The Harvest Moon games all basically boil down to managing a mix of time, tasks, and metrics, and recent entries in the series have relied heavily on exploiting
a new gameplay gimmick with each iteration: in one it's crafting structures for the town, in another it's trading with foreign economies.
If you've ever leveled up a Skylanders character, you know how the new skills are actually new skills, with new visual effects and
new gameplay gimmicks, with a sense of payoff.
The level designs — which contain so many alternate routes and introduce so many
new gameplay gimmicks that they never lose a shred of their charm — are arguably the deepest in the series, and even have a Mario sense of exploration about them to track down their every last secret.
Not exact matches
These games hone your punching abilities and movement, while also lending ARMS» style of
gameplay to some
new competitive and casual game modes — but unfortunately, the
gimmick wears off pretty quickly.
There are no fancy
gimmicks or
new gameplay mechanics thrown in the mix with this one, so those looking to experience the classic game in its purest form need only apply.
A laughably bad storyline, a campaign built from
gimmicks instead of
gameplay, and a handful of
new units for power - gamers?
As the sequel to Sonic Dash, the game features similar endless running
gameplay to the original but with
new gimmicks such as using the enerbeam to lock onto sky - rails.
Murfy is sadly more a
gimmick than a substantial part of
gameplay though, as he comes in every couple of stages and is more distracting than not as you have to manage two characters at once, but it adds a
new angle to the tried - and - true
gameplay we all know and love.
Devolver's
newest release is Minit, a game that goes overboard when it comes to retro visuals but also manages to entertain players due to its
gameplay and central
gimmick.
The familiar setting and enemy roster were replaced by a
new location and a whole crop of enemies that weren't indigenous to the Mushroom Kingdom, and while the core
gameplay remained the same, a
new gimmick mixed things up a little from the last installment in the series.
The trailer does a fine job of not actually showing anything, but the core
gameplay remains the same albeit with
new units, enemies, and a time - travel
gimmick.