I’ve always admired people who become fans of quirky, niche developers. They develop a taste for a certain aesthetic or design philosophy that carries over to each new title the studio makes, and remain relatively unconcerned by a game’s overall quality or even playability. Vision and execution aren’t necessarily tied together for these folks, they just dig the vibe.

The only reason I bring this up is because after playing Gimmick! Special Edition, a hidden gem of the late NES era that Bitwave Games revitalized for current consoles, I realized that that’s how I feel about its developer, Sunsoft. Huh.

The name Gimmick is very on the nose; my first instinct when I started futzing with it was that it reminded me of games like Bionic Commando and DuckTales, which tried diligently to change up something, anything from the tried and true platformer genre by adopting a slightly askew traversal option to help it stand out. If you want to get really granular (and I do!), Gimmick’s “hop on the star you just threw for a boost” mechanic feels like a more fleshed out version of the bubble hop from Bubble Bobble.

The conceit of Gimmick is that our little round, green hero can grow a star on the top of his head, which he can then throw. It takes it a second to produce and, once thrown, you can’t make another one until it connects with an enemy or careers off-screen. It’s not a particularly intuitive system, and even when I did get the hang of this unusual attack method, the star didn’t always go where I intended. I often found myself getting bopped by an enemy because the star missed. Part of the fun of platformers is gaining a sense of mastery over the mechanics, meaning you can put your focus on tackling the challenge of the level design. But here I found myself bungling even simple maneuvers because of Gimmick‘s errant physics.

You can also ride the star by jumping on it, which enables you to find the secret areas and doo-dads that are necessary to get to the final stage. But again, the star’s unpredictability means that making a successful mount can be a little hit and miss. Thankfully, this re-release adds quality of life improvements like save states and rewinding so that you can keep trying over and over…and over again.

Even though Gimmick‘s, well, gimmick, doesn’t quite succeed, I can still appreciate what the game was attempting to do. There were so many platformers at the time of its initial release that it had to do something to stick out. What it lacks in mechanical polish, it makes up for in every other area. Like I said, Sunsoft games have a certain je ne sais quoi that makes them affable. Even though the theming is wildly different from stage to stage, each level has the same cute veneer that somehow ties them together, and they’re all fun to explore. It doesn’t hurt that this is a late-era 8-bit game from a time when developers had learned how to milk the NES for all its worth.

There’s a reason Gimmick wasn’t released outside of Japan and, uh, Scandinavia. Even though the overall presentation and game are solid, the steep learning curve really holds it back from being a classic. Instead, it remains a hidden gem for fans of Sunsoft’s distinctive aesthetic.

---

Gimmick! Special Edition was developed by Sunsoft/City Connection and published by Bitwave Games, and it’s available on PS4, PC, Switch and Xbox. We played the Switch version.

Disclosure statement: review code for Gimmick! Special Edition was provided by Bitwave Games. A Most Agreeable Pastime operates as an independent site, and all opinions expressed are those of the author.

Follow A Most Agreeable Pastime on Twitter and Facebook, if you like.