Mischief Makers

Nintendo exclusive

Mischief Makers is a Single-Player Video Game for the Nintendo 64 that was released in the United States on October 1st, 1997. The protagonist is the Ultra-Intergalactic-Cybot G, Marina Liteyears. She must protect the clumsy and lighthearted Professor Theo from the evil emperor. While visiting Planet Clancer, the Professor is suddenly kidnapped by the empire, and thus starts our game.

Released: 27 June 1997
Platforms: Nintendo 64
Genres: Platformer Puzzle
Developers: Treasure
Publishers: Enix
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Science fiction Comedy
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB E
Languages: English, Japanese

About

Mischief Makers is a side-scrolling platform game developed for the Nintendo 64 gaming console by Treasure, and published in 1997 by Enix in Japan and by Nintendo internationally. The player assumes the role of Marina Liteyears, a robotic maid who journeys to rescue her creator, Professor Theo, from the emperor of Planet Clancer. The gameplay is displayed in 2.5D, based on grabbing, shaking, and throwing objects within five worlds and 52 levels.

It is the first 2D side-scrolling game for the Nintendo 64, and Treasure's first release for a Nintendo console. The 12-person team began development in mid-1995 with little knowledge of the prototype console. The team wanted to make a novel gameplay mechanic, and implementing the resultant "catching" technique became their most difficult task. The game was announced at the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo and was released in Japan on June 27 that year and later in the United States, Europe, and Australia.

›Story

Professor Theo has been kidnapped by the imperial forces of the evil empire. Now his robotic personal assistant, Marina Liteyears, must save the day! Marina will get some help from the troops who have remained loyal to King Aster. With their help, she'll grab, shake and throw her way to the Professor!

Besides rescuing the Professor, Marina will also join in the effort to rebel against that nasty, horrible and evil empire. So, Grab a controller and help our Super Heroine shake up the evil empire!

Keywords

anime
minigames
robots
2.5d
math
female protagonist
kid friendly
boss fight
voice acting
cat
non-player character
moving platforms

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Mischief Makers is the first single-player 2D side-scrolling platform game on the Nintendo 64. Its gameplay combines platform game mechanics with aspects from the action and puzzle genres. The characters and backgrounds are modeled in pre-rendered 3D similar to Donkey Kong Country's "Advanced Computer Modeling". This style, with 3D backgrounds behind 2D gameplay, is known as 2.5D. Its gameplay is more exploratory than previous run-and-gun games from Treasure.

The player-character, a robotic maid named Marina, journeys to save her kidnapped creator. The story takes place on Planet Clancer, a world on the cusp of civil war due to the actions of its Emperor and his Imperial forces. The Emperor brainwashes Clancers to kidnap the visiting robotics genius Professor Theo. Theo's creation, the player-character Ultra-InterGalactic-Cybot G Marina Liteyears, pursues the professor and grabs, throws, and shakes the obstacles in her way, such as enemies, floating "Clanball" platforms, warp stars, and missiles.

Development

Treasure began to develop Mischief Makers in mid-1995, before the Nintendo 64's launch in mid-1996. At the time, little was known about the prototype console's future final technical specifications, graphics implementation, and development kit, but were nevertheless interested in the console and its improved "pixel quality". Historically, Treasure developed games exclusively for Sega consoles, which made Mischief Makers its first release for a Nintendo console. Choosing the Nintendo 64 was a hardware-based decision; the Nintendo 64 Game Pak cartridges were more expensive than CD-ROMs, but they loaded data instantly and were thus more conducive for action games such as this.

However, Treasure CEO Masato Maegawa said that development for the Nintendo 64 had a harsher learning curve than even the Sega Saturn. Other than the special attention required to build a single boss in 3D, the team did not use features specific to the Nintendo 64 hardware.

Reception

Mischief Makers received "mixed or average reviews", according to video game review aggregator platform Metacritic, and a "Gold Hall of Fame" ranking from Japanese magazine Famitsu. Critics praised the inventiveness, personality, "variety", and boss fights, and criticized the brevity, low difficulty, low replay value, sound, and harsh introductory learning curve. Retrospective reviewers were more positive, and multiple reviewers noted Marina's signature "Shake, shake!" sound bite as a highlight. Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded the game its silver award.

IGN's Matt Casamassina said that the game compensated for its average graphics with excellent level design and gameplay challenges. He added that the puzzles require thought, unlike those in other action games, and that the objectives were not clear until after the first few levels. Casamassina praised the transparency effects, anti-aliasing, mipmapping, and scaling rotations. IGN described anticipation for the game as "tremendous", particularly among the target market of "younger gamers and 2D fans".