Shigeru Miyamoto is a passionate man. He is a figurehead, a leader. He is the main programmer for Nintendo, and he is completely insane!! But that is no bad thing! For if he didn't have the odd screw lose, he would never of created Pikmin!
THE GAME
Pikmin is a unique strategy game that puts you in the shoes of 'Captain Olimar', a tiny astronaut who's landed on a strange planet due to some shameful spaceship piloting. Poor old Olimar only has thirty days of oxygen left, and he also needs to find a hefty amount of spaceship gadgetry in order to fly back home. This seemingly impossible task is made much easier when Olimar bumps into the Pikmin, a great bunch of lads who will help him return to his home planet, free of charge!
The Pikmin are strange plant-like creatures that in order to help Olimar, must be pulled from beneath the ground. As soon as you've done that, they'll help with practically anything, no questions asked. They'll break down walls for easy access to lovely spaceship goodies, they'll build bridges to open up new areas of a level, and they'll even beat the space dump out of anything that poses a threat to Captain Olimar, the Pikmin are a violent lot, you know. Heck, they even take the carcass back to base in order to grow more Pikmin
The Pikmin themselves take up a trio of forms. All Pikmin have three stages of growth, if you will. Once you pluck them out the ground, they are in a leaf form, but leave them and the leaf will grow into a bud and eventually a flower – the flower, of course, being the strongest and fastest, and this adds another tactical element to the game. Of the Pikmin, there are three colors – red, yellow and blue Pikmin. Red Pikmin are basically the standard fighting Pikmin, and are the best to use when starting a scrap with the local bruisers (well, ants.) One thing they aren’t good at, though, is wading through water, and for that the expertise of blue Pikmin is required. Yellow Pikmin are like the plant form version of bomb experts – they handle bomb rocks, helpful for knocking down barriers. Often, especially in the later levels, use of all three is required which adds an increasingly tactical element to proceedings. You don't just get ONE Pikmin of each color either... you can grow HUNDREDS to assist you on your adventure! 'The more, the merrier', that's the way it works in this game. It's always best to grow some more of your evolving Pikmin and store them in their Pods in case you lose a large-number of them during a battle that goes all wrong.
The surroundings are pulled off brilliantly. Pikmin can interact with certain objects and items. Bombs can be used by yellow Pikmin to take out walls and logs can be moved to make bridges. The Gameplay is almost perfect with certain elements needing improvement such as the length of days. One Pikmin day is the equivalent of minutes in our time! So you have to move around pretty quickly to find the pieces of space ship before your Pikmin have to go to bed!
I know the idea of picking little animals out of the ground and organizing them so they do different jobs for you to rebuild your broken spacecraft doesn’t sound like one of the world’s most interesting games, but Mr. Miyamoto, has done it again! The game is strangely compelling – it eases you gently into the action, but has plenty of tricks up its sleeve later on for gamers looking for a challenge. Pikmin is full of vibrancy and a fresh twist on a tired genre. If you are interested in a strategy game that poses new questions for veterans, or just looking for a unique experience, Pikmin is the game for you. And those little Pikmin are just sooo cute.... Ahem!! Not that, I personally think that or anything... y’know...
GRAPHICS
The graphics are outstanding and take full advantage of the Gamecubes capabilities! You Can see the water rippling in the wind, the gras swaying to and thro! the Pikmin scurrying from one place to another is a joy to behold, even the little death sequences when an angel Pikmin floats to heaven is a tear inducingly wonderful. The animation is near perfection, no glitches, slowdowns or any faults at all, even when you're controlling all one-hundred (the limit at any one time) Pikmin all doing different tasks. The Graphics are cutesy and colourful and they really add a lot to this game
SOUND
The music, although sometime sounds a little weird, is very relaxing and suits the environments really well. In terms of sound effects there aren't really very many, but the ones that are there, do their job well, but Then there are the creatures calls and cries which although can become annoying after a while are still add a little extra to the game!
CONTROLS
Pikmin has one of the most difficult learning curves I've ever encountered in a game. It's hard to get around, you get lost a lot, you forget which buttons do what commands. So here is a list of the controls!
Press and hold the B button and he'll blow his whistle, calling over all Pikmin within that area. A is the button you used to throw your Pikmin, wether it's over a wall, onto high-ground, or even onto an un-suspecting enemies' back. When X is pressed, all Pikmin currently under control will split-up into 3 groups - each one for a different color. The C-stick is used to move the Pikmin around in their herds, rather than to adjust the Camera Angle - like it does in other games. But you have all 3 other L, R and Z buttons to do that. And of course, the left Analogue Stick will move Olimar around, while he can also attack smaller creatures using A. Master these controls and you will soon master the Adventures of Pikmin!
OVERALL
This has got to be one of the most original games ever! Miyamoto has worked his magic again, although i wish the game was a little longer (it will last you about 20 hours from start to finish). Rather than buy this game i would suggest that you rent it out, because once you have completed this game there isn't really anything to make you want to come back for more.
Explore a lush garden from an ant's perspective Watch as plant life and objects interact together in beautiful 3D graphics Experience the different pe...More at Amazon Marketplace
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