The original Gimmick! is one of those funny cases where the fame behind the game is built upon a myth, one that was put into existence by the simple fact that it’s somewhat of a rare cart. Released by Sunsoft in 1992 for the Famicom, it has remained a Japanese exclusive up until now. With its sequel that was just released, it’s time for the rest of the world to get to see if quality meets fame as Gimmick! 2 is pretty much the same as its predecessor in just about every way.
The answer to that conundrum is: yeah, I guess? Developed to be Sunsoft’s answer to the growing popularity of mascot platformers from the early 1990s, it’s easy to draw a comparison between these games and the first few Kirby games, with its cute little protagonist having the power to conjure stars which can then be thrown into enemies much like Nintendo’s puff ball’s… well… puff balls. They even went as far as making the little guy round too, but had the wise idea to color him green.
There isn’t much to Gimmick! 2’s story. Basically, the young girl who’s lived with Yumetaro, the yokai protagonist, is now a grown woman and has passed her friend along to her daughter, who one night is taken away by a mysterious figure. It’s up to our hero to rescue her as he jumps into a portal into a magical level-based adventure where he can skip, jump and run his way, all the while avoiding spikes and other dangers.
It’s tough to talk about this sequel without falling on comparisons, especially with the first one, since they are very close in terms of gameplay and features, with the only exception being of the visual kind. The biggest difference, though, are the high resolution graphics that replace the sprite-based design of yesteryear, and similarly to other revamps, they might take some getting used to for those who grew up playing the original.
The main thrust to playing Gimmick! 2 is getting the hang of one of the more powerful techniques that come with conjuring stars, that is timing your jumps in order to ride them. Doing that is key to finding all collectibles within the game, as they are very cleverly placed in a way that really challenges your skills, because not only do you have to be able to land onto them, but are also required to throw the darn things in the right direction.
As for other challenges, there isn’t a whole lot more to say about the game as it’s on the easier side of platformers, with only the aforementioned collectibles being the main reason to jump back into the game after being done with its story mode, which doesn’t take more than a few years to tear through. Gimmick! 2 is a game built as a 1990s console release, that is to say, there’s not a lot of fluff to be had after seeing what it has to offer the first time around.
Then again, it’s nice to get the chance to play one of these games without having to resort to exploitative import prices or worse, ROMs and emulation. Given Sunsoft’s resolve to seeing this release through this time means that a whole new audience will get to do away with myths and legends about this series to find that these are fun and simple games very much worth checking out and adding to your digital gaming library wherever.
