Shigeru Miyamoto has cooked up another masterpiece that was inspired by his own garden. Is he an insane genius or what?

User Rating: 8.6 | Pikmin GC
By D-MonDRV | Review Date:
Every once in a while, Nintendo chases mature gamers away with "kiddy" games like Pokemon or Kirby. To make matters worse, Miyamoto has developed another cutesy game entitled Pikmin. It turns out Pikmin isn't all that cutesy, it takes advantage of every aspect that makes the GameCube a Nintendo GameCube. You take the role of an astronaut named Captain Olimar. He was heading home for dinner until a meteor made his ship fall off course with his coordinates. He lands in an unknown planet with lots of vegetation and water. There's sure to be life on the planet, but what? There he meets a Red Pikmin, he studies these to find out what he can do. Now he knows the Pikmin can get him off the planet. The flip side is that he only has 30 days to find 25 of the neccessary ship parts. Can the Pikmin help Captain Olimar get back home? So the story may seem like another Tom Hanks movie, but Pikmin has a very distinct control setup. You can use the B button to activate Olimar's whistle and make the Pikmin follow him. The A button will allow Olimar to throw a Pikmin somewhere, wherether its a flower, an enemy, or a ship part. The C Stick gives you some control out of the Pikmin that are following you. If you are near a breakable wall, move the C Stick to let all the Pikmin attack the wall. The X Button will let the Pikmin stop following you but will also seperate each other by color. It's very useful on the later stages. The shoulder buttons make use of the camera, L will move around, and R will zoom. Pikmin involves a lot of strategy. But you're just there to explore the land you have and cultivate Pikmin in order for them to help you carry the ship parts. Red Pikmin are the best for fighting and they are also invulnerable to fire. Blue Pikmin are unaffected by water. And finally, Yellow Pikmin have the biggest ears that allow you to throw them at higher distances, they also have the ability to carry "bomb rocks" which can blow up rock walls. There are also 3 levels of Pikmin. The Leaf, the Bud, and the Flower. Leafs are pretty basic, they start out that way. Buds are stronger and faster, and flowers are the best in the bunch. So the strategy is easy once you get used to it, but what about the unique element of combat? Well, all you have to do is throw a Pikmin at enemy. Well, it's not that simple. Pikmin are better working together and you have to make sure they're kicking ass, not kicking face. You don't want your Pikmin to be eaten! Sure it's funny watchng it, but you really don't wanna lose your Pikmin. For fights, only have about 30 Reds and the other 70 Pikmin should be doing work. That's right, you can only have 100 Pikmin out in the wild while the others are sleeping in their ships called 'onions'. Pikmin is a graphical masterpiece. The grass, skies, ships, fire, water, hell everything is well-designed and developed. It gives you a real feel that you aren't alone in the planet. Pikmin's visuals shouldn't leave you confused. The sound isn't a problem at all, Pikmin offers a wealth of ambient sound to reflect the various settings. The game's soundtrack is simple and a bit plain, but it works for the game. Music cues will keep you informed of Pikmin progress outside of your line of sight; leave a batch to build a bridge, and you'll hear a chime when they've completed their task. The sound can improve your strategy. The only thing that someone can judge the game badly on is the length. The 30-Day cycle is really short. It's similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask's system. So you need to get rid of baddies, fix bridges, pull down walls, and finish it off with getting ship parts. When night falls, you really need to get all your Pikmin into their onions. If they're left alone outside the landing area, you're going to watch all of your Pikmin get devoured by bugs. Pikmin is a game with stunning visuals and gameplay. There are 3 different endings for the game. One for not collecting the 25 neccessary parts, one for collecting the 25 neccessary parts, and one for collecting all 30 ship parts. The 3rd ending just gives it all away, so it's obvious a Pikmin 2 is coming.

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