It’s fair to say that Gimmick! 2 was a sequel not on many people’s bingo cards before its surprise announcement in June 2024. Its 1992 predecessor, a retro gem and Sunsoft’s take on a mascot platformer, enjoys a cult reputation as one of the rarest games for the Famicom/NES owing to its limited release in Japan and, oddly enough, Sweden.
It certainly made an impression on Gothenburg-based Bitwave Games, the studio behind 2022’s Gimmick! Special Edition — a rerelease of the notoriously difficult original for modern consoles — and its unlikely sequel. Not only is the story behind the IP’s revival an interesting one, but we’re happy to report that Gimmick 2 lives up to and arguably outshines its 8-bit forbearer.
Bitwave’s sequel manages to be faithful to the essence of the original while also carving out its own identity with a modern hand-drawn visual style, refined control scheme, and improved level design. It also makes generous use of checkpoints and infinite continues to encourage players to have “one more go” getting past its many high-difficulty challenges.
Gimmick 2 may look like a breezy, child-friendly outing owing to its brightly coloured world and adorable green mascot, Yumetaro, but make no mistake, this game is hard, and reaching its “true ending” requires mastery of its primary physics-based, star-slinging mechanic. At the same time, it’s also accessible enough to test your mettle without excessive frustration.
The story is set without a single line of dialogue, with players quickly thrust into a magical world to rescue a young girl kidnapped by a malign wizard. Yumetaro’s moveset remains incredibly simple and consists of moving, jumping, and conjuring a star projectile, which serves as a versatile tool for solving puzzles, defeating enemies, and well-timed traversal. Learning how to properly utilise the star is critical to progression, and trial and error is essential. When thrown, the star bounces around with realistic physics, meaning players will have to skillfully lob it against surfaces to activate otherwise inaccessible switches and figure out how to use it as a platform to reach well-hidden collectibles, cosmetic items, and secrets.
Once you get the hang of the controls and the game’s approach to momentum, Gimmick 2 feels brilliantly fluid. Gameplay is often fast-paced despite Yumetaro having no ability to sprint. You gain speed by taking advantage of sloping terrain to clear gaps, allowing you to easily wipe out groups of enemies by sliding, rather than bouncing, the star projectile.
Gimmick 2 excels at presenting complex problems with simple – though not easy – solutions. Its six worlds are meticulously designed with spikes to avoid, pipes to enter, platforms to activate, and bosses to slay. While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, sequences involving running from a giant snowball and hitching a ride on a whale add novel unpredictability to the outing.
Players can switch difficulty settings on the fly with a friendlier “Assisted” mode or a true-to-the-original “Gimmick!” mode with fewer hit points, narrower platforms, and more frequent enemy encounters. With skill and practice, the game can be beaten in around 90 minutes, but a first-time clear can easily take 3 to 4 hours or more to complete if you include exploration and trial and error.
To be clear, “Assisted” mode is not “Easy” mode. While it doesn’t diminish the game’s difficulty, it’s the better mode to grasp the dexterity required to surmount the game’s many challenges while offering a buffer to frustration over perceived “cheap deaths”, priming a player for future playthroughs, speedrunning, and mastery that Gimmick 2 is clearly built for.
The game boasts a highly polished presentation with a clean, hand-drawn art style reminiscent of Cut The Rope and a mellow soundtrack from former Rare composer David Wise, which adds ambience and immersion without being intrusive, an important design factor since looped music can potentially get annoying when attempting a sequence over and over.
Though early Steam reviews had flagged some latency issues, Gimmick 2 controls flawlessly on Switch and we experienced only minor framerate drops here and there on occasion, nothing that negatively impacted our playthrough. Overall, it’s a title that stands out for its polish and fluidity with no load times or penalties for death, sending players back to the last checkpoint to try again.
While we came away without confronting glaring issues or having major complaints, though more enemy variety would be nice. Some are divided over the game’s art style; we found it well-executed though understandably it is not to everyone’s taste. The only barrier to broad recommendation is that a “higher than casual” skill ceiling is needed to see the game through.
Conclusion
Gimmick! 2 is an easy recommendation for fans of retro platformers and a no-brainer for lovers of the original. Its cutesy, feel-good vibes belie a trove of super-tough but cleverly crafted challenges that are surmountable with practice, precision, and patience. What’s clear is the absolute reverence that developer Bitwave Games has for the source material. Dispel any notion of this being a retro cash grab; this is the sequel that the underappreciated and ahead-of-its-time NES classic has always deserved.
