Finally, after months of waiting,
The game plays very similarly to the first one – that is, you raise a small army of little vegetable men (Pikmin) and guide them around the wonderfully detailed and stunning environments to complete tasks like take down enemies and take them back to their ‘Onions’ (which will turn them into more Pikmin) or collecting treasure, which along with building up your Pikmin army is the object of the game. There are five different varieties of Pikmin (two of which are new to the sequel) and each possesses unique qualities that you must utilise in order to progress. Red Pikmin are flame resistant, Yellow Pikmin can be thrown to high places and are immune to electricity, Blue Pikmin can survive underwater, heavyweight Purples can stun enemies with their weight and have ten times the strength of regular Pikmin, while eerie White Pikmin can dig up buried treasure as well as being both immune to poison and able to poison your foes.
Of course, with new Pikmin come new enemies, and there are now over sixty different types of monster for you and your tiny battalion to fight with. While a swarm of Pikmin might be enough to take down some enemies, other foes require you to think tactically and use the skills of your army intelligently. Of course, you have to be quick about this, as your oversized opponents aren’t going to take it lying down, and are sometimes more than capable of taking out twenty or more of your 100-strong squad if you don’t react quickly enough. And, strangely, you will actually feel for your little army if they fall victim to a giant bulbous monster. Nintendo have crafted a strategy game where you aren’t just sending anonymous soldiers into battle - these are your Pikmin, and each one of them, though identical in looks, have their own personalities – some are lazy, for example, and others are clumsy.
As mentioned, you’ll traverse the huge (and gorgeous) levels looking for treasure to bring back to your ship with the help of your Pikmin. To make this easier, you now have a team-mate, named Louie, who you can send off with half of your team to accomplish something while Olimar is working on another task, getting twice in much done in one day. However, rushing to get everything done as quickly as possible is no longer necessary, as even though your Pikmin still have to return to their Onions at night (lest the creatures who lurk in the night attack them), the 30 day time limit from the original game has vanished, giving the game a more leisurely pace and allowing you to take your time.
Be warned though, not all the changes make the game easier. The addition of cave sections, which hold both fearsome enemies and a large quantity of treasure, mean you have to be adventurous and brave to take the plunge into the depths and earn more money to pay off your debts. An advantage to the cave sections is that time stands still while you’re down there, meaning you can spend as much time as you like deciding the best way to go about things. However – and this is the killer – you’re stuck without access to the Onions, which mean you are limited to the amount of Pikmin you bring in with you. Even the enemies you defeat down there are converted to treasure, not Pikmin, so you have to be extra careful to make sure as few members of your squad die as possible, so you can grab as much treasure as possible and leave with the minimum amount of Pikmin casualties.
Accomplishing this is far from easy – the enemies down there are much more vicious than those above ground, while the final floors of the caves are home to some truly monstrous boss creatures, which are often at least twice as big as the creatures you find outside.
There’s a lot of treasure on the Pikmin world, so there’s a lot of game to play though. While at first it will seem like you’re ploughing through with ease, but not only does the game get considerably harder the more you play, but there’s a whole lot more to the game than first apparent – a whole lot – but we’re not going to spoil it for you.
Alongside the enormous (and did I mention excellent?) single player mode, there are all-new multiplayer options in Pikmin 2, which are far better than anyone expected them to be. They’re quite simply the icing on a rather delicious, multi-tiered gaming cake. Firstly there is a co-operative challenge mode, where you and a friend can tackle two-player challenges to collect treasure (which are separate from the main game), with extra little changes to make things difficult such as a time limit of a Pikmin limit. While these are great fun to play, it’s the head-to-head style multiplayer mode that will keep you coming back to head long after the single player mode has been dusted off. You work against your friend to collect five marbles before he does, or alternatively steal your rival’s super-marble and bring it back to your base to win instantly. Surprisingly addictive, this.
After playing through this game for a considerable amount of time, desperately searching for a flaw, something wrong with the game that could be mentioned in this review – and finding nothing – it’s fair to say that Pikmin 2 is one a very few games that simply oozes quality from every pore. It’s filled with that Nintendo magic that you can only find in the Big N’s best titles. This game absolutely reeks of brilliance, from the gorgeous environments to the lively, animated Pikmin. Everything about it just proves that Nintendo can make fantastic games beyond a normal developer’s wildest dreams. In fact, the Pikmin games are comparable to Nintendo themselves. Pikmin is original. Pikmin is different, and unafraid to stand out from the crowd. And Pikmin, most importantly of all, is fun. It gives an unrivalled playing experience unlike anything you’ve seen before. This is the kind of stuff that only Nintendo can deliver. Make no mistake: Pikmin 2 is addictive, highly entertaining, and quite simply a must-have game for any self-respecting Gamecube owner.
James Hamilton
