More of everything that put the original in the limelight!
As I mentioned in a review of the third Commander Keen game, much of the success of the series had its underpinning in managing to offer a hefty bit for free, for those that exchanged games on the proto internet of the era, the BBS scene from back in the day. So, naturally, as this first title caught traction, it was just a question of making the second game as good as it should, to manage to attract players. The other values of the series, that made it successful in the shareware scene are pretty much to be seen in the entire long spanning series, and they are just as evident in this second title as well. Which revolve around large scale levels, alright animations, colorful and not too original graphics, but cartoony and immediately recognizable, and a neat, immediately recognizable player character. The rest is just different versions of this same ideas, and the gameplay, for this second game, as well as, for good measure, for the entire series, has never been too hard, unforgiving or too eager to impress. Nope, Commander Keen 2 was a children's or early adolescent's game, the kind that appealed to those that still could appreciate cartoons or graphical novels or superhero comics. Definitely though, Keen 2 is a worthy light DOS experience, worth its weight in gold when you feel like oldschool left to right and up and down exploration is what you need!
