Pikmin

Pikmin
Reviewed by Pirate Yoshi

Over-view: Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto is at it again! It looks like the gaming guru is finally trying to expand his horizons beyond bouncing plumbers and sword-weilding elves, and has steered the ship onwards towards a new destination: the stratagey genre! Enter the Pikmin....

Graphics: 9.8/10
Pikmin is a primary example of what a strong piece of hardware can do. Pikmin rivals some of the best graphics yet seen for ANY video game, and should be considered a model for games to come. The beautiful, finely-detailed backgrounds and environments are fantastic, from sparkling water to grassy meadows. The characters, monsters, and Pikmin are all smoothly-textured and carefully animated to look very life-like, no matter how fictional they may appear. This is pure eye-candy; a joy to look at, as well as to play.

Sound: 6/10
Not one of Pikmin's fine points, the sound of this game is not so beautiful. Unlike the graphics, the sound is a bit embarrassing, lowering (perhaps) the standards for this catagory, rather than raising them. The Pikmin's voices are high-pitched and perfect, but the music, especially, is pathetic and weak. The sound effects are also a bit repetitive and boring; I guess what looks good and what sounds good can be very different.

Controls: 6/10
Being a stratagey game, there's a lot to control in Pikmin; your troops need direction, your character needs action, and the camera is in constant need to shifting in order to keep tabs on what's going on around you. I have a few complaints here: first, seperating your Pikmin can be annoying, especially trying to get your hands on a bomb rock-toting Pikmin. Secondly, your Pikmin often stumble right into areas they shouldn't be going, such as water or fire, and will often blindly act--which leads to disaster. Third, your Pikmin will spontaneously start working at tasks they shouldn't, and will pay no heed to your direction when carrying objects; this means that they'll smash right through huge enemies while carrying, say, a part back to the ship, and--ultimately--be eaten in doing so. Finally, the camera is often annoying; it won't zoom to the right location, or else not be able to be moved to a satsifactory location for your actions. However, most of the controls are fairly good, making up for most of their short-comings.

Challenge: 9.3/10
My first run through Pikmin was a disaster. I failed miserabley and witnessed the "bad ending", the worst the game has to offer. I thought Pikmin was impossible, and sold it. Then, recently, I bought it back again, looking for a challenge. Incredibly, I breezed through it easily this time, going above and beyond the required tasks and ripping the enemies in my way to shreds. I'm not sure what to credit my sudden success with, but I'm tempted to say that a lot of it is due to my past experience, and a lot has been luck. I have had my Pikmin in the right places at the right times, and made unusually good use of every minute of time within the game. The challenge, I believe, is actually figuring out how to have your Pikmin working on multiple projects at once and utilizing all 30 days. The final battle is quite difficult, and the game, on a whole, is pretty challenging.

Replay: 1.2/10
So where's the replay? Simple: there isn't much. About the only reason you have to play this game again is so that you can see each ending, although a clever player will use the copy option and keep multiple files so as to make seeing all three endings easier. But the point here is that the game just simply isn't enough fun to really cause you to want to play this more than twice, so if you do....consider yourself special.

Gameplay: 8.8/10
The gameplay to Pikmin largely revolves around making good use of your spare time and quickly clearing the path to each ship part in hurried succession. As you bring back parts, you'll gain access to new locales, which are full of more parts to find. Along the way, you'll find that many hostile creatures would love nothing more than to gobble up your Pikmin like crazy, and some are absolutely unavoidable. Bosses, which I classify as the monsters holding ship parts, often must be defeated in creative ways, and figuring out these methods can be quite difficult at times. By using the bodies of slain enemies, the Pikmin can sprout more seeds to keep your forces expanding. While it's fun to collect parts and sprout Pikmin, the game is a bit short and frustrating, mainly because of the stupidity of your Pikmin and the occaisional huge loss in battle.

**Story: .6/1
Pikmin's story is simple: Captain Olimar, while traveling home aboard his ship, the Dolphin, is suddenly struck with a floating piece of debris and sent spiraling out of control. Fortunately, yet unfortunately, he lands on an unknown planet, as does his ship and all its spare parts. The problem that arrises is that the atmosphere on this planet contains oxygen, which is poisonous to Olimar; his life support system will go down after 30 days. Therefore, it is his mission to survive long enough to rebuild his ship again and escape. To do so, however, means he'll need help; those ship pieces are much too heavy for one little guy! Enter the Pikmin, who are strange, leaf-like creatures who are willing to do Olimar's will, to the point of dying for his cause, in order to accomplish this task and send him on his way! While the story, in theory, is quite basic (stranded, must survive, uses troops to recover parts), the idea of plant-like animals who possess many more advanced abilities than most creatures is intriguing and makes for an amusing touch to the story.

**Multiplayer: 0/1
This game does not support multiplayer.

Graphics: 9.8/10
Sound: 6/10
Controls: 6/10
Challenge: 9.3/10
Replay: 1.2/10
Gameplay: 8.8/10

**Story: .6/1
**Multiplayer: 0/1

Total Score: 6.8

Score Explanation: It's the Replay, this time, that killed the game. Honestly, I would've given Pikmin something a bit higher, like a 7 or higher, but this is what the numbers say, and I can't honestly add more points to Replay, Controls, OR Gameplay. But may the fact that there's a sequel on its way speak for itself: Pikmin must've sold fairly well.