The developers were very creative with how they used so few polygons to build a world that memorable. I even found the controls to still be enjoyable.

Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

My dad brought this home back in 1997. Randomly. "I thought the cover looked cool, maybe you like it." he said. I was very young. I loved it. One of the first games in my gaming history I fully played through and understood the game mechanics. I still replay it from time to time. Pure nostalgia.

As someone who played it back in the day, let me answer that question in a way that leaves no room for doubt: no, it wasn't good. It was BRILLIANT!

I thought this game was a fever dream of mine. I remember my brothers playing it on their old CRT monitor.

This shit blew my mind as a kid. Was one of the first times I truly felt immersed in 3rd person. Dreamcast was lit.

This game was so mind-blowing to 4-year-old me it gave me an epileptic seizure while I watched my dad played it lol. One of my earliest memories is watching him do the disguise section with the little robot you hop into. My dad kept the name of this game hidden from me for decades, thinking I'd die or something if I played/watched it again, but I've had little snippets of this game running through my mind ever since. I stumbled upon a different KZfaq video about this game only a few years ago, and that was how I rediscovered MDK. I recognised it instantly from the thumbnail alone-- that's how deeply ingrained it is in my noggin. Sounds like I'll have fun trying to get this to run on my current hardware, but I'll have to play through this game myself sometime. I've only ever watched my dad playing it in the late 90s, and a few videos on the subject!

For anyone wondering about the cannon section on the 2nd level at 20:51, it looks like that's a bug for the Playstation version. What's happening here, is you're supposed to get stuck on the cannon, and when you shoot, the cannnon also shoots. I believe it's on the 3rd shot, the cannon malfunctions and goes flying down-range with you on board, smashing through the back wall and placing you into the next arena. I've beaten this game dozens of time on PC and never had that issue.

I’m not sure the meaning of MDK was ever a mystery. I clearly remember a staff member in PC World telling me it stood for “murder, death, kill” back in ‘99.

This game freaked me out as a kid. Despite the humorous plot the game itself has such a bizarre and nightmare aesthetic that it repelled me

I thought this game was some fevered dream from my childhood. Thank you for unlocking the surreal reality it actually existed!

The game was amazing ON THE PC. It looked way better than on the ps1. And, yes, it was an amazing game, I played it as a kid and loved every single bit of it. Great times.

Murder Death Kill is such a 90s time stamp. Simple level design, but everything just worked. I'll never forget how the game gave you the Worlds Smallest Nuke within 5 minutes, and the gritty industrial feeling of the game and soundtrack. Thanks for the memories JSH

So many great memories playing this game. What a true, unadulterated gem.

It was one of my first games, and i have to say, 1997-1999 was a glorious time for games. The technical possibilities where there to give live to some wonderful exotic and strange worlds. Is it coincidence that my other first games where basically as weird as MDK? "SubCulture", an underwater world in a miniature submarine where cigarette butts where as large as your sub and could be collected to barter with, "POD" a sci-fi racing game with the most obscure and awesome tracks till today, "Trespasser" a first person shooter/adventure game with (totally weird) physics, no HUD, a tattoo on the boob of your protagonist and dinosaurs, .... just to name a few. it was an awesome time with so crazy ideas and deep athmosphere in games.

This is by far one of my all-time favorite games. Everything about the world, from your own arsenal to each individual level, is so incredibly unique, I still haven't seen another game that comes even close to the adventure this was!

I'm pretty sure that I read in a PC games magazine in the 90s that MDK originally stood for "Murder Death Kill" until they changed it at release to the innitials of the main characters. I didn't think about the game for at least 20 years and this was the first thing that came to my mind.

For those who don't know, in the original PC version of MDK, there actually was a bizarre music video ending by the French artist "Billy Ze Kick" (Or BZK for short). The song that would play in the music video was called "Non Non Rien N'a Changé" and it was a cover of an older song by another French group called "Les Poppys". Here's some fun facts: 1) Billy Ze Kick's version of "Non Non Rien N'a Changé" can be found on their 1996 album "Paniac" and it's the same version that can be found on MDK. Also on that same album, the lead singer (Nathalie Cousin) did a duet with an unknown French artist at the time called "Matthieu Chedid" (Or -M- as he goes by in the music industry). Nowadays, Matthieu Chedid is regarded as one of the most legendary artists in all of France. 2) Billy Ze Kick is one of the more weirder and stranger bands to come out of France. In their home country, Billy Ze Kick is mostly known for their songs "Mangez-Moi" and "OCB" back when the band's full name was "Billy Ze Kick et Les Gamins en Folie". For anyone who enjoyed the song in the original MDK ending or likes to listen to weird and experimental music, I highly recommend listening to Billy Ze Kick's first 2 albums. Their like a mix between Army of Lovers in terms of the experimentation and GWAR in terms of the humour and lyrics.

The visuals on this game are impressive even today. The neons clashing with the black, polygon structures and organic textures, it's just amazing!

I loved MDK. So creative, such varied gameplay, and so many laughs. One of my all-time favourites.

I love how you are STILL commiting to making the Patreons text small so it all fits on 1 page . Love my Strife Hayes continuity !

It may be an oldie but wow it was ahead of its time when it was released, thanks for the nostalgia trip down memory lane

I had the first level of this game as a demo. I’ve barely thought of it since the late nineties. I remember it being so different and weird (and fun). There was a brief period in the late nineties where this art style was kind of trending - the show “Lex” comes to mind. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!

I loved MDK. Favorite bits were the sniper cams and The World's Smallest Nuclear Explosion. Also the protagonist being named "Kurt" tickled my risibilities a bunch, for some reason. Thanks for your wonderful retrospective on this super-sweet bit of gaming strangeness.

Minor correction Josh, first of all great vid like always, but the timer on the loss of a city is actually on your HUD. It's the green/red ring around your health. That represents the population of the city you're trying to save on that level. I didn't learn of this for many years myself. Just thought I'd point it out. Hope you have a nice day.

I think the 'forest' room and the weird coloful 'childs bedroom' are the aliens recreating human environments to keep the improsoned, kinda like a zoo.

This game is one of my best memories as a gamer. Just as good as playing the shareware version of Doom or Dune 2 for the first time. The sniper mode, the dummy, the mix between dark areas and psychedelic mirrors, the weird sense of humor... I never experienced something quite like it. Thank you Shiny Entertainment, thank you Nick Bruty and David Perry.

Ahhh this takes me back! I have fond memories of playing this for hours on my grandparents Mac back in the very early 2000s. I was never able to get further than the first few levels but I still loved it! These days people seem to only talk about its sequel, but the original will always hold a special place in my heart.

This game still holds up imo because of how abstract and surreal it is

The GOG version with nGlide is the most beautiful one. It allows you to use 512x512 textures without filtering and gives the game a detailed and gritty feel that raises the surrealism to 11. Digital Foundry featured it a few years ago.

I played this game A LOT and I still remember the sound design being a real standout part of the game. That apple crunching sound effect for some of the pickups especially.

MDK was a GOAT of it's time. Played countless hours on my AMD K6-2 64MB SDRAM..

Thank you for covering so much of my childhood in your JSP videos. Truly a kindred spirit from across the ocean.

I have had images of this game floating around in my head since i was an actual toddler. It wasnt until today that i realized this wasnt just a weird fever dream of mine, and it actually existed. This is insane, i never thought i’d figure out where it was from, and here i am watching a video on it mere DAYS after having another dream with these visuals. Im just… in awe Ever since my dad passed away, it has sort of eaten away at me that i couldnt just ask him about it (im pretty sure i played this game with him as a kid), i know that sounds dumb, but it really is the little things that make you remember how much you miss someone.

I loved MDK and MDKII. It changed how I went down water slides for the rest of my life. Great video. Thanks for covering all the extras.

Holy crap... I completely forgot about this game until this moment. I very vaguely remember playing the game as a kid on the PC (with cheats I think) and only remembered it due to the parachute. Thanks for dusting this memory off for me.

Oh hell yeah, finally revisiting this hidden gem, hope it isn't long before MDK2 get reviewed too

oh my god you just unlocked one of my earliest memories of gaming. I remember playing MDK2 and knew it was real but never knew the name. Thank you Josh

OMFG thank you soooooo much guys. I was trying to remeber a game I plyed only ONCE in a Dagestani internet cafe back in 2001 !!!

I remember following the development and release of this one in video game magazines back when video game magazines were a thing. Absolutely everyone knew that MDK stood for Murder Death Kill even before the game was released, and it was a abundantly clear that any time anyone involved in its development claimed it stood for something like Max, Dr Fluke Hawkings and Kurt, they were being coy for PR purposes. It was exactly like people from iD Software being coy about what BFG stood for. EDIT: I also remember an interview where someone from the development team were discussing the sniper scope, and they claimed the impetus was that at the time every shooter game was trying to have the biggest, most powerful gun ever, and they realized they couldn't chase that without making a game that felt like every other shooter game, so they instead decided to pursue making a shooter game with the most accurate gun ever. Ironically I never actually played it. We were poor, and video game magazines were a lot cheaper than video game consoles.

Just got MDK2 to play on my PS2, what a coincidence ❤

The interesting bomb segment cracks me up, but it's also really impressive when developers put a feature in for one use only; keeps the novelty and makes it memorable and that's worth it.

Did you know you can snipe the first boss by shooting three sniper grenades at his head? You even get the headshot animation. One of the best games I played as a child. Still playing through once a year through Good Old Games.

I just wanted you to know that you make some of the best videos on KZfaq. You have an amazing style that blends the art of storytelling and information delivery together. Keep up the amazing work!

Loved the snowboarding sections with the spy movie style music and the grunts dressing like police yelling at you. Also the coil suit is an amazing example of super clothing that is also different from the usual types.

The Asylum level theme you were questioning is inspired by Mancini. The most well known themes Mancini wrote are "Baby Elephant Walk" and "Powerhouse", the second movement of which was used by Loonie Tunes during the sequences that involve machinery, factories, or automated conveyor belts. The snippet you played reminds me of Powerhouse, but the first and third movements.

I never saw this game in motion. The screenshots in gamepro were baffling to my child mind. Thanks for making this video!

At the time it was first released on PC the most impressive thing was the sniper zoom. Even on pretty average systems you had fluent movement, while being able to zoom in on a scene virtually a kilometer away! Unseen without severe performance hits, before. The devs said they basically started with creating their own game engine, then the actual game. At that time it was simply mind blowing. 😂

I didn’t quite understood this game as a kid and i was unable to finish it because it felt too weird and uncomprehensible for me at the time. But man it was memorable, the cow part just blew my mind lol

Wonder if Parasite Eve or Legend of Dragoon will make it into the series one day

I only played the game ONCE as a kid…and it still remains locked in my memory from 25+ yrs ago.

After all these years, I'm happy my guess at what MDK meant was correct. Thank you!

MDK was a pack-in with my Force Feedback joystick back in the day, so I will forever associate it with the absolutely absurd level of violence that joystick threw itself around with - especially when you got hurt! Thanks for the retrospective :)

The artstyle of this game is pure inventive gritty late 90s goodness. Really reminds me of weird sci fi illustrations from anthology magazines of that era. Shiny entertainment for a brief moment made the best of it with creative, versatile artists; you can 100% see that reflected in games like Sacrifice, MDK1, Messiah. The fact that the games are more blocky so that textures act more like painted illustrations really helps it. Once you get to Enter the Matrix that is completely gone though, RIP Shiny.

Remember seeing this on the shelves back in the day, the cover looked really cool.

The Demolition Man reference was obvious at the time. It's funny how ephemeral culture can be sometimes. Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Hey man I just wanted you to know that these videos are some of my absolute favorites on the platform. Informative, nostalgic, good tempo. Thanks man.

At this point I'm convinced Josh is sneaking into my room and writing down the names of all the games on the shelves. Seriously, I have every single one of the games reviewed on this channel sitting across from me as I type. It's eerie.

Core memory unlocked. I remember my family friends playing this on PC way back in the day. Just forgot what it was called

If I remember it correctly this was one of the games that fell in the sweetspot where 3D acceleration patches where delivered afterwards. Like, you would play and enjoy it and then suddenly with a patch it looked a thousand times better.

26:54 I think the inspiration for both tracks might be the Breakfast Machine (From "Pee Wee's Big Adventure") or something similar.

A note about the ending, as per tv tropes: "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." There's also apparently a patch for the steam version that implements the fixes applied to the GoG version AND adds the ending back in.

This video has awaken a long dormant memory within me. I remember this game on my Dreamcast demo disk.

Holy shit, this is one of my first PC games that I played to the end credits! I still remember the french music in the end. Lots of nostalgia!

This is one of the first PC games I remember seeing my Dad play when I was a kid but I forgot the name of it. Can't ask him anymore so this was quite the nostalgia trip. Ill have to play this.

My very first PS1 game. It was a confusing and puzzling game since I had no video game experience. What a way to start video game hobby isn't it? However, it is was a great achivement to finish the game as I was playing together with my dad to solve puzzles and pass though tough levels. Now looking back to it, the game still holds up in terms of being fun and unique.

thanks for the lore, now i see why i love MDK 2 a lot as a kid, Earthworm jim was a big part of my childhood, they know how to make a fun game, i really wish they could remaster 1 and 2 with NightDive studios, it would be a bless!

That game art brings me back and that back hole parachute 😂

My man is PUMPING out reviews and still holds the quality. Absolutely admirable.

OMG This video was the trip down memory lane I wanted. I played this game a lot with my brothers when I was a kid, but I was so young I didn't remember the name or much of the story for that matter. I've wanted to search about it but was unsuccessful since I only remembered some visuals. I clicked on the video because the thumbnail made me think of it, without realizing that that was it. It's crazy sometimes how much difference there is between memories and actual graphics of games this old. Those sniper puzzles and the drop into the level as well as the speed the of the character were still so vivid in my memories.

I remember playing this as a kid!!! Gosh what a memory you've unlocked!

I love how you're always shouting out scott's channel. A cursed farms is one of my favorite youtube channels

I absolutely loved this game. Played it to death on the PC and PS1, the style of the game was like nothing else. It wasn’t perfect by a long shot but I remember it feeling so fast when you played it. The chain gun ruled supreme!

Damn I love this game. It is really weird hearing anyone else talk about it, as it feels like something only me and my siblings know. I have never met anyone that knew this game. The music in this game is absolutely great.

Murder, Death, Kill. Brilliant music. Still listen to it now and again.

MDK had phenomenal gameplay, atmosphere, graphic, sound and absolutely awesome MUSIC! Thank you very much Shiny!!

Been waiting for a review of this game. The timing is perfect.

Miss the times when a developer was allowed to be this experimental. Ofcourse we have indies, so it's not a big deal, but it's a sad state of affairs that we keep seeing the same games polished with a bit more polygons and a bit fewer features, and then they call it an upgrade worthy of spending 60/70 dollars on.

No way you made a video about this classic! Amazing content.

Man MDK was the shit in my childhood with SC BW, Mars Rising and EV Override. I still play these games when I visit my parents on the oldschool Imac

Damn this takes me back. I remember playing the demo and i would randomy think about this game for like the past 25 years randomly.

Both the song in mdk and the Kevin McLeod song mentioned at 27:15 are based on the song "breakfast machine" from the pee wee's big adventure movie

I really enjoy this series. One; for the nostalgia, and two; for the history lesson. The deadpan baldurs gate name drop made me chuckle.

I do remember "Murder Death Kill?" being one of the options being used in the advertisements for this game and I believed that's what it stood for ever since. Nice to see that confirmed so many years later. This game was so ahead of its time, I got a demo off a magazine CD and it ran so quickly and smoothly on even average hardware. It was unlike anything I had seen up until then and it still holds a warm place in my heart.

I don't know if it was specifically aimed at France, but when you finished the PC version, you had a music video for Billy Ze Kick's "Rien n'a changé" wich featured a live action rendition of the main character and sequences of the game. I fondly remember these pre-internet times when as a kid I killed the boss over and over again to watch the MV.

My colleague told me about MDK one time. I was actually blown away with how cool this game must’ve been for the time. He still thinks about it to this day.

I remember this game fondly. I played it a lot as a kid and am happy to see you review it!

I used to play this game when I was young, man this makes me feel old. But also vindicated that this is real and not part of a fever dream. The beginning of missions was so interesting.

Interesting to see an older game with skydiving and some sort of "paraglider" or hovering mechanic! Someone should document every game that "invented" or introduced them into the gaming world

The low res player sprite is because of the playstatio version. In the PC version the colour pallet for Curt is still soft, but there is virtually no pixilation around the edges and down lines, much higher defenition.

I remember my friends finding out that MDK stands for Murder Death Kill years before 2011. I was either still in primary school or at the beginning of high school, so well before 2005.

MDK was my first real favourite game. I had such good times playing it. Loved the video!

Did the PC version mention Murder Death Kill somewhere? UI? Story? Filenames? Code? Because I played this when it came out and I don't remember ever not knowing what MDK stood for. Maybe there was an interview in some magazine where the dev answered that's now lost?

Loved this game, beat it so many times. The sniping was addicting.

An interesting fact about that Messiah game that he mentions is that it's the original "Oof" sound in the final cut scene of the game. Random thing lives rent free in my head

Thank you for reminding me HOW OLD I AM. I remember vividly sitting in front of the screen and having good ol' honest fun with that game. It was cutting edge graphics back in the day. But my blond bleached hair was cutting edge too, so they told me back then...

Shiny Entertainment also made Sacrifice, where there's also an Earthworm Jim cow doing flips before diving on your target, reducing it to nothingness. You can also dismember/cripple some ennemis in MDK, like shooting their legs or removing their arms. Don't remove the weapon of the big ones tho, their behavior is quite scary. At 17:00 you can also use the action button while wearing the officer armor in front of the big guys and they will salute you. At 21:00 in the original version the canon is yeeted with you in the window behind due to the huge recoil, you can actually fly from there and reach the 3/4 on the long way out completey safe. Now i'm waiting for a Sacrifice review, this game is honestly very good **throw carving* and weird looking.

21:00 As I recall, there was a little setpiece there where you fired the big ol' cannon and it burst free from its moorings and threw you backwards through a huge window into the next arena. I wonder if the console version simplified the scene to spare the processor - it was quite visually impressive for its day.

IIRC the dev or publisher ran competitions where they asked people to submit proposals for what MDK could stand for. Or maybe that was some magazine that did that...

MDK=machine doomed kingdom. My imagination as a child, those days are far behind me. MDK always felt a little like Doom with how fast it was.