Pikmin

"Where all Nintendos Innovation went"

Many people believe Nintendo has lost its innovative style in video games. All of the Zeldas are either essentially the same, or too similar. Mario Sunshine is Mario 64 part two. Pokemon games are all the same. Somebody at some point has said all of these things. But with Pikmin, they show their innovative style! In this not great, but decent game, you will find a style like none other.

Gameplay- 9/10
For it's mere innovation, it gets many points. Basically, you have to raise Pikmin, so that they can fight, and get parts for your ship. You don't control the Pikmin, rather you throw them. You throw them, and they do things on their own free will. This can be an annoyance sometimes however. Each color Pikmin has different attributes, meaning that you'll have to take different colors to do different things. Fighting enemies is done by launching pikmin onto them to fight. You can't really fight on your own. The gameplay is great, innovative, and fun!

Graphics-8/10
Good graphics for the GCN. The extensive backgrounds are excellent, and the character models are unique, but not quite individual. The backgrounds in each area is where this games graphics really show off. The game proves the Gamecube capabilities, with 3-d environments that you can see for long distances. A game with excellent depth perception. No flaws on the graphics, Nintendo did this really well. If you want a graphical masterpiece this is it, as this game lacks nothing in the area of graphics!

Story-4/10
Simple as this really- Guy shipwrecks, must fix ship to go home. Nothing much of a story here. Not much on why the pikmin are around, nor much of why the enemies are after them. The story never gets too much in depth, and revolves around fixing your ship. You don’t get to know much about the characters, nor the pikmin. Having the game revolve around fixing the ship, takes any plot, and throws it down the drain. The story is lacking in this game, and really harms the score of this could have been great game.

Music-5/10
This gets repetitive, until the end. The end places music is really great, and really new. The music can get annoying, but it fits the mood pretty well. The constant music heard in a place, while trying to get ship pieces, can get not just annoying, but really old really fast. The music composed for this game has no excellent tune, just regular music. I suggest using your CD player to listen to a song while playing this game, at least till the final area. A few problems in this area, but not entirely lacking.

Challenge- 6/10
Not really that hard, if you want a challenge to beat the game, get all 30 pieces in a certain amount of time. At first it will be harder, but nothing you can't handle. The first day is too easy, as you can build your army of pikmin pretty big, and not waste time. After the first day, it gets a little harder, then easier again. The further you get in the game, the better you get at it, the easier it becomes. Later on when you have pikmin capable of doing more things, with the right strategy, you could never die in the game. Time isn’t too much of a concern either, pieces are pretty easy to get, but you do have to go many places throughout the game, and can only go to one place a day, thus adding to the challenge of the game. The game could have had more challenge to it as well.

Replay-5/10
Unless you like a challenge to beat the game in so many days, this game has little replay value. You get the 30 parts, nothing else to see, nothing else to do. They do have a challenge mode, but even that gets boring when you can't break your old records. The game can have good replay value for a while, but nothing meant for a long period of time. Getting the pieces again can be tedious, they are all in the same place each time, and the only difference is how many pikmin you have. If you don’t mind repeating, then it can have decent replay value. This game yet again lacks here.

Buy/Rent-
Rent- Because this game can be beaten pretty quickly, I suggest you rent it. Unless you are REALLY into beating yourself (or your friends), then I don't suggest buying this game. It can be a fun game to beat, but after a while, it gets boring.

OVERALL- 6/10
This is a fairly good game, not the best on Game Cube, but a good game nonetheless. The biggest problems aren't in graphics and in gameplay; it really does well there. Where it fails, is Story, Music, and replay. These things may not matter to you, and if no, then by all means, you'll enjoy it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/03, Updated 05/09/03