I want to keep moving and start on something new, now that the Genesis list is done, so I decided to finally do this list that I have been thinking of writing for at least a year now.\u00a0 Platformers were probably my first favorite genre on the PC, back in the early ’90s, and even if many of the most famous ones are only on consoles, PCs also have their share of great platformers. Just as a warning though, I like platformers a lot, particularly some of the ones in this first update, so there are some summaries (read: Keens 1 and 4, particularly) in this update that are a bit long.\u00a0 The Commander Keen series is fantastic though, they deserve it!<\/p>\n
The biggest challenge with a genre-based list is, which games on the margins do you include? I’m still unsure about some — do Tomb Raider and its sequels, Baron Baldric, or Jump!\/Dschump! count? I’m really not sure if they should or not, good arguments could go either way.\u00a0 This is something I will have to decide, but it’d be interesting to hear others’ opinions as well, about these and others listed below.<\/p>\n
Finally, again this will be a multi-part series; I really like breaking it up, instead of writing a whole update then uploading it all at once.\u00a0 This first update covers 12 games.<\/p>\n
First I will post the list of titles I currently intend to cover, though again this could change based on decisions above; Tomb Raider games after the first one probably won’t make it into the final list, unless someone thinks otherwise, for example.\u00a0 But who knows.\u00a0 Then after that I will post the first 12 summaries.<\/p>\n
Games Summarized In This Update<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1A. 2D Platformers – Physical Copies (Disk or Disc) [see below for table of contents]<\/p>\n Ancient Empires (Educational) (1990)<\/a> Before we begin with the summaries, though, I should list the games to be covered here.\u00a0 This list will grow as I buy new games or decide on more freeware or shareware games to cover, but it’s a good starting point to show what the intended list is right now.\u00a0 As the above list of games covered shows, I’m going to use the same organization method that I used in my PC racing games list, but with added dividers for 2d, 2.5d, or 3d platformers. So:<\/p>\n Table of Contents<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 1. Platformers I own physical copies of, not digital. List of Titles To Be Covered In This Series 1A. 2D Platformers\u00a0 – Physical Copies (Disk or Disc)<\/p>\n Ancient Empires (Educational) (1990) 1B. 3D Platformers – PC Physical Copies<\/p>\n Croc 2 (2000) 2A. 2D Platformers\u00c2\u00a0 – Digital Download<\/p>\n 1001 Spikes (2014) Maybe consider including:<\/p>\n 2B. 2.5D Platformers – Digital Download<\/p>\n Bionic Commando Rearmed (2008) 2C. 3D Platformers – Digital Download<\/p>\n Cloudbuilt – Platform-Shooter Maybe consider including: 3. Freeware and Full Shareware titles (selected titles only)<\/p>\n 2D<\/p>\n Abuse (1996) (originally retail title, now freeware) 3D<\/p>\n Miko-san’s Miracle Board (always freeware)<\/p>\n 4. Demos and limited-content shareware (selected titles only, this list will get longer)<\/p>\n Adventures of Captain Comic 5. Demos of games I also own the full versions of, but still have the demo of on my computer too.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 (this section may be removed from this list)<\/p>\n Nothing I can think of at the moment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Summaries<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n And now for the actual summaries in this first update.<\/p>\n 1A. 2D Platformers\u00a0 – Physical Copies (Disk or Disc)<\/strong><\/p>\n Notes: “Saves” mean the game supports save files saved to your hard drive.\u00a0 “Password save” means that the game will give you codes that you will need to write down in order to continue from that point.\u00a0 “No saving” means you can’t save in that game (shame on them!).\u00a0 The number of players listed is for single-system multiplayer first; if a game has online play support, that will be listed afterwards, and noted as such.<\/p>\n <\/a> As for the gameplay, you control your character with the arrow keys on the keyboard.\u00a0 Up jumps or grabs on to things, left and right move, down\u00a0 goes down a rope or such.\u00a0 Enter switches between your three items, a headlamp that shoots out a beam of light that can temporarily freeze enemies, spring-boots for a high jump, and a limited-uses-per-level shield that protects you from damage.\u00a0 Frozen enemies can still hurt you, though, unlike in Operation Neptune, so watch out, and shoot them when you won’t hit them while walking past!\u00a0 The game does not scroll, but instead flips between the screens that make up each level.\u00a0 Again ON works the same way.\u00a0 This isn’t a fast-paced action game, then; instead, careful thought should go in to each move.\u00a0 This is a puzzle-platformer, after all, and there is a puzzle to solve on almost every screen.\u00a0 There are five different ancient tomb settings to explore in this game, and you can access four right from the start – Egypt, Greece & Rome, India & China, and Middle East.\u00a0 Each setting has four levels to complete, for a total of 20 stages.\u00a0 There is a harder difficulty option, if normal is too easy; this makes the puzzles harder.\u00a0 Each setting has somewhat different puzzles as well, in addition to graphics.\u00a0 Egypt has many puzzles where you shoot beams of light into rotating prisms; the Middle East mostly has puzzles with numerous switches that move platforms or walls around the screen, and yes solving these requires a lot of trial and error; Greece & Rome has puzzles where you have to hit switches in the correct order in order to move platforms out of your way, a challenge made harder by that enemies will trigger them as well; and the final stage combines the previous types together.\u00a0 The random nature of many puzzles, particularly the switch puzzles in the Middle East area, is kind of annoying as you hit the switches until you luck into the right combination, but still this game will build some puzzle-solving skills among children, or adults, who play it.\u00a0 At the end of each level, you have to put together an image of an ancient treasure from that region.\u00a0 On the lower difficulty these are fairly simple, and thankfully are NOT sliding tile puzzles; you just take the tiles and place each one in the right place.\u00a0 After that is a tougher challenge at the stage exit, to solve a logic puzzle by figuring out what the right tile is for a question-mark block on a 3×3 grid of tiles with various pictures on them.\u00a0 These start out not too hard, but do get tricky; these are definitely good logic puzzles.<\/p>\n So, overall, Ancient Empires is a fun little obscure puzzle-platformer with decent to good level designs, tricky puzzles, and enough enemy-avoiding action to keep things interesting.\u00a0 The gameplay is stiff, and some elements require maybe too much trial and error, but it’s at least a\u00a0 decent to good game.\u00a0 The Learning Company were known in the early ’90s for making some of the best educational games, and this is one of their better ones.\u00a0 I wish I’d had this as a kid, but getting it as an adult in the ’00s I still have had quite a bit of fun with it.\u00a0 Pick this up if you can, and think you might like this kind of game.\u00a0 Also get Operation Neptune, this games’ math\/sub-shooter cousin!\u00a0 Unlike the more popular Super Solvers games, this game is DOS floppy disk exclusive; it doesn’t even have a Windows-port CD version re-release like ON does, much less a Mac version like the most popular Super Solvers games.\u00a0 For the adult gamer, though, if you want any Super Solvers games, this and ON are the two to get.\u00a0 Physical release only.<\/p>\n <\/a> The game has performance issues, however.\u00a0 The installer won’t run on my newer computer, it just crashes.\u00a0 Copying the game folder to the hard drive seems to work though, though I also tried installing it in a Windows 3.11 installation in DOSBox; that also did the trick.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I have never been able to get most Windows 9x games to recognize gamepads or joysticks on my current computer, which is a real pain for platformers like this one; they aren’t as good on keyboard!\u00a0 I recommend using a keyboard-to-joystick mapper if you also have this problem.\u00a0 Running it in that Win3.1 installation in DOSBox didn’t fix the problem, either; still no joystick.\u00a0 On my older WinME computer the game does recognize that a joystick exists, but I can’t get all of the buttons to work, only jump and shoot, and you need four — jump, shoot, interact (to grab the end-level pullchain, mostly), and belly-bump.\u00a0 And you can’t use the keyboard and gamepad together, so you can’t use those on the pad but the others on keyboard.\u00a0 And of course, you can’t change any settings while in a game, only from the main menu… and you can only save after each level.\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 So yeah, this game has problems.\u00a0 If you can get the game working with a 4-button gamepad or it works well with a keyboard mapper the game is better, but it’s still a frustrating game with only adequate-at-best platforming; this game is not that good.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, that’s not all there is to this game.\u00a0 It should be, but it isn’t.\u00a0 No, there is also a driving component, as you travel between each location around America, finding your scattered companions.\u00a0 The problem is, this plays in the most minuscule window imaginable!\u00a0 It’s somewhat unbelievable that they actually thought that that was a good idea, it’s an awful one.\u00a0 Almost all of the screen is taken up with a map of America, and you drive in a tiny one or two postage stamp-sized corner of the screen.\u00a0 Here you have a view behind your car, and flip between three different lanes in order to avoid obstacles coming at you and pick up turbo and ammo pickups.\u00a0 In order to have ammo in the platformer levels you need to collect it here, there aren’t ammo pickups in the main game.\u00a0 This mode controls just fine, but these segments go on far too long, so they take up a significant amount of time.\u00a0 With something you play this much, they really needed to put some actual work in and make something fullscreen.\u00a0 But no.\u00a0 As it is, Arcade America is one half incredibly bad racing game, and one half mediocre platformer, all with a visual look and comedy style I greatly dislike.\u00a0 Pass on this game unless you have fond memories of it and can get it running well on your computer.\u00a0 Physical release only.<\/p>\n <\/a> When compared to the console versions of the game, some things are improved and others are worse.\u00a0 While they did not put in a save system, Acclaim did add CD audio music, voice acting for all text boxes that pop up, and a nice-for-the-time, several minute long CG-rendered introduction.\u00a0 There are also short CG scenes introducing the setting for each subsequent level.\u00a0 Those features are exclusive to this PC version, as there never was a CD-based console release of the game, only cartridge ones.\u00a0 And those are nice features, for sure.\u00a0 However, the controls on the PC are even worse than they are on consoles.\u00a0 You have two options, keyboard or gamepad.\u00a0 On keyboard, the controls are weird and hard to get used to; I list them below.\u00a0 On gamepad, the problem is that DOS only has standard support for 2 or 4 button gamepads, but this game is a port of a console game that used more buttons than that.\u00a0 So, like in Blackthorne (below), you need to use the keyboard along with the gamepad to play this game, if you use one. Movement, blocking, and attacks are on the pad, but the drop-through-floor and grapple buttons are not.\u00a0 You get used to it, but there is a worse problem I have with this game: While the game runs okay in DOSBox on a modern PC, it doesn’t like the joystick emulation somehow and when I tried to enable a gamepad, Batman will randomly jump or duck even when I wasn’t touching the pad. and the cursor randomly moves around the main menu if you return to it, making selecting anything impossible.\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 Other games in DOSBox do not have this issue.\u00a0 Also, the game only supports one standard gamepad, so if you play a two player game, one player is going to be on keyboard.\u00a0 The only way to get around this is to have a Gravis GrIP setup, which was a multitap for the PC, essentially, for games programmed to support it like this one is.\u00a0 GrIP controllers are, I believe, 4-button gamepads somewhat similar to Gravis’s standard classic PC Gamepad from the early ’90s.\u00a0 Maybe DOSBox supports the GrIP?\u00c2\u00a0 If so then that would work, but I haven’t tried it myself.<\/p>\n Finally, here are the controls for this game.\u00a0 No, they are not customizable.\u00a0 I’m not sure what all the keys are because I do not have the manual, just a CD in jewelcase, and this game does not have any kind of readme or in-game help, so this is just what I managed to figure out by randomly pressing every key on the keyboard.\u00a0 Finding the grapple and drop-through-floor keys took a while!<\/p>\n left\/right arrow keys or numpad 4\/6 or joystick left\/right – move left\/right … Yes, really.\u00a0 No, this is not a very good layout.\u00a0 And again, you cannot change them.\u00a0 So, is the game worth it?\u00a0 Again, it’s not all bad; there is a little fun to be had here, as you explore around and beat people up.\u00a0 But with its high difficulty, flawed controls, and mediocre, repetitive gameplay, it’s not all that good either.\u00a0 For the few people who actually liked this game on the SNES or Genesis, the question is, is dealing with the iffy controls and emulation issues worth it for the exclusive CD soundtrack and CG introduction?\u00a0 Well, with how dirt-cheap this game should be, maybe.\u00a0 Everyone else should probably pass.\u00a0 Enhanced port of a game also available on SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear.\u00a0 Physical release only.<\/p>\n <\/a> Visually, Blackthorne has classic Blizzard graphics, with an art style similar to The Lost Vikings or Warcraft, but taken in a somewhat different direction.\u00a0 The game looks pretty good and is very well drawn.\u00a0 Each level is large and complex as well, though each area clearly draws from a common tileset so every level in an area will look somewhat similar.\u00a0 The game also uses screen-flipping, instead of scrolling, as in PoP.\u00a0 However, as with Blizzard’s earlier great platformer The Lost Vikings, this games was originally developed for the SNES, and the console roots do show in the password-only saving, absence of any features to really explain why this is a CD game and not floppy disk — the game is under 2MB, has only a Soundblaster or General MIDI soundtrack based on the SNES chiptunes, and does not need the CD in the drive to run — and console-styled controls.\u00a0 There was apparently also a floppy release of this game in Europe, but they added nothing for the CD version.\u00a0 What is here is good, though, as I really do like the visuals and art design, and the music is pretty good as always from Blizzard.<\/p>\n As for those level designs, this game isn’t quite as trap-heavy as PoP games are, but it is still tricky and has plenty of puzzle elements to work through in the stages.\u00a0 Each of the 16 stages is fairly long, so this game will take a while.\u00a0 I’ve never been a PoP fan so I don’t love this either, but the Blizzard touch and more action-packed style makes this a bit more fun for me than Prince of Persia.\u00a0 Plus, no game-wide time limit, thank goodness!\u00c2\u00a0 The biggest distinguishing element between Blackthorne and PoP, however, is the combat.\u00a0 While PoP 1 and 2 have the occasional swordfight, traps are your more common foe.\u00a0 Here, however, you will fight many enemies.\u00a0 And while combat is deliberate, it is nothing like PoP, as this games’ combat is cover-based.\u00a0 Yes, this is sort of a 2d proto-cover-based shooter, mixed with a Prince of Persia clone.\u00a0 By pressing Up, you hide in the stage background, and while doing this enemy attacks cannot hurt you, bombs excepted.\u00a0 When you let go you dodge back into the plane of action, hopefully to shoot the enemy before they dodge themselves.\u00a0 Naturally prisoners are often in the way, doomed to be killed by you or them.\u00a0 Combat is a tense game of hiding, then popping out when the enemy is vulnerable.\u00a0 You can shoot either direction without moving with two different buttons, which is occasionally useful, as well.\u00a0 The combat system is good.\u00a0 Some stronger enemies must be blown up with bombs, but be careful, because levels usually only give you exactly what you need, so if you waste a bomb somewhere on an enemy that didn’t need it you probably won’t be able to finish the stage.<\/p>\n Overall, Blackthorne is a good game for this highly-animated-deliberate-platforming subgenre that Prince of Persia created, and mixes things up with its original combat system, but I’ve never much for this kind of game.\u00a0 I’ve never gotten more than one or two levels into other popular games of this style, including Prince of Persia, Out of this World, or Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, and while I have gotten to level four in this game, I doubt I’ll stick with it; this just isn’t my thing.\u00a0 Still, Blackthorne is probably one of the best games in this subgenre.\u00a0 Fans of this kind of game who haven’t tried the game certainly should play it.\u00a0 For the rest, maybe try it out if you’re interested, you might like it more than I do.\u00a0 Also available on the Mac, PC-98 (in Japan only), SNES, Sega 32X (with a 32X-exclusive graphical overhaul and several exclusive levels), and Game Boy Advance.\u00a0 This PC version is a SNES port.\u00a0 Blizzard has also made a downloadable PC version of this game available on their website for free, though I have the disc.<\/p>\n <\/a> And indeed, while Bumpy starts out simple, by the second level this game is hard, and it just gets harder from there.\u00a0 I’ve never beaten this game and don’t know if I ever will, but it is fun to challenge.\u00a0 Each level in Bumpy is made up of about ten single-screen stages, and you can play these stages in any order from a level-select screen.\u00a0 You only get a few lives for each level, though, and only get passwords between levels, not stages, which is probably the key to why this is such a hard game.\u00a0 There are difficulty choices, but it’s hard even on Easy; it mostly seems to just give you a couple more lives.\u00a0 The centerpoint of this game are the many different types of tiles you will bounce on.\u00a0 Wall pieces can form walls or floors; you can’t stop on wet tiles, though you can jump or turn around; bounce tiles toss you over two spaces; other tiles throw you horizontally across the screen; spike tiles will kill you on contact; some tiles can only be passed through a limited number of times; and more.\u00a0 There are also enemies to contend with, and if you fall off the bottom of the screen you also die.\u00a0 The free stage select within each world allows you to practice any level without having to beat the others, which is great, but you do need to beat them all in one game to actually progress, and the game quickly starts expecting perfection to get through each stage.\u00a0 I eventually gave up on this game in level three, and never have gotten past that point.\u00a0 Still, based on what I have played of the game I do recommend it.\u00a0 I had fun with this game when I first played it in the mid ’90s, and the gameplay holds up fairly well.\u00a0 Bumpy is an interesting and somewhat unique game, with a tough but fun style of puzzle-platforming that keeps you coming back.\u00a0 This game is obscure and perhaps too hard, but it is good.\u00a0 Unfortunately this game doesn’t have a digital re-release anywhere, but it’d be nice to see someone bring it back; it deserves it.\u00a0 Play Bumpy if you can.\u00a0 In addition to this PC release there re also Atari ST, and Amstrad CPC versions, all Europe-only of course.\u00a0 Physical release only.<\/p>\n <\/a> Level designs in Claw are large and loaded with treasures to collect for points.\u00a0 A little like Commander Keen games, the game is loaded with side areas full of items to get for points.\u00a0 Unlike those games, though, Claw levels are mostly linear paths, not squares or mazes as so many Keen levels are, and they are fairly long.\u00a0 Levels may twist and turn around, but the path forward is usually obvious and well-marked.\u00a0 Getting through those side areas will take practice, though, particularly the ones that require special, one-time-use, time-limited powerups such as the high-jump power to access.\u00a0 This adds some nice replay value to the game.\u00a0 The 14 levels in this game will take longer to get through in a single run than a Keen game would due to the length of the levels.\u00a0 The game allows you to start or continue from any level or save checkpoint you have reached.\u00a0 But yes, there are two kinds of checkpoints here.\u00a0 Each level has some small checkpoints that just continue you from that point as long as you still have lives, but there are also two per stage which save your progress just like a completed level.\u00a0 The levels are long enough that these are welcome, as they do drag on a bit long.\u00a0 If you continue your last game instead of starting a new one, you keep the score you had before, but you also keep the number of lives, which makes progress difficult once your life counter runs low.\u00a0 The solution is starting a new game from that point, but this, of course, resets your score.\u00a0 I would be trying to collect as much as I can in each level anyway, but this is a good dynamic which makes the score system mean something.\u00a0 Claw is a reasonably challenging game, but it’s balanced well and is neither too hard nor too easy.\u00a0 This is a good game that is quite fun to play, repetition aside, and I can see why the people who did play it mostly seem to have liked it.\u00a0 And if you do beat it, the game also supports custom levels, which is a pretty awesome feature.\u00a0 A bunch come with the game, and you can also find an editor for the game online to make your own.\u00a0 The multiplayer is level-racing, competing to get through stages the fastest.\u00a0 It is unfortunately linked only, not splitscreen, but it is nice to have as an option, though I haven’t played it myself.\u00a0 It supports IPX network, dialup modem, and direct-IP connections.\u00a0 There was also online play on Engage back when it released, though that has been dead for a long time.\u00a0 Overall, Claw is a good game worth seeking out if you are a platformer fan.\u00a0 The visuals are nice, the game plays well, and levels are fun to explore and collect stuff in.\u00a0 You do do the same things a lot, but what you’re doing is interesting so it works.\u00a0 Recommended.\u00a0 Physical release only.<\/p>\n <\/a> But anyway, on to the actual game.\u00a0 Commander Keen is a platformer, of course.\u00a0 But as it is an ID game, the technology behind the game is almost as important as the game itself.\u00a0 At the time of its release in early 1990 it was a revolutionary game because programmer John Carmack figured out how to get a smooth-scrolling platformer to run on the PC, something no one had done before.\u00a0 ID’s first thought was to approach Nintendo about a Mario PC game, but that was immediately turned down, so Tom Hall came up with an original idea instead.\u00a0 It turned out pretty well, for sure.\u00a0 There is no parallax scrolling here, but just getting regular scrolling on the PC had never been seen in a platformer in the ’80s.\u00a0 All seven Keen games run in only 16-color EGA, and this original trilogy really can’t match up to the kind of graphics seen in contemporary console games on the Genesis, but for the PC it was a huge step forwards visually.\u00a0 The art design is pretty good too.\u00a0 The sprites look great, and stages look alright, though backgrounds in this episode are just solid colors.\u00a0 Aurally there isn’t much to say; Keens 1-3 have no music and only PC Speaker sound effects.\u00a0 I like that there are movement sounds for things such as walking, jumping, hitting a ceiling, using the pogo, and more, so at least there is something to listen to beyond silence.\u00a0 PC Speaker sounds are simple, but these are good, I like them.\u00a0 I also quite like the signs written in “Standard Galactic Alphabet”, a letter-replacement cypher.\u00a0 Find the hidden code in the hidden level in Episode III for the key to read all those signs!\u00a0 Or just look it up online, but that’s less fun.\u00a0 The character art is great.\u00a0 Episode I’s Yorp and Garg enemies are iconic for sure!\u00a0 Environment graphics are tile-based, as in games like Mario, and levels all draw from the same tileset; each episode in this game has a consistent look to it that is distinct from the others.\u00a0 There are also only a handful of enemy types in this game, but it’s enough, as each one is very different and has its own unique style.\u00a0 Each episode of the three in the original game does look a little better than the one before it, in some different colors, but despite this each level has its own unique look and feel.<\/p>\n Each game also has an overworld map you can move around between stages that fits its setting, so for this game it’s the planet Mars.\u00a0 There are 16 levels in this game, but this one has the fewest full-sized levels of any Keen game.\u00a0 This game has 8 mini-stages, and 8 full levels.\u00a0 Mini stages are just little areas with only a couple of screens and few or no enemies.\u00a0 These are all optional, and the pogo is in one, so don’t skip it!\u00a0 Some have little bits of story, too.\u00a0 As for the full levels, two are required but do not have ship parts, four have ship parts, and three are optional, one of those a hidden stage.\u00a0 I drew maps of the overworlds of most of the Keen games as a kid, listing the shortest paths, number of levels, and such; came in handy here. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n As for the gameplay, Keen has large, open levels with a lot of stuff to collect in them, in that Western platformer style but with better level designs and controls than most.\u00a0 Much like Doom or Wolfenstein would later also do, collecting keycards is central here.\u00a0 There can be up to three in each stage, in red blue and yellow just like Doom, and when stages have keycards they are usually required.\u00a0 A lot of items are out there off the main path if you want to get them for points, though.\u00a0 Your goal in each stage is to reach the exit, but four levels have a Vorticon to avoid or kill in them, at the end; they serve as the games’ bosses.\u00a0 Going back to it this is not a particularly long game, but there are enough levels here for a few hours of fun anyway, or many more if you’re a kid like I was when I first played the game.\u00a0 Once you finish a level you can’t return to it, and the game does have a scoring system, so there is a lot of replay value here if you want to get higher places on the high-scores table.\u00a0 Be wary, though!\u00a0 While bottomless pits are in short supply here, sometimes the game likes to try to trick you with lines of powerups leading straight into pits and the like.\u00a0 With enough skill you can get everything, but be cautious as you explore.\u00a0 I think they got the balance between challenge and fun just right, as the game is not a cheap-death-laden nightmare, but beating each level while getting most of the stuff will take at least a little practice. Keen controls well, also.\u00a0 One button jumps, the other uses the pogo stick, and both together shoot; yes, you do have to hit both to shoot, either control+alt or buttons 1+2 on your gamepad.\u00a0 The pogo stick, once you get it, is great and one of the trademark elements of this series.\u00a0 Once you get used to how it controls it gives you a lot of mobility.\u00a0 As for that gun, ammo is limited, so don’t waste it.\u00a0 You only get ammo from the somewhat uncommon gun pickups; enemies never drop anything in this series after death.\u00a0 In addition, you die in one hit, and there are no checkpoints in levels, so watch out!\u00a0 When you die you restart the stage.\u00a0 You can touch some enemies, such as the small robots or Yorps, without dying, but they still can push you into a hazard, and others such as Gargs and Vorticons are deadly at the touch.\u00a0 However, you can save anytime on the map, so game only is only for the inattentive.\u00a0 Apogee required all games they published to support saving to save files, a fantastic standard that all console games should have been doing since as early as they could save.\u00a0 That I grew up with Apogee games and the like is a huge part of why the absence of saving in so many console games in the 3rd through 5th generations bothers me so much.<\/p>\n Even the greatest games have some flaws, though, and I guess this game has a few.\u00a0 Playing the game again now, the game is fairly short, and there aren’t a huge number of levels.\u00a0 Also, the shared tileset and limited enemy variety are of note.\u00a0 Additionally, sometimes you can accidentally shoot when you meant to do a tricky diagonal pogo jump because of the two-button control scheme.\u00a0 The scoring system is also partially pointless, since you can save between levels and retry stages as long as you have lives, so you aren’t working from a set maximum score; it will just go up as long as you keep playing, though watching it increase is fun.\u00a0 Even if most ‘only’ got me points, I have very often found myself trying to get every item I can in Keen games.\u00a0 The game does keep track of the overall best scores with a high score table on the main menu.\u00a0 And last, some will dislike the often open nature of the stages.\u00a0 I think that the game strikes a good balance here, with levels short and well-designed enough to hold up well design-wise compared to console platformers while also having lots of stuff to collect as was common in Western platformers of the day, but this is a matter of taste.\u00a0 But overall, Commander Keen Episode I: Marooned on Mars is a fantastic game and one of my favorite platformers ever.\u00a0 This is a 10\/10 game on my list, without question.\u00a0 This great game was better than any PC platformer that came before it in both graphics and gameplay, and has some of the most fun game design around.\u00a0 The art design and stage layouts are great as well.\u00a0 I really like things such as the lighting in the Yorp temple mini-stages, areas with Gargs suddenly charging in at you out of pipes, and more.\u00a0 This is a fantastic, must-play title for any genre fan.\u00a0 This game is shareware, and is also available in digital-download compilations of Apogee and Commander Keen games.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> As for the gameplay, for the most part Keen 4 plays like its predecessors, but with some additions.\u00a0 Keen is now better-animated, and you have some more move though this is still a classic platformer.\u00a0 Your gun is now a neural stunner, not a deadly raygun, but in effect it’s the same; you just stun foes permanently, instead of killing them.\u00a0 You run, jump, shoot, and pogo like before, though pogo physics may be improved over before; getting used to it will take a minute, but the pogo stick is great and incredibly useful once you learn it.\u00a0 Additionally, Keen 4 adds four-button gamepad support and a dedicated shoot button, so jump, shoot, and pogo are each on a separate button.\u00a0 It’s a welcome change which makes getting around a little easier, though you can play in 2-button mode if you want.\u00a0 You can also now grab on ledges and both look and shoot up and down, all very nice improvements.\u00a0 Looking down is particularly useful to see whether jumping down from somewhere is safe.\u00a0 As always ID doesn’t load levels with cheap death pits, but there are many ways to die, you still die in one hit, and levels don’t have checkpoints, so when you do mess up and bump into an enemy or killer obstacle, you start the stage over.\u00a0 You still have limited ammo too, though it’s easy enough to find more.\u00a0 Keycards return, though there are four now, with a green one added.\u00a0 There are also now many switches, usually to turn moving platforms on or off, though some also manipulate other devices.\u00a0 Last, in addition to the many items you collect for points, there are also water drops that do not give points, but instead, like coins in Mario, a 1-up if you collect 100 of them.\u00a0 So, the gameplay here is familiar, but more varied than before.\u00a0 The larger enemy and obstacle variety mixes things up as well.\u00a0 The slugs, invincible bouncing mushrooms, fire-breathing orbs, harmless bouncing smilie faces, and more are fun and varied foes.<\/p>\n Levels are still very, very well designed.\u00a0 Some are straightforward but have optional side areas or hidden areas full of stuff to get, while others are mazes you need to figure out.\u00a0 Your goal is either to get to the opposite end of the stage, in normal stages with exit signs, or to find the Oracle in those stages.\u00a0 Oracles will be in the deepest point of the level, often through a door with a second challenging area behind it.\u00a0 So, you know your goal, the challenge is just to get there.\u00a0 Exploration is key as ever, and levels are just the right size: large enough to be interesting, but not so big that you get lost.\u00a0 Looking around to figure out the path forward and find the many secrets is great fun, if the regular dying doesn’t frustrate you.\u00a0 Level size is just right, and the game is not cheap or unfair, just challenging.\u00a0 Like Doom for FPSes, ID showed their impressive level designs skill with games like this one.\u00a0 Just make sure to save after beating a level!\u00a0 Sometimes I have thought it would be nice if levels had checkpoints, but they’re doable as they are, once practiced enough.\u00a0 It’s quite rewarding when you finish one.\u00a0 The point system returns too, and it’s a bit odd as ever — you get points for everything, there is a high score table, and you can’t replay a level once you have finished it, but since you can replay a level so long as you don’t beat it and can save anytime on the map, getting a very high score isn’t hard if you are good at the game.\u00a0 Still, is is nice to see your score climb as you get farther into this tough game.\u00a0 Oh, lastly, there is also a little 1-player-only Pong minigame in the options menu, with a look as if you’re playing it on Keen’s watch.\u00a0 It’s a nice little touch.<\/p>\n Overall, Keen IV is a great platformer, and certainly a must-play for platformer fans.\u00a0 This game is perhaps the most popular Keen game, and with its good graphics, music, and gameplay, it’s easy to see why!\u00a0 This is a great classic, and it’s awesome stuff.\u00a0 As with Keen 1, if you registered this game you got its paid followup, Keen V: The Armageddon Machine.\u00a0 I didn’t buy that one back in the ’90s, so it is covered below in the digital-downloads category.\u00a0 The weird spinoff title Keen Dreams, aka ” Keen 3.5″, will be covered in the shareware section since I also didn’t play that one back then, and it’s full shareware.\u00a0 I did buy the last Keen game, the retail-only Keen VI: Aliens ate my Babysitter! back in the mid ’90s, though, fortunately, so I’ll cover that one next!\u00a0 Keens V and VI both use the Keen IV engine, though, so they look and play similarly, much like II and III do for the original.\u00a0 This game is shareware, and is also available in digital-download compilations of Apogee and Commander Keen games.<\/p>\n <\/a> As for the game though, this is yet another great Keen game, much like 4 and 5 but with even more graphical variety.\u00a0 As this was a retail title they had a bit more space, so this is a two-floppy game, versus less than one for Keen 4.\u00a0 However, in actual file size it is only barely bigger than that game, and it shows.\u00a0 This game does have one of the longer shortest paths to the end you’ll find in this series, but the actual amount of content is is very similar to Keens 4 and 5, and Keen 6 still only has the usual 16 stages.\u00a0 So, my initial hopes that because this game is a retail title the game would be bigger than the previous ones was dashed.\u00a0 I remember being disappointed by that when I bought it.\u00a0 What you do get, though, is a fantastic platformer that is again among the better games in the genre, so I don’t mind this too much.\u00a0 The game does have a somewhat different structure from before, though.\u00a0 Instead of a large map you can wander around, this time the game is more linear.\u00a0 You often do have multiple stage options, but unlike some previous games you do have to play most of the stages in order, instead of just being able to wander around and after getting through a few gate stages play most levels in any order as you can in 2 or 4, for instance.\u00a0 There are still some stages with items to get, but this time they are items to get past certain overworld hazards, so they just function as a gate for getting to the next stage, instead of a ‘collect all the things to win’ design like you see in Keens 1 or 4.\u00a0 I think this game design works just fine, and it’s nice to see a slightly different style in the series even if the openness of the original was great fun.\u00a0 Keen 5 also has a more linear design, it is worth noting, so of the second trilogy only 4 is fully open.<\/p>\n Within the levels, though, Keen 6 is pretty much the same as 4, structurally.\u00a0 The graphics and enemies here are all-new, of course, as always, but the engine and gameplay come straight out of the Keen IV style.\u00a0 Of course, this means it’s outstanding, just like its predecessors!\u00a0 This time Keen is on the planet Fribbulus Xax, home to the giant green Bloog people.\u00a0 So yes, as in every Keen game, the setting and enemies are new and game-exclusive even though the core gameplay is shared by the previous two episodes.\u00a0 Keen is there to rescue his babysitter who was kidnapped by aliens.\u00a0 So yes, the last Keen game has the series’ first and only “rescue the girl” plot, though she is not a love interest.\u00a0 I don’t like “rescue the girl” plots, of course, but 6\/7 is not bad and at least it’s done entertainingly here.\u00a0 The level designs are as good as ever, though this game is probably a bit easier than Keen 4.\u00a0 If they eased things up a bit for the retail release, it was probably a welcome adjustment.\u00a0 Keen 6 is still plenty hard, with some very tough levels and many of the usual grueling optional areas full of stuff to get, but this is the fun kind of challenge that keeps you coming back until you beat it.\u00a0 As a kid I remember Keen 4 being harder than 6, but I played that game earlier so that makes sense.\u00a0 I was a bit better at games by the time I played this one.\u00a0 This is a fantastic platformer, and exploring the levels for items, hitting the now cartoonishly-giant switches, and going into those tough areas even if there is no real reason to is all great, great fun.\u00a0 Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Babysitter is a nice looking, well-polished game with the usual great controls and level designs you expect from the series.\u00a0 Definitely play it if you can, it’s one of the best!\u00a0 It’s really tragic that ID never made another platformer after Keens 4-6, they were one of the best ever at the genre.\u00a0 Retail exclusive.<\/p>\n <\/a> So, as popular as the game was, after playing it I thought that this game was probably a case of style over substance, a game not as fun to play as I expected it to be.\u00a0 Sure, it looks and sounds great, and the comedy elements are sometimes amusing.\u00a0 If you get into it this game is plenty hard, too.\u00a0 The levels also have quite a bit of variety both in the normal levels and in bonus stages where you ride an asteroid.\u00a0 Each stage has a new setting and music, and some levels change up the gameplay too, including swimming areas, some areas where you are not in your suit so you’re just a worm, and such.\u00a0 EWJ 2 focuses entirely on making levels each have a unique gimmick, but this game does head towards that.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s fine, I love the weird level concepts on Donkey Kong Country 3 for instance, but I just don’t find this game fun enough to want to deal with.\u00a0 Still, if you do want to play Earthworm Jim, this is one of the best versions of the game, and it’s probably the best ’90s version.\u00c2\u00a0 It has the Sega CD versions’ great CD audio soundtrack, but with 256 color graphics like the SNES, and it saves your progress as you can continue from any level you have reached from the menu.\u00a0 Still, back in ’97 I quit playing this game maybe a third of the way through, and I’ve never wanted to go back, deal with this flawed, too-hard game, and get farther; Earthworm Jim is average at best, and may even be a little below average, and the graphics are the best thing about it.\u00a0 Even so, it is unique and weird enough to maybe be worth a try… or maybe not. Maybe skip it if you don’t have memories of EWJ.<\/p>\n EWJ is on a lot of platforms, though I only have the two ’90s PC versions.\u00a0 The other one beyond this version is a 1996 DOS release of this game in Interplay’s Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 collection.\u00c2\u00a0 I have that digitally (to be covered later), but this is the better game — that version is a SNES port, without the SCD extras, though they did add password save over the nothing of the SNES\/Genesis original.\u00a0 That version is available today for download on PC (Steam and GOG); it’s just not as good as this one.\u00a0 However, as this is a very early Windows 95 game, it has serious problems running on modern computers, and indeed the game does not run well at all on my modern PC.\u00a0 It does run, sans joystick support of course, but the full-screen mode doesn’t work (it’s 320×220\/236 only) and sound effects are horribly broken and skip constantly, rendering the game sort of unplayable.\u00a0 Fortunately the game does run great on my old WinME PC.\u00a0 This game is also available on Sega CD as Earthworm Jim: Special Edition, and on Nintendo DSiWare and mobile platforms (iOS, BREW, webOS, J2ME) as Earthworm Jim.\u00a0 Yes, those latter ports are based on this version and not the original release, though they likely have downgraded sound quality.\u00a0 The DSiWare version at least should still be accessible.\u00a0 The original, not quite as good version is available on the PC (DOS EWJ1&2), SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Game Boy Advance.\u00a0 The EWJ1&2 version is available on PC digital download platfoms (Steam, GOG, etc.), and the Genesis version on Wii Virtual Console.\u00c2\u00a0 There is also a digital-only version, Earthworm Jim HD, for Xbox 360 Live Arcade, PS3 PSN, and Windows Mobile.\u00a0 That version has redone graphics, some gameplay improvements apparently, and three new levels and redone visuals and sound, but doesn’t have the SCD\/Win95 added level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I want to keep moving and start on something new, now that the Genesis list is done, so I decided to finally do this list that I have been thinking of writing for at least a year now.\u00a0 Platformers were … Continue reading
\nArcade America (1996)<\/a>
\nBatman Forever: The Real Game Begins (1994)<\/a>
\nBlackthorne (1994)<\/a>
\nBumpy’s Arcade Fantasy (1992)<\/a>
\nClaw (1997)<\/a>
\nCommander Keen Episode I: Marooned on Mars (1990)<\/a>
\nCommander Keen Episode II: The Earth Explodes (1990)<\/a>
\nCommander Keen Episode III: Keen Must Die (1990)<\/a>
\nCommander Keen Episode IV: Secrets of the Oracles (Shareware) (1991)<\/a>
\nCommander Keen Episode VI: Aliens Ate My Babysitter! (1991)<\/a>
\nEarthworm Jim for Windows 95 (1995)<\/a><\/p>\n
\n1A. 2D Platformers
\n1B. 3D Platformers
\n2. Full games that I own through digital download services.
\n2A. 2D Platformers
\n2B. 2.5D Platformers
\n2C. 3D Platformers
\n3. Freeware titles (selected titles only).
\n4. Demos and shareware (selected titles only).
\n5. Demos of games I also own the full versions of, but still have the demo of on my computer too.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nArcade America (1996)
\nBatman Forever: The Real Game Begins (1994)
\nBlackthorne (1994)
\nBumpy’s Arcade Fantasy (1992)
\nClaw (1997)
\nCommander Keen Episode I: Marooned on Mars (1990)
\nCommander Keen Episode II: The Earth Explodes (1990)
\nCommander Keen Episode III: Keen Must Die (1990)
\nCommander Keen Episode IV: Secrets of the Oracles (Shareware) (1991)
\nCommander Keen Episode VI: Aliens Ate My Babysitter! (1991)
\nEarthworm Jim for Windows 95 (1995)
\n—
\nJazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998)
\nJazz Jackrabbit 2: Holiday Hare 98 (1998)
\nLode Runner: The Legend Returns (1994)
\nThe Lost Vikings – Puzzle-Platformer (2D) (1993)
\nInterplay 15th: Norse by Norsewest: The Return of the Lost Vikings (1997)
\nMega Man 3 (1992)
\nMega Man X (1995)
\nMega Man X4 (1998)
\nMega Man X5 (2002)
\nOddworld: Abe’s Oddysee (1997)
\nPCG CGC1: Duke Nukem II (1993)
\nPitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1996)
\n—
\nRayman (1996)
\nRayman Forever (1998)
\nSonic CD (1996)
\nSonic & Knuckles Collection (1997)
\nSonic 3D Blast (1996)
\nTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)
\nZool 2 (1994)<\/p>\n
\nDonald Duck: Goin’ Quackers (2000)
\nEmperor’s New Groove, The — Action Game (2001)
\nFrogger: The Great Quest (2002)
\nRayman 2: The Great Escape (1999)
\nRayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (2003)<\/p>\n
\n8BitBoy (2014)
\nAaru’s Awakening (2015)
\nAdventures of Shuggy, The (2011)
\nArctic Adventure (1991)
\nApotheon (2015)
\nBattleBlock Theater (2014)
\nBiT Evolution (2015)
\nBleed (2012) – Platform-Action
\nCamera Obscura
\nCapsized (2011)
\nThe Cave (2013) – Platform-Adventure
\nClosure (2012)
\nCommander Keen Episode I: Marooned on Mars (1990)
\nCommander Keen Episode II: The Earth Explodes (1990)
\nCommander Keen Episode III: Keen Must Die (1990)
\nCommander Keen Episode IV: Secret of the Oracles (1991)
\nCommander Keen Episode V: The Armageddon Machine (1991)
\nCosmo’s Cosmic Adventure (1992)
\nCrystal Caves (1991)
\nDangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion (1991) – Platform-Action
\nDangerous Dave’s Risky Rescue (1993)
\nDark Void Zero (2010)
\nDave Goes Nutz (1995)
\nDeadlight (2012)
\nDefy Gravity Extended (2011)
\nDuke Nukem (1991)
\nDuke Nukem II (1993)
\nDust: An Elysian Tale (2013) – Platform-Action-RPG
\nEarthworm Jim 1 & 2: The Whole Can of Worms (1996)
\nElectronic Super Joy (2013)
\nFly’n (2012)
\nFreedom Planet (2014)
\nGateways (2012)
\nGigantic Army (2014)
\nGunhound EX (2014)
\nGuacamelee! Gold Edition (2013) – Platform-Action
\nHell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (2012) – Platform-Action
\nHocus Pocus (1994)
\nJoylancer, The: Legendary Motor Knight (Early Access Game) (2014-)
\nJust Get Through (2015)
\nLimbo (2011)
\nLove (2014)
\nMagnetic by Nature (2014)
\nMagicmaker (2014)
\nMath Rescue (1992) – Educational Platformer
\nMomodora III
\nMonster Bash (1993)
\nMonuments of Mars (1990)
\nMURI (2013)
\nMystik Belle (2015)
\nNimbus (2010)
\nOniken (2014)
\nOut There Somewhere
\nPixelJunk Eden
\nPharaoh’s Tomb (1990)
\nPolarity
\nPuddle (2012)
\nRayman Origins (2012)
\nRealms of Chaos (1995)
\nResidue: Final Cut (2014) – Platform-Adventure
\nRogue Legacy (2014) – Platformer-RPG (Roguelike)
\nSchrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark (2015)
\nScribblenauts Unlimited (2012)
\nSecret Agent (1992)
\nSerious Sam: Kamikaze Attack (2011) – Autorunner Platformer
\nShantae: Risky’s Revenge: Director’s Cut (2011\/201?)
\nShiny The Firefly (2014)
\nSuper Lemonade Factory (2012)
\nSuper Meat Boy (2010)
\nSuperfrog (1993)
\nSwapper, The (2013)
\nTembo the Badass Elephant (2015)
\nTerraria (2011) – 2D Minecraft
\nTerrian Saga: KR-17 (2014) – Platform-Action
\nThey Bleed Pixels () – Platform-Action
\nUltionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge (2013) – Platform-Shmup
\nUmihara Kawase (199?\/200?)
\nUmihara Kawase Syun (199?\/200?)
\nValdis Story: Abyssal City – Platform-Action
\nVECTOR (2013)
\nVVVVVV (2010)
\nVolgarr The Viking (2013)
\nWaking Mars (2012) – Platform-Adventure
\nWorld of Goo (2008)
\nWord Rescue (1992) – Educational Platformer<\/p>\n
\nBlade Kitten (2010)
\nBlade Kitten: Hollow Wish Collection (Parts 1 & 2)
\nBrothers: A Tale of Two Sons (2013)
\nFez (2013) – Platform-Puzzle
\nGiana Sisters: Twisted Dreams (2012)
\nPandemonium (1996)
\nPandemonium 2 (1997)
\nRed Goddess: Inner World (2015)
\nSayonara Umihara Kawase (201?)
\nSonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (2012)
\nSonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (2012)
\nStrider (2014)
\nToki Tori 2+
\nTrine (2009)
\nTrine 2 (2011)<\/p>\n
\nEdge (2011)
\nGrow Home (2015)
\nJet Set Radio
\nMirror’s Edge
\nNiGHTS into dreams…
\nPsychonauts (2005)
\nPuzzle Dimension (2011)
\nQuantum Conundrum
\nSonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut
\nSonic Generations
\nStuntMANIA Reloaded (2014) – Platformer (3D) (Vehicular)
\nTomb Raider (1996) – Platform Action-Adventure<\/p>\n
\nMystic Towers (1994) – Isometric Platform-RPG
\nTomb Raider II (1997) – Platform Action-Adventure
\nTomb Raider III (1998) – Platform Action-Adventure
\nTomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (2003) – Platform Action-Adventure<\/p>\n
\nAkuji the Demon (always freeware)
\nBioMenace (1991) (originally retail title, now freeware)
\nCave Story (always freeware; has retail remakes)
\nCommander Keen in Keen Dreams (1991) (full shareware)
\nDark Ages (1991) (originally retail title, now freeware)
\nDopefish (always freeware)
\nDopefish Forever (always freeware)
\nDschump!\/Jump! (full shareware)
\nEternal Daughter (always freeware)
\nGuardian Twins (always freeware)
\nHalloween Harry (aka Alien Carnage) (1993) (originally retail title, now freeware)
\nHoldover (always freeware)
\nKeen 2000 (always freeware)
\nLegend of Princess (always freeware)
\nMario!! (always freeware)
\nN (always freeware; has retail sequels)
\nNatuki (always freeware)
\nNinja Senki (always freeware)
\nNoitu Love (always freeware)
\nSideSwipe (always freeware)
\nSkyRoads (once shareware, now freeware)
\nXEVIL (1994) (always freeware)<\/p>\n
\nAldo I, II, and III
\nAlien Rampage
\nClyde’s Adventure
\nEduardo the Magical Toaster
\nElectro Man
\nGateworld
\nHunter\/Hunted
\nJazz Jackrabbit
\nJazz Jackrabbit Holiday Hare ’95
\nJill of the Jungle
\nRochard
\nVinyl Goddesses from Mars
\nXargon<\/p>\n
\nAncient Empires<\/strong> (Educational) (1990, DOS) – One player, saves.\u00a0 This game was later re-released as Super Solvers: Challenge of the Ancient Empires, but I have a copy with the original title.\u00a0 Ancient Empires is one of many edutainment games from The Learning Company.\u00a0 Sort of like how Operation Neptune is an undersea shooter crossed with a math game, Ancient Empires is one part puzzle learning game, one part platformer. This really does feel like Operation Neptune’s logic-puzzle-focused platformer cousin, and uses a similar interface.\u00a0 Both are pretty good examples of edutainment, games which are both decent games and might teach you something.\u00a0 These games always seemed less well known than Super Solvers games such as Treasure MathStorm or Midnight Rescue, but they’re just as good or better than those games.\u00a0 Maybe the slightly older “10-adult” (AE) or “9-14” (ON) age ranges on the boxes hurt them, versus the games like MathStorm that are for younger children?\u00a0 These two games have more traditional videogame action than titles like those, but still have plenty of educational elements.As usual for Super Solvers games, you play as an anonymous person in a blue coat who you name.\u00a0 This time you’re a tomb-adventurer variant of this person, so you have a backpack and such, but it’s mostly the same as the character in most of these games, Operation Neptune excepted since there you are a submarine.\u00a0 So, this game has two parts, platforming and logic puzzles.\u00a0 The platforming side looks reasonably nice for a 1990 PC game, and has VGA graphics and even soundblaster\/adlib music, though it’s not great and repeats often.\u00a0 At least it has sound card support, though, which puts it above some games of the day, so it’s nice they tried.\u00a0 The graphics are well-drawn and varied, with different visuals for each setting in the game.<\/p>\n
\nArcade America<\/strong> (1996, Win3.x) – One player, saves, gamepad supported (if it works for you).\u00a0 Arcade America is a bad single-screen ‘comedic’ platformer with a crass, redneck-styled theme to it that I mostly quite dislike.\u00a0 You’re a cartoony redneck guy on a road trip across America, seeing the sights and challenging platformer levels in each area you pass through.\u00a0 The platforming levels are okay I guess, though they can be frustrating due to the games’ control issues.\u00a0 You navigate the platforms on each stage, shooting or belly-bumping enemies and jumping between platforms as you make your way to the exit on each stage.\u00a0 It works, though enemies can be hard to avoid at times, and cheap hits are an inevitability.\u00a0 This is a hard game, and it’s not the good kind of hard.\u00a0 The graphics are well-animated, though, and vary between amusing and unpleasantly gross, which I’m sure is the point, for those who actually like gross stuff, something I never really have.\u00a0 That animation does sometimes that animation get in the way of the gameplay as well, as it can be distracting.\u00a0 And when you’re playing a level for the tenth time, those intro cutscenes and animations the game also has get VERY old.\u00a0 There is one more problem: there is a somewhat hidden time limit.\u00a0 Take too long to finish and you won’t get the ending.\u00a0 I hate game-wide timers in games, they’re awful!\u00a0 Still, the platforming here is okay.\u00a0 Arcade America is overly difficult and not all that fun, but there is some decent platform-action challenge to be had.<\/p>\n
\nBatman Forever: The Real Game Begins<\/strong> (1996, DOS) – 1-2 player simultaneous, no saving, gamepad supported (kind of).\u00a0 Batman Forever is the PC port of Acclaim’s infamous 1995 SNES and Genesis game based on this unpopular Batman movie.\u00a0 This is a sidescrolling beat ’em up \/ platformer with prerendered graphics and somewhat awful controls.\u00a0 Batman Forever is difficult, frustrating, and hard to control.\u00a0 It does look nice for the time, but the gameplay beyond the graphics is poor, and this has always been the main issue people have with this game.\u00a0 The core gameplay here is that as either Batman or Robin, you explore levels, beat up the guys who pop up in front of you, and make your way through each stage.\u00a0 You can walk, jump or duck, punch and kick, grapple, and drop through floors.\u00a0 Using those last two is much trickier than it should be because you need to stand in precise, but very poorly marked, spots to do either, and the controls for doing so are awful as well; more on that below.\u00a0 The punching and kicking does work, and you have a couple of variations of each type of attack, but enemies seem stronger than you are, at least on Normal difficulty, so the game quickly gets frustrating.\u00a0 And like an old console game, the game has no saving and not even any continues!\u00a0 When you die you respawn right where you were, but run out of lives and that’s it, start over from the beginning.\u00a0 There aren’t any cheatcodes either, I believe.\u00a0 Awful, for a PC game.\u00a0 For modes, there is the main game, for one or two players simultaneous, and a bad 2-player-only versus fight option.\u00a0 There are difficulty settings for the main game, but it’s hard on any of them.\u00a0 My main issue with this game goes beyond any feature quibbles, however.\u00a0 Beyond the bad controls, my main problem with this game is that I’ve never really been a fan of side-scrolling beat ’em ups.\u00a0 I like isometric beat ’em ups, they’re good fun despite their simplicity, but removing that third dimension makes games too simplistic; there just isn’t enough left to keep a game interesting, most of the time.\u00a0 This game tries to mix things up with its platforming, puzzle elements, inventory, varied moves, and tough enemies that often attack you from both sides at once, but the core gameplay still isn’t all that fun or rewarding.\u00a0 The internet may overstate how bad this game is a bit, as it can be fun to walk around and beat up baddies, but it is extremely repetitive, has control issues, and is far too difficult.\u00a0 Had it had saving it would have been much better.<\/p>\n
\narrow key up or numpad 8 or joystick up – jump
\narrow key down or numpad 2 or joystick down – duck
\narrow key 5 or a joystick button – block
\nEnd, (numpad) 1, (numpad) 3, or a joystick button – punch (maybe different types?)
\nPage Down, (numpad) 7, (numpad) 9, or 2 joystick buttons – kick (maybe different types?)
\nInsert – grappling hook
\nInsert + arrow Up or numpad 8 (hit at exactly same time for this to work) – grapple up to next platform above (if at right point)
\nDelete + arrow Down or numpad 2 (hit at exactly same time for this to work) – drop to next platform below (if at right point)
\nEsc – Quit to main menu.\u00a0 If there is a pause button, I can’t find it – this ends your game, start again from the beginning!
\nAlt+Q – Quit game.<\/p>\n
\nBlackthorne<\/strong> (1994, DOS) – One player, password save, gamepad supported.\u00a0 Blackthorne, from Blizzard Entertainment and published by Interplay, is a game in the Prince of Persia vein, but with guns and more action.\u00a0 Set in a dark almost fantasy-esque sci-fi world, you are a hero, of sorts, off to defeat the evil king.\u00a0 You’ve been taken prisoner, but break free, grab a gun with infinite ammo, and begin your quest for vengeance in the prison mines.\u00a0 While you are the hero, you don’t actually need to be heroic along the way, as the numerous other prisoners in the game can be killed with no consequence.\u00a0 You can’t even free them, just ignore or murder them!\u00a0 I really wish you could free them, the game would be more satisfying that way.\u00a0 Platforming controls are similar to Prince of Persia, so the game is well-animated and your movements are deliberate and controlled.\u00a0 When you move you tap a direction you move a set distance forward, jumps must be pixel-accurate, you have different controls for jumping up and forwards, and you’ll need to carefully let yourself up or down platform edges if you don’t want to die on impact from the fall damage.\u00a0 You also have an inventory, though do know that if you play with a gamepad you’ll need to scroll through it with the bracket [] keys on your keyboard, as this is a DOS game so it only supports the standard 4-button limit on joysticks, unfortunately.\u00a0 Maybe there was no good way around that.\u00a0 It works, but is a little annoying at times.\u00a0 Fortunately you only rarely need to switch items.\u00a0 It’s worth using a gamepad anyway, because the rest of the time it’s more fun with one.\u00a0 The controls are fine for the genre, though I’ve always found these games somewhat tediously slow compared to traditional platformers like Mario or Keen.\u00a0 You need to always be careful here, or you’ll run off some cliff or walk into a trap and die.\u00a0 Having to carefully face the right direction from the exact right spot to jump up to a ledge above you also gets old fast.<\/p>\n
\nBumpy’s Arcade Fantasy<\/strong> (1992, DOS) – One player, password save, gamepad supported.\u00a0 Bumpy is a pretty fun but difficult little puzzle-heavy platformer probably inspired by\u00a0 Namco’s classic ’80s game Mappy.\u00a0 I think it was only released in Europe, but I found a copy sometime in the mid ’90s anyway.\u00a0 The game was made by the French studio Loriciel.\u00a0 This is a fairly obscure game, but it’s good, though very tough!\u00a0 Bumpy has decent graphics in that classic early ’90s European cartoony-videogame style, but it’s only a single-screen platformer; no scrolling here.\u00a0 That works well for the design, though, which is around tough single-screen puzzles to work your way through.\u00a0 The number of colors on screen may be limited for something that does support VGA, but the art design is decent.\u00a0 There is also Soundblaster and Roland MT sound support, but only for sound effects; there is no music, unfortunately.\u00a0 There also isn’t any real saving, so the high-scores table is useless, it won’t save any of that.\u00a0 Fortunately there are passwords to continue from the start of each level.\u00a0 Bumpy’s gameplay more than makes up for these shortcomings, however, and that’s why I like it, frustration and all.\u00a0 Sort of like Mappy, you move a character around a screen made of paths separated by narrow walls, and have to collect all the stuff on each stage and then get to an exit.\u00a0 The differences pretty much end there, though, as that is a fast-action scrolling arcade game, quite unlike this one.\u00a0 Here you play as a bouncing smilie-face ball, Bumpy.\u00a0 You bounce as you move, from one tile to the next, so you’ve got to set up your next move about a tile ahead of time — he bounces, remember, and you need to hit the button before the beginning of the bounce.\u00a0 You move with the arrow keys or joystick d-pad, but I recommend the keyboard; this game demands precision, and a d-pad isn’t quite as precise as hitting the exact key you want, the exact number of times you need to press it.\u00a0 Hitting, or holding, Enter makes you jump up to the top of the screen.\u00a0 While in the air, left or right will move you a space that direction, though you can only do this while going upwards, not down, and only once per jump.\u00a0 Down makes you stop, vital for avoiding spikes above you.\u00a0 You die in one hit, so you’ve got to get each puzzle right to progress!<\/p>\n
\nClaw<\/strong> (1997, Win9x) – One player single system or 1-2? player online, saves, gamepad supported (if it works for you).\u00a0 Claw is a good platform-action game developed and published by the American publisher Monolith Software.\u00a0 They also released a 2d Gauntlet-style game called Get Medieval around the same time, but this is their platformer.\u00a0 Claw is a hand-drawn 2d title released at a time when more and more platformers were going 3d, but it achieved at least a moderate level of popularity, probably particularly in Europe.\u00a0 You are an anthropomorphic pirate cat named Capatain Claw, and need to run, jump, slash, and shoot your way through many levels of platforming fun as you try to win a hidden treasure hoard and defeat the evil dog-people of the Spanish Armada.\u00a0 Good cat versus evil dogs?\u00a0 This sounds like my kind of plot! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 The game has 17.5 minutes of fully-animated cutscenes, mostly hand-drawn but with some CG elements such as ships, which is pretty cool.\u00a0 There are two relelases of the game, CD and DVD.\u00a0 The much rarer and more expensive DVD version has 640×480 videos, but is otherwise identical to the CD release.\u00a0 I was lucky and found a cheap copy of the DVD version years back, and I do like the higher-quality videos, but the gameplay in both is the same.\u00a0 The in-game graphics are also good, with large, nicely-drawn and animated sprites on detailed backgrounds.\u00a0 As with most of my Win9x platformers I can’t get this game to see my gamepad, annoyingly, but at least keyboard-to-joystick software exists.\u00a0 Claw moves fairly quickly, and you can jump, melee attack, and use several different kinds of ranged weapons that you can switch between.\u00a0 You have a percent-based health meter, and your ranged attacks have limited ammo.\u00a0 The game controls well, though sometimes I was wishing you had a double jump.\u00a0 Ah well.\u00a0 The game also lets you set buttons to directly use the four kinds of ranged weapons, but only supports 8 joystick buttons while there are a total of 9 functions, so if you want to use these and do have the in-game joystick functionality working you’ll need to not use one.\u00a0 This doesn’t matter much because just switching to the one you need and using that is simple enough.<\/p>\n
\nCommander Keen Episode I: Marooned on Mars<\/strong> (1990, DOS) – One player, saves, gamepad supported.\u00a0 Part one of the three-part Commander Keen in the Invasion of the Vortions game, Commander Keen Episode I: Marooned on Mars is the first game in this great platformer series developed by ID Software, later to be id Software, and published by Apogee, now better known as 3D Realms.\u00a0 You play as kid supergenius Billy Blaze, a young boy off to on an adventure in a homemade spaceship put together with some parts from around the house.\u00a0 Billy, Commander Keen once he puts on his brothers’ football helmet, has taken off to Mars on an adventure, but he crash-landed there, and the place is crawling with aliens who stole parts of his ship!\u00a0 You’ll need to find all four parts to win.\u00a0 What, a car battery can’t power a spaceship?\u00a0 Nah, it can, and this game is proof!\u00a0 Yeah, the story here is a funny and a great encapsulation of childhood fantasy, except it’s a childhood where the adventure is real.\u00a0 I first played the shareware release of this game sometime after we got a computer in early 1992, and this was by far the best platformer I had played on PC up to that point.\u00a0 The game made a big impression on me, and I’ve loved the Keen series ever since.\u00a0 So, this game is a very hard one to review, or even summarize; how to be even kind of impartial about a game I have this degree of nostalgia for?\u00a0 It’s not easy.\u00a0 I have always regarded the original Commander Keen trilogy as my favorite games ever developed by ID, and still say their name as “eye dee” not “id” because that’s how their name was originally presented as. (Also, as a a little aside, I’ve always referred to the games by Roman numerals, but you could also use regular Arabic ones; they are sometimes referred to either way.)<\/p>\n
\nCommander Keen Episode II: The Earth Explodes<\/strong> (1990, DOS) – One player, saves, gamepad supported.\u00a0 While the first episode of Keen was distributed free as shareware, parts II and III are available by purchase only.\u00a0 I loved Keen 1, though, so via mail order, which was how you bought these games back then, my parents bought me the registered version of Keens I-III back in the early ’90s. I still have the original disk and manual.\u00a0 So, ID made this game bigger and more challenging than its predecessor.\u00a0 Episode II of Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons is, essentially, more of the above, but with new graphics and enemies.\u00a0 This time, Keen has left Mars, but finds a Vorticon mothership heading towards earth, planning to blow up the planet!\u00a0 You need to take out its death rays to save the Earth.\u00a0 With the stakes raised considerably above the first games’ simple ‘get off this planet and go home’ story, Keen sets off to defeat each base on the mothership and save the world.\u00a0 So, this time the theme is industrial, with more robots and machine environments, instead of the often-red facilities of Mars.\u00a0 I’ll probably always like the first games’ look the most since it’s the original, but this game looks good as well.\u00a0 I always have liked this game the least of the three in Invasion of the Vorticons, for some reason, but it is still pretty good.\u00a0 This game has as many levels as before, and it’s a harder game with tougher opposition; as a kid I beat Keen 1 without too much of a problem, but this game took me much longer.\u00a0 It’s not only a bit tougher though, but more levels are required this time; there are 15 stages, one less than before, but this game has no mini-levels, so it’s probably got more content.\u00a0 Of those ten are required: 8 with death-rays, two other required stages, and five optional levels.\u00a0 The other two Invasion of the Vorticons titles have much smaller numbers of required levels.\u00a0 This was\u00a0 the last of the original trilogy that I finished.\u00a0 I can beat it now of course, but it does take more effort than the first one.\u00a0 It’s fun though, of course.\u00a0 Also, the game has enhanced graphics and more complex levels with additional puzzle elements.\u00a0 Keen 2 does some interesting things, and really is a pretty good game.\u00a0 The backgrounds are now cross-hatched, instead of just solid colors like in the original, and stages now have elements such as light switches that make everything dark, and jumping enemies who won’t jump in the dark.\u00a0 That sounds good, until they hit a light switch and kill you, but hey, that’s part of the challenge!\u00a0 Overall Episode II of Commander Keen is a very good game.\u00a0 The great core gameplay of the first game returns, but the gameplay additions and greater challenge make this a nice followup to the original.\u00a0 This game may be my least favorite of the original trilogy, but it’s still a pretty good game definitely worth having.\u00a0 This game is available in digital-download compilations of Apogee and Commander Keen games.<\/p>\n
\nCommander Keen Episode III: Keen Must Die<\/strong> (1990, DOS) – One player, saves, gamepad supported.\u00a0 Episode III of Commander Keen concludes the original trilogy.\u00a0 This game has the same core graphical style and gameplay as the original, but again the graphics have improved, and so has the gameplay.\u00a0 Keen III is a fantastic game very nearly as great as the original Keen, and in some ways is the best Keen game.\u00a0 I like this game a lot!\u00a0 This time Keen has traveled all the way to the Vorticon home planet, there to end the threat once and for all.\u00a0 There is a nice twist near the end, but the story here is appropriately simple as always.\u00a0 I like the new setting, and the graphics have more varied environments within each stage than before, though it is still drawing from a limited tileset.\u00a0 You’ll travel through towns, caverns, and more; the urban theme is a nice change from the sci-fi installations of the first two games.\u00a0 The level designs are really good, maybe the best of the trilogy, as well.\u00a0 There are a lot of mazelike environs to explore of course, but also some very clever areas.\u00a0 As you are on Vorticon you face a lot of Vorticons this time, but most are much weaker than the tough ones from the first game; those were Vorticon commandos, apparently, while these are just the home guard.\u00a0 New foes are harder, though, so there is challenge here, though overall this game isn’t as hard as the second game.\u00a0 The world is made up of six small islands connected with teleporters, and if you use the teleport right, you can beat this game having played only three of the 16 levels.\u00a0 Your goal is only to beat the boss you see, you don’t need to collect other things along the way.\u00a0 If you play all the levels this will be a tough game, but it’s much easier if you take the shortest path.\u00a0 I like having options like that.\u00a0 Mini-levels make a return as well; there are 7 of them, and 9 full stages.\u00a0 Unlike Keen 1 these “mini” levels are pretty much full stages now, though they are shorter and easier than the main levels are.\u00a0 There is also a hidden level again, after not having one in the second game, and it has that aforementioned SGA alphabet cipher to copy down.\u00a0 Once you have it written, reading the signs everywhere throughout the series is fun stuff!\u00a0 So yeah, while Episode has always been my favorite, Commander Keen III is a great game, and a fantastic conclusion to one of the best PC-exclusive platformers ever.\u00a0 This game is available in digital-download compilations of Apogee and Commander Keen games.<\/p>\n
\nCommander Keen Episode IV: Secrets of the Oracles<\/strong> (Shareware) (1991, DOS) – One player, saves, gamepad supported.\u00a0 Commander Keen IV (or 4): Secrets of the Oracle began the second Keen series developed by ID Software for Apogee.\u00a0 Part one of the two-part Commander Keen in: Goodbye, Galaxy game, this is the second shareware Keen game, and was distributed free just like Episode I was.\u00a0 That was how I first played it, and it’s great!\u00a0 This game released over a year after the first one, and it shows — the game has much better graphics with a slightly angled perspective to give a bit of depth to everything, much-enhanced graphics even if they still are EGA stuff that do not quite match up to console games of 1991 like Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog, and actual sound card support for music.\u00a0 CGA support was also added for some reason, but forget that, play in more than 4 colors!\u00a0 We didn’t have a sound card when I first played this game, but when we finally got a PC with sound in 1995 it was nice to go back and listen to.\u00a0 The game has 17 levels, about as usual for the series, with 11 required levels, 5 optional, and a hidden stage.\u00a0 Levels are larger and more difficult than before, so despite not having more stages, Keen IV is a pretty tough game and beating it will take effort and a lot of memorization within each level.\u00a0 They added a difficulty option this time though, and Easy mode doesn’t just reduce the number of enemies but also slows down your falling speed, so that’s a great option for anyone who finds Normal too hard.\u00a0 Again you can play most of the levels in any order, though, so when you get stuck in one stage you can always just try another one, and the stages have a great amount of graphical variety; each is distinct, and many have unique visual looks.\u00a0 The enemies and environments are all new this time, and are more detailed and cartoonish than before.\u00a0 Backgrounds also are improved and look more drawn and less tile-based, and the cartoonish qualities of everything have really been played up.\u00a0 Perhaps for nostalgia reasons I do like the look of the original Keen trilogy the best, but this style Keens 4 through 6 use also looks great.\u00a0 There are quite a few different environments this time, including underwater for the first time in the series, as well as pyramids, jungles, caverns, and more.\u00a0 The addition of music is very nice as well, and the songs here are good.\u00a0 In this game you need to rescue the eight Oracles, who have been kidnapped, so finding them makes up eight of the required stages.\u00a0 Of course, which stages have oracles in them isn’t marked, so just play all of them until you find them all.<\/p>\n
\nCommander Keen Episode VI: Aliens Ate My Babysitter!<\/strong> (1991) – 1 player, saves, gamepad supported.\u00a0 Commander Keen [Episode VI]: Aliens Ate My Babysitter! is the final Keen game.\u00a0 It was released shortly after Keens IV and V as a retail-only title published by the publisher FormGen, though apparently it was actually developed between those two because of retail lead-times.\u00a0 Originally this was probably supposed to be part three of Goodby Galaxy, but they got an offer for a retail game, and did not refuse it.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the contract was bad and ID lost the rights for this game to FormGen, so it has not been re-released since the ’90s.\u00a0 After multiple mergers the rights now belong to Atari, but that publisher sadly has no interest in making a reasonable deal for someone to publish this game on Steam, GOG, or such, or it would have happened already.\u00a0 And that’s really sad, because this is a great game!\u00a0 I am very lucky to have found a new copy of the game to buy back in the mid ’90s.\u00a0 I still have the box, manual, Keenings mini-newsletter, and disks, but sadly the Keen wristwatch that also came in the box vanished sometime over the years.\u00a0 That watch did not come with all copies of the game and seems to be quite hard to find now, so it’s unfortunate that I lost it.<\/p>\n
\nEarthworm Jim for Windows 95<\/strong> (1995) – 1 player, saves, gamepad supported.\u00a0 Earthworm Jim for Windows 95, from Dave Perry’s studio Shiny and published by Activision, is the first PC port of the original Earthworm Jim game, or rather, the improved Sega CD version of the game.\u00a0 This platform-shooter was very popular at the time, enough so to have sequels and even a short-lived TV cartoon (though from what little I watched it’s terrible).\u00a0 I really love Perry’s earlier platformer Aladdin for the Sega Genesis, but have mixed opinions on his other games, this one included.\u00a0 I got this game back in ’97, and was happy to get a game that still was fairly popular.\u00a0 This game is a very nice-looking game with good art design, great animation, good backgrounds and a ridiculous comedic style.\u00a0 By 1995 PC games could look better than this, but it still looks good.\u00a0 You play as an earthworm named Jim in a powered superhero suit with plenty of guns to fight with, and body-whip and shoot your way through many enemies in large, complex levels.\u00a0 EWJ looks great and is initially fun to play, but for me that doesn’t last long; I thought this game had issues even back in the ’90s, and it’s probably aged even more now.\u00a0 Jim controls somewhat inaccurately, first; the game does not have the tight, responsive controls you would hope for.\u00a0 You can aim any direction, and while shooting you can’t move.\u00a0 This works, but means you’ll take hits for sure.\u00a0 Hits are often near-impossible to dodge, anyway.\u00a0 You have a health meter and can take a lot of damage, but still, that the game is designed around this can be frustrating.\u00a0 This game can be cheap and quickly gets extremely difficult and sometimes unfair.\u00a0 The levels also can be confusing, and figuring out where to go in these big, similar-looking stages sometimes is a problem.\u00a0 Worse, what you can interact with and what you can’t is not always obvious.\u00a0 Bosses don’t have health bars either, and take a lot of hits to defeat, if you’re even damaging them; it isn’t always clear enough.<\/p>\n