Commander Keen

Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons: Episode 1: Marooned on Mars (Dec. 14th 1990) Episode 2: The Earth Explodes (1991) Episode 3: Keen Must Die! (1991) Commander Keen's very first adventure, and the debut of id's groundbreaking side-scrolling technology.

Commander Keen is a platformer, classic and 1990's game developed and published by id Software.
Released on August 03rd 2007 is available in English only on Windows.

It has received 1,479 reviews of which 1,380 were positive and 99 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.9 out of 10. 😎

The game is currently priced at 1.99€ on Steam and has a 60% discount.

The Steam community has classified Commander Keen into these genres:

Platformer Classic 1990's 2D Action Retro Old School Singleplayer Sci-fi Family Friendly Side Scroller Adventure Nostalgia Pixel Graphics

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Commander Keen through various videos and screenshots.

Requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

Minimum: A 100% Windows XP/Vista-compatible computer system

Reviews

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Aug. 2024

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.

Aug. 2024

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.

April 2024

Bought it for the nostalgia, instead Keen 3 tore me a new one. I did manage to beat all the levels through sheer perseverance, but those were some of the most frustrating and untested levels I've ever played in a video game. Some of them are just pure pain and suffering. Thoroughly recommended.

Jan. 2024

holy crap im pretty sure this was the first game ive ever played on PC. (goodbye galaxy)

Jan. 2024

It's Commander Keen! What's not to like? :) Play episodes 1-3 for back story, then set Episode 4 on hard for a real challenge. To play episodes beyond the first one, you may have to manually load each episode from the file.

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Last Updates

Steam data	19 November 2024 08:11
SteamSpy data	19 December 2024 04:06
Steam price	23 December 2024 20:46
Steam reviews	23 December 2024 04:00

-60% 4.99€ 1.99€

8.9

1,380

Online players

Developer

id Software

Publisher

id Software

Release 03 Aug 2007

Platforms