Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars

The Good
First of all, it was (and still is) absolutely free ! Because the game was shareware, this first episode was kindly given to you, in hope that you would buy episode 2 and 3 (you still can!).
Second, if my memory serves me weel, it was one of the first scrolling platform games on the PC.
The gameplay was correct, with several nice features not so commonly seen : the pogo, allowing you to make giant jumps, but which can be controlled in a more difficult way (this is intended, not a control bug !). And also, some ennemies would just push you, sometimes into deadly traps, instead of killing you on contact.
Graphics were more than decent, with funny ennemies and some pieces of nice animation.

The Bad
While most of the graphics were decent, there is no real background to speak of, but this was addressed in the following episodes.
While the gameplay was generally good, it also introduces the "find the yellow key to open the yellow door" trick that would faithfully appear in just about every apogee platform game. While this is not really a commander keen's problem, this is the start of a habit that gets nasty after ten games.
The lastability of the game is abysmal as it can be completed in 2 hours. This, though, is a problem you can easily forgive, as this first episode is kind of a free teaser for the following games in the serie. However, I have no idea if further episodes suffer from the same shortness.

The Bottom Line
Commander Keen is certainly a game to be admired : it was one of the first (and still rare) successful shareware game. It also was a technical achievement, with its scrolling platform action. But, as far as pure gameplay pleasure is concerned, Commander Keen is slightly more than average. A game to be respected for sure. Knowing wether it has to be worshipped is open to debate.

The Good
The first game in the opening trilogy. You got this game free, and then had to buy the next two. Let's just say that this was good enough to make me splash out on parts 2 & 3. It was a natural succesor to Captain Comic, but a much better game.

The graphics were good - very clear and easy on the eyes. The PC speaker sounds were cute and very well done for the time. The story was invloving and the puzzles were tricky without being frustrating.

The Bad
The control system was poor. Your Jump and Pogo buttons were CTRL and ALT. Your fire was CTRL+ALT. This made running, jumping and pogoing a hit a miss affair as you charged down the corridor only to find yourself wasting ammo rather than jumping the tricky ravine.

The Bottom Line
In every way a classic. Obviously it was vastly inferior to the later CK games with the new engine (CK4 onwards), but for a long time it captivated me like few other games have managed.

The Good
Cute and colorful graphics. The gameplay was also great for it's time. Smooth scrolling gameplay was never (or at least not that I now of) seen before in platform games on the PC. Some cool innovations such as a pogo stick to jump higher made this game an instant classing. The gameplay was similar to that of Super Mario Bros. at some points, but it was not just another attempt to clone that game. The story was different from the classic "save the princess" formula. You are eight year old genius Billy Blaze and must stop the Vorticans from destroying earth. Billy travels to Mars in this first episode in a trilogy (this game was one of the first that were distributed following the infamous "get part one free as shareware and get the sequels too by buying them" idea that was used in a lot of Apogee games and many publishers have copied). On Mars his ship gets sabotaged by the Vorticans and now you need to collect the stolen parts to repair the ship and help keen continue his adventures. This story was quite original at that age.

The Bad
Some things are a bit dated now such as finding keys to put in the corresponding doors and the gameplay doesn't also quite do the job anymore after 15 years. When this game was released it didn't really have notable flaws, however.

The Bottom Line
Though this game is a bit too dated at certain points it's still a brilliant game that is still free available as shareware and you can still buy it's sequels. If you are looking for a good classic platformer on the PC, you may want to pick this one up.