Genre: 2d platformer
Developer: Lone Wolf Technology
Publisher: Lone Wolf Technology

As Adrian Carmack really didn't like working on cutesy platform games, he had to find a way to express his dark side within those constraints. This led to the "Keen" games' trademark mix of the innocent with the macabre, which is in full force here: Mr. Potato Head-lookalikes wielding bayonets? Grapes which give a look of utter sadness as they fall towards the player? And those sheer-madness head-slamming broccoli are genuinely terrifying! The game also has some quite evocative level scenery, such as the cool underground cave network beneath one of the game's otherwise benign stages.

As an upgrade from the simple PC speaker beeps in the original "Keen" trilogy, Keen Dreams has Soundblaster sound effects, which-- in this port-- can be toggled to and from "remixed", more modern digital sounds, which aren't nearly as ambient or memorable. As id hadn't yet moved into the famous Bobby Prince era, Keen Dreams-- like the original titles-- did not have any music. However, this port does have a Red Book-style soundtrack, and the songs are surprisingly great: both catchy, and just as crazy and dichotomous as the game's visuals!

Keen Dreams is a very difficult game, making its quick saving and loading operations an absolutely integral part of the gameplay; early 90s Gravis Gamepad-toting PC gamers who were reared on that style will feel absolutely at home here. The pogo stick and blaster are gone, replaced with the ability to temporarily stun baddies. This is used in the well-designed levels to create tension, as the player scrambles up and down poles before the enemies once again stir to life.

Keen Dreams' somewhat uneven difficulty does not flow as well as many of the other games in the vast series: after all, the title was churned out quickly as a sort of tech demo, merely to fulfil contractual obligations to Softdisk. That said, it's still a release with some wonderfully clever level design, and intense visual themes. As for this port, it's surrealistic playing an EGA DOS game on Switch: even the aspect ratio is "corrected" to make it almost 16:9 sans stretching, and the re-worked text and icon-based menus are one hundred percent faithful to the original. This reviewer has subjectively had more fun with this game than he did "Super Mario Odyssey"; perhaps, then, this release can serve to unleash more DOS-era titles on Nintendo's handheld?