Mr. Gimmick (NES) - SCANDANAVIA'S WORST NINTENDO GAME? - Games You Never Played
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I'm Gaming Jay and welcome to GAMES YOU NEVER PLAYED, the gaming series where we play unreleased alphas, incomplete betas, rediscovered prototypes, and other games that are otherwise obscure, rare, or unheard of. And with that, today's game is...
Mr. Gimmick
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimmick!
Gimmick![a], released in Scandinavia as Mr. Gimmick, is a platform video game developed and published by Sunsoft, and originally released in Japan for the Family Computer in 1992. The story follows a small green creature named Yumetaro who was mistakenly gifted as a toy to a young girl. After the girl's toys come to life and whisk the girl away to another dimension, Yumetaro gives chase to save her. Playing as Yumetaro, the player must maneuver through a variety of levels, using the protagonist's star-shooting power to defeat enemies and progress through the game.
In order for Gimmick! to rival the quality of games on the then-new Super NES, director Tomomi Sakai required a large staff and used innovative techniques to create high-quality graphics and sound. The graphics were handled using advanced tileset algorithms which freed processing power so more detailed graphics could be drawn on the screen. The game uses an expanded sound chip which provided more sound channels than a standard Famicom game. With this special chip, composer Masashi Kageyama was able to create a more advanced score. The soundtrack crosses multiple genres, with Kageyama describing it as a "compilation of game music".
Gimmick! received mixed reviews and a lack of interest at release. Distributors were more interested in games for the new 16-bit systems, so Sakai found difficulty in getting the game localized outside Japan. Sunsoft of America did not approve of the game for a North American release due to its quirky character design. Ultimately, the only distributor that imported the game was Swedish distributor Bergsala, which released it in 1993 in small quantities across the Scandinavian market. Critics both praised and criticized the game for its difficulty, and some thought the game was designed exclusively for children due to its character design. In retrospective reviews, Gimmick! has received more praise. It was re-released in Japan in 2002 for the PlayStation, and a remake developed by exA-Arcadia was released for the exA-Arcadia arcade system in late 2020. A remaster of the game is set to release in early 2023 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Gimmick! was released in Japan on 31 January 1992,[9] with plans for an international release underway.[10] The game was reviewed by Electronic Gaming Monthly (July 1992) in North America, and a release window of the second half of 1992 was provided.[11] However, plans for a North American localization were soon cancelled. Sunsoft of America's former vice president of development, David Siller, claimed that the company's managers felt the game's characters were too "strange or quirky" compared to cartoons by The Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers. Ufouria: The Saga suffered this same fate. However, Siller said that the two titles most likely could have been commercial successes.[10]
The international version was imported by Bergsala AB into Scandinavian countries in small amounts and was retitled Mr. Gimmick.[1][12] It was released on 19 May 1993.[13] Unlike its Japanese counterpart, this version featured eight lives instead of four. The version also contained downgraded music due to the lack of an expanded sound channel chip. Since the European cartridge is encoded for PAL regions, the game would not work properly on a North American NTSC NES due to graphical glitches, but an identical NTSC prototype ROM has been leaked online which functions properly.[1]
Gimmick! was also ported to the PlayStation in Japan as a part of Sunsoft Memorial Collection: Volume 6 along with Super Spy Hunter. This version contains some sound differences from its Famicom counterpart.[1][14] This collection package was made available on the PlayStation Network in Japan on 22 December 2010.[14] The Japanese version of the game has since become a collector's item, with a United Kingdom guide in 2014 listing the game as costing £320.[15]