A gem from the past

Haven't been keeping up with this very well, so progressively this week, I'm going to try to ante up and make up for the lost time.

Tonight I bring you the tale of a game that experienced little love, a treasure by Treasure during the somewhat lackluster years of post-launch Nintendo 64. I speak of Mischief Makers, a the faux-3D 2-D side-scrolling platform gem buried amongst the burgeoning 3-D market.
This game tells the story of Professor Theo and his robotic maid, Ultra-Intergalactic-Cybot G Marina Liteyears during their visit to the planet Clancer. During their stay, the professor is kidnapped in a very Princess Peach-like fashion, whisked away by the evil empire ruling the planet Clancer. It's up to Marina to save her creator, and she does so with a rather unorthodox style of gameplay in a bizarre world where everything has a similar face.
The side-scrolling adventure's actions revolve mostly around Marina's grabbing move, after which she can shake, toss, or use objects. Objects shaken can activate other effects or shake loose Crystals or other items. Marina can use her jetpack to double-jump or jet sideways to avoid enemies, but mostly you'll want to be grabbing and tossing your foes as much as possible. Not every enemy is as easily defeated as that, and some levels and bosses can require fast reflexes, especially if you desire the Gold Gem that exists in every level.
The whimsy of this game comes in it's simplistic but frantic play style along with it's bizarre world and graphics. There are few shortcomings that come to mind -- the difficulty is adequately challenging, and each level offers a different type of obstacle or puzzle for you to overcome. If anything, the only complaint I'd have is that it does not have any sort of sequel or remake yet. If I could, I'd petition Nintendo to put this little gem on the Virtual Console.