A problem, brought up by Gimmick 2, is how you approach difficulty as a reviewer. You don’t want to slam a game for being unfairly difficult, only for everyone else to breeze through. It’s a bit of an embarassing moment, that. Reviewers aren’t known for being skilled players, after all. My measure of difficulty is to take a look at a selection of deaths and apportion blame: did I screw up or did the game screw me over? I’d say Gimmick 2 falls in the first camp, though it’s a close-run thing.
That’d be because Gimmick 2‘s biggest gimmi- uh, gameplay mechanic is both a blessing and a curse. It’s gameplay based around physics, which means that you can pull off trick shots. You can also screw up and be left desperately trying to figure out what’s going on. Still, Gimmick 2 is a sequel to a game from the early nineties and the chaos fits in well with that era. Fortunately, it’s been given modern touches, and controls wonderfully. Gimmick 2 feels like a NES-era game given a beautiful coat of paint.
Star Power
Gimmick 2 features the return of Yumetaro, a green blob-like little fella. He’s peacefully asleep alongside the girl he lives with, when a strange wizard teleports in and kidnaps her. Night having been thoroughly ruined, Yumetaro sets off to rescue her. He’s armed only with his plucky courage and the ability to conjure a star from nothing, which admittedly is pretty powerful. The twist is that the star has physics, so you need to predict its bouncing and momentum in order to hit enemies and flip switches. When paired up with some precision platforming, it brings in quite a significant amount of challenge. I rather like it.
It’s a deviation from the usual platformer mechanics of just jumping on enemies, or dispatching them by mashing a button. Hitting enemies before they get to you requires actual thought. Levels make good use of it, too. You start with simple jumping puzzles, and simple switch puzzles. Towards the end, you’re doing a mad dash through a tough platforming section, when it’ll sudden require you to summon a star and throw it at the right time. Completing a section really tests your abilities well. It helps that Gimmick 2 is butter-smooth to control, with jumping feeling great.
Beautiful Chaos
That said, the chaos that a physics based weapon brings in tends to cause issues when the pace slows down. A lot of the boss fights just spawn in waves of enemies, for one thing. That already feels like a cop-out, but trying to calculate your star’s trajectory at the same time as dodging hordes of bouncing enemies just feels irritating. The solo boss fights, however, don’t seem to know how to counter your star and crumble easily. The star is also the only real string to Gimmick 2‘s bow, too, so some of the levels in the middle feel a touch one-note. Bounce a star while sliding down one slope, bounced them all.
Still, there are a generous amount of collectibles to find, which all dress Yumetaro in cute outfits. They’re usually off the beaten track, so there’s a decent amount of replay value here. Speaking of cute, the whole thing is adorable. The checkpoints are little presents that open to reveal a balloon in the shape of Yumetaro’s face. You can’t be grumpy looking at something like that. Plus, it has a really pleasant artstyle and soundtrack. The world of Gimmick 2 is just a nice place to be. There’s a good variety of levels, too, though I’m a little sad we don’t get more enemies that aren’t just black blobs in different hats.
Gimmick 2 – A Thoroughly Pleasant Modernisation
As a last note, when you start up Gimmick 2, you’ll get a choice of difficulty – gimmick or assisted. I bring it up for two reasons. Firstly, turning on gimmick mode requires you to get to grips with the platforming – a nice idea. Secondly, I recommend you take the plunge and go with gimmick mode. It’s not too difficult – you still get three hits before you die. But I feel like Gimmick 2 is at its best when it’s challenging you. I died frequently – and almost rage quit some of the later levels – but I always came back. It’s the perfect formula of challenge, quick respawn and tight controls.
The pleasant atmosphere is just the icing on the cake. In many aspects, Gimmick 2 feels like a NES-era platformer dragged through the ages until it’s modern. It has the simplicity and cuteness of design of NES-era platformers. Then it has the pinpoint platforming, akin to something like Super Meat Boy, before being draped in the most pleasant graphics that modern technology can allow. The end result is a challenging, if sometimes one-note, platformer, which will always make you smile.
