 I'm always a little hesitant to do reviews on N64 games because they put me on the verge of ranting about how much I do not like the N64 controller and how much I do not like most home console attempts at 3D during the mid to late 90s. But, here we have a game called Mischief Makers developed by Treasure. Yeah the same folks who made stuff like Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Heady. And even better, they stuck with their strengths and made a 2D action platformer instead of an awful attempt at a 3D platformer. In addition to that, Mischief Makers isn't available to play anywhere other than on the original cartridge, so if you were to play this one any way you can, you can presumably use, say, an Xbox 360 controller to play this one, like I did. So I said this is a 2D platformer, but as you can see, it's one of those wonky 2.5D platformers featuring characters and backgrounds in pre-rendered 3D, even though the actual gameplay takes place on a two-dimensional plane. The player is a robot made named Marina, who has to go rescue her creator who's being held captive on the planet Clancer. But what really makes this game stand out is the gameplay structure. It boils down to just grab, shake, and throw. You grab something with the B button, and I mean anything you've got around you, and press down on the D-pad to shake twice to get some items, and then aim whatever you've got and throw it by pressing the B button a second time. You can also use the B button to defend, which is a nice touch. The character also moves really well, thanks to this game utilizing the D-pad instead of the flimsy-as-hell control stick. You tap left or right to dash, you tap up to hover, you tap down to roll, and you can slide by holding down on the D-pad and pressing A, and tap A twice to do kind of a slide jump. What's cool is that once you've got the hang of the controls, you can also use the C buttons to execute the same moves. The controls are implemented really well here, but I will say they are tough to master. You have to get through 52 levels, spanning across 5 worlds, although some are just towns you have to visit to talk to people, and you have to get through this game on one life. But, when you die, you get a series of options depending on how many red gems you've collected. 10 gems gives you a normal health bar, 30 gives you an extra health bar, and 100 starts you maxed out. There's also blue, green, and gold gems that replenish health. Plus, there's all sorts of other items to help you out, like boomerangs, grenades, missiles, and machine guns, usually pick them up from other enemies. And they have other benefits that you can figure out along the way, like the machine gun that can send shots in three different ways if you shake it while firing. There's also this thing called the clan pot you can use to store some of these items, but when you put the right items in, you can shake it and it'll mix and form a new item altogether. For example, you can put two flowers in there and out comes a ninja star, so that's cool. This seems like a lot of fun stuff, right? Well, the main flaw with this game is that it takes seemingly forever to get going. There's a lot of dialogue here, and yeah, you can skip it by pressing Z, but even then, this game starts with a series of levels where there's just nothing. Dynamite Heady had this same problem, but I think it's actually worse in this game, unfortunately. Once this game does get going, you'll find some of the most fun and inventive level design you'll ever see in an action platformer. They really did a fantastic job making the most of Marina's capabilities. There's this stage where your platforms come in and out of the wall as the viewpoint tilts back and forth. There's this boss fight where you actually beat him by using his own fist. Hey, stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself. You ride this block man to smash your way through other blocks. You're riding missiles and shifting your weight on it in order to guide it properly. You're racing enemies. Hey, where's Johnny of the Robo Gang? There's a couple different boss fights that will feel like something out of Gunstar Heroes, and there's plenty of puzzles here that'll make you stop and think for a bit. There are sections that are really tough, like this one where you have to ride a bike and outrun the water rising up behind you, but for the most part, mischief makers is reasonably fair when it comes to difficulty. It really just depends on how quickly you can pick up the controls. Of course I have to mention the visual style here, which is just strange. Not talking about the barrage of colors or the backgrounds or anything, I mean just these creepy faces everywhere. Apparently they're meant to represent ancient Japanese Hanawa, but they just look really strange. And of course I also have to mention Marina's catchphrase, which she says over and over and over throughout the entire game. So yeah, Treasure may be known for run and gun stuff like Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier, but mischief makers is much less of a run and gun and way more of a traditional Nintendo style platformer, and it's pretty dang good. It's one of those games that allows you to approach it however you want, whether you want to just sprint to the exit, or if you want to explore a bit and find the elusive golden gem, since there's only one hidden in every level of the game. And that actually determines what kind of ending you get as well. The controls may be a bit tricky for some people to pick up on, but it's not like they're weird for the sake of being weird, it's just a bit different. And once you get the hang of playing, this game is a lot of fun. Definitely check this one out. I mean what other game allows you to ride a cat while catching missiles and throwing them back at enemies? You gotta love that. Alright I want to thank you for watching and I hope you have a great rest of your day.