Mr. Gimmick

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.