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[Camjo-Z]

I recently got the urge to play through the Pikmin games again and after blasting through Pikmin 1, completing most of Pikmin 2, and even beating a few levels of Hey Pikmin here and there, I thought I'd jump into the third game which I haven't touched since it came out 4 years ago. My memories of it were generally fond, but the more I got back into it the more I realized it's a total letdown compared to the previous two entries for a few major reasons.

1. The controls

I'd go so far as to say this game is nearly unplayable with the default Gamepad setup. Instead of having the aiming reticle be a set distance away from the character, it now moves separately with your character only moving once the reticle has moved enough. Right stick Pikmin control has also been ditched in favor of a lock-on feature that lets you command the Pikmin to charge towards an enemy or object. Together, their powers combine to create... an extremely unwieldy control scheme that had me immediately reaching for the Wiimote and nunchuck. But wait, there's more! The map and character auto-movement feature can only be accessed using the Gamepad for some bizarre reason! So even if you play with the superior Wiimote aiming, you still need to have the Gamepad ready to go. Just... why?

2. The timer

At first I couldn't figure out what it was about the timer that was so annoying, because theoretically it should be no different from the first 2 games where it was no problem, right? Then it hit me:

- The level design is FAR more linear than the previous games. In Pikmin 1 and 2 you could be doing one of any number of tasks on any given day, as each ship part / treasure / dungeon entrance was equally important to get to. Here, you just follow one specific route to to the boss arena with little incentive to deviate from the path (fruits are clearly intended to be the successor to treasures and parts, but they quickly become pointless as it's extremely easy to stockpile a massive amount of juice - in my playthrough where I only went out of my way to find fruit when I had time to kill, I still managed to end up with 33 days worth of extra juice). As a result, instead of feeling like you got lots of mini objectives done in one day when night rolls around, you just feel like you're constantly being cut off from completing the one big objective.

- Bosses are not fought underground, and thus time passes as you fight them. Here's the issue: these guys take the better part of a day to fight. If you don't fight them early in the day there's a good chance you'll be interrupted mid-battle and unceremoniously sent back to the ship, and even when you do kill them, good luck getting all the spoils back to your ship before night falls - especially annoying when the boss drops a part needed to access the next level. The final boss is just the worst because of this, what could have been a frantic and fun chase is instead dragged out across multiple days.

3. The characters and writing

Alph, Brittany, and Charlie just suck compared to Olimar and Louie. Even the developers apparently think this, as they turned the Captain into a Poochie by making the trio constantly ask ”Where's Olimar?" whenever he's not on screen. In addition, while the dialogue still has some pretty good moments, the amazing Piklopedia entries from Pikmin 2 filled with Olimar's hilarious salaryman musings have instead been replaced by loads of boring tutorial files and a handful of mildly amusing descriptions of fruit from Brittany. Did they run out of time to add it or something? Even Hey Pikmin didn't disappoint in this regard.

There are other things I could go into such as the removal of dungeons, the annoying decision to make Pikmin return to the empty spot where they picked something up for no apparent reason, the excessive amount of tutorializing that discourages experimentation, or the oddly paced doling out of Pikmin types that sees Blue Pikmin getting a meager amount of screen time in Story Mode unless you go for all the optional fruits and White/Purple Pikmin only appearing in Mission Mode, but I think I've made my point.

There are still a lot of good points about the game. The graphics and sound are great, Mission Mode is even better than Pikmin 2's challenge mode especially with the extra DLC levels, and at the end of the day Pikmin gameplay is still pretty fun even with all the flaws... but ultimately it still feels like the worst entry. Anyone else agree or am I just an uncultured swine who doesn't understand the majesty of Pikmin 3?

 

[Lemrik]

It's the best in my opinion.

 

[takriel]

It's the best in my opinion.

this is neogaf.gif

 

[Gitaroo]

One is still my favorite, fresh and right balance of everything. The one after added too much and didn't have the wow factor to me anymore. 3DS one is a waste, should have been on the switch since it foesnt even support 3d.

 

[Earthpainting]

It's the best in my opinion.

I feel the same way. The only thing I don't really like about Pikmin 3 was its final stretch. I'm not a huge fan of chase sequences in general though.

 

[SalvaPot]

Nah, Pikmin 1 is the weakest. 3 is about managing your 3 boys and girl and do all the stuff as quickly and eficient as possible. I obsessed with multiplw playthroughs of this game, sooo many aproaches to levels.

Meanwhile Pikmin 1 is pretty much the same gMe every replay.

 

[Zalman]

I think 3 is the absolute best. Controlling three captains at the same time felt so rewarding, and the use of the GamePad was actually great in this game. I wish I could play it again for the first time.

Pikmin 2 is the weakest.

 

[Kinsei]

Nah, it's Pikmin 2. The lack of a timer hurt the game and the dungeons were dull.

 

[Common Knowledge]

I played through the whole series for the first time last November, and I found it remarkable how the series just progressively got better with each entry. The original I found the hardest to play due to some unpolished aspects with Pikmin control, and the strict time limit was at odds with the tone of rest of the game.

Pikmin 2 was great, and I dug the treasure hunting caves, though it got a little repetitive at times.

Pikmin 3 is just incredible. Loved every bit of it except for maybe the frustrating final battle. Controls like a charm, levels are more creative than ever, hardly any hiccups when it comes to controlling your squads, beautiful looking, boss fights in general are actually pretty fun and creative, and the fruit collecting mechanic strikes the perfect balance between the first game's time limit and the second game's complete leisurely pace.

God damn Pikmin 3 is good.

 

[Pharaun]

I couldn't disagree with you more, it's easily the best in the series and it's not even close.

The main story mode is excellent and when you throw the challenge missions on top of it the previous games can't hold a candle to it.

 

[Vandole]

Pikmin 3 is my favorite in the series for the Mission Mode alone.

 

[LizardKing]

Yeah I thought this one was the best of them all. And it's not really close.

 

[ZeoVGM]

First time I've ever heard this. It seems to be generally considered as the best in the series.

 

[Dremorak]

I only played about an hour or so of the first two before losing interest. But I finished the 3rd with the supposedly unplayable gamepad controls. And I loved it.

 

[Nocturnowl]

My immediate rection to this thread was one of horror, I'm not gonna lie.

The control point is kinda valid I guess, though I immediately dove into the wii remote scheme and never looked back, didn't mind having the gamepad function as the extra unit here.

The rest? nah I can't agree, I thought 2's dungeons were mostly weak and I'll take the more structured design of 3's wonderful slowly expanding overworld areas over them any day, it was almost metroid-esque at times.
The new pikmin types are handled infinitely better than the new pair in two in both accessibility and in game usage, Brittany alone trumps the previous captains with her sass and fruit description powers.
And those challenge levels in co-op? bloody marvellous, Pikmin 3 was a treasure, the entry that took the series from "pretty neat I guess" to "where is Pikmin 4?!".

 

[Krooner]

I played this as part of the 52 in a year challange, and it really made me a fan of the series.

Them returning to the spot they got bridge parts from was annoying, but I think the idea was that you leave one of your 3 characters there to pick them up once the task is complete. They would drop things they were carrying if you called them in even when they'd been assigned another leader. I

Spoiler

dropped Olimar on account of this so many times on the final level

if they're assigned a leader then they should respond to that leader I felt. You didn't have the precision to pick them out really... minor niggles though really.

I'm a lefty, so playing with the gamepad was completely off the table for me, actually went out and bought a wiimote and nunchuck to play it through in the end. I have 'Wonderful 101' to go through and am sort of dreading it on account of the control scheme.

 

[GiantEnemyGoomba]

But the fruit looks amazing

 

[ASIS]

Here, you just follow one specific route to to the boss arena with little incentive to deviate from the path (fruits are clearly intended to be the successor to treasures and parts, but they quickly become pointless as it’s extremely easy to stockpile a massive amount of juice - in my playthrough where I only went out of my way to find fruit when I had time to kill, I still managed to end up with 33 days worth of extra juice). As a result, instead of feeling like you got lots of mini objectives done in one day when night rolls around, you just feel like you’re constantly being cut off from completing the one big objective.

I think this is where I strongly disagree with you and probably the main reason why I think Pikmin 3 is the best of them all.

You see, It's a flexible game, you can play it as you just described, that could be fun. But personally I believe the best way to play is trying to collect all the fruits in the fewest amount of days possible. Doing that will open up a lot of secrets about the maps and you will clearly understand then how important it is to divide and use the 3 characters separately.

 

[Glass Joe]

Pikmin 3 is the only one I really liked. Pikmin 1 & 2 just seemed to have weird things about them all, but maybe I just never gave the series the proper chance till there was little else to play on Wii U. But I really liked Pikmin 3.

 

[Death Penalty]

I thought 3 was the strongest...

But then again I like all three so much that it's a pretty close race.

 

[Haganeren]

Didn't played it enough but i remember being quite disappointed with Pikmin 2... I wonder why ? I mean i hated the generated levels but i think there were other things.
I rememebr Pikmin 1 quite well and really loved it though (it was quite intense at the time with its time limit), i see what you mean when you say that PIkmin 3 is more linear but i think it's not too important because the approaches you can take for each linear objective can differ greatly depending because you have three characters which can do different things at a given time.

Also, Pikmin 3 have is the best coop game ever. That mode where you have to kill all monsters before night falls is incredible, i played it so much with my sister.... Was less a fan of the treasure stuff though... I don't remember why.

tl;dr : i think you want to see too much Pikmin 1 in Pikmin 3.

 

[Rodney McKay]

Yeah, I remember trying to play with just the gamepad during one of the challenge maps and found it to be really hard to play that way, way harder than in Pikmin 1 or 2.

But I can't say if that's because I got used to the Wii remote controls with the Wii releases of Pikmin 1+2, or if Pikmin 3 actually made any big changes to it.

But other than that I had fun with the game. I did stop at a spot I shouldn't have stopped at, and it's been like 2 years since I've played it last:

Spoiler

I stopped right when you get nearly all your juice stolen when you try to rescue one of the old captain

, which is kind of a stressful part to want to go back to, haha.

Loved how the game looked too. I miss the real objects from Pikmin 3 (Duracell batteries, Carmex, and stuff like that) but the fruit looked amazing.

I still prefer Pikmin 2 overall since it's more chill without an overall timer. Pikmin 3's juice system is a fair compromise between 1 and 2, but I stress out over all time limits, the less the better for me.

 

[StrangeRoboMemory]

I've only played 3...if the others are better, they must be godly masterpieces.

 

[Camjo-Z]

Nah, it's Pikmin 2. The lack of a timer hurt the game and the dungeons were dull.

Pikmin 3's overarching "time limit" barely exists since you have to actively try to run out of juice, so I don't see how it's any different from 2. Pikmin 1 was the only game with a real sense of urgency.

As for the dungeons, I can definitely see why some people don't like them. I personally enjoyed them in a Warriors sort of way, they don't take a lot of thought but it's satisfying to grind through them and collect everything.

I think 3 is the absolute best. Controlling three captains at the same time felt so rewarding

3 is about managing your 3 boys and girl and do all the stuff as quickly and eficient as possible. I obsessed with multiplw playthroughs of this game, sooo many aproaches to levels.

Having three captains felt really underutilized to me. Aside from the fruits, I rarely had to manage the trio at once outside of the designated "throw captain here" sections. Mission Mode is where I thought the mechanic really comes into its own because you have no choice but to properly direct everyone around to get gold medals.

 

[Vital Tundra]

3 is a better 1 and 1 is amazing. Honestly 3 is probably my top 3 Wii U games. Amazingly paced, doesn't outstay its welcome, and beautiful to look at. 2 is still my favorite and hope 4 is more like it with less underground and more map.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

2 > 3 > 1

 

[Kilvas]

I also disliked Pikmin 3. Managing 3 characters was unnecessary and I missed bringing back random items instead of fruit. I felt a timer could have been implemented with making fruit more scarce, but that never happened. It was also incredibly short, which left me dissatisfied.

 

[TheMoon]

But why are you so wrong?

The multi-tasking, environments, and optimization strats are on another level. I haven't even mentioned the pizza.

 

[Servbot24]

this is neogaf.gif

This is human beings.

 

[Stoze]

I agree with the control complaint, the game has a myriad of control choices but all of them have something that makes it awkward. I went Wiimote and Nunchuck which made performing all real-time actions feel great, but having to switch over to the gamepad frequently was extremely annoying and partially killed the multitasking aspect for me. I never tried the touch controls they added later, but even that has some immediately obvious downsides.

I'll have to go back and play it again to compare the level design to the first one (which I played this year), but other than the aforementioned issue I remember the game being sublime.

 

[OfficerRaichu15]

I thought the puzzles were at their strongest. The captains have more personality, the bosses were the best of the series so far, flying and rock Pikmin were fantastic additions, soundtrack is god tier. I thought Miyanoto make his best Pikmin game with 3 honestly.

 

[purseowner]

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Great OP.

2 > 1 > 3

 

[TDLink]

I mean, yes the optimal controls are Wiimote + Nunchuk with the gamepad in front of you. But so what?

It works great that way and I don't think it's unreasonable to think 100% of the people buying Pikmin 3 on their Wii U own a Wiimote + Nunchuk. Being able to assign the other captains to tasks while controlling another and swapping between them on the fly works really well.

I definitely think it's the strongest game in the series, but I wouldn't argue with people who prefer Pikmin 2's more dungeon-based game design.

Pikmin 1 is definitely worse than both.

 

[Vampirolol]

It's the best to me. Perfect level design, amazing controls (wiimote+gamepad), very good characters/lore...

 

[Glowsquid]

The swarming maneuver was a poor replacement for the Pikmin controls in the previous two games, being clunkier to set and less effective. I also agree with what the OP said awkward pacing caused by the boss battles. The first game also kind of suffered from this issue, but not as much because the bosses didn't have anywhere as much health.

But I can't agree with the overal assesments because being able to set routes was such a fantastic and game-changing addition to the series. That alone makes Pikmin 3 my fvourite in the series. In my opinion,it is the best game game to show the Gamepad had more potential than being an ugly oversized swiss knife of a game controller.

 

[TDonk]

1>>>>3>>>>>>>2

 

[TheMoon]

It's the best to me. Perfect level design, amazing controls (wiimote+gamepad), very good characters/lore...

something many missed/forgot is that they patched in incredible touch-screen controls for Off-TV Play about 9 months after release for some reason. It's completely viable now in both versions (nobody should touch sticks and button GamePad controls, though).

 

[Fiendcode]

3 > 1 > 2

 

[Mbolibombo]

Pikmin 3 would be my favorite game in the franchise.

Heck I even played that game with the touchpad ;P

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

Just reading the thread title. That's your OPINION!

 

[Litri]

Pikmin 2 is the weakest in my opinion

 

[Camjo-Z]

But why are you so wrong?

The multi-tasking, environments, and optimization strats are on another level. I haven't even mentioned the pizza.

You've convinced me, I'll give it an extra point for the pizza crab.

I mean, yes the optimal controls are Wiimote + Nunchuk with the gamepad in front of you. But so what?

It works great that way and I don't think it's unreasonable to think 100% of the people buying Pikmin 3 on their Wii U own a Wiimote + Nunchuk. Being able to assign the other captains to tasks while controlling another and swapping between them on the fly works really well.

It just reeks of forced Gamepad implementation. Nothing about the map couldn't have been done by simply pressing the otherwise unused 1 button on the Wiimote and bringing it up on the TV. It's also just annoying to have to put down one controller and pick up another all the time. Honestly, I wouldn't be as annoyed if there weren't already a perfectly good control scheme from the first 2 games that they could have used for the Gamepad.

 

[Krooner]

Just reading the thread title. That's your OPINION!

Going off topic a bit I suppose, but people really need to stop pointing out what opinions are and how they work. We all know it's an opinion, but it needs to be stated to encourage discourse. The internet would be a pretty quiet place if people didn't give voice to them. We really don't need anyone pointing them out, it's silly.

 

[KratosEnergyDrink]

It's the best in my opinion.

Its the best obviously.

 

[Koren]

It's the best in my opinion.

I agree... 3 > 1 >>>>> 2 for me (and 2 is still an amazing game, so that set the bar really high)

Pikmin 3's overarching "time limit" barely exists since you have to actively try to run out of juice, so I don't see how it's any different from 2. Pikmin 1 was the only game with a real sense of urgency.

Well, I don't really see the difference... Pikmin 1 has a limit of 30, Pikmin 3 has a limit of 50, and I'd argue there's a bit more to do. In neither the limit in the # of days is anything close to being a menace if you play decently.

The real problem with Pikmin 2 is the lack of any timer when you're in the "dungeons".

Having three captains felt really underutilized to me. Aside from the fruits

Try to do a all-fruits in 10 days, and you'll understand how the three captains can change the game

The game really shine if you go speedrun, I think (like Metroid). Though the thing is... in the 100% 9-day challenge in Pikmin 1, you had some time to rest, in Pikmin 3, you'll basically be busy all the time, it's exhausting.

So even if I like 3 slightly more, I prefer the speedrun in 1.

 

[BorkBork]

Pikmin 3 is the best in the series.
So is Pikmin 2 in its own ways.
So is Pikmin 1 in its own ways.

 

[Chibot]

I would like to see them bring back the untimed caves or include something similarly dungeon-like in Pikmin 4. Other than that, my only legit disappointment was with the length of story mode (too short). I really enjoyed the game overall and still play multiplayer occasionally.

 

[KingSnake]

Hand over your gamer badge, you couldn't be any more wrong about any game ever than you are at this moment.

Pikmin 3 is a masterpiece and one of the best games on Wii U. The levels are cleverly design and reward you properly if you manage your time properly. You can easily manage your boss fights in such a way that you will never time out during them.

The only thing that I would agree is about the final boss which is more annoying and less fun to fight against. But that's fully compensated by how awesome all the other boss are and how creative the fight against them is.

The fight against the timer is not a dumb run to beat it, it involves strategy and decisions. You're greedy you don't make it in time to the ship. Risk and gain. Play it smart, not rush through it.

It's a strategy game. That's why you have the three captains, so you can balance and manage everything on the map. Split the pikmins and send them with the captains while you take care of other things.

 

[silva1991]

It's the only one I played and finished and it's amazing. the fruit looks so good lol.

 

[Regiruler]

I played this as part of the 52 in a year challange, and it really made me a fan of the series.

Them returning to the spot they got bridge parts from was annoying, but I think the idea was that you leave one of your 3 characters there to pick them up once the task is complete. They would drop things they were carrying if you called them in even when they'd been assigned another leader. I

Spoiler

dropped Olimar on account of this so many times on the final level

if they're assigned a leader then they should respond to that leader I felt. You didn't have the precision to pick them out really... minor niggles though really.

I'm a lefty, so playing with the gamepad was completely off the table for me, actually went out and bought a wiimote and nunchuck to play it through in the end. I have 'Wonderful 101' to go through and am sort of dreading it on account of the control scheme.

In terms of how touch controls are used, W101 is nothing like Pikmin 3. Both lefties and righties need to take a hand off to use it: lefties lose motion temporarily, while righties lose jumping and the morph confirmation buttons (you can do combos if your left handed).