A masterpiece game from sunsoft but unreleased officially in North America! WHAT!Did you ever have a time in your child-hood where you're parents would secretly hide you a present on your birthday and once you saw the box wrapped up in that beautiful paper material you just wanted to hurry and open it up? I'm sure you did and If you did then you might feel some nostalgia when you watch the intro to the game of Mr. Gimmick. However this great game put out by Sunsoft could have been the king of Sunsoft games if it had seen a release in North America but for some reason it never saw an international release which is a shame as if it had been released it probably would be showing up in alot of top 10 best NES games made. This game has been put onto a NES cartridge VIA through a reproduction cartridge so let's talk about the great NES game that never was Mr. Gimmick!
Graphics: 8 out of 10
The graphics on Mr. Gimmick fits the games story and plot very well as they are very colorful and vibrant and each level's backgrounds and graphics fit the theme of the level which really makes this game have great and emotional feel behind it. Now the graphics on this game aren't as great as lets say Super Mario Bros 3 or the Mega Man series but if you look at the story and gameplay of this game then you would say that the graphics fit this game well but since we must rate this game based on other games on this system I will have to give it a 8 out of 10 let's move on to the rest of the review
Addictiveness: 7 out of 10
The value of addictiveness in this game is kind of a mixed feeling as the difficulty in this game may turn some gamers off and make them not want to play this game for a some time while other times the difficulty will make some gamers want to keep playing and reach the good ending in this game so depending on whether you like a good challenge or you prefer a game with not much challenge. Now if you don't care that much about the difficulty then there is a great amount of addictiveness as the gameplay in Mr. Gimmick is really fun and enjoyable as you can try and get the good ending or the bad ending, you get the good ending if you collect all the hidden items/objects and don't use any continues but the bad ending is caused if you fail to get all of the hidden objects/items or use even 1 continue during the game. The music in this game is the other thing that makes this game have a huge addictiveness value as the music takes full use of the NES sound chips so don't be surprised if you have some new favorite NES soundtracks So I'd have to rate a 7 out of 10 here.
Sound: 10 out of 10
Like I stated in the addictiveness part of this review don't be surprised if you have some new favorite tracks after playing Mr. Gimmick as the music in this game is no short of the words breath-taking as it uses the full capabilities of the NES sound chips and it's Famicom counterpart even tops it's NES port as the cartridges had an additional sound chip which allowed it to access additional channels inside the Famicom's and Nintendo Entertainment Systems hardware. The music in this game gives you that feeling over never wanting to give up no matter how hard things get which makes you empowered inside there are lots of other games that do that including: Paper Mario, Gyakuten Saiban, Zelda Ocarina Of Time, & Sonic CD but there are still many others that make you feel this way however I obviously can't list them all. So basically if you want a game with a great soundtrack then Mr. Gimmick does the job perfectly so a perfect 10 out of 10 for sound is what I'm giving Mr. Gimmick
Story: 10 out of 10
Mr. Gimmick is a game that took a very original turn and made a really interesting story as from it's intro to the games bosses to the endings of this game. It starts off with a little girl getting a present for her birthday and when she opens the box up she see's that it is a Mr. Gimmick doll and she loves it more than anything while her other dolls that are stuff inside a box are very angry over her happiness with her new doll so they decide to suck her into another dimension and when the doll Mr. Gimmick see's that his owner gets taken away he jumps into the dimension and sets off to save his owner from the dangers that lurked inside. Already just from reading that you can see that the writers at Sunsoft used alot of imagination when they came up with the plot to this game and also the bosses in this game are the dolls from the intro that had a grudge on the girl since she stopped playing with them after she got her Mr. Gimmick doll. It is a story that will leave you wishing for more so another perfect 10 out of 10 is greatly deserved here.
Difficulty: 9 out of 10
Now just because this game has cute graphics and a cute main character doesn't mean the difficulty is gonna be all flowers and posies on us as this game is about as equally as difficult as Mega Man with it's spike death traps and for the fact that if you only continue just ONCE you cannot get the good ending at all regardless if you got all the previous special items/objects however it isn't an impossible task it will just take alot of practice before you can master this game which isn't necessarily a bad thing as it will make you wanna play the game over and over again so you can finally accomplish that dream of getting the good ending to this game. Now this game is fair with the enemies and extra lives gaining as unlike in other games where enemies get a free pass in this game they have to succumb to the same dangers that you do such as: if they were to stand on turning cranks they would have to manage standing on the crank without falling off while still trying to attack you which makes the enemy's just as vulnerable as you which is fair gaming, and like I said earning extra lives aren't that hard to earn in this game cause with only a few enemies being taken down you earn a extra life and believe me you need all the lives you can get in this game so while the difficulty is very high the game is fair at some parts so don't let it turn you away from this great game, A 9 of 10 is what difficulty is deserving for this game.
Depth: 7 out of 10
While the game is only 7 (6 if you didn't get all the special items/objects) levels long and they aren't that long of levels the difficulty definitely makes up for the short length and short amount of levels in the game. I've already previously stated that there are 2 different endings in the game a good ending and a bad ending and choosing the good ending will make the game longer as you will have to make sure you have the controls mastered and can find the special items/objects without losing all your lives. Now I can't say what the endings are as that would be a spoiler to the game and I must not reveal a spoiler to this game but I can tell you that the good ending leaves you with a warm feeling in your heart and the bad ending makes you wanna try again and get the good ending. This game is good if you don't want a long game but you want a good amount of difficulty so a 7 out of 10 is what I'm giving this game in terms of depth.
Overall it is a shame that the finished Mr. Gimmick never made it's way to North America as it would have at least been a very decent and fun game to play even to this day and could have been Sunsofts greatest game released on the NES but that is a dream that will never be.
Graphics
8 Sound
10 Addictive
7 Depth
7 Story
10 Difficulty
9