Game itself was genuinely cute and challenging, but it is genuinely such a strange game. The final boss of the bad ending is such an easy character to beat compared to the previous boss before it, and even the snail on the third level. Also too many times did it have things ahead of me which hurt me without even giving me a chance to react to them, which is a bit of a stupid problem with it.

Anyway, I'm never doing the good ending. This is my canon. Mr. Gimmick dies from heartbreak, fuck that jellybean.

Gimmick! is a majestically arranged, strikingly puzzling platform experience. It toys with its mechanics parallely to progression as difficulty curve, it polishes precision through never aging intricate mapping whilst reasons upon instrumentability. It performs as a double story in a metanarrative level so long as it gimmicks with you.

There is no Gimmick subject, rather the gimmicky that evokes peculiarity; perceptible through multiple excentric creatures behaviour patterns, their traits portray singular aspects that manifests their intentions in somewhat comical fashion. Meanwhile its condemnation of ressentiment; subtextually, florishes a secret, unharmful livelyhood narrative. A genuinely beautiful, however simple.

I'm a sucker for these types.

I like reading about Gimmick. I like reading about how it was developed and how its soundtrack was written. I like watching it, I like watching people talk about it - especially illusory wall's Retro Games Dissected video on the game.

I love the way Gimmick sounds, and I love the way it looks. It's obviously a passion project, but it's also a one last hurrah for the Famicom, a showcase of what can be done out of this system that was originally made almost ten years ago (at the time of Gimmick's release) to play ports of Donkey Kong.

But I don't like playing it. The star as a weapon is cumbersome and tricky to manage, even if it's a great concept; I think the game didn't need quite as much momentum or traction to its controls; a maximum of 4 health feels a little unfair; and getting the secret items can be challenging to the point of absurdity.

So do I like Gimmick?

Geez, I don't know! Do I?

you're gonna want to bust out the ol game genie for this one (SKVTTSVK for infinite lives lol) because it's reallll tough, which would typically not be my kinda jam. however, gimmick OWNS so hard that it was worth retrying parts of each level over and over again, seeing what little secrets i could find by bouncing the star off a wall and going wherever it takes me. gimmick's character and enemy designs are so darn cute and the level and backgrounds are ridiculously detailed, making this feel like it could've come out today. i loved this! im gonna have to smoke some more 8-bit games because i've been missing out (dragon quest 1 review soon....).

This is probably going to be one of my more controversial opinions but this game just didn't do it for me as much as it does for others. I'll admit, there's a lot to love about this game like the presentation and just all of the small details that are presented here. You can tell a lot of love went into this title and it's got one of the best OSTs on the system. Even said all that though, I just don't enjoy playing it sometimes. I really want to love it but I feel like sometimes I'm trying to force myself to love it like others do so I'm sorry but while I think it's a good game, it was just a little too annoying for me at times. I still will commend Sunsoft for making games like this despite my opinion, just look at how far they came from their kusoge like Ikki and Super Arabian back in the early Famicom days. Proud of them.

Mr. Gimmick is kinda like the anti-Kirby's Adventure. Both are incredibly pretty games with cute protagonists, but while Kirby is relaxing, Mr. Gimmick is absurdly difficult, especially for its true ending requirements and true final boss.

The attack is really slow, can only have one out at a time, and you can ride it which is really neat but it's hard to utilize that practically due to the slowness.

The physics are a common point of praise, and they are really good, but Gimmick always feels like it's on ice as a consequence. I wouldn't consider it a worthy trade-off.

Its physics are very modern and graphics almost as good as Kirby's Adventure, but then it falls into a ton of old Famicom trappings that truly keep this game from shining.

Goddamn, this game is amazing.

The presentation is top-notch for NES standards. As usual, Sunsoft did an amazing job with the soundtrack and the visuals kinda look like a mix between Kirby's Adventure and Super Mario Bros. 3, which I appreciate. It's probably the prettiest looking game on the NES.
I like the star as a weapon, it's a bit tricky to manage but it feels rewarding to master. Some levels have parts that you can only reach by using the star to help carrying you and it always rewards you for doing that, which is great.
What can I say? It's a charming, cute, and very well made platformer and I wish more people knew about it. I'm happy that I finally got to play Mr. Gimmick because it's now one of my favorite NES games of all time.