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. In the game you play the role of Comm...
Commander Keen's very first adventure, and the debut of id's groundbreaking side-scrolling technology. In the game you play the role of Commander Keen: the alter-ego of an eight year-old genius by the name of Billy Blaze. When Billy learns that the Earth is in danger, he dons his brother's football helmet and his homemade interstellar spaceship to become Commander Keen -- Defender of the Earth!
Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy!:
Episode 4: Secret of the Oracle (1991)
Episode 5: The Armageddon Machine (1991)
You are eight-year-old Billy Blaze, boy genius to your neighborhood. Commander Keen to the rest of the universe. It's time to grab your trusty pogo stick and neural stunner, climb into the cockpit of your homemade Megarocket and blast off for the Shadowlands. To prevent the obliteration of life as we know it, you'll have to battle your way past deadly hazards and devious creatures, or end up as space toast.
As of this writing, this so-called "Complete Pack" is missing Keen Dreams, Aliens Ate My Babysitter, and the Game Boy Color game according to its description. They even used the cover art for Aliens Ate My Babysitter, which again does not appear to be included.
Purchase this if you want, but beware the seemingly deceptive marketing..
Not going to take the time to review the games themselves. These are considered not only the first, but some of the very best 2d platformers to ever grace the DOS or PC systems. If you haven't ever played Keen for some reason, you owe it to yourself to grab this and play it. This and Epic's Jazz Jackrabbit are basically the DOS answer to Mario (this) and Sonic (Jazz).
With that being said, let's go into this release in particular. It uses DOSBox of course, no other way to play it as far as I know aside from a VM which is way too much work. Dosbox settings are great and the games work perfectly, so all is good with that. You launch the Pack and at the startup get to pick which of the games you wanna play.
As for what it comes with, I'm giving it 5 stars for what it does have rather than what it doesn't. This is *just* the first 5 games in the series. It's missing two: "Commander Keen Dreams" (aka the "lost" episode) as well as "Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Babysitter!", what's widely considered the best of the series. It's a shame but it's not too disappointing, seeing as the steam release also doesn't include those. As far as I know it's only because those two had a different publisher: Dreams was published by Softdisk and Aliens was published by Formgen, while the original 5 were all entirely published by Apogee (aka 3D Realms). There was also one on the Game Boy Color but I think it's pretty understandable why that one isn't here.
Is this worth buying? For about a dollar a piece, I would say it totally is. On sale for 1.50 is a serious steal for how good these are. Just keep in mind there are two games missing and in all honesty, just grab those from an abandonware site after grabbing this. All 5 of the games it does come with are great, and Goodbye Galaxy (episodes 4 and 5) are typically considered up there with Aliens Ate My Babysitter as some of the best dos based platformers ever. Do yourself a favor and play this!
This was one of my favorite games of that era. A decent side scrolling platform game that requires near perfect timing of jumps and shots. It is a cute little series with some good wit and game play but don't expect much as the graphics are not enhanced in any way nor is the sound. Also, it should be noted that this is not a complete series. We are missing Keen Dreams ep 3.5 and Aliens Ate My Babysitter ep 6. With that being said it is still worth the very small price.