Pikmin

"A Delightful Little Game"

When Shigeru Miyamoto hinted that Nintendo was working on a completely new franchise at Spaceworld 2000, I was very excited. It had been so long since Nintendo had graced us with a totally new kind of game. At E3, Nintendo revealed Pikmin and I was shocked. What was this? Some cutesy game where you are in a giant garden controlling a race of ultra-cute ants? After all these years, this is the best that Nintendo could come up with? Nintendo’s nearly infallible reputation was the only real reason I bought this title. Now, after some serious playtime, I can say that Pikmin has taught me never to judge a game by its looks.

Despite the childish look and similar name, Pikmin has absolutely nothing to do with Nintendo’s franchise Pokemon. In fact, Pikmin is one of Nintendo’s darker games. Sure the pikmin look cute, but once you watch them beat a frog to death and then grind up its corpse for fertilizer, you’ll find it hard to think they are so cuddly. The game is dark and weird, kind of like a Tim Burton flick and it’s certainly different from Nintendo’s usual style. You play as a spaceman who has crashed on an alien world that resembles a garden. You are aided by ant-like creatures called pikmin. You must recover all 30 pieces of your ship within 30 days or the planet’s atmosphere will kill you.

Gameplay

Many people have judged pikmin as a simple RTS (real-time-strategy) but once again, looks are deceiving. Pikmin is a totally new and very refreshing kind of game. It’s kind of a mixture between strategy, puzzle, and exploration games. There are different kinds of pikmin with different strengths and weakness. Pikmin can do a variety of tasks like carry objects, build bridges, attack monsters, throw bombs, and so on. Pikmin can also evolve into more powerful forms. The gameplay is incredibly fun and refreshing. To get most ship parts you have to locate them, kill enemies leading to them, and solve puzzle type barriers in order to take them back to your ship. Each day lasts around 15 minutes so the real meat of the gameplay trying to manage your pikmin efficiently. Some have complained that the game is too short, clocking in at only 10-12 hours. However, most people will not get all the ship parts the first time through. Pikmin lets you replay any day over again. If you want to get all the parts, you’ll have to end up replaying days until you can get the ship parts as fast as possible. It’s this management that makes the game so addictive and I’m sure we can all sympathize with the feeling of not having enough time. There is also quite a bit more strategy that is first appernt. For instance, should you spend time evolving your pikmin so they can work faster or should you just send them out un-evolved? Should you concentrate growing more blue pikmin who can swim or more red pikmin who are better fighters? The Pikmin world is also alive in every respect. One day you may see a small enemy. If you don’t kill it, it will grow in to a large one the next day. All this makes for an incredibly deep game.

My only complaint is a lack of multiplayer. Having four players competing to see who can collect the most ship parts would be incredibly fun. The game does have an addictive challenge mode in which you try to grow as many pikmin as possible but multiplayer would have been better.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, Pikmin is very impressive. Zoomed in to the closest level, the textures are a little blurry. However, from the medium or far perspective (the way the game was meant to be played) the graphics are nearly photo-realistic. The designers apparently took actual photographs of gardens and it shows. Pikmin also has some very cool effects, which include motion blur, and the prettiest water I have ever seen in a game. Finally, even with 100 pikmin swarming around, the game never slows down.

The music in Pikmin is subtle but effective. Most of the tunes are very catch and soothing. The sounds the pikmin make are pretty funny as well and when sent into battle the spaceman plays an army battle tune on the trumpet

Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 9
Sound: 8
Replay Value: 8
Overall: 9

Bottom Line

So, there you have it. Despite it’s childish and downright unappealing looks, Pikmin is a masterpiece of game design. It’s fun, deep, and has loads of style. Sure it’s short, but no game in recent memory has had such refreshing gameplay. What really amazes me about Pikmin is that the more you play it, the more fun it becomes. Pikmin is a must-have in every sense of the word.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/25/03, Updated 04/25/03