Contest season continues! This time your mission is to create a level—any level—in some way inspired by Japan! You have all of September to complete your entry. Please upload it to J2O even if you're ashamed of it—we can all be ashamed of it together!

What aspect of Japan? That's up to you! Feudal Japanese warlords? An intelligent discussion of the problem of Japan's declining birth rate? A tribute to some classic Japanese series or genre? The weebiest nonsense you could possibly imagine? That's up to you!

How will entries be judged? Arbitrarily! A weak level with a strong connection to Japan may beat a strong level with a weak connection to Japan, or it may not! There's no way to predict these things.

Which tileset/s should you use? Look, who knows? Traditional Japan? Rising Sun? A Pokemon tileset? An updated version of that same Pokemon tileset? A similar Pokemon tileset to the first? A different Pokemon tileset? A different Pokemon tileset? A different Pokemon tileset? An awful Pokemon tileset? An obscure Pokemon tileset? There are plenty of options, and the more inventive you get with what counts as being inspired by Japan, the wider your pool of options gets!

Are there any restrictions at all? Barely! It should be playable in some version of JJ2, JJ1, JJ3, JJA, and/or Battery Check. You can refurbish an unfinished older level, but you cannot submit a level that has already been released. You may make multiple entries if you have too many ideas to handle. You may create a level called "Assault on Titan" and also submit it to the Assault the Base contest!

What will you win? The winner will receive free Steam codes for the very real video game Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~, including its 2015 and 2016 DLCs! Overall user reviews: "Very positive"! An estimated $20 value! Or should I say, an estimated ¥2122.53 value!!!

Really dislike the notion of a j2o admin saying "you don't need to upload your level".

I am anticipating the level equivalent of this tileset and suspect people might rather such things be left off J2O

A music possibility.

I made an level for this contest,

https://www.jazz2online.com/download...audio-effects/

Cherry Blossom CTF

(EDIT: Updated URL. BTW, this level is probably not that fun for CTF, it's designed to be a wedding ceremony level. The pink flowers gradually bloom when shot. It's only about a mulch-sized map.)

cool i've been to japan in aug

Entries

Astolfo
Well. What can one say, really? To some extent this feels like the unnatural evolution of the days when someone would take a screenshot of their desktop and turn it into a very simple level, but a lot more work was clearly squandered on this creation than any of the desktop levels. Even the background layers contribute carefully and successfully to the unholy aesthetic at work here, but what's most noticeable is that there is a genuine battle layout built around this child's indecency. Loving attention has been given to every centimeter of borderline underage pornography, with ammo pickups delicately caressing the contours of exposed skin. Careful rationing of fly carrots (with their elegant timer animations) lets one thrust in and out of the miniskirt in all directions. The only disappointment, besides the entire level and everything associated with it, is that there is no ludicrously detailed vore sequence.

Bushido
This is the most traditional JJ2 level of the three entries, which I suppose is in keeping with its traditional theme, but that also means it suffers the most from having been made in three days for a contest that lasted a month. Although it uses its obvious tileset to good effect and wisely uses a translucent blue layer to increase wall/background contrast, the most lasting impression I got from Bushido is how hard it is to move around. Innumerable alcoves in walls and ceilings lure you into them for no major reward but make it harder to get wherever you were actually going, tiny cliffs replace slopes in some places for no obvious reason, and there are several places where a spring bounces you just a little bit too low to get somewhere, meaning Spaz is happy but nobody else is. The top right corner doesn't attract any use and the bottom right corner has a jump that's one tile too high for no reason. The full energy area is copied from Distopia. It probably wouldn't take too much work to smooth out all the literal rough edges from this level, but it doesn't seem to have been a priority in development.

Cherry Blossom CTF
This level takes the biggest risk by using a tileset with no direct connection to Japan, but does nonetheless manage to invoke the overwhelming pink fluffiness of Japan's iconic sakura trees. Other elements of the eyecandy veer into incoherence, though, a risky move for a level that must rely so heavily on graphic design to fit into this contest. There's an odd sort of fun associated with the layout, actually, but I think another weapon would have been a better fit than toaster. Once again, a bit more work could have transformed this from a novelty map to a good novelty map... but that work is unlikely to happen, because the level's creator was banned from J2O for sexual harassment and as such the level is disqualified.


Conclusion
With the third level out of the running, the contrast between entries could not be more stark: a traditional JJ2 level dedicated to traditional Japan against... something else. A jagged layout against smooth legs. A red flag and a blue flag against one enormous red flag.

I have spent most of the last two years trying to find someone who will let me foist these Steam keys on them. Seren does not have a Steam account. In terms of punishment for creating Astolfo, I can think of nothing fitter than declaring Seren the winner and making the keys his problem instead.