Pikmin

"Watch your step, you might smash some Pikmin."

Pikmin. What are they, anyways? Cute little men, part animal, part vegetable, and subservient slaves for the game's protagonist, Captain Olimar from planet Hocotate. Despite their name's similarity with Pokemon and Pacman, Pikmin are a whole new species in the gaming world, and despite their tiny size, with your direction they are capable of taking down even the biggest of giants. And that's a little hint of what you will find in Pikmin.

The game starts out with a view of the Dolphin, Olimar's trusted ship, cruising through space without a care. Suddenly and without prior warning, an enormous asteroid crashes into the Dolphin, causing it to fall in a mysterious blue planet. In the fall, the Dolphin is broken into several pieces, who fall around through-out the planet's surface, and knock out Olimar in the process.

As soon as our dear Captain-without-a-crew Olimar regains his conscience, he finds the core remains of his ship in misery. And to make matters worse, this unknown planet's atmosphere is abundant in the deadly element known as Oxygen, poisonous to our intrepid protagonist. Olimar's space suit has a life-support system that will allow him to survive for some time, but will eventually stop working. It's up to you to help Olimar recover the parts of his ship, so he can go back to his planet.

And to his luck, Olimar comes across these cute little creatures he affectionately dubs Pikmin.

It's here when the game begins. You're in control of Captain Olimar, who in turn is in control of these Pikmin. When Olimar encounters them Piks, he only finds a single one of them. But as he soon learns, Pikmin are intelligent creatures, and when he guides them towards seeds and flowers, they harvest pellets to their nest, which Olimar names Onion. The Onion absorbs the seeds and produces more Pikmin.

Soon you'll find yourself in control of a small army. And what few Pikmin couldn't do, many Pikmin certainly can. When you've managed to sprout a certain amount of Pikmin, they'll be able to carry bigger pellets to the Onion, netting you more Pikmin. Soon, you'll be able to move objects blocking your way, knock down walls, and perhaps, if you come across one of the Dolphin's parts, they might be able to carry it. A ray of hope shines for Olimar, and you now find his home is not so far away as you thought.

This is the main dynamic of Pikmin. Your main objective is to find the Dolphin's 30 lost parts before Olimar's life-support stops working, which is in exactly 30 days. A part a day, you must be thinking, and while it sounds terribly simple, it's quite clever and challenging.

First of all, the game is played on Real Time. One day in Pikmin lasts about 20 minutes, and when nightfall strikes, Olimar and the Pikmin retreat to the Planet's atmosphere to avoid the nocturnal predators. The real time dynamic works greatly, so allow me to elaborate on the gameplay.

Every day, Olimar comes down to the Planet's surface. At first, you have only one location to explore, but as you find more pieces, the Dolphin recovers it's former self and new locations open up. Several pieces are scattered among these stages, so you'll have to explore every corner of them if you are to take off eventually. And to spice it up, there are dozens of enemies around, some passive and some aggressive, all of them extremely well-designed.

Since the Pikmin are the only ones capable of carrying the pieces, the game understandably focuses on them. There are three different types of Pikmin: Red, who are immune to fire and are the best warriors out of the three; Yellow, who are lighter and can be thrown farther, not to mention they can carry explosive rocks which can be used to take down enemies or destroy blockades; and finally, Blue Pikmin who are amphibious and can survive in land and water. You're going to need all three of them to get through the game.

Controlling your Pikmin army is simple and intuitive. Holding B makes Olimar whistle and call idle Pikmin to follow him, while pressing X will make them idle again, and break them into squads of Yellow, Blue and Red. The Control Stick moves Olimar, and the Pikmin will follow him in formation. The C-Stick will command the Pikmin to move and/or act in the direction you choose, and the A button has Olimar throw a Pikmin in the air. Simple, yet effective, these controls will give you fine-tuned control over your Pikmin army, if you command them right, of course.

Every piece is a puzzle in itself, and usually you'll have to work your wit to get your Pikmin to carry a part back to the Onion. Pikmin are intelligent creatures, and even without Olimar's command they will try and work with their surroundings, but they can't figure out big tasks by themselves. For example, let's say there's a part you want to carry back to the Dolphin. You could send your Pikmin down to carry it, but there's a big enemy sleeping in the way. Sleeping enemies won't bother you if you leave them alone, but if you let your Pikmin carry that piece by themselves, they'll push the sleeping beauty and wake it up, and since it's wake, he'll devour your Pikmin. So you must assemble an army and take down the enemy --taking advantage it's still sleeping-- before you can carry that piece back to the Dolphin.

That scenario is a common one in Pikmin, and harder ones abound in the game. You'll have to use all your wit and management skills to maximize every day, knowing that you also need to produce more Pikmin and minimize your losses in battle. You'll have to leave some Pikmin working on taking down a wall, while you take some Blues across a pond to build a bridge on the other side, all because the piece you're trying to get is surrounded by flamethrowers and therefore needs to be carried by Reds. While all this is happening, you could take some yellows to fetch some bomb-rocks to take down another wall, which leads to another piece you'll tackle the next day. You'll have to do all these things with the clock ticking and enemies preying on your Pikmin.

To complement the creative stages, the enemies are just as creative. At first you'll meet normal enemies who just try to eat your enemies, but as the game progresses, you'll find some who bury your Pikmin (forcing you to pluck them out of the ground), breathe fire at them, and even steal any pellets you might've left lying around. All this with masterful timing and placing, and with very clever weaknesses for you to exploit. A single mistake can get your Pikmin wiped out, and even Olimar can get so beat up he needs to call it a day before sunset.

One of the best parts of the game is the atmosphere. The stages are so beautifully designed that often you'll feel like you're crossing a river or traversing a swamp, and then remind yourself Olimar's about two centimeters tall and it's more like a puddle. As the day passes, the sunlight will gradually dim down, leaving a gorgeous orange tone in the afternoon. Water effects are excellent, even after so many years. And the music sets the mood magnificently, with wild-sounding tunes and well done sound effects.

And if you combine all this elements, you get a magnificent game. To sum up, Pikmin is a creative, original, entertaining and challenging strategy game. The puzzles and battles are noticeably witty in their solutions, and the atmosphere is just phenomenal. I heartily recommend this game if you own a GameCube, as long as you enjoy using your brain, because this game does require it. If you're looking for a brawler, you ought to look somewhere else.

A great birth for what will hopefully become a great franchise.

9.3 out of 10.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/07, Updated 03/21/08

Game Release: Pikmin (US, 12/02/01)