MDK2 for Sega Dreamcast - Review

originally written for Gamers.com

In 1997, a relatively unknown company released an exciting new action game to an unenthusiastic and unappreciative public.  The company was Shiny and the game was MDK on the PC and PSX.  MDK was a shockingly original mix of action, story, and humor that delivered to the player a game experience unlike any other available at the time.  The game followed the adventures of the mild-mannered janitor Kurt Hectic, Dr. Fluke Hawkins, and the bionic canine Max as they battled to save the Earth from aliens who piloted city-destroying behemoths called ‘minecrawlers’.  Sporting a third-person perspective, a sniper camera, a ribbon parachute, and an inexhaustible mini-gun, MDK was so off-the-wall and over-the-top that the gaming public was utterly confused and afraid of it despite its winning PC Accelerator’s Best Action Game of 1997.  So MDK quickly found its way into the “Under $10” bin never to be seen or heard from again…until now.

Much like The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8^th Dimension, MDK became a cult favorite, and its followers demanded a sequel.  This time it was Bioware (makers of Baldur’s Gate for PC) that took up the reins and delivered to the public MDK2.  The sequel takes place only moments after the completion of the original MDK.  As Kurt triumphantly returns to his ship, the Jim Dandy, the aliens begin to attack Earth again.  Kurt, armored in his ‘coil suit’ invented by Dr. Hawkins, heroically jumps into the fray to save the world again.  Using a brand new graphics engine, three playable characters, and all the humor and action of the original, MDK2 is a sequel that surpasses the original in every way.

I feel a warning is necessary at this point, however.  MDK2 has some of the hardest and most frustrating jumping puzzles I’ve ever seen.  Not since the original Ninja Gaiden on NES has a game inspired such fluent and poetic use of obscenity in the player.  In fact, if the game was not stunningly beautiful, it might be lying in my front yard having been thrown through my window.  The controls of the game can be difficult to master, but they really are set up in the best possible way.  The buttons are used for movement in the two axes, combining two buttons for diagonals.  The analog thumb pad is used for “free-look”, the directional pad is used to cycle weapons and items, and the left and right triggers are used for jump and fire respectively.  All of this movement can result in some pretty difficult situations.  For instance, flying diagonally up and left while shooting at five different enemies at different heights and trying to land on several levels of platforms.  Overlooking the jumping puzzles, the game play is excellent and each character has a very different style. 

Kurt is the sniper.  He does have the chain gun with unlimited ammo, but his specialty is to snipe from a distance.  There are a variety of sniper rounds for Kurt to use each giving him a different advantage.  Max is the action “hound” (no pun intended…maybe a little pun).  He can wield a weapon in each of his four arms giving him superior firepower to “chew” (sorry) through his enemies.  Playing Max is a bullet-soaked frenzy of ejecting shells and alien gore coating the walls.  Dr. Hawkins introduces the puzzle element to the game.  The Doctor has two inventories, one for each hand, which he combines to make different items or weapons, like a supercharged leaf blower, or the absurd atomic toaster.

By far, the greatest achievements of MDK2 are the visuals.  The environments contain curved-surfaces that rival those of Quake III and the spanning worlds encountered are so marvelous as to be distracting.  Several of the levels feature corridors that open into expansive overwhelming rooms filled with looming spires and interweaving platforms that will leave the player staring for several seconds.  Graphics alone do not a great game make, so luckily for MDK2, there is a plethora of items at the disposal of the heroes.  It was great to see the World’s Most Interesting Bomb make a successful return, accompanied by the Black Hole Bomb, and the greatest item, the decoy (a blow up doll with a stick figure drawing of the hero that the enemies would rather attack).  Each character has his own power-ups that can result in a level of ridiculousness not achieved in a game previous.  In no other game can you control a character that can utilize four mini-guns at the same time while flying via a jetpack.

MDK2 looks to follow in the footsteps of MDK, by being critically heralded, and yet underplayed by the gaming public looking for Tomb Raider 5.  This is just another example of a game too smart for its target audience, and possibly doomed to fail.