Pikmin

"Power to the Putty"

Olimar is having a bad day. After setting out on an expedition to do some scientific garbage, our little astronaut winds up crash landing on a world out in the middle of nowhere that's filled with horror movie putty creatures. As luck would have it, these creatures would like to have Olimar over for a nice, quiet dinner in their mouths. That's right, they want to eat him. Because becoming a part of the food chain doesn't interest Olimar very much, he decides to befriend a group of bulbs that he stumbled across when he got shot out of his rocket in the crash. He soon names them Pikmin.

Although they are pretty small, hideously pathetic, and not really pleasant on the eyes, these little dudes follow our imperiled astronaut around without question, ready to beat every wall, build any bridge, or even take out the baddies that Olimar comes in contact with. Not only that, but they can lug around heavy objects when combined in large numbers, perfectly suiting themselves to Olimar's needs. You see, because Nintendo needed to add a precarious twist to the game, Olimar has 31 days before his oxygen runs out and he winds up becoming a permanent resident of Suffocation Ville. There is a way for him to escape, however. If he can manage to collect enough parts of his discombobulated ship, he may be able to get himself off the ground and back home.

Let's be honest, 31 days doesn't exactly give Olimar the time to stop and smell the roses, though. Probably one of the most significant things any player can learn to do in Pikmin is manage the little bulbs, because it's going to take some serious planning and a bit of luck if you want to get every last piece of Olimar's ship back together (you don't need every piece to clear the game, but the higher the better). Pikmin can be divided into several groups upon your command. If you want to leave a couple of them behind to break down a wall while you take another group to kill an overgrown bug, then you have the opportunity to. Once you get the hang of taking the right group of Pikmin into the right situation (for instance, red Pikmin can avoid getting charbroiled, while blue can have a knack for Olympic swimming), you'll find yourself able to avoid the hassle that comes with being unprepared in the face of the game's many challenges.

Since collecting parts of a ship is the emphasis of Pikmin, you'll obviously find yourself doing just that more often than not. To get to those parts, though, the player is going to have to do a bit of exploration, and that's exactly where the fun – and difficulty – of Pikmin comes in. The world in which the player can explore is big, while still ingeniously featuring a solid assortment of obstacles and challenges that a player will have to face if he or she wants to get Olimar to safety. For some, dragging a big army of Pikmin around to split up at will is the answer when a wall pops up or you need something pushed such as a box. For others, you'll find yourself running around alone to dodge the annoyance of constant fighting or trying to lead your army across a tightrope on top of a huge lake. Either way, the fact that players have the opportunity to do what they want to do when they want to do it adds to the replay value, simply because it opens up a ton of options for you to take in your adventures. So let's get a recap. Breaking down walls? Check. Beating up bugs? Check. Paddling through water? Check. Running half-hazardly through a burning hot sulfur field with an army of onions with their heads on fire? Priceless.

In case you didn't notice from those last couple of sentences, Pikmin has the propensity to offer a wide variety of things to do. Whether it is breaking down walls for the space ship part behind or taking down a bug, you can do it. What really makes the game shine, though, is the Pikmin variety that was implemented. There are three types of Pikmin, Blue, Red, and Yellow, and each has their own special abilities that set them apart from the rest. For example, Red Pikmin are probably your best fighters, capable of avoiding the roasting fire blasts that come there way. Blue Pikmin can swim, and are practically the only type of Pikmin capable of making it across water. Yellow can simply call themselves Pikachu. Heh. With that being said, however, each also has their fair share of problems. Red are slower. Blue get killed outside of the water. And Yellow die whenever they touch enemies because they're so darn weak. If you can put together the right force to get rid of the right area, then you'll do better in the game and learn the key management principle that's present.

For the most part, people instantaneously want to talk about the game play possibilities when they think of Pikmin, and it's rightfully deserved. The point is, however, that backing that excellent game play up is a unique set of graphics and music that gives the game enough push to make it truly special. For one, they decided to use probably one of the most unorthodox graphical schemes in video game history. Everything is made out of clay and putty, giving the game a pseudo realistic feel that winds up working out almost perfectly. They didn't stop there, either. On top of that weird putty scheme, they also added an eerie glow that compliments the putty by making it almost look realistic, an effect that many thought was impossible. For some, this was done to perfection. Something else that was done to perfection was the music, which never fails to do what it was meant to do – pacify. By making use of a soft, otherworldly tone, Nintendo managed to add to the atmosphere that the game presented, making you truly feel like you are an astronaut located on some desolate world out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of putty bugs waiting to eat you. Wow. It can get wind up getting lost at times when the game picks up, which is probably its biggest fault, but it still is there when you need it, which really counts the most.

With that being said, there is a couple of problems in Pikmin that really bring down the experience. As much as it's great to say that the game offers many play styles to choose from, it's painfully obvious that the game ends way too quickly for its own good. Generally, it will last a good player, about six to ten hours at most, which is like putting a carrot in front of a player's head and then throwing it into the waters of boredom. That's right, the game can get boring. Fast. Unless you like to play games that feature a ton of exploration, Pikmin has a nasty habit of becoming exceedingly boring, painfully tedious, and somewhat annoying if you wind up repeating the same day several times in a row due to your own idiocies.

Problems aside, Pikmin is definitely one of those games that will either make you love it deeply or hate it with a passion. Game play can be a blast at times, and the thought of leading around a gigantic onion army against a host of bugs has its high points, but boredom is an ever present problem that only gets worse when tedium sets in. It was almost as if it were one of those things that could have been avoided if they decided to incorperate more, but they didn't, and the game ultimately pays for it. For those of you willing to take the plunge, get ready to melt into the world of putty.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/07, Updated 06/25/07