To celebrate my first moments as a “Second Semester Senior” I drove by Blockbuster last Friday morning finally Pikmined up a game... er... you know what I mean. I wasn’t about to buy the game since I knew it was somewhat short and don’t like RTS-style games, but I couldn’t call myself a Nintendo fan without at least testing the game out, which I was too prejudiced to do at E3 or the Cube Club. And boy was I surprised.

Yeah, yeah... I had heard that it’s unlike any other game and that you’ll like it anyway, but I never believed them completely. Most people don’t know just how much I can’t stand RTS. It’s a great genre with a lot of content, but it just isn’t for me! I tried Red Alert for a few weeks but could never get the controls or tactics down, and its unforgiving learning curve left me screaming. Pikmin retains the basic ideas of an RTS: tell little “units” what to do and watch them go. But Nintendo has made things so much easier for gamers like me. (Those with no RTS talent.) It’s made by Nintendo, famous for making learning the ropes very tolerable. In fact, it probably goes a little TOO slowly for the first few minutes...but I think that’s a good thing. Shigeru and his team also broke one of the most traditional aspects of a RTS by scraping the setup where you are a separate entity overlooking the battlefield, scrolling from border to border. Olimar who is more of a band-leader than anything else, makes gameplay more tangible. Olimar allows console gamers to feel right at home, providing a center base for a 3D camera and allowing for direct interaction with the environment, giving the title a slight Adventure feel. Controls have a similar effect. Though it is essentially a “point and click” scheme, Olimar’s presence somehow makes the interface friendlier. Some may dislike how Olimar keeps the focus at one place at a time, requiring cross-country and time disposal when multitasking, but as long as the sound is on you’ll always know when remote Pikmin have finished their task. I find the whole setup new and elegant, and I’m sure many others will agree.

So by now you can tell that I like this game. I got home at 11am and didn’t stop until 4:30pm. And by Sunday morning I had finished my first game of Pikmin: 30 parts in 25 days (roughly 20 hours)!!! Not too bad for a genre I normally can’t handle! With adorable characters and well-balanced level design and gameplay, I found this title quite appealing, as it holds just the right balance: sometimes there is a sense of urgency and other times things are calm and peaceful. Not to suggest battles don’t exist in this game, because they do, but the game is centered around exploration and problem-solving. Yes, the exploration aspect means the dreaded “C” word is in this game, but isn’t collecting items fresh and new in this genre? Besides, collecting has a new twist since your Pikmin must carry the ship part back to the Dolphin (heh) in time while surviving the natural threats. On the artsy side, the music is atmospheric and well composed while the worlds themselves are rich in detail and color. Gamers will sometimes want to kill a day (which is just the right length) to look around. The English translation isn’t half bad either—I found many of Olimar’s comments quite amusing. For a game centered around only three types of “units,” Pikmin has a good deal of variety.

Like Luigi’s Mansion, Pikmin is a little short, but most people will not do as well as I did on my first try and will therefore have plenty of room for improvement. Pikmin is also a game designed for high scores, so it’s a good thing the game keeps track of all the little goodies. The gameplay isn’t perfect: the camera can be a pain and organizing your Pikmin troops can be a tedious at times, but overall the game is a joy. The game runs at 30 fps, which threw me off for the first minute or two, but once I adjusted I found the refresh rate to be quite adequate for a game of this pace. Like Shigeru Miyamoto said, there could have been more, but there were time constraints. I agree with Nintendo’s decision and am glad they chose not to delay this one, and I hope the all-but-confirmed sequel is just as good.

RTS enthusiasts will probably dislike this game unless they also enjoy console Adventure games, but they should at least appreciate how Nintendo is trying to put new life into a aging design. The traditionalists have plenty of games to play on their PCs; Nintendo gamers finally have a RTS made for them as well. Check the game out: I found it devilishly addicting. I definitely agree that Pikmin deserves the 2001 Louie Sleeper Award, and had I played it last year I would have voted Pikmin over the excellent Super Monkey Ball.