Go! Go (away)! Troublemakers!
Written: Feb 27 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great graphics, clean presentation
Cons: Bad controls, who has that quick a thumb?
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| 32_Footsteps's Full Review: Mischief Makers for Nintendo 64 |
The platformer is dead, long live 3-D. I heard that battle cry reverberate throughout gaming as Doom ushered in a whole gaggle of games interested in searching through a pseudo-three dimensional environment as opposed to the side-scrollers of old. I worried, not totally satisfied with the game play in the newest batch of games. Could a good platformer never come out again?
I heard when Mischief Makers, then called Yuke! Yuke! Troublemakers! (Go! Go! Troublemakers!) in Japan, came out. An old-fashioned action game, for the N64. This got me excited, and I eagerly awaited the day when I could play this game, using old programming knowledge with the new hardware to make a truly excellent action title. I told all my friends about how much the game was going to rock. And all my friends watched as I ate those words.
The game follows the travails and doings of Marina Lightstar, a robot who has her hands full with Clancers, an odd collection of aliens who look remarkably like the villain in Scream. Some Clancers are benevolent, some aren't, but all of them are helping Marina's life be interesting. Whether Marina is rescuing her creator or helping a team of Clancers through an Olympics of sorts, the game certainly lives up to its title, in either language.
Graphically, the game is an accomplishment. Pixels never looked so good. The colors are bright and varied, and everything is clean and easily distinguished. You get the feeling of being in a light-hearted episode of anime, and if you've ever seen Saber Marionette J, you'd swear that Marina is about to join the characters in that series. Of course, this means that the game is automatically going to be labeled 'cute' and derided by people who think that anything 'cute' is beneath them. My view is that these people should be locked in a room with a Pikachu for a couple of hours, but I'm cruel like that.
However, the game play is beyond frustrating. Button pushing comes down to a science in this game, and if you don't have the timing of, say, a nuclear clock, you're going to screw up in alot of places in the game. Add to this that the game times you, giving you a grade from 'D' to 'A' for each level accomplished, and you'll find yourself bald from hair pulling before long, especially if you're intent on getting the ultra-difficult 'S' rating. To put things in perspective, I could get licenses in Gran Turismo quicker than getting a good grade in this game.
Even more evil is the rate of button pushing this game requires. Before anyone questions my thumb stamina, I'm the guy who can regularly beat Gradius and R-Type games. Rapid fire and quick barrel rolls in an intense firefight are nothing new to me, so those of you who think I'm just good in role-playing games can stuff that right now. But Mischief Makers is the first game I have ever seen where you cannot get past certain points without a turbo controller. No game should be released where you have to buy a turbo controller to get past a certain area. The fact that it seems absolutely necessary makes this automatically not worth your time.
This is a damn shame, because I really want a fun side-scroller to come out. I'm tired of watching games be a rip-off or combination of either Mario 64, Tomb Raider, and Doom. Has video gaming gotten so stagnant that we are left with very few gems? I hope not. But in the meantime, you may want to look at Mischief Makers, just to know why platforming games aren't being made anymore - nobody knows what to do with them, and everyone wants three-dimensions, even if they can't do it right.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
32_Footsteps
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Rick Healey
Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 234
Trusted by: 278 members
About Me:
Back from E3 - tiring, but worth it.
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