MDK2

as Dr. Hawkins in MDK2. Note the importance of inventory items in this mode; the player can select any item from the left inventory and any item from the right inventory and try to combine them. For the most part, MDK2 is a run-and-gun third-person shooter. However, unlike the original game, MDK2 features three player characters, each with their own unique set of abilities, skills, weaknesses, and style of gameplay. As such, the general game mechanics are more varied than in the first game, with the inclusion of more platform and puzzle-based elements than before. Except for the last level of the game, which can be played with any of the three playable characters, the player cannot choose which character to use in any given level; each level can only be played with a specific character, and as such, the level design of each level is specifically geared towards that characters' abilities. ;Kurt Hectic Kurt's levels play very similarly to the previous game. As before, the player must frequently use his "ribbon chute", a parachute contained within his outfit that can be used indefinitely. The chute allows Kurt to make long jumps, survive long falls, and utilize updrafts. It deploys immediately, and retracts automatically when not being used. Kurt's weaponry includes, but is not limited to, grenades, decoy dummies and cloaking shields. Kurt's main defense is his "Coil Suit," a skin-tight armor made of a Kevlar-like material. His weapon is a chain gun, which is attached to his arm, and carries unlimited ammo. His other weapon is a sniper gun, which is created when he detaches his chain gun from his arm and mounts it onto his helmet. The sniper weapon can zoom up to a mile, However, when Kurt is in sniper mode, he is only able to strafe, he cannot move forwards or backwards, and can thus be easily targeted by enemies. His gameplay is focused on high-impact firepower; standing on his two back legs, he can equip and shoot up to four guns at once. He has access to numerous weapons, such an uzis, shotguns, Magnums and gatling guns. Ammo is limited for all weaponry except his default Magnum. He is also able to wear two different types of jet pack. The standard jet pack uses fuel and when empty, must be refuelled at a fuelling pump. The atomic jetpack does not use fuel, instead refilling automatically when not in use. Most of his gameplay revolves around combining objects to create new objects, which in turn allow him to proceed through the level. He has two independent inventories, one for his right hand and one for his left. As such, each hand can hold a different item at the same time. Items from one inventory can be combined with items from the other, but items within the same inventory cannot be combined. ==Plot==

The game begins moments after the conclusion of MDK, with Kurt, Max, and Dr. Hawkins celebrating their victory over Gunther Glut, and thus saving Earth from the alien invasion. However, in the midst of their celebrations, they discover a remaining Minecrawler heading towards Edmonton. Kurt destroys it, but as he awaits to return to the Jim Dandy space station, he is taken prisoner by a massive alien. Meanwhile, on board the Dandy, Hawkins discovers that communications with Kurt are being jammed by a nearby alien ship. Max heads to the other ship to free up the communications. However, upon doing so, he too is taken prisoner by the same alien. The alien then contacts Hawkins on the Dandy, telling him his name is Shwang Shwing, and the invasion of Earth is not over. Shwing sends a group of aliens onto the Dandy, but Hawkins is able to fight them off and teleport Kurt back to the ship. He then sends Kurt to the alien ship to save Max. However, shortly after Kurt's departure, Hawkins is taken prisoner by the aliens still on the Dandy. Kurt frees Max, and together they fight Shwing. During the battle, they learn Hawkins has been taken prisoner. Shwing initiates the auto destruct sequence, and jumps into an energy stream, followed by Kurt, whilst Max heads back to the Dandy to save Hawkins. Upon destroying a robotic dog constructed by the aliens, Max frees Hawkins, and uses a device on the dog to open a portal into which he heads. Meanwhile, Hawkins remains behind to take back control of the Dandy. After finally ridding the station of aliens, he finds the co-ordinates of their home world and sets course. Meanwhile, Shwing emerges from the energy stream on the home world, Swizzle Firma, with Kurt following close behind. Kurt destroys his ship, and an injured Shwing tells Kurt the attacks on Earth have been ordered by Emperor Zizzy Ballooba. Meanwhile, Max emerges from the portal on Swizzle Firma, and learns Ballooba plans to launch a doomsday device at Earth which will obliterate the entire planet. Max kills Shwing as he attempts to launch the device, and then destroys the device itself. He then meets up with Kurt and heads to Ballooba's palace. Meanwhile, Hawkins pilots the Dandy to Swizzle Firma and contacts his colleagues. Aiming the station's guns at the palace, he attempts to teleport Kurt and Max back to the Dandy, but accidentally teleports himself to the planet, and so heads to meet with Kurt and Max. The three storm Ballooba's palace. Upon confronting Ballooba, he admits he's only trying to destroy Earth for his own amusement, because, since he mastered space and time, he has become bored. A battle ensues between the three heroes and Ballooba, with the heroes emerging victorious. The closing sequence depends on which character the player uses for the final battle. Kurt resumes his duties as janitor of the Dandy, perturbed by the idea of becoming a celebrity. Max becomes the new emperor of Swizzle Firma, forming an interplanetary alliance with Earth. Hawkins is welcomed back to Earth, no longer shunned by his peers, and gets to work on his lifelong ambition - creating an atomic robot zombie army. ==Development==

Immediately after the critical and commercial success of the original MDK, publishers Interplay wanted to begin work on a sequel. They approached Nick Bruty, who had written and co-designed the first game for Shiny Entertainment. However, Bruty was reluctant to go straight into another MDK game, explaining "I hadn't liked rushing from Earthworm Jim to its sequel without a creative break, and I felt the game suffered because of that." In any case, his new development studio, Planet Moon Studios, was already working on Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Bruty asked Interplay if they would consider waiting until he was finished on Giants before beginning on MDK2, but they chose to press on without him, handing development over to BioWare. MDK2 was officially announced on October 18, 1998, when Interplay confirmed BioWare was developing the sequel for Dreamcast and Windows, using its own game engine, the Omen Engine. At the time, BioWare was thought by some to be an odd choice to take over the franchise, as they were still a relatively young company (having been founded in 1995), and had yet to release their breakout game, ''Baldur's Gate, which was in the final stages of development. Greg Zeschuk, co-founder of BioWare, stated "our aim with MDK2'' is to explore new directions and expand beyond the constrictive environments established in other 3D games." , co-writer, co-producer and co-designer of MDK2 In July 1999, IGN interviewed Zeschuk. He emphasised the development team's relative inexperience with 3D action games was not a handicap; Addressing the similarities between MDK2 and the original game, he explained "The key characteristics we retained in MDK2 were the humor and the light-hearted style of the game. The reasoning is pretty straightforward - the humor and style of MDK set it apart." Unlike most other PC games released at the time, the PC version of MDK2 requires an OpenGL-compliant graphics accelerator to run. the PC version of MDK2 also support for the EAX Version 2.0 3D positional audio technology by Creative Labs, as well as Hardware T&L technology found in GeForce 256/GeForce 2 series and Radeon R100 series out of the box. Faulkner and Randall explained the game was still utilizing the Omen Engine, with Faulkner saying of programming for the PlayStation 2 "The PS2 is certainly good at pushing polys, no doubt about that. And the two vector processors can handle the physics and geometry we have with room to spare. The trick is the video memory, mainly. All of the cool visual features, like a high-res framebuffer, FSAA and high-res textures all take a lot of video memory. It's a real juggling act trying to get it to do all that at once." Speaking of his earlier problems with video memory, Faulkner said "the video memory situation has improved dramatically since last time. The problem was that there was too little video memory to fit all our textures, and the machine can't use a texture unless it's specifically in video memory. What we've found since then is that the PS2 has enough bus bandwidth to transfer each texture from main memory to video memory as it's needed. That's on the order of hundreds of MB per second. We hadn't anticipated that the PS2 had that kind of brute horsepower on its bus. We had to reorient our thinking after that. So now we have almost more texture memory than we know what to do with." Wii port and MDK2 HD On June 25, 2010, Interplay announced it was partnering with Beamdog to release a port of MDK2 for the Wii through WiiWare, and a HD remastered version for Windows through Beamdog. The Wii version features brighter graphics, and the game has been optimised for control with the Wii Remote and Wii Nunchuk. Essentially a port of MDK2: Armageddon, the game features no new content. Due to the limited space available for the title on WiiWare, the audio has been compressed, and graphically, shadows have been removed to maintain a constant framerate. The game was released on May 9, 2011. The HD version was developed by Overhaul Games, although several of the original developers consulted on the project. Programmer, co-producer and co-designer of the original game, and COO of Overhaul Games, Cameron Tofer stated, "MDK2 holds a special place in all our hearts – the team was really close, and it was the first time many of us were able to create an action game at BioWare. We think MDK2 HD has the sort of visuals, humor and great gameplay that can draw in not only existing fans of the game, but a brand new audience that just wasn't able to experience its magic the first time around." MDK2 HD was originally released exclusively on Beamdog in October 2011, and was later released on Steam in July 2012. == Reception ==

MDK2 received mainly positive reviews across all systems. The Dreamcast version holds an aggregate score of 88% on GameRankings, based on twenty-six reviews. PC Eurogamers Tom Bramwell scored the PC version 9 out of 10, praising its fidelity to the original, but also lauding BioWare's willingness to try new things. He called the graphics "simply breathtaking," and concluded, "With so many interesting things to do and unique puzzle-driven gameplay, the fact that it still harbours a linear style of play can be discounted to a certain extent. Reinvigorate your childhood fantasies of living in a cartoon and pick up MDK2 - there ain't much better in the genre." PlayStation 2 IGNs Chris Carle scored the PlayStation 2 version 8.7, giving it an "Editor's Choice" award. Although he felt the graphics weren't as good as the Dreamcast version, he did feel the particle effects were better. He praised the sound, voice acting, controls and level design, arguing "MDK 2: Armageddon is a great action title that is certainly worth twenty hours of your time." Wii Nintendo World Reports Jared Rosenberg scored the Wii version 8.5 out of 10, praising its use of the Wii's controls, but criticizing the graphics, writing "It is obvious that the game is over 10 years old. Character and enemy models are noticeably low polygon, and the textures seem muddy and N64-like at times." However, he concluded "MDK2 is a well-designed action platformer that will take quite a bit of time to get through its 10 levels. Varied play mechanics keep the shooter fresh and the humorous story should occasionally put a smile on your face. It can be challenging and at times frustrating, but overall, it is a fun romp." Nintendo Lifes Jon Wahlgren scored it 8 out of 10, calling it "one of the strongest titles yet to hit WiiWare." He was somewhat critical of the "frustrating" platform sections, and found Hawkins' levels "a tedious detour from what makes the game enjoyable." However, he praised the game's variety and sense of humour. He concluded "MDK2 is at its best when it goes nuts with large, crazy enemies and bullets galore through its strange environments, but not so much when it comes to puzzle-solving or platforming." ==Cancelled sequel==

In 2006, Interplay revealed it was planning on developing an MMOG set in the Fallout universe. However, the project was estimated at $75 million, money unavailable to the company. As such, in an effort to secure the capital, they explained in papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 13, 2007, that they planned to leverage their stable franchises "through sequels and various development and publishing arrangements." Specifically, they announced they were restarting their in-house development studio, the money to do so coming from the sale of the Fallout franchise to Bethesda Softworks, from whom they planned to license the Fallout IP for the MMOG. They specifically mentioned plans for sequels to Descent, Earthworm Jim 2, MDK2 and ''Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II''. In 2008, Interplay confirmed a "two-pronged growth strategy" which would see the company leveraging its portfolio of gaming properties to create sequels and raise money for the Fallout MMOG. The same four games were again mentioned, with CEO Herve Caen stating "2007 set the foundation for our growth strategy. Going forward, we have the vision, unique intellectual property, and low debt and operational costs to help us pursue financing for our various projects." However, nothing further was heard about any of the possible sequels, which have presumably all been cancelled. In 2010, following the release of Mass Effect 2, IGN asked BioWare's Ray Muzyka if they had any plans to make MDK3, to which he replied "You'll have to ask Interplay, they have the license for that." A poster for the game featuring Dr Hawkins can be seen in the 2001 TV movie How to Make a Monster. == References ==