When the first Pikmin game was released on North American shores in early December of 2001 alongside Super Smash Bros. Melee, even with previous impressions from trade shows, not many knew what to expect from the finished product. The Nintendo-faithful, before even playing the game, thought of it as another masterpiece from heralded game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, while a handful of others thought of the game as a dumb-downed RTS for children. From my personal experience with the game, I can tell you that it definitely wasn’t the latter. Pikmin had been, and still is, an amazingly unique experience that blends real-time strategy, action-adventure, and puzzle elements into one immeasurably fun and challenging game. In the game, players had to collect spacecraft parts in order to rebuild (your character’s) Captain Olimar’s shuttle with the assistance of tiny, plant-like creatures called Pikmin, whose name came from Pik Pik carrots indigenous to Olimar’s home planet. Deservingly, the game was well received by critics and the masses, selling more than one million units on a worldwide scale, but there were a few complaints with the game, most of which concern the game’s thirty-day time factor. Personally, I had no problem with this so-called time restriction. I saw this as an x-factor that
"many would dare say that the game is a rehash, and in many ways it is"
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would force players to plan out clever strategies in order to collect all thirty of the parts needed to make for a successful launch. If players didn’t collect all of them within this thirty-day time span, Olimar would attempt to launch his shuttle into space, which would lead to him crashing and, ultimately, his death. Well, anyway, the original Pikmin is an outstanding game, thus a sequel is easily justified. With this said, the complaints from the first Pikmin game have been taken into consideration by developer EAD and the result is yet another extremely enjoyable game, Pikmin 2.
Pikmin 2 continues right were the first game left off. Olimar has returned to his home planet of Hocotate and he soon finds that his employer, Hocotate Freight, is having financial problems. Actually, they’re in debt, incredible debt. But what Olimar, his employer, and players soon find through out a beautifully rendered CG sequence is that a bottle cap brought from the Pikmin home planet as a reminder of Olimar’s first adventure had been worth a significant amount of Pokos, Hocotate’s currency. What this soon results in is Olimar, accompanied by rookie pilot and Hocotate Frieght employee Louie, being sent back to the Pikmin planet to collect more of these collectibles to get Hocotate out of its one-hundred thousand Poko dept while Olimar’s boss goes into hiding in fear of loan sharks.
As mentioned, Nintendo’s use of CGI to create semi-lengthy cinemas in Pikmin 2 is rendered beautifully. Although, I’ve noticed that many other critics have assumed that Nintendo, in particular EAD, hasn’t used the technique in the past, but the truth is that even Super Mario Sunshine had featured rendered cinemas like those featured in Pikmin 2 and Sunshine even featured voice-acting on top of it. I’m assuming more emphasis is being put on Pikmin 2’s inclusion of the techniques due to a Nintendo-hopeful’s want to see them used in the next home iteration of the Legend of Zelda franchise. However, these lush production values help show that Pikmin 2 is an all around, very polished game. Visually, the game is very solid. The textures are very detailed, which helps give the game a realistic look to it. Additionally, the game holds up at a rock-solid thirty frames per second with one-hundred Pikmin creatures on screen, in addition to large enemies, explosions, and often hardware performance taxing visual effects. However, I must say that Pikmin 2 doesn’t impress me with its visual presentation as much as the first did, simply due to the fact that it looks very much like its predecessor. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s overly difficult to be impressed with something that looks exactly like something else you’ve seen years before. As for the auditory areas of the game, they’re just splendid. The game’s soundtrack is extremely soothing, especially its map overworld theme, which is very memorable (I even caught myself whistling it a few times as well as leaving the game on this screen to just listen to it for a few minutes.) and the sound effects are also very well done. Particularly, I’m fond of the retro Super Mario Bros. sounds spread throughout the game in various areas and, of course, the cries and shrieks of both the Pikmin and enemies in the game. But enough of this chatter, let’s talk about what really counts, the gameplay.
While playing Pikmin 2 and its predecessor, one has to think at one point or another… “What was it that had been going through the minds at EAD when creating these games?” Personally, I like to think it had been some sort of chemical imbalance due to THC or something of the sort, because it’s one of the only things that make sense… Okay, okay. Perhaps, I’m taking things a bit too far, but in all honesty, both Pikmin games do cause some questions to arise, even if they’re approached with humor in mind. There’s just so much violent humor found in the
"Pikmin 2 is one of the best multiplayer experiences on the GameCube"
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game. The gang beat downs of Pikmin on enemies (small or large) is one of the first things that comes to mind, but then there’s also the chuckle one might let out from seeing Pikmin get wiped out from an explosion or squished by a monstrous boss. It’s violence in one of its most innocent and most enjoyable forms, and kudos to Nintendo for delivering it in an acceptable way.
Now, let’s get this straight; Pikmin 2 is very similar to its predecessor. In fact, many would dare say that the game is a rehash, and in many ways it is. It feels exactly like the same game we knew from three years ago with players controlling up to one-hundred Pikmin on screen at once while tossing them at obstacles and enemies to clear up paths. The destruction of wall barriers, the building of bridges, the digging up of treasures, the extremely violent gangland attacks of dozens of Pikmin against one innocent bug, all the principal gameplay elements are still here, and, of course, they’re just as fun as they’ve ever been. Those who experienced the original game will feel right at home with this sequel and, just like any good sequel, Pikmin 2 introduces new gameplay aspects to the single-player game and incredibly fun multiplayer modes that justify the two year wait. However, aside from new additions to the single-player game, EAD has removed the thirty-day time factor that haunted some gamers in the original Pikmin. While the Day and Night factor still exists, players can now build up hordes of Pikmin and explore all corners of the planet’s areas without any fear wasting a day of treasure hunting and risking the completion of the adventure. What this also makes for is a much longer adventure, roughly around twenty hours spent in the single player adventure alone.
New Types of Pikmin
Pikmin 2 introduces two new types of Pikmin, Purple Pikmin and White Pikmin. The purple-colored Pikmin are the powerhouse of the race. Their weight and strength are equivalent to ten of the red, yellow, blue or white Pikmin. However, their one weakness is that they are much, much slower than any of the other Pikmin and often can lag behind the others. The white-colored Pikmin are the most talented scavengers of the bunch. Thanks to their beady radar-like red eyes, white Pikmin can detect treasures buried underneath surfaces, and not only this, but these white Pikmin are immune to poisonous gasses as well as poisonous themselves. If desired, players can sacrifice white Pikmin as fodder for larger enemies, poisoning them for the quick kill. That might sound evil, but it’s a very useful strategy. The only thing that’s quite unfortunate is that these Pikmin are much harder to produce than the red, yellow, and blue Pikmin, since they can only be produced by tossing existing red, yellow, or blue Pikmin into flowers that can only be found in underground caves, and which only produce five per flower.
Potions
In Pikmin 2, when gathering ten red berries or ten purple berries and bringing them back to your ship for analysis, your ship creates potions which you can then use with interesting effects on both Pikmin and enemies. The red potion, which has been named “Ultra Spicy,” is used to strengthen your Pikmin forces, causing them to glow bright red while becoming much faster moving and more powerful. The purple or “Ultra Bitter” potion is used to petrify enemies for the easy kill. Unfortunately, the “Ultra Bitter” potion isn’t too effective on bosses, while the “Ultra Spicy” is best used on bosses. If you choose, these potions don’t have to be used at all, but they will prove effective if used. Personally, I wasn’t always in the mood to send my Pikmin up flower branches to collect these berries. It’s too time consuming, but that’s me.
Sidekick
When the addition of Louie was first revealed, many thought that it perhaps meant a cooperative two-player option had been included in Pikmin 2. While that option surely would’ve proven to be interesting if included, it just did happen. What the inclusion of Louie provides in the game,
"I have to admit, I love Pikmin 2"
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aside from minor comic relief, is better time consumption. Pikmin 2, just like the original, uses a day and night system that allows players to work on the field for approximately fifteen minutes before the sun goes down and players return to Olimar’s ship for safety. With the inclusion of Louie, players can divide their efforts and Pikmin amongst the two spacemen, working on opening up different paths, working on opening a path on opposing sides, or collecting various treasures that would’ve take longer to accomplish if Olimar was on his lonesome.
The Piklopedia
Captain Olimar, just like any good captain, creates a log of his discoveries while on this alien planet, in what the game calls a Piklopedia. While collecting treasures and running into all sorts of enemies, he keeps track of these treasures and describes them in a way that’s a bit humorous. No, they won’t get much of a laugh out of players, but they’re charming, or even cute, if you want to go to that extreme. What’s interesting about this is that these “treasures” are actually items we use of have seen before throughout our life. Items like chap stick, lip stick, a Duracell battery, a broken toy robot, and even a classic Nintendo Game & Watch handheld. What’s even more fascinating is that Nintendo has even managed to acquire many of the actual rights to feature many of these licensed products, which in truth just boggles the mind because it’s not like they’re anything significant at all. Many are comparing this Piklopedia to the trophy museum in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Surely, this is a just comparison, but in no way is the Piklopedia half as interesting as trophy museum found in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It’s much more interesting to read about Nintendo’s history and characters than parody descriptions of items that garner little interest.
Underground Caves
Without question the most significant addition to the single-player portion in this sequel. Most of the treasures to be found are located in these underground caves, but as we all know, there’s always a catch and in this case it’s the difficult situations that can be found in these underground caverns. The first thing you must take into consideration is the fact that you cannot produce more Pikmin in these caves. What you come in with is what you come out with. Many times I’ve entered a cave area with as much as one-hundred Pikmin and walked out with as little as thirty. As players explore and go down to lower levels of these caves they must approach things intelligently and conservatively, knowing that many dangerous situations can be found, including exploding enemies, Pikmin-eating birds (which can kill Pikmin in large numbers), and on the last level of each cave, a massive boss. Luckily, the game’s day and night clock doesn’t affect gameplay in these caves since time is essentially paused, and in case of death and unfavorable situations, with each level passed in these caves, the game automatically saves your progress, allowing to reset and start all over if you screw things up, or if you just want to stop playing. Although, I’m sure most will find themselves hitting the reset button quite often.
Multiplayer Madness
Another one of the additions made with Pikmin 2 is the addition of multiplayer. With its treasure hunt-like challenge mode and versus mode, simply put, Pikmin 2 is one of the best multiplayer experiences on the GameCube, and arguably the very best on the platform. The game’s challenge mode isn’t anything all that spectacular. While fun for what it is, all players do is go on a treasure hunt race to collect treasures and a hidden key before the allotted time runs out in one this mode’s many arenas. Don’t get me wrong, this mode is fun to play, but it pales in comparison to Pikmin 2’s versus mode. The best way I can put it is that Pikmin 2’s versus mode is similar to a massacre. It’s just hysterical to watch fifty on fifty Pikmin tear each other to shreds in order to capture various colored marbles in a Capture the Flag-like game mode. The amount of fun and laughter to be experienced in versus mode alone justifies the purchase of this game. The game’s violence is sick and twisted in a way… I can’t help but love it!
I have to admit, I love Pikmin 2. It’s extremely fun, challenging, and still very refreshing despite feeling much like its predecessor. However there are two things that I find a bit annoying, one of these nuisances being the allocation of your Pikmin forces. Pressing the Y button separates Olimar, Louie, and all the different colored Pikmin into groups. Pressing the B button, while as either Olimar or Louie, blows a whistle and displays a circle whose diameter increases the longer the whistle is blown. Whichever Pikmin are highlighted by this circle are then assigned to the group of whichever character blew the whistle. However, in most situations when doing this you’ll want to take control of a particular type of Pikmin, but unfortunately, even though you thought you highlighted just one single color, a few of the others may have joined your group. This can get rather frustrating in particular situations. For instance, let’s say I wanted to take blue Pikmin (which are the only ones capable of surviving in water) across a body of water. Since I thought I had highlighted a group of only blue Pikmin, I take them across, but what I soon hear is the sound of drowning red Pikmin. Then as I try to pull them out of the water (by pressing the whistle button) I pull back on the control stick, accidentally highlighting another group of red Pikmin nearby whom then follow my character in the water. Then sadly, they all perish. Sure, this is mostly a result of my carelessness, but it’s a bit annoying. Another aspect which also caused a tiny bit of frustration, is the game’s camera. The problem is that the neutral camera position seems too close to the action, and the other features aren’t much help. They either show the action from an even further distance or from way too close. What is desirable is something in between the neutral and furthest perspectives, and unfortunately it’s not here. Of course, the game is still playable with what is given but a finer tuned camera system would’ve made things even better than what they are.
Pikmin 2 is an amazing game that is appealing to players of all ages and skill levels. Its cheery atmosphere may throw off a few potential players, but trust me when I say it’s going to be worth the experience even if you believe you won’t enjoy it, because I guarantee that you will. As a sequel, Pikmin 2 is pulled off very well. Although it feels much like its predecessor, there are changes and additions to gameplay that manage to keep the game fresh till the end. Pikmin 2 is a worthy addition to any GameCube owner’s library.
The GamersMark Network reviewed Pikmin 2 with a copy of the title purchased off retail.
