Topic: Pikmin 3: What advancements in gameplay do you want to see ??

[AV]

I've been playing lots of of New Play Control pikmin and I loved 2, so I am excited for 3 eventually on Wii.

Here are a few things I want to see:

1) Ability to enhance your life. Think Heart Pieces for Zelda but pikmin instead. Every once in a while animal drops some metal. Collect 3 and your life grows.

2) Give Olimar more offensive abilities like melee weapons like a baseball bat or something. I know the Pikmin are supposed to do the work but having this would help in defeating the monsters faster. Maybe some animals need to be stunned first by the club than the pikmin can attack.

3) Mating habitats. This will give you the ability to mate two colors of pikmin and the offspring will have attributes of both. However these habitats will be random occurrence and one day only thing in far corners of the level.

4) Advanced Multiplayer features:
2-player co-op online with voice chat.  And 2 player 'mario galaxy' style co-op, and many more online and offline multiplayer modes

5) Full Stat tracking and online leader boards.

What do you want to see ?

[King of Twitch]

I think these are fine ideas. Cause all I want to see is livelier and smarter pikmin, brand new enemies and environments, and co-op. No overhauls or experimenting.

A different story wouldn't hurt (bounty hunting for rogue pikmin terrorists, or scavenging for exotic plants or valuable minerals, or clearing out an area for a future pikmin jungle cruise for example).

[NWR_pap64]

I am definitely curious as to what may happen next in the Pikmin world.

While the second one had a decent story you can tell that they had to create a new conflict for Olimar, especially since he survived his greatest threat.

What are they going to do for the third one? Hocotate can't go under a SECOND time, and neither Olimar or Louie can get lost for a second time in space.

I am also curious as to how they will enhance the gameplay. The NPC versions already enhanced what was a great engine and system, how can they go further? We already tried survival with a time limit and treasure hunting, what more could there be?

I am very intrigued as to what they might do next.

[KnowsNothing]

You know what might be interesting?  One giant, seamless environment instead of individual levels.  You could set up the game sort of more like a standard adventure game where you gain access to new areas when you collect enough ****.  Doing this would make the game feel very fresh and open up tons of new gameplay and story options while still maintaining the RTS element (for enemy encounters and collecting items).

I just think the Pikmin universe is very versatile and could make for a very cool Zelda-esque adventure game while still mainting its RTS roots.  Instead of having those shitty cave levels in Pikmin 2, you would have well thought out, individual dungeons like in a zelda game.  Bring back Louie and you could have some seriously awesome puzzle and strategy based dungeons and ****.

Just a thought.

[DAaaMan64]

Open universe sounds excellent KnowsNothing.

[TJ Spyke]

I am definitely curious as to what may happen next in the Pikmin world.

While the second one had a decent story you can tell that they had to create a new conflict for Olimar, especially since he survived his greatest threat.

What are they going to do for the third one? Hocotate can't go under a SECOND time, and neither Olimar or Louie can get lost for a second time in space.

Maybe they could have Hocotate's president decide that they can make more money by scavenging for items than they can shipping stuff, so the president makes that part of Olimar's job.

I don't really like the idea of making Olimar able to do more in combat. I do like the idea of breeding Pikmin (not sure how they would do this though). I think it's also best if they make sure that any multiplayer is online this time. I liked the stat tracking in Pikmin 2 (I forgot that the first Pikmin didn't have as many stats) and agree that online leaderboards would be nice.

Maybe they could make it so you can have your Pikmin sorta combine together (by climbing on top of each other, similar to what Joe and his other crippled friends did in that episode of Family Guy where they formed this giant robot man) if you have an equal amount of each color.

[nickmitch]

Maybe, they could discover a new planet and Olimar and Louie could be trying to bring the Pikmin there.  This way, the new planet could have odd effects on the Pikmin creating new types.

[KDR_11k]

There's always the option of an ecologic catastrophy threatening the Pikmin population... Or they could go the Metroid route and drop Phazon on the planet.

[Stratos]

No Olimar. I think it should star his two kids and they each could have different affects on the Pikmin. The son could get the Pikmin to climb or jump on ledges to get to higher areas and he could have a booster/jet pack. The daughter could cause the Pikmin to work faster at digging, building and carrying.

There could also be some new types of Pikmin. I think a type of flying Pikmin could have potential.

Maybe there could be a Swiss Family Robinson plot where all of Olimar's family is stuck on the planet or maybe staying there for a family vacation. Each family member could have a different strength. Instead of leaving every night they could have a central 'safe nest' where they go for the night. This nest could be transformed over time with modifications made by the Pikmin combined with parts found in the wild.

I love the unified world idea. You could have mini safe nests scattered around the world where you can hide away for the night.

I don't think Pikmin breeding would work with the game's mythos because Pikmin are seeds that grow from the ground. Though maybe you could have it where pellets are not stored in Onions and instantly converted into basic Pikmin but placed in a dry storage place. Then you could mix the different colors to create new colored or hybrid Pikmin.

2-Player Co-op campaign is a must in my book. More multiplayer battle modes would be interesting as well. I'd like to see the marble capture mode except with a larger 4-player scale.

[Spinnzilla]

I want an online vs. mode.  Not fighitng, but racing to get the pieces to your ship the fastest.

Also level leaderboards!

[Armak88]

The vs. multiplayer in pikmin 2 was pretty good, so if that came back with online I think that would be good. Co-op campaign seems so obvious after Pikmin 2, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I hope that they keep the day time limit. It's a pretty integral part of the game so I hope it comes back. ALso, I liked the challenge mode in the first Pikmin. landing on the planet with 3 of each pikmin type then seeing how many you could grow in one day was really fun. Online leader boards for that kind of thing would be addicting for me.

[blackfootsteps]

Perhaps some other company is also utiliising Pikmin, but in a vicious and cruel way. As Olimar/Louie you have to have Pikmin vs Pikmin battles and free the brainwashed Pikmin from tyranny.

[Khushrenada]

Pikmin colonization. Like KN's idea of a seamless envioronment. Olimar sets up his base camp and then slowly goes about terraforming the landscape and shaping it into something acceptable for expansion and colonization. You'd have to beware of wildlife that go down hunting trails at certain times of the day or days of the week. Slowly, you make a safe haven against the rest of the world. However, an enemy has appeared who is seeking to colonize the world to his own benefit and is able to lead the beasts of pikmin in a unified manner like Olimar has done with the pikmin. A clash of pkimin versus an army of Bulborbs.

I'm just talking crazy. But reading the idea of an open envioronment just planted this idea in my head of plopping down in the middle of this giant untamed wilderness and then slowly going and conquering it all into a little empire.

[Stogi]

I love the open world idea. The idea of constant adventuring sounds fantastic.

I also like the idea of spreading out your colony. Maybe there could be other beings other than Pikmin that you have help you bet only by helping them first? (sort of like a Black & White thing)

[Stratos]

I'd like to see the strange bulborb-pikmin hybrids explored a bit more. They appeared in a few levels of Pikmin 2 and always seemed to be a curious matter.

[decoyman]

Online (w/ WiiSpeak support) AND offline multiplayer – competitive AND co-op please. That is by far my most desired addition.

Also, some of the ideas of different family members with different strengths sounded interesting, and upgrading your house, too. Not sure I want a spin-off Pikmin tactical strategy game where you develop bases in new areas and such... at least not yet. I still hunger for a meaty, traditional action/strategy Pikmin adventure. And I don't think EVEN MORE pikmin types is a good idea. Five pikmin types is already pushing it, if you ask me. I find myself thinking fondly back to the simplicity that was the 3-pikmin-type system of the original.

[Ian Sane]

KnowsNothing's idea is awesome!  The second I read it I was just like "that's it!  That's what I want to see!"

Exploration is my favourite thing to do in videogames.  That's why I love Zelda and Metroid.  That's why I really don't connect with the Wii ____ series: no world to discover.  Give me a world to explore and I'm easily amused.  Hell I would probably have a blast with a game that played like Metroid Prime but had no actual conflict and just involved exploring an alien world.

I love the Pikmin games but both of them had a game design mechanic that hurt exploration.  Pikmin 1 had the time limit.  It's hard to explore when you're under the gun.  Pikmin 2 had the caves.  I think Pikmin 2 is an absolute must-play classic but since the caves are randomly generated they were not nearly as interesting as the overworld levels.

Before Pikmin 2 was revealed I was trying to think of some logical storyline to continue the series.  I thought of the idea of the Pikmin having gained independence in their time with Olimar and you play a "Pikmin General" that orders the other Pikmin around.  The game is more about survival in nature instead of specfic conflict involving a human-like character.  So the game becomes about capturing prey to breed Pikmin and finding new areas to set up Onions and maybe you get new abilities based on items you find.  In an open-ended world like KnowsNothing suggested that would be really cool.

In Pikmin 2 they got rid of the challenge mode and that really irked me because I felt it added tons of replay value to the game.  That's sort of more what I imagine Pikmin 3 could be like.  Build your Pikmin colony and expand across the world.

Though I imagine Nintendo will use Olimar again.  They put him in SSB Brawl and with the extra attention the franchise is getting from the New Play Control versions he's now a marketable character and they probably don't want to get rid of him.  As with most Nintendo series the storyline will probably become more contrived and will introduce all sorts of obvious plotholes that any fan of the game would notice immediately.  But thankfully the game will likely still play like a dream.

[vudu]

I don't think one giant open world will really add much to Pikmin unless they change the rules quite a bit.  Assuming you must return to your ship every night you're not going to be able to wander off too far.  It'll require you to move your ship every few days, which at that point you're not too far off from having individual levels.

If they did want to move to this design, you could have your Pikmin gather parts to build little fortresses that you could stay in at night. 

[Stratos]

I don't think one giant open world will really add much to Pikmin unless they change the rules quite a bit.  Assuming you must return to your ship every night you're not going to be able to wander off too far.  It'll require you to move your ship every few days, which at that point you're not too far off from having individual levels.

If they did want to move to this design, you could have your Pikmin gather parts to build little fortresses that you could stay in at night.

That's what I meant by secret safe nests earlier. They are places you can stay the night, that is all. You home base would more be the one you can modify.

[KnowsNothing]

I don't think one giant open world will really add much to Pikmin unless they change the rules quite a bit.

...exactly.  I see nothing wrong with changing the rules quite a bit.  Perhaps early on you would have to return to your ship at night because extremely powerful enemies come out, then a bit later you would have the ability to build (or discover) these "safe-houses," and then eventually you would discover luminescent pikmin that would grant you the ability to explore at night (by, for example, dealing extra damage to nocturnal creatures).  Sort of like...uhh...Dark Aether, I suppose.  At first it's dangerous to stay there for a long time but later on when you upgrade your suit it's not really a problem anymore.

[Stogi]

For sure. That's exactly how I envisioned it.

But like I said before not all animals have to be dangerous. In fact, enlisting them could be the way you travel across the world quickly or defend yourself from a bulborb stampede!

[decoyman]

I like the Nighttime exploration idea, KN... if they do it right, it could transform a known environment into almost a whole new place.

Awesome, the more I think about it, the more I like it.

[Ian Sane]

But like I said before not all animals have to be dangerous. In fact, enlisting them could be the way you travel across the world quickly or defend yourself from a bulborb stampede!

I figure that Pikmin themselves are the most dangerious creatures of their world.  Their only weakness is they need leadership and organization.  Even the Bulbmin in Pikmin 2 are parasitic Pikmin.  Unless other animals are enlisted against their will I don't think it would seem very Pikmin like.  You're really kind of playing the bad guy in the Pikmin games, killing all the creatures around you to harvest more Pikmin.  It's like a cute version of the Borg or the Alien Xenomorphs.

I like the idea of nocturnal Pikmin though.  Realistically it's pretty hard to think of other logical Pikmin types.  I was really surprised with what they came up with for Pikmin 2 and nocturnal Pikmin would be a very useful and logical idea to introduce.  Have that and parasite Pikmin to possess other creatures to expand on the Bulbmin concept.

[Stogi]

I was thinking giant animals like a snake or fish that you could ride on top of along with all your pikmin.

[King of Twitch]

Player two (or three) could navigate the ship/onions with the DS if there's going to be one giant level or (like in Metroid Prime 3) blast through walls. It'd involve some kind of flight mode mini game with Olimar's ship inbetween landing sites. Of course that'd be too complicated for nongamers.