Pikmin Review

Guarding the garden.

In the far reaches of space, on a world not unlike our very own Earth, an epic

struggle for survival is underway. Captain Olimar has crash-landed his spaceship,

The Dolphin, transforming his once proud vessel into a smoldering hunk of

junk. See what happens when you talk on your cell phone while driving?

All

hope of returning to the great beyond rests on the recovery of 30 missing parts

scattered across the foreign landscape. Coincidentally (and most unfortunately),

Olimar’s life support systems will only last him 30 more days.

Upon his escape from the wreckage, Olimar is greeted not by those

damn dirty apes, but by a bemused little plant creature, lovingly dubbed

a Pikmin. The thing has taken a liking to Olimar, following him around and offering

up an indentured life of servitude. Eventually, new Pikmin are sprouted, and

soon, Olimar has his own bad posse. Looks like Olimar has someone to do his

dirty work.

At its grassy heart, Pikmin is a real-time strategy game brimming with

action. The little Pikmin function as both resource and worker. The only way

to recover all 30 parts is to grow enough Pikmin and multi-task the little guys

through the different environments. Legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto has

ushered forth another game rife with creativity and fun to play, though it might

not be everyone’s cup of herbal tea.

Lucky for us, growing Pikmin doesn’t involve anything as scandalous as a mommy Pikmin and a daddy Pikmin making sweet Pikmin love. Instead, reproduction happens through pellets. Just order your little Pikmin to find a colored pellet and it will carry it back to your base. The pellet gets sent to the Onion, a storehouse for Pikmin creation. Out pops the seeds of new Pikmin, which promptly dive straight into the fertile soil, just waiting to sprout and be pulled from the earth as new units.

It gets weirder. Not only are these pellets the seeds for growth, but so are

the vicious beasts that dot the environment. If you take down the wily Wollywog,

you can drag his stinky carcass back the Onion and hatch out even more seeds.

The cycle of life works in strange ways on the planet of Pikmin.

There are three races of Pikmin. Red pikmin are endowed with fire resistance

and are especially keen in battle. The blue pikmin have gills and can trek through

watery threats. Yellow pikmin can blow stuff up. You’ll need to use all three

to get anything done.

The Pikmin may look unassumingly innocent, but these sprouts are actually some

of the most violent little mothers ever unearthed. On your mark, they unleash

hell, tearing it up across the world with wanton indiscretion. The sound of

their little battle peeps resound a fury unmatched by the soldiers of Napoleon.

You may have up to 100 Pikmin employed actively on screen. Any number you

grow beyond that are nestled safely in the warmth of the Onions. The spaceship

parts require a set number of Pikmin to haul back, so the game moves along at

a steady pace.

In order to assign tasks, Olimar can either throw a single Pikmin towards

whatever needs to be done, or he can direct the entire entourage right at the

feet of a particularly problematic Puffstool courtesy of the C-stick. The game

was clearly designed with the Gamecube controller in mind

The micro-management can sometimes get annoying, as you often must pause to

scold the dawdlers or stop a few errant Pikmin from attacking a non-violent

Iridescent Flint Beetle, but it’s more fun than not. Olimar has a little whistle

to keep the scamps in check, which makes you feel like a teacher leading school

children around. This helps cut down the irritation.

Each day takes 15 minutes, so the game goes by relatively quick. It may take more than one try to properly work your way through the 30 days, but what then? A Challenge mode has been added that starts you off with a limited number of Pikmin and one day to grow as many as possible. The environments have been slightly altered, but in all, these stages are more geared towards top scores than anything else.

The

view of the world is up close and personal, lending A Bug’s Life sense

of awe. This is aided by the use of photo-realistic textures, which are amusingly

offset by the cartoon look of the colorful creatures. From the terrific lighting

and shadows to the imaginative beasties, this is a very pretty game.

However, there’s more than one way to see things unfold. Alternate side and

overhead cameras as well as a handy Z-centering ability has been provided to

control your view. Even though there are more than enough camera manipulations

to work your way around problems, sometimes the molehills become mountainous

blockades. Further, the game occasionally drops frames very noticeably, as if

the entire thing just froze. I’m not sure what incites these awkward moments,

but it can happen even when there are minimal amounts of action on screen.

The music is happy-go-lucky fare that fits the cartoon feel of the game. I

like the little peeps of the Pikmin, but Olimar is oddly silent. After each

day of busy work, he leaves a little diary entry, reflecting on his progress

and misfortunes. If the diary entries were narrated audibly, they could have

gotten a cool Jacques Cousteau thing going, a sort of archaeological memoir.

At least he doesn’t talk in classic Nintendo gibberish noise.

If there’s one thing I would have liked to see in this one and demand in the

probable Pikmin 2, it’s some multiplayer. Guess that will have to wait

for the network expansions.

But what’s multiplayer without more weapons of mass destruction? If it takes

20 Pikmin to move one of Olimar’s ship parts, why not have vehicles that take

a certain amount of Pikmin to drive? What if instead of just subduing the bellowing

Bulbear en masse, the Pikmin can commandeer one to use against the other

creatures of the field?

Early on in the game, when you begin with but a few Pikmin, each one feels

more special. Somewhere along the way, though, the Pikmin become defined by

their group power. This makes the gameplay more about sheer strength of numbers

instead of the clever use of individuals. I would have preferred a mix of both.

Perhaps if there was some way to keep tabs on individual Pikmin, like the ability

to name them or assign basic personality traits…oh well, maybe I’m just obsessed

with the little guys.

And in all likelihood, you will be too. Pikmin is a creative, original

take on console strategy gaming. Not everyone may take to the strategic undercurrent,

but as it stands, this Pikmin has already fixed its roots deep in my

jaded gamer’s heart.