Mr. Gimmick (NES)

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Description

Mr. Gimmick is a little doll with a life of its own, that's given to a girl for her birthday. The girl's other toys quickly become jealous of the attention given to Mr. Gimmick, and they decide to carry her away to a mystical land. Mr. Gimmick goes after them to bring his owner back.

The game Mr. Gimmick is a platform game where you take control of Mr. Gimmick over the course of six levels. You defend yourself by throwing bouncing stars that take a second to form and are then thrown downward. You can also ride the stars thrown to gain access to higher platforms. The inventory you have allows you to store bombs, potions, and fireballs.

The game has two endings. The easier way is to just run through all of the levels. Each level has a treasure hidden that can be a bit difficult to get, and finding all of these gives access to an extra level. But if you lose all of your lives and have to continue, the game will take all of your treasures away, and not allow you to get to the final level.

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Alternate Titles

• "Gimmick!" -- Japanese title
• "ギミック！" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Group

• Game Center CX challenge games

User Reviews

A wonderful game that looks cute, but that fact is insane

Bregalad (968)

Critic Reviews

Quebec Gamers	Jan 27, 2008	9 out of 10	90
Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library	2016		90
HonestGamers (Staff reviews only)	Mar 02, 2013	8 out of 10	80
Classic-games.net	Oct 03, 2022	8 out of 10	80
Nintendo Magasinet (Sweden)	May, 1993	6 out of 10	60
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)	Jul, 1992	22 out of 40	55

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Trivia

Cancelled US release

The game was only released in Japan and Scandinavia in limited quantities, an American version was ready for release but cancelled.

Copy protection

The original Japanese version of Gimmick! has a rather insidious form of piracy protection. If the intro text or copyright notice are removed or modified, the game will still play... until the player reaches the final stage with the possibility of seeing the game's true ending. Upon reaching the final stage, the game will hang on a black screen with the message "BLACK HOLE". This is a reference to the infamous "42th Zone" in Sunsoft's own Atlantis no Nazo, which is an inescapable bottomless pit with the words "BLACK HOLE!"

Regional differences

The original Japanese version uses an extra mapper chip (Sunsoft 5B) with audio hardware used only in this game, providing extra sound channels for the music. The PAL release doesn't feature this chip, and instead has the music modified to use the base NES sound hardware.

The PAL release is still highly unusual in that it also uses a custom mapper chip called the Sunsoft FME-7. This chip is the same as the Sunsoft 5B but without the sound hardware. It is unusual because Nintendo didn't normally allow developers to use custom mapper chips in western releases, instead requiring them to reprogram their games for Nintendo's own MMC mappers. This is because Nintendo manufactured all cartridges in the west. Mr. Gimmick and Batman: Return of the Joker (which uses the same FME-7 mapper chip) are the only two official western NES releases to use custom mapper chips.