PIKMIN

This week I tried out Pikmin, a game I remember ridiculing. I decided to pick it up after seeing Captain Olimar confirmed as a Super Smash Brother’s Brawl character. His move set and playstyle are very unique. After showing my good friend at Yale, he told me that Pikmin was actually a good game.

The storyline of the game seemed pretty humorous but also simple. Captain Olimar crashed into a meteor and needs to rebuild his ship with the 30 parts that have gone missing. The point of the game is to find these 30 parts by using different types of Pikmin to solve puzzles. I haven’t completed the game yet, but I’m close. What I found most interesting was the bosses. You couldn’t simply throw your Pikmin on top of the bosses; that would lead to the slaughtering of your army. Instead, there were certain weak points and strategies to beating them.

I felt there were a couple problems with this game. First off, the Pikmin AI was not very good. They would follow you, no matter where you go. If all of them don’t fit on a narrow bridge, they go into the water and drown. They also enjoy picking fights when all you want to do is run through, so it’s a pain to call them all back. I disliked the controls, and the view port could have been better. Also, the graphics were somewhat grainy, but this can’t be helped since it was an earlier Gamecube release. Despite these problems I still really enjoyed the game. I haven’t tried the second game yet. I hope that they improved on points where I thought the first game was weak.

I’m not really sure if this game has any replay value; however, I’m sure my sister will enjoy it. It’s not a difficult game, but it’s not particularly easy either. I would say that the game is just right. The puzzles are enjoyable, and the character design is what really makes the game fun.

Week 1: I Crave for Speed

So I decided to pick up Need for Speed: Most Wanted for the PS2 the past week. I had heard from friends that it was the best one at this point, and I have been craving a good "realistic" racing game for a while. So I start playing, and I can’t believe how incredibly silly it is. The whole idea of the game is that you’re a street racer working your way up in the street scene, but some of the acting I felt was so over exaggerated that I couldn’t help be laugh. Other than the funny acting it was a lot of fun to play. Sadly my car was stolen, and I had to settle for a Lexus (which I still have for sentimental values, despite my roommates’ complaints). The character designs were very creative; actual actors were used, but they did some interesting shading (I’m not really an art guy so I don’t know how to describe it). It took me a while before I figured out they were real people. The whole plot consists of working your way up the blacklist racer ladder and challenging the guy who steals your car at the beginning.

The gameplay is intense, especially when you start getting better cars. Weaving through the packed city at 130 miles per hour is absolutely insane. My roommate thoroughly enjoyed watching me play as I slowly got better at the game. He quotes “I’m thoroughly impressed by how much he’s improved. Instead of using the brake, he would run into walls and other cars.” The game really helps you improve as the difficulty increases. Money won from races allowed me to upgrade the stats on my car: top speed, acceleration, and handling. The controls are very natural (the same as almost every racing game) except that they add in a new bullet time control called speed breaker. It takes some getting used to, but once mastered, makes you almost unbeatable.

Some of the most insane parts of the game include the milestones where you have to purposely be chased by the police. These milestones are needed to earn the right to compete against blacklist racers. The game is really creative and extremely fun to play. It is unlike other racing games that consist only of racing. The milestones and cop chases really add some adrenaline pumping action to the already awesome races.