Pikmin

"One of the most innovative and charming games of the generation. If only it were a bit deeper..."

Fifteen minutes into Pikmin, and I finally asked myself:

“What the hell am I playing?”

Recruiting and training members of an army is one thing. Planting them, growing them, and plucking them out of the earth is something else entirely, and it's the setup of Pikmin, one of the most charmingly innovative and clever games I've ever played – certainly one of the most unique titles of this generation. This is not a creation just of Nintendo, but of Miyamoto himself, who I had beforehand thought of as a guy so obsessed with his two biggest babies (Mario and Zelda) that no force on Earth could persuade him to, God forbid, make something new (not that there's anything wrong with Mario or Zelda, of course). A trip to the Miyamoto garden changed everything. This is a true story. He observed and studied as a group of ants trotting through his garden, and for a moment, the Mario-maker transported himself into the lives of those tiny insects. He imagined what it would be like to walk through a world in which everything is inflated to a hundred times its normal size. You'd be overwhelmed and timid amongst the enormous and frightening things that at one point seemed so inferior. But if you could only take control of those ants, things would balance out. An army of ants can be pretty badass, let me tell you.

I love strategy games. I love the idea of controlling a military of some sort, whether it be a small group of hacking-and-slashing ancient warriors or a platoon of ray gun-wielding super enhanced genome clone soldiers (or whatever). I like the idea of taking command of a large force. While you can feel like an unstoppable maniac when controlling a single character, nothing to me simulates power like moving an entire army, a large group of soldiers, into combat and obliterating the enemy with dozens of units at a time. Pikmin does this, but perhaps to a lesser extent. You'll only ever really control the main character, Captain Olimar. But following close behind is up to a hundred little creatures that will obey your every command. Tell them to fight an enemy, and they will. Tell them to carry something heavy, and they will. Tell them to build a bridge, and they will. Tell them to drown themselves in a pool of deep water, and they will. They live to die, and they will die to ensure that you live. This is power, my friends. Meet the Pikmin.

The story is that Captain Olimar, some sort of humanoid alien guy, crash-lands on a strange planet after his spaceship is struck by a meteor. That planet is Earth, but seemingly long after we humans are gone, as there are no people in sight, but rather a number of strange-looking enemies that would be more than happy to munch down the tiny Olimar. The Pikmin are in the same position, and while they can be deadly in large numbers, they are unorganized and find difficulty in managing themselves. So, what do we have here? Olimar needs protection, and the Pikmin need leadership. Sounds like the perfect match, and the moment the two collide, the Pikmin are more than happy to do whatever this little man in a spacesuit tells them to do. Good enough, because Olimar has to find thirty missing pieces of his spaceship in order to take off. Another problem? The atmosphere is filled with deadly, poisonous oxygen (I'm not kidding), and Olimar only has thirty days before his life support runs out. Holy setup!

The Pikmin themselves are supposed to resemble ants, but I guess that's only in the way they work together as a group, because up close, they look like… I don't know… little guys with plants on their heads. A single Pikmin can't do much of anything, but in large groups they can be quite powerful. Though you'll eventually grow a number of Pikmin ranging possibly in the thousands, you can only ever have a hundred onscreen, out-of-the-Onion Pikmin at one time, partly because you can't be overpowered, and partly because the GameCube probably has enough trouble handling a hundred of those little buggers at once while at the same time displaying everything else at a constant framerate (this is a good-looking game, by the way).

You're going to start out, on the first day, with a single Pikmin. With that Pikmin, you will breed a vast army! That one Pikmin, believe it or not, is more than enough to get you started on your big military-training, spaceship part-hunting adventure. You issue Pikmin commands by simply throwing them at things. If you want them to attack an enemy, throw them at it, and they'll start the pounding. If you want them to pick up an item and carry it back to the base, throw them at that item. The A button controls throwing, and the analog stick controls a little cursor that Olimar follows for pinpoint precision. If you want to make your Pikmin army bigger, you've got to have them collect items and bring them back to their Onions. Onions will suck up any old crap and use it to produce Pikmin seeds, which in turn sprout new Pikmin troops in a matter of seconds. So, on the first day, you'll use your one lonely little Pikmin to collect the lightweight pellets, which can be harvested for new Pikmin. Every Pikmin has equal strength, so the more you have, the easier certain tasks become. Items, for example, have a minimum and maximum number of Pikmin that can carry them. While the minimum is all you need, the more you have, the faster they'll carry it back to the base.

There are three different types of Pikmin, and each is separated by color, and this plays a major role in exactly how you act. You'll start off the game with red Pikmin. These little guys have slightly improved attack power, making them ideal for any major battles, including some of the game's bosses. They're also resistant to fire, so anytime you're dealing with fire-spewing enemies or even the dreaded “fire geysers,” you'll want the reds. Burn all reds! Yellow Pikmin sport some enormous ears, and thus have aerodynamics superior to their brethren. As such, they can be thrown higher. Yellows are especially important, however, because they have the ability to carry valuable bomb rocks, which can be used to blow open stone doors. Finally, the blue Pikmin are the only Pikmin species that can move through water. Not only that, they can actually act as lifeguards and save other types of Pikmin from drowning. All three Pikmin colors play vital roles, and often times they'll have to correspond to one another in plenty of tricky environmental puzzles that require intense thought.

The most important factor you have to consider in Pikmin is the idea of making the most out of what little time you have. As I said before, Pikmin has a thirty-day time limit, but in-game days are only about ten to twelve minutes long. Add this up, and that's not much time at all. Now, since you have thirty parts to find in thirty days, if you limit yourself to one part a day (at the absolute minimum), you shouldn't have any trouble. But if you want to complete Pikmin quickly, you've got to learn how to play efficiently. This means multitasking. Commanding Pikmin isn't just a matter of having your little force trailing you at all times. Often, you'll have to assign Pikmin to certain jobs and leave them while you perform other tasks. For example, a typical day might mean that you start off by leaving a small group of Pikmin by a pond to start building a bridge. You'll take another small chunk out of your army and assign them to start tearing down a wall made of sticks. You'll then lead the rest of your troops to fight some enemy for another part. When you defeat the enemy and your Pikmin are bringing its carcass and the part back to the base, you can check up on how your other groups are doing.

It's all a matter of organization. You can't be in direct control of every single thing that goes on in the level, since you can only be in one place at one time. You have to keep things organized and never let things get out of hand. You have to know your troops, and constantly be aware of what they're doing. It's difficult, and it can be tough to get used to. Make no mistake – Pikmin will die. Plenty of them. And while it is kind of sad to watch their little ghosts float away, it's also damaging to your army, since you'll either have to make way without them or go back to the Onions to get more of the Pikmin that are stashed away. Everything must be planned to perfection to avoid reckless loss. And it's exactly how real-time strategy games should be. (Some would disagree with me calling Pikmin an RTS, but what else would it be?) You'll make mistakes in Pikmin, and it can lead to quite a loss at times, but when you overcome a fierce challenge, there's a lot of reward.

Really, my only major problem with this game is in length and depth – there is none, really. You've got a short campaign mode, and that's it. Okay, there is a Challenge Mode, but this simply makes you collect as much loot as you can before the clock runs out – kind of entertaining, but nothing special. Really, the main mode, with its “epic” battles and intelligent puzzles, is the only thing that will really grab anyone, and it doesn't last as long as it should. It can't, in fact, due to the time limit. There are some optional spaceship parts that you may not find on your first run (including a very fun final level that only contains one part and features a cool boss), and the hardcore may want to come back later to beat the game in a shorter amount of time, but I really can't see anyone spending a whole lot of time with this game. At least this is something the sequel fixed.

Also, while it's kind of cute-ish at first, the sound effects get repetitive quickly, and the music is really nothing memorable. As a whole, sound is not as noteworthy as the rest of the game.

Pros

+ Innovative melding of genres into a unique RTS-type game.
+ Perfect control gives you complete command over the Pikmin.
+ Level design and puzzles encourage deep thinking and multitasking.
+ Enemies are well crafted and fun to battle.
+ Usually many different ways to approach each situation.
+ Nice graphics.

Cons

- Too short, with not enough to make it worth coming back.
- Sound isn't very noteworthy.

Overall: 9/10

Pikmin was one of my favorite GameCube games around launch season and remains one to this day. It shows that the gaming world is far from running out of ideas. Miyamoto's masterpiece is worth playing so long as you don't mind a little quirk – the cutesy graphics and admittedly odd play mechanics will ensure that this is a Nintendo game with only the innovation that its creative minds can conjure up. But this is also one of the most engaging RTS games (if you so choose to call it that) I've ever played, full of ingenuity and clever ideas. The level design is so brilliant that it allows you to forgive Pikmin's biggest flaw (that is, its length) since you're having so much fun while it lasts. After all, it's a compliment to want more of the game. And that is what the game's sequel eventually gave us, but that's a story for another review. For now, if you're a ‘Cube owner who has yet to experience this world, pick it up at a bargain price and be astonished at what Miyamoto has to offer.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/06