Hopefully you still got to play a lot. I played at arcades, and at other kids' houses, and we rented an NES a couple times, including when I was recovering from getting my tonsils removed. I really liked Mario 1, Mario 3, Super Mario World, NBA Jam, Duck Hunt, Ninja Turtles on NES, Sonic, and some others I'm not thinking of right now.
I see online that there aren't a lot of negative reviews about Commander Keen (like you would find about bad movies), and I suppose it makes sense. I mean, it was still fun. I would put it below Mario 2 though, and Mario 2 was the one I would leave out of a list like the one above.
On the PC, there were a lot of great games too, but side scrolling was definitely something to play on a console.
Keen had item collecting, lots of verticality in the maps, and some backtracking IIRC. It seems like a better comparison to Metroid, than Mario.
Anyway, most games are not as good as Mario, it is a genre-defining series. I think it is not a great comparison—what does it tel you that I’m slower than Usain Bolt?
I see online that there aren't a lot of negative reviews about Commander Keen (like you would find about bad movies), and I suppose it makes sense. I mean, it was still fun. I would put it below Mario 2 though, and Mario 2 was the one I would leave out of a list like the one above.
On the PC, there were a lot of great games too, but side scrolling was definitely something to play on a console.