Commander Keen in Keen Dreams (1991)

My girlfriend got the spark to try some gaming for a change. She especially wanted to play Commander Keen since she used to play those as a kid. Since options for Keen games outside PC are pretty limited, I bought the definitive edition of Commander Keen: Keen Dreams for Switch. I also played this quite a bit as a kid so it was interesting to revisit this. Somehow I remember playing it especially in my grandma's house. I must have put the game on a floppy disk and brought it with me to have something to do while my mom was chatting with grandma.

Whilst helping my girlfriend and testing some levels herer and there myself, I pretty much beat every level in the original game in addition to doing some optional challenges (i.e. time trials and collect-all-points challenges). It's an okay game. It's a Keen game with rocks instead of a blaster and without a pogo. Even as a kid, I though this particular game felt like a bit more bland Keen offshoot than my favourites (episodes 4-6) but it's quite fun and playable nevertheless. The graphics are charmingly DOS-game-like, the vegetable enemies are fun in their silliness and the game definitely doesn't overstay its welcome. The level design, while not remarkable, is littered with secrets for extra points and ammo, something which I didn't even know before my girlfriend showed where to collect all points in some levels.

The definitive edition is not a doozy but it's good to get rereleases like this anyway. I think the Definitive Edition added a run button which is a bit wonky but also introduces a fun speedrunning potential. Also, all levels are given a lot more challenging second course but these I didn't feel like doing... at least yet.

As a game in the vast sea of options, you could certainly find something better. As a piece of PC gaming and Id Software history, it has it's place. As a subjective nostalgic piece of media, it definitely was worth revisiting.