Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars

The Good
The one good thing about Commander Keen (and its myriad sequels) was that it broke the mold for PC games- I feel it's somewhat responsible for the explosion of PC gaming. It introduced console-style action games (and, more importantly, the scrolling platform game) to PC users.

The Bad
Commander Keen, looked at in the context of late-80s platformer games, as opposed to compared to other PC games, is a very poor game. The graphics are bland, the gameplay is boring... and it demonstrates how ill-suited the PC was for action games... a trend that continues to this day, with the PC dominating strategy games, and consoles dominating action games.

The Bottom Line
Commander Keen was a huge success, and was a very heavily hyped side-scrolling game in the vein of Super Mario Bros. At the time of its release, it was considered the successor to Captain Comic and one could not avoid mention of the game in PD/SW software catalogues and BBSes. It was designed for mid-to-high spec machines of the time, and was considered something of a wonder.

CK, in my opinion, plays like one of the many boring SMB clones that came out on the NES. The game physics are tolerable, the gameplay is repetitive and somewhat on the slow side. The graphics are average- poor in comparison to any game on any other platform of the time, but for the PC it was decent.

At the time of its release, I was a big Commodore 64/128 user- the Great Giana Sisters and Creatures were 2 hugely popular platformers from the same era, and I played them incessantly. Perhaps the C64's colorful graphics and suitability for action games jaded my eye, because I couldn't believe how utterly lame CK was. After all the hype, the $2000 PC was playing a game technologically inferior to a game played on a $99 C64, let alone the $99 NES and SMS, whose games were responsible for CK.

In the long run, of course, the PC platform has proven itself. Games like CK are responsible- the games necessitated the upgrading and outfitting of PC systems in order to play them properly, lifting the PC market out of the CGA 4.77 mHz rut it'd been in since 1983. Historically the game is important, and I keep a copy on my HD... but it isn't really on a par with any of the other platform games from the same era, and was very quickly superseded in quality and gameplay by other PC games.

The Good
Before they came out with the popular first-person shooter, Wolfenstein 3D, id Software made a trilogy of platform games that centers on eight-year-old Billy Blaze, an ordinary school kid who creates an interstellar spaceship, which he calls his “Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket”, using objects he finds around his house. He dons his brother’s helmet, and transforms into Commander Keen. The first episode, entitled ‘Marooned on Mars’, has Keen exploring the red planet to recover four vital components to his ship that the inhabitants stole while he is out exploring.

Therefore, the object of this Commander Keen episode is to recover all four parts scattered around Mars. When you begin the game, you are presented with a top-down view of the planet, in which you walk along a pre-defined path until you come across a building. Entering it gives you a side view where you need to get your hands on a raygun and get to the exit. Some areas of the building are locked behind colored doors, meaning you also need to collect keycards corresponding to that color.

There are two common lifeforms on the planet, and the first type you will encounter are the Yorps, friendly, one-eyed aliens that Keen eventually takes a liking to. They have the habit of getting in your way (especially in narrow gaps), even pushing you off the platform you are on. One way of dealing with them is by jumping on their heads to immobilize them for a few seconds. They make this cute sound as they go down. Then, you have the Gargs, who are much bigger than the Yorps. They walk around flashing their teeth. Like Yorps, they stop to survey their surroundings, and they charge at Keen when they spot him. Contact with a Garg results in a loss of life and a kick to the overhead view.

Once you have left that one building, a blue square with the word “Done” in huge letters take its place, and you can proceed on. Occasionally, there are shrines that you can enter. In these levels, you make your way to the top, avoiding hazards and enemies, and touching a Yorp statue which gives Keen a telepathic message. One of these hints is about the Standard Galactic Alphabet, the strange symbols you see throughout the game. An earlier shrine lets you retrieve a pogo stick, enabling Keen to get to places he is unable to reach by foot. The pogo is carried over to the rest of the series.

Also scattered around the buildings are various items that add to your score. The most common of these are lollypops, but you can also collect soda cans, pizza slices, textbooks, and teddy bears. Get enough of them, and you might earn an extra life. But if you happen to lose a life, you have to collect them again.

There is no background music while you are playing the game, but the sound effects are nice. You hear Keen's footsteps exactly as you should (both on the map and the normal levels.) The pistol sounds like a cartoon laser gun, and when Keen uses his pogo stick, it makes a nice boing. The sound of Keen dying is good, too. I love the way that Keen looks when he is hit, losing his whole torso, his legs still walking, and his mouth formed into an O-shape.

The controls are easy to use. Only one key can be pressed to make Keen jump, another to activate his pogo stick, and another to bring up the status panel which reveals your score, the number of lives, keycards that you have collected, and more. Before the game, I enjoyed reading the in-game story and watching the static previews of the next two episodes.

The Bad
When you are playing the normal levels, there is always that bland gray background that does not go well with me at all. It can get boring at times.

As I said earlier, you have to press a key to bring up the status panel which shows a lot of information. It would have been nice if that information would be displayed while you are playing the game, and to not have to press a key at all.

In order to fire your pistol, you have to press two keys: [Ctrl] and [Alt] at the same time. Since you are jumping or using your pogo stick most of the time, you may accidentally fire your pistol.

All these problems are rectified in the future Keen games.

The Bottom Line
Commander Keen is episode one of a great series. It may have the simple plot of retrieving stuff for your gizmo, but it is better than the games that involve you rescuing a damsel-in-distress. This game is ancient, but id did not throw in some timer problems, and that means that you will not have a problem running the game on modern systems. If you like platform games, especially the ones that involve you walking around a map and traveling to your next destination, then you won't go wrong with this one.

The Good
Commander Keen was so well-programmed that my jaw dropped the first time I saw it. (This has always been a trend with Carmack & Romero games--the same happened when I saw Wolfenstein 3D, then Doom, then Quake.) Commander Keen uses hardware scrolling and virtual screen tricks to provide very smooth scrolling platform gameplay on any 286 or faster with an ega card. That, coupled with the cute, early kid comic-book-style graphics, makes it just as good (if not better) than most console platformers on Nintendo 8-bit platforms.

The PC speaker sound effects are better than average.

The Bad
The gameplay gets pretty repetitive after a while (which is dangerous, since repetition == boredom).

The Bottom Line
A classic game that should be played by anyone who enjoys console platform games. And for extra punch, play it on a real 286 with EGA as a testament to how well it's programmed.