Gimmick! Special Edition

Gimmick! is a 1992 NES title from Sunsoft that was originally only released in Japan and several Scandinavian territories. Despite it’s wonderfully colourful look and adorable character designs, it’s an unforgiving platformer that mixes puzzle and precise platforming with some light combat and emphasizes inertia. It has been quite well known for decades now, way before being released in this new emulated Special Edition that includes several quality of life features. And it’s also a miserable experience for anyone who hates replaying the games over and over again to learn their patterns. The game is full of surprising details and ideas, though. Every level has completely unique one-off moments and characters, the main combat mechanic is also a potential movement mechanic and the game does some things that weren’t common during the era and are almost reminiscent of the immersive sim approach. About that combat mechanic – you generate and throw a big star that bounces around the world with expected inertia. It cannot be generated again until the existing one disappears. And it can also carry you if you happen to jump on it or it “catches” you in a specific way. It’s really cool if not for the fact that it’s also unreliable, frustrating to pull off and in most times where it’s required (either for a secret good ending path or just for progress), failing to do it correctly leads to death. Though not even that is my biggest problem with the game. Rather, it’s the amount of “gotcha” moments it has. You can get damaged or killed immediately upon entering a new screen, there are traps (some of which instantly kill you) everywhere that are often hard to avoid unless you know they are there, some bosses have extremely particular ways you can damage them that are not even always obvious… And on top of that, to get the “true” ending of the game, you have to get all of the extremely tough to get secrets and do it without using a single “continue”. This approach to “difficulty” was transferred even to this Special Edition, where the ability to save state or rewind is only available in the Normal mode of the game, which also doesn’t give you any achievements. Because only the true hardcore gamers can get those, I guess. I can see some people enjoying this title, but for me it was a frustrating experience and I’d never want to play this game again.

スカンジナビア地域への日本からの贈り物

As a heavily nostalgic fan of the NES era, I am a sucker for games like this. I have seen many hidden gem videos about this game in particular. It is certainly fun, but the company behind this re-release should be ashamed. The user interface is abysmal. It's difficult to set up a controller or change controls, and how the achievements are labeled are pathetic. If you're wondering why none of them are unlocking, you manually have to start the game > go into the menu > switch mode > and turn on Serious mode (which locks the unwinding and save states). That is the only way to unlock anything in this game, making a casual run pointless [to an extent]. You can play it to learn the levels more easily - but I feel there should be some reward such as an achievement to show progress. Regardless, the achievement descriptions should all read "Serious Mode Only" to avoid confusion to the players - and I do not mind setting the bar high to unlock them, but I would've at least made some "normal" mode achievements to show that people are actually willing to learn and play the game all the way through. The visual options are lackluster too - the only benefit this game has is that you can now own the American release of this game without having to buy the NES cart which is extremely expensive - but you might as well play this on an emulator. Save the money on this. Jerk Score 4.9/10

Very challenging game, but what did i expect from a game from 1992 honestly. Not that it's a bad thing it's still fun to play! The only problem that occurs for me is that random invisible lag spikes can cancel jumps and star charges which can cause unfair deaths, but i think it's just a skill issue on my part because my computer isn't very good.

Gimmick is a really fascinating game for its era but it's also extremely hard, even rewind makes it barely approachable enough. Despite that I was ok paying for it for a few extra features, but this is a steep price for a cheaply emulated rom and basically nothing extra. Achievements didn't even work.

Great game with a great soundtrack and great graphics. The problem here, and it's a big one, is the introduction of input lag that essentially ruins the game. If you're playing with the modern emulation bonuses of rewind, etc. this is somewhat negated, but playing "for real" and earning achievements in the original mode is made extra difficult by this new problem. It's a shame because most modern emulators have eliminated the issue of input lag on modern systems/tvs. I can't recommend this release. Get it to legally extract the ROM and play it on a better emulator.

24年夏促购入了，游戏本身比较模拟器还是有了该有的存档和倒退功能，吉米克也是不用多说的佳作，画面亮丽，蓄力攻击，跳跃浮空时短，走路滑步都是导致游戏难度变高的原因，就是一般怪物AI也很高，陷进也是比较阴间，完美过关所需的彩蛋获取也挺刁钻，如果不用SL大法游戏是很难的，游戏音乐也极具特色。SUNSOFT的游戏总是不怎么过多描述剧情，游戏相对冷门公司也比较低调，对我而言总是有极具神秘感的游戏公司。

This is a competent re-release of an old NES/Famicom gem, and for those looking for a convenient way to experience it will probably find this all serviceable enough....however I really don't think it’s the definitive version of the game that deserves the title 'Special Edition.' For reference I have used an old reproduction cart on a knock-off NES as a way to experience the game before this re-release, and thus far I've played 'Special Edition' both here on Steam and on Switch. I'm not an expert on hardware or frame-rates, but I still noticed input lag on both versions compared to just the repro cart I've used to this point. There’s a section in the game I would come back to each time I wanted to test the timing between versions (It’s a small bit in the first half in the third world, where you cross four logs atop of a flowing waterfall.) On the repro crossing that area would be a cake with swift and timely inputs, however these two versions I found wouldn’t register sometimes often leading to my descent into the section below. The input lag is doable enough if not still annoying on the Steam version, often leading me to play more slowly than usual. However it’s pretty mild compared to the Switch version, which is really noticeable and seriously discouraged me from replaying that version entirely. The extra bits included aren't anything incredible, but still welcome. Mainly little bits like save states, rewind, achievements, decorative borders and old boxart/manual scans. All the new features can't be used in 'Serious Mode' or the 'Time Attack,’ but unless you really want to speed-run the game or get the achievements then I really see no reason to change out from 'Normal Mode.' The save states and rewind alone do help combat the game's NES-era design choices when it comes to difficulty and level design... there are a few sections in the game where it feels like you need to take a hit just to advance. As for anything else included, they have the leaderboards for time-attack and the usual settings for resolution and v-sync. I don't believe I noticed a huge difference with that option on or off, but I just keep v-sync off in case. I'm mainly just a casual fan of the game who grew up really admiring it, despite not being extremely good at it. At the least I can thank this re-release for giving me the tools to see the end of the game for once... however I can't help but think the package deserved a whole lot more attention and fine-tuning. Having extra content or media around the development for the game would certainly help bring it up to being 'Special Edition,' but I honestly would have been fine with the package as a whole if there was no input lag. It just kinda sucks knowing my dusty old repro cart still runs better than this official release, despite it being a 30+ year old NES game at this point. It's been about over a half a year since release, and I really haven't seen a change in latency across both versions... so I'm going to assume the game's current state is what we get at this point. For a less intensive platformer this would probably be fine, but Gimmick really does demand more precision and timing. Again, I really have to stress it's not a horrible release. Gimmick 'Special Edition' is a competent enough re-release, but for an old gem like this I really do think it deserved better. If you want to support an official release then this is fine enough, but for the definitive experience I'd recommend looking elsewhere for now.

36 minutes for 10$ CAD lol

超高的难度，弱鸡性能的主角，恶意的关卡设计，碎片化叙事。这就是魂游始祖（确信）