I suppose I’m a bit overdue with reviewing this. Oh well. Here’s hoping this doesn’t end up being TOO biased…
Unlike most, if not all, other conversions, this particular one consists of five (plus one copy with a minor color edit, which was probably unnecessary anyway) different tilesets, each taken from one of the many different locales in Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle. Despite being released in 1991, it is still a fantastic game with great and highly creative art.
Nearly every tile from the original game is included, seeing as how this was created from a rip of the official tileset. Additions such as hooks, vines, poles, destructable blocks (albeit ripped from official sets), and a textured background are also present. Pole, Pinball, and snow events aren’t recommended because they tend to look bad.
Not every piece of eyecandy could be added into every set due to JJ2’s somewhat restrictive tileset size, but everything that should be in each set is. The animations are all present and accounted for, as are all of the game’s various collectable items. Triggers can easily be manipulated with the doors, keygems, and switches. In some sets that had a little extra room, the full SGA was included along with a translation. I can only imagine what sort of messages some of you people out there would concoct.
Masking is smooth. Very smooth. I could not intentionally get myself stuck, and since every set uses the same masking for its solid parts, they are all quite well done in this regard.
A couple of the tunes from CK4 were also included (“Eat Your Veggies” and “Welcome to Another Kick in the Pants in Good Old Hillville”, for the inquiring minds), which certainly doesn’t hurt anything. I’d converted another one of the songs, but he refused to include it because it wasn’t used in an example level. The fiend.
Overall, I really cannot find much fault with this. Each locale has been pieced together flawlessly to look exactly like the original, along with all of the minor embellishments that made the Keen series what it is. My only real complaint is the fact that a full version with every set together would have to be TSF-only, but that merely further testifies to the quality of the source game. There’re also a couple things I’ve noticed during the typing of this that were left out, but they’re minor enough that they don’t affect the score, and I can bug him about it later anyway.
It’s a bit hard to decide what to give this, considering my bias towards the series and my constant involvement in the creation of this conversion (read as: slave-driving perfectionism and unforgiving criticism), so I’m going to semi-arbitrarily give this an 8.5.
Nice work. Now if your name is Labratkid, stop reading this and go ask me what you left out.[This review has been edited by Scizor CT][This review has been edited by Scizor CT]
Tileset conversion, by 
