One thing that reviewing so many games will absolutely teach you is that variety is the spice of life. Not everything is made for you, and that’s not only OK, it’s actually a good thing. The struggle with that, as an individual reviewer, can be trying to take a step back and see where games have their own style or approach and find the value in that, without then overestimating it either. Not all things new or different are inherently worthwhile after all.

The original Gimmick Special Edition was a re-release of an NES outlier platformer that featured a very cute look, but whose gameplay was quite diabolically tough. This edition is instead a modern take that adheres to most of the original’s look and style, but that thankfully also makes some critical tweaks to at least somewhat improve its approachability. As before, you’ll play as a little green glob who’s able to summon a star that he can throw awkwardly to help with enemies or activate elements in the stage. There’s no doubt that poor Gimmick is a lover, and not much of a fighter, so you’ll need to be careful around enemies since they can be quite problematic, especially when in numbers. 

This revised version, thankfully, does seem to put a bit more emphasis on mixing its action with puzzle-solving, which tones down some of the frustration, but you will ultimately still need to tackle the game’s inherent slippery nature when dealing with platforming. The handling of carried momentum and acceleration in Gimmick are simply their own animal, and while you can get your arms around it, it does feel like it was designed to err on the annoying side. At times even simply jumping between a few small platforms can be unnecessarily difficult, something that definitely feels like a conscious choice on the part of the developer that will likely elicit strong feelings from any given player. If you’re game for a unique set of challenges wrapped in a pretty cute overall look, Gimmick 2 will absolutely deliver just that… but you’ve been warned.