Commander Keen in Keen Dreams

With every Commander Keen title comes the fact that it is also innovative in story, technical capabilities, or both. Keen Dreams is no exception. It is a tongue-in-cheek approach to the franchise where as the titular 8-year-old brainy boy, your enemies are not aliens or your annoying schoolmate, but rather vegetables, the ones you don't want to eat literally antagonized. It may be a dream, but it is still a nightmare if it is you and the vegetables that you like the least and you are not the one eating or (I hope in this case) just getting the best of.

As Commander Keen, you must free other vegetable-hating children and yourself from the "Dream Machine". Jump up or straight down platform to platform, climb poles, find keys to unlock doors, temporarily turn your vegetable foes into harmless flowers as you travel from site to site collecting cookies and candy--which you would preferably eat instead--and seeking explosives with which to be worthy to bomb the tyrannical potato king to hashbrowns. It is like a situational game of overthrowing or stopping corruption, but as already implied earlier, instead of aliens or other humans, it is all rather silly on a vegetarian level.

In terms of the game engine, it is much more powerful than, and just as groundbreaking and innovative as, that for the "Invasion of the Vorticons" trilogy. The 4-bit, (then-new-to-the-series) "2.5D" graphics are colorfully animated and the levels eloquently designed with many secrets and wide-ranging enemies to keep us playing them again and again. The physics for the series were improved where it is not just hold the jump button to jump higher, but also aim and throw horizontally, vertically, and even (somewhat) diagonally, all relative to the motion of Keen. Unlike the trilogy, Keen Dreams and the subsequent games are played at 60 frames per second as opposed to 30, and they are also faster-paced, more physically correct, and physically suited for bouncy objects. Smooth and gorgeous, it is like playing a decent Super Famicom Mario game on DOS, and that is how I like it.

My only wish, though it is important, is that I had a better and less limited field of vision. The screen scrolls appropriately as Keen approaches one of its edges, but when looking vertically, you are more often than not hoping that wherever you jump does not kill your Keen since the screen was not designed to scroll accordingly just by looking vertically.

To conclude, Keen Dreams remains a classic Super Mario-esque id Software game to this day. Fast, smooth, and tongue-in-cheek, id Software leaves a special landmark for nostalgia gamers and casual players.

The most noticeable thing about this game is how different it is from all the others in the series. It's something of an attempt, and one that pays off big time. Instead of an alien environment(planet or spacecraft), surrounded by outer space aliens, this finds Commander Keen in a nightmarish dream-world, where he travels through many areas, including a dark forest, a dank old mine, a rather large pond, finally making his way through the castle into the final chamber where he must face king Boobus Tuber, to free all the sleeping children that are imprisoned in this world. Oh, and did I mention that all his enemies are vegetables and fruits? And the king, why, he's a huge potato. Now, I'm not entirely clear on when this was developed and released, in relation to the other games, but Wikipedia places it between the trilogy(Invasion of the Vorticons) and Goodbye Galaxy!, which would mean that this is the first in the entire series to feature the majorly improved game mechanics(though they were bettered even more in first episode of Goodbye Galaxy!, Secret of the Oracle) and other new features. These include: Keen is much easier to control, much more responsive, he can jump down "through" the platforms that he can jump up "through" by pressing down and jumping and he can climb up and down poles(think firemen). It's also interesting that several things were added purely to this game; for example, in this episode, Keen can duck. In the dream-world, Keen does not have his pogo stick, making this the only episode where his regular jumps are the only ones he can do. The story details that he uses the last two charges of his Vorticon Hyperpistol on two potatoes, for trying to move him against his will, and, more importantly, accidentally calling him *captain* Keen, rather than Commander... hey, when you go and earn yourself that title, you wanna ensure that people use it. However, he still has enemies that he needs to bypass, and some means of neutralizing them is helpful. Fear not; the game has plenty of seeds for the Commander to use. He can throw them in any direction he wishes to(as opposed to only attacking left or right, as in the trilogy preceding this game), even effectively aiming(with a little practice which is *totally* worth it) mid-jump, which rocks, and if they miss, he can, if he's fast enough, even pick them back up. The seeds turn the vegetable and fruit menaces into flowers... talk about your flower power. However, the effect is only temporary(sorry, hippies), which is another thing only found in this game. The much more limited range and much more dynamic reaction on impact(bouncing and such) of this weapon makes things quite interesting. The graphics are considerably improved since the trilogy. The levels have a slanted 3D-look going on in the backgrounds, and there are a really nice touch. Other features added are difficulty levels, ensuring that anyone can find a gaming challenge in this platform title, and also helps to make the game more available to whomever should desire to try it. The difficulty levels determine how long seeds work, among other things, which *very* directly impacts how challenging it is to complete(though it could be argued that there's greater difference in the later games). This game also allows the player to save at any time, instead of just between levels. Both of these features remain in the rest of the series, meaning, also the next three games(through the two episodes of Goodbye Galaxy! and the one-shot Aliens Ate My Babysitter!). The AI is quite good(whoever knew that fruits and vegetables were so smart?), which makes outsmarting them, battling them and outrunning them very entertaining and fulfilling. The enemies are diverse, well-designed and creative. Potato troopers, mean-looking tomatoes and cucumbers that run back and forth, just to name a couple. The level entitled Apple Acres brings a *whole* new meaning to the old, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away... if you can hit him". The level design is great, and they all look amazing, and several of them are vast in size. The locations chosen are cool, as well. The game-play is made really interesting through the unusual circumstances in the game, and the game is thoroughly and highly entertaining. I've played it through many times. As I alluded to earlier in this review, the game ends with you fighting a boss enemy... making this the other of two games in the series that feature such(the other being the last part of the trilogy). Fortunately, this boss is *far* more entertaining to fight, and the battle is actually somewhat open-ended. The area isn't large compared to the rest of the levels, but it's big for an arena, and it allows for plenty of navigation around, as you fight off the king(who is smarter than your average spud, and whose imposing and threatening size, appearance, and movement speed makes for a *thoroughly* satisfying boss fight). The game leading up to the fight has Keen searching the other levels(he can walk straight up to the castle after the successful completion of the very first level) for bombs to use on the cold-hearted, kidnapping royalty. You'll get a notification when you enter a level that has these Boobus Bombs, which are found in groups of three, and once you have a dozen, you can fight Tuber. However, you can collect at least 21(I've seen more in the levels, but I can't claim to have figured out how to get them all), so that not all will be lost if you miss with a couple of 'em. They act just like the seeds, so by the time you fight him, you'll be used to the use of them. The story is cute, if childish. An excellent game, and most definitely one that is worth playing for any fan of the other Commander Keen games. I recommend it to fans of DOS/platform/Commander Keen games. 8/10