Someone brought this up in a profile post, but I think it's just as if not more appropriate to outline my thoughts on Jenka's Nightmare in this thread. After hearing from some newer users in the modding community that never played Jenka's Nightmare, it only just occurred to me that a large chunk of newer users in the modding community haven't ever played Jenka's Nightmare. This almost seems weird to me, because when I joined, JN was the flagship CS mod that everyone had to play, the mod that outlasted just about every pre-2010 mod in its relevance. I guess it's not surprising that this would fade to some extent over time though, given that there are so many more mods around now than there were 10 years ago, and that there have been so many advancements that have been made in the modding community. Jumping ahead to now, I don't know if there really is a strong consensus on any single "flagship mod" that everyone has played. At this point, it's probably more that we all just have our own list of personal favorites. I always liked Jenka's Nightmare, but it was never my favorite (WTF? Story was always my favorite).
The last time I played Jenka's Nightmare has to have been at least a good 8 years ago, maybe even longer. It would definitely be interesting to re-play the original Jenka's Nightmare after all these years and all the advancements we've had in the modding community. There are so many aspects of the mod that felt so new and amazing at the time simply because it was the first to do it, but I'll try to give as objective of an analysis as I can, for those who have been wondering what it's like.
Overall, it's a very polished mod, with decent level design, exploration, and story progression. I think the mod's biggest strength is the exploration of familiar areas presented in a new way, and the new boss fights that are obviously re-sprites of existing enemies but nonetheless presented in a creative way that feels fresh. Apart from a few plot holes, I think the writing is very good, and the mod is very engaging by showing the development of our beloved characters based on their growth from Cave Story and believably depicts some of the personal struggles that they are likely to experience in the aftermath of the good ending and the newly unfolding events at the beginning of JN. I felt that the characters were all represented pretty well with the exception of Misery, who for some reason is deciding to take some resentment out on you (Quote) when you first meet her despite the turn of events at the end of the previous game.
The mod's biggest weakness is probably that Shmitz seemed to be going for a sort of "bigger, badder, and darker" feel to the mod, which had mixed results. On one hand, going back to the writing, I felt that the concept of Genesis and Oblivion causing all of the imbalance was a very enthralling concept that gave every moment of the mod a sense of urgency and had the potential to set up a really epic final boss if it could be done right (sadly, we didn't get to see if that was the case, since the mod was never finished). On the other hand, this was used as an excuse to make all of the rooms larger, which didn't always work for me. In general, making your maps too large is bad game design. In my opinion, if your map is so large that the map system doesn't work in it anymore (which is the case in at least one of the Labyrinth rooms in JN), then that's a sign that your map is too large. Some of the maps in Jenka's Nightmare are just too large and easy to get lost in, and some of the puzzles are too confusing.
CS Redesign had this same problem.
In areas where many mods show their limitations due to the lack of desire to ASM hack, Shmitz instead uses the limitations to do something creative. While sometimes it can feel like the mod is re-treading some area or plot point from Cave Story out of convenience, Shmitz manages to keep it interesting with the amount of thought that was put into the story and levels. There aren't a lot of new graphics apart from some boss re-sprites, there's no new music, and no ASM hacks, and at the end of the day, I don't think Jenka's Nightmare is the greatest mod ever. But I think there is one thing about JN that still stands out after all these years, even if you eliminate the "OG Cave Story mod" bias. If you've played enough games, you develop a 6th sense for being able to tell when the creators really put their heart into making the game. And playing Jenka's Nightmare, you can just feel that Shmitz really put his heart into making this mod, and that's something that I think still stands out to this day, despite all of the mods with new fancy hacks that have come out since then.
