A good showcase of the talent both VBB and Ptart possess, the collaboration allows them to fully utilize their strengths and negates their weaknesses. It'd be nice to see more from the pair.
Oh, so we're reviewing mods Roger Ebert style now?
<rogerebert>
Commander Keen is a family friendly game. Indeed, that may be the key to it's initial success, that anybody could play it without a helicopter parent watching over their heads, that the controls were simple and the mechanics easy to learn. I would certainly have no problem if a copy of Goodbye Galaxy fell into, say, my nephew's hands, if I cared about video games, which I don't, making the following review totally contradictory for me staying in character. Hm.
But "How Bleen saved Kwanzaa" is a stark departure from the normally child-friendly tone of the series and of most of the mods, and presents a world of broken windows, urine soaked snowballs and klan members running riot in sewers, and oddly enough, occasionally pausing to dance. The bright colours and humour remain, albeit in a much different form, where the bright red and yellow show the burning flames, the bright white the snow and the colour of the klansmen, the bright yellow urine, and the bright green as the sewers. We should stay far away from the bright brown within the sewers.
The titular character "Bleen" comes from a stereotyped impoverished black family celebrating that enigmatic winter holiday mentioned only in diversity sessions, Kwanzaa, when his family is harassed by the KKK in the form of a brick thrown through a window, where at this point, he swears to do very unpleasant things to the perpetrators of this crime.
Whether or not you find Bleen funny will depend entirely upon how easily offended you are. The game takes none of it's content seriously and throws urine-soaked snowballs at the idea of political correctness with it's use of KFC and Basketball items for scoring high. Poorly spelt KKK propaganda in the form of graffiti (possibly painted in urine) litters the walls with messages such as "KKK r 1337" and "Sonichu zap 2 da xtreem!" (as Roger Ebert and not an average internet user, I do not understand the relevance of the second example, but I imagine others may.) If this is the sort of thing that would leave you red-faced and ready to write to your local congressman, stay well away. You'd be better off waiting on Keen Xmas '10 (and what a wait it is.)
But if you're the kind who enjoys this sort of humour, then please, by all means play Bleen. The real joy comes in the technical achievements and finesse of the graphics and modding. I doesn't personally make me laugh, but I can't fault it.
</rogerebert>
Personally I got no problem with stereotyping if it's all in good fun.
)
You crack me up little buddy!
