Captain Olimar is in some serious trouble. His ship has exploded, and he finds himself stranded on a strange planet and longing for his family back home. Olimar's space suit can only sustain him for 30 days, and he ironically has to find the 30 scattered pieces of his ship and rebuild it so he can find his way home. Help is on the way though in the form of living carrots, the strange little inhabitants of the volatile world that he finds himself on.
Pikmin is a wonderful real time strategy from the genius that is Shigeru Miyamoto and inspired by the garden that Mr. Miyamoto likes to keep. It is one of the most innovative games in recent memory, and is a breath of fresh air at a time where just about every game follows the kill whatever you can as fast as you can formula.
The presentation is extremely solid overall, something that we all have come to expect from Nintendo 1st party releases. The graphics definitely do not showcase what the GameCube is capable of, but they are suitable for a "garden" RTS that borrows elements from several genres (namely Lemmings type puzzle games among others). The environments are lush, with crisp textures and animations, and really give off an excellent sense of being part of a living, breathing world. Olimar and the Pikmen look and feel like they belong in this little habitat. The ambient sound is ideal, and the sound effects are more than acceptable.
Gameplay is what this game is all about. The controls are spot on, easy to pick up and only slightly more difficult to master. The difficulty of the various puzzles is perfect; the variety of the puzzles contained in this gem is wonderful. Each color Pikmin has its own strength and weaknesses, and understanding this is a necessity for advancing in the game. One type of Pikmin can breathe under water, another is resistance to fire damage, and a third is light enough to reach a higher platform with a good throw. Cultivating Pikmin longer will allow them to "bloom" into more capable members of their species (faster, stronger). But remember that time is always a factor; so sometimes you cannot afford the wait for your sprout to evolve into a flower. Pikmin must also return the carcases of defeated enemies and colorful numbered pills to their "onion" bases. This will lead to the sprouting of even more Pikmin for you to control. The player must truly master the harvesting and utilization of each of the types of Pikmin, as well as the number of Pikmin needed for each task.
The only drawback of this game is that it is rather short. I know Miyamoto envisions the perfect game being in the 10 hour range, but this actually falls a little short of even that. The mini-game of raising as many Pikmin as you can really doesn't add to the longevity. Luckily though, most players will be enthralled enough in the gameplay to want to work their way through Pikmin several times, trying to beat their own personal records.
-Frank
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