Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die!

The Good
Third and last of Keen's original "Invasion of the Vorticons" trilogy. This time Keen decides to go all out and heads for the Vorticon homeworld to kick their asses and see who's behind all the earth invasion plots... The answer will be pretty interesting to little Billy Blaze, and it will provide the closest thing to an actual boss battle in the entire series, an entire level in which you have to beat your nemesis in his giant robot thingie, sort of like Metal Gear Solid only without the crap.

Seeing as how the game now takes place on the Vorticon homeland, the levels are much more detailed and populated, with plenty of new enemies like the Vorticon Ninjas and those weird singing thingies. The levels span cities, military instalations, houses, temples and all sort of weird places and for a change, the levels often include serious challenges and many secrets that can or cannotbe tackled depending on how you feel. In fact, some levels often have different ways of completing them, usually going for the big challenge, or taking the wuss-route and finishing them with a minimum of trouble.

The Bad
Probably too challenging, at least for me.

The Bottom Line
Keen closes his first game series with an all-out bash of platforming gameplay that ends with the coolest level in the series (I wonder why they didn't do this again on the later games...). The game just takes everything you grasped at in the later games and throws them to you into a well-designed, fun and challengin platforming classic.

The Good
The final chapter of the "Invasion of the Vorticons" series is probably the best. Sure it looks and feels just like the first two chapters, but this time you get to visit the aliens homeworld. This beautifully designed and is a lot of fun to play. Wander around their cities, through their homes and their schools (a lovely touch). You'll have to learn their language to complete this game, and watch out for the baby Vorticons who run around the place at high speed - their trick is to knock you over, stunning you for a few seconds. The final scene involves one of the toughest bosses in any platfrom game, and there's a little surprise for anyone who gets this far.

The Bad
I've said it before and I'll say it again - the control system is a real pain. If I ever find the guy who decided that CTRL+ALT would make a good fire button...

The Bottom Line
The best of the bunch, it makes a great finale to the series. Obviously you would have finished the first two games before you play this, but it's well worth the wait.

The Good
Graphically it's the same as part 1 and 2 because it's from the same release (the try one free and get the others by buying them formula) but it there is much more to see in this one because you are on the home planet of the Vorticans. You will see buildings with houses and schools in them and lots of different Vortican enemies such as ninja's big mother's and kids. This is also the only Keen with an actual boss battle, which is nice. You must help eight-year old genius Billy Blaze A.K.A as Commander Keen defeat the Grand Intellect after having repaired his ship and destroyed the Vortican ship in the first two parts. The identity of the Grand Intellect is unknown but if you manage to reach him it will be kind of surprising. It's a pretty good story. There are some secret areas as well just as before which is a cool twist. The controls are still the same too, which is good because it was very smooth for such an old PC game.

The Bad
There's still the annoying ALT+CONTROL shooting method and the sound is just some simple bleeps just as before. The controls were good as I said but are dated now, especially when you are jumping. It may also be a bit too hard even for a CK game which are all pretty tough games.

The Bottom Line
Yet another fun classic that should be in your collection for DOS games. It's old but still brilliant and addictive.