It's pretty clear after the first few minutes of play that this version of the game is ported from a tablet version. The controls are tuned for users of "virtual joypads", to make the game a little more playable for people who have to contend with zero tactile feedback. That is to say, the movement is too quick and jerky, jumps are too high with too little lateral movement, and everything is just overall "too floaty". The new level designs also seem to be centered around this retuning. Music, sound, and visuals are all what you'd expect from an "HD" update. Everything has been redone. No lazy "Let's just slap a filter over it" solutions here! Depending on whether or not you've played the original first, you may not enjoy the new look, though I'll say I like how the player sprite more closely resembles Eric W. Schwartz' original character design (as seen in the original Amiga animated intro). And, oh look!, they got him to do the intro for this version, as well! If the original style is what you prefer, fear not!, for the HD version also includes the original levels (and music, therein). So why not just buy the original version here on GOG.com? Firstly, the DOS port available here is a bit twitchy. Secondly, there are other impetuses, such as leaderboards and so on. And for the more advanced user, you can retune the controls and 'physics' to the original Amiga controls via simple editing of the game's .ini files (the downside to this being that you now have to play levels that were designed for floaty tablet controls). OVERALL: I can't heartily recommend this for anyone other than the most hardcore of fans or the most casual of newbies. Team 17's 'remakes' are rather polarizing in that respect.
I'm wondering if all the five-star reviews are written from what the players remember, and not actually from recent play. The dark humour, the demo derby wrecking action, the bloody-good-time pedestrian slaughter, all ruined by poor physics and controls, and questionable gameplay decisions. Let's start with the physics and controls. These cars, supposedly weighing in the thousands of pounds, handle like airweight hovercraft. This results in spinning out at any speed higher than first gear, soaring through the air when hitting any angle of incline, and being easily flipped over on your back. The high jumps are especially annoying as there are certain maps with spots at which you can sail over the edge of the map, and could possibly get stuck on the other side of a tall fence or wall when you 'recover' your car. There are several races that occur in underground mines, laced through with minecart tracks that can easily flip you onto your side or back. Some of the less than fun gameplay elements include invincible cops (replete with perfect handling and underwater control), an opponent with the 'Electro-Bastard Ray' (basically a power-up that zaps any nearby pedestrians) equipped by default, and a generally poor range of alternate vehicles (you can only drive the really good ones through the use of cheats). Buy this one when it's on sale, if you must buy it at all.
Costume Quest (not to be confused with 'Costume Party' by Hamumu) is a bit like an Active Time Battle version of games like Kid Chameleon or HEDZ. Different costumes give different powers, strengths and weaknesses. These costumes also have special 'overworld' abilities. For example, the Robot costume allows for speedy travel and use of ramp jumps via 'rocket skates', and the Spaceman costume allows for traversing dark areas through the use of the costume's toy light saber. Some costumes are given to the player during the course of the plot, and others are assembled from pieces collected during sidequests, or from candy trades with other kids. You can also collect stickers and 'equip' them for added abilities. Battles, as I said, are turn-based using a system similar to Square's ATB. A player's turn in battle is based on the character's speed, oft determined by the costume worn. The efficacy of attacks and blocks is determined by your ability to press the action button at just the right moment, with 'Perfect' hits being critical hits, and so on. The environments are typical of a suburban Halloween night. You start in a regular neighborhood, and progress through the town's mall where some concerned adults are hosting an 'indoor' trick-or-treating experience to keep kids safe and off the streets. Later on you'll enter the dimension of Repugia, a land populated by goblins who are enjoying their own festivities, replete with carnival rides and games. It's a game with all the charm you might expect from Tim Schafer, and then some.
To think this all started from a tech demo featuring SMB3-type smooth scrolling (see 'Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infrigement; see also 'Shadow Knights'). Preceding iD's Commander Keen series was this scattergun-toting redneck, Dangerous Dave, in a variety of improbable, yet cliche, situations. The rules are simple: Shoot everything that moves, collect goodies, and don't get killed. Of course, the folks at Softdisk (under the Gamer's Edge label, a mail-order service predating GameFly) made sure that dying was a pleasurable experience, and threw in a little 'close-up' window that would pop up with an animation of Dave being killed by whatever struck him. The sounds are in glorious, digitized PC Speaker, the colours are in a vibrant EGA, and the levels are classic 'Get to the Exit point' layouts. New players may find the levels a mite repetitive, and would have fun for the first hour or so (there aren't any save points to speak of, so you'll have to play the whole thing through in one session), but older players who still enjoy the original Super Mario Bros. will definitely want to invest in this trilogy. For the former, I would suggest that you try out the first episode of Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons. If you enjoy it, and think you would have fun playing this sort of thing for hours on end, then you'll have fun with Dangerous Dave.
The game is not exactly role-playing, and it's not exactly TBS. It's more like 'The Oregon Trail + Master of Orion in the 7th Century AD'. It's almost all about chance. The sort of chance that comes with drawing a 'random event' card during a tabletop game (like the 'Community Chest/Chance' cards in Monopoly). Indeed, random events are what this game is all about. Managing resources and looking after the happiness and well-being of your villagers are only conducive to continued play, not unlike making sure you have enough quarters to finish an arcade game. They merely dictate how hard a bad event will hit home when it occurs, or how well a good event effects your game (vis. If your people are already angry, and you're suddenly struck by a plague of undead, you might very well face a revolt of some sort or another). There are a tonne of events that are sequential, meaning you may never see them if you don't first encounter the events that precede them. Furthermore, they branch out in different directions based on your decisions, but not every decision has the same result. More often than not, one decision simply has the highest chance of resulting in a particular outcome. It all comes down to how well you know what the subject of a particular event (such as a group of traveling acrobats or a wandering madman) favours, and what entities might favour that particular subject. Which brings me to my next point, and subsequently the reason for taking OFF one point out of a five-star review: Politics. There are loads of politics to be dealt with, whether you choose the road of diplomacy or the path to total war. You need to figure out which clan likes what other clan, and which ones hate each other. You need to know how far-off civilizations and savage peoples will react to your decisions and any treasures you might have on display. And so on. But on the other hand, I suppose this, as well as the incredible illustrations and story-telling, keeps the game from being little more than fiddling with a probability calculator. Excellent re-playability and lots to discover make this a game to buy. Here's looking forward to a 2-4 player version.
