The game tells the story of its human protagonist, Kurt Hectic, and his attempts to rescue Earth from an alien invasion of gigantic strip mining city-vehicles named 'Minecrawlers', that are not only removing all of earth's natural resources but are also flattening any people and cities that get in their way. The game combined action with a sense of humour. It featured a "sniper mode" that allowed the player to zoom in on enemy targets.
A sequel, MDK2 was developed by BioWare and released by Interplay for the PC and Sega Dreamcast in 2000, and later for the PlayStation 2 (titled MDK 2: Armageddon) in 2001. An enhanced HD remake of MDK2 was released at the end of July 2012.
This Video Game contains examples of:
- Aliens in Cardiff: The targets of the city Minecrawlers are Laguna Beach, Lindfield, Livingston, Kirkaldy and Sparrow Pit.
- All There in the Manual: Most of the plot of this game, as well as the characterizations, for it doesn't show a proper beginning movie. MDK2 also begins with a recap of the story, with some key details from the manual being put in.
- Almighty Janitor: Kurt Hectic, who is literally a janitor who prefers to shirk the eyes of the public.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Can be induced on a room of enemies with "The World's Most Interesting Bomb", which is an otherwise unremarkable grey box they all just walk over to investigate once thrown.
- Attention-Seeking Missile: The "World's Most Interesting Bomb" doesn't look too special, being a grey box, but it seems to enthrall the aliens. If Kurt throws it, all nearby aliens will ignore him to gather around it. Shortly afterwards, it will explode.
- Big Bad: Gunter "Gunta" Glut is the commander leading the Streamriders' onslaught on Earth.
- Bottomless Magazines: Kurt never runs out of his basic chaingun ammo and basic sniper rounds.
- The Cameo: In some places (including at least one secret area), there are some Earthworm Jim heads lying around. Furthermore, if you touch one, a cow will appear and fall on an enemy (or you, if there is none).
- Drop the Cow: See The Cameo above.
- Examine the Live Grenade: Invoked with the World's Most Interesting Bomb, which is designed to catch the attention of as many mooks as possible before blowing right into their faces.
- Excuse Plot: Aliens are attacking, and only Kurt Hectic can save the day!
- The Faceless: Subverted with Kurt, as you can see his face during his Idle Animation, but most people tend not to wait around for long enough to see. Completely Averted in the sequel where you get to see Kurt's face in the cutscenes.
- Fat Bastard: Gunta, the commander of the Streamrider onslaught is awfully plump.
- Fun with Acronyms: Applies to the sequel as well, for neither Shiny nor BioWare have explicitly said what the MDK in the title stands for, but popular theories/jokes include Murder Death Killnote and, in the spirit of the original game's release date, Mother's Day Kisses.
- Seems
Word of God confirmed it does stand for Murder Death Kill, but Executive Meddling forced it out of confirmation for years. - Do note that the names of the main characters are Max, Dr. Hawkins, and Kurt.
- In addition, the title of Kurts original mission in MDK is "Mission: Deliver Kindness".
- Seems
- Gainax Ending: The original releases ended with...a music video of all things. You end with a music video of French musician Billy Ze Kick performing a cover of Non Non Rien N'a Changé, a French song written to protest the Vietnam War. Take that as you will. Later releases, such as the PlayStation version and even the Steam re-release, removed this, but left a sense that it was incomplete as a result.
- Initialism Title: Possibly one of the more famous examples. See Fun with Acronyms, above.
- Knight of Cerebus: Gunter "Gunta" Glut is legitimately more serious than the Big Bad of the sequel.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Hawkins is a benign example - after being ridiculed for his "Flange Orbits" theory, he avoids the whole They Called Me Mad! routine and instead decides to leave Earth and reside in the Jim Dandy until he comes up with definite proof to back up his theories.
- Mook Maker: Some enemies come out of these in most levels. In most cases, they do not have to be destroyed, but doing so makes going through the level easier.
- Mythology Gag: A meta one to another Shiny's game. As noted above in The Cameo not only are there Earthworm Jim's faces lying around, if you collect one a cow falls on one of your enemies. Or you if there are none around.
- Not So Stoic: Kurt's manual bio mentions that he's got some reservations about what he has to do to repel the invasion, but this isn't evident until the ending, where he's screaming in uncharacteristic rage as he guns down enemies; the final shot, after he's made it back to the Jim Dandy, strongly suggests that he's been traumatized by what he endured.
- Skewed Priorities: Gunta will drop doing everything to eat his snack.
- Sprite/Polygon Mix: Just about everything is polygonal except Kurt himself, who's a large digitized sprite (in the main segments; he has a proper model when making planetfall).
- Subsystem Damage: In Sniper Mode, Kurt could target individual locations on enemies for increased damage and possibly crippling them as well. It was even possible to score a One-Hit Kill on some of the bosses using a head shot with certain ammo types.
- Timed Mission: There is a certain amount of time you have to complete the level before everyone dies (as represented on a green line gradually turning red around the health counter). You can still complete the level after time runs out, but it results in Dr. Fluke Hawkins saying you failed. Don't worry, you still go to the next level anyhow.
- Vague Hit Points: When an enemy is hit, their Life Meter is displayed but there's no exact numeric value of how many Hit Points the enemy has, nor how much damage has been dealt.
- A Winner Is You: Some re-releases of this game removed the music video at the end. So we see the Minecrawler base being destroyed, Kurt jumps on the MDK logo and...the credits roll. Fortunately, MDK2 gives us something closer to a proper ending in its recap of this game.
