It’s the age-old problem for platformers: how do you make them challenging for diehards who’ve been jumping on mushrooms since the NES days, without putting off players who give up at anything more hardcore than Kirby?
For Gimmick 2, the approach the developers of this cutesy 2D platform game – first released on Steam and Nintendo Switch and now coming to PS4, PS5 and Xbox – is ironically enough not a gimmick at all, but a thoroughly well thought out game design.
Gimmick 2 traces its roots back to the Famicom/NES original from 1992, which was lovingly remade by Bitwave Games.
This, the sequel, ditches the 8-bit art style of the first game in exchange for clean and colourful 2D cel-shaded visuals which call to mind Worms World Party’s visual style – saturated, clean but charmingly detailed.
Gimmick 2 is comprised of some pretty difficult platforming, but levels are broken up into bite-size checkpoints, and you can’t game over.
The game keeps the core gameplay simple: your little green blob can jump up platforms, and you have one power – a star which you can aim and fire at enemies or at switches to solve puzzles.
Each level section comprises a few enemies to outwit and usually, some kind of puzzle.
This isn’t a game to rush through to meet a time limit checkpoint. Instead, you need to consider your best approach to each checkpoint, firstly evading then killing off enemies before figuring out how to progress.
That could mean aiming your star power at a trigger, collecting a key or turning platforms on and off in the right order.
It appears simple enough, but things can get fiendishly tricky – one early level sees you jump to a platform, trigger a switch, then jump across a gap while calling your star power back to yourself to undo the switch, so that the platforms revert back to their original positions and you can land safely. It requires planning, precision, and figuring out exactly how to progress. The star power is the real gameplay USP here, which often turns the platformer into a physics puzzle.
Each individual section is short, maybe even less than 30 seconds long if you breeze through (you won’t), but they’re very difficult.
Don’t be fooled by the cutesy art style, it’s a hard game, harkening back to the 80s/90s platformers of old, with controls to match. There’s little give in its physics. No double jump, no flutter or floating, no ledge grab. You jump up, you get it bang on or you drop like a stone. Clearing consecutive platforms as they disappear requires perfect precision.
In fact, it’s almost rogue-like in that you probably need multiple attempts to nail any given section perfectly and move to the next. But because each section is very short, it rarely feels too frustrating because you never game over and have to repeat segments you’ve already cleared.
Here we tested the PS5 version and it’s a very punchy image and suffers no control lag. No, it’s hardly pushing your cutting edge console to its limits (what, no PS5 Pro version?!), but it’s surely the best performing version of the game on consoles.
While Gimmick 2 might not suit everyone – it’s a pretty tough platformer in a very cute skin – it’s a rewarding love letter to the classic platform genre (if you’re up to the challenge).
VERDICT: 4/5