Topic: More Pikmin 2 Info

[Jonnyboy117]

Nintendo's E3 website reveals a few things and clears up a couple of mysteries regarding the sequel to Pikmin.

Nintendo of America's new website for E3 2003 contains a Pikmin 2 feature, in which a few bits of are dropped.

The story has Captain Olimar returning to the Pikmin's world, this time voluntarily.  His business is going under, and he needs to dig up treasures to pull out of his debt.  Olimar has brought along an assistant, already seen in screenshots, to help save the company.  This assistant is still not being called by name at NOA.

The feature goes on to clarify some gameplay details too.  As we expected from the first batch of screenshots, there is a two-player cooperative mode in which each player controls one of the spacemen.  In the single-player mode, you'll switch between them, possibly for Lost Vikings-style shenanigans.   Another huge departure from the original is that there is no time limit in Pikmin 2.  Presumably, there will still be a day-night cycle, but players will no longer be restricted to thirty days in which to beat the game.  It's currently unclear how the game will balance out this change, whether it be more complex tasks, harder enemies, more levels, etc.

Of course, you couldn't expect a Pikmin sequel to leave out new colors of Pikmin, new enemies, and new types of environments.  All are present, as you'll see in the new screenshots.

[enigma487]

Woohoo!!

[Radison]

I'm not sure about the new purple fellow, but I'd put money on the fact that the white pikmin works best in the dark. His pasty complexion and pink eyes are what tip me off. Whether this means that you continue to play during the night or that you'll be going into dark areas during the day (caves, pits, tunnels) is anyone's guess. I do put forward another thought, and it is that I doubt you'd only play with the white pikmin in the dark, leaving the rest of your gang behind, so white pikmin probably make it easier for the rest to work when the sun goes down. Maybe the white guys glow, maybe they know how to activate "fire flowers" that light up the area, maybe just having them with their pink eyes allows the rest to see in the dark.

Oh, and the game sounds great by the way, notably with the removal of the time limit (my biggest complaint of the original).

[bonestormer]

Quote
As we expected from the first batch of screenshots, there is a two-player cooperative mode in which each player controls one of the spacemen. In the single-player mode, you'll switch between them, possibly for Lost Vikings-style shenanigans.

Man... I remember PGC claiming that those first shots of Pikmin 2 hinted that it would be online. Myself and others said they were reading too much into it and a MUCH simpler answer (like you controlled both characters) was probablly the actuality. I was ran out of town as a heritic! It's good to know I wasn't wrong here.....


How was the time limit in Pikmin a pain? 30 days was MORE then enough time to beat the game, with all parts. The post does ask a good question, what then is the goal to beat in Pikmin 2? Or will this follow Nintendo's new stance that all games should be as easy as TWW and have nothing standing in the way of anyone beating it. I sure hope not...

[Ian Sane]

"How was the time limit in Pikmin a pain? 30 days was MORE then enough time to beat the game, with all parts."

I think most people's complaint was that it put a limit on the length of the game.  You couldn't take a more leisurely pace and beat the game in 30 hours instead of 15.  I think it's a great idea to remove the time limit provided that certain limits remain in place.  First of all you have to maintain the day/night cycle.  Second they should make it so you can't restart a day like you could in the first one so if you f*ck up and lose most of your Pikmin on an enemy you have to lose a few days to rebuild your army.  Otherwise the game would be too easy.  In order to keep people from just turning the game off they could put in a Mr. Resetti "punishment" like thing.

[JoshuaSlone]

Sure you could play at different paces.  Some chose to keep going forward in the game and beat it sooner, and maybe miss a few parts the first time through.  Then others would replay a day a time or two, to make sure one knows what's going on and should be done, to get the most out of each game day.

About not allowing you to replay a day as a way to balance out the lack of day limit... not sure I'd agree with that.  It would make me be overly cautious.  Then, if you screwed up, you'd be forced to take time and regrow your forces.  But that's a pretty monotonous task.

[couchmonkey]

I personally thought the time limit made the game more interesting, without it I wonder how Nintendo is going to maintain the feeling of urgency?  The multitasking aspect of the first game just doesn't work without the time limit.  But I understand why some people found it annoying, it made it impossible to relax, and I don't think 30 days was very luxurious.  Yes, it's possible to get it all done in less than 30 days, but it's not easy.

I would have liked to see the game set up so that if you find all the crucial Ship parts by day 30, you can extend your trip indefinitely.  But Nintendo has obviously gone on a totally different path, so that idea is pointless anyway.  I hope whatever Nintendo has done keeps the game fun.

[GoldShadow1]

Maybe they've changed to have time limits on individual things.  I think that would be a good idea.  Instead of having a time limit bearing down on you through the entire game, you'd simply have to do tasks A, B and C within a day on one particular "quest".  This would work pretty well - not only would you have the urgency and the required efficiency of the original, but you'd have a more laid-back feel as well.  Perhaps you would only get one chance to do certain quests, thus improving replayability - you could try to go for the perfect game.  Maybe with a quest system, you could have more interesting tasks aside from just retrieving something.  I just hope it's much, much longer.  With a game as fun as Pikmin, I could play it for dozens upon dozens of hours, if they provided enough content.