It’s honest 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 fame 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 devoted 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 “yet 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 lovable inexperienced mascot, Yumetaro, however make no mistake, this recreation is tough, 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 about and not using a 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 device for fixing puzzles, defeating enemies, and well-timed traversal. Studying tips on how to correctly utilise the star is important to development, and trial and error is crucial. When thrown, the star bounces round with lifelike physics, which means gamers must skillfully lob it towards surfaces to activate in any other case inaccessible switches and determine tips on how to use it as a platform to achieve well-hidden collectibles, beauty objects, and secrets and techniques.
When you get the grasp 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 capability to dash. You achieve pace by making the most of sloping terrain to clear gaps, permitting you to simply wipe out teams of enemies by sliding, moderately than bouncing, the star projectile.
Gimmick 2 excels at presenting advanced issues with easy – although not straightforward – 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 working from an enormous snowball and hitching a journey on a whale add novel unpredictability to the outing.
Gamers can swap problem 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 talent and follow, the sport will be overwhelmed in round 90 minutes, however a first-time clear can simply take 3 to 4 hours or extra to finish for those who embody exploration and trial and error.
To be clear, “Assisted” mode isn’t “Straightforward” mode. Whereas it doesn’t diminish the sport’s problem, 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 Minimize The Rope and a mellow soundtrack from former Uncommon composer David Smart, which provides atmosphere and immersion with out being intrusive, an vital design issue since looped music can doubtlessly get annoying when making an attempt a sequence time and again.
Although early Steam opinions had flagged some latency points, Gimmick 2 controls flawlessly on Swap and we skilled solely minor framerate drops right here and there now and again, nothing that negatively impacted our playthrough. Total, it’s a title that stands out for its polish and fluidity with no load instances or penalties for demise, sending gamers again to the final checkpoint to strive once more.
Whereas we got here away with out confronting obtrusive 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” talent ceiling is required to see the sport by way of.
Conclusion
Gimmick! 2 is a simple 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 might be surmountable with follow, precision, and persistence. 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 all the time deserved.
