Commander Keen (2001 video game)
| Commander Keen | |
|---|---|
Cover art
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| Developer(s) | David A. Palmer Productions |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Designer(s) | David Palmer |
| Artist(s) | Jim Meston |
| Composer(s) | Mark Cooksey |
| Series | Commander Keen |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Color |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Side-scrolling platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate score | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 65/100 (9 reviews) |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| AllGame | 2.5/5 |
| Eurogamer | 8/10 |
| GameSpot | 6.8/10 |
| IGN | 6/10 |
Commander Keen is a side-scrolling platform video game developed by David A. Palmer Productions and published by Activision in May 2001 for the Game Boy Color. Part of the Commander Keen series, it was released ten years after the first seven episodes in 1990–91. The game follows the titular Commander Keen, an eight-year-old child genius, as he journeys through three alien worlds to collect three plasma crystals to prevent the weapon they power, built by several enemies from previous games, from destroying the universe. The game features Keen running, jumping, and shooting through various levels while opposed by aliens, robots, and other hazards.
The original games of the Commander Keen series were developed by id Software, but after the success of their 3D first-person shooters such as Wolfenstein 3D (1992) and Doom (1993), they cancelled the planned future episodes in the series. In 1999, founder John Carmack remarked that he was considering making a Game Boy Color game for the series, and sometime afterwards id approached Activision with the idea. Activision recommended David A. Palmer Productions to develop the game, as they had been proposing to make Game Boy Color versions of id's other games, and Palmer proceeded to make the game with oversight from id. The game was announced in April 2001 and released soon after. It received mixed reviews from critics, who gave varied opinions on the quality of the game's graphics and the suitability of the ten-year-old computer-based gameplay on a modern handheld game console, and generally found the game best suited for fans of the original series or younger players.
Commander Keen is a side-scrolling platform video game: the majority of the game features the player-controlled Commander Keen viewed from the side while moving on a two-dimensional plane. The player can move left and right and can jump, and can use a pogo stick to bounce continuously and jump higher than they can normally with the correct timing. The levels are composed of platforms on which Keen can stand, viewed from the side as in the original Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons trilogy, and some platforms allow Keen to jump up through them from below. The game also includes moving platforms and teleporters that Keen can respectively jump on and interact with. In between levels, the player travels on a two-dimensional map, viewed from above; from the map, the player can enter levels by approaching the entrance. Once entered, the only way to exit a level is to reach the end, or by resetting the game. When a level is completed, the player is given a password that records their progress, lives, and points; this password is entered when starting the game in order to resume where the player left off. The game is divided into three worlds, connected by a central hub area where the game begins and where Keen starts whenever a password is entered.
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