Pikmin is a great all-round game which can easily be enjoyed by anyone who plays it

User Rating: 8.8 | Pikmin GC
Pikmin is a great game for all ages. It mixed the ‘cuteness’ of Pokemon with the adventure typically found in Mario games and adds a little bit of darkness to create a game which is perfect for all skill levels and playing types.

Throughout the game you play as Captain Olimar, who has crashed his spaceship, the Dolphin, into an unknown planet filled with the toxic game ‘oxygen’. Throughout his early investigations he discovers the new lifeforms on this planet, which he calls Pikmin. Through the use of his Pikmin, Captain Olimar must find the 30 missing pieces of his spacecraft to leave the planet before his spacesuit dies out and exposes him to the deadly gas oxygen.

Pikmin are small creatures with attributes both of animals and plants. They are natural to this planet and, once picked, follow around and help Captain Olimar in his quest to leave the planet. Pikmin come in three different colours, and each of these coloured Pikmin have different attributes, and can also develop from leaf to flower. These different coloured Pikmin add another degree of difficulty to the game and thus makes this game more of a strategy and adds length to the overall game.

Pikmin is a game which requires a lot of searching, trial-and-error and backtracking. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the game allows easy access to restart the day you were on, and the backtracking adds to the longetivity to the game as it always adds new challenges for your Pikmin.

This game isn’t one of those games which will have you wondering around pointlessly forever, but it doesn’t let you reach the pieces of the spacecraft without battles. The overall difficult for the game is just right for the type of game which it is. It isn’t too difficult that it will be impossible to do in the 30 days, but it will test your ability to do multiple tasks to collect all the pieces in the time necessary.

The game gives you a time limit as to how long you can stay on the planet. This gives you roughly 15 hours of game time. Though the original game may only take you 15 hours, there will be a lot of trial-and-error, and this will increase the time which you play the game drastically.

Pikmin has great visuals, by both the standards of the release and by today’s standards. Though you will not find HD graphics, the artistic value of the surroundings and the little ‘secret areas’ you can find sure make up for it. The area in which you play in is very artistically pleasurable, as it has an almost Final-Fantasy feel to it. This ‘feel’ given off by the surroundings adds to the charm and mystery of the entire game.

The sound is also stunning. The different sound effects made by both the Pikmin and the enemies add to the great background music, which sets the tone of the are in which you are exploring.

Overall, Pikmin is a great game which can be enjoyed by everyone.