Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

Now, let me start off with this: I have never in my entire life played a strategy game, and after hearing about how good Pikmin is for several years, and several years of wanting to play it, I finally have fully finished it.

Basically the story is plain and simple, not trying to take much of your time so you spend most of your time enjoying the gameplay rather than reading pages and pages of text. Captain Olimar is flying in space, and gets hit by an asteroid, and lands on a mysterious planet. After he lands on the planet, his ship breaks into thirty parts, and he discovers what he calls "Pikmin". Pikmin are little plant-like creatures that help him collect all the parts to his ship, and after all the time he spends with them, he grows attached to them.

Now, I may not be able to describe the gameplay the best. I'm not much into strategy games, but basically you have to collect as much of the three kinds of Pikmin. Each type of Pikmin has their own unique capabilites, such as reds can survive fiery areas, yellows can be thrown farther and pick up bomb rocks, and blues can breathe under water. There are three endings in this game, based on how many parts you can collect before the end of the thirty day cycle. If you can collect all thirty parts, you get the best ending, etc. You collect as much Pikmin as possible, and control them and get them to carry your ship parts back to base. That sums most of it up.

Pikmin is known for some of it's great music, and I agree that some of it is downright amazing. You get the nice / cheerful themes, then the mysterious themes, and then the eerie / unsettling themes. The Distant Spring theme actually makes me think... and makes me smile. There's the mystery about it and I cannot honestly describe it, but it brings back memories. Nostalgia much?

You know, I may be wrong, but too me, doing everything in the game is collecting all thirty parts before the end of day thirty. It takes about ten hours (well, it took around there for me), but it's definitely a lot of fun.

The replay value is high for me... The feel that his game has, like I said it's cheerful, mysterious, and unsettling. I must say that this game is a game I can sit down and replay any day...

Overall, this is a phenomenal experience. Definitely a great choice for anyone new to the strategy game genre. This is easily my second favourite GameCube game, and I am highly inlove with this gem.

Pros:
+Extremely fun and addicting
+Incredible soundtrack
+High replay-ability
+Genius design

Cons:
-Some irritating enemies
-Days are too short

Story: 7.4
Gameplay: 9.9
Music: 9.7
Lifetime: 8.5
Overall: 9.9