The goal of most every action game is to recreate the feel of an action movie and put all the control into your hands. Whether it be Indiana Jones (Tomb Raider), Rambo (Contra), or whatever else you can think of. This is easier said than done, mainly because it is very tough to get the cinematic feel of an action movie into a player's hands. Few have done it better than MDK, though. From its various breaks from the straight shooting to the eyelid peeling shooting to its sniper mode MDK feels like a cinematic experience without actually being a cinematic experience. Not only that, MDK successfully takes Contra (The original Contras not Contra: Legacy of War silly) into 3D.

Level design is very varied and so is the action. In the very first level you fall from space, take out targets from behind a glass plate, even drive an enemy ship. Although this is nice, it all is very linear. Think Crash Bandicoot not Super Mario 64. MDK is also one of the more violent games out on the market. Like GoldenEye, it's amazing it escaped an M rating.

All this is fine and dandy without control right (the problem that plagued Tomb Raider)? Well MDK's control is a little tough when trying to run straight forward (the cross pad is very sensitive) the control comes out nearly flawlessly with nearly every button being used a ton while being simple enough not to confuse. The Sniper Mode is very useful when taking out enemies from far off and straight out shooting does fine for close up targets.

The graphics and sound work out fine. Graphics are nicely made with little polygon breakup, non-repetitive textures, and a great frame rate. Sound effects are great as well. The music however can get a little repetitive. The main character, Kurt, definitely has a lot of character (Not in the Duke sort of way. He manages to get his character from the game, not one liners).

Basically the translation of action games from 2D to 3D has had mixed results. MDK luckily has been on the better side of things.

Overall: 8.5