BREAKING the Famicom's LIMITS - The Story of Gimmick!
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- Опубліковано 17 вер 2024
- This, is the story of Gimmick!, a Famicom title which pushed boundaries in just about every conceivable way - only to be ignored and buried by the company that created it - mainly because it came to market just a little too late.
It’s a story of creativity run-wild in a mad dash to test the very limits of graphics, sound design, difficulty, and even of the Famicom hardware itself, and it would end in the creation of yet another one of the console’s most sought-after, and yet most misunderstood titles.
Fortunately, there’s a happy ending to this one, but there’s a lot to cover before we get there.
Research for this video came from the following interviews and articles:
Masashi Kageyama VGMOnline Interview: web.archive.or...
Masashi Kageyama Shmupulations Interview
shmuplations.c...
GlitterBerri Interview Translation
web.archive.or...
Hardcore Gaming 101 Summary:
www.hardcoregam...
Famicom World Forum
www.famicomwor...
Special Thanks to Guest Voice Talent:
Kris @GameDadShow
Jay @SquarePegs
John @JohnRiggs
Thanks also to @clearrivergames and @BitwaveGames for providing a review code for Gimmick! 2.
Follow on Twitter:
bittykongsquest
Hey there folks! I just wanted to leave a note that I made a mistake at 3:39. The image shown is of Takahashi Meijin, NOT Tomomi Sakai. Totally my fault - I misunderstood a reference when doing my research, and I apologize! I'll try to do better in the future!
Thanks so much to @chrisng2746 for the catch!
Senor Gimmick
Excellent video. Worth a mention if someone else hasn't already that Mr. Gimmick is on a SunSoft Evercade cart.
Crap! I knew I forgot something! 😅
I even have that cart and completely forgot about it. Thanks for the catch! I pinned your comment so folks will see it.
yeah that thing is pretty cool imo
Love this video! Quick note about the Sushi-X review. Sushi-X was an in-character reviewer that hid their identity as a "super elite secret video game ninja." The game being too easy was almost assuredly a reference to how hard the game was, because Sushi-X was "just that good" at games, lol. It was an obnoxious bit, but charming in retrospect. Any time they'd say a game was "too easy", I knew to expect Batttletoads-and-above. Thanks again for this one! :)
Oh wow! I had no idea! I always learn so much when doing these videos - thank you for chiming in!
I remember that "Nintendo Magasinet" review that was shown in the video (the one that gave the game a 6). Despite the low score it really made me want the game.
I did not get it when it was still in stores, but a few years later I was able to trade a copy of Ice Climbers for Mr. Gimmick, with a box but no manual. Probably the best trade I ever made.
Oh wow! That's incredible!! I love hearing stories like that where people acquired an expensive game because they liked it back in the day, not because they sought it out once it became rare. That's so cool!
Absolutely fantastic as always my friend!
Thanks man! Great job on the Voiceover!
"the Gimmick franchise" ....one title decades ago isn't a franchise.
Yeah, that was strange. It's not a synonym for "property".
There are two games now and hopefully a third one will happen
Excitement factor is crazy for Gimmick! 2!
I loved your video essay. Just one suggestion: it's a little ironic that you're uploading in 4K for what is largely retro gaming footage, but not 60fps, which is far more important than resolution for retro games.
Thanks! I come from a film background, and most of my physical b-roll as well as the talking head segments are filmed at 24p, so I standardize my exports to that even though I do capture 4k60 footage.
That's a good note though - if that's something that's important to folks, I'll see if I can incorporate it in the future.
@@BittyKongsQuest you can always do 60fps for game footage and 24p for b-roll, that's what many retro gaming channels do.
@@freddychopin No thanks, 24fps is 30fps but jittery, which is extremely unpleasant to watch.
@@bits360wastaken 24fps is literally every single film ever made, with maybe a dozen exceptions. So I guess you don't like watching movies at all, ever.
1:22 That main gameplay music melody riff sounds exactly like the ending music for Bubble Bobble
Woah! You're right! I never made that connection before, but I just listened to them both to compare, and yeah, that first part of the melody is almost identical. Great note!
Instant sub, beautiful video! PAL Gimmick has been my holy grail for decades, so I jumped on the special edition re-release. It's the first and only game ever I actively use the rewind feature with. I never expected the game to be that brutally hard, and without dedicating all my waking hours to it, I don't see how I could ever finish the original!
Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for the sub!
And yeah! It's crazy that the game is as hard as it is - especially with it looking like a Kirby game or something at first glance! I thought about picking up the speedrun for it at one point, but once I checked out some run videos, I noped right out of that one! 😆
Awesome video! The soundtrack is what drew me to this game and I love it!
Absolutely. The music in Gimmick! is incredible! If you get a chance, definitely check out the stuff they remixed for Gimmick! 2. It's really good!
Another great video. Thanks for your effort.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
I have the RetroZone reproduction of Mr. Gimmick! It's fun but tough. I had no idea that it was so rare, even the repro goes for quite a bit these days.
I noticed that while doing research for this video! It's kinda nuts that some repros actually hold real value now, but super cool!
If youre a fan of gimmick I recommend watching some of the youtube videos talking about how extremely detailed and full of easter eggs the game was despite being an NES/FC game.
Absolutely! I had a couple of segments in there about the little Easter eggs - like the bosses not being ready for you if you get there too quick - but I cut them out in the final edit for pacing reasons. I'm sure there are others that I don't know about though! There's so much going on in this game! 😄
9:55 that's actually a sample prototype of the Japanese Famicom game, not the US prototype and as of now the US prototype ROM has not been uploaded to Hidden Palace
you can find a copy of said US prototype over on The Cutting Room Floor (TCRF) on the page covering the differences to the retail Japanese game
Good catch. Totally my mistake. It even says it at the top of the page on Hidden Palace. 😅
100 views in 5 hour’s? This should be more popular
Well it's a small channel yet, but we'll get there! Thank you for being one of those 100 views though - glad you enjoyed it!
Off topic sorry about that. My Birthday is in 4/3 more days on Sep 12 my Birthday!
Happy birthday (stage one) to you! 🎉
Oooh awesome!! I think I found a new channel to sub to!
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the video!
I went to Gamescom this year and went to see David Wise perform live, little that I know he'd be there representing Gimmick 2! I even got a t-shirt for the game. I find it extremely fitting that Wise would make the music for this game.
Woah! That's so cool! Meeting David Wise is on my bucket list - he's such an incredible musician. That's so awesome too that you got a T-shirt for the game as well!
Instantly subbed! This is "Gaming Historian" levels of production, can't wait to see your future video 😎
Oh my goodness! That's a huge compliment! Thank you so much!
The Arcadia version NEEDS a home console release.
Why is Takahashi Meijin’s picture appearing when Sakai’s name is being mentioned 😂
Oh! Good catch! I just checked my source, and I totally made a mistake there. I apologize!
Thank you for the catch - I'll put a correction in the pinned comment!
Great video!
Liked and subbed. Awesome essay. I'm adding this game to my list of games to play.
If you don't mind a bit of criticism, I have two notes. "every conceivable way" was used enough times to make me notice it. The audio mixing is overall great; you avoided the music drowning out the voice, which is good, but when you stop talking and the music goes up, it becomes too loud. Whether you would want to lower that music or raise your voice is up to you.
Thank you for the critique! It's ALWAYS welcome! 😄
I use that phrase a lot in everyday life, so it tends to make it into my scripts a lot as well. That's good to know that I might be using it too much - I'll watch out for that going forward! And good note on the music. You're not the first one to say that, so it's something I'll be really watching on my next video.
Thanks again for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
ill be honest the sequels art style reminds me of flash and mobile games.
You know, I thought the exact same thing when I saw the first trailer, but once I played it, it's a lot more fluid and detailed than it originally looked like. I can see where you're coming from though!
Me: "This is such a great video! How have I not heard of this creator?"
**looks at subs. It's 1.38k**
Me: "This is such a great video! The channel needs more subs!"
Subscribed, man.
Thank you so much! Yeah, it's small now, but we'll get there! I appreciate you watching and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
0:27 *exacerbated
exasperated is the state of being extremely flustered and desperate for resolution.
(this will prolly come off as a bit blunt, I have that tendency, so just wanna clarify that my only intention here is to help your commentary sound more professional)
No worries! Critique is ALWAYS welcome - that's how we all get better! Thanks so much for watching!
really good vide and whoaa~ Imma have my evenings set for atleast the coming week
Thanks you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Gimmick! 2 just came out on Steam, but I don't think its a proper sequel to this amazing game.
Honest question - can I ask why? This is a take that I don't really get, but would love to understand as it seems like there are quite a few folks who feel this way.
@@BittyKongsQuestdunno if true but ive seen ppl saying the original creator of the series had his rights over the game taken away from him
The ip belongs to Sunsoft and they gave the green light to Bitwave. The original game was released 32 years ago so there was never any chance that the original team would be involved in any way
@@chrisknight3734 this rumor referrs to the first game too
Awesome video, never heard of Gimmick until now ! Hopefully Nintendo and Sunsoft will allow this game on the NSO ! Werid how much he looks like Kirby and how some of the levels look like they came from Kirby's Adventure too !
Absolutely. That thought has crossed my mind as well, and since Gimmick came out the year before Kirby's Adventure, it's entirely possible that Sakurai and the folks at HAL Laboratory could have been influenced by it - even if it was unintentional. There's even an homage to Kirby in Gimmick 2 because they're so similar!
i dont get the impression that gimmick 2 was made because of the sunsoft resurgence, but rather bitwaves own love for the game which could be seen with their rerelease of the original. it should also be noted that tomomi sakai was not aware of the ps1 rerelease of gimmick either. when i spoke to him, he told me that hes happy people are still enjoying the game, but he has since moved on with focusing on music and astronomy
Oh! I didn't know he was unaware of the PS1 version as well. That's interesting!
And yeah, I originally had a bit at the end about how he had moved on from game development, but it's one of the segments that got cut out of the final version. I tend to have much longer cuts of these videos that get trimmed down for pacing by the end, but there's always a few segments I regret not including!
That's so cool that you got to talk to him though! Was that an in-person thing or online? Not that it matters - it's super cool either way - just being nosy. 😄
Thanks so much for watching by the way. I love it when people who already have an interest in a game watch these videos - I always end up learning so many little things that I missed in my research!
@@BittyKongsQuest it was an interview via email for a documentary i made about the game myself. however i have since limited it to youtube members because i broke up with the person partially featured in that video. because of my experience with it though i like to watch videos about gimmick to correct them on certain things if i see something is inaccurate. somebody else already pointed out that the takahashi meijin picture was not tomomi sakai, but aside from that i didnt see any glaring misinformation in this video!
@@HaydenTheHistorian Gotcha! That's awesome that you made a documentary as well! I just subbed to your channel so I'll head over there and check out what you've got!
And please, if you ever watch any of my other videos and see that I got something wrong, please feel free to let me know - I try to be really thorough in my research, but I know I miss things sometimes, and I'm always open to critique if I made a mistake!
Anyway, thanks again for watching. I'll be sure to check out your channel as well!
@@BittyKongsQuest thanks! i dont know if i will make any more videos solely dedicated to video games but i like to keep up with the scene to see what everyone is up to.
ill be sure to point out any mistakes i see. there is actually an interview with tomomi sakai in a russian magazine that i dont think you referenced here. sometimes you can visit wikipedia pages in different languages to pick out what sources they use. common knowledge in one part of the world may not be known outside of that country
amazing video I love this game so much! the new game is really good It took me a bit to get the real ending, but i 100% it what I like about the new one is that the pieces you need for the real ending don't get lost after you die.
Kirby's green cousin! 💚
Honestly, the sequel with modern hardware isn't as interesting to me as the original Famicom release. What made Gimmick unique on the Famicom was how hard it pushed hardware limits in both graphics and sound, so remaking it with modern hardware and the conveniences that comes with that strips it of that uniqueness and (in my opinion) just turns it into another entry in the super hard retro platformer category.
Yeah! I actually like your take on this a lot!
I do really, REALLY like the sequel, but in terms of pushing hardware and boundaries, it's not breaking new ground at all - just refining the earlier formula.
Any interest from a historical standpoint mainly comes from it's relationship to the original and just the sheer unlikeliness that it would even be considered for a sequel 30 years after the original.
Anyway, all I really wanted to say is I like your thought! Thanks for watching!
Very cool
its inkbox
Kinda surprised this game was regarded as difficult - I found it fair if not easy at times. And I’m terrible at NES games
Yeah, I think when most people talk about the difficulty, they're mainly talking about the requirements to get the good ending. It's not terribly difficult to finish the game, but doing all of the precise tricks required to get the good ending while also not ever using a Continue is pretty brutal! 😅
What's the song at the very beginning of the video? It sounds so familiar.
Oh! That's actually the opening song of the original game! I'm not sure if there's anything else that sounds like it, but I've definitely heard it used in other videos on occasion. Maybe that's it?
Thanks for watching!
@@BittyKongsQuest I remember where it's from! It's from a flash game that was the original Super Mario Bros. but with a bunch of different characters, like link, Simon Belmont, Megaman and such. I think it was called Super Mario Crossover? Eventually they added skins for characters and the overworld, it was such a cool project. One of the skins used this as an OST.
Man I would love a more in depth, technical breakdown of this game. Both sound and code. I still don't understand how they did a lot of what they did. I get conflicting info on if they had the additional power of the advanced sound chips. I know Sunsoft was one of the only companies to get full use out of the digital sound channel (which is how they did the base mentioned here usually). But Gimmick SOUNDS like it could be something between the chip that upped it to 6 channels and not. Based on the interview here, sounds like it wasn't.
Awesome video though.
Thank you! Yeah, I would absolutely watch something where someone a lot more technical than me broke down the science of how they pulled all of this off. Here's hoping someone makes that video one day!
@@BittyKongsQuest I hope your video inspires them.
Sunsoft is kicking cuz of Gimmick!
came here after watching the ign video
Oh! I'm glad you found the video! If you don't mind my asking, how did you find this video? Was it suggested by UA-cam since you watched IGN's? Just trying to get a feel for where folks are seeing it. 😄
Thanks so much for watching!
Oh my God that Gimmick 2 is so incredibly ugly. What a sad state for Gimmick, eugh.
Wha...?! Oh well, beauty is subjective, I suppose.
@@MyNinjaPenguin17 It looks like a damn flash game and the animations lack any expressiveness.
good vid
Is there a plush of Yumetaro?
There is! Limited Run released a Collector's Edition with the plush included. It was a while ago, so it's tough to find the Switch version anymore, but some places still have the PS4 one in stock!
www.bestbuy.com/site/sku/6550393.p?skuId=6550393&sb_share_source=PDP
@@BittyKongsQuest Oh thanks! I was checking eBay to see if there is any! And all I got was those Collector Editions!
yeah this game pretty cool ngl
They made kirby mega man!
Yeah! A lot of folks make that comparison to Kirby! Interestingly-enough, Kirby's Adventure wouldn't come out until the year after Gimmick!, so I like to believe it's possible that Sakurai was influenced by it in some way. That's just speculation of course, but it's fun to think about!
This reminds me of the story of darksouls
Peakness