The History of Mischief Makers

Treasure began in mid-1995, before the Nintendo 64 launched, knowing little about the prototype console's final specifications, and chose it anyway, partly for its pixel quality and partly because cartridges load instantly, which suited action games, even though cartridges cost more than CDs. Maegawa said the Nintendo 64 had a harsher learning curve than even the Sega Saturn. An average of 12 people built it. It was Treasure's first game for a Nintendo console after an all-Sega history, and its first published by Enix, which had chased Treasure's action reputation for years; Nintendo published it in the West after Enix initially had no plans to release it outside Japan.

The hardest problem was the idea itself: a catching mechanic. Marina grabs nearly anything, shakes it, and throws it. The team chose that system deliberately to depart from the Gunstar Heroes shooter design. Composer Norio Hanzawa scored it, and Marina's shaken enemies produced the era's most quoted sound bite: Shake, shake!

Mischief Makers is the Nintendo 64's first 2D side-scrolling game, rendered in 2.5D with pre-rendered 3D behind 2D play: five worlds, 52 levels, warp stars at the end of each. Grabbed objects change when shaken: guns gain multi-directional fire, missiles home, gems fall out of enemies and restore health. Hidden yellow gems lengthen the final cutscene. Nearly everything on Planet Clancer, people, buildings, and pets alike, wears the same sad face with glowing red eyes, which no review let pass without comment.