Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle

The Good
The fourth game in the series was the first to use the new graphics engine. Very slick, and much more controllable. Now if you just missed a jump, Keen could grab onto the edge and pull himself up. Very nice.

This game is a classic - the pyramids, the tar-pits, the secret passages, the slugs - and the inch worms were great. Good story and good puzzles - an all time classic.

The Bad
I didn't much like the underwater bit.

The Bottom Line
A classic - if you're old enough to appreciate it.

The Good
Having completed the ¨Invasion of the Vorticons¨ saga and proving that platformers could exist on the PC, id moved things up a little with Keen 4, and provided a whole new look and feel thanks to a way more advanced graphics engine and improved computing power.

The new engine handles much more resolution and detail, not to mention much faster scrolling and animations. This allows the perspective to get much closer to Keen and his world, and even goes as far as to faking a little perspective and giving an almost isometric look to the levels, which makes them much more attractive and are by-the way fully populated with weird and quirky aliens each lovingly animated and out to get Keen one way or another. Keen himself looks much more realistically proportioned and detailed (complete with idle animations and much more facial detail) but neither he nor his world lose that cartoony look that makes the game so enjoyable.

Gameplay-wise one would expect things to get much more cramped up with the smaller view area, but the layout of the levels adjust to the new engine perfectly, and there is still plenty of room to jump around and collect items in classic Keen fashion, only now there are more invisible platforms and similar secrets as well as other gravity defying trinkets. Keen himself holds his old arsenal of moves from the original trilogy (which weren´t that much to be honest) and adds some new feats like the skill to look up and down to show you more of the levels, and the kickass ability to hang on to ledges when jumping, as well as climbing poles and such, feats that do nothing but improve the already solid gameplay.

Soundwise things go up another notch, with full adlib music support as well as the usual amount of quirky and cutesy sfxs, and the game now sports a much more polished interface that simulates Keen´s wrist-watch computer, complete with a fully functional pong game to pass the time!!

The Bad
Nothing much, except it´s "same old, same old"... the new look and polish definetively makes it feel like a new game, but there´s no denying that things are starting to feel slightly too familiar by now.

The Bottom Line
Looking back I think the best way one can sum up this new chapter in the keen series is that things now really take a turn for the professional. While the gameplay and all had always been solid, the previous games just couldn´t shake that feeling of amateur shareware-ness evident in the production values and misc. elements such as the interface. From Keen 4 on we are on to the next stage of evolution into commercially-viable, fully professional entertainment. Begginers to CK should probably start here.

The Good
This was the first 'modern' Commander Keen game, and is fondly remembered by people of a certain age. Whilst the first three games had tiny sprites and decent, but uninspired gameplay, this and the follow-ups were excellent and are still fun today (certainly the most fun you can have on a PC with just 700k). The mixture of Mario-esque gameplay, a pogo stick, some utterly cheesy Adlib music, and an engaging amateurishness fits together perfectly. The difficulty level is pitched perfectly, too - it gets progressively harder, but deceptively so, and although you can save and load as often as you like, you tend not to as it all seems initially simple.

The Bad
For what it is, this game is perfect - Nintendo-style platform games are extremely rare on the PC, and the cute graphics and bouncy music haven't really dated (compared to something like 'Puzzle Bobble' they're positively advanced).

The Bottom Line
A fun, nostalgic early-90's PC-based shareware platformer by soon-to-be-Doomsters.