Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine

The Good
The story is pretty good: In Keen 4 "Secret of the Oracle" kid genius Billy Blaze a.k.a Commander Keen has learned that an alien race called the Shikadi want to destroy the galaxy from their space station, the Omegamatic. In there they keep the Quantum Explosion Dynamo (QED), a machine meant to destroy the galaxy. Now you must help Keen find the four machines protecting the main elevator shaft leading to the QED and destroy them as well as the QED itself. The graphics are brilliant and in cartoon style again. You really feel like being on a giant space station. In the challenging levels you'll find many new hazards such as small robot guards, computing robots, the giant and very dangerous Robo Red and eventually the Shikadi themselves. The levels have good level design that really test your skill making this series one of the most popular PC alternatives for Mario. There are cool new sounds and music via your sound card that make it complete. The controls are still the same as in Keen 4 and are simple and similar to many games similar to Keen. Control to Jump and Alt for the Pogo stick or you van choose a setting for using these buttons together to shoot (you'll hate that though). The Space Bar is used to shoot normally. Everything plays very smooth and just the same as part 4 since it's from the same release, which means a very good gameplay.

The Bad
It's not as diverse as Keen 4 which was set on a diverse planet with forests, deserts and so on which made it my favorite Keen. This one is the same space station style all the way making it a little bit less interesting. The game, as with most Commander Keen games, is a bit too challenging for beginners. Even in easy mode it will prove to be hard.

The Bottom Line
A brilliant conclusion to the "Goodbye Galaxy" series. Keen 5 is not as diverse as Keen 4 but it's still a worthy sequel to that game. Try it now if you haven't already done so!