Shigeru Miyamoto is one of the real artists of game design - "Staff Artist" was his official title even in his early "Donkey Kong" days, since he was more than willing to confess shortcomings in the nuts and bolts of programming. Maybe the reason why he has so successfully captured our imagination, so effortlessly created addictive and groundbreaking hybrids of genre, so consistently given us experiences we remember with emotion, is that he's one of the few out there who see this medium for its potential as artstic entertainment.
That's the frame of mind I'm forced to enter when I try to describe "Pikmin". It has elements of puzzle games, elements of RTS, elements of action and platforming, but it feels like none of those things. Miyamoto's worlds are the imitated, not the imitators. Instead you speak in terms of emotion. There's excitement in leading your little plant critters into battle. Whimsy in the way one in the pack trips and falls behind the rest, or in their chattering little sound effects. And serenity, in the rippling water and waving flowers of the beautifully-rendered garden world where you search for the missing parts of your spaceship.
And though I'm a cynical bastard who gets a good laugh out of taking Mario down into the poisoned gas cave in "Mario 64" and watching him clutch at his little throat as he asphyxiates, even I can't help feeling a little guilty whenever I lead a Pikmin astray and watch him drown, gurgling and jabbering helplessly, or unintentionally explode one. They're cute. They get under your skin when you're not looking.
The strict time limit, although it leads to a too-short game overall, sneakily ensures your addiction, as you keep telling yourself - I just need to see how I'll do on ONE MORE DAY - and you look up bleary-eyed to see you missed lunch and the sun's gone down. Then when you get through it, you find yourself thinking - I bet I could do that in LESS DAYS.
Ultimately it's a bauble, small, with child-like appeal but surprising sophistication built into its layering of game mechanics. And you find yourself hoping this world can be expanded on. There's a saying - "All bad movies are too long, no good movie is long enough". I'd say it applies to video games. There couldn't be such universal agreement that we're not getting enough "Pikmin" if, somewhere along the way, we hadn't gotten attached to the little critters.
It's surprising we feel that way, since they have the power to overwhelm an enemy, chew him to death, then drag his corpse away to use in spawning more of their own. But that's why Miyamoto's an artist.
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