that, what it really all comes down to is the fact that Darn Mosquitoz is simply fun. That alone makes it worth playing.

The defining aspect of Darn Mosquitoz is the open-endedness. While there is a definitive path from beginning to end, there are so many branches along the way that the player must actually explore the level to complete it. There is a real sense of freedom and openness, and the whole thing feels more organic. On top of that, the level is loaded with secrets, making it more fun for those who enjoy exploring every nook and cranny.

On top of the non-linear design, Darn Mosquitoz has a number of other design features that make it unique. Water plays a large role in the level, and is not set at a static height like in most other levels. Certain places will cause the water to rise up or go down, determining which areas of a room you can access. TNT is used in an interesting way, since the level has it in a limited supply and there are several areas where it is required to progress further in the level. Finally, the background and foreground layers are lined up with the level in a way that shows a high attention to detail, an example of this being certain places where the parallaxing foreground obscures secret areas.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few problems with this level. The first is that this level is very difficult, yet lacks a decent amount of checkpoints. Save often unless you want to be frustrated. Another problem is that the TNT, which is required to beat the level, is in a small and finite supply, so squandering it can render the level unbeatable. There is also one area with a fatal bug; a misplaced event that causes the level to stop scrolling. To avoid this, I suggest that you save the game when you see a text sign that says something along the lines of "You need perfect timing for this." The bug is a little ways after this area. Of lesser severity, there are also a few tile bugs in the level which, while ignorable, do tend to detract from the otherwise attractive use of the tileset.

When I first played this level, it served as an inspiration for me when making my own levels. I don't know why it had such an impact on me, but even today I still find it fun to play though. It's flaws do prevent it from having the same sort of professional quality as some of the more famous level packs out there, but where Darn Mosquitoz lacks in professionalism it makes up for in sheer fun. And sometimes, that's all that matters.

Good:

• Non-linear design
• A fun level to explore
• High difficulty level
• Unique tileset usage

Bad:

• Lack of checkpoints makes saving necessary
• Fatal bug due to a misplaced "Limit X Scroll" event
  
• Can become unbeatable if TNT is wasted

Score:

A small change

I said in an earlier post that I will be doing reviews chronologically, starting from early years and working towards the present. While I thought that was a good idea at the time, I realize now that I don't really want to restrict myself in that way. This does not mean I will be focusing only on recent stuff from now on, it just means that I will be picking levels to review in a less predictable manner.

My next review is actually going to be of a level from 1998, but I felt like making this post just so no one bugs me later on about how I somehow skipped five years.

Review: Queen of Board

Author: Dethman
Year: 1998
Genre: Single Player Episode
Filename: ml_qobmenu.j2l
Download: J2C, Mirror

I hate this level pack.

No, really. Out of all episodes ever released, this one is my least favourite. And that includes some really bad ones, many which are objectively worse than Queen of Board. I admit, I'm biased here. My bias stems from a fairly simple reason: this level pack has received way more praise than it ever deserved, with people calling it things like "brilliant" and "epic". Queen of Board is neither, and while it may be a bit innovative, it's simply not very fun.

The main part of Queen of Board consists of three levels. The first is a sprawling maze, the second is a bonus level of sorts, and the third is a more standard level that culminates in a boss fight. Most people, when they think of this episode, only think of the first level. One reason for this is that the first level is the biggest one by far, and it is the most original and challenging. It's also the namesake of the level pack. A more likely reason why people only remember the first level though, is that most people can't even get past it.

The maze level is one of the hardest levels ever made, and it doesn't even have any enemies. The difficulty comes from finding the right path through the level, and getting past obstacles that require mental work rather than reflexes. It's a unique concept, to be sure: instead of making a level challenging by loading it with enemies and various other standard obstacles, make the challenge a more intellectual one. Unfortunately the execution is poor, and ultimately results in a level that is boring, repetitious, and extremely frustrating.

The biggest problem is that many of the obstacles are simply unfair. One example is of a section near the end of the level where the player has to guess which one of eighteen different paths is the correct one. Guess wrong, and that's it: Sorry! You lose. Try again. It wouldn't be so bad if there was a checkpoint before this area and some sort of hint, but unfortunately there is nothing like that, and the penalty for failure is starting the (very, very big) level all over again. There is actually a warning before this point that advises you to save the game, but it neglects to mention that a memory limitation in JJ2 means the game will likely crash if this is attempted. Oops!

For the few players who manage to get past that little guessing game successfully (or for the vast majority of players who just cheat), an even more asinine challenge awaits: the blind maze. In this section of the level, a large maze is completely obscured by an opaque green foreground, and the goal is to get through it while finding a number of "secrets" hidden in the maze. There are no hints. And the penalty for getting through the maze without finding all the secrets (which is a very likely situation)? You guessed it! Death! You get to play the level all over again!

As for the other two levels, they are more forgettable. The second level is just an easy bonus level, a nice break from the other two, much harder, levels. The third level is more original, and uses "MCEs", basically glitched events, to make clones of Jazz that attack you. It has an interesting design, being a gigantic vertical shaft with the boss at the very bottom. Sadly, this level too has some annoying design decisions, such as invisible enemies in arbitrary places, and a bizarre feature (perhaps bug?) of having Spaz start near the end of the level and Jazz start at the beginning. Queen of Board also includes a menu level at the beginning which contains the credits and the story (which is amusingly vague and has nothing to do with the levels), a credits level at the end, and a short parody level hidden after the credits. Of particular note is the menu level, a rather original, though superfluous, concept that became popular to use in episodes for a few years due to its use here. Today, menu levels are pretty rare.

Despite all the vitriolic disdain I obviously have for Queen of Board, I will acknowledge that it has some degree of lasting, positive influence. It can be credited with inventing a new type of level: big, non-linear and objective based, contrasting with usual fare of a quick, straight path from left to right. It also makes use of triggers in a way that was at the time totally new, and it deserves credit for that. Unfortunately, unlike Another Story which is still fun to play, Queen of Board has aged poorly. Today there are far better examples of the kind of gameplay and level design that Queen of Board helped pioneer; ones that won't leave you smashing your keyboard on the floor in frustration. The fact that this episode managed to break new ground is enough to save it from a score of 1.0, but not enough to make it worth playing for more than the curiosity of it being the first to do something.

Good:

• Introduced a new style of level design
• Good tileset usage (and one of the first packs to use custom tilesets)
• Very influential (especially when it comes to menu levels!!)
  

Bad:

• Bad design choices lead to it being more frustrating than fun
• It's unlikely that anyone has ever beaten this without cheating (this includes using JCS)
  

Score:

Review: Another Story

Authors: stripe, Bluez, Buster and Roaster
Year: 1999
Genre: Single Player Episode
Filename: tmcintro.j2l
Download: J2O

Another Story is, in my opinion, the most significant JJ2 episode ever released. It may seem strange to say so when considering the facts about this episode: it's rather short, the gameplay isn't that spectacular, and there is really no challenge to speak of at all. In fact, only a few of the levels even have you encounter anything that can kill you, and even then there's virtually no chance at all of dying.

You may be wondering then, what makes this level pack so great. The answer to this lies in the episode's name: it has a story. Sure, other episodes before this one had stories, but they generally fit the same mold: Devan Shell is up to no good and you have to stop him by traveling through a series of vaguely-connected levels and fighting him (or some other boss) at the end. After the initial exposition in episodes like that, there's really no plot at all. Another Story, on the other hand, actually has a unique plot which unravels as you progress through the episode, and even though it might not be the most engrossing story out there, it's certainly good enough by video game standards.

Another Story was created as an entry to a level making contest called the Try Me Competition, run in the early days of JJ2. In this particular phase of the competition, I believe the goal was to make a JJ2 level or episode that focused on plot rather than gameplay. Another Story won, and was far and away the best submission that was received. This is probably because the episode takes the idea of storytelling to the fullest potential within its medium, doing something that no JJ2 level had ever done in the past, and few have done since.

The reason I think so highly of Another Story is because it shows what can be done with Jazz Jackrabbit 2. Episodes don't just have to be a series of generic levels. They can actually try to do more, by immersing the player in what is happening. Instead of the player just focusing on getting from point A to point B, the player actually has a reason to care about what happens between those two points. It makes the levels more interesting, more fun, and more memorable. And on top of that, most of the stuff in the levels actually seems to have some sort of function, from air ducts to tree houses to elevator shafts. This is a fresh break from the typical style of level design where the scenery is really only there to look good.

Another important thing to note is that this episode is the first one to ever use any sort of in-game cinematic. What I am talking about is the sort of level where the player is left to watch some series of events unfold, and has little if any input. Plenty of games do this sort of thing, and while the JJ2 engine doesn't exactly facilitate the making of this type of level, it's certainly possible, as shown here. Another Story contains a few of these cutscene-type levels (the most notable being the spaceship sequence of which I have included a screenshot), and all of them remain entertaining and interesting to this day.

Held up to today's standards, Another Story is pretty average, and maybe even a bit dull due to its lack of difficulty. Keeping the context of when it was made in mind though, this episode is nothing but groundbreaking: Another Story is the basis for every plot-focused JJ2 level that has been made since. I personally consider this episode to be the biggest influence on my own level making, and I would say that any level maker who plans on making a single player episode absolutely needs to play this one to see what is possible. Perhaps this means Another Story is of higher value to level makers than it is to normal players, but I would still recommend it to both groups.

Good:

• Story keeps things interesting all the way through
  
• Cinematic levels make for a unique experience
  
• Excellent choice of music
• Groundbreaking design
  

Bad:

• No real challenge to speak of
  
• May be boring to people looking for action-oriented gameplay
  

Score:

Review: Peach Beach / Carrot Cream

Author: Steven Wakeman
Year: 1998
Genre: Single Player
Filename: Peachb.j2l
Download: J2C, Mirror

For my first review, I have chosen a compilation of two of the earliest user-made JJ2 levels around. These were made by Steven Wakeman, more commonly known as Wakeman, a prominent figure in the early JJ2 community and primary maintainer of the original community site, Jazz 2 City. While he's not usually recognised for his JJ2 levels, he did have a degree of talent as these early efforts show. Carrot Cream is the older of the two, and is of noticeably lower quality, while Peach Beach has a much more professional feel to it.

Both levels are fun to play, and pose a reasonable challenge, especially since they have a high degree of support for the different difficulty levels the game has to offer. Peach Beach is by far the superior level, being more fun, better looking, and structured better. It's the main focus of this download, since the other level seems to be included as more of a bonus than anything. The problem with Carrot Cream, besides the lackluster eye candy and somewhat amateurish feel, is that it has no real structure to it, being essentially a series of unconnected rooms linked together by warps, arranged in a fairly arbitrary manner. This makes the level rather uninteresting and linear. Peach Beach on the other hand allows some degree of freedom in exploring the level, and allows the player to get from point A to point B in a far less convoluted manner.

An interesting note is that both of these levels take place, to a large degree, under water. This makes them have a similar feel, despite the difference in visual design and quality, and helps tie the two levels together in what would otherwise be an unrelated pairing. Some of the design choices for the submerged areas are a bit strange, for example monkeys who live at the bottom of the sea, but overall these levels use water purposefully and effectively.

Overall I would consider this a worthy download, and while it's not the best collection of levels out there, it's certainly worth playing.

Good:

• Entertaining; short enough to never get boring
• Good support for difficulty levels
• One of the first custom levels made

Bad:

• The second level isn't very good
• Nothing spectacularly original

Score:

About Jazz Jackrabbit 2

Jazz Jackrabbit 2, or JJ2, is a 2d platform game that was developed by what is now Epic Games and released in 1998. It's the sequel to the DOS classic, Jazz Jackrabbit, a game which many people remember fondly. Though the original game is much more of a "classic" than its sequel, it is the sequel which has managed to withstand the test of time and sustain a vibrant, if small, community dedicated to it for almost ten years to this date. The reason is twofold: unlike the original game, Jazz 2 comes equipped with both a level editor and internet multiplayer.

The editor, while somewhat limited when compared to advanced level editors such as UnrealEd or Hammer, is still powerful enough to be satisfactory. The community has used it to create literally thousands of levels, the best of which are much better than anything that comes packaged with the game. As for the multiplayer, it manages to be simple and easy to grasp on the surface, yet deep enough to be comparable to any other online game. Competitive CTF play is especially challenging, with new strategies still being developed. Not to mention the fact that the game is extremely fast paced, with the time it takes for a good player to run between two CTF bases rarely being greater than fifteen seconds.

While the gameplay can basically be summed up as "run around and shoot enemies", there's enough variety to keep things interesting. There are nine normal weapons (plus three special, rare ones), each of them serving a unique, useful purpose by behaving in completely different ways. Six of those weapons can also be powered up to more useful forms, if you find the right item. Some weapons simply travel in a straight line, others can go through walls, one is affected by gravity, and one of them is actually a flamethrower. You can even "rocket jump", if you know how to. Another important fact is that all of the weapons are affected by momentum: if you are running when you shoot, the weapon will travel much farther, sometimes even in ways that defy physics. In single player, the amount of damage each weapon deals is hard to quantify, but in multiplayer, normal weapons will take off 1 heart (out of 5 or 3, depending on game mode), and their powered-up forms will take off 2 hearts.

There are three playable characters, and each one has three special moves. Some special moves double as attacks, and all of them are useful for mobility purposes. These moves range from stomping on the heads of enemies to jumping in mid-air. Special moves also tend to be highly damaging, killing enemies in one hit and dealing 2 hearts of damage to other players. Some single player levels even have entire sections which can only be accessed by one character, making the levels more replayable.

Since this is a very old game that never sold that well, it's considered abandonware now. This doesn't mean that it's entirely legal to download a copy of it for free, but it does mean that the developers tolerate such a practice due to the game no longer generating any money. A good site to find the game is Home of the Underdogs. You can find it under "links" on the right side of this page. I have linked the 1.24 version, which serves as a standalone expansion pack of sorts, and has more features than the original game. You can also find the original JJ2 though (v1.21 - v1.23), if you look for it, and it might be worth getting since the two versions are incompatible with each other in multiplayer. Note that 1.24 levels will not work in 1.23, but 1.23 levels will work in 1.24. Most people make their levels with 1.23 because of this, but some people don't, so that's why I have linked the 1.24 version, also commonly called TSF (The Secret Files).

About this blog

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a very old game, and over the years there have been many custom levels created by players. There are so many levels out there now that it can be difficult for someone to know what's worth downloading and what's worth ignoring. With this blog I hope to solve this problem by posting about the best levels (and level packs) JJ2 has to offer. I will be focusing primarily on single player episodes, since I feel that they are much more memorable, and besides that, multiplayer levels are easier to come by (just join an online game!).

I'm a level maker myself, and I have been making JJ2 levels on and off since 1999. Because of this, I have seen almost every noteworthy level out there, and I feel that I'm fairly qualified to run a blog like this. Besides that, this blog gives me a way to promote my own levels, which is always a plus!

I enjoy making levels, and I also enjoy playing them. Hopefully with this site I will be able to get other people to enjoy that too. There is a lot of stuff out there that is very under-appreciated, or even forgotten about. Even if you are a long-time JJ2 player, you might come across something here that you have never seen before. And if you just got the game, this site should have everything you need when it comes to finding good levels!

When I make a post about a level pack, I will do it in the form of a review with a score out of 5. I'll also try to include screenshots, and as much info as possible, as well as a summary of what's good and what's bad about the pack. I don't expect to be giving anything a 1, but there are actually a few "classic" episodes which I'm not too fond of, and maybe deserve a 2. I'll be picking levels on a roughly chronological basis, starting with the very earliest ones and working up to the present. I don't know how often updates will be, but I'll try to make at least 2 a month. No promises.

On top of review posts, I will also make posts about my own projects, from time to time. These will be done in a different way from the reviews, since it would be a bit conceited of me to review my own levels.