Mischief Makers

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This article is about the video game. For the art activist collective, see The Mischief Makers. For the TV series, see Mischief Makers (TV series).

Mischief Makers
Single-player

Mischief Makers

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.

Mischief Makers received mixed reviews. Critics praised its inventiveness, personality, and

GamesRadar
called it possibly the most underrated Nintendo 64 game.

Gameplay

A rainbow-colored spectrum in a futuristic gauge is in the upper-left area of the heads-up display. Marina, the main character, has green hear and wears white. She stands on a platform made of bricks, each brick is inlaid with an identical sad-looking face of different proportions. Floating balls with the same face float on the screen, as do rotate, neon-colored stars.
As Marina grabs a bomb, "clanball" platforms and warp stars float nearby.

Mischief Makers is the first

run-and-gun games from Treasure.[6]

The

health.[8] The health gauge in the corner of the screen shows the amount of damage Marina can take.[9] The player can store up to two additional stock lives.[3] Yellow gems hidden in each level extend the final cutscene's length.[6][7][10] Marina can run, jump, and boost (via jetpack) in the eight cardinal and ordinal directions.[6] She can also slide, hover, and roll.[8]

The game has five worlds with roughly twelve

special effects to vary the gameplay.[3]

Almost all things on Planet Clancer—including people, buildings, and pets—either wear or are inscribed with identical "sad" faces with red, glowing eyes.

double jumping.[6] A character named Calina, a petulant Clancer who imitates Marina, recurs as a comedic device.[3]

Development

The Nintendo 64 controller is the light gray controller with three handles for the player's two hands. It has red, green, blue, and yellow buttons, an analog stick, and a directional pad. The controller is plugged into the charcoal gray Nintendo 64 with a light gray cartridge inserted. The sleek console is convex on its top and has two power switches and four controller ports.
The Nintendo 64 console

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.[11]

Treasure's founders had come from

16-bit action games"—and Dynamite Headdy.[11] An average of 12 people worked on Mischief Makers, with up to 15 at times. Though the team was different in composition from that of previous Treasure games, it included the lead programmer and character designer from Gunstar Heroes. Treasure's CEO said that the staff liked to expand into new genres, though primarily in genres where the staff had experience. The company sought to depart from the Gunstar Heroes shoot 'em up design, and chose to build Mischief Makers around an original "catching" gameplay mechanic, which became the hardest aspect to implement.[11] While foreign (non-Japanese) games were popular within the company, Treasure's CEO said the company's games did not look "particularly foreign" and could appeal to Japanese audiences.[11]

The game is Treasure's first to have been published by Enix. The publisher sought Treasure for its reputation in the action game genre, and had approached Treasure several times before the Nintendo 64 project surfaced. Treasure CEO Maegawa was already fond of Enix, having applied unsuccessfully to work there as a student.[11] Upon choosing the Nintendo 64, Treasure thought it would be a "good idea" to work with Enix.[11] Similar to how Treasure ended its historic loyalty to the Sega Genesis by developing Mischief Makers for Nintendo, Enix had just recently ended its historic loyalty to Nintendo by signing Dragon Quest VII of its Dragon Quest franchise to Sony. Neither Square or Enix built a "special relationship" with Nintendo specific for Mischief Makers's release,[11] though Nintendo was the publisher for Western markets.[12] Prior to Nintendo proposing to publish the game in the West, Enix said it had no plans to release it outside Japan.[13] When its English localization finished ahead of schedule, the North American release date was advanced two weeks.[5]

Mischief Makers was the only game displayed at the Enix booth at the April 1997 Tokyo Game Show.

Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh, which was released in September and later introduced to North America as Bangai-O.[18]

Reception

Mischief Makers received "mixed or average reviews", according to video game review aggregator Metacritic,[20] and a "Gold Hall of Fame" score of 32/40 from Japanese magazine Famitsu.[22] Critics praised the inventiveness, personality, "variety", and boss fights,[3][8][10][21][29] and criticized the brevity, low difficulty, low replay value,[8][10][24][21] sound,[2][4][10][27] and harsh introductory learning curve.[3][8][21][29] Retrospective reviewers were more positive,[7][30] and multiple reviewers noted Marina's signature "Shake, shake!" sound bite as a highlight.[6][8][21] Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded the game its silver award.[21]

Gamasutra's John Harris said that the premise is "only strange to people who have never heard of anime".[7] GameFan described the game as "obviously deeply Japanese",[31] where "old school gameplay and 64-bit visuals finally meet".[23]

Soul Calibur.[7] As the game took time to learn and understand, O'Neill left the reader to decide whether it was "ultimately convoluted or bordering on sophistication and genius".[3]

Nintendo Life's O'Neill thought the five world bosses were among Treasure's best (in particular, the transforming "Cerberus Alpha" boss), but found the mid-level bosses uninteresting.

AllGame also appreciated the sound, from the voice to the "almost indescribable" music.[8] Gamasutra's John Harris noted its "tremendous variety" in gameplay—from a Track & Field remake to outrunning a missile barrage—as rare for 2D platformers, and commented that "it is obvious that Treasure poured their hearts into this game".[7]

Peter Bartholow of GameSpot summarized Mischief Makers as "a good game that will leave players wanting more".[10] He liked the bosses, which made the player use all available skills but said they were short-lived and easily solved in the context of a short game with tutorials as one-fifth of its levels. He did not consider the ending extension a suitable reward for returning to the levels, and predicted that most players would not finish the game more than once.[10] Game Informer echoed Bartholow's comments about the brevity, and named the seven-event Olympics as a highlight.[24] Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote that the game seemed incomplete and lamented that "a decent player can finish the game in under three hours",[21] though Next Generation said it was "certainly long enough".[27] The game's frequent reuse of a small selection of titles, objects, sound effects, soundtracks, and bland backgrounds (compared to the "impressive" boss battle animations and effects) led GameSpot's Bartholow to suggest that Mischief Makers was limited by its cartridge space. He concluded that the "decent" game would be "truly excellent ... on another medium".[10] Zachary Miller of Nintendo World Report reported that the graphics did not age well into 2010.[6] Dan Hsu wrote in Electronic Gaming Monthly that the game is "definitely a sleeper hit".[21] Hardcore Gamer's Ryan Cartmel said it went "largely unnoticed",[32] and GamePro claimed that it had "[developed] a strong following in Japan".[33]

Legacy

Video game journalists from sources such as GamesRadar and Nintendo World Report cited Mischief Makers as suited for reissue either through the Nintendo eShop or in a sequel or franchise reboot.[30][34] Retro Gamer placed the "masterpiece of mayhem" 80th on its list of "essential" Nintendo 64 games for its "unbridled quality".[35] In 2009, GamesRadar called it "possibly the most underrated and widely ignored" Nintendo 64 game.[30] In the years since, Retro Gamer reported Mischief Makers as a somewhat rare collectible, with a rarity score of 7/10.[36] The website wrote that Mischief Makers was received poorly because players wanted 3D instead of 2D gameplay in Nintendo 64 games.[30] Gamasutra's John Harris added that those who gave it a "bum rap" missed a "surprisingly clever" game.[7] UGO remembered it as innovative, though imperfect, and asked to see Marina reinterpreted and resurrected in a new game.[37] Marina reappeared as an unlockable character in Treasure's 1999 Rakugaki Showtime.[38]

Notes

  1. ^ Known in Japan as Yuke-Yuke!! Trouble Makers (Japanese: ゆけゆけ!!トラブルメーカーズ, Hepburn: Yuke Yuke!! Toraburu Mēkāzu)
  2. ^ The five worlds are Planet Clancer, Migen's Shrine, Mt. Snow, Aster's Lair, and the Imperial HQ, and there are 52 levels accessed via a stage select screen.[2]
  3. ^ Treasure continued to develop for the Sega Genesis even while Nintendo had market control because the team found the Genesis development process easier.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Treasure (October 1, 1997). Mischief Makers. Nintendo. Scene: Credits.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Casamassina, Matt (October 1, 1997). "Mischief Makers". IGN. Archived from the original on February 18, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p O'Neill, Jamie (June 12, 2010). "Mischief Makers (Nintendo 64) Review". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on August 30, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d "Now Playing". Nintendo Power. No. 101. October 1997. p. 95.
  5. ^ a b c IGN Staff (August 5, 1997). "Griffey, Mischief Makers Trade Spots". IGN. Archived from the original on May 8, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Miller, Zachary (August 13, 2010). "Retro Revival #3: Mischief Makers". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  7. ^
    Gamasutra. Archived
    from the original on November 12, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  8. ^
    AllGame. Archived from the original
    on November 14, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  9. Nintendo of America
    . 1997. p. 15.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bartholow, Peter (April 17, 1998). "Mischief Makers Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 27, 2016. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m IGN Staff (April 15, 1997). "Treasure Talks Yuke Yuke". IGN. Archived from the original on May 6, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  12. ^ a b c IGN Staff (June 10, 1997). "Nintendo to Publish Mischief Makers". IGN. Archived from the original on March 20, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  13. ^ Ogasawara, Ken (August 1997). "Yuke Yuke!! Troublemakers". GamePro. No. 107. p. 36.
  14. ^ "TGS 1997 Spring". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 95. June 1997. p. 62.
  15. ^ "NINTENDO64全発売ソフト一覧(1997年)". Nintendo Japan. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  16. ^ "Mischief Makers". Official Nintendo Magazine. No. 63. December 1997. p. 80.
  17. ^ "Game Play". The Sydney Morning Herald. March 8, 1998. p. 128. Retrieved April 14, 2024. Mischief Makers//Out Now//Rating: G
  18. ^ IGN Staff (June 23, 1999). "Unearthing Treasure for N64". IGN. Archived from the original on May 8, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  19. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original
    on December 9, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  20. ^ a b "Mischief Makers (N64: 1997)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on March 4, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Mischief Makers". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 101. December 1997. p. 191. Archived from the original on January 21, 1998. Retrieved May 9, 2014. Electronic Gaming Monthly's component scores were 7.5/8.5/8.0/8.0.
  22. ^ a b c d ゆけゆけ!! トラブルメーカーズ [Yukeyuke! Trouble Makers]. Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 446. 1997. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2014. Note: Review text only available in print magazine.
  23. ^ a b Glitch; Knightmare; E. Storm (September 1997). "Viewpoint". GameFan (57): 26–27.
  24. ^ a b c "Mischief Makers". Game Informer. No. 55. November 1997. Archived from the original on January 21, 1998. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  25. ^ Nash, Jonathan (August 1997). "Go Go!! Troublemakers". N64 Magazine. No. 5. Future Publishing. pp. 60–65.
  26. ^ Bickham, Jes (November 1997). "Mischief Makers". N64 Magazine. No. 8. Future Publishing. p. 63.
  27. ^ a b c d "Finals". Next Generation. No. 34. October 1997. p. 169. Archived from the original on February 4, 1998. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  28. ^ "Review: Mischief Makers (Nintendo 64)". Nintendo Life. June 12, 2010. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  29. ^ a b c d Major Mike (January 1998). "Nintendo 64 ProReview: Mischief Makers". GamePro. No. 112. p. 78.
  30. ^
    GamesRadar. April 30, 2009. Archived
    from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  31. ^ a b E. Storm (September 1997). "Mischief Makers". GameFan (57): 76–81.
  32. ^ Cartmel, Ryan (September 19, 2013). "Graveyard: Mischief Makers". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on May 13, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  33. ^ Four-Eyed Dragon (November 1997). "Mischief Makers". GamePro. No. 110. p. 103.
  34. ^ Brown, Andrew (May 7, 2014). "Virtual Console Could Help Wiisuscitate U". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  35. ^ Allen, Mat (November 9, 2006). "Essential Nintendo 64 Games". Retro Gamer (31): 23, 26.
  36. ^ Davies, Jonti (May 27, 2004). "Nintendo's Greatest Games". Retro Gamer (4): 24.
  37. ^ "11 Strong Gaming Girls We Never Saw Again". UGO Networks. June 30, 2010. Archived from the original on May 13, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  38. ^ Bevan, Mike (June 19, 2008). "Full of Eastern Promise". Retro Gamer (52): 36.

Bibliography

External links

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