Common Knowledge
Member
So I've owned all three Pikmin games for a while now, owning the original since it first came out well over a decade ago. But I've never actually been able to get myself to devote myself to playing through them. Finally this past month I made it a goal to get through all of them so I can finally scratch them off of my massive backlog I've amassed over the years.
I'm going to go through my thoughts on each of them.
Pikmin
I originally started to play this back when it first came out and I was like 10 years old, but the time limit really put me off of it, and I really couldn't for the life of me get myself to understand all the controls and mechanics. So it kind of just quickly drifted out of my gaming consciousness and I never bothered to try and go through it this entire time, despite also buying the New Play Control version for the Wii (I played both Pikmin 1 and 2 this past month using the Wii versions).
So right off the bat, I have to say that, while my much older self has managed to get used to and appreciate the strict time limit the game puts on you, I still feel a good amount of stress trying to get everything done in the 30 day limit the game gives you and I'm not sure if I really enjoy the constant sense of pressure you have through the entirety of the game. But more on that in a bit.
The game does a great job of setting the foundation for the series and I was impressed at how realized the series' core concept is right at the start. All the major mechanics, environment settings, puzzle mechanics, enemies, and combat strategy of the series is introduced and heavily focused on right off the bat. I can imagine how novel the game must have felt when it originally released on the Gamecube. The sense of satisfaction I feel leading my Pikmin around and splitting them off into different groups to accomplish various tasks is a great feeling. In this sense, I can appreciate what the time limit forces you to do. It puts a keen sense of strategy into everything you do each day, while also making you form a mental framework of how you're going to go about the next day. Countless times I was saying to myself, "so, tomorrow, since this obstacle is destroyed, I'll lead my yellow and red Pikmin into this area to tackle this spaceship part, while my blue guys go off into this other area..." and so on and so forth. It really urges you to multi-task and think ahead, and, while my 10 year old self would never be able to enjoy that, now I can appreciate it, even if it's damn stressful ha ha.
The game does an excellent job of highlighting the different Pikmin's strengths and vulnerabilities through the various environmental obstacles and enemies littered throughout, and really urges you to remain mindful of the status of your Pikmin numbers and making sure you have a healthy population of each type.
Now, on to the negatives: inherent in the fact that this was the first Pikmin game, and an early Gamecube game at that, is that the game simply lacks the polish and refinement of its successors. Countless times I found myself being frustrated at Pikmin getting stuck behind walls or stupidly falling off of brides to meet their demise in the water below. They tend to follow you in too large of a space to navigate the sometimes narrow paths with ease. And related to this somewhat poor A.I. is the fact that the combat in this game just isn't very fun. Minor enemies like small bulborbs are fine, but the larger enemies can be a downright hassle to fight, and not because of interesting and clever combat design, but just from fighting the controls and Pikmin A.I. Whatever interesting enemy design the designers intended for you to utilize to take down enemies is loss in the complete mess that occurs when you use a large squad to take down a tough creature. Really what it came down to in the end for me is just throwing as many Pikmin at the thing as possible and hoping that your population doesn't get completely eviscerated before the creature dies.
These annoyances would be a notable detriment in any game, but it gets further compounded by the fact that you're on a time limit in this one. I had to restart my days numerous times (a handy feature, granted), due to one little mistake that killed off half of my population. The stress from this really starts to clash with the peaceful and cute tone the game has overall, way past the level the developers probably intended it to. I felt a great sense of pride being able to collect all 30 space ship parts in the end, and also a huge relief that the frustrations were over.
My overall impression of Pikmin 1 is that it was an interesting, novel game that paved the way for great future potential, but the actual act of playing through it has a little too much hardships to fully be able to appreciate it. A good game, but with obvious flaws.
Pikmin 2
The first thing I instantly noticed with Pikmin 2 was how much the graphics improved from the first one. In just a two year difference on the same system, I was very impressed with how much sharper and polished the game looked. Very appreciated.
I went into Pikmin 2 knowing that it had a slightly different focus from the first one. Namely, that there is no time limit (aside from the limit you have to explore each day), and that the game featured randomly generated caves that you had to navigate for treasure. I don't know what the overall impression was of the first Pikmin back in the day, but I assume the fact that there you had only a limited amount of time to win it was off-putting for a lot of people. Heck, one of the "features" on the back of Pikmin 2's case is the lack of a time limit!
Shortly after noticing the graphical improvements over the first game, I also immediately noticed how much easier guiding the Pikmin were. They followed you in a much more 1:1 fashion that greatly reduced the amount of times they got stuck and left behind (although it certainly still happened on a few occasions). So right off from the start, I was very happy with the experience I was having.
Pikmin 2 is in many ways a case study of how to do a follow up sequel to a new series. The game has nearly all the key mechanics and structure of the original, but all of them are refined, polished, expanded upon, and utilized more in the sequel. You have two new Pikmin types, new abilities in the two types of nectar that you can use to speed up your Pikmin or freeze enemies with, two leaders to manage instead of one, new power up abilities that increase the leaders' abilities (their ability to punch enemies was a godsend on more than one occasion), new enemy types, and much more puzzle solving content than the first game.
The cave exploring concept was interesting in several ways. I was surprised the day limit disappeared completely while in them (though thank god it did!), and found it interesting how the settings and layout of the same cave can drastically change on different floors. Plus the fact that each time you enter a cave, the layout slightly changes due to random generation was cool.
I think that overall the cave concept was a good way to separate the sequel from the first game, although it did come with some issues. I would have liked to see a bit more variety in the settings and themes of each cave. Some were notable, like the Submerged Castle (which had a very neat one-off mechanic), but a lot of them kind of just blur together as very similar looking and samey feeling. Also, some of them just go on for far too long. Especially the ones in the final section of the game. 15 floors is a bit too much for my taste, and I was so relieved for them to finally be over.
Also, while the new Pikmin were cool (the purple ones more so than the white ones), I was very frustrated by the fact that they could only be obtained within the caves on set floors. Made it very annoying to have to revisit caves just to grind out more white and purple Pikmin (especially since one of the final treasures requires you to have a whopping 100 Purple Pikmin). I really wish that once you complete a cave, the game allowed you to revisit any set floor on a return visit. Revisits basically amounted to making a mad dash to the next geyser until you finally reached the floor you wanted. I get that the overall concept of this was to make the caves a strategic decision as to whether you wanted to continue on and take the risk for better treasure or go back to the surface and resupply your Pikmin, and that works great for first-time visits to a cave, but there's no reason to have to go through it all again when you went through the whole thing already.
Combat is another thing that got greatly improved from the first game. Pikmin seem much more resilient and fight more aggressively. Returning enemies from the first game get defeated a lot more quickly this time around. This made a great deal less annoyances for me. With that said, some enemies managed to test my patience. Also, some cave floors seemed designed to just throw as much crap at you as feasibly possible to dwindle down your Pikmin squad in a matter of seconds (I just want to give a shout out to the bomb throwing flying bugs and the armored rocket launching fish-I hate you guys). Boss fights are a little improved from the first game, but they still can easily wipe out your entire squad in a matter of seconds if you aren't prepared for what their attacks are.
Controlling two leaders this time around was an interesting mechanic and it made it useful to keep track of separate squads without worrying so much about lonesome groups, but I wish the game utilized the mechanic a bit more in the puzzle solving. I think only one boss fight required the use of the two leaders to defeat it, and other than that, the game doesn't really make it a focus at all.
With this all said, Pikmin 2 is a huge improvement from the first game and I really enjoyed my (lengthy-it took me about 20 hours to collect all the treasures) time with it. There a still a few hiccups here and there with some of the game design, but overall its a much more polished and expanded experience from the first game.
Pikmin 3
I'll go right out and say it: I freakin' love this game. It's phenomenal. One of the best Wii U games, easily. Nearly every single issue from the previous entries get completely resolved in the third game. Pikmin A.I. is excellent and very, very rarely do any frustrations happen due to it. Graphics are damn gorgeous and damn near photo-realistic in some instances. Level design is a league above the first two games. Having three leaders this time around is very useful to keeping your whole squad in check. The fruit-collecting mechanic is a perfect middle-ground between the unforgiving nature of the original Pikmin and the complete leisurely pace of the second game.
It's also the first Pikmin game that has boss fights that I'd classify as "good". Very unique and having clever, strategic ways to find their vulnerabilities. I actually looked forward to boss fights this time around!
The rock Pikmin and winged Pikmin are much more useful than the white and purple ones from the second game, namely because they are obtained in the same way as the core three. Winged Pikmin in particular are awesome and I love having them just fly over obstacles in their path on their way to deliver fruit. In fact, all the Pikmin type have their differences fully explored in this game. Blue Pikmin can now completely submerge themselves and swim in water, for instance. Yellow Pikmin can use their electricity to send surges to objects in the environment and solve puzzles.
I'm trying to think of some criticisms to levy at this game but I honestly can't think of anything. I had a smile on my face the whole time playing this one. Maybe it's too short (about the length of the original). It's also probably the easiest overall of the trilogy, though I'm not really complaining about that. The final boss fight maybe was a bit frustrating during the "chase" phase, but it was still very cool.
Pikmin 3 is a damn treasure of a game and takes me back to my youth when games felt completely magical to me. Not many games can do that for me these days. Even the side content-the missions-are fun as hell. My favorite is without a doubt the fruit-collecting missions. It really brings the three-leader aspect to its fullest potential as you try to utilize your time to the best of your ability and collect all the fruit.
Pikmin 3 cemented the series as belonging with Nintendo's greatest, and it made me look forward to what the series has in store next. Speaking of which, below I have a couple of things I'd like to see in future installments.
Nightime exploration: I think it's about time we get to explore at night, don't you think? Now, I know that clashes with the concept of night being an extreme danger to Pikmin, but what about a new Pikmin type that specifically evolved to be active at night? Can you picture a luminescent or glow-in-the-dark Pikmin type that helps you navigate at night? I'd think it'd be pretty damn cool. The concept of nighttime exploration can also be factored into a risk/reward system that's a key concept of the series. It's undoubtly be more dangerous than daytime exploration, with more enemies about, but perhaps with more and better treasure to find, with stuff that sparkles that you wouldn't be able to see during the daytime. There's a ton of unique ways they can go about doing night gameplay, and the concept honestly seems like a no-brainer at this point. In fact, I almost expect it in the next installment.
Urban environments: Now, I know one of the key themes of Pikmin is nature, and that should definitely remain its key focus, but I think it'd be a refreshing change of pace to have at least one area in the next game be a completely urban setting. The series not-so-subtly hints at the Pikmin planet being Earth long after humans are gone, so obviously there should be remains of big cities scattered throughout. How cool would it be to be in a microscopic view of a city street with dilapidated cars and buildings, and with pockets of nature taking over it? Maybe on paper it sounds a bit too bleak of a setting for a Pikmin game, but I can see Nintendo being able to make it fit in with the rest of the series.
More environment variety: Going off of the above, I'd also like to see just more variety of environments in general. While the series has been good at giving each area a distinct feel, it seems the majority of them can fall into a foresty and wooded classification. I'd like to see them flex their designing muscle more and expand the environments. One of the Pikmin 3 mission areas is a desert area, and I'd love to see a full-fledged desert section in a future game. Or how about a hazy, swamp area? The possibilities are nearly endless.
So that's my long write-up on everything Pikmin. I'm glad I finally put my mind to completing these games, as it's now a series that has been added to my radar to keep track of news for. I'm very excited to see what the series has in store, as, so far, it's been on a perfect pattern of continuous improvement with each new entry. Feel free to discuss your experience with the series.
TL;DR version
Pikmin: Good game that sets the framework for the rest of the series, but it has a little too many hiccups and annoyances that clash with the strict time limit and keeps me from fully enjoying it.
Pikmin 2: A significant improvement from the first with a great deal of new additions. The caves are an interesting new addition that I overall enjoyed, although some went on a bit too long and had a bit too much crazy stuff happening all at once.
Pikmin 3: Phenomenal game, easily the best of the series, and makes me eagerly anticipating what's next for the series.
I'm going to go through my thoughts on each of them.
Pikmin
I originally started to play this back when it first came out and I was like 10 years old, but the time limit really put me off of it, and I really couldn't for the life of me get myself to understand all the controls and mechanics. So it kind of just quickly drifted out of my gaming consciousness and I never bothered to try and go through it this entire time, despite also buying the New Play Control version for the Wii (I played both Pikmin 1 and 2 this past month using the Wii versions).
So right off the bat, I have to say that, while my much older self has managed to get used to and appreciate the strict time limit the game puts on you, I still feel a good amount of stress trying to get everything done in the 30 day limit the game gives you and I'm not sure if I really enjoy the constant sense of pressure you have through the entirety of the game. But more on that in a bit.
The game does a great job of setting the foundation for the series and I was impressed at how realized the series' core concept is right at the start. All the major mechanics, environment settings, puzzle mechanics, enemies, and combat strategy of the series is introduced and heavily focused on right off the bat. I can imagine how novel the game must have felt when it originally released on the Gamecube. The sense of satisfaction I feel leading my Pikmin around and splitting them off into different groups to accomplish various tasks is a great feeling. In this sense, I can appreciate what the time limit forces you to do. It puts a keen sense of strategy into everything you do each day, while also making you form a mental framework of how you're going to go about the next day. Countless times I was saying to myself, "so, tomorrow, since this obstacle is destroyed, I'll lead my yellow and red Pikmin into this area to tackle this spaceship part, while my blue guys go off into this other area..." and so on and so forth. It really urges you to multi-task and think ahead, and, while my 10 year old self would never be able to enjoy that, now I can appreciate it, even if it's damn stressful ha ha.
The game does an excellent job of highlighting the different Pikmin's strengths and vulnerabilities through the various environmental obstacles and enemies littered throughout, and really urges you to remain mindful of the status of your Pikmin numbers and making sure you have a healthy population of each type.
Now, on to the negatives: inherent in the fact that this was the first Pikmin game, and an early Gamecube game at that, is that the game simply lacks the polish and refinement of its successors. Countless times I found myself being frustrated at Pikmin getting stuck behind walls or stupidly falling off of brides to meet their demise in the water below. They tend to follow you in too large of a space to navigate the sometimes narrow paths with ease. And related to this somewhat poor A.I. is the fact that the combat in this game just isn't very fun. Minor enemies like small bulborbs are fine, but the larger enemies can be a downright hassle to fight, and not because of interesting and clever combat design, but just from fighting the controls and Pikmin A.I. Whatever interesting enemy design the designers intended for you to utilize to take down enemies is loss in the complete mess that occurs when you use a large squad to take down a tough creature. Really what it came down to in the end for me is just throwing as many Pikmin at the thing as possible and hoping that your population doesn't get completely eviscerated before the creature dies.
These annoyances would be a notable detriment in any game, but it gets further compounded by the fact that you're on a time limit in this one. I had to restart my days numerous times (a handy feature, granted), due to one little mistake that killed off half of my population. The stress from this really starts to clash with the peaceful and cute tone the game has overall, way past the level the developers probably intended it to. I felt a great sense of pride being able to collect all 30 space ship parts in the end, and also a huge relief that the frustrations were over.
My overall impression of Pikmin 1 is that it was an interesting, novel game that paved the way for great future potential, but the actual act of playing through it has a little too much hardships to fully be able to appreciate it. A good game, but with obvious flaws.
Pikmin 2
The first thing I instantly noticed with Pikmin 2 was how much the graphics improved from the first one. In just a two year difference on the same system, I was very impressed with how much sharper and polished the game looked. Very appreciated.
I went into Pikmin 2 knowing that it had a slightly different focus from the first one. Namely, that there is no time limit (aside from the limit you have to explore each day), and that the game featured randomly generated caves that you had to navigate for treasure. I don't know what the overall impression was of the first Pikmin back in the day, but I assume the fact that there you had only a limited amount of time to win it was off-putting for a lot of people. Heck, one of the "features" on the back of Pikmin 2's case is the lack of a time limit!
Shortly after noticing the graphical improvements over the first game, I also immediately noticed how much easier guiding the Pikmin were. They followed you in a much more 1:1 fashion that greatly reduced the amount of times they got stuck and left behind (although it certainly still happened on a few occasions). So right off from the start, I was very happy with the experience I was having.
Pikmin 2 is in many ways a case study of how to do a follow up sequel to a new series. The game has nearly all the key mechanics and structure of the original, but all of them are refined, polished, expanded upon, and utilized more in the sequel. You have two new Pikmin types, new abilities in the two types of nectar that you can use to speed up your Pikmin or freeze enemies with, two leaders to manage instead of one, new power up abilities that increase the leaders' abilities (their ability to punch enemies was a godsend on more than one occasion), new enemy types, and much more puzzle solving content than the first game.
The cave exploring concept was interesting in several ways. I was surprised the day limit disappeared completely while in them (though thank god it did!), and found it interesting how the settings and layout of the same cave can drastically change on different floors. Plus the fact that each time you enter a cave, the layout slightly changes due to random generation was cool.
I think that overall the cave concept was a good way to separate the sequel from the first game, although it did come with some issues. I would have liked to see a bit more variety in the settings and themes of each cave. Some were notable, like the Submerged Castle (which had a very neat one-off mechanic), but a lot of them kind of just blur together as very similar looking and samey feeling. Also, some of them just go on for far too long. Especially the ones in the final section of the game. 15 floors is a bit too much for my taste, and I was so relieved for them to finally be over.
Also, while the new Pikmin were cool (the purple ones more so than the white ones), I was very frustrated by the fact that they could only be obtained within the caves on set floors. Made it very annoying to have to revisit caves just to grind out more white and purple Pikmin (especially since one of the final treasures requires you to have a whopping 100 Purple Pikmin). I really wish that once you complete a cave, the game allowed you to revisit any set floor on a return visit. Revisits basically amounted to making a mad dash to the next geyser until you finally reached the floor you wanted. I get that the overall concept of this was to make the caves a strategic decision as to whether you wanted to continue on and take the risk for better treasure or go back to the surface and resupply your Pikmin, and that works great for first-time visits to a cave, but there's no reason to have to go through it all again when you went through the whole thing already.
Combat is another thing that got greatly improved from the first game. Pikmin seem much more resilient and fight more aggressively. Returning enemies from the first game get defeated a lot more quickly this time around. This made a great deal less annoyances for me. With that said, some enemies managed to test my patience. Also, some cave floors seemed designed to just throw as much crap at you as feasibly possible to dwindle down your Pikmin squad in a matter of seconds (I just want to give a shout out to the bomb throwing flying bugs and the armored rocket launching fish-I hate you guys). Boss fights are a little improved from the first game, but they still can easily wipe out your entire squad in a matter of seconds if you aren't prepared for what their attacks are.
Controlling two leaders this time around was an interesting mechanic and it made it useful to keep track of separate squads without worrying so much about lonesome groups, but I wish the game utilized the mechanic a bit more in the puzzle solving. I think only one boss fight required the use of the two leaders to defeat it, and other than that, the game doesn't really make it a focus at all.
With this all said, Pikmin 2 is a huge improvement from the first game and I really enjoyed my (lengthy-it took me about 20 hours to collect all the treasures) time with it. There a still a few hiccups here and there with some of the game design, but overall its a much more polished and expanded experience from the first game.
Pikmin 3
I'll go right out and say it: I freakin' love this game. It's phenomenal. One of the best Wii U games, easily. Nearly every single issue from the previous entries get completely resolved in the third game. Pikmin A.I. is excellent and very, very rarely do any frustrations happen due to it. Graphics are damn gorgeous and damn near photo-realistic in some instances. Level design is a league above the first two games. Having three leaders this time around is very useful to keeping your whole squad in check. The fruit-collecting mechanic is a perfect middle-ground between the unforgiving nature of the original Pikmin and the complete leisurely pace of the second game.
It's also the first Pikmin game that has boss fights that I'd classify as "good". Very unique and having clever, strategic ways to find their vulnerabilities. I actually looked forward to boss fights this time around!
The rock Pikmin and winged Pikmin are much more useful than the white and purple ones from the second game, namely because they are obtained in the same way as the core three. Winged Pikmin in particular are awesome and I love having them just fly over obstacles in their path on their way to deliver fruit. In fact, all the Pikmin type have their differences fully explored in this game. Blue Pikmin can now completely submerge themselves and swim in water, for instance. Yellow Pikmin can use their electricity to send surges to objects in the environment and solve puzzles.
I'm trying to think of some criticisms to levy at this game but I honestly can't think of anything. I had a smile on my face the whole time playing this one. Maybe it's too short (about the length of the original). It's also probably the easiest overall of the trilogy, though I'm not really complaining about that. The final boss fight maybe was a bit frustrating during the "chase" phase, but it was still very cool.
Pikmin 3 is a damn treasure of a game and takes me back to my youth when games felt completely magical to me. Not many games can do that for me these days. Even the side content-the missions-are fun as hell. My favorite is without a doubt the fruit-collecting missions. It really brings the three-leader aspect to its fullest potential as you try to utilize your time to the best of your ability and collect all the fruit.
Pikmin 3 cemented the series as belonging with Nintendo's greatest, and it made me look forward to what the series has in store next. Speaking of which, below I have a couple of things I'd like to see in future installments.
Nightime exploration: I think it's about time we get to explore at night, don't you think? Now, I know that clashes with the concept of night being an extreme danger to Pikmin, but what about a new Pikmin type that specifically evolved to be active at night? Can you picture a luminescent or glow-in-the-dark Pikmin type that helps you navigate at night? I'd think it'd be pretty damn cool. The concept of nighttime exploration can also be factored into a risk/reward system that's a key concept of the series. It's undoubtly be more dangerous than daytime exploration, with more enemies about, but perhaps with more and better treasure to find, with stuff that sparkles that you wouldn't be able to see during the daytime. There's a ton of unique ways they can go about doing night gameplay, and the concept honestly seems like a no-brainer at this point. In fact, I almost expect it in the next installment.
Urban environments: Now, I know one of the key themes of Pikmin is nature, and that should definitely remain its key focus, but I think it'd be a refreshing change of pace to have at least one area in the next game be a completely urban setting. The series not-so-subtly hints at the Pikmin planet being Earth long after humans are gone, so obviously there should be remains of big cities scattered throughout. How cool would it be to be in a microscopic view of a city street with dilapidated cars and buildings, and with pockets of nature taking over it? Maybe on paper it sounds a bit too bleak of a setting for a Pikmin game, but I can see Nintendo being able to make it fit in with the rest of the series.
More environment variety: Going off of the above, I'd also like to see just more variety of environments in general. While the series has been good at giving each area a distinct feel, it seems the majority of them can fall into a foresty and wooded classification. I'd like to see them flex their designing muscle more and expand the environments. One of the Pikmin 3 mission areas is a desert area, and I'd love to see a full-fledged desert section in a future game. Or how about a hazy, swamp area? The possibilities are nearly endless.
So that's my long write-up on everything Pikmin. I'm glad I finally put my mind to completing these games, as it's now a series that has been added to my radar to keep track of news for. I'm very excited to see what the series has in store, as, so far, it's been on a perfect pattern of continuous improvement with each new entry. Feel free to discuss your experience with the series.
TL;DR version
Pikmin: Good game that sets the framework for the rest of the series, but it has a little too many hiccups and annoyances that clash with the strict time limit and keeps me from fully enjoying it.
Pikmin 2: A significant improvement from the first with a great deal of new additions. The caves are an interesting new addition that I overall enjoyed, although some went on a bit too long and had a bit too much crazy stuff happening all at once.
Pikmin 3: Phenomenal game, easily the best of the series, and makes me eagerly anticipating what's next for the series.
I've only played Pikmin 1 + 2 with Wii IR controls, but imo I imagine that would be superior to what could be done with regular game controllers anyway.