Buy Commander Keen Complete Pack

BETTER THAN MASS EFFECT

Commander Keen saved Earth a generation before Commander Shepard ever heard of the Reapers. Little dude built his own space ship out of soup cans. Shepard struggled building a fish tank. This 8 year-old kid was clearing out the Vorticon home planet while Shepard was telling everyone what his favorite shop on the Citadel was.

Shepard is a joke. Commander Keen is the real Spectre.

One of the icons of the DOS era. They label this as the "Complete Pack", but it is missing a few games (Keen Dreams & Aliens Ate My Babysitter).

Dopefish Lives!

This pack doesn't include Commander Keen 6 and Keen dreams is missing. Some people have been disappointed because those games weren't included, so be aware! Don't get this pack if you’re planning on playing Keen 6 and Keen dreams.

This review is mainly pointed towards Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine, because I played the living ♥♥♥♥ out of it when I was a kid. I remember getting this game from my uncle on a floppy disk, I took the disk home and installed it, with difficulty, back then I didn't knew much about computers. I finally managed to install it and then I started playing, and I was blown away because the game was so ♥♥♥♥ing awesome. I loved messing around in the levels and exploring them, I died a lot because this was the first real game I played on PC, then I discovered this strange option called 'save' and it remembered where I was! English isn't my native language so I had trouble understanding some parts of the game. I still remember the big red guy with the automatic rifle who instantly killed you when you were in his sights, when I first encountered him I literally jumped out of my chair, I had never seen something so frightening.

And eventually I was there, the final level, I remember every second of that remarkable level and when I finished the level and I had beaten Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine, I felt great I had conquered this beast of a game. After beating the game I spent hours upon hours replaying the levels and playing pong. Later I found out that if you pressed F1 (or some other button I don't really remember), the game would load a page with the LORE of Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine, the ♥♥♥♥ing Lore of Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine, holy ♥♥♥♥. And when I found the 'lore' I looked at the pictures of all the enemies I had encountered and I even saw pictures of enemies I didn't encounter, because you could only encounter those on hard mode. (I just looked at the pictures and because at the time I didn't speak a word English.)

Years later I found out Commander Keen was available on steam and I had some money on my steam wallet and I was like: ♥♥♥♥ it I'm buying Commander Keen. And I was able to play my childhood love yet again.

Well enough of MY experiences with the game, lets actually talk about the game. It's a miracle if you actually read my story and made it so far!

Commander keen is simple platformer, it's about a guy, Keen. From my current understanding he is just a dude who travels to random planets and shoots aliens with his little laser gun, he also has a pogo stick which makes him jump higher. This pack included Keen 1,2,3,4 and 5. The first ones look really old, but the fourth and the fifth looked a lot cleaner and a lot newer. All of the games play pretty similarly and have the game character and weapons. But I didn’t really finish any other Keen game except Keen 5, so I might be wrong because some things are different later in game. But in Commander Keen 5 you have to collect four diamonds to open doors to continue within the level, then you have to find a key that opens the door to the end of the level, later you have to destroy something what looks like the power source for the space ship you are stranded on. In the game you will encounter various enemies, some are robots some are 'energy enemies', the robots can be killed the 'energy enemies' can only be stunned or can't get hit at all. You have one life, so if you get hit once you are done for, yet you can save everywhere you want, so that isn't a big problem or a hard part about this game. All in all it’s just an old school platformer, that is as unforgiving as any other old game and needless to say the game is also very fun!

After playing this game again after so many years, it made me realize that Commander Keen 4 is way superior to Commander Keen 5, because the fourth installment had way more variety. And when I look back at the levels of Commander Keen 5 I realized that they game wasn't really that special. It was just the fact that it was the first game I ever played and finished, what made it so great. The nostalgia made me love this game.

Nostalgia is a ♥♥♥♥♥.

Thanks for taking the time to read my game review of Commander Keen, one of my favorite games if not my favorite game of all time!

It still looks better than Cod Ghosts and it's playable. The best game of my childhood. I would save Gnosticus IV again.
10/10

So glad I found this game. Brings me back to my childhood.

My thoughts when I saw this on Steam:

"Oh wow Commander Keen! I used to love those games when I was a kid, I bet I can beat them now that I am much older"

"NOPE, still just a F%&*$#ing HARD!"

Classic games, simple games, difficult games. Even after twenty years I still can't solve some of the puzzles thrown at me, but I still enjoy trying!

Commander Keen is a super retro game made by the creators of Doom(way before), a kinda cool reminder of how games once were. It's a Mario style platformer where you jump around collecting coins, avoiding/attacking enemies and traps, you also have a gun you can shoot. Commander Keen is not for the impatient gamer, this game is of a different time and needs to be respected. Expect ridged controls and somewhat convoluted menu navigation, and a totally nonsensical narrative plot. I'd give it 6.5/10 today, but 8.5/10 for people who can appreciate how it was in those days.

Finally I found you!

Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle

This "Complete Pack" contains the first five full Keen titles, excluding Keen Dreams and Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! probably due to publishing rights issues.

Commander Keen in Marooned on Mars:
The first entry into the series, and a very enjoyable one. The difficulty isn't too high or too low, just about right; it's short and sweet. Even though there is a tad bit of input lag regarding controls, it never really makes you perform pixel-perfect jumps or anything that difficult. And despite the lack of music and somewhat annoying sound FX, the title still retains a lot of its original charm.

Commander Keen in The Earth Explodes:
Out of the original trilogy, this is my least favorite one. Why? Because it's basically the first one, but quickly loses its charm when the unfair gameplay kicks in. And I don't mean "unfair" as in "challenging", I mean unnecessarily aggravating. This is due to the tad bit of input lag, bull**** level design, and annoying enemy AI. Thanks for that John Carmack.

Commander Keen in Keen Must Die!:
This entry is even more unforgiving than the second, and the lack of music and sound FX REALLY wears on you by now. Why isn't it my least favorite? The main antagonist. Without spoiling anything, the main antagonist and his simple (yet relatable) backstory make the game worth seeing through to the end, and you barely even learn anything about him until the boss fight, which luckily, isn't too hard. I'll just say... it shows a lot of humility for id Software, considering how they went on to turn the entire industry upside down multiple times.

Commander Keen in Secret of the Oracle:
This is probably my favorite Keen title, why? Well, one reason is Dopefish's glorious debut. Another is how nearly every aspect of Keen was improved vastly. This is when the Keen series felt much more like a fully-formed franchise rather than a labor of love from a group of eager programmers. The graphics are much more colorful and cartoony, the gameplay is MUCH more fluid and MUCH less aggravating, and there is actual background music that’s catchy and makes the experience more enjoyable. And you can't forget Dopefish, we will never forget Dopefish.

Commander Keen in The Armageddon Machine:
A lot like Secret of the Oracle, except new levels, music, easter eggs, and sadly leaves on a big cliffhanger, and I only mention this because the sixth title is not included leaving you to find it yourself. Still a lot of fun and pretty enjoyable. The only nitpick I really have is how you actually beat the game, as it is very confusing and very hard to actually figure out how to blow the last fuse. Otherwise, a solid Keen title.

Some people complain on how "You're paying for an emulator!" or "It's missing two episodes!” I really don't. This is the bulk of a classic series, and you're paying how much? Five dollars? And you'll probably wait for a sale anyway, won't you. You should be grateful it's even on Steam for legitimate purchase. Also, the games run almost flawlessly in DOSBox for me at least, unlike many other DOS games released on Steam packaged with DOSBox...

If you want to explore id's past, want to dive into another retro platformer, or simply just bored, buy the pack now for five bucks. Don't even wait for a sale, it's not really worth waiting for when you could be playing now.

EDIT: If you would like to see a full release of Keen Dreams on Steam (w/ Achievements, Leaderboards, and other Steam features) running natively on Windows and Linux PC's, click here to check out this new source port:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/356200/
I even made the trailer on the Steam page you see there.
Maybe this could prompt id Software to do a similar overhaul with this release.

A game from my childhood. Even now, it is still a great platformer which is totally worth your pennies if you like adventure and a nice childfriendly-ish story.