of game music", Kageyama said that making it was a test in trying to "take what people generally considered to be the sound of the Famicom, and kick it up a notch." Naohisa Morota handled the sound programming, and Kageyama described his contributions as "profound" and helpful in one of his goals in making the tracks sound more like a live performance than just compositions. The Famicom version used a variation of Sunsoft's FME-7 memory management controller known as "SUNSOFT 5B", which, in addition to the functionality provided by the stock FME-7, features a Yamaha YM2149 PSG audio chip to provide three additional channels for music and sound. Since the NES only uses five sound channels, the extra sound channels were excluded from the European release. Release Gimmick! was released in Japan on 31 January 1992, with plans for an international release underway. The game was reviewed by Electronic Gaming Monthly (July 1992) in North America, and a release window of the second half of 1992 was provided. However, plans for a North American localization were soon cancelled. Sunsoft of America's former vice president of development, David Siller, claimed that the company's managers felt the game's characters were too "strange or quirky" compared to cartoons by The Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers. Ufouria: The Saga suffered this same fate. However, Siller said that the two titles most likely could have been commercial successes. The international version was imported by Bergsala AB into Scandinavian countries in small amounts and was retitled Mr. Gimmick. It was released on 19 May 1993. Unlike its Japanese counterpart, this version featured eight lives instead of four. The version also contained downgraded music due to the lack of an expanded sound channel chip. Since the European cartridge is encoded for PAL regions, the game would not work properly on a North American NTSC NES due to graphical glitches, but an identical NTSC prototype ROM has been leaked online which functions properly. Gimmick! was also ported to the PlayStation in Japan as a part of Sunsoft Memorial Collection: Volume 6 along with Super Spy Hunter. This version contains some sound differences from its Famicom counterpart. This collection package was made available on the PlayStation Network in Japan on 22 December 2010. The Japanese version of the game has since become a collector's item, with a United Kingdom guide in 2014 listing the game as costing £320.