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 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 authentic for contemporary consoles — and its unlikely sequel. Not solely is the story behind the IP’s revival an attention-grabbing one, however we’re completely satisfied 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 identification with a contemporary hand-drawn visible type, refined management scheme, and improved degree 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 could seem like a breezy, child-friendly outing owing to its brightly colored world and cute inexperienced mascot, Yumetaro, however make no mistake, this sport 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 with out 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 methods to correctly utilise the star is important to development, and trial and error is important. When thrown, the star bounces round with reasonable physics, which means gamers must skillfully lob it towards surfaces to activate in any other case inaccessible switches and work out methods to use it as a platform to succeed in well-hidden collectibles, beauty objects, and secrets and techniques.
When you get the hold of the controls and the sport’s method to momentum, Gimmick 2 feels brilliantly fluid. Gameplay is commonly fast-paced regardless of Yumetaro having no means to dash. You achieve pace by profiting from 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 complicated 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 operating from an enormous snowball and hitching a journey on a whale add novel unpredictability to the outing.
Gamers can swap 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 talent and follow, the sport might be overwhelmed in round 90 minutes, however a first-time clear can simply take 3 to 4 hours or extra to finish if you happen to embody 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 know 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 Lower The Rope and a mellow soundtrack from former Uncommon composer David Smart, which provides atmosphere and immersion with out being intrusive, an essential design issue since looped music can probably get annoying when trying a sequence again 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 occasionally, 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 attempt once more.
Whereas we got here away with out confronting obtrusive points or having main complaints, although extra enemy selection could be good. Some are divided over the sport’s artwork type; we discovered it well-executed although understandably it’s not to everybody’s style. The one barrier to broad advice is {that a} “greater than informal” talent ceiling is required to see the sport by way of.
Conclusion
Gimmick! 2 is a straightforward advice 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.
