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Gimmick! Game Composer Masashi Kageyama Dies

The official Bluesky account for Japanese record label Brave Wave announced on Monday composer Masashi Kageyama died on September 5 after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 62.

Kageyama was known for his work on Sunsoft's 1992 Gimmick! platformer game for Nintendo Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System in West). The game used an advanced sound chip at the time, which allowed the composer to create an advanced score compared to other games at the time.

The composer also worked on the soundtracks for the 1999 Purumui Purumui PlayStation game, the Oppaidius game series, and the 1997 Iwatobi Penguin: Rocky x Hopper PS1 game, among others.

The company noted Kageyama's passion for photography and the saxophone.

Gimmick! originally launched for Famicom in 1992 in Japan. The game got a re-release in 2002 for PS1 in Japan, and was remade in 2020 for the exA-Arcadia arcade system. A remaster of the game launched in July 2023 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The game received a sequel for Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S in September 2024 titled Gimmick! 2.

Source: Brave Wave's Bluesky account