Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads

***Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads*** (ミッチェル・ヴァン・モーガン：赤毛の同胞, *Mitcheru vu~an mōgan: Akage no dōhō*?) is a 2009 role-playing video game based on the Mitchell Van Morgan franchise developed by THQ's Canadian developer THQ Canada, published by THQ, and distributed by Nickelodeon Interactive Games for Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable & Microsoft Windows PC as THQ Canada's first RPG video game project. The game initially focuses on the events surrounding the kidnapping of Martin Moody and the disappearance of the Power Stones after the defeat of Doctor Marquessa, before moving on to follow the cast of characters across two dimensions as they encounter a new ally, Morbis the Redhead-American girl, and seek to stop the invasion of their world by Ix, the leader of Morbis' tribe, the Nightshade tribe.

The game was released in September 2009 in Australia, Europe and then North America. It was released in Japan on August 6, 2010. It was generally received favorably by critics, who appreciated both the graphics and environments, as well as Mitchell's overall transition to the role-playing genre; the music and story (seen as somewhat "lightweight" for a role-playing game, possibly to be more suitable for younger gamers) were received with mixed reactions, as were some gameplay elements, such as the combat system.

## Gameplay

As with many RPGs, there are two main types of the gameplay feature: adventure fields and combat. In the adventure fields, a character is controlled by tapping the stylus on the Nintendo DS (or by using the mouse on the PC version) where the player wants the character to go. Action bubbles appear when near obstacles that can be interacted with, and are used to traverse certain features of the environment. The Navigation can also require a certain character to be in the lead for progress to continue, taking advantage of that character's special ability, be it flying, climbing, or dashing. The Puzzle elements also feature, allowing the party to work together to complete a task, usually involving pressing switches in various areas to make something happen.

Enemies can be seen walking around in the adventure fields. Depending on the party's level, enemies may be aggressive and move towards the player. If an enemy is touched, combat begins. Battles are fought in a close-up, turn-based battle arena. Standard attacks are available as well as special attacks, dubbed POW Moves, which can be performed by following the on-screen prompts and tapping the stylus when and where you are indicated to. These moves use up POW Points, in a manner similar to "Magic Points" in other RPGs. Both solo and team Pow Moves exist. Team attacks require two, three, or all four characters, and drain Pow Points from each. All of these POW moves requires the player to perform real-time events on the touch screen with the stylus but are extremely powerful if performed successfully.

## Plot

The story of Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads is split into ten chapters. The first six take place in Mitchell's world, with the team attempting to find Martin, and trying to stop the Master Stone from being taken by the Marauders. The final four sees Mitchell and the team traveling to another dimension, called the Twilight Cage, in order to stop a new threat to their own world and confront the alien species that reside there.

The game opens by detailing the "final" defeat of Dr. Marquessa, with Martin, Carolyn, and Mitchell distracting the scientist while Gavin sabotages Marquessa's ship, the V-Carrier, which falls to Marquessa's base in Marquessa Land. As all his of machines were destroyed and suspicious activity ceased, Dr. Marquessa was presumed dead. As things had gone quiet, Mitchell decided to go on a solo adventure around the world, and the others thus went on their separate ways.

After some considerable time had passed, Mitchell received a call from Gavin while on his vacation, stating that Martin had been kidnapped. Traveling to Central City with Carolyn, Jennifer, David & Nicholas to meet with Gavin, they are escorted by Ebony Nichole Lewis to R.U.N. headquarters to meet the Commander. He informs them that they, along with Team Brock, have been watching the Marauders for some time and have managed to locate their hideouts, but searching them for Martin proved fruitless. However, Tails managed to find and fix broken communicators found at each hideout, which allows them to pinpoint the location of the Marauders' base to the Mystic Ruins.

Traveling by Tails' Tornado plane to avoid the soldiers guarding the Ruins, they meet up with Big the Cat who helps them locate the base, where they find Knuckles escaping from some robots. Leaving the base, they find The Floating Island gone. Back at Gavin's workshop, Gavin develops an Marquessa Tracker to locate Marquessa and find out his connection to these events. After searching around previous areas for a while, including running into Shadow, Tails assembles a set of Marquessa's devices the group discovered along the way to disable a force field they had located in the grassland during their search. Inside, they find Marquessa, who claims to be a reformed character, revealing that he survived the crash of the Egg Carrier by anticipating his own defeat and making a robot that would rescue him and nurse him back to health. Eggman informs the team that Angel Island is being pulled to Metropolis, the location of the Marauders' main base.

Taking the Tornado once more to go to Blue Ridge Zone in order to enter Marquessa Land from there, they meet Sarah and join up in order to find V-07 Omega, who Sarah was looking for, but are attacked in Marquessa Land by Morbis and her Marauders. Morbis reveals herself to be a Redhead of the Nocturnus Clan, leaving Martin, supposedly the last of the Redhead-Americans, shocked. After Mitchell defeats her, she blocks the main pathway to Metropolis, but Eggman finds another route through a railway tunnel. Once there, Marquessa tells them of a weapon in his lab that could help defeat the Marauders, provided he has the necessary parts. Dividing into two teams, one group, with Mitchell and Martin, head to Angel Island to get the Master Emerald before the Marauders, and the other, led by Gavin and Marquessa, assists in making the weapon. Tails and his team develop a non-lethal weapon designed to return the Nocturnus to their unknown home. Meanwhile, Mitchell's team infiltrates a Nocturnus airship headed for the island, but encounter problems when the enemy manages to disable the ship's weapon. Tails and Eggman use one of the remaining weapons in Metropolis to shoot down the surrounding ships to clear the way for Mitchell, but accidentally shoot the ship on which their friends are on, sending them onto Angel Island. Once on the Island, Mitchell and Martin confront the Nocturnus leader, the Grand Imperator Ix, who reveals his plot to take over the dimension.

This revelation shocks Morbis, who believed that Ix merely wanted to bring the Nocturnus Clan back to earth, for they had been sealed in the alternate dimension called the Twilight Cage during the Argus Event. Ix's minions come close to defeating Mitchell and his team, but just as they are on the verge of defeat, Gavin and Marquessa arrive to save them, using a teleporter under Metropolis to get to the Island. They use their non-lethal weapon to transport several of the Nocturnus back to the Twilight Cage. The team fights Ix, but he escapes and steals the Master Stone (which is considerably smaller in this game), causing Floating Island to fall from the sky. Ix sends the heroes and Morbis flying away. Martin saves Morbis as the island crashes into Marquessa Land. From there, the group witnesses Ix creating a wormhole which transports the Nocturnus back to their realm, ready to dominate. Gavin and Marquessa come up with a plan to follow him, deciding to build a vehicle that could cross into the alternate dimension. However, the collision with Angel Island knocks the city's power out. Mitchell and a reformed Shade team up to restore the power, and also retrieve a Dimensional Buffer to help Gavin. The group leaves in the vehicle, dubbed the Cyclone, while Eggman remains behind, saying that he must make sure that they can return.

Once in the Twilight Cage, the Cyclone crash lands on a rocky planet, the Kron Colony, after being damaged during the inter-dimensional trip. Gavin suggests that they can power the ship up with a Power Stone, and locates one on the colony. The team are confronted by the Kron, giant rock creatures who believe them to be Nocturnus spies. The Kron are gifted weapon makers and were forced by Ix to create weapons and armor for his troops. The warehouse used by the Kron to produce these weapons is powered by a Power Stone, and Mitchell and team offer to liberate the colony from Ix's control. They manage to take the Emerald, and win the trust of the rock people, and travel onward. The Nocturnus homeworld of Nocturne is blocked off from the heroes by a force field, prompting them to visit the N'rrgal colony, the home of the slug-like, energy-leeching N'rrgal people.

The N'rrgal suck all the energy from the Cyclone, but Gavin discovers that another Power Stone is located on the planet. The N'rrgal queen meets the team and tells them that the bitter rivals of the N'rrgal race, the Zoah, are in possession of a powerful weapon, and that they cannot risk confronting them in battle. She offers their Power Stone in return for the Zoah's weapon. Mitchell and his team then head to the Zoah colony, where they must find and dispatch this "weapon." Upon talking to the Zoah leader, the team discovers that they are in allegiance to Ix, but only because he defeated their chief in single combat, and according to Zoah law, whoever defeats the leader can have any one favor from them, even the service of the entire race. Mitchell challenges the leader to a battle, and frees the Zoah from their servitude. The leader gives them a Power Stone, revealed to be the weapon given to them by Ix. The team realizes that Ix gave both the Zoah and N'rrgal Stones to keep the two races in check for his plans. Upon revealing this information to the leaders of the two races, they gain the trust of the Zoah and N'rrgal.

Gavin finds two more Emeralds in the Voxai Colonies. The Voxai are a race at peace, capable of mental domination. However, the Overmind, a group of three Voxai who rule the colonies, are truly loyal to Ix, and have taken control of the citizens, corrupting their minds. The team lands on Voxai Colony Beta, and meets Thebes, a citizen who has escaped the control of the Overmind. He tells them of the source of the Overmind's power, the Power Stones, with which they were able to dominate the minds of all the people in the Voxai colonies. Thebes leads them to a teleporter to take them to Voxai Colony Alpha, which is guarded by a psychic field to block out trespassers. Once there, they confront and defeat the Overmind. Thebes becomes the new Voxai leader, and gives them the two Power Stones given to them by Ix. With the last two stones on Nocturne, the team gathers the leaders of the Kron, N'rrgal, Zoah, and Voxai to the Kron Colony, where they all team up and come up with a plan to invade Nocturne. The united races, led by Mitchell and his team, launch an assault on the Nocturnus home world.

The Voxai find weaknesses in the force field around the planet, while the N'rrgal suck energy from it, and the Zoah launch a missile created by the Kron that can penetrate it. Mitchell and his friends pass through the opening made by the united races, and encounter Prefect Charyb and Prefect Scylla, two Gizoids who wield the elements of water and fire, respectively, each with a Chaos Emerald. The group splits in two, Mitchell and Gavin leading one group and Martin and Morbis leading the other. Martin is reluctant to kill Ix, believing that the Nocturnus can be saved, but promises not to let this belief interfere with the mission. The two teams lower the force field around Nocturne, allowing the forces from the other Twilight Cage races to enter. Sonic's team destroys Charyb, while Martin' team kills Scylla, each winning a Power Stone. Knuckles's team confronts Ix in his throne room, while Mitchell's team comes in from a balcony to witness the fight. Mitchell at first believes that Martin is betraying them, but is proven wrong when he watches them fight. Martin wins the fight, followed by Mitchell fighting Ix, causing Ix to run. Mitchell's team then gets a second chance to fight him, and also emerges victorious while Martin retrieves the Master Stone. Ix uses the Nocturne to achieve a Super Transformation. Mitchell uses the Power Stones to become Super Mitchell and defeats him.

As Nocturne begins to fall, and is nearly destroyed, the team escapes in the Cyclone and heads back to earth. Once back in Marquessa Land, they find Marquessa waiting for them with a rebuilt empire, who immediately attempts to shoot them down. Apparently, time moves much slower in the Twilight Cage and what seemed to be only a short while has actually been several years on earth, giving Marquessa plenty of time time to rebuild his empire. The game ends with Mitchell, Gavin and V-07 Blanka rambling about the makers of the game, and, as the team is about to confront the new Marquessa Empire, the words "THE END?" appear on the screen, ending the game with a cliff hanger.

## Characters

### Classes

Power: Characters in this class focus on attacking and have POW moves that are all focused in dealing damage to enemies. They regain 1 PP per action when defending.

Shifter: Characters in this class are balanced between fighting and supporting the team but may lean more to one side within their attack POW moves and pure status effect causing moves. They regain 2 PP per action when defending.

Support: Characters in this class have low attacking power and have POW moves that focus only on supporting the team or applying negative status effects on enemies. They regain 3 PP per action when defending.

### Non-playable characters

* **Raleighopolis Units Nations**
	+ **RUN Commander**
* **Brock Clark**
* **Dr. Alexander Payne**
* **Gizoids**
	+ **Scylla**
	+ **Charyb**
* **Nocturnus Clan / Dark Brotherhood**
	+ **Imperator Ix**
		- **Pir'Oth Ix's Super State**
	+ **Nestor the Wise**
* **The Zoah**
	+ **General Raxos**
	+ **Commander Syrax**
	+ **Haniman**
	+ **Gentleman**
* **The Kron**
	+ **Foreman Krag**
* **N'rrgal**
	+ **Queen N'rrgal**
* **Voxai**
	+ **Thebes**
	+ **Overmind**

## Development

Development began in 2006 when THQ Canada began to look into developing a handheld video game project. Some time thereafter, the development of a Mitchell Van Morgan handheld game began, and eventually the project had over 30 people involved. As THQ Canada's first handheld project, the THQ Canada development team, used to the long development cycles of video games, had to adjust to the change of pace that handheld development brought. Relic Entertainment's employees were fans of the Mitchell series as a whole, and felt they could bring their reputation for strong story-driven games to expand the Mitchell series. While wanting to stay true to the Mitchell Van Morgan franchise as a whole, they also wanted to add their own touches, such as introducing original, darker elements to the storyline; the second dimension, including its new characters and locations, was one such element.

## Comics

*Main article: Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads (Comics)*
The Nickelodeon Group plans an OEL manga-styled comic based on the game written, illustrated and published by Viacom Networks Japan K.K.

## Re-release

*Main article: Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads HD*
A sequel to the game was once seen as a possibility if the game performed well enough, and the developer, THQ Canada, had "a precise idea" for how the sequel should be made; another indication of a potential sequel was the nature of the game's ending, which ended on a cliffhanger and left the player with the message "THE END?" However, after Relic Entertainment was acquired by Sega Europe, plans of a sequel had been dropped, and *Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads* became a one-shot game.

In 2020, The digital re-release remake of the game is planned out by the THQ Nordic Inc., Gunfire Games, LLC. and Behaviour Interactive Inc. for future PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One & Windows PC releases with motion control upgrades, UI technology and the same style and gameplay as it's original game. HandyGames and Nickelodeon makes the mobile game port of the remake to iOS and Android devices in autumn next year.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 IGN. IGN: Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads.
2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `ignhandson2`
3. ↑ WorthPlaying Staff. NDS Preview - 'Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads'. Retrieved on 2008-07-16. “The major twist is that characters in Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads have multiple actions in a single round, depending on their speed. In the E3 demo, for example, my team was made up of Mitchell, his rival Scottie, Martin and Amanda Payne. Mitchell, being Mitchell, was blazingly fast and got three turns in a single round. Scottie and Martin, which are not quite as fast as Mitchell, were capable of multiple regular attacks. Amanda, however, was so slow that she only got a single attack.”
4. ↑ Bozon, Mark (2009-09-24). IGN: Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads Review. IGN. Retrieved on 2009-09-25.
5. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `zoahname`
6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `autogenerated1`

 ***Mitchell Van Morgan* role-playing video games**

 Other Role-playing games | *Mitchell Van Morgan RPG: The Legend of the Seven Power Stones* (2000, multi-platform) • ***Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads*** (2008, multi-platform) • *Mitchell & Zoey* (2012, multi-platform) • *Mitchell RPG Maker* (*Mitchell RPG Maker* (2012, multi-platform) • *Mitchell RPG Maker 2* (2019, multi-platform)) • *Mitchell Van Morgan & SpongeBob SquarePants* (2020, multi-platform) • *Mitchell Van Morgan: The Brotherhood Of Redheads HD* (2020, multi-platform)