Mischief Makers

"Please, burn the cartridge now."

Japan may like this sort of stuff, but here in Upstate New York, we turn our heads, lift an eyebrow and say, ''What the hell is THIS?!?!'' This totally applies to Mischief Makers, one of the most annoying and boring games availale for the N64. You play as Marina Lightyear, a funny dressed, high pitched robot girl who is out to save some stupid old fart. So why is this game my lowest score ever? Do cows give milk? ONTO THE REVIEW!!!


GRAPHICS: The graphics are quite nice for their 2-D style, but they don't really live up to expectations. Everything is bright and cheery, like all of the backgrounds are refugees from a Disney flick. The characters are pretty nice looking, but it's 2-D on a 3-D system. It's nothing that Yoshi's Story didn't accomplish. The special attacks and little ditties for flashes and explosions really aren't all that cool. The game also attempts a little anime, but fails to have the charm. The beginning sequence is annoying, and you really don't care about watching cutscenes to progress the story. (5/10)

STORY: Hooboy. Another ''save the good guy and beat the evil empire'' game. Marina's creator, Professor (insert name that I forgot here), is kidnapped one day because he is too lazy to get up off of his fat butt to protect himself. Marina to the rescue. Woohoo. At this point you would swear it was Mario with a robo chick and a lazy moronic doctor instead of a fairy pink-dressed princess. You just feel like shooting the system by the time you learn a sentence more about the outcome of the story. (3/10)

GAMEPLAY/CONTROL: The game presents little challenge. Many of the stages are standard hop 'n' bop, while bosses practically exclaim how to kill them in front of your face. The whole system is tired. We beg for originality. You really don't need to collect anything secret along your quest besides Gold Crystals or whatever, but they expand your ending by a lousy five seconds if you attempt the literally impossible task of collecting them all. Also in this game, you do not jump on foes. You shake them. Yes, shake. Marina even says ''shake, shake!'' when you grasp on to an enemy and give him a quivering hug. What a frickin' bore. The control is loose, and every button does something, but the camera doesn't follow fast enough and Marina is too bouncy and hard to control. When you boost forward, you look like you got hit by a car and you jerk ahead. Jumping is a timed skill that requires alot of patience. Why am I the only person who understands how bad this game is? (3/10)

SOUND/MUSIC: AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHH!!! The music will drive you insane! The chirpy and happy tunes are repetitve and have the most annoying sythesizer sounds ever. The sound of hearing an atomic bomb go off in your neighbor's garage and stepping on the tails of twenty sick cats all while you blast your car security system is better! Marina exclaims lousy sounding voice clips that wil make you tear out your hair. The other noises are standard fare, but geez, this will be the most awful music availble in the universe!!! (-5/10)

OTHER STUFF:
-Players: 1
-Fun Factor: 4. After dealing with the junk above...
-Replay Value: 8. The Gold Crystals, but they are practically impossible to ever gain. Plus the grades on levels.
-Rent or Buy: I can hardly recommended renting it, let alone buying!

This game looks like it was made by a Pokemon fanatic who made the game for a electronic school project. Believe me, I am one of the better judges of games out there, and this is not one of the better ones. Keep away!

OVERALL: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/00, Updated 02/23/00