It's hard for me to talk about the early Keens because they were some of the first video games I ever played -- this one in particular may have been THE first, I'm not sure. So there's a lot of nostalgia there.

Trying to separate myself from that somewhat, I think it's fair to say that this is a competent if simplistic platformer for its day. It's definitely better than a lot of its PC contemporaries, even some of the other ones from Apogee or iD themselves. And I'd say it's more charming.

The very basic gameplay kind of works in its favor, giving it a stark, no-frills focus. And although I can see how some might bristle at how the jumping/physics work, I like the sense of weight and momentum and having to sort of plan your jumps beforehand. But then again, maybe I've just played a lot of it. Less up for debate is how awesome the pogo stick is - truly an excellent powerup.

I probably remember these games a lot more fondly than most people do just because they were so foundational for me. PCs were a little behind in this era when it came to platformers, obviously, but I still managed to develop a love for the genre by finding the stronger titles, like this one. It's good clean fun.