Every new console needs an attention grabber, something new and different to get people excited. Even though Nintendo's GameCube is suffering somewhat of a drought in games now, they started off on the right track with Pikmin. Born from the celebrated mind of Shigero Miyamoto, Pikmin turned out to be one the most enjoyable strategy titles in years.
In Pikmin, you take on the role of a cute little alien named Olimar. However, things don't stay so cute(ok, so maybe they do), when he crashes his space ship into an unknown planet, and 30 pieces of his ship go flying everywhere. Olimar becomes very distressed when he finds that he only has 30 days worth of life support, so he must fix his ship quickly! How can he pull this off?
While looking around for pieces of his ship, he comes across something that looks like an onion stuck in the ground. When he yanks it out, he discovers that it is really a little red creature. The first Pikmin is born! Olimar leads around the little bugger and collects more Pikmin along his way. Finally, he gets enough of them to lift his engine and bring it back to his ship.
This sounds simple enough, but as you get farther and farther into the game, the strategy becomes moer and more apparent. There are three types of Pikmin: Red, Yellow, and Blue. Red ones are the best fighters and are immune to fire. Yellow ones are easier to throw to hard-to-reach places, and they have the ability to carry bombs. Blue ones are the only type of Pikmin that can handle the water. In addition to balancing these abilities in your Pikmin army, you can help them to evolve to more advanced Pikmin by finding special items to give them.
However, you must be quick while formulating these strategies, as you must find a piece of your ship each day, and the days are only 15 minutes real-time. True, this means the game is fairly short (you do the math), but it is sweet while it lasts. There is nothing quite like watching your horde of little creatures building a bridge, or fighting off a giant Lady Bug. And if you can get past the shockingly kiddie style of it all, there's actually a pretty interesting story behind it all...
Overall, a great game which every GC owner should pick up
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