February 25^th, 2003 (12:00am) - Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma have been strutting their stuff in Europe for a short while now, and have already given to the press a few new screenshots of these secretive (Although not nearly as much as other big name game) titles.

Surprisingly though, neither of the games at this point have much of a graphic improvement. In fact, Pikmin 2 appears to be using the same engine. Except now there is an apparent two player mode, so Olimar has a little friend with opposite dressings, and a slack jaw, of course. Can’t have a goofy sidekick without a nice slack jaw. My guess is he’ll be kind of the goofy and slow one.

What makes me wonder is that it looks like Olimar appears to be guiding the red, and his new partner, the blue, could there be more than just this one character? I don’t know, but we’ll be certain to keep you updated.

As for Kirby, it appears to be more action oriented than past games and also appears to be very fast (Hey, it i a racing game). Visually, it’s decent, but nothing special. But if you’re a Kirby fan, this one looks like it’s shaping up pretty good. Hey look ma, no jagged shadows!

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Olimar’s Slack-Jawed Buddy.

Pikmin: Moving a big shiny, possibly bump-mapped can. Who besides Miyamoto could make this sound, and actually be, fun?

Pikmin: Split-screen action!

Pikmin: How to destroy a spider web...

Kirby: Even Kirby wants to be Link.

Kirby: He may be doing a technically slow speed, but those effects sure make it seem fast!