Commander Keen 6 (1991)

Name:Commander Keen in Aliens Ate my Babysitter!
Number:235
Year:1991
Publisher:FormGen
Developer:Id Software
Genre:Side-Scroller
Difficulty:4/5
Time:3 hours 50 minutes
Won:Yes (104W/73L)

Hey, wait a minute, this wasn't released in December 1992, you might ask, having just come off Keen 5. It wasn't. It isn't even about Mortimer...it's about his sister, who babysits Keen. Isn't he a bit too old to be babysat? Naturally, Mortimer's sister had been kidnapped by aliens with a taste for the flesh of children. Ah, the things we accept in children's media without battling an eyelash even if it'd be grotesque anyway else. 

Keen decides to park before the river crossing.

This time around, Commander Genius has issues with playing the game, so instead I'll be playing it in regular DOS. The game is surprisingly spartan in its set-up, no F1 menu in the version I played, in stark contrast to previous entries. Just straight to the overworld then. Which has a lot of teleports, like the first trilogy. As this was intended to be the third part of the Goodbye Galaxy set, there are seemingly no real changes between the two control-wise. So I'll refrain from repeating them, and point out you can see what I've said of past Keen titles with the labels at the bottom. Though it did take a bit to refamiliarize myself with the game's controls. Apparently it was longer than I thought. The first level, despite being the typical opener, gave me some trouble.

One observation about enemies is that they seem to be alert to the player's presence a lot more than usual. Whether this is just me being more on point or if the game's AI is noticeably improved is the question. Regardless, we get these enemies:

Adorable little Blooglets.

• Blooglet, at this point, your typical "doesn't actually hurt Keen, but instead pushes him around" type of enemy. It's very fast and surprisingly hard to dodge, so taking them out is a better strategy than it would be in previous games. This is actually a very important strategy, because guess what? Sometimes they have keys.

Blooguard, trying to protect a Bloog from vicious galactic threat Keen.

• Bloog, the basic run around and kill Keen by touch enemy. Pretty big, pretty slow. Has a deceptively large hitbox, I suspect there may be some issues with that. As in, the hitbox is the whole sprite when there should be considerable transparency there.
• Blooguards, like the Bloogs, these guys kill Keen and are dumb and big. Unlike the regular kind, they take three shots to knock out and they have a club capable of stunning Keen for a moment, which they use randomly.

A Babobba, not pooping, but instead sleeping with his blankey.

• Babobba, small and lethal. Well, in theory. If you don't try to jump over it, it's easy to take out. They drop little...uh...radioactive turds which Keen shouldn't touch. Frequently, fall asleep, which makes it even easier to take them out.

A Gik, sinister or cute and cuddly? You decide!

• Gik, my first encounter with this resulted in my death. It's like those rock enemies from 4, except they chase after you and jump without delay. It's less of a jumping arc and more of a lunge, very little vertical air, more horizontal, turning into a slide.

Flect, just wandering around below me, smarter enemies do that.

• Flect, it has a mirror which reflects your shots back at you. They're unstunnable and push you, so this is the real trouble they provide.

Nospike, such a depressed looking creature...until it attacks you anyway.

• Nospike, it has a spike on its head and it charges after you. Takes a few shots, but not actually as deadly as it seems. Earlier Keen games had more deadly charging enemies.

Also visible here, this game's one-up, the Queen Vita.

• Ceilick, hides in the ceiling as a small tongue, shoots out when Keen gets within a certain distance, then pops out so you can shoot it. Not actually as tricky as it could be on their own, but with other hazards or enemies can frequently get you.

 

Very intimidating, unfortunately he can't touch me anymore than a random Bloog can.

• Fleex, very intimidating looking, but sadly not very difficult to fight. They're basically the Blooguards without the advantage of the stun attack. They even have a little move where they stop for a moment to look around.

 

Sometimes the most unassuming of foes are the most deadly.

• Orbatrix, very annoying little buggers. They're floating orbs, can't be killed, and turn into hypersonic balls if you get close. The only strategy seems to be to shoot and pray that it won't start bouncing around.

 

The Blorbs are even see-through!

• Blorb, your shots go through them and they kill Keen on touch. Not that bad, because they're slow and dumb, bouncing off walls in a consistent diagonal pattern. Less enemies and more a moving hazard.
• Bipship, little guys piloting flying saucers that shoot at you. They don't actually fly over things, they're more like your basic enemy that shoots at you. Which in Keen terms actually makes them quite mundane. They do explode spectacularly and drop little guys that you can cruelly stomp on. And here I thought Keen didn't like killing aliens...

There were also two more that the Keen wiki describes as monsters. A Grabbiter, which is actually what you need the later mentioned sandwich for to get past it on the overworld. Then Bobba, a bigger, immortal version of the Babobba. Which is only around on hard, I played medium.

And here are the notable to me levels:

• Guard Post One, the first level you can reach after the opener. If you go up, there's a Bloog and two Blooguards, and I don't have the ammo for them. Down is a large maze. It's a stark reminder of just how tricky these guys can be to avoid. Oddly, in comparison to the Goodbye Galaxy games, it's not the environment that's being trick, it's the enemies. The Babobbas are basically just there, but the combo of Blooglets and Bloogs is tripping me up. I'm burning through more shots than I normally would, but I'm still coming out ahead.

The walls have eyes.

• Second Dome of Darkness, where I get killed right away by a Gik, and I see no way to avoid it by going through the door. Much like a level of SWAT, just going through the front door will get me killed, so I just climb upwards. All the way to the top is a Bloog I have no way of shooting, but there's a passage above another...which leads down to a spike pit. Ouch, guess I have to get past the Gik. They're not that tricky to get past. Once inside, it's quite the maze of dodging Bloogs. It's actually a bit inspired beyond that.
• First Dome of Darkness, these can be tackled in any other. The real challenge here is going through a massive treasure room full of so many lovely traps. The real goal is to get to the top, where a grappling hook is, allowing you to go back and take a path you couldn't previously go through.

Welcome to the Machine, Keen.

• Bloogfoods Inc, you know, I don't think I've covered a commercial title with a food factory before, despite how seemingly common it is. (Obviously there was Keen Meets the Meats, but not commercial) It's a maze of industry traps and manages some cleverness in the layout I haven't seen before. Unfortunately, the music track really reminds me of Isle of the Dead. But this level has a lot of key hunting, and sometimes the keys are not behind places I enjoy having to get them from. Like a series of these flame jets which requires close to pixel perfect timing. The path to the final key is full of situations you just have no chance of avoiding and have to get lucky on to win. This still leaves a big room with a good half dozen switches you have no idea what they do until you need them flipped. All for a giant sandwich.
• Bloogdome, which the game implies is a bad idea to enter. There's even a giant stop sign there. Outside of the first appearance of the Nospike, there's nothing too concerning going on here. It's a lot less difficult to pass and more just, aha, you had no idea going this way would result in your death or loss of progress. It's not actually that tricky beside that, it's all in optional areas.

Sometimes it seems like Romero's rules only came about because he realized how bad it could be when he broke them.

• Bloogton Manufacturing, oh, nice, Blooguard right away. It's one of those levels. I can't help but feel like ID is running out of ideas. "Okay, have them go under the Ceilick, over the floating mines and the acid puddle to get the key." This isn't actually what you have to do, instead, you have to get another key, slowly go up the whole level, using that key to unlock a door, then pulling a whole bunch of switches, finding out that the key you ignored is the key you need, and then eventually discover that a switch activates a floating platform. All the way up, all the way down, then up again. There is at least, a one up for your trouble, if you're willing to risk death again.

 

It's a long way to the top and not that far down.

• Bloogton Tower, what is with these enemies at the start? This one starts off with two keys to the left of the start, the trick is that Keen can't reach one of them just yet. On this level, I discover that the Blooglets can have keys. It's not a very good level besides, since the first half consists of a lot of going back and forth on elevators. And we can't forget the second half, which is going back down to get the keys you missed, assuming you didn't miss any switches up above.
• Bloogville, hey this one looks deceptively easy, just some nice shiny side points. There are a lot of Celicks and Giks on this level. This isn't like other levels where you can just dodge the suckers, no, you have to proactively deal with a lot of them. Despite this, there is some cleverness in it all. I found the using a switch to get to a ledge a neat trick, feels like something that would be in a mod rather than a mainline game.

Keen, experiencing true terror.

• Bloog Aeronautics and Space Administration, well, that's amusing. The level itself feels like a pun on this, because the Giks are constantly getting in your way. Less annoying than Bloogville, but still a constant presence. What was more annoying is that to win, you need to go through a massive tunnel on a floating platform, going straight through it just leads to Keen's death. This isn't even halfway. What I'd describe as pure cruelty is that the game expects you to shoot a Fleex in a space it barely has enough room to not kill you straight off.

If you squint, maybe you can see Marvin the Martian.

• Bloogbase Management District, very Looney Tunes space feel to this one. I dig it. The music also has shades of Doom, probably unintentionally. This level has a lot of wall turrets. Energy dart guns? Despite some oddities, it's not too special, because at this point shooting the regular Bloogs is very old hat.
• Blooglab Space Station, the secret level, reached by going behind the Bloog Control Center. It feels like the fun kind of secret level, though this is slightly ruined by how the level puts Flects in places that are strategically designed to trip you up. It's mostly about dodging Blorbs, who sometimes slow up the game and sometimes not.
• Bloogbae Recreational District, ah, how an unfortunate typo can make things sound weirder in retrospect. (Not that anyone seems to use bae anymore, but this would have been hilarious a few years ago) Very good level, Bipships appear a lot here. They're a very fun enemy to fight and the level gets a lot of use out of them here. I also like the idea the last part has of pulling switches near dangerous enemies to slowly raise bridges to get higher. Feel very second-to-last level.

Just an ordinary day climbing over eyeballs.

• Bloog Control Center, black background, yep, this is a proper last level. There's a switch next to you, with mines below. A platform approaches...and it's time for Let's Make a Deal, pick a door, Commander! After you realize that the Blooglet above you has a key and travel over the acid puddles to reach him. Oh, and there's an identical room with a yellow Blooglet and key. Oh, and the blue key is below the door to this set of doors. The red key, thankfully, is just in a Blooglet on your way to the end of the level. Otherwise, it's fairly straightforward with only one last annoying bit to go. And there's Molly, behind four doors.

I have some questions about Mortimer's home life...

Molly, then tells Keen that it was her brother, Mortimer, who sold her off to the Bloogs and then told them where to find the Sandwich I gave the Grabbiter. Apparently, he plans on blowing up the universe, which is of no consequence to her, because she's more concerned that Keen gets back before his folks get home. Next time, Keen and Mortimer battle for the universe!

Weapons:
The same as last time. 1/10

Enemies:
There's some good ideas here, like the Blorb, but a lot of it just feels like shoot the big guy, or thing you can't deal with, run away. The usage makes up for a slightly samey enemy selection though. 6/10

Non-Enemies:
None.

Levels:
I have mixed feelings here, some were very good, but others felt like they had a lot of padding added. Which is a valid concern in a commercial product and in a game that even with them, felt like I just sped past it. But checking that isn't that unusual, but still the feeling remains. 7/10

Player Agency:
Same as the last time, except now he doesn't seem to surf on moving platforms. Oh, well. 7/10

Interactivity:
A few bits and bobs here and there. 1/10

Atmosphere:
We've gone from reaching out to an unknown world in the first trilogy, to the mysticism of Keen 4, the machine of 5, to an entirely alien planet here. It's nice, but I feel it's lacking in truly establishing itself as an alien world. 6/10

Graphics:
Still very much in the category of I can't believe it's not VGA. Environments are still stunning, but enemy design seems...slightly missing in some respects. Like they weren't quite fleshed out in time. 7/10

Story:
Mortimer is proving more resilient than Wolverine. 1/10

Sound/Music:
Sound is still solid, but there's still only 6 minutes of music. It's fine, it's varied, but it's 6 minutes of music. A few tracks are very nice, but some are just sort of there. 3/10

That's 39, one below Keen 5 and the same as Keen 4. That feels fitting, much like Keen 4 a few things kept nagging at me. In either event, neither score is too shabby.

This is, for most people, the end of the Keen series. However, while the conclusion never happened officially, there are two attempts at having the conclusive battle between Keen and Mortimer. The lesser known Game Boy Color game and the unofficial The Universe is Toast trilogy, which attempt to finish what the boys at ID never got to do. While neither is going to do what ID likely would have done, since they were moving into VGA at the time, I'm sure there'll be a pretty good attempt at making it work.

Next up from ID, of course, is Wolfenstein 3D, which I'll go through again despite not entirely wanting to. Much like more Keen, that's in the future. For now, expect another forgotten FPS, this time from the handheld king of FPS titles, the Game Boy, or more ZZT.