Episode Smile

Modded episode	Keen 2
Protagonist	Commander Keen
Author(s)	KeenRush
Status	Complete
Release date	2005-01-07
Discussion(s)	Keen: Modding
Number of levels	16
Secret levels	0
New gameplay?	No
New graphics?	Yes
New levels?	Yes
New sounds?	Yes
New music?	No
Download	newest ;
Vote	4.67 (3 votes)

world map

Episode Smile, also called "Keen Smile", is KeenRush's second full mod, made for Keen 2. Its graphics are stylised and creative, and the PC speaker sounds show a profound understanding of the method used to generate audio. Some of the effects are remniscient of Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures and other games of the era. The sounds were created from scratch using a simple program the author wrote in Visual Basic (both the program and its source are long lost). The difficulty level of this mod is far greater than in Yorphius II, and in fact the mod is often cited for its extreme level of challenge.

Technical Information

Tileset: completely redone tileset by KeenRush
Sprite animation frames: All new monsters (no Vortikid)
Story text: new, stand alone mod story
Levels: 16 regular levels; 1 worldmap
Bugs: No known errors or bugs

Story

It's a nice summer day. Billy has no school since he has summer holiday. He has done plenty of adventuring lately in the outer space. He's glad he can relax a bit after saving the Universe several times during the past couple of months.

Billy had felt asleep while trying to read a comic book. His dad had bought it for him. He would have rather read some good book instead, but he had read all he currently had and hadn't had any time to pick some new ones from the local library. A noise signal interrupted the dream.

"Commander Keen? Can you hear me?" The voice sounded really old. Billy jumped up from his chair and rushed to Photachyon Transceiver. "Billy here. I can hear you, the transmission works, at least some way." "Great! Are you busy?" "Nope. Nice to hear about you, bearded one. There must be some purpose for this sudden contact. What is it?" "Not very good I'm afraid." Then a silence that naturally felt really long time... "Commander Keen, we need your help once again. Gnosticus IV is in a great danger."

Keen jumped in to Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket and headed towards Gnosticus IV. There he met the Ancients that he had helped more than one time... Keen was told that a mysterious space ship had asked the Council to give them the Oracle or they would wipe out the entire planet. The situation is entirely unknown. The Council or even the Oracle has no idea who owns the mysterious space ship or why would they want to take the Oracle with them. The Ancients had refused. The space ship is now ready to destroy Gnosticus IV.

"So, you don't have any clue about this? Mortimer's not behind this?" "We don't think so." "No sweat... Hmmm, I'd better take a look -- and fast." "Good luck, Capt... Commander Keen!"

Keen set the coordinates towards the strange ship. He noticed that he had forgot to take any extra stunner shots. The stunner had 99 shots. "I hope that's enough. Or else things get really ugly." The ship really looked strange at the distance. In few seconds he'd start landing...

Keen landed. He looked around a bit. Everything looked green in a strange way. Green as a furious garg, Keen tought.

Items

The points for items in this mod are very low, so it is almost impossible to get an extra life. No ammo can be collected, except in the very end of the game Keen can get 500 shots, however he starts the game with 99 shots and 10 lives.