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 popularity as one of many rarest video games for the Famicom/NES owing to its restricted launch in Japan and, oddly sufficient, Sweden.
It definitely made an impression on Gothenburg-based Bitwave Video games, the studio behind 2022’s Gimmick! Particular Version — a rerelease of the notoriously tough 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 fashion, 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 might appear to be a breezy, child-friendly outing owing to its brightly colored world and lovely inexperienced mascot, Yumetaro, however make no mistake, this recreation is arduous, 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 and not using a single line of dialogue, with gamers rapidly thrust right into a magical world to rescue a younger lady 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 instrument for fixing puzzles, defeating enemies, and well-timed traversal. Studying find out how to correctly utilise the star is essential to development, and trial and error is crucial. When thrown, the star bounces round with life like physics, which means gamers must skillfully lob it towards surfaces to activate in any other case inaccessible switches and determine find out how to use it as a platform to succeed in well-hidden collectibles, beauty gadgets, 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 usually fast-paced regardless of Yumetaro having no potential to dash. You achieve velocity by benefiting from sloping terrain to clear gaps, permitting you to simply wipe out teams of enemies by sliding, slightly 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 a large snowball and hitching a trip 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 apply, the sport will be crushed in round 90 minutes, however a first-time clear can simply take 3 to 4 hours or extra to finish when you embrace exploration and trial and error.
To be clear, “Assisted” mode will not be “Simple” 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 fashion paying homage to Minimize 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 probably get annoying when making an attempt a sequence again and again.
Although early Steam evaluations had flagged some latency points, Gimmick 2 controls flawlessly on Swap 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 instances or penalties for dying, 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 fashion; we discovered it well-executed although understandably it’s not to everybody’s style. The one barrier to broad advice is {that a} “increased than informal” talent ceiling is required to see the sport by way of.
Conclusion
Gimmick! 2 is a simple 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 apply, 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.