GameSpot's MDK 2 Preview

Developer:
Bioware

Publisher:
Interplay

Target Release Date:
Winter 1999
By Wallace Poulter
11/03/99

Page 1 of 5

Back in 1993, a small developer approached Sega of America with a game demonstration. This game was Earthworm Jim, whose impressive animation and bizarre humor made it one of the more off-the-wall titles ever produced. That developer, Shiny Entertainment, has been producing innovative and occasionally overhyped products ever since. One of those titles, 1997's shooter MDK, was the company's first game designed specifically for the PC and received both critical and consumer acclaim. If not a sequel to Earthworm Jim in the normal sense of the word, MDK at least paid homage to the outlandish humor of its predecessor.

screenshot
click to enlarge
So with oodles of console experience and a top-selling PC franchise, it makes perfect sense that the sequel is being done by Canadian developer Bioware. In one of the stranger development twists in a long time, Shiny is not doing the sequel. Instead, Bioware, a Canadian developer, best known for Baldur's Gate, is taking it on as one of its three in-house projects. First started in 1995 by a couple of Edmonton doctors, Bioware now has a staff of 60 people and is on its way to gaining a reputation for high quality. The common factor in the equation is publisher Interplay, which owns a percentage of Shiny. When Shiny didn't have a team available to do MDK 2, Interplay turned to a developer that it was comfortable with: Bioware.

In a rather controversial decision, both the PC and the Dreamcast versions will contain virtually identical content. An advantage of the PC will be high-resolution display - with a decent card on the PC you'll be able to display 1024x768 or even higher resolutions. Other than that, there's not too much else that will be different between the versions. While such straight porting is now possible due to the Dreamcast architecture, it will be very interesting to see which version consumers embrace.



Next: What has come before