It’s truthful to say that Gimmick! 2 was a sequel not on many individuals’s bingo playing cards earlier than its shock announcement in June 2024. Its 1992 predecessor, a retro gem and Sunsoft’s tackle a mascot platformer, enjoys a cult repute as one of many rarest video games for the Famicom/NES owing to its restricted launch in Japan and, oddly sufficient, Sweden.
It actually made an impression on Gothenburg-based Bitwave Video games, the studio behind 2022’s Gimmick! Particular Version — a rerelease of the notoriously troublesome unique for contemporary consoles — and its unlikely sequel. Not solely is the story behind the IP’s revival an attention-grabbing one, however we’re joyful to report that Gimmick 2 lives as much as and arguably outshines its 8-bit forbearer.
Bitwave’s sequel manages to be trustworthy to the essence of the unique whereas additionally carving out its personal id with a contemporary hand-drawn visible type, refined management scheme, and improved stage design. It additionally makes beneficiant use of checkpoints and infinite continues to encourage gamers to have “another go” getting previous its many high-difficulty challenges.
Gimmick 2 might appear to be a breezy, child-friendly outing owing to its brightly colored world and cute inexperienced mascot, Yumetaro, however make no mistake, this recreation is laborious, and reaching its “true ending” requires mastery of its main physics-based, star-slinging mechanic. On the similar time, it’s additionally accessible sufficient to check your mettle with out extreme frustration.
The story is ready with no single line of dialogue, with gamers shortly thrust right into a magical world to rescue a younger woman kidnapped by a malign wizard. Yumetaro’s moveset stays extremely easy and consists of shifting, leaping, and conjuring a star projectile, which serves as a flexible software for fixing puzzles, defeating enemies, and well-timed traversal. Studying correctly utilise the star is vital to development, and trial and error is important. When thrown, the star bounces round with life like physics, that means gamers should skillfully lob it towards surfaces to activate in any other case inaccessible switches and determine use it as a platform to achieve well-hidden collectibles, beauty gadgets, and secrets and techniques.
When you get the hold of the controls and the sport’s strategy to momentum, Gimmick 2 feels brilliantly fluid. Gameplay is usually fast-paced regardless of Yumetaro having no skill to dash. You acquire pace by making the most of sloping terrain to clear gaps, permitting you to simply wipe out teams of enemies by sliding, somewhat than bouncing, the star projectile.
Gimmick 2 excels at presenting advanced issues with easy – although not simple – options. Its six worlds are meticulously designed with spikes to keep away from, pipes to enter, platforms to activate, and executives to slay. Whereas it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, sequences involving operating from an enormous snowball and hitching a trip on a whale add novel unpredictability to the outing.
Gamers can change issue settings on the fly with a friendlier “Assisted” mode or a true-to-the-original “Gimmick!” mode with fewer hit factors, narrower platforms, and extra frequent enemy encounters. With ability and observe, the sport could be overwhelmed in round 90 minutes, however a first-time clear can simply take 3 to 4 hours or extra to finish should you embrace exploration and trial and error.
To be clear, “Assisted” mode will not be “Straightforward” mode. Whereas it doesn’t diminish the sport’s issue, it’s the higher mode to understand the dexterity required to surmount the sport’s many challenges whereas providing a buffer to frustration over perceived “low cost deaths”, priming a participant for future playthroughs, speedrunning, and mastery that Gimmick 2 is clearly constructed for.
The sport boasts a extremely polished presentation with a clear, hand-drawn artwork type paying homage to Reduce The Rope and a mellow soundtrack from former Uncommon composer David Clever, which provides atmosphere and immersion with out being intrusive, an essential design issue since looped music can doubtlessly get annoying when making an attempt a sequence time and again.
Although early Steam critiques had flagged some latency points, Gimmick 2 controls flawlessly on Change and we skilled solely minor framerate drops right here and there once in a while, nothing that negatively impacted our playthrough. Total, it’s a title that stands out for its polish and fluidity with no load occasions or penalties for demise, sending gamers again to the final checkpoint to strive once more.
Whereas we got here away with out confronting evident points or having main complaints, although extra enemy selection can be good. Some are divided over the sport’s artwork type; we discovered it well-executed although understandably it isn’t to everybody’s style. The one barrier to broad suggestion is {that a} “larger than informal” ability ceiling is required to see the sport via.
Conclusion
Gimmick! 2 is a straightforward suggestion for followers of retro platformers and a no brainer for lovers of the unique. Its cutesy, feel-good vibes belie a trove of super-tough however cleverly crafted challenges which can be surmountable with observe, precision, and endurance. What’s clear is absolutely the reverence that developer Bitwave Video games has for the supply materials. Dispel any notion of this being a retro money seize; that is the sequel that the underappreciated and ahead-of-its-time NES basic has at all times deserved.
