MDK2
Encyclopedia
MDK2 is a video game and sequel
to the third-person shooter
, MDK
. The original MDK was developed by Shiny Entertainment
and released in 1997 by Interplay
. The sequel was developed by BioWare
.
MDK2 was originally released for the Dreamcast and PC
in 2000. It was later revised and released for the PlayStation 2
as MDK2: Armageddon. The main difference between the PlayStation 2 and the other two versions is the ability to select the difficulty level.
A remake of this game for Nintendo's WiiWare
was released on May 9th, 2011. A high-definition
(HD) remastered version for the PC, featuring new models, textures and music, has been released on October 12 2011.
Kurt's levels emphasize the use of his coil suit and Ribbon parachute which allows him to take lifts off updrafts and glide gently from platform to platform. They also focus heavily on his built-in Sniper Scope which allows him to launch projectiles at foes, both directly and indirectly, using the various sniper mortar and rifle options. Kurt's puzzles often involve complex sniper shots with different munitions to strike "lock-balls", which often control doors or barriers. The levels he features include some of the larger, more baffling maps. Kurt's boss fights typically are not straightforward, and require the player to often snipe or shoot certain locations on the boss itself to damage it.
, which allows several mid-air refueling challenges. Max's levels are often the most brutal, often involving massive gunfights. Having double the health of the other characters, Max is very susceptible to being attacked from all directions, but has a large amount of weapons scattered throughout his stages. Unlike the other two, Max doesn't have to look for any little objects, items, or odd out-of-the-ordinary things that the others must deal with. Max's bosses tend to be, like his levels, quite straightforward.
. A frail old man, he usually sends Kurt and Max into dangerous situations, but is repeatedly forced to go to their rescue himself.
Dr. Hawkins's levels are the most unusual and comical, focusing as they do on finding combinations of items rather than fire-power. Objects found are added into two separate inventories, and the player can experiment in pairing them, producing either new objects or confused comments from the character. The doctor does get involved in fights however, either using an atomic toaster (which propels radioactive toast) or occasionally ingesting plutonium, which causes him to transform into a Mr Hyde/Hulk style creature, capable of dishing out and taking much greater levels of violence. His levels are however focused more on puzzle-solving.
Due to his weak strength, the Doc has a much harder time bypassing enemies than Kurt and Max, but he encounters considerably less powerful bosses and enemies.
After a series of rescue missions in which one protagonist saves another only to be caught himself, all three find themselves on Shwang Shwing’s home world, Swizzle Firma. Kurt discovers that it is the ruler of Swizzle Firma, Emperor Zizzy Ballooba, who is behind the attacks on Earth in the previous game. Max discovers that the Emperor plans to launch a doomsday device at the Earth. All three, when reunited, invade the Emperor’s castle. Inside his throne room, Emperor Zizzy Ballooba admits to the heroes that he’s only trying to destroy the Earth for his own amusement. A battle then ensues between the three heroes and the Emperor; in the end, the Emperor is killed.
The ending sequence depends on which character the player chose to use for the final battle. Kurt resumes his duties as janitor of Doctor Hawkins’ space station, as he is perturbed by the idea of being a celebrity. Max takes the throne of Swizzle Firma and forms an alliance with Earth. Doctor Hawkins is welcomed back to Earth, no longer shunned by his peers, but turns out to be genuinely mad.
for the original MDK, the MDK2 soundtrack is considerably more modern. It was composed by Jesper Kyd
, Albert Olson, and Raymond Watts of the band Pig
. Most of the music falls under the category of electronica, specifically bigbeat, breakbeat
, and drum and bass
.
The Dreamcast edition allows the user to access all the music tracks from the game including the sound effect background tracks using the Dreamcast CD player function. There is also a folder of concept art on the Dreamcast version available when read by a PC.
platform through its WiiWare
service to be developed by Beamdog, which was founded by ex-members of BioWare and is also an online gaming distribution site, much like Steam
. The WiiWare version has slightly updated in terms of graphics, but more in the suit of gameplay. Players are able to control each character whose style of gameplay has been updated to be more different than each others and have been vamped to use the Wii Remote and the Wii Nunchuck. It was released on May 9th, 2011.
(HD) remastered version of MDK2 for Windows, featuring a complete overhaul of the graphics engine, high-definition models, textures and remastered, music tracks. This game also features difficulty tweaks from the WiiWare
version. MDK2 HD was released exclusively on Beamdog on October 12, 2011.
has announced that it will restart its in-house development studio and has plans to develop a MDK sequel among other classic Interplay IPs if Interplay can secure financing. GameSpot stated that among the projects Interplay has said it wants to develop are sequels to Earthworm Jim
, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
, Descent
, and MDK, provided it can find the financing. Also, Interplay has confirmed a two-pronged growth strategy which will see the company leveraging its portfolio of gaming properties to create sequels. Among those mentioned was the MDK sequel.
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to the third-person shooter
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
, MDK
MDK (video game)
MDK is a third-person shooter game developed by Shiny Entertainment and released in 1997 by Playmates Interactive Entertainment in North America and Interplay Entertainment in Europe for the PC, Macintosh, and subsequently PlayStation. It was one of the first PC games to require a Pentium or...
. The original MDK was developed by Shiny Entertainment
Shiny Entertainment
Shiny Entertainment was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, Southern California, and the creator of several popular titles such as Earthworm Jim, MDK, Sacrifice and The Matrix: Path of Neo. Shiny was founded by David Perry in October 1993...
and released in 1997 by Interplay
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
. The sequel was developed by BioWare
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...
.
MDK2 was originally released for the Dreamcast and PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
in 2000. It was later revised and released for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
as MDK2: Armageddon. The main difference between the PlayStation 2 and the other two versions is the ability to select the difficulty level.
A remake of this game for Nintendo's WiiWare
WiiWare
WiiWare is a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications can only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel under the WiiWare section...
was released on May 9th, 2011. A high-definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
(HD) remastered version for the PC, featuring new models, textures and music, has been released on October 12 2011.
Protagonists and gameplay
Like the original, MDK2 features three protagonists: Kurt Hectic, an ordinary janitor and reluctant hero, Max, a mechanical six-legged dog, and Doctor Fluke Hawkins, Max's creator and all-round eccentric scientist. Unlike in the first game, the player is put in control of all three characters in turns, with each delivering significantly different gameplay and puzzle experiences.Kurt Hectic
Kurt, the main hero of MDK, is a janitor for Dr. Fluke Hawkins. He would rather live peacefully, but the doc forces him to fight both alien invasions. Kurt's not one to abandon his friends, but at the same time he'd much rather be sitting back or mopping a floor.Kurt's levels emphasize the use of his coil suit and Ribbon parachute which allows him to take lifts off updrafts and glide gently from platform to platform. They also focus heavily on his built-in Sniper Scope which allows him to launch projectiles at foes, both directly and indirectly, using the various sniper mortar and rifle options. Kurt's puzzles often involve complex sniper shots with different munitions to strike "lock-balls", which often control doors or barriers. The levels he features include some of the larger, more baffling maps. Kurt's boss fights typically are not straightforward, and require the player to often snipe or shoot certain locations on the boss itself to damage it.
Max
Max is a robotic six-legged dog with a major attraction to firepower and a sharp wit. He stands on his two back legs and can equip and shoot up to four guns at once. Furthermore, in many segments, Max is outfitted with a jet packJet pack
Jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack, and similar names are various types of devices, usually worn on the back, that are propelled by jets of escaping gases so as to allow a single user to fly....
, which allows several mid-air refueling challenges. Max's levels are often the most brutal, often involving massive gunfights. Having double the health of the other characters, Max is very susceptible to being attacked from all directions, but has a large amount of weapons scattered throughout his stages. Unlike the other two, Max doesn't have to look for any little objects, items, or odd out-of-the-ordinary things that the others must deal with. Max's bosses tend to be, like his levels, quite straightforward.
Dr Fluke Hawkins
Dr. Hawkins is a very eccentric scientist, who has voluntarily exiled himself from earth and into his dog-shaped spaceship, the Jim Dandy. In the epilogue, he is revealed to be a full-fledged archetypal mad scientistMad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
. A frail old man, he usually sends Kurt and Max into dangerous situations, but is repeatedly forced to go to their rescue himself.
Dr. Hawkins's levels are the most unusual and comical, focusing as they do on finding combinations of items rather than fire-power. Objects found are added into two separate inventories, and the player can experiment in pairing them, producing either new objects or confused comments from the character. The doctor does get involved in fights however, either using an atomic toaster (which propels radioactive toast) or occasionally ingesting plutonium, which causes him to transform into a Mr Hyde/Hulk style creature, capable of dishing out and taking much greater levels of violence. His levels are however focused more on puzzle-solving.
Due to his weak strength, the Doc has a much harder time bypassing enemies than Kurt and Max, but he encounters considerably less powerful bosses and enemies.
Story
As the three protagonists of the game, Kurt, Max, and Doctor Hawkins, celebrate their victory from the previous game, they discover that there is one remaining minecrawler in Canada. Kurt is sent to destroy it. After its destruction, Kurt is captured by an alien figure named Shwang Shwing. Shwang then also captures Max, as he boards the alien’s ship, prompting Doctor Hawkins to come to Max’s aid.After a series of rescue missions in which one protagonist saves another only to be caught himself, all three find themselves on Shwang Shwing’s home world, Swizzle Firma. Kurt discovers that it is the ruler of Swizzle Firma, Emperor Zizzy Ballooba, who is behind the attacks on Earth in the previous game. Max discovers that the Emperor plans to launch a doomsday device at the Earth. All three, when reunited, invade the Emperor’s castle. Inside his throne room, Emperor Zizzy Ballooba admits to the heroes that he’s only trying to destroy the Earth for his own amusement. A battle then ensues between the three heroes and the Emperor; in the end, the Emperor is killed.
The ending sequence depends on which character the player chose to use for the final battle. Kurt resumes his duties as janitor of Doctor Hawkins’ space station, as he is perturbed by the idea of being a celebrity. Max takes the throne of Swizzle Firma and forms an alliance with Earth. Doctor Hawkins is welcomed back to Earth, no longer shunned by his peers, but turns out to be genuinely mad.
Soundtrack and disc bonuses
Unlike Todd Dennis' symphonic, movie-like soundtrack produced by Tommy TallaricoTommy Tallarico
Tommy Tallarico is an American video game music composer and musician. He is best known as the co-creator of the concert series Video Games Live...
for the original MDK, the MDK2 soundtrack is considerably more modern. It was composed by Jesper Kyd
Jesper Kyd
Jesper Jakobson Kyd is a Danish video game and film score composer.Kyd combines sounds of dark ambient, electronic and symphonic music and has won many awards. He is also notable for his early work in the Amiga demoscene, where he composed a large amount of music in his teenage years, in...
, Albert Olson, and Raymond Watts of the band Pig
PIG (band)
Raymond Watts is the founding and sole member of the post-industrial music project PIG, sometimes written as '....
. Most of the music falls under the category of electronica, specifically bigbeat, breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
, and drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
.
The Dreamcast edition allows the user to access all the music tracks from the game including the sound effect background tracks using the Dreamcast CD player function. There is also a folder of concept art on the Dreamcast version available when read by a PC.
MDK2 Wii
On June 24, 2010, Interplay announced that it was planning to release MDK2 to the WiiWii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
platform through its WiiWare
WiiWare
WiiWare is a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications can only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel under the WiiWare section...
service to be developed by Beamdog, which was founded by ex-members of BioWare and is also an online gaming distribution site, much like Steam
Steam
Steam is the technical term for water vapor, the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. In common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of cooler air...
. The WiiWare version has slightly updated in terms of graphics, but more in the suit of gameplay. Players are able to control each character whose style of gameplay has been updated to be more different than each others and have been vamped to use the Wii Remote and the Wii Nunchuck. It was released on May 9th, 2011.
MDK2 HD
Overhaul Games, a division of Beamdog, has developed a high-definitionHigh-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
(HD) remastered version of MDK2 for Windows, featuring a complete overhaul of the graphics engine, high-definition models, textures and remastered, music tracks. This game also features difficulty tweaks from the WiiWare
WiiWare
WiiWare is a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications can only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel under the WiiWare section...
version. MDK2 HD was released exclusively on Beamdog on October 12, 2011.
Sequel
On November 13, 2007, GameSpot reported that Interplay EntertainmentInterplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
has announced that it will restart its in-house development studio and has plans to develop a MDK sequel among other classic Interplay IPs if Interplay can secure financing. GameSpot stated that among the projects Interplay has said it wants to develop are sequels to Earthworm Jim
Earthworm Jim
Earthworm Jim is a run and gun platform video game starring an earthworm named Jim in a robotic suit who battles evil. Created by Doug TenNapel and designed by David Perry, the game was developed by Shiny Entertainment and Playmates Interactive Entertainment, released by Sega for the Mega...
, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is an action role-playing game developed by Snowblind Studios for the PlayStation 2; later released for the Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance. It was re-released on the PlayStation 2 as a Greatest Hits title...
, Descent
Descent (video game)
Descent is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Parallax Software and released by Interplay Entertainment Corp. in 1995. The game features six degrees of freedom gameplay and garnered several expansion packs...
, and MDK, provided it can find the financing. Also, Interplay has confirmed a two-pronged growth strategy which will see the company leveraging its portfolio of gaming properties to create sequels. Among those mentioned was the MDK sequel.