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.