"Enough with the face blocks!"

Treasure is one of my favourite game companies. All of its games are so consistently good, and Mischief Makers is no exception. You play as Marina, a female robot (how can robots have gender?) and the guy who made you gets kidnapped...and uh...there's some type of evil empire involved...uh...To be frank, the story is one of the worst in video game history, but who needs story, really? It's a treasure game!

The game is a 2D platformer, which were (and still are) a dying genre of games. To keep things fresh, Marina has built-in rockets, so she can slide, boost, and hover. One of the most interesting things is that the game utilizes a “shake” mechanic. Pretty much everything in the game can be Shake-Shake!'d with varying effects. Shaking an enemy will sometimes yield you an item, while shaking a Clancer (that's what those things are called, right?) might activate a switch.

The game especially shines in two categories: Level design and Boss fights. A lot of levels are brilliantly created. One involves balancing yourself on a missile for the entire level, another forces you to constantly run forward, as the ground explodes. The bosses are excellent as well, if you exclude the few the just require you the throw them into the ground over and over. One boss is a giant dragon, where you must grab his punches and throw them back at him. Another boss is a transforming motorcycle where you must catch the missiles it launches, and send them flying back.

Unfortunately, the graphics are abysmal. Not only from a technical viewpoint, but from a aesthetic one. The game has very few 3D models, opting for 2D sprites instead. These have really low resolution and it's really hard to tell what exactly they're supposed to convey. Also, the platforms in each level are made of simple blocks with a strange face on them. To me, it seems like the developers put these blocks in place as stand-ins for actual textures, which would be added later...but then never did. As such, EVERY level is made of ground, and these face-blocks, as if every level was made by some simple level editor.

The music is pretty bland, but the voice work is...acceptable. Like I said...level design and boss fights...try not to worry about other stuff.

The controls are also really difficult to get used to. This is probably the only N64 game I've ever played that used the D-pad...and there's a reason for that. The N64 D-pad sucks. The game is constantly making you mash forward rapidly, which can get very hard on the fingers. Also, there are quite a few levels that you really can just run past.

Despite these complaints, the game is still awesome. And finding each gold crystal (one in each level) adds a good amount of replay value. I won't even mention the insanity needed to try and get S-times. Well...I just did.

In Conclusion:

Graphics: 3
Sound: 3
Gameplay: 8
Replay: 6

Overall: 6

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/06