Let’s Play Commander Keen IOTV #03: The Worst Kept Secret
174Secret levels were nothing new even when Commander Keen first came out, though the way they were accessed varied. Some could only be discovered using cheat codes, others by inputting a special password that you’re not given during play. Others are unlocked by reaching certain milestones while playing but the most conventional method of hiding them at the time this game was released was within other levels by means of an alternate exit you had to find. This was done by going off the beaten track as it were and they were often a lot harder to get to than the normal one but the reward was usually worth it; secret levels tended to have lots of points and power-ups to collect as well as easter eggs to uncover.
Sometimes you’re given hints on how to find secret levels within the game like we were in this one, but that raises questions about how secret the level actually is. Did the shrine Commander Keen went to tell everyone that reached the top of it about the secret level or was that information only given to us? It also can’t be a secret to the aliens that live there and they must talk to other aliens from time to time, meaning that quite a lot of people will know about it. Perhaps it’s a secret in the sense that humans aren’t meant to know about it, but it’s not like that’s going to matter once Commander Keen gets there. The shrine which held knowledge of the secret level has been crushed under a giant ‘done’ tile and soon enough the secret city will suffer the same fate, making the secret knowledge of its location pointless.
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