Gimmick! : System Requirements

Gimmick!, known outside Japan as Mr. Gimmick, is a platform video game developed and published by Sunsoft, and originally released in Japan for the Family Computer on 31 January 1992. The story follows a small green character named Yumetaro who was given to a young girl as a birthday present. One night, the girl's other toys become jealous of the attention he is receiving, and whisk the girl away to another dimension. Playing as Yumetaro, the player must maneuver through a variety of levels, using the protagonist's star-shooting power to defeat enemies and progress through the game. In order for Gimmick! to rival with the quality of games on the new Super NES, director Tomomi Sakai required a large staff and used innovative techniques to create high quality graphics and sound. The graphics were handled using advanced tileset algorithms which freed processing power so more detailed graphics could be drawn on the screen. The game uses an expanded sound chip which provided more sound channels than a standard Famicom game. With this special chip, composer Masashi Kageyama was able to create a more advanced score. The soundtrack crosses multiple genres, with Kageyama describing it as a "compilation of game music". Gimmick! received mixed reviews and a lack of interest at release. Distributors were more interested in games for the new 16-bit systems, so Sakai found difficulty in getting the game localized outside Japan. Sunsoft of America did not approve of the game for a North American release due to its quirky character design. Ultimately, the only distributor that imported the game was Swedish distributor Bergsala, which released it in 1993 in small quantities across the Scandinavian market. Critics both praised and criticized the game for its challenging difficulty, and some thought the game was designed exclusively for children due to its character design. In retrospective reviews, Gimmick! has received more praise, even seeing a re-release in Japan in 2002 for the PlayStation.