Pikmin

"Who says video games and plants have nothing in common?"

Introduction-One of the weirdest games to ever hit video game consoles, Pikmin is something completely different. A game inspired by the designer’s own garden, Pikmin is set in environments full of lots of vegetation and filled with wildlife. Captain Olimar crash lands on a mysterious planet and wakes up to his destroyed ship named “Dolphin”. 30 parts are missing and Olimar only has thirty days before his life support system shuts down and he breaths in the poisonous oxygen on the planet. All seems lost until Olimar discovers a Pikmin. After discovering all the unique things the Pikmin can do, Olimar has a fighting chance.

Gameplay

Main Game
Pikmin consists of collecting the parts to the Dolphin with use of the Pikmin. It would be impossible for Captain Olimar to carry the parts of the damaged ship himself so it’s up to the Pikmin. Your army of Pikmin follow you around and they are the ones who will carry back the parts of the damaged Dolphin. To carry objects, the amount of Pikmin required must be sent in to carry the object. The amount differs on the physical properties of the object. Now if you only had to find the parts to the spaceship in thirty days (about fifteen minutes in our time), the game would be quite simply. To carry the parts, you need Pikmin. You don’t just get Pikmin; you start with one Pikmin, which can do certain tasks. You must use that Pikmin to create more Pikmin unless you expect to go through the game with only one Pikmin, which is impossible to do. To make more Pikmin you must tell your Pikmin to carry food back to the onion (Pikmin nest) and you will be rewarded with seeds which you can then pluck out of the ground for more Pikmin. As your Pikmin army grows you will be able to take down larger enemies and carry heavier things. You can have different groups of Pikmin accomplishing different tasks in order to help you acquire the ship parts faster. There are three types of Pikmin on the strange planet. They are red, yellow and blue. The red Pikmin are the best fighters and they’re immune to fire. The yellow Pikmin can carry bomb rocks, which you can use against your enemies and some other obstacles in your way. The blue Pikmin can survive in water and this is needed to acquire certain parts of the ship. At the end of the day, any Pikmin not in their onions, by the onions or with Captain Olimar will be left for death so you have to be careful. If Olimar’s spacesuit is damaged, you can fix it by the Dolphin and if Olimar dies, lots of Pikmin die. The whole concept of Pikmin is both funny and great. The whole game flows well and you won’t get frustrated because something is there that shouldn’t be or something’s missing. Having the power over a bunch of Pikmin and building up your amounts while fixing the Dolphin is a great experience. Combat with enemies is perfect and strategically planning out your moves through power in numbers, stealth or bomb rocks makes it more fun. The only real flaw is that there are only five different areas, a bit more would be appreciated.
Main Game Score: 9.6

Challenge Mode
Time for something a bit different, in Challenge Mode the days are slightly longer, the areas are slightly different and your object is to grow as many Pikmin as possible. You can pick any of the maps once you’ve been there in the main game and try to grow many Pikmin as possible. This is a great thing to do if you’re looking to really challenge yourself. There are more/different enemies in Challenge Mode and more scattered food pellets for obvious purposes. You start with 15 (5 of each color), how much can you make those 15 into? The longer days add more to the Pikmin growing fun. Once again near perfect but more maps would be appreciated.
Challenge Mode Score: 9.6

Overall Gameplay Score: 9.6

Graphics-Some of the nicest backgrounds I’ve ever seen can be found in Pikmin. Every object in the game such as Pikmin and enemies look near perfect. The lush green of the vegetation and the sparkle of the water is perfect. If you zoom in close enough you can see how nice everything looks from a very good angle. When enemies and Pikmin fight everything flows together perfectly and you have a nice smooth battle. When your Pikmin are doing work such as delivering food to the onions or parts to the Dolphin, everything looks natural. The spaceship parts are placed nicely in specific locations on the map to make them look like they landed their naturally instead of making them look like they were placed there artificially to make things harder. Pikmin has near perfect graphics with few flaws.
Graphics Score: 9.6

Sound Score
While the game sounds mostly like it should and you won’t find many unexpected sounds, it isn’t exactly top quality. The background music is sometimes good and sometimes it isn’t. The battles with enemies vary in quality sound and so do some other things. The sound is good for the most part though.
Sound Score: 8

Control
The A button will be used a lot in Pikmin as it is the manual way to throw Pikmin and that will be required a lot. Captain Olimar can call inactive Pikmin to his side by blowing the whistle (B button) and make them become inactive if active already by pressing the X button. You can use the C stick to command your Pikmin army at something and the Y button will bring you up the map and status. The L, R and Z buttons are used for the camera which I might add is near perfect. The controls are solid and easy to learn and flow well with the rest of the game. The camera takes a while to get the hang of but after that everything is perfect.
Control Score: 9.7

Lasting Appeal
The main adventure and amount of tries to get all 30 parts of the dolphin will vary among people although the main adventure is indeed quite short (only 30 days, 15 min per day). When your done with it though, you’ll probably play through it multiple times trying to have a larger army of Pikmin and collect the necessary parts in the shortest time possible. I predict you’ll play through it at least 3 times. There is also challenge mode, which also is meant to be played lots to challenge yourself and others. The Top 5 for each area will be displayed in the high scores. Despite all this Pikmin still could use a lot more to keep players hooked longer.
Lasting Appeal Score: 7.6

Difficulty
Yawn | Very Easy | Easy | Normal | Hard | Very Hard | Near Impossible |
Pikmin will serve quite a challenge to casual gamers but shouldn’t be too much a problem for hardcore gamers. The strategy element of Pikmin gives it the challenge that determines if you’re good at it or not. For example, if you attack a large enemy from the front you’re bound to lose many Pikmin, while if you attack from behind or with bombs you have a greater chance. It requires a lot of thought and may be harder for some than others. You’ll play many times though trying to collect the parts faster and grow more Pikmin.

Overall
Nintendo being the masters of innovation in video games have once again created a masterpiece. Inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto’s garden, Pikmin brings you into the natural world the Dolphin has crashed on. The beautifully planned out gameplay and outstanding graphics make Pikmin a great game that shouldn’t be overlooked by any GCN owner. Join Captain Olimar and the Pikmin on a quest through the natural world in search of the parts to his spaceship as soon as possible.
Overall Score: 9.4

Score Recap

Gameplay Overall: 9.6
Main Game: 9.6
Challenge Mode: 9.6
Graphics: 9.6
Sound: 8
Control: 9.7
Lasting Appeal: 7.6
Overall Score: 9.4

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/02, Updated 04/18/03