It's Mr. Pants
Developer(s)Rare[lower-alpha 1]
Publisher(s)
  • THQ (GBA)
  • In-Fusio (mobile)
Designer(s)Justin Cook
Paul Machacek
Programmer(s)Paul Machacek
Artist(s)Leigh Loveday
Ryan Stevenson
Composer(s)Robin Beanland
David Wise
Eveline Fischer
Platform(s)Game Boy Advance, mobile phone
ReleaseGame Boy Advance
Mobile
  • EU: May 11, 2005[3]
  • NA: March 1, 2006
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player

It's Mr. Pants is a puzzle video game developed by Rare. It was published by THQ for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) handheld game console in North America and Europe in 2004–2005. A port of the game for mobile phones was developed and published internationally by In-Fusio in 2005–2006. The game stars Mr. Pants, a crudely drawn mascot formerly featured on Rare's website who had made cameo appearances in several prior Rare games.

Gameplay

The basic idea of the game is to create rectangles which have to be two-by-three blocks or larger to clear them from the grid. Blocks cannot be placed on top of blocks of the same color that are already on the grid, but they can be placed on top of blocks of any other color which causes the different blocks on the grid to disappear.

The game incorporates three main game modes: Puzzle, in which players must clear a puzzle board using a limited selection of specific blocks; Wipeout, in which players have a two minute time limit to clear all blocks from the grid; and Marathon, in which the available grid space is slowly restricted while players attempt to achieve the highest score possible. Each mode has four difficulty levels, ranging from "Easy" to "Special", with each difficulty unlocked after clearing the previous one. Players are awarded a trophy for each successfully completed difficulty level. Upon completing all four difficulties in Puzzle mode, a fourth game type is unlocked called "Max the Mystical Mouse's Muddle", in which players must clear rectangles of specific sizes as provided by the eponymous Max.

Development and release

It's Mr. Pants was developed by Rare, which, during much of the game's production, was a second-party developer for Nintendo. Rare was responsible for creating games in Nintendo's long-running Donkey Kong franchise. Early in the course of development, the game went through several name changes including Splonge, Nutcracker, Animal Cracker, and Sunflower.[4] It was eventually presented by Rare at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2001 as Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, one of four titles for Nintendo's GBA handheld game console.[5][6]

Nintendo aimed to release Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers on 7 December 2001,[7] but was likely postponed ahead of time due to the forthcoming acquisition from Microsoft in 2002. In September 2002, Nintendo announced it had sold off its 49 percent stake in Rare back to the latter company; Rare subsequently sold its entire company to Microsoft Studios.[8] The Donkey Kong intellectual property for which Nintendo held Rare responsible, defaulted back to Nintendo, forcing Rare to abandon this theme for the then-upcoming puzzle game.[4][9] On August 11, 2003, Microsoft announced their partnership with publisher THQ for distributing Rare's GBA titles, including the newly revealed It's Mr. Pants, set for an early 2004 release.[10]

It's Mr. Pants was originally conceived by Rare veterans Tim Stamper and Gregg Mayles.[9] The game was chiefly designed by Justin Cook and Paul Machacek.[9][11] Cook, who credits himself for creating two-thirds of the game's levels, described It's Mr. Pants as "just a solid puzzle game", stating, "We knew that it wasn't a big 'wow' game, but the playability was there." After the breakdown of its relationship with Nintendo, Rare chose to rebrand the game using one of their other characters. The team initially considered using characters from the Banjo-Kazooie or Sabreman franchises before settling on Rare's online mascot Mr. Pants, which the company used in its website surveys collectively called "The Pantsboard".[12][4][13][14] The character Mr. Pants was originally illustrated by artist Leigh Loveday, but the design was implemented into the game by Ryan Stevenson.[15] Mayles recounted that the "childish" visual style used in It's Mr. Pants was accomplished by having the right-handed artists draw with their left hands to intentionally make the illustrations appear "genuinely bad".[4]

The Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers incarnation of the game featured the ability to switch between top-down 2D graphics and a 3D isometric layout. According to the developer, the isometric perspective was scrapped due to "consistency issues" when swapping between the two views, due to it being awkward seeing where puzzle pieces near the back of the board were, and finally because it "just didn't look as nice" as they had hoped.[16] When It's Mr. Pants was first revealed as Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, the game was intended to be multiplayer for up to four individuals using the GBA Game Link Cable.[5] Rare had experimented with various multiplayer modes during the game's development, but ultimately released the game as single-player only.[15] Once the game was submitted to THQ, the publisher requested a few slight changes be made. For instance, the "Crayon Snake" that circles around the board in Marathon Mode was originally called the "trouser snake".[9] It's Mr. Pants was also in development for the Gizmondo handheld, but was cancelled due to the console's failure.[17]

Reception

The original game received "mixed or average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic, receiving an average score of 73 out of 100.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Harris, Craig (December 10, 2004). "It's Mr. Pants". IGN. Archived from the original on December 13, 2004. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
  2. ↑ Bramwell, Tom (February 4, 2005). "What's New?". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2013.
  3. ↑ GamesIndustry International (May 11, 2005). "IN-FUSIO Launches The Hilarious Puzzle Game It's Mr. Pants(tm) For Mobile". GamesIndustry International. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Edge staff (October 2010). "Rare Vintage (It's Mr. Pants)". Edge. No. 219. Future plc. p. 82. ISSN 1350-1593.
  5. 1 2 Harris, Craig (May 21, 2001). "Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  6. ↑ IGN staff (August 12, 2004). "It's Mr. Pants (Preview)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on November 4, 2020. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  7. ↑ GBX Magazine Game Boy Xtreme issues 4 (October 2001), page 10.
  8. ↑ Morris, Chris (September 20, 2002). "Microsoft buys game developer Rare". CNN. Cable News Network, Inc. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Sheffield, Brandon (October 12, 2007). "A Rare Opportunity: On Piñatas, Microsoft and More". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  10. ↑ IGN staff (August 11, 2003). "Rare Line-up Revealed". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  11. ↑ Riley, Adam (September 4, 2008). "Interview | Rare Talks Viva Piñata on Nintendo DS & More". Cubed3. Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  12. ↑ Rare Revealed: The Making of It's Mr. Pants (Video). Twycross, England: Rare. August 5, 2016. Event occurs at 2:35. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved January 31, 2021. I think it'd been 'Banjo's Jiggy Juggle', and that actually had an animation of Banjo juggling jigsaw pieces, and then there was also a Sabreman version.
  13. ↑ Rare staff (September 2005). "Rare: The Pantsboard". Rare. Archived from the original on August 15, 2004. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  14. ↑ Massimilla, Bethanny (September 2, 2004). "It's Mr Pants Preview". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 31, 2021. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  15. 1 2 NWR staff (February 3, 2005). "Banjo Pilot / It's Mr. Pants Interview". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  16. ↑ Harris, Craig (December 7, 2004). "Chat with the Rare Handheld Team". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  17. ↑ GamesIndustry International (November 9, 2004). "Microsoft developing titles for Gizmondo". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  18. 1 2 "It's Mr. Pants for Game Boy Advance Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  19. ↑ Edge staff (March 2005). "It's Mr. Pants". Edge. No. 147. Future plc. p. 93. Archived from the original on May 14, 2005. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  20. ↑ Reed, Kristan (February 14, 2005). "It's Mr Pants". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  21. ↑ "It's Mr. Pants". Game Informer. No. 141. GameStop. January 2005. p. 148.
  22. ↑ Provo, Frank (March 3, 2005). "It's Mr. Pants Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  23. ↑ Barnholt, Ray (December 8, 2004). "GameSpy: It's Mr. Pants". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on November 20, 2005. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  24. ↑ Harris, Craig (December 10, 2004). "It's Mr. Pants (GBA)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  25. ↑ Buchanan, Levi (March 1, 2006). "It's Mr. Pants! [sic] (Cell)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  26. ↑ "It's Mr. Pants". Nintendo Power. Vol. 187. Nintendo of America. January 2005. p. 140.
  27. ↑ Kosmina, Ben (May 8, 2005). "It's Mr. Pants". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  28. ↑ Clark, Gareth (March 27, 2005). "It's Mr Pants Review". VideoGamer.com. Resero Network. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  1. ↑ The mobile port was developed by In-Fusio.
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