Gimmick! (Famicom) - (1cc | Longplay)
0Hello again!
Forgot to mention in the poll that I had AW2 and Gimmick! on hold (my bad!)
Anyways Sunsoft, by the time the 90s came they've gotten a better grasp on the NES hardware and dished out a lot of games with butter smooth gameplay and stellar soundtrack. If there ever was a game that can showcase the NES sound hardware (asides from blaster master) it's Gimmick!
I've listened to a lot sunsoft's NES titles but gimmick stands out too much with it's overall light hearted and energetic music. The games intro music is rather calming and mellow but the cutscenes switch from happy to sad in an instant.
The games story revolves around the little girl we see in the intro. Every year, her father gifts her daughter a stuffed animal, one day the father accidentally gifted his daughter a youkai named Yumetaro who was casually lounging around a toy store. The father picked Yumetaro up since he (or she) stood out from the rest of the toys in the shop. Once gifted the little girl is thrilled and cherished Yumetaro more compared to her other stuff animals. The stuff animals were then placed in a box and eventually grew jealous of Yumetaro being the girl's new favorite plush.
As night approaches, the little girl's toys whisked her away to another dimension (to probably force her to play with them for all eternity) in which Yumetaro then gives chase to rescue her new owner. Combine the games intro music, it's rather sad really and it motivates the player to rescue Yumetaro's new owner.
The game is pretty short but let me tell you, the difficulty ranges from fair to unfair (depending the behavior of the bosses.) It's pretty much your usual platformer but with nice colorful visuals and great music. Yumetaro's only method of attack is throwing a star that bounces around, if you get items then he can use a bomb or fireballs. The "gimmick" of this short platformer is the use of the game physics and momentum.
The game shows this by putting the secret items in places that you normally can't reach. To make an example of this, there's the stage 4's secret which shows you a secret area that's very hard to reach. You can use you're bouncing star to reach said platform but it has to be thrown at a specific angle for the star to take you to said platform.
Getting the hang of how gimmick's physics works is key to winning this game. Plus it can tremendously help you skip certain areas if you find most of the platforming segments too hard. How the star bounces also depends on how high you throw the star, the games use of almost real life physics is pretty neat but offers some challenge (really though I would've done a no death but the games physics make it hard for me to do.)
The drawback of the star is that you have to it at the right angle for it to hit enemies and bosses, you can only attack again once the star is gone. To make an example of this there's the wizard boss, it hangs on the top screen a lot, sometimes it's within range as well so you have to be very quick about throwing your star (or make a bet and throw the star, catch a bubble and hope it runs into it.)
Thankfully though the game is nice enough to give you health potions but even then, it's usually the platforming that can kill you. A lot of the games platforming can result in an instakill if you're not careful.
Once you've gotten a hang of the games physics and memorized all the stages, it gets pretty easy really. This is pretty much my 2nd run really (cuz the first one has my voice in it by accident.)
Gimmick! is a very stellar physics based platformer with fantastic music to boot. It's got colorful graphics and a sweet story about a small toy saving her owner from her other jealous toys. The ending is pretty heartwarming too as our hero escapes with his (or her) owner and gaze out the window to check if they're indeed back home.
Highly recommend it if you're a huge sunsoft fan or if you're looking for very unique platformer!
If you like my runs be sure to check out the group I'm in if you want to see us play more good ol fashion retro games!
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