5.1 KiB
| title | date | score | howlongtobeat_id | howlongtobeat_hrs | game_name | game_genre | game_release_year | game_developer | tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commander Keen For Game Boy Color | 2023-11-23T10:20:00+01:00 | 2 | 54823 | 2.0 | Commander Keen | 2D Platformer | 2001 | David A. Palmer Productions |
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When I saw a Commander Keen cart for sale in last year's nearby retro game show, I was shocked: how did this early nineties DOS icon make its way to the Game Boy Color? Of course, being provisioned by id Software, the DOOM port clone craze eventually had to jump over to their other franchises, although the Keen commander himself has been more or less neglected once the space marine got hold of his shotgun. Given the respectable CPU and RAM powers of the GBC, I didn't expect a faithful clone, but I also didn't expect a completely different Keen experience that we got instead, cooked up by David A. Palmer Productions and their faithful subcontractors, :)Smilie Ltd..
In case both names ring a bell: Palmer was responsible for the commendable DOOM GBA port and a lot more less commendable ports, and Smilie also co-made Gex: Enter the Gecko, also on GBC. Their website, straight out the early noughties, somehow still is online. As soon as I saw the "David A. Palmer Productions" logo upon boot-up, I knew I had to adjust my expectations.
You see, Commander Keen on GBC isn't a bad game, but it's not exactly what you would call good by any means, suffering from a plethora of major game design mistakes, resulting in more frustration than joy. And yet, after carefully navigating these shortcomings, there's a ray of sunshine here and there. Until you fall to your doom (DOOM?)---again.
According to an old game development press release document, the aim was to bring the sparkles from the "undisputed classics" over to Nintendo's handheld system:
"An undisputed classic, the original Commander Keen games combined excellent level design and platform action for an unforgettable gameplay experience," said Larry Goldberg, executive vice president, Activision Worldwide Studios. "Our goal with Commander Keen for the Game Boy Color is to bring this incredibly satisfying and addictive experience to a whole new generation of console gamers."
Incredibly satisfying and addictive, it is not. Incredibly varied and long, it isn't either, even though Goldberg tries to cover this up by mentioning the "huge" amount of enemies: encounter more than 35 different aliens as well as puzzles, slime pits, magical platforms, secret rooms and teleporters. Each of the three portions of the world you get transported to only has three levels: that's right, only nine in total!
Although rest assured, if you want to make it to the exit, an abundance of both lives and continues will be wasted, keeping you busy for a good hour or two. The main culprit is threefold. First, moving Keen around isn't as pixel-perfect as one would expect it to be for a 2D platformer: I've had frequent falls-to-death accidents because I somehow literally fell through an elevator, slipped on a path, or didn't press the directional button before jump which significantly shortens the jump.
Second, the level design is quite confusing. You'll need to collect colored keycards to pass through barriers, but there are usually obtained in other parts of the level accessible through teleporters that throw your sense of direction off time and time again. Then there's the switch flicking---that, by the way, is done by standing ON TOP of it and pressing SELECT, which I had to look up!!---that makes a certain piece of floor disappear in god-knows-where in order to progress; good luck finding your way back.
Third, as bright and colorful Commander Keen is, the lack of depth and sameness frequently had me mistake a field of spikes for the background and vice versa. It's even sometimes difficult to spot the teleporter exits! It seems that Smilie and Palmer forgot the existence of the term contrast and used their Splatoon guns to spread colors of joy instead. Don't get me wrong, apart from the lack of background layers, difficult to discern stuff and stiff animations, I like the pixel art. Perhaps if things had been black and white on the original Game Boy, the designers were forced to look into the issue of contrast.
Despite the questionable implementation of pretty much anything, after having learned the quirky level design philosophy, I kind of enjoyed pogoing through them in a weird way. The catchy 8-bit tunes by Commodore 64 music chip expert Mark Cooksey certainly helped.
If you're a Keen die-hard fan, it's certainly worth to check out the GBC version, as it's not simply a watered-down port of existing DOS levels. Just don't expect as decent platforming mechanics as on your trusty 80486.