Mischief Makers was the third game I completed out of the five N64 games that sat in my backlog of games for over or nearly a decade. However, I believe this game was the last one out of those five that I bought. I remember starting my first playthrough I believe in 2014 which was a bit later than all of the others that I have reviewed and will review after this one. Besides the usual reason that 99.9% of the games I have played but never beat stay in my backlog for years, I remember getting stuck on a level but for whatever reason it didn't occur to me to look up a walkthrough. That being said, I finally beat it and like most of Treasure's other offerings is definitely deserving of its cult following.

You play as a robot girl named Marina on a mission to save Professor Theo and eventually the world from an evil empire led by Emperor Leo. In order to do so you will have to shake-shake your way through many levels that will require you to think outside the box and get familiar with how the game plays.

Similar to Treasure's other N64 classic Sin and Punishment, the controls take a little bit to get used to. It probably took me like 10 minutes to figure out how to do most basic things and longer to really get a feel for the controls. There were a few levels where the puzzles were either cryptic or just plain annoying like the one where you traverse a stormy ice mountain or the level right before you fight Sasquatch where you had to go through the right path by looking at the numbers. Despite the few frustrating levels this game had, they never dampened the experience.

There are a lot of positive things to say about Mischief Makers. The 2d sprites look great, the game is filled to the brim with charm and personality, and once you get used to the controls, Marina's movement feels great. It also is incredibly fair since you can get up to two bars of health which should be more than enough to deal with enemies and the bosses you fight. Besides the few annoying levels this game has, I thought most of the game was fun, short, and at the right level of challenge.

While it isn't my favorite title from Treasure, it is still a great 2d platformer made for a system that is criminally lacking in them. If Ikaruga, Dynamite Heddy, and Gunstar Heroes can be ported to every platform known to man, Mischief Makers should get the same treatment.

Treasure can be a little hit or miss for me. I love Dynamite Headdy and Alien Soldier, but I find Guardian Heroes and Gunstar Heroes to be pretty mediocre. Actually, writing it out like that, maybe it's just something about games with "Heroes" in the title. I mean, I don't like Sonic Heroes either... I must remember to investigate this further.

Mischief Makers is the cutest Treasure game I've played, and probably one of my favorites from their library, second only to Dynamite Headdy. It is also a Treasure game for a Nintendo system, which is a bit novel in itself given the company's adherence to Sega hardware, and being a 2D platformer from a generation where those were becoming less and less common, I was already inherently interested in it. I'll play just about any fifth gen 2D game, I just think they're neat. Something about the rising popularity of pre-rendered sprites meshing with fully-rendered 3D elements just appeals to me.

The grab-and-shake mechanic is a lot of fun to mess around with, and as was typical of Treasure, there's a lot of level variety to keep the game feeling fresh and engaging. Of course, sometimes its gimmicks don't land, and in particular there's a few bosses (especially in the late game) that just feel kind of weak. To get 100% completion, you also have to beat every boss encounter without taking damage, and I hate that crap. Whoever decided that should be a requirement clearly went on to program achievements for RetroAchivements.

But all the charm more than makes up for Mischief Maker's wobbly end game. Just don't let Marina Lightyears hold your baby.

Playing Mischief Makers was much like the time when, while on the mend from reconstructive foot surgery, I was hopped up on medical drugs and experienced vivid hallucinations where I belonged to a community of mole-people that revered Lynn Johnston’s For Better or For Worse as holy gospel. At the very least, it made just as much sense: not one of the game’s many episodic narratives operate on any level of coherency, gleefully shifting from self-referential wit to non-sequitur plot beats at the drop of a hat. Mischief Makers is an arresting fever dream much as it is a deeply-committed comedy, eccentrically haphazard without any regard to the player’s sanity, not the least in cyborg protagonist Marina and her core “shaking” mechanic: an inevitable temptation into anarchy that violates friend and foe alike.

Hence why it’s difficult to get a bead on what, exactly, turned me off. It’s easy to say that Mischief Makers’ pledge to absurdity frequently smothers its sense of telegraphy: from poorly-conveyed puzzles to spontaneous visual overload with explosions and enemy swarms galore, I cannot count how many times I was forced to consult a guide, let alone utter “but why?!” in the face of its many inanities. (Even in instances I wholly enjoyed, mind; dare not spoil the circumstances behind “Blockman Rises”, as I suspect is the case among the game’s impassioned clique, but know that I shook that small child with glee and was not disappointed with the results.)

Yet I recall how a close friend recently elaborated upon his lifelong confusion surrounding another early N64 game – Bomberman 64, a game that’s personally never invited contempt – and I can’t help but wonder if the culprit is none other than personal taste. I make no joy in proclaiming this: I often champion such obscure games, and with how Mischief Makers has the ingredients of everything I adore – inspired mechanics, absurdist comedy, obvious anime influences, and just being so gosh-darned admirable in carrying the two-dimensional torch within 3D gaming’s advent -- I balk at the thought: shouldn’t this be a game I’d wholeheartedly embrace?

But the high’s come down, and I’m forced to confront the frustrating reality that, alas, it’s all just a little too opaque; too impenetrable in its motives. I’d never dream of calling it bad even in the face of more tangible, grounded criticism – the controls never gel, many levels end right when the momentum kicks off, and the elderly professor’s “durr hurr pervy old man lusts after own creation” shtick is painfully outdated – but much as I want to dismiss Mischief Makers’ foibles and root in the corner of Treasure’s forgotten gem, I’m reminded that you can’t force yourself to fall in love. Such is the “in-club” language of cult games like these, I suppose.

First GOTM finished for September 2023. Such a quirky Treasure game, it almost feels like a mish-mash of ideas that didn't quite make it into their other games. I have fond memories of videogame store rentals with this one growing up, and while I never did beat it back then I've been waiting for an opportunity to play this one again. While my adult version definitely noticed a lot more flaws this time around (the aforementioned need for Treasure N64 games to use every button, poor and sometimes unnecessarily vague level design, repetitive enemy and friendly NPC design outside of bosses) this game still manages to have enough goofy charm and whimsy to capture my attention all the way through many years later.

Also, the Beastector boss fights go hard and were super fun.

Pretty alright! This feels like a sandbox of ideas for completely different platforming games that don't exist. None of them go too in-depth which is kind of disappointing when you find one that you really like. The controls felt a little clunky - double tapping to dash works really well on the D-Pad (the intended movement buttons), but everything else doesn't. Couldn't care much about the story, it's one of those "we're making fun of tropes here" things but it still tries to keep you emotionally invested somehwo which didn't work for me. The graphics are really cool, mixing 2D and 3D in a way that looks goofy at worse and stunning at its best.

Porque de niño no decidí jugar esto cuando lo tenía en frente solo por el trauma de las caras que me causaron cuando fui muy pequeño haya por 2001. Y es que recién ahora es que lo juego y lo termino. Las horas que le hubiera dedicado en su momento hubieran sido gloriosas, pero desgraciadamente no pude tener los huevos de hacerlo, nisiquiera cuando ya por 2008 volví a usar mi 64 ya que desde hace 2 años no funcionaba, y ya era algo más grande, pero aún así, no. El juego es muy divertido y creativo, con un Gameplay único y dinámico, aparte de un apartado artístico muy raro para la época. Aunque no se salva de tene algunos niveles medio paja, que aunque sean cortos, es algo meh, como el de laberinto de números. Tampoco es un juego muy difícil pero está hecho para la rejugada, y completarlo y mejorar con el ranking que propone, las gemas amarillas que van desbloqueando el final, muchas son fáciles de agarrar y no tomarán mucho, otras cuestan más y otras ya si son jodidas, pero con su tiempo se logra. Al final, me gustó mucho, aún me impresiona que lo poco conocido del juego, tuviera su cartucho (posiblemente de mi primo que es más Otaku y tal, y en su momento fue una consola eredada por parte de él y mi prima, quisas viene de eso, pero en fin) y aún así, no lo tocará hasta hoy.

The core movement and the grab/throw mechanics are great when you actually get to make good use of them. I especially like the dash that transitions into a high jump, but there's a wide range of movement options and ways to interact with enemies.

But then there are a lot of gimmick levels toward the latter half that don't really test those skills, and many are pretty miserable, especially the sports one. I had this game as a kid, and I had to ask my dad for help with the marathons because there was no way for me to mash fast enough. Even now, getting the gold gem there is very tight for me. Please don't put mashing in your games. Anyway this game's got issues and even many of the better levels in the earlier half are crazy short, but the fundamentals are fun and I like the weird aesthetic.

A unique N64 game in that it completely disregards the control stick, and is far more interested in the fact that the controller has two "dpads". With the D-Pad controlling Marina's movement, and the C-buttons boosting her around, it's a platformer which really moves like no other.

Game has so many mechanics, and wished those got flexed a little more. I feel it is in a little bit of a hurry to end, with the final world being tragically short. However, at time of writing I haven't gotten all the Goldem Gems required to view the entire ending (lmao, what a thing) so wouldn't be surprised to bump this up to 4 stars and write some more once I do that.

The story starts off surreal, in a strange alien world where buildings are made of screaming faces. It quickly finds its footing with a self-aware Saturday morning cartoon energy which is hard not to love.

THE BIG DEAL HERE is that Migen Brawl and Cereberus α are two of the best boss fights in any video game. You're gonna struggle to find boss fights better than these anywhere else. All the other bosses are also really good, but Migen and Cereberus really stand out. The final boss also rules.

Mischief Makers in an N64 classic absolutely worth shake shaking a stick at, ho-ho.

(though if you're emulating, may be awkward to play without a controller with two dpads, hope you like 2D movement with your control stick)

I want to like this game. There's a lot in the game I really do enjoy. Marina is a fun character, and I really like the idea of a moveset focused on grabbing and shaking enemies is really fun, and for a lot of the game, it was.
I really like how the game looks, the blend of 2D sprites and 3D environments has always been one of my favorites. And the music was both fun and pretty unique from the games I've played.
Though I think I have two specific problems that kept me from enjoying the game. For one, I think the game constantly disoriented me. Multiple moments in the game had a constantly shifting aspect ratio, and one specific level made me start feeling nauseous. The other major issue I had were the bosses, my inability to read their patterns or dodge their actions made the bosses feel more annoying that challenging. Sure, maybe I'm just not good at the game which is probably the case, but that doesn't stop me from being annoyed, y'know?
There's a lot that I do enjoy in this game, but those certain aspects made the game a lot more dreadful of an experience. Though maybe I should've taken a break instead of playing the entire game in a single sitting.

Mischief Makers is an interesting game. Though I do think it is overrated, there are things it gets very right, mainly the puzzles and boss battles, and Treasure has always been very good at the latter. A lot of the puzzles in this game were satisfying to solve and weren't things you couldn't reasonably figure out, and the boss fights, at least earlier on, are just Treasure in their element. However, by the time you get to the end of the game, Mischief Makers starts falling apart. Merco onwards the bosses start becoming either boring or poorly designed, and the game as a whole is stuffed with filler-- a lot of the levels just feel empty and like they were unfinished (which this game allegedly is). The graphics also have not aged well, even for a N64 game. Often times it can look pretty ugly. Otherwise though, the game is a hamfisted little parody of Japanese tropes and a good puzzle platformer. Check it out, but don't expect the best game ever like many claim it to be.