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Review:

20th June 2002:
Pikmin
Stranded on a strange planet with nothing more that a odd race of 'carrot-like' creatures for company!
Posted by John Grothier - GameCube - UK and Europe

The legendary Shigeru Miyamoto created Pikmin; he is responsible for a huge part of the success Nintendo has had over the last decade or so, and also some of the most imaginative and original games to appear on Nintendo's consoles. The story goes that one day Mr Miyamoto fell asleep in his garden and dreamed of these little creatures running around him as he slept. John Lennon did the same with his song 'Imagine', and I know many writers dream the next chapter of their book as they sleep. In fact I even tried to dream a review of the game last night, but I don't think I would be allowed to publish what I dreamed of, unless you are over 21, and don't suffer from a nervous disposition. So here goes the old fashioned way…

Captain Olimar is returning home after a long voyage in his faithful ship; the Dolphin. After dining on a famous dish of onion and carrot soup from his home planet of Hocotate, Olimar switches the Dolphin on autopilot and makes an all-important cup of tea, but then a massive jolt shakes the ship, as a rogue meteor strikes the Dolphin, Olimar is thrown against the control panel and blacks out. The Captain wakes to find that his beloved ship has crashed on an unknown planet, and the Dolphin was so shaken on re-entry that several pieces of the ship have jarred loose, and are now scattered around the planet. To make matters worse the planet's atmosphere contains oxygen, an element that is deadly to the people of Hocotate, and his life support can only maintain him for thirty days. So he must find the thirty missing pieces of his damaged ship within thirty days or the alternative would be unthinkable…

The game starts with Captain Olimar stranded on an unfamiliar planet and his ship lies in ruins; with several important parts missing, including the engine. The first thing the Captain does is to explore this strange new world. After wandering around the 'garden like' enviroment he stumbled across a large object, similar to onions on Hocotate, but it was enormous and it rested upon three legs. Out of the onion a small seed popped out and buried itself in the ground. After a short time the seed sprouted from the earth and appeared to call to Olimar. The Captain reached down and pulled at the sprout, and out of the ground came a small life form eerily similar to his planet's miniature carrots. With the help of this little creature that Olimar has named 'Pikmin', after his favourite brand of carrots, he is able to use these creatures to collect pellets to feed the onion and produce more seeds, which in turn grow more Pikmin. After a short time the Captain has a small army of these industrious little creatures, and now he can use them to overcome obstacles, attack hostile creatures and to find and retrieve the missing parts of his ship.

Pikmin is a real-time strategy game played in three-dimensions. You control Olimar with the control stick, and the Pikmin with the C stick. The Captain can issue orders, throw and dismiss the Pikmin by using a combination of buttons on the control pad. The left and right shoulder buttons operate the camera, and the Z button will change the angle. This whole process may sound a little complicated and awkward, but it really has been thought out well, and just after a few minutes playing time, you will have built up an army of Red Pikmin, and it wont be long before you overcome your first obstacle and rescue the ships engine. With this safely installed on the Dolphin, Captain Olimar is able to broaden his search of the planet, and land the ship on other parts of this strange world.

As Captain Olimar progresses through the game he will come across other type of Pikmin. He first discovers Red Pikmin; they can withstand high temperatures and have powerful attacks. Next he will come across Yellow Pikmin, these can carry 'bomb rocks' which are useful in breaking down barriers and can help destroy the larger creatures found on the planet. Later on Olimar finds the race of Blue Pikmin, these are especially handy as they can swim, where the others types of Pikmin will drown. By using a combination of the different Pikmin, Olimar can reach the missing parts of his ship, and send the Pikmin in to retrieve them. Each race of Pikmin has three stages of evolution, Leaf, Bud, and Flower. If you leave the Pikmin in the ground they will evolve with time, but there are also other ways to help this process within the game. The main advantage of having a Flower Pikmin is that they move faster, fight with deadlier force and have a higher tolerance to damage. There are five parts of the planet that Olimar can safely land his ship. These levels quickly become harder; with more hostile creatures and environments that soon deplete your army of Pikmin if you don't look out for them. Fortunately there are a couple of ways to replenish your onion, the first is finding pellets and attacking the local fauna, then the little creatures will carry the spoils back to their onion, and out pop the Pikmin seeds. The second way is to attack the large creatures that roam the planets surface, and get the Pikmin to carry their remains back to the onion. Some of these creatures are fairly easy to defeat, but later in the game there are some huge bosses to defeat, and some of these are carrying important parts of the Dolphin.

At the top of the screen there is a 'Sun Gauge', this measures the sun as it crosses the sky. When the sun goes down you must make sure all the Pikmin are back in their own onions, or they will be lost as deadly creatures come out at night. Some pieces of the ship require a large amount of lateral thinking to reach, and you only have thirty days to find and collect the thirty missing parts of your ship. Sometimes it's a good idea to work out what you have to do, and then re-start that particular day. Using this method you can sometime retrieve two or three parts in just one day.

The graphics in Pikmin are lush and resemble real-world landscapes that are home to hundreds of creatures and plants. Although everything has that 'Nintendo Cuteness' about it, you can't help yourself from smiling at the planet's beauty as you explore this fantastic world. Each and every Pikmin is animated smoothly, and they even create dust clouds as they move around. The real-life flowers and fauna move as you brush past, and as the sun moves across the sky the light it gives changes from early morning yellows to oranges and finally to dusky reds. The music in the game is more of the ambient kind, which does not interfere with the gameplay and has different styles for each of the levels. The sound effects, however, are incredibly well done, with lots of nice humorous touches throughout the game, from the sound the Pikmin make at birth, to the sound of their helpless cries as they drown, the whole game sounds as good as it looks.

Overall Pikmin is something very different, if I was going to compare it to anything that has gone before it would be 'Lemmings', but I think Pikmin offers the player a little more adventure, and lot more imagination - Pikmin really is something only Shigeru Miyamoto could have dreamed up.

John Grothier

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Review Summary:

Thirty days to find thirty pieces of your crashed ship. Real-time strategy and a little bit of adventuring in this stunning title from Nintendo. If you are looking for something 'different' this could be one for your collection.

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