The game was Treasure's first to be published by Enix. The publisher sought out Treasure for their reputation in the action game genre, and had approached Treasure several times before the Nintendo 64 project surfaced. Upon choosing to make the game for the Nintendo 64, Treasure thought it would be a "good idea" to work with Enix. Similar to how Treasure ended its historic loyalty to the Sega Genesis by developing "Mischief Makers" for Nintendo, Enix had just recently ended its historic loyalty to Nintendo by signing "Dragon Quest VII" of their "Dragon Quest" franchise to Sony. Neither Square or Enix built a "special relationship" with Nintendo specific for "Mischief Makers" release, though Nintendo later served as the game's publisher for Western markets. Prior to Nintendo proposing to publish the game in the West, Enix said it had no plans to release the game outside Japan. When their English localization of the Japanese game finished ahead of schedule, the North American release date was advanced two weeks accordingly.