Mischief Makers

Still one of the N64's more unique games, Mischief Makers is a 2D platformer with a focus on shaking and throwing objects and enemies. It's an interesting concept, but becomes tedious coupled with the game's frustrating controls. Whilst the story begins promisingly, its pacing falls flat almost immediately and many of the levels feel fleeting, disconnected and unfinished.

(Captivating title aside...)
Mischief Makers is one of those forgotten niche classics that had debuted on a mainstream console that is worth rediscovering for a while: this Enix sleeper hit, in facts, was one of the earliest games (along with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, ideally its Goth companion) to perfectly blend 2D and 3D, action platforming, sidescroll shooting, puzzle settings, RPG elements such as crafting (the "shake" container mechanic, for example), combined with Japanese kitch aesthetics set to a synthetic amphetaminic orgy of colors, dialog/textbox drama (involving several sub-plots), manic pacing, and an oversaturated freakout of action-packed bonanza that sometimes reaches delirious climaxes -- especially difficulty-wise.

Matter of fact, the game is so complex and detailed that controls and mechanics oftentimes fail standard human comprehension ("weird controls"): possibly no other N64 requires so many combinations off from its controller (and, possibly, of any other controller, 3-buttons consoles aside).
This is not a game for kids, albeit it may seem disguised as such.

You impersonate a female android (don't remember the story exactly: more than 20 years have passed since then) with superhuman strength off in this weird psych-mushroom land crowded by mask-alike Scream-mask creatures masking screams mask scream masking scream masks who, err, are in some trouble due to a gang of fearsome bosses -- that are to be defeated by using the various complex skills that are learnt in the course of the game.
This game makes Rayman look like Pong difficulty-wise (keep in mind that I'm biased in favor of difficult games, having grown up playing the difficult ones first at a times when most games, whether arcades or consoles, were incredibly difficult by today's "braindead" standards, so response and feedback may vary).

Puzzles oftentimes involve interacting with both scenario (the mask-alike blocks) and enemies in order to unlock paths to unlock collectables, furniture, passages, or even deceiving traps -- and most of the times these puzzles cannot be repeated whatsoever.
There are not many games from the time that reward so many different videogaming skills at once -- or even bodily skills, due to the controller combos.

There is an emotional kind-of romance tale story hidden in between that develops in the course of the game -- at a certain point you even switch characters as the protagonist falls ill and must be revived -- albeit I do not remember much as my 5-years-old-toddler's English was quite broken.
The scenario is varied between rural and urban areas: there's a nice range of environments between "chapters". The characters, puzzles, and settings are quite odd, and require both logical reasoning and speed.

Worth rediscovering.

Nostalgia is a strange thing, I remember this game fondly and getting pretty far into it from when I first played it. Now returning to it 20 years later, it is a bizarre, clunky and sluggish platformer that definitely does not hold up in the slightest. The only thing really of note is definitely the soundtrack, it is still one of my favorites from the N64. Certainly no hate from me though, I recognize the cult like charm this game has garnered as the years go by but I feel the only way I can truly appreciate it is if I was 7 again. The art style is definitely a major draw back for me, Always hated that extreme angular anime look that definitely dates this game pretty hard, looking at the in game art of the main character, Marina Liteyears, takes me back to those cringey "how to draw anime characters" books you would see at Barnes and Noble. A game that I definitely would love to see a remake for by a talented indie studio, hopefully with better controls to boot.

Fun game but way too short. The controls & mechanics take a while to get used to, a lot of them aren't explained very well in lieu of reading the manual, which would be a deal breaker in 2016, but I'm willing to tolerate it here. There's also a problem with the level sequencing, in that some of the hardest levels are in world 2. I think this may have been intentional on the part of the developers to cover up the fact that there are only three worlds after that one, by increasing the difficulty so early on that it takes a relatively long time just to get to the later levels. In general, though, there tends to be a lot of variety in the design of each level, especially after the earlier ones have familiarized the player with the basics of the controls and mechanics - some of the "themes"/objectives are really wild. Unfortunately, far too often ideas are explored which never show up again. The plot is similarly kind of underdeveloped, or at least it takes a long time for it to develop much at all, but it's substantial enough to serve the game's purposes, and there's certainly a lot of funny/bizarre dialog which gives it a very unique charm. On a whole this feels like it was initially envisioned as something much more ambitious in scope, based on the variety of one-time mechanics employed in various levels, etc., but deadlines & hardware limitations prevented it from being taken completely to those ends and so there was a lot of rearranging in terms of pacing etc. to make it seem presentable and not unfinished. It's also disappointingly easy, and doesn't have much replay value at all. Consequently, a lot of more recent evaluations seem to be based more on nostalgia (this was still a relatively popular title for the N64, but then I guess it had such a small library that every release for that console must've been bought by those who owned it simply because there was nothing else to play) than on honest critical evaluation, but I will say that the imagination shown throughout the levels and the ginormous, crazy unbelievable bosses is really impressive, and showcases what the developers were capable of.

Tbh I can't say it any better than the GameSpot review says it, so go read that & you'll basically get the jist of what I mean. It's a good game, but you can tell there was a lot more intended for it than what it ultimately became. If Treasure hadn't recently called it quits I'd say that an expanded remake might be incredibly opportune given the fond reminiscences you can find on the internet from people as old as yours truly.