Pikmin Review

Olimar and Pikmin.

Pikmin is a game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development. It was first released on December 2, 2001 in North America, and immediately received critical praise. It was re-released on March 9, 2009, for the Nintendo Wii.  The Wii release contained widescreen support, slightly enhanced graphics, and most importantly, an updated control scheme.

Pikmin tells the story of Captain Olimar (the character who you will play as the whole time), a brave astronaut whose ship is hit by a meteor. It practically destroys his spaceship, and he crashes onto an unknown planet. When he finally awakens, he discovers that the planet’s atmosphere contains oxygen, which is poisonous to his people (the player is not told where Olimar is from, so it is reasonable to assume that oxygen is poisonous to his species). He then finds out that he only has 30 days left before his life support system fails. This wouldn’t be such a problem if the parts of his ship weren’t scattered across the planet. He has no way to repair his ship, and begins to fret about the situation. Soon, however, he stumbles upon a strange looking flower. As he walks closer, the flower shoots up from the ground on 3 strange, stilt-like legs. After a moment of standing still, the flower drops a small seed. After just a few seconds of growing in the ground, a sprout pops out of the ground. Olimar decides to pull the sprout out of the ground, and then discovers that the seed has eyes, arms, and legs. It quizzically looks at Olimar, and then begins to walk around. Olimar decides to name the small beings Pikmin. Soon, the flower drops more seeds, which also turn out to be Pikmin. Olimar then discovers that he can control the Pikmin using a whistle that he brought with him. The rest of the story is up to the player to decide…

A standard red Pikmin.

The game is a strategy game, as Olimar will command hundreds of Pikmin to help him repair his ship before it is too late. Pimin are able to do many tasks, such as harvesting resources to make more Pimin, fighting enemies, making bridges, breaking down walls, and carrying vital ship parts. The whole game revolves around Olimar guiding the Pikmin in their work, and managing the tasks that they are doing. Sometimes the game can feel overwhelming, as each in-game day is only 15 minutes long in the real world. Also, if you don’t finish repairing your ship in 30 days, Olimar will actually die, and you must start over again.

30 days equals about 7 and a half hours in real life, but it is possible to replay the game 12+ times before you have really found every secret in it. Also included is a challenge mode which challenges your skills in Pikmin harvesting, as your goal is to grow as many Pikmin as possible in 15 minutes. In all, you may spend over 100 hours exploring before you have discovered everything that Pikmin has to offer.

The graphics are very outdated, but that does not bother me since the game is nearing its 12th year of being out. The gameplay is so stellar that you will find yourself completely immersed in the world of Pikmin, and graphics take a secondary role. I have also found the Wii controls to be very intuitive, and have no problem ordering my Pikmin to do various tasks.

A Red Bulborb, one of the many enemies in the game.

You will have to keep track of the Pikmin during their work in order to win the game, and keep managing your resources so that they can work efficiently. Trying to keep the Pikmin working, and managing your time may be too much for some people, and I would not recommend this game to everybody. However, if you have played any games in the SimCity,  Total War, Portal, or Legend of Zelda series, you should already be very good at keeping a clear head in a time of crisis, and I would recommend this game to you.

Pikmin 2 came out on August 30, 2004, and also received critical praise, but I have never played it.

I rate Pikmin 10/10, as I cannot think of a single problem with it that is not related to hardware issues. It is definitely the best strategy video game that I have played, and I will probably buy Pikmin 3 on August 4th, 2013 the day it comes out.

Olimar leading his Pikmin across a mossy log.