"Murder Death Kill? Mother's Day Kiss? Whatever"

It is surprising that the game is virtually unknown, despite rave reviews from magazines and the web. Considering that without this game, the sniper rifle would never have been popular in PC games, it doesn't make sense. Most people who did play it, though, have it on their mind whenever they say ''action game'', and for a good reason, too.

MDK (No, nobody knows what it stands for) chronicles the adventures of Kurt Hectic, a lowly Janitor who is earth's last hope against aliens who are steamrolling entire cities in their city-size Minecrawlers. Six levels of stealth and action awaits you, as you must carefully use your chain gun. your parachute and zoomable sniper scope to survive the odds.

Graphics: 9/10
The first time you boot the game, I guaranteed you'll be impressed by the sleek model of Kurt running and leaping at the title screen. The same quality of detail and animations is preserved throughout the game, with never a frameskip in sight. Considering the game runs on a lowly P-90, the hall of mirrors, a giant area filled with enemies, is nothing short of jaw-dropping. The aliens have hilarious dance and taunt animations, and the sight of a 150 percent power-up running from you is so funny that you can't help but laugh. Some pixelization abound on the floor textures, but you won't notice them most of the time.

Sound: 10/10
Tommy Tallarico studios have done it again, providing us with some of the best music to fit a computer game. The rousing orchestra is perfect as accompaniment to the slaughter of aliens and your running from cover to cover in sneaking mode. The aliens' hoots are so silly it hurts, and the rat-tat-tat of your chaingun, explosions and most importantly, your breath wile in sniper mode keeps you totally immersed.

Gameplay: 8/10
If not for the incessant, annoying and hardly necessary platform jumping, this category would have earned a perfect. Each level is divided into sub-areas, and every sub-area requires a different approach, be it the revolutionary and wholesome sniping, all-out run-and-gunning, dodging hails of bullets or doing bombing runs, every translation to a new area will fill you with excitement and adrenaline that no other game can provide. Add to this wacky weapons with names like World's Most Interesting Bomb (at least the enemies think so) and the World's Smallest Nuclear Explosion which you use to open doors and the zany meter stays at a high level along with the joy graph.

Controls: 9/10
Perfectly configurable and responsive, the only flaw in the release version of the game is you can only save between levels. A patch have since allowed you to save between areas, keeping the frustration low and the challenge high.

Value:
Well, one play through and it's finished - not many secrets, and the six levels aren't very long. Not to mention the lack of FMVs in the game, for some reason. But if it's fun you crave, you really can't get much better than MDK - heck, you'll even have fun guessing what it stands for. Recommended - borrow or steal it if you really cannot be bothered with purchasing, just play it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/22/02, Updated 10/22/02