Commander Keen (GBC)

[Zack Burner]

After a few days hiatus figuring out what to review next, I've chosen this game. Based off a famous series of DOS games (the original trilogy is still the best), this game attempts to bring back the magic of the computer games, but unfortunately fails miserably. You get a bunch of gameplay such as jumping, pogo stick jumping, and stun ray. To defeat an enemy you have to first stun him and then pogo stick em. Very basic. The graphics are mediocre at best, though at times it can be difficult to tell if you move some area or are blocked. The music gets the job done. Overall not recommended unless you're a diehard Commander Keen fan. Better yet, here's a link to the classic games:

https://classicreload.com/search?search ... der%20keen

[Retro STrife]

Man, Commander Keen.. other than Super Mario World, I might have played Commander Keen more than any other platformer as a kid. The DOS version of course; specifically the first game - "Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons". Interestingly, it was programmed by John Carmack and John Romero, better known for Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.

When my family got a PC and AOL in the mid-90s, I was able to download some free games, shareware, demos, etc. off the internet. I forget how I got Commander Keen, but that was one of them. If you had a PC in the early 90s and wanted a platform game, that weren't many options, but Commander Keen was one of the most popular. Maybe the best known. You'll find lots of early 90s PC gamers that have fond memories of it, like me, maybe because it was so easy to get.

Anyway, fast forward to just a year or two ago, I learned about this GBC game of Commander Keen, which tried to revive the series (after it had been dormant since 2001). Let me tell you, as a Commander Keen fan, the GBC game is a complete joke.. it's terrible and, worse yet, does not remotely remind me of the old school CK games. It is Commander Keen in name only. Other than the novelty for CK fans, there's nothing that it brings to the table.

First PC game:



GBC game:

[Retro STrife]

They did a similar thing with Jazz Jackrabbit - another popular 90s PC game, action-platformer. They revived it with a terrible GBA game in 2002, which was Jazz Jackrabbit in name only, and officially killed off the series forever.

[Zack Burner]

Guess developers don't know how to recapture magic of old games all the time, had the ones for the new one new how, they'd score big, but they failed miserably. Of the original Commander Keen games, I still like the original trilogy Invasion of the Vorticons. The Goodbye Galaxy ones, were good, but the original had that special charm about it. Coming soon I'll be doing another GBC game, the original Shantae, see how good that holds up.

[goldenband]

It seems like the GBC may have been a target platform for ports of old DOS and 8-bit games. Shamus is another one that got ported to the GBC, though I haven't played other versions enough to say how much it got butchered.

My favorite DOS > console port is probably Captain Comic on the NES -- probably the best Color Dreams game, IMHO. Not perfect, but they got a lot of things right, though the classical music score is full of wrong notes.

[Zack Burner]

Commander Keen in the GBC looks like a dork in that version, wheras in the original he looks the way he should be.