The player assumes the role of Marina Liteyears, a robotic maid who journeys to rescue her creator, Professor Theo, from the emperor of Planet Clancer.

The game was announced at the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo and was released in Japan on June 27 that year and later in the United States, Europe, and Australia.

[2] The story takes place on Planet Clancer, a world on the cusp of civil war due to the actions of its Emperor and his Imperial forces.

[3] Theo's creation, the player-character Ultra-InterGalactic-Cybot G Marina Liteyears, pursues the professor and grabs, throws, and shakes the obstacles in her way, such as enemies, floating "Clanball" platforms, warp stars, and missiles.

En route, Marina shakes enemies, breaks blocks, uses weapons, and rides "bikes" and objects along wire path mazes.

[3] Almost all things on Planet Clancer—including people, buildings, and pets—either wear or are inscribed with identical "sad" faces with red, glowing eyes.

[6] A Clancer named Teran substitutes for Marina in several brief areas and uses non-shake mechanics like punching, kicking, and double jumping.

[2] They found their development environment restrictive and left to try riskier concepts and to singularly focus on making "great games".

Though the team was different in composition from that of previous Treasure games, it included the lead programmer and character designer from Gunstar Heroes.

The company sought to depart from the Gunstar Heroes shoot 'em up design, and chose to build Mischief Makers around an original "catching" gameplay mechanic, which became the hardest aspect to implement.

[14] It was later demonstrated at the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo[12] and released in Japan on June 27, 1997,[15] the United States on October 1,[2], in Europe on December 12,[16] and in Australia in 1998.

[11] Near the Japanese launch, Treasure announced that it would continue to develop for the Nintendo 64 with the Japan-only Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh, which was released in September and later introduced to North America as Bangai-O.

[21] IGN's Matt Casamassina said that the game compensated for its average graphics with excellent level design and gameplay challenges.

[4] Next Generation wrote that "only diehard 2D platform fans" would be interested and that the game did not meet standards set by Super Mario 64.

[30] GamePro instead argued that the similarity to Mario is superficial, and that Mischief Makers had carved out its own niche with unique gameplay mechanics.

Other Famitsu reviewers admired Treasure's signature robot designs and were puzzled by the company's choice to use buttons instead of the 3D analog stick.

[3] He added that the complex controls allowed for experimentation that led to new and fun gameplay, and though the throwing enemies mechanic seemed to follow from Gunstar Heroes, the Clanball platforming was unintuitive.

[3] John Harris of Gamasutra wrote that the game borrowed other elements from Gunstar Heroes, with similar protagonists, collectible gems, and bosses.

[7] As the game took time to learn and understand, O'Neill left the reader to decide whether it was "ultimately convoluted or bordering on sophistication and genius".

[22] O'Neill of Nintendo Life said it had great variety in gameplay mechanics (from maze puzzles to outrunning lava), graphics (from bosses that scale back the screen to levels with screen rotation), and audio (from upbeat quirk to scary), and added that he was surprised that other critics were against the "unique, varied, and dramatic" sound.

[8] Gamasutra's John Harris noted its "tremendous variety" in gameplay—from a Track & Field remake to outrunning a missile barrage—as rare for 2D platformers, and commented that "it is obvious that Treasure poured their hearts into this game".

[10] He liked the bosses, which made the player use all available skills but said they were short-lived and easily solved in the context of a short game with tutorials as one-fifth of its levels.

[21] Hardcore Gamer's Ryan Cartmel said it went "largely unnoticed",[31] and GamePro claimed that it had "[developed] a strong following in Japan".