Mr. Gimmick

Mr. Gimmick
Also known as: Mr. Gimmick (EU) Developer: Sunsoft Publisher: Sunsoft Platform: NES Released in JP: January 31, 1992 Released in EU: May 5, 1993 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a notes page This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Gimmick! is an action-platformer that was released late in the Famicom's/NES' lifespan. Despite the game's cute appearance, it is punishingly difficult, but has gained a following due to its overall polished presentation and rewarding-to-master star attack that doubles as a platform for finding items necessary to get the game's good ending.

Due to the late release date, as well as an extra chip in the cart that added sound channels, the game was only released outside of Japan in Scandinavia, though at least one prototype has been found for the planned US release.

(The tough difficulty probably didn't help, either.)

To do: The US prototype(s).

Sound Test

To access the music sampler, hold Select and press Start at the title screen. The round cursor color depends on bits 1 and 2 (a total of four different colors) of some music data, which don't frequently change and remain at zero most of the time with the exception of two music tracks: Strange Memories of Death and Paradigm.

During Paradigm, the cursor will blink orange during the intro of the song. After the intro, the cursor will turn green during certain parts of the song.

For Strange Memories of Death, the cursor will remain green during the whole intro of the song. Before the song loops, the cursor will turn green during three measures of eight, high-pitched notes.

There is not much connected to it; the developers just selected not-so-frequently-changing data to highlight the cursor. If they had selected another piece of data, it may have been much more interesting.

Unused Music

The second track in the NSF, "Strange Memories of Death", goes unused in the game proper. It can be heard in the sound test, though.

Anti-Piracy

The game has a copy protection routine which is triggered if the intro text is tampered with (as is the case with the pirated version, Shui Guan Pipe) and the player makes it to the secret Stage 7. This prevents unsuspecting players from being able to advance to the final boss and see the good ending.

See the Notes page for a detailed description of the copy protection code.

(Source: BMF54123)

Playable Enemy

One strangely still black mook in the interior portion of Stage 2 can actually be controlled using Controller 2, no hacking required! Left and Right make it walk, and A makes it jump.

It will still do damage if it runs into the main character like any other enemy, and will not aid you in fighting off the other enemies in the room.

Unused Graphics

To do: Rip unused text from the European version, which does use the two-tile "A".

16px 16px 16px

A star, period, plus sign, and the letter A. This letter A occupies two blocks, rather than the normal A's one.

Some tiles that appear to be variants of the copyright symbol. The copyright symbol that is used in the game has more shading.

Regional Differences

• The Japanese version starts the player with four lives, whereas the European version and the identical US prototype offer nine lives instead.
• The European version and US prototype have very minor alterations to the music to make up for the missing extra sound chip.

The standard "LICENSED BY NINTENDO" text was added to the intro, appearing before the Sunsoft logo.

Japan	Europe

This bit of Japanese text on the title screen – the only Japanese text in the entire game – was translated, because English-speaking people have seizures when they see symbols they don't recognize.