The Earth Explodes is the second chapter in the Commander Keen 1990 shareware trilogy, and feel free to check out my review/backstory for the first chapter here. The second portion either cleans up a lot of the problems with the first, or perhaps is intentionally more polished and thoughtful due to the fact that you actually had to pay to play this one, as opposed to the demo nature of the first chapter.
The backgrounds are generally more detailed and fun looking than the plain gray of the first game, although the graphics are generally very similar between the two games. Most of the time, however, the background is simply the checkerboard gray that you can see in the screenshot above, which is definitely an improvement, but only marginally so. The graphics are generally fine for a PC game of this era, although they still pale in comparison to even the most rudimentary NES platformers of the day. There are also a few weird visual quirks in the game, such as when Keen stands on a moving platform, he appears to shake as he rides the platform. I'm not sure what the cause of this is, but it definitely doesn't look intentional or good.
The sound is identical to the first game, as far as I can tell. More blips, bloops, boings, and zaps for everyone, and still no music!
The controls and gameplay are also very similar, although they introduced a few new features. You now have control of a Vorticon ray gun, which works similarly to your old one, but is more powerful. And blue. Charges of the gun are far more available, too, making it so that managing charges is not nearly as important. I actually don't like this change much, as planning your ammo usage and conserving it was one of the more fun and original components of the first game. But the gun in this game is ultimately secondary, as the most challenging enemies in the game cannot be killed with the gun, requiring you to use your brain to avoid them or lure them into hazards instead. There are also new elements in the levels with which you can interact, including switches to build bridges or bomb the earth (seriously) and light switches, a critical new addition. When the lights are off, your enemies will not jump, which introduces a new layer of strategy to the game. Sometimes you'll want your enemies to jump so that they move up and away from keycards, while other times you'll want them to remain bound to the ground so that you can lure them into pits or jump over them. Manipulating the lights thoughtfully is key to finishing the game, and was a very nice addition.
The addition of the lights is just part of a general trend of significantly improved level design from the first game. Levels are now smaller but require much more thought and strategy rather than on the fly decision making. Mechanics like the pogo stick are now required to navigate the game, and give it an extra layer of complexity that is rewarding. The levels also have a significantly more impactful end goal to them than in the first game. While retrieving your ship's parts to escape from Mars was a nice plot, and gave you a measurable demonstration of your progress through the game, in this one, the Vorticon spaceship has huge cannons trained on eight major Earth cities, which requires you to shut down each of the eight cannons before escaping the ship and heading home. Accidentally triggering one of the weapons before you shut them down will result in the "bad" ending, which is a nice touch to the game, and a good piece of storytelling.
The controls are, again, pretty clunky. This game was dying for true d-pad support and crisp controls, but for 1990s PC, it's really not that bad. You will find yourself getting killed by the controls at time, and I can't imagine that the native joystick support is all that much better (remember when we used to play video games with huge joysticks????).
This game was greatly improved from the first one, but still falls short of the platforming pack in 1990, and FAR short of the majesty that is Super Mario Bros. 3. But given that it was really the only scrolling platformer on PC at that time, it's probably more far to compare it to a game like Pitfall or Donkey Kong than the exemplary Mario trilogy on the NES, or the three Mega Man games that had been released by that time. This was PC gaming pushing its own boundaries, and it was definitely light years ahead of anything I'd seen on that platform up until that date. So I'll keep a certain amount of originality score for this one, just like I did with the first game, since they were developed at the same time and released simultaneously. I'll give The Earth Explodes an 8.8/10.
Next up, I'll be completing/reviewing the third and final game in the Invasion of the Vorticons Trilogy, Keen Must Die! Sounds tense!
-TRO
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