I used to tell friends there were no games worth playing on the NES, equating the time one would spend playing its games to be no more than how long one would spend playing Atari 2600 games. This was only a few years ago, mind you, but I was completely over the console. And despite the handful of games I'd enjoyed on it, I found myself hating it. While I'm not fully sure what brought me to feel this way, one possibility was that I'd grown tired of Nintendo continuously reselling the console's games to us players. This seems to be a sentiment shared by many, and I don't think it helps that Nintendo usually resells the same batch of black box NES titles, some of the plainest offerings of the library, and then forgets to offer games from the many other late consoles in their corporate catacombs (cough cough GameCube). Either way, I'd lost sight of the games I liked on the NES, one of them being the now cult classic Gimmick! (yes, the exclamation mark is part of the name).

At launch, it was definitely obscured; additionally getting critically panned by EGM and Famitsu alike, but through various offerings on the internet, it gained more notoriety than it originally saw at release. Something that's certainly left a mark on its secondhand prices, wherein both its Japanese Famicom and Scandinavian NES incarnations it's one of the most expensive releases for the entire system's library. Though in light of that, of course, more people now know of it, myself included. I probably wouldn't have known about it were it not for either Pat the NES Punk's coverage on the game or HG101's old article on it. And to that end I'm thankful, because it's one of the few games that actually makes an edgey gamer like me slightly emotional.

Said emotional onset, is probably due to the fantastic music in the game. The lead programmer, composer, and sound programmer; Tomomi Sakai, Masashi Kageyama and Naohisa Morota, respectively, all worked together to completely max out the Famicom's sound capabilities. Even going so far as to use a custom sound controller called the SUNSOFT 5B, which gave them a few additional channels to work with to really make the music feel live and alive (sparing the technical details, it's a really cool piece of hardware and those intrigued by it should absolutely look into it). As many may tell you, the tunes are good enough that they'll find themselves listening to them just for the heck of it. Something I ought to do myself more often.

One thing the contemporary reviews did take particular notice of at launch were the visuals. These are astounding. Every one of the seven stages has a distinct appearance, and there are all sorts of minute details. Be it the seagulls hovering in the background of the beach stage (those guys make noises too!), or the variety of smooth machinery animations in the mine and tower stages. Coupled with the music, the scenery really shows how rich the NES could be at its best. And I think the final stage absolutely showcases this in my favorite way, as it's the easiest stage in the game, but only as a brief reprieve from the action before the tough final boss. Appropriately fitting, is a slightly ominous mood with a contradictingly serene atmosphere, brought on by the music, the little spikey cat creatures running around, whatever those giant those tooth-shaped creatures lumbering about are, the peaceful dragon statue spouting water, birds twittering, and more. It's a real treat, if my detailed gushing about it didn't already indicate as such.

And of course, though I compliment these things, they wouldn't make the game a masterpiece on their own. Thankfully, the gameplay in Gimmick! is not only wholly unique, but it's a joy to play and works extremely well in the modern gaming age. The protagonist, Yumetarou, has a star projectile he can generate and shoot with the B button. It takes a little bit to get the hang of since it's got its own velocity and will bounce around the screen for a bit until it leaves the area or loses speed and disappears. It's an interesting mechanic, and you must rely on it the entire game to discard enemies and even ride around on it yourself to reach areas normally inaccessible. Things don't simply revolve around that however; Sakai also implemented slope inertia into every single slanted tileset you walk on, and so you'll find yourself jumping a lot to tactically reposition yourself. It makes way for level design that's smart and challenges the player to think in new ways, furthered by the supreme difficulty of the game. If there's one thing people know the game for, it's the challenge. This game's not very long by any means, 30-minute arcade game length at that (perhaps part of the reason the 2020 Exact☆Mix version exists), but you'll most likely take longer than that the first handful of times you play it. It's tough, but far from impossible to get the good ending. This game has the perfect level of challenge to make it both addicting and never feel cheap. It'll grab you by the hair and force you learn its ideas; trifle you with the dastardly boss AI for a little while, before soon making you a master of its ruleset.

This game's a perfect blend of exquisite aesthetics and gameplay; a true passion project from the small team that made it. I think this makes for a good account of why Gimmick! is an awesome game worth your time and adoration. Thanks to me wanting to play the original Dragon Quest games, I've been reminded of the sheer quality of the NES library, and I don't think I'll find myself forgetting that again. Sure there are stinkers like Mario: The Lost Levels, but there are wonderful games like Gimmick! to play instead. Fortunately, a port to modern consoles and PCs was recently announced, so if you haven't already played it, I'd suggest picking that up when it releases. Personally, I'm gonna try to get as many people playing this game as possible, it's too good for me not to.