Pikmin Review

"Hey, guess what?" said the world. "What?" asked I. "Pikmin 3 just came out! And you don't have a Wii U!" the world giggled. "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF" went I. Pikmin 3 finally came out after so many years of waiting, and I can't play the bloody game because its on a system I don't own. And adding salt on the wound is the fact that every source possible is reminding me that its out, that its great, and I can't play it. However, I can still partake in playing the other games in the series just to remind myself how great it is.

Pikmin is a game that was released in 2001 on the Nintendo Gamecube, designed by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. The game was designed to show just what the Gamecube was able to handle and while not a system seller like other Nintendo games like Super Mario 64 or *cough* Pikmin 3, the game still sold well and was successful enough to have two sequels and appear in other games such as Smash Bros. So yeah,  Nintendo likes Pikmin and the series has quite the fan base, but has the first game in the series withheld the test of time?

Pikmin begins with the protagonist, Captain Olimar, on vacation, flying through space without a care in the world. Until he's struck by a meteor and crash lands on the closest planet. When he comes to, he sees that his beloved ship, the Dolphin, is in pieces, and that he's now stranded. On top of that, the atmosphere of the planet contains oxygen, which is poisonous to Olimar, and that his life support system only will last for 30 more days. Olimar stumbles forward and finds a strange red object on the ground. Upon approaching it, it springs to life and drops a single seed. When plucked, the seed turns out to be a small red creature with a leaf on its head, which Olimar names a Pikmin. After sprouting more Pikmin, Olimar find the engine to the Dolphin, and with the Pikmins help, gets it back to his ship making it fit to fly him around the planet and keep him in the air to avoid the creatures that come out at night. And now with the Pikmin at his side, Olimar must go around the planet, find his missing ship parts, and escape the planet before his life support system fails.

Pikmin is a Real Time Strategy game where you must guide the Pikmin around the areas to get pellets to get more Pikmin, defeat enemies to do the same, build bridges, break down walls, and find the missing ship parts. There are three types of Pikmin you must use in order to find the ship parts. The first is the red Pikmin which are the strongest against enemies and are resistant to fire. These are the first Pikmin you get, so don't be surprised if you have more of these Pikmin than the others. Then there are the yellow Pikmin, which can be thrown higher and can use bomb rocks, which explode after thrown or dropped. Yellow Pikmin are used the least, so when breeding Pikmin, it's better to focus your numbers elsewhere. Finally there are the blue Pikmin which can go in water. That's it. Though it doesn't sound like much, later areas in the game are littered with water areas, so it's best to always have a group of these at hand. Though you can breed an infinite number of Pikmin, you can only have a hundred on the field at once so you have to manage your numbers so you can get as much done as you can.

Each day in Pikmin lasts roughly fifteen minutes. Once the fifteen minutes are up, Olimar will head back to the Dolphin and all the Pikmin under his command and around the Dolphin will return to the Onion for the night. All Pikmin working on something or idle in the field will be left behind and eaten by the predators of the night. In order to get the most done in a day you will need to multitask. For example you can have one group of Pikmin breaking down a wall, you can have another carrying a ship part back to the Dolphin, while a third group is exploring the area with you. Depending on how much multitasking you do, this game can be beaten rather fast. There are only four areas in this game, five counting the final boss area. Though many of the areas are large, they can be cleared in a matter of a few in game days.

Speaking of large, the scale in Pikmin is pretty amazing. According to the manual, Olimar and the Pikmin are only supposed to be about an inch tall, and the size of the areas and the creatures in said areas show that. While talking about presentation, Pikmin, for a launch title, looks great. The mix of realistic environments and cartoony character designs means you get a great looking game, yet you'll still be reminded that your playing something made by Nintendo. The soundtrack has many catchy tunes in it, though a few won't stick in your head after the system is turned off. While playing however, these tracks get the job done, and add to these environments.

While I mentioned that Pikmin could be a short game earlier, this game holds replay value. First off, there's multiple endings. Now, there's 30 ship parts in the game, but only 25 of them are required. Not finding the required parts gives you the bad ending, finding the required 25 parts gives you the normal ending, and finding all 30 gives you the best ending. Also, there's challenge mode, where your tasked to breed as much Pikmin as you can before the days end in all five areas. So there's still something to do after your first play through.

So here we are, 12 years after Pikmins initial release. I asked in the beginning of this review if Pikmin withheld the test of time, and I believe it has. It may be a bit short, but its a fun adventure to experience. However, finding copies of this game can be a bit pricy, even if you buy the Wii re release. If you happen to find this game or the Wii re release cheap. I recommend you pick it up.

The Silent Protagonist thinks that with how generous Nintendo has been recently with sequels, will we see a true sequel to Star Fox 64 soon?