Pikmin Review

Pikmin is the latest entry in the Nintendo family fro Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto, the guy that, if you don’t know him (shame on you!), created Mario. It was one of the first games released on the GameCube and it now has a huge fanbase. But what’s so cool about Pikmin to get all those people paying it? When you first look at it, it looks like a game for kids, it doesn’t seem to have anything you haven’t seen before, and it’s kind freaky, but the more you play it, the more you get addicted and the more you want the sequel to arrive faster! Let me tell you why.

Pikmin is what we could potentially call a strategy game, but it has some platform elements, so it’s a mix of the 2, at least from my point of view. You are captain Olimar and an asteroid has made your ship crash on a planet. This planet has a deadly gaz called Oxygen (oh my god!) and it is fatal to captain Olimar, and since he’s gonna be out of air in 30 days, he must get away from this planet as fast as possible. The problem is that the 30 parts from his ship are scattered a little bit everywhere, so he must find a way to get them all and repair his ship, but he can’t do that alone unfortunately. Fortunately for him, he discovers creatures that he decides to call Pikmin. Why, because he fels like it. The Pikmin seem like very friendly creatures that grow in the ground and follow Olimar everywhere he goes, helping him do tasks like transporting the parts of his ship, fighting ennemies, destroying walls blocking the way, reaching unaccessible areas by throwing them,building bridges, etc.

There are diferent kind of Pikmin in the game. In the first stage, you’ll find the red Pikmin. Those are the strongest of all Pikmin. They,re good fighters and they are immune to fire, so they’ll be really useful to clear paths for the other Pikmin and for Olimar. Since some paths have holes in the ground that shoot fire, you’ll sometimes have to use those Pikmin to transport huge parts over the fire holes since the other Pikmin will get killed. The second Pikmin you will find are the yellow Pikmin. Those aren’t as strong as the red Pikmins since they weight less, but you can throw them higher and further than the other Pikmin, so they’ll be able to new areas. They can also use rock bombs used to destroy rock walls. Finally, there’s the Blue Pikmin. This one is really useful since it can go, as you probably already guessed, in the water. That means that there are areas you won’t be able to reach with the other Pikmin, so you’ll use the blue ones to cross the river, build a bridge, and then the other Pikmin will be able to come and help the blue ones. So you’ll really have to use all three colored Pikmin to finish the game. You can have as much as a 100 Pikmins at the same time on the field, and they are easy to control. You control Olimar and they always follow you, but you can moe them around you with the C-Stick. One button is used to dismiss them, the other to throw them and one to call them. The other buttons are used to change camera angles. You can also grow more Pikmin by killing ennemies and bringing them to the onion (that’s where they all come out, it’s some kind of vessel that follows your ship everywhere), or by bringing capsules that you find by killing ennemies or, sometimes, on flowers or just laying there on the ground. Pikmin can also become stronger by drinking nectar found in grass or on 1 type of ennemy. Pikmon all have a leaf on their head, but it can grow and become a flower, which is the strongest. There are also huge flowers used to change the color of the Pikmin, and that can come real handy in some situations. So there’s really a lot of innovative stuff there, and it always makes you want to learn more and play more, and it is quit addictive.

This games is kind of a puzzle game, a simple one, but still one. You might have to use you’re brains a little at some point. For an adult, you might have to think for a few seconds, but kids should have a harder time playing it. Like at some point you have to bring blue Pikmin to an area, through them to a higher area, throw them in the huge flower to change their colors, bring them down on the ground, through them to a higher area to bring down the ship part, then change your Pikmin back to the blue color, and then bring the ship part back. This was the puzzle that I found the most difficult, but it only took a few seconds to figure out. The only real challenge is that you are limited to 30 days, and each one lasts for about 15 minutes, so you have about 7 hours and 30 minutes to complete the game. I was able to finish it in 23 days on my first try, so the average gamer should have no trouble completing it on their first try, and if they do, since it’s always the same thing, they’ll know where to go and they’ll be able to perform it faster. The games isn’t that huge either. It has 5 different areas, 2 of which are really small and 3 bigger ones, each one requiring you to use all the Pikmin to complete them. The ennemies are pretty cool and they all have differet weak points so you’ll have to use some strategy to kill them, and the bosses only have certain parts that you can hurt, making them more difficult.

The graphics of this game are pretty good! I was impressed by the fact that you have 100 Pikmin running beside you, a few ennemies, and a lot of action going on, and the doesn’t slow down, and if it does, it lasts less than a second, and it’s pretty rare anyway. The ennemies aren’t the most detailed ones I’ve seen in my life, but their cute and fun and it fits the game perfectly. This game is all about being colorful and funny and that it does pretty well. The msic alos puts you in the mood of the game. There’s no action music, it’s more of a background music, very soft, but it couldn’t have been better. The Pikmin also make some funny noises when you throw them, and when you move them with the C-Stick, there’s some kind of noise-music that plays it it kind of reminded me of army trumpets. Maybe I’m just naturally high, but it made me laught a lot at first.

That’s about all there is to say about the game. It doesn’t last long, but those few hours are really worth it. Since this is the kind game that you come back only or the gameplay, you’ll either finish it once and then put it aside or sell it, or you’ll play it again and again and again and try to complete it faster and get higher scores. There’s also a challenge mode where you can pick any of the 5 stages and try to grow as many pikmin in one day as possible. It can be fun, but I didn’t really play it since I was in mostly for the main game. With Pikmin 2 on the way being a lot bigger and having randomly generated dungeons, it might be a good idea to wait, but you can also, like me, buy this one and get used to the gameplay, and then be even better in Pikmin 2.