Commander Keen

it is a fun old game and it takes a some sill

First time playing through Keen 1-5 and had an absolute blast! I really enjoyed the challenge these adventures brought forth with their clever levels and platforming along with their colourful art design. Keen 3 was definitely the hardest out of the bunch and had some really tough enemy placements and level design. I wish that Keen Dreams and Keen: Aliens Ate My Babysitter were included in to truly make this a "Complete" package. None the less all the Keen episodes included here are a must play for those wanting a good challenge.

Ooooo, what a trip this collection is!

Now, I speak only of Commander Keen 4 and 5 (I'd also speak of 6, as the praise does apply, but licensing issues prevented it from being included here).

These are THE games. They are absurdly, endearingly well-made, ridiculously canon to both DOOM and Wolfenstein, and stand the test of time incredibly well. No amount of gushing from me will do 'em justice, so

Blast off in the Commander's backyard-made rocket and go stun the whole galaxy!

Picked this up due to one of my friend's playing it, and it had a huge legacy due to it being made by ID and of course the Dopefish. What my friend DIDN'T tell me was how hard they were as you have to beat the whole level in one shot without getting hit. I did like the first one due to it's simplicity and although the third one's pretty tough you don't need to beat all the levels. I even had to beat 4 & 5 in easy and even then it can be hard due to it's hazards. But if you fancy playing some classic games with 8-bit gaming difficulty I would Very much recommend this series.

Loved this game, it was the first game i played as a kid, it brought me back all those years

Commander Keen is a early platformer from 1990. Made by id, it started out as a prototype for a PC port for Super Mario Bros. 3. When Nintendo decided not to get into the PC market, it was changed to what it became.

You play as a 8 year old trying to save the world. Like Super Mario, you go left to right, up and down, platforming around. You can jump on a few "enemies" while being able to "zap" others to knock them unconscious. The control may be a bit clunky by todays standards, but it is still quite controlable. Graphics are good for the time I think, if not a bit pixelated.

If you enjoy old school NES type platformers, this one would be right up your alley. It is 5 games in 1 also.

Good collection, but no Keen Dreams.

granddaddy of the 2d platformer.

it's unfortunately buggy :/

Everyone else seems to have a good time, but for me it crashes, doesn't load, menu errors, some of the start up options do not work, and there's zero sound. :(

Blast from the past and one of my favorites when I was a kid and fumbling my way through early windows shareware/freeware games.

Good game

Memories of Childhood.

My playtime is not accurate as this game was left turned on 10 years ago while on vacation.

It's classic Commander Keen. Episodes 5, 4 and 1 are the best. Download the latest version of DOSBOX before you start playing. You can use a controller through the JoyToKey software.

What a throw back! Please do a remaster!!! So charming with spot on platforming. This would make a great animated film.

fun lil game. not worth 5 dollars tho

Best game of my childhood

Wow! Talk about blast from the past! The game is exactly how I remember it when I was 10 or so years old. I loved it then and I love it again now! Man, I sunk so many hours into Keen. Now If I can just find L.O.R.D., Lemmings, Putt Putt and Bouncing Bob my core childhood games will be complete! Worth every penny and then some!

i love this game! the art style. the movement. everything is amazing!

I played through all 5 episodes and enjoyed them thoroughly. The thing is, I didn't play through this port. I used a reverse engineered version of the keen engine, which allowed me to add better assets, improved music, and play at a widescreen resolution.

The version sold on Steam (and pretty much everywhere else) is shipped with an outdated version of DosBox. Meaning the Steam version is more centred around preservation. The issue with the version of DosBox they used is that when it's in fullscreen, it's blurry. It's pretty painful to look at.

While I wouldn't recommend playing it the way it's shipped, these are still great games, and I'd recommend playing them either with a newer version of DosBox, or a reverse engineered port.

Also, why is Keen Dreams missing? I get why Aliens Ate My Babsitter and the GameBoy game were missing, as the publishing rights went out someone else, and Nintendo would never let someone sell a rom, but Keen Dreams is public shareware, so there's no reason it shouldn't be here.

I played this game since i was a little kid, i was so surprised to it in the stores. i immediately buy it and stated playing it. :D

a classic - so fun!

I F%&KING HATE COMMANDER KEEN SO GODDAMN MUCH

This is a direct port of the first five Commander Keen games. It runs in Dosbox, includes no manual and has no simple option to remap the controls from using control, alt and in some cases space bar to jump and shoot. With that said they didn't even bother with a native launcher outside of just picking one of five episodes. The first three episodes are basically the first game, and the last two episodes are the second game. All told there's actually many hours of game play in here, probably up to 40 if you really want to explore and beat the games on their hardest difficulty.

Assuming you haven't played Commander Keen before, it's Id Software's pet project before they came up with Doom. John Romero's name is on the leaderboard in the fourth game and his name also hidden as an easter egg in one of the levels. I found this pretty cool. This is probably not a good game for kids today to play because it's extremely frustrating at times and has trial and error game play where you must replay sections 10, 20, 50 or more times. For retro gamers who like a challenge these are worth playing, but I recommend looking up the maps online to avoid endless frustration. The game has a key system like Doom, and Keen can jump on his pogo stick for extra height. The platforming in these games is actually very fun because it's extremely precise and you have to know when to take the pogo stick out. Further, if you take the pogo out and hit the jump button immediately after you can do kind of a trick jump that launches you higher. If you enjoy games where you come up with your own creative sequence breaks to overcome obstacles you will probably have a lot of fun with these.

The first commander Keen game is labeled "Complete Pack" but it's actually episode 1: lost on mars. This one is pretty short and can be completed in about fifteen minutes. The second game, the Earth Explodes, is more elaborate as there are more levels and more puzzle elements, but it's still very simplstic and dated. The third game is where these games really start to get good. Keen Must Die has labyrinthian maps with multiple layers and tons of deathtraps which makes the game all the harder considering you die in a single hit and must start over. This game is a ton of fun but there are a couple levels that are so insanely frustrating that I actually think it's one of the hardest platforming games I've played. Episode 4, Secret of the Oracle, could be considered the start of the second game. This one has bigger and more cartoony graphics and much smoother controls. It's still terribly frustrating, at least if you play on hard difficulty, which I did. There's one level in episode 4 that I got stuck at for almost five hours because there are so many things that can kill you it's insane. The fifth episode is slightly easier, with only one really difficult stage, and mostly consists of wandering around a space ship shooting robots.

3,4 and 5 are all great games with truly challenging game play that really requires you to understand the enemy patterns. Even though the AI is simplistic the movement patterns are totally unpredictable so knowing the enemy weak points is really the only way to survive. There is a little more to Commander Keen than your typical retro platformer and I highly recommend it if you want to try your hand at some trial and error precision gameplay.

un clásico divertido

Commander Keen is extremely nostalgic, which is where ID Software began to stand out along with Wolfenstein 3D.
For old gamers, you can enjoy it!
For new ones, I recommend you give it a chance.
It's fun and it's similar to Super Mario and Alex Kidd!
Eternal MS DOS classic!

i bought this as a joke but then after playing secrets of the oracle i started actually liking it and i blame every last one of you for this.

Classic game! Too bad part 6 is not included, so please be aware of that.

I’m too blinded by nostalgia to give an honest review. I’m just glad I can finally squish those freaking flies under my pogo stick again.

Its a game i remember playing back wen i was a kid.

I know I may have some bias for old DOS games, being that I am 39 and have been a PC gamer since 1992, but out of all the early DOS platformer games, Commander Keen in my opinion is the smoothest. As a kid, I only had Commander Keen 2 and 4, so this collection is awesome for me to play what I haven't yet. I also had a genesis and SNES alongside my old computer. I knew the smooth controls of both Mario and Sonic. (my first and second most favorite fanchise's) and as I compare Keen to both Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures, and Duke Nukem 1 and 2, Keen is the closest to SNES/Genesis smooth movement platformer that you're going to get from the early to mid 90's era of PC gaming. Even though this is my first time playing the first Keen game in the 2020's, and it naturally feels dated after all my hours in Keen 4, its still a fun, challenging, and entertaining game. I wish I was smart enough to build a Spaceship out of junk from around the house.

best game ever