Pikmin
Reviewed by James Wardle
For some strange reason, My Gamecube games are the
essentials that are called by Gamecube owners all
over the world. My fourth game was Pikmin, one
complicated looking game, but a wonderful game.
The journey home
Pikmin is an original game by Nintendo, and is about
an astronaut called Captain Olimar. Captain Olimar is
traveeling home in his rocket, that is until he is
struck by an asteroid. He wakes up on a huge planet
which is full of strange and exotic creatures, he
bumps in to three different kinds of Pikmin, Red,
Yellow and Blue. Olimar meets these three Pikmin one
at a time and become his bestfriends. The purpose of
these Pikmin is to repair your ship, which gained
damage from the strike of the asteroid.
The story is quite involving in Pikmin. Olimar only
has thirty days to repair his ship, that is an
average of one part per day. Pikmin does not have
many surprises as far as the story goes, however at
the end of each day (each lasting about fifteen
minutes) Captain Olimar writes something in his
journal (a diary). The game has three endings
depening on how much you completed your ship within
the time limit. The best ending, has to be one of the
best endings I have seen, I wish not to spoil, but
the game has a great story, and you will feel very
sorry for the stranded character and his
determanation to rturn home.
Using a wistle, Captain Olimar can call the Pikmin to
him, those in his group are branded a bright colour,
those aren't are as pale as a ghost. You can dissmiss
the Pikmin, call them, throw them, comamnd them, make
them pick up things, attack flowers and animals,
knock down walls, build bridges and more importantly,
bring the scattered ship parts back to the rocket.
There is a difference in the Pikmin. The red Pikmin
are the first you encounter, they love fire and are
the strongest Pikmin, but they die in water. The
Yellow Pikmin, found later on are the lightest
Pikmin, they can throw them much higher then their
brothers and can throw bomb rocks. However, like the
reds they drown in water and unlike the reds, get
killed in fire. The blues are my favourite, they have
no special attributes, but are the most useful as
they can go in water without fear of drowning, plus
they act as lifeguards if other Pikmin are victims of
the water, they die in fire though.
Pikmin evolve too, the Pikmin have a seed on their
head, the longer they stay underground before Captain
Olimar pick them up, the faster they are. They start
off as Leaf Pikmin, then Bud Pikmins and finally the
beautiful Flower Pikmin, which are slightly more
powerful and faster then their siblings.
Not only do you have to guide the Pikmin through
danger and make sure they carry rocket parts safley,
you have to make them kill enemies, breed (meaning
take pellets/ food/ enemies back to their home to
produce more Pikmin)
Pikmin is one game with brilliant music and sound
effects. My only complaint is the title screen, the
music is quite annoying, but I have no problems on
the other pieces of music in the game, they are quite
peaceful and add atmosphere in to the five levels...
The sound effects are simply marvellous. When Pikmin
are building bridges, you can listen to each
individual leaf hitting the wooden log. The Pikmin
themselves make cute sounds.
For the graphics, I am going to give Pikmin perfect
marks. The detail that Nintendo has put in the game
mmakes you say 'Wow!'! There is no glitches to my
knowlage, the water, grass, sandan dirt terrains are
designed perfectly. Everything is in 3D as well, with
the exception for letters of course, there is no 2D
renders of anything, not even the ladders Pikmin use
or leaves from the plants. The animations that
Nintendo have used to create how Pikmin and the
enemies are wonderful, the way the Bulb monsters
swoop for the Pikmin with their mouth is very
impressive. You can even zoom in to spy on your
Pikmin, but please take it as a chance to view the
world. It is a shame the box art looks blocky...
However, the biggest downfall for Pikmin is the
difficulty. Although many gamers say this is quite
easy, just like Luigi's Mansion, I have to agree.
However, I had to start the game three times, the
first time I messed up big time by missing a few
parts, the second time I was moving too slow and was
low on Pikmin, the third time I breezed through it.
I recommend Pikmin to everybody who owns a Gamecube.
It is one great strategy game which should not be
missed. It might be a short game, but it is very
enjoyable, filled with great puzzles, both simple and
brain taxing (from moving a box to building a bridge
so blue pikmin can build another bridge at the other
side) which will make you laugh and get you involved.
Like Luigi's Mansion, it is one of those games which
don't last long but is very enjoyable. Either get it
now, or if you wish to wait, wait until it comes down
in price.
Good/ Petal:
- Another original game for the Gamecube
- From the creator of Mario
- Unlocks a secret in Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Lots of replaybility
- Oilmar is as comical as Luigi, look how his nose
moves up and down! up and down! up and down!
- Enemies re-spawn at a perfect rate
- Multiple endings
- Unique control system
- Huge levels
Bad/ Dead Flower:
- 19 blocks to save... that is far too many!
- Only 5 levels, no more, not even a bonus stage, but
the 5 levels are huge.
- Not enough time to explore the planet
- Quite short
- Easy to mess up
Alternatives: There isn't much else which is like
this, other then other Nintendo games, Luigi's
Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine or strategy games for
the Playstation 2 and PC, these being Age of Empires
and Command and Conquer.
Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 10/10
Music - 9/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Story - 9/10
Ending - 10/10
Enjoyment - 10/10
Lifespan - 7/10
Challenge - 5/10
Overall - 10/10