Pikmin is only a few days away from being released in North America. In fact, commercials for the game have already begun popping up. The commercials sum up the story of the game, that you have come to a planet on accident and encounter Pikmin, creatures who obey whomever picks them. The ad also at reveals that the name of the giant ladybug creatures is “Grub Dog.”

Many new GameCube owners have gotten a closer look at Pikmin via a non-interactive Pikmin demo movie, which is included with Luigi’s Mansion and found in the options menu. The demo is an extensive and wonderful look at the game and shows scene of the spaceship being reassembled.

Here’s another detail, but we’ll issue a SPOILER WARNING for it… With Billy has been working through his import copy of Pikmin, we’ve learned what the purple, mushroom headed Pikmin are all about. It turns out that these are Pikmin that get turned against Spaceman Olimar and try to kill him! End Spoiler!

Pikmin has been available in Japan for awhile and the game is doing rather well. So well, that Shigeru Miyamoto is already hinting at a possible sequel. Shiggy has apparently jotted an idea for a follow-up game on a post-it (where he records many of his ideas) and says that such a game could be made in a half-year’s time. We’ll certainly be keeping our eyes and ears open to see how this develops…

Meanwhile, prepare to crash land on the planet of the Pikmin –the game will begin arriving in stores in December 3rd!

Last updated: 10/26/2001 by Max Lake

Now that Pikmin is now out in Japan, we’ve got a preview update, short and sweet. First off, Pikmin has now received a review in the Famitsu’s main magazine, garnering scores of 9, 9, 8 and 8 for a total 34. This means the game receives a “Dendo Gold” award. This is a much lower score than the Famitsu Advance review, but is still gold and on par with Famitsu’s other reviews.

Importers may want to take caution, as word has it there is more text than previous GameCube releases. The game asks if you are a kid or an adult and has less complicated symbols on the younger setting. Either way, you may want to take caution unless you have a firm understanding of the Japanese language.

As we mentioned last time, the name of the spaceman is called Captain Orima in the Japanese version of the game. Desmond Gaban pointed out that in Japanese, it’s actually Mario backwards: O RI MA, MA RI O.

Thanks to the latest issue of Nintendo Power, we’ve learned that the spaceman’s name will be Captain Olimar in the North American version of the game. However, in both regions, the spaceman’s ship is named the Dolphin. What a very cool touch.

Other new specifics: You have 30 days to collect 30 space ship parts and reassemble the Dolphin. Pikmin only work during the daytime, and you must complete all your work and get them back to their ships at night or they will die, falling prey to predators.

Billy was at the first night of the Cube Club at Mall of America where he learned that Pikmin will have a widescreen mode. He also reported anecdotally: “chicks dig Pikmin.” Well, they are awful cute? Could anyone dislike the little buggers?

Billy hasn’t received his import copy of Pikmin just yet but is waiting patiently… (Patiently? Yeah, right). Meanwhile, check out this story for some new pictures & a video of the Pikmin demo select screen.

Last updated: 10/23/2001 by Max Lake

We spent summer vacation looking for Pikmin outdoors but were only able to encounter them at trade shows and Cube Clubs. The critters don’t seem to be in our gardens… Not yet anyway. Nevertheless, we’ve unearthed a great deal of new Pikmin information since the last preview update.

Pikmin will be released in Japan this week (October 26) and it’s a game many people are highly anticipating the title. Famitsu rated the game a 38/40, earning it the platinum score. This is the highest ranking Famitsu has bestowed on GameCube game. Granted, the review appeared in Famitsu’s only Nintendo publication and not in the main mag but it’s still a great score.

The name of the spaceman lead character has appeared as Captain Orima on NCL’s website but it’s unknown if this will be his name in the North American version. Story details have emerged as well, detailing how Captain Orima was traveling in space when a meteor hit his ship and he was forced to land on a nearby planet. The air of the planet turns out to be deadly poison for the Captain, so he dons his spacesuit and ventures outside of his damaged ship. He then encounters the Pikmin - creatures that are both plants and animals. Fortunately, upon communicating with them and finds they are helpful. Now, Capt. Orima must work with the Pikmin to protect them from predators and locate the scattered parts of your damaged craft. You only have 30 days to find your spaceship, reassemble it completely to escape the planet or all is lost.

Pikmin colors denote type and abilities and we now know more about each one. Red Pikmin can walk through fire and are the only Pikmin to develop pointy noses as they develop. Blue Pikmin can walk through water while yellow Pikmin can jump higher and carry bombs. The bombs are known as “bomb-rocks.” When thrown near a pile of bomb-rocks, yellow Pikmin will pick up a rock; throwing it again at an enemy or wall will cause the bomb-rock to detonate.

There is also a new type of Pikmin, the purple Pikmin. These zombie-like Pikmin have mushrooms on their heads instead of leaves and are allegedly superior in combat to other Pikmin. As these strange Pikmin are mushrooms, it is hard to say at this time if they develop the same way other Pikmin do.

Pikmin nests are known as Onions. This is where you store the Pikmin and also where you take supplies, such as food pellets. Taking pellets to Onions causes more Pikmin of the color of the Onion to be produced, and spit out the top. The color of Onion that the Pikmin will drag the supplies to is determined by the majority color doing the work. There is also some indication that the Pikmin ships may actually take flight at some point in the game.

100 Pikmin seems to be the maximum you can directly control at one time. This means you will have to manage your crews carefully, selecting colors and types while leaving others to bloom and grow. One big change from the demo versions of is that you must now pull each individual Pikmin out of the ground at first, instead of being able to blow your whistle to summon them out of the ground all at once. There does seem to be power-ups in the forms of upgrades to your whistle… Some footage on the PGC E3 video shows a colorful, more musical whistle in action, though we can’t say what powers and advantages this different whistle may offer.

Recently Miyamoto spoke to Famitsu and clarified that he came onto the Pikmin project as producer but then grew more deeply involved. Shiggy says the game has been in development as far back as the time Yoshi’s Story for N64 was being worked on and says that the “100 Marios” demo shown at SpaceWorld 2000 was actually the framework for Pikmin.

Miyamoto says he doesn’t feel the game is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game at all and says he’s worried since people frequently ask if that’s what it is. The Famitsu writer interviewing Shiggy agreed it wasn’t a RTS and was in fact very easy to pick up and play, later adding it filled him with a sense of accomplishment he hadn’t imagined before playing.

Miyamoto explains: “There is a lot of fun to be had, planning your moves and making strategies. As with a job in real life, if you plan well, and advance successfully - you enjoy your job.”

He also says that unlike most Nintendo characters, Pikmin characters do not smile and are cute for other reasons other than facial expressions. Although Miyamoto may have been inspired while working in his garden, most of the game’s background is more from his neighborhood…

“We haven't used my garden that much, but we've used a lot of my neighborhood. As we videotaped the garden for some of the background, some staff wanted to do more, and went to some caves to tape them (laughs). I don't know were they are in the game now, but we enjoyed making the backgrounds, anyway (laughs).”

(For the entire interview, read the translations provided by Tendo Box’s Galloping Gaijin, Part 1 and Part 2)

Billy plans to import Pikmin for his GameCube ASAP and will no doubt provide us with impressions, a review and a much better understanding on this wonderful game from EAD. Keep your eyes peeled, the Pikmin are almost here.

Last updated: 06/09/2001 by Jonathan Metts

I just saw the newest episode of Tech TV's Extended Play program, where they previewed the B-roll Pikmin footage briefly. Of course they don't know anything that we don't, so the actual commentary was worthless to an info-seeker like me, but their video was highly interesting. Perhaps what they showed is available elsewhere, but I'd never seen it and I've certainly never read anything about the three new enemies it showcased, none of which were present in the E3 playable demo.

The first previously unrevealed baddie was some kind of roundish insect; the first glimpse showed him up in the air, and then he came down apparently trying to squash some Pikmin in the process. Looks like that may be his main attack. He was similar in shape to the ladybug-type enemies that were at E3, but colored mainly in yellows and greens. It was a very brief clip, but if that enemy constantly jumps up trying to come back down on your guys, it could be a very difficult issue of timing to hit and kill him with the Pikmin.

The second new enemy shown was some sort of underground bird, strikingly huge as compared to the Spaceman and his Pikmin buddies. It starts off looking like a white stalk coming out of the ground, very similar to the flower stems, which are all over the place. Good camouflage! When your little troop walks near it, the stalk quickly rises out of the ground and reveals itself to be the elongated head and neck of this bird. It looks like a stork, but apparently most of its body stays buried under the ground! The stork snatches up Pikmin in its mouth, and again, it should be interesting to see how we're supposed to combat such a creature.

Finally, two separate clips showed an unusual gray armadillo that blew a cloud of fire at the Pikmin. The fire, it must be noted, was beautiful. Unfortunately the player must have been avoiding those enemies, because the footage showed no combat with it or even any Pikmin getting torched. (Flashback of Lemmings...autodestruct and arrange them in such a way that they blow a hole through the floor and the last few little guys fall to their doom before the destruct sequence reaches them...ahhhh, those were the days.)

Last updated: 05/22/2001 by Ed Shih

We all knew there'd be more depth to Pikmin and during a conversation with a Nintendo booth rep (who tests for NOA), a few details came out. First, the color of a Pikmin will play a strategic role. The different colored Pikmins have special attributes which affect how they are used in gameplay. For example, red Pikmin are immune to fire and yellow Pikmin can jump higher than other Pikmin. Then, there's also the various stages that Pikmin (leaf-head, bulb-head, and flower-head). The rep mentioned that the more developed the Pikmin is, the tougher it is in combat (i.e. dishes out more damage and takes more hits).

Allusions were made to other special characteristics of the various types of Pikmins, but no other concrete details were given. Still, those few examples promise a whole lot of depth in this already fun game. Of course, coming from Miyamoto, what else would you expect?

Last updated: 05/16/2001

Shigeru Miyamoto's pet project, Cabbage, has been in development forever. Originally planned for the 64DD, Cabbage is now hitting GameCube as a launch or near-launch title under the new name Pikmin, which might change for the US release. You control a space traveler who has crash landed on a lush, beautiful planet inhabited by several species of creatures. The main species is the Pikmin, who are skinny multi-colored guys who live in the ground and have flowers growing out of their heads. You get them on your team by literally picking them out of the ground like turnips. From there, they follow you around until you use your target reticle to toss them at an object or location. Their actions are context-sensitive according to what they're thrown at; they chop down flowers, pick up bonus items, and tear down walls; just chunk a few at something and they'll start doing something to it.

Pikmin work best in groups, so it's important to recruit many of them. Baby Pikmin spawn from the "nest" when you collect "pellets". Since these pellets are so important, each one is clearly marked with the number of Pikmin required to carry it back to the nest. Other objects seem to be affected by just one Pikmin, but adding more to the job will make it go much more quickly. Miyamoto explained that once some Pikmin are working on a job, you can add more to the group by using the camera stick to swing your followers around and into the working mob.

Pikmin, as previously mentioned, are plant-like creatures that grow in the ground like turnips. The bud/stalk/flower on the head shows how mature they are, but right now we don't know the gameplay difference for maturity. The Pikmin colors represent their personalities, but again, the distinctions were not apparent in the stuff shown at today's press conference.

Your goal, as the stranded astronaut, is to use the Pikmin to find the scattered parts of your spaceship and get the hell out of there. Miyamoto explained that the idea for Pikmin came to him after spending time in his garden at home. As such, the environments are filled with beautiful plants and other bug creatures (which serve as the game's enemies). Shiggy even remarked that some of the artwork was taken directly from the plantlife around his home!

The graphics are an unusual combination, with the cartoon-like Pikmin parading around incredibly realistic environments. Gorgeous textures are everywhere, and plants move and sway as you and the Pikmin wade through them. There are even some nice lighting effects for selecting groups of Pikmin at a time. If that's not enough, Miyamoto mentioned that you can have hundreds of Pikmin following you at times. We've heard some comments that the still screenshots look N64-quality, but be assured that the game looks just fantastic in motion.

Pikmin is very far into development and should be ready at the GameCube's launch or very close to it. We'll have hands-on impressions of it starting tomorrow!