Marilyn's Midnight Adventure

Marilyn's Midnight Adventure (released in North America as Marilyn's Moonlight Adventures) is an action-adventure video game based on the The Sweet Treets franchise. The game stars the character Marilyn Madison, and is a follow-up to the 2001 video game Nate's Great Adventure. It was released in PAL regions in November 2005 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. The game was also released in North America in March 2006, though the Game Boy Advance version was not released in the region.

Franchise creator Taylor Ridley returned as a director for the game. Additionally, all of the cast from All New! The Sweet Treets and The Life of Louise reprised their roles as their respective characters. According to Ridley, the game chronologically takes place a few months after the events of The Life of Louise.

Marilyn's Midnight Adventure was a moderate success, with the PlayStation 2 version selling 400,000 copies in PAL regions. It was re-released in 2006 under the Platinum range in the region. However, Marilyn's voice actress Opaline Robins claimed in a 2008 interview that the game underperformed in the North American region.

Plot
Structured in an episodic format, the game focuses on Marilyn and the antics she gets up to during the school holidays after suffering from insomnia.

Gameplay
Marilyn's Midnight Adventure is a 3D action-adventure game, except for the Game Boy Advance version, which is instead 2D. The game is divided into seven chapters, all of which take place during a single day each. In each chapter, the player plays as Marilyn and has to explore the environment, usually the franchise's main setting Eastwood Park, and complete any tasks that are given to them - the pause menu grants the player access to the map of the area they are in, as well as a reminder for the task they should be doing.

In addition, each chapter also has three Extra Missions the player can take part in. One of the missions involves a minigame, which is unlocked in the multiplayer mode after it is completed. Players can save their progress in the middle of a chapter, but once they complete said chapter, they must start it from the beginning if they want to repeat it. Thus, if the player finishes the chapter, any progress made on Extra Missions is reset, unless they were completed.

Marilyn plays similarly to how Nate does in Nate's Great Adventure, being able to perform a single jump (though unlike the previous game, it can't be charged up), crawl and interact with certain other objects (such as being able to cling onto certain walls). She can also run for a limit amount of time (though will freeze to catch her breath if she runs for too long) and, new to the game, can also perform a roll on the ground.

Unlike Nate's Great Adventure, the game has no "enemies" of sorts, though there are a few obstacles Marilyn has to avoid throughout the game. If Marilyn ends up getting hurt by something, she will simply recover within a few seconds, though some Extra Missions expect the player to beat the entire chapter without taking any damage.

Sometimes, the player has to take control of Louise, Swoop and King Rojo. Each of them plays differently during their respective segments and involve different gameplay elements, such as King Rojo's segments mostly involving smashing hard objects with a hammer, whilst Swoop's segments focus on his flying ability.

Free Play
Like other games in the Sweet Treets franchise, Marilyn's Midnight Adventure features a Free Play Mode, where the player can explore the hub worlds in the game as they like (though some areas are blocked off). In this mode, the player can also access Marilyn's Treehouse and the Eastwood Warehouse. The latter lets the player buy items and designs so the former can be customised to one's liking.

GameCube vs. PS2 differences

 * The GameCube version runs at 60 frames per second, whilst the PS2 version only runs at 30 frames per second.
 * Loading times are longer on the PS2 version.
 * The GameCube version has brighter shading.
 * Some of the objects that animate in the GameCube version are static in the PS2 version.

GBA differences

 * The GBA version is a 2D game, unlike the other versions.
 * Due to the GBA's limited hardware, the in-game cutscenes are replaced with text boxes.

DS differences

 * The DS version uses the system's touch screen, replacing some of the button-based events with stylus-based controls.
 * The game's menus can be controlled with either the D-pad and buttons or the stylus.
 * Although most of the cutscenes remain, NPCs found throughout the hub world interact with text boxes instead of voice acting.
 * Loading times are longer compared to the home console version.

Development
A follow-up to Nate's Great Adventure was conceived in 2002. When considering Sweet Treets characters who could potentially star in their own game, Taylor Ridley considered King Rojo and Swoop, but the rejected the former as she had difficulty coming up with an idea that would work well, and rejected the latter as she was unimpressed with how a demo that she directed on PlayStation 2 hardware went.

When Ashley Maverick organised a survey asking fans what their favourite characters from the series were, Marilyn, Rusty and Gunge got a lot more votes than she anticipated, with all three appearing in the top six. Maverick pitched a Marilyn-based game to Ridley. Ridley accepted the idea, but changed the pitch drastically - in Maverick's pitch, Marilyn would use mild profanity and hit enemies with a giant hammer. Ridley said that violence contradicated the franchise's tone, and was afraid showing a young girl from Kuboian media in a stereotypical light.