Gimmick! Special Edition Review (SBN)
So this amazing NES title has FINALLY been re-released worldwide. I want to talk about this game in general and why you should pick this game up. First a little history (and my feelings about it): this game was a late release for the NES/ Famicom in 1992 (the system ended in 1994) but only in Japan and Scandinavia and not the rest of the PAL territories (...Why?...). It was part of a trilogy of SUNSOFT games that I call "The Cutesy 3 that never came to North America," the other two games being "Ufouria: The Saga" on the NES and "Trip World" on the Game Boy (These two did make it to the majority of PAL territories). From what I heard, Nintendo of America rejected these titles because "they were too cute for us Tough North Americans" and never saw any releases here until one of them (Ufouria) came out on the Wii Virtual Console. There is more to this story but I want to focus on how I knew about this game and how I got to play it before this offical release. One day I was watching someone on YouTube (not going to mention his name because I don't want any trouble from anybody) who made a video on this game and got a reproduction cart of the cancelled but completed North American version that was going to be released. He mention the website (again, not mentioning that site's name and since then the item had been discontinued last time I went on the site) in his video and I decided to snag a copy when I did. Now for my opinions of this game:
The game has a Kirby look-alike with Lime Green skin, horn on top of his head, big cute anime eyes and shoots a star that is created on top of his head. The story is real simple: a girl got this doll called "Gimmick" (or Mr. Gimmick, I don't care, but I will call him that since that is what I heard first before finding out his Japanese name) and the other toys are jealous so they kidnap the girl and Mr. Gimmick has to rescue her. So you think that this is just going to be a simple NES platformer in the likes of Kirby or Mario. No. Instead, it's an ADVANCED PHYSICS FOR THE NES based platformer meaning that you will rely on careful jumping and use of your star. It also has a life system where each stage has only 2 life spheres that can be increased to 4, but when you are done with a stage, it will reset to 2. Even though the game has infinite continues, it comes with a heavy consequence. There are secret items that not only increase your score for extra lives, but will also let you access the final level in the game and get the true ending.
There are is a complaint I have with the game in general and that is when you select and use items in the game. To select a item, you have to press down on the D-Pad and to use the item you have to hold up and press the Action (or Star) button. I find this to be strange as there is a select button (on the NES original anyway) and obviously it uses the same control scheme in this rerelease.
I want to say this to new players. Play this game on Normal mode to get used to where things are at and what to do before you tackle the Serious mode because this is not a simple walk in the park.
With all of that said, please, PLEASE get this game. It's one of the best NES/Famicom games that we (North Americans) never got and both the Famicom and NES versions are insanely expensive and rare. I want to see some of these super rare, expensive and sought after games like the ones mentioned earlier in this review (along with some of the late release NES Taito games like Little Samson and Panic Restaurant) to be rereleased so that people don't have to spend there life savings for a game that they may or may not like.
Update:
I had to make a correction that it was SUNSOFT of America that made the decision of not bringing the titles to North America, NOT Nintendo of America. Sorry for the mix-up.