Mischief Makers reviewed

In the land where 3-D Nintendo games were absolute king, one game dared to be 2-D.  One game dared to get back to gaming's roots.  That game was Mischief Makers.  And all I saw of it when I was a child was a five-second clip in one of Nintendo's VHS promo thingys.  But that was it.  I was hooked and I knew I must play it when it was finally released.  And I did and it has stuck with me for many, many years.

On the planet Clancer where, everything has this weird face on it, Professor Theo and his robot Marina Liteyears are doing...stuff.  But then, Theo gets kidnapped by the evil emperor and it's up to Marina to go and save him and then save him again when you do save him.  The path to saving Theo isn't easy since the Emperor's lackeys, the Beastsector, who's out to stop you from saving Theo since they think you're out destroying Clancer.

This game pretty much broken down into two areas, speed and grabbing things.  Okay, it's mostly grabbing things since a couple levels aren't really speed based...but it does keep track of how much time you take to complete a level and grade you accordingly.  You do want a high grade don't you?  Anyways, grabbing things is the main focus of the game.  You can grab pots, balls, people, flowers, cats, missiles and even lasers.  There's an inventiveness to it when you can grab whatever you need to solve whatever problem you're in.  And then you can shake things to make things do even more things!  And sometimes make more things.  Yes, I know this sounds horrifically silly but it really is much more fun than it sounds.

And when you're not grabbing things, you're fighting bosses....and they are hard.  All you're stuck with is just grabbing things and occasionally getting a weapon.  And while you will die a lot, it never really becomes frustrating.  It's always fun since trying to find the what to do to hurt the boss is a bit of a puzzle.  There's never really a time you'll get so mad that you throw the controller against something like the TV or the wall.

This game has really stood the test of time.  It looks great, it has some awesome music and voice-acting clips.  The story is decent.  And no matter what wacky hijinks are at play, story-wise or gameplay-wise, you always sense that the game plays fair and with enough practice you can eventually master it.  It never gets too dull or too frustrating.  This is a great game that deserves to be remembered for being amazing entertainment.

9/10