Mr. Gimmick

Gimmick! / Mr. Gimmick! is a NES game by Sunsoft, makers of Blaster Master. In this game, a young girl receives a green Waddling Head doll for her birthday. The other toys in her bedroom grow jealous of the new toy's popularity, and that night they come to life and kidnap the girl, taking her through a portal to a Floating Island. The green doll ("Mr. Gimmick") leaps after her to save her.

Gimmick's main weapon is a bouncing star that he generates above his head. He can ride the star if he leaps on top of it. He can also carry in his inventory up to 3 of: Fireballs that can fly straight, bombs with a reasonable blast radius, and Healing Potions.

Frank Cifaldi made a very reverent Let's Play of the entire game as part of his 1UP blog.

Gimmick! uses these tropes:


 * Advancing Wall of Doom: A small wall in a small hallway in stage 4.
 * Beam Spam: the guy you fight before the stage 5 boss.
 * Breather Level: the secret stage.
 * Bubble Gun: the castle bosses' weapons.
 * Cartoon Bomb: One of the items you can throw.
 * Chain-Reaction Destruction: Third and fifth boss get destroyed in that manner.
 * Continuing Is Painful: You won't see the secret level if you used a continue.
 * Cranium Ride: not only enemies and your bouncing star, but also... flying cannon balls?
 * Death Trap: Third level has several of them, ranging from ceiling traps to arrow traps.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: In the Minecart Madness section of stage 5, Gimmick is chased by an enemy in a unicycle. Not only you can knock out the enemy and ride the unicycle, you can also fire the unicycle's turret with the B button!
 * In stage 2, it's possible to skip a large part of the level and fight the boss early. If you do this quick enough, you will find him... Sleeping, with an alarm clock mook by his side. In this state, the boss is a pushable object, so you can push him towards the edge of the arena and hit him with a star as he about to wake up, killing him instantly.
 * Distressed Damsel: The owner or Gimmick.
 * Eternal Engine: the gear-filled castle.
 * Energy Ball: A few of the enemies can fire these.
 * Every Ten Thousand Points: points = lives.
 * Excited Show Title: Gimmick! after all.
 * Floating Continent: Where the whole game takes place at. There are two of these. There's the larger main one where the most of the game takes place. Smaller one appears after collecting all the secret treasures.
 * Gang Plank Galleon: stage 2.
 * The Goomba: Those black beady-eyed enemies.
 * Healing Potion: Gimmick can carry pink potions that refill health, and twice per level he will encounter an orange potion that increases his maximum HP (initially 2) by one.
 * Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: In stages 1 and 5. More believable in stage 7.
 * Living Toys
 * : In the true ending.
 * Minecart Madness: one section of stage 5.
 * Mini Boss: In stages 2, 3, 4 and 6.
 * Multiple Endings: Two of them.
 * Nintendo Hard: and then some! Seriously, some parts of this game are ridiculous.
 * One Bullet At a Time: one of Gimmick's more annoying limitations.
 * One-Hit Polykill: He gets more points by hitting multiple enemies with one star.
 * One Hundred Percent Completion: Needed for the true ending.
 * Plot Coupon: You'll never see those secret treasures in use. A Floating Continent just appears out of nowhere.
 * Save the Princess: In this case, your owner.
 * Secret Stage: Get all the hidden items from the previous stages to play this.
 * Sequence Break: you can use the bouncing star to skip almost three-quarters of stage 2.
 * Shark Tunnel: stage 1.
 * Shifting Sand Land: stage 4.
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World: stage 6, before the castle.
 * Some Dexterity Required: Those times where you have to throw the star so that it ends up underneath you, so you can do a midair jump off it.
 * Spider Tank: the level 5 boss.
 * Spikes of Doom: Every stage except stage 2 and the secret one.
 * The Spiny: Spiky enemies in the second level and cat-like enemies in the secret level.
 * Springs Springs Everywhere: Springboards can be found in levels 5 and 6.
 * Stalactite Spite: Those rocks in stage 3. Good lord.
 * Super Drowning Skills: Gimmick can drown in water that's barely twice as deep as he is high.
 * Temporary Platform: Some of them.
 * True Final Boss: A mysterious fellow with a cloak and a sword, whose first form is strikingly reminiscent of Dracula.
 * Tube Travel: These can take you somewhere.
 * Unique Enemy: They show up at the start of levels 4, 5 and 6.
 * Waddling Head: Gimmick and most all of his enemies.