History Videogame / CommanderKeen

A series of video games developed at the turn of the 90s, one of the first to be successful at replicating the side scrolling action of the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games in MS-DOS (more on that down below). The cartoon style platformers are notable for their pioneering use of EGA graphics and shareware distribution, and because they were some of the first games by Creator/IdSoftware (who went on to develop blockbusters like ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Quake|I}}''). Although developed by id, most of the Commander Keen games were published by Apogee Software, an already-established MS-DOS shareware game publisher.

** Episode 4 has one where you [[JustForPun collect 12 Inch Worms to make a giant foot]] which then launches you to a secret temple, the Pyramid of the Forbidden. It's a BrutalBonusLevel that features difficult-to-evade traps and hazards, as well as a high concentration of enemies.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* EveryTenThousandPoints: In the ''Invasion of the Vorticons'' trilogy, you get an extra life for every 20,000 points.[[note]]But in the ''Goodbye, Galaxy!'' two-parter and ''Aliens Ate My Babysitter!'', the amount of points needed to get another extra life will increase by the next power of 2 every time you get an extra life![[/note]]

** Episode 5 has a secret level accessible by clearing the penultimate mandatory level via an alternate route you can enter through a well-hidden entrance near the regular exit. It stands out for having an unusually tall design, to the póint of invoking IFellForHours when Billy falls all the way to the bottom; it's also unique for having two ways to be completed (with one of them providing a mild change in the game's ending).

* SecretLevel:
** Episode I has a secret level which can only be accessed by going down a tricky side passage in another level.
** Episode IV has one where you [[JustForPun collect 12 Inch Worms to make a giant foot]] which then launches you to a secret temple.
** Episode V has a secret level accessible by clearing the penultimate mandatory level via an alternate route you can enter through a well-hidden entrance near the regular exit.
** Episodes III and VI have each one secret level accessed from the overworld map. You have to catch a friendly monster (in the former) or a hovering vehicle (in the latter) so Billy is taken slowly to a distant section of the map that is impossible to see from anywhere else.

* PlotCoupon: Used in three of the seven episodic games (ship parts in ''Marooned on Mars'', guardians in ''Secret of the Oracle'', and bombs in ''Keen Dreams'').

!! The series comprises several installments:

!!''Commander Keen'' provides examples of:

->''Billy Blaze, eight year-old genius, working diligently in his backyard clubhouse has created an interstellar starship from old soup cans, rubber cement and plastic tubing. While his folks are out on the town and the babysitter has fallen asleep, Billy travels to his backyard workshop, dons his brother's football helmet, and transforms into... Commander Keen, Defender of Earth! In his ship, the Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket, Keen dispenses justice with an iron hand!''

-->--'''Background information given as flavor text in the first game'''

* ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'':

* ''Keen Dreams'' (1991): A GaidenGame published by Softdisk, where Keen has a dream in which he sets out to fight Boobus Tuber, the vegetable king. The game's canon status is unknown -- most fans consider it to have taken place between episodes 3 and 4. The game featured several features unique to the series, including a lack of Keen's pogo stick, and vegetables being thrown as weapons.

* KidGenius: Keen and Mortimer, who have [=IQs=] of 314 and 315, respectively.

* BigBad: Mortimer [=McMire=], Keen's school rival, is behind the events of every game but ''Keen Dreams'', which has King Boobus Toober instead.

* ContinuityNod: Billy Blaze's full name is [[VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D William Joseph Blazkowicz]] II, after his grandfather, who you probably know better as "B.J.".

* DistressedDude: The Gnostic Elders (and their janitor) in episode 4. Rescuing them (and maybe the janitor) is the objective of that game.

* FinalBoss: The Mangling Machine in episode 3 and King Boobus Toober in ''Keen Dreams''.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:Mortimer [=McMire=], Keen's school rival]], is behind the events of every game but ''Keen Dreams''.

** Skypests (flies) in ''Secrets of the Oracle''; you can't shoot them, only crush them with your pogo stick when they land.

* InvincibleMinorMinion: In the first trilogy, almost all robotic enemies are impervious to damage, even the ones that can only push you around. In the second, most unkillable enemies are the tough rather than minor ones (such as the Berkeloids and Dopefish in ''Secrets of the Oracle'', or Robo Red and Sphereful in ''The Armaggeddon Machine'').

* KidsHateVegetables: What kicks off the plot of ''Keen Dreams'', as it starts with Keen getting send to bed without food after refusing his vegetables, and then gets trapped in a dreamworld where kids that refuse their vegetables are enslaved by sentient vegetables.

* MascotMook: The Dopefish from ''Secrets of the Oracle'' is iconic enough to be the subject of many {{Easter Egg}}s from a wide variety of other games.

* SpikesOfDoom: ''Marooned on Mars'' has green spikes that move up and down. Later episodes, such as ''Keen Must Die!'' and ''Secrets of the Oracle'', only have stationary spikes, but they all kill you in one hit, just like everything else dangerous in the series as Commander Keen is a OneHitPointWonder. In ''Secrets of the Oracle'', they're especially common in the mountain and pyramid levels.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Billy Blaze is heavily implied to be this, given that his grandfather, [[VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D BJ Blazkowicz]] was of Polish-Jewish descent and his surname is driven from the Ashkenazi surname "Berkowicz", so this must be true.