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Pikmin

by Jonathan Metts - May 21, 2001, 3:30 pm EDT
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See what j00ny Metts thought of Miyamoto's newest creation, the adorable Pikmin.

Ahh, Pikmin. What a crazy, cool game. Shiggy told us that he got the idea for Pikmin while gardening, and the game definitely brings across that feeling of being one with nature. You collect little Pikmin (Okay, the official plural form is "Pikmins", but that looks bad and sounds worse.) and lead them around the world, which is filled with large rocks and plants and critters and feels very much like a garden.

The Pikmin are a lively species with lots of personality as they go about their various jobs. I've heard a lot of talk about their AI, and it is indeed very impressive. It's like they're individuals, but at the same time they work as a group and follow your orders. I didn't see it, but one person said that he saw two Pikmin lift up a third one and start to play catch with it. That's what's amazing...they're all individually animated, and even if you drag half the group over a rock, they'll all stay in one tight little formation because those that need to will climb over the rock.

Control is really simple, unlike the scheme for Luigi's Mansion. Just call Pikmin with A and toss them with B. The camera control is simple but effective, and I very much like that you can zoom in and out for different views. The far-out view lets you see the gorgeous textures better, but the close-up view really shows off the Pikmin animation.

All that's well and good, but is Pikmin any fun? Of course! It feels a lot like a real-time strategy game, but the demo we played was simpler than that. At the same time, it has a Lemmings appeal with getting all your Pikmin to do the right task. Watching hordes of the little guys beat on big ladybug-like creatures is nothing short of hilarious, but later on I got my ass kicked by a giant spider. Hats off to Rick Powers, Scott Fink, and whoever else had the wits and patience to kill that thing.

The spider is significant though. Honestly, the E3 demo of Pikmin was very, very limited. It had three whole "stages" (actually days in the Pikmin's world), but it seemed there was little to do except beat down some ladybugs and drag their carcasses back to home base. (Yes, that's funny too!) I want to see some of the deep and complex strategy that I can already sense hiding underneath this cute, silly exterior. We see three different colors of Pikmin, but what do they mean? Will my red Pikmin knock down a wall faster if he has a flower on his head instead of just a leaf, or does that mean something else? These questions had no answers at E3, and I think they will eventually contribute to this game's true depth.

It's not that Pikmin wasn't impressive...far from it. I was simply unsatisfied with the demo they chose to present, and part of that is because of the type of game it is. Stuff like Smash Bros. Melee and Rogue Leader is really easy to love at E3...you can play it for three minutes and get a great feel for the overall gameplay, know pretty much what to expect once the final game comes out. Pikmin has a much higher learning curve, and I can see that its gameplay starts out simple and eventually gets a lot more complex. As much as I enjoyed what little we were allowed to see, Pikmin is a game that will take several hours of playing to truly evaluate and describe.

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GC

Game Profile

Pikmin Box Art

Genre Strategy
Developer Nintendo
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Pikmin
Release Dec 02, 2001
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone
jpn: Pikmin
Release Oct 26, 2001
PublisherNintendo
RatingAll Ages
eu: Pikmin
Release Jun 14, 2002
PublisherNintendo
Rating3+
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