Besides the offbeat humor and the entertaining variety of the gameplay, MDK has one major thing going for it: presentation. This decade-old game holds up rather well thanks to some inspired level design and art direction. The colors really pop out; the game is dark, but isn't afraid to throw in vivid reds and oranges amidst the browns, blacks and grays. The dated graphics inadvertently give an otherworldly quality to the world's architecture. It's true that the assets are blocky, yet manage to be discernible and even look futuristic somehow. There are some seriously awesome textures here that are meant to disorient the player and try to turn genre conventions upside-down.
The game is a joy to look at, listen to, and play -- despite an old-fashioned control scheme layout. WASD-inclined players will end up making some sense out of the archaic controls after some time-consuming fiddling before the game starts. Surprisingly, the sniper interface is still stunning, and is a real testament to the care this game was given. There are three sub-screens that help you see where your bullets are going. You can even look at all three at once.
Levels typically take 10-15 minutes to complete, but offer few - if any - checkpoints. It's kind of a pain to have to restart from the beginning. However, the aforementioned variety in gameplay and excellent pacing among the different action and platforming setpieces helps alleviate this. When your play session is over, you'll likely feel gratified and wanting to keep playing; MDK is a very original piece of work. It is a very worthwhile, steadfast example of the action/platform genre that everyone should check out.