Did you ever play Keen GBC?
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jonnyspeight
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Yeah, I did end up trying it, but it felt like just another generic platformer instead of Keen. From my memory the level design was quite difficult and confusing so I didn't end up playing the game for too long, but it did have some nice stuff in it so I might still pick it up someday and finish it.
The level design was really simple, IMKO. It was really linear, left and right, not a lot of up and down. And there were hardly any solid walls (if any... the key doors were the only ones I remember), so there was no hidden areas or anything.Litude wrote:Yeah, I did end up trying it, but it felt like just another generic platformer instead of Keen. From my memory the level design was quite difficult and confusing so I didn't end up playing the game for too long, but it did have some nice stuff in it so I might still pick it up someday and finish it.
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jonnyspeight
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KeenEmpire
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y08M7aMF ... re=related someone getting mad at gbc, i thought it was a spoof at first
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jonnyspeight
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jonnyspeight
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thehackercat
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Yes
I did. After I was old enough to realize that there was no more Keen to play, I was at Gamestop and pretty near had a stroke when I saw a cartridge in the case that said "Commander Keen." I bought it and rushed home only to be socked in the face by the giant boxing glove of:
WANTON DISAPPOINTMENT.
That was terrible! Only Tom Hall can make Keen games right.
And a chiptune just isn't as magical as those old Adlib tracks...
WANTON DISAPPOINTMENT.
That was terrible! Only Tom Hall can make Keen games right.
And a chiptune just isn't as magical as those old Adlib tracks...
The gameboy, and subsequent upgrade Gameboy Color, was a great little system. It had classics, like Super Mario Land 2, the original Wario Land game, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (and those two Oracles games weren't too bad either), and probably other things I'm forgetting. It wasn't really that bad in technical terms. The original Super Mario Bros was even ported/remade for it, right off the NES.
The trouble with GBC Keen is that it just feels all wrong. It doesn't look like Keen (except for two shots of the BWB Megarocket in the intro, both of which looks like they might be ripped from original games), it doesn't sound like Keen, it doesn't play like Keen. The story is kind of bleh feeling, and the title art is tacky and gives you a bad impression right off the bat.
It's not necessarily lacking in substance as a game... but it does a terrible job of recreating the feel of the series, nor pioneering any new interesting ground. Perhaps worst of all is that it just calls itself "Commander Keen", no subtitle of any kind, and being the first game in years and the only one on a console, this was all a lot of people saw.
And what did they see? Mediocrity. You play as this dumb looking kid, run around a weird map screen to horribly discordant music, jump around in confusing-looking environments with a pea shooter and a... rather naughtily colored and situated pogo stick, not really sure where you're going or what you're trying to do because the stage design is kind of aimless feeling.
It halfway tries to mime Keen with a few touches- some of the sprites look almost ripped from old games, like the Slugs from Keen 4, but others are unrecognizable, like the "Robo bloog" or the Shikadi. Few function the way you'd expect or remember, like the mushrooms that jump all over the place that you can stun; bouncing balls from Keen 4 that you can't jump on and just seem to be animated background objects; it falls horribly flat. You get these really awkward and confusing shots of Mort skulking around at the beginning of a level when you enter it- why?? What are these shots supposed to show us?
For Random Game X, it's mediocre, boring, and forgettable. Not terrible, just... not interesting.
For Commander Keen, it's a half@$$ disgrace cash-in that failed, and a nail in the coffin of a wonderful yet sadly abandoned series.
Enough said. Although I'd just love to see the Angry Video Game Nerd review it.
I wonder if he ever played the Keen games though?
The trouble with GBC Keen is that it just feels all wrong. It doesn't look like Keen (except for two shots of the BWB Megarocket in the intro, both of which looks like they might be ripped from original games), it doesn't sound like Keen, it doesn't play like Keen. The story is kind of bleh feeling, and the title art is tacky and gives you a bad impression right off the bat.
It's not necessarily lacking in substance as a game... but it does a terrible job of recreating the feel of the series, nor pioneering any new interesting ground. Perhaps worst of all is that it just calls itself "Commander Keen", no subtitle of any kind, and being the first game in years and the only one on a console, this was all a lot of people saw.
And what did they see? Mediocrity. You play as this dumb looking kid, run around a weird map screen to horribly discordant music, jump around in confusing-looking environments with a pea shooter and a... rather naughtily colored and situated pogo stick, not really sure where you're going or what you're trying to do because the stage design is kind of aimless feeling.
It halfway tries to mime Keen with a few touches- some of the sprites look almost ripped from old games, like the Slugs from Keen 4, but others are unrecognizable, like the "Robo bloog" or the Shikadi. Few function the way you'd expect or remember, like the mushrooms that jump all over the place that you can stun; bouncing balls from Keen 4 that you can't jump on and just seem to be animated background objects; it falls horribly flat. You get these really awkward and confusing shots of Mort skulking around at the beginning of a level when you enter it- why?? What are these shots supposed to show us?
For Random Game X, it's mediocre, boring, and forgettable. Not terrible, just... not interesting.
For Commander Keen, it's a half@$$ disgrace cash-in that failed, and a nail in the coffin of a wonderful yet sadly abandoned series.
Enough said. Although I'd just love to see the Angry Video Game Nerd review it.
I wonder if he ever played the Keen games though?
The equivalent of Keen GBC may be Jazz Jackrabbit GBA, which sufferes from nearly the same flaws. This makes me wonder if there's ever been a successful port of an old MS-DOS game to Gameboy? Maybe there's just some inherent differences that make this impossible?
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
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VikingBoyBilly
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