* AntiClimaxBoss: Imposing as he may be, the final boss [[spoiler:Emperor Leo]] doesn't attack too often, he can't take many hits, and he stays in one area. The fight with [[spoiler:the combined Beastector mechs]] makes up for it, though.
* AssPull: [[spoiler:The Beastector turning out to have originally been human.]] It has no bearing on the overall plot and comes up at the literal end of the game. The only hint to it prior is [[spoiler:Merco mentioning Earth as one of the Empire's targets after his boss fight with Marina]].
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The game has an outstanding soundtrack, but the best of the best definitely goes to the boss themes.
* BestBossEver: Pretty much every boss in the game is insanely memorable, but an especially stand-out one is Cerberus Alpha, the first Beastector boss. A HighSpeedBattle against an AxCrazy jackal-man riding a giant robot motorcycle [[TransformingMecha that turns into a dog]], while you ride on a [[CuteKitten cat]] to catch and throw all of his attacks back at him, which includes missiles and a ''WaveMotionGun''. You can even jump on his missiles and ride around on them, creating a RobotGirl, on an alien cat, on a missile.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** In one early example, Teran sprouts into the giant, destructive "Blockman". In this form, he can smash obstacles and enemies with ease. [[SoLastSeason It's only mentioned again as a reason to leave at the end of the game.]]
** Other levels begin with Marina riding a missile, an ostrich, and a giant bee, with no explanation given.
** Yet another level has you retrieving the King's tricycle for him while avoiding [[AdvancingWallOfDoom an advancing geyser]]. The tricycle is never brought up again outside that level.
* CultClassic: The game didn't do spectacular when it was originally released, but those who did play it generally speak fondly of it. See what happened to [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd the Nerd]] below.
%%* EnsembleDarkhorse: Teran [[spoiler:A.K.A. Blockman]] and Calina Clancer.
%%* EvilIsCool: The Beastector, especially Lunar. [[spoiler:This is actually inverted considering they are actually heroes being brainwashed by the BigBad]].
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: Theo [[spoiler:pretending to die]] to prank Marina just before the FinalBoss. After he
* HilariousInHindsight: The main gimmick of the Emperor's battle [[spoiler:of dealing with negative words which later turn into positive words]] is similar to one of the phases of one of the final bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''.
* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: Collecting a gold gem results in a VERY satisfying fanfare.
%%* {{Narm}}: Lunar's ending line upon destroying the Cerberus Alpha, due to questionable voice acting and [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable odd syllable stressing]].
%%--> "''How'' could I ''lose'' to ''you''?!"
%%* NarmCharm: Most of Lunar's lines, and indeed the dialogue from everyone. Of special note:
%%--> '''Lunar:''' THROUGH FIRE, JUSTICE IS SERVED!
* NightmareFuel:
** Everything on the planet Clancer has the same twisted frozen face. ''Everything.'' This is made even worse if you consider the fact that said face resembles a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haniwa haniwa]].
** Inner Struggle, where Emperor Leo takes on the form of [[spoiler: [[SinisterGeometry a creepy monolith with various markings on it]]]]. The actual battle has some rather haunting music, with word bubbles floating up containing words of negative emotion like "Dire" and "Anger", all while a large flame-like fog fills the area whilst changing colors, and additional monoliths float in the back. Should you not know that [[spoiler:you can use the word bubbles to attack Emperor Leo]], it comes off greatly like a HopelessBossFight.
* SacredCow: Criticizing the game is bound to get you eviscerated on some sites. Best seen in the fandom's reaction to WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd's former intro, where he's shown glaring down at a copy of the game as though he's about to bash it; he never intended on reviewing the game, and promised to keep it that way.
* ThatOneBoss:
** Both Lunar and Merco are fast and aggressive in their mechs, but the real challenge is defeating each [[NoDamageRun without taking damage]]. These are often described as the hardest Gold Gems to collect in the game. Thankfully, Lunar's battle has a {{Good Bad Bug|s}} that locks him out of advancing beyond his second phase and Merco's gets progressively easier.
** Migen Brawl, while not hard on its own, happens to be one of the hardest boss battles to get the Gold Gem on simply because it's the longest boss battle in the game and a single mistake requires starting the whole thing over.
* ThatOneSidequest:
** Acquiring all the Gold Gems, especially the one from the Beastector mechs. While several Gold Gems are easy enough to obtain, usually only requiring the player to explore the levels thoroughly and/or pay attention to NPC dialogue for clues, any Gold Gems obtained from {{Boss Battle}}s require a NoDamageRun, as mentioned above.
** In a roundabout example, the Gold Gem for Hot Rush (2-4) is an example because it's a major RedHerring. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMkX0w86g9U#t=44m18s As explained by]] WebVideo/NitroRad, while the level's layout implies that the player needs to race to grab the friendly Clancers and throw them to safety before the platforms underneath explode and drop the Clancers to their doom, with the last NPC at the end of the stage requiring ''a lot'' of precision and timing to get right, this isn't necessary at all. Instead, players need to wait for the red platforms above a single Clanball to detonate, fall down and grab it, and then shake the Clanball before continuing onward, causing a new Clanball to spawn at the end which contains the Yellow Gem.
** Clearing the 100m world record in 3-10 (a time under '''11''' seconds), which is required for one of the Gold Gems. It's easy to mess up by either getting a false start or not being quick enough on the trigger finger, and you need to mash the D-pad, not the C buttons, in order to dash quickly enough to clear the event in time -- [[GuideDangIt something the game doesn't tell you]].
** Getting an S ranking in every level, which entails clearing the levels in a ludicrously low amount of time. To wit, it's common for [[{{Speedrun}} runners]] at ''WebVideo/GamesDoneQuick'' to miss an S-Rank here or there during their runs of the game, to the point of them occasionally being [[LuckBasedMission Luck-Based Missions]] (the on-rails levels generally speaking).
* VindicatedByHistory: Much like ''VideoGame/YoshisStory'', ''Mischief Makers'' was criticised on its initial release for what was seen as an outdated TwoAndAHalfD style instead of the fully 3D style that was then becoming ubiquitous in platform games, before being seen as an unsung classic of the Nintendo 64 library years later, when it became apparent how poorly many of the system's 3D platformers had aged.
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