GENRE
	Strategy
	DEVELOPER
	EAD
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
	BUY NOW AT

Reaction to Nintendo’s mystery title at E3, Pikmin, was decidedly mixed. Many wondered why the gaming community had been left in the dark for so long over a seemingly innocuous little garden strategy title, but those who gave the demo a fair chance unanimously came down with a case of Pikmin fever.

visuals

The environments presented in Pikmin are really quite beautiful, as if they were indeed pulled right out of Miyamoto’s own backyard. While some evidence of the N64-style walls blocking off the edges of the level are still present in the form of beds of grass or other such artifices, every stage element is inspired by nature and built with its detailed and varied textures to faithfully replicate the object. Although the microscopic wildlife may be fictional and could often be considered cute, some of the enemies at least have a basis in natural biology and seem very menacing for our 4 cm hero and his cadre of critters.

Instances of slowdown are rare, tending to occur only when all 100 available Pikmin are on-screen in Captain Orimaa’s control or during the opening FMV demo sequences.

For game purposes, more obvious task-related elements do tend to stick out like sore thumbs within the alien landscape. One level may be shaped like a group of tree stumps in a swamp, but seeing unnatural stone and thatch walls jutting out between any conceivable material seems a bit odd. Add to that the convenient piles of sticks for building ramps or bridges, Pikmin-producing pellets, and parts for the Dolphin spaceship; this game always makes it clear what there is to be done. Strategically placed water may not share the interactivity of its racing 1st-party brethren, but looks pretty nonetheless. Overall, the graphics in Pikmin are still a dazzling sight to behold and are nothing short of breathtaking.

audio

The Pikmin are hilarious, making appropriately funny sounds in any given situation. Whether shouting ‘whee-hoo!’ when being thrown by Orimaa, gasping for air in the watery deep, or going ‘hup-two’ carrying a pellet or enemy carcass back to the Onions, the squeeze-toy voices never fail to invoke a smile and draw players into the game as commander of the Pikmin army.

Music in Pikmin could easily be mistaken for cuts from the latest Pure Moods collection, often being soothing and almost new age fodder. It certainly keeps gamers’ stress levels down during gameplay and minds focused on the intense multitasking at hand. All of this becomes rather quite therapeutic.

gameplay

What makes Pikmin so addictive is the sheer power in numbers embodied by the Pikmin as they multiply and set out in a large group. From the very first Pikmin plucking, players are pulled into the pilot’s plight for the parts.

At the beginning of any given day, Captain Orimaa will call his Pikmin out of their Onions – or nests – for another quest in search of a missing spaceship piece. Jumping out of each Onion and sliding down its tripod legs, the Pikmin gather around the plucky space traveler and go forth. The first things players encounter will be pellets on the ground and growing on flowers to be carried back for the sprouting of new seeds from the nests. Given a few moments to grow leaves, these new Pikmin can be pulled out of the ground in rapid succession by continually tapping A or left in the ground to eventually grow buds or flowers, making them able to run faster.

Moving on to the enemies, the primary ladybug-like family is supported by a menagerie of creative critters ranging from easily killed larvae to aardvark-like behemoths that shoot air and fire. Each of the 5 worlds also includes a boss or two to take out, often for a piece of the ship. The Pikmin are deployed by either tossing them at the point indicated by Orimaa’s purple cursor or by positioning the fleet around a target with the C Stick. As in Luigi’s Mansion, each different enemy merits a new strategy in finding a weak spot, which adds to the fun of attacking with the squadron of Pikmin.

Over the course of the game, Captain Orimaa has thirty 15-minute days in which to recover the 30 missing parts of his spaceship Dolphin. So on average, players must retrieve at least 1 piece per day in order to head back home before running out of oxygen. As is the case with the learning curve of solving the numerous puzzles in this game required to win pieces, most players won’t be able to complete the Dolphin within their first set of 30 days. Don’t worry, EAD has a sense of humor, as players also should; going through the game again to finish the ship couldn’t be further from a chore. As a matter of fact, this title is so addictively fun that many will find it difficult not to try and finish in the 18 or fewer days quoted by Miyamoto.

If that’s not enough, then a challenge mode opens up with progress in the game that allows players to spend a single day in one of the five worlds and, starting with only a given number of each colored Pikmin, propagate as many of the Captain’s leaved buddies as possible. Here, the spaceship and all of its parts have been removed in favor of a new stage configuration emphasizing pellet and carcass collection. All told, Pikmin will last a long, long time.

multiplayer

N/A

overall

There’s never been anything quite like Pikmin before, and Nintendo was well justified in hiding this gem of a game from the world until this past E3. That said, what makes this game so great? Gamers are empowered with a small army with which to go out and conquer a miniature garden infested with miscellaneous vermin. Along the way, the Pikmin are befriended, brain-busting puzzles are solved, and ultimately gaming nirvana is reached. With such a wide appeal reaching out across all demographics – gamers and non-gamers alike – Pikmin is on its way to becoming a game for the ages, and is not to be missed.

9.5/10