Gimmick!

Gimmick!
Cutesy and tough at the same time.
Protagonist(s): Yumetaro Genre(s): Platform Rating(s): ESRB: E PEGI: 3 CERO: A Platform(s): Nintendo Entertainment System Arcade Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 Xbox One Release Date: Original JP: January 31, 1992 SCN: May 19, 1993 Arcade WW: December 31, 2020 Special Edition WW: July 6, 2023 Developer(s): Sunsoft exA-Arcadia (Arcade) City Connection (Special Edition) Publisher(s): Sunsoft exA-Arcadia (Arcade) JP: City Connection (Special Edition) WW: BitWave Games (Special Edition) Country: Japan Successor: Gimmick! 2

Gimmick!, also known as Mr. Gimmick, is a video game developed and published by Sunsoft on January 31, 1992 for the Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan and on May 19, 1993 in Scandinavia, where the game was distributed by a Swedish distributor Bergsala.

An arcade version of the game by the name of Gimmick! Exact Mix, running on the exA-Arcadia arcade system, was released by exA-Arcadia on December 31, 2020. A remaster by the name of Gimmick! Special Edition was eventually released on July 6, 2023 for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One by City Connection in Japan and by Bitwave Games in the west. Unlike the original NES version, Special Edition was released internationally, including North America.

Plot

The game takes place during an unnamed young girl's birthday. A small green oni by the name of Yumetaro was wandering around a toy store before he noticed the girl's father. He tried to hide from him, but the father managed to grab him by a mistake after Yumetaro hid in a box. After opening the gift that Yumetaro was in, the girl becomes delighted and he becomes her favourite toy. However, this causes her other toys no longer feel loved. One night, the toys suddenly come alive and take the girl to another dimension. Yumetaro eventually realizes this and jumps to said dimension to save his new owner.

Why It Bounces On The Star

1. The plot itself is a very interesting detail, where a father mistakes a youkai as a toy and gives it for his daughter as a birthday gift. After Yumetaro becomes the girl's favourite toy, the other toys no longer feel loved and they take the girl to another dimension for this, but little did they know that Yumetaro would eventually realize it and jump too to save her.
2. Jaw-dropping, beautiful and absolutely phenomenal soundtrack composed by Masashi Kageyama. The music sounds like something that can hardly even sound like something from a NES game. This is because the game (the Japanese version only) features an expanded sound chip which provided more sound channels than a standard NES game. The soundtrack is also something that is not used in common NES games, ranging from pop music to bass-driven acid jazz, fantasia, dramatic hard rock and jazz fusion. All of these resulted in Gimmick! having one of the best soundtracks ever available on the NES, similar to Mega Man 2.
3. The graphics are amazing and are very colourful, even for the NES standards. The backgrounds have a great design with a great palette; the sprites are greatly drawn with very fluid animations, and the character design is really great, with Yumetaro being especially a cute youkai. With how the graphics and character design are, there's no way the player would say "uh, no." to them.
4. Despite looking like a cutesy, innocent platformer, the game is surprisingly challenging in a very good way, with some elements being able catch you off-guard for the first time before you'll eventually jump from said part to avoid dying (pits and spikes are obvious one-shots).
5. Yumetaro's main weapon, the star, is a very great weapon; it can take out more than one enemy, Yumetaro can ride on the star, and he can use it as a platform to reach higher areas. He also can get other weapons, such as bombs and fireballs, which are stronger than the star (especially the bomb).
6. The boss battles are really good, with each of them having the same strategy - just shoot your star a few times at them and they're dead. Level 2's boss can be even defeated by making it fall into the water, automatically giving you a free win.
7. With the Special Edition's release internationally, including North America, it is now truly possible for North Americans (including the rest of Europe) to play Gimmick! on a console and PC without requiring an emulator, which itself is a good thing as an American release of the NES version was cancelled.
8. The controls in all version are very good and responsive, with them being very obvious. Such good controls in a hard game are obviously important to make sure the game is not harder for unfair reasons.
9. The Scandinavian version 8 lifes as opposed to the original's 4, meaning you won't get a Game Over that fast, and it also tones down the difficulty a little bit, even if the level design remains unchanged.
10. Special Edition features a few new additions to the game to make sure it is not a full copy of the NES version, including:
    • Achievements
    • Time Attack mode
    • Online leaderboards
    • Save and Quick Load
    • Rewind function
    • Gallery
    • Sound test (which is also in the NES version can can be accessed by holding select and pressing the start button on the title screen.
11. The Time Attack mode in Exact Mix and the Special Edition alone makes Gimmick! speedrunner-friendly, which basically allows players to see how fast they can beat the game, which is a very sweet addition to the game.
12. There are two endings in the game, one of which is only accessible if the player collects all magic items and does not use a single continue.
    • The bad ending shows Yumetaro going back from his journey, but later realizes that his owner is still missing.
    • The good ending, accessible by collecting all magic items, not using a single continue and beating the true final level shows Yumetaro successfully saving his owner and returning to the real world, before looking at the window and watching the stars as the credits roll.
13. The Exact Mix version features a "How to Play" part before selecting a mode, basically allowing the player to see how to play the game before starting it.

Bad Qualities

1. Certain parts can be a bit too cheap for a hard game. For example, in level 3, if you get the magic item, a bunch of arrows suddenly approach you, which can one-shot you if you don't move away.
2. Yumetaro's design in the Scandinavian version's cover is absolutely terrible, and it looks like a rejected design for an M&M's character, and it hardly even looks like his sprite in-game.
3. Some areas can be quite tough to reach even if you use the star, such as in level 4 where there's a magic item hidden in a corridor that can be accessed with the star, but you must be precise to access it, not to mention that it can be also kind of easy to accidentally fall down.
4. While the Arcade version is just as great as the NES version, there are a few bad changes:
   • The final boss has been replaced from a badass swordsman to a rather generic woman that looks like a rejected character from a Fire Emblem game.
   • Yumetaro's owner looks much older than in the NES version, and looks more like a young adult rather than a child/young teen.
5. The Scandinavian version's audio is slightly inferior than the original version because of the cartridge not being available to include the special sound chip that was in the Japanese version.

Reception

Upon release, Gimmick! was met with a mixed reception. When Gimmick! was exhibited at places like the Tokyo Toy Show, Tomomi Sakai, the game's director, recalled that he was hoping that a dealer would see Gimmick! as a next-generation title developed for the original NES and distribute it, only for them to lose interest once they learned it was an NES game. As a result, Gimmick! received lackluster interest upon release. Famitsu, for instance, gave the game a 26/40.

Retrospectively, however, Gimmick! received a very positive reception by critics and players. The game was praised for its graphics, gameplay, and especially the soundtrack, with many considering it as one of the best soundtracks ever on the NES.

Trivia

• A North American release of the game was planned, but was cancelled due to Sunsoft of America's former vice president of development, David Siller, claiming that the company's managers felt the game's characters were too "strange or quirky". Gimmick! would be later released 31 years later in North America by BitWave Games as Gimmick! Special Edition.
• Gimmick! Special Edition was originally supposed to be released in 2022, but it was delayed to "early 2023". Eventually, BitWave Games announced that it will be released on July 6, 2023.
• The continue screen's theme in the Arcade version (Gimmick! Exact Mix) uses a track that was unused in the original version, named "Strange Memories of Death".

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