Commander Keen received mixed reviews from critics. The graphics were both praised and criticized; Jason White of AllGame praised the art style and the "bright and colorful" graphics, and Peter Sellers of IGN similarly praised the graphical upgrade over the original computer games and the colorful style, but Sellers also criticized the "busy" backgrounds and lackluster animations as making the game feel "choppy". Frank Provo of GameSpot more harshly criticized the graphics, adding a complaint that the graphical updates did not reflect the ten years since the last releases to the criticisms of the backgrounds and animations. He gave similar criticisms of the music and sound effects' lack of upgrade from the quality of the ten-year-old original games.
