Game Review: Pikmin 2

I know people typically review games that are new, but I haven't had enough time to sit down and play through Ghost Trick or LittleBIGPlanet 2 yet, so I thought I'd review an older game, specifically, Pikmin 2, one of my favourite games on the GameCube.


Pikmin is a game that released on the GameCube shortly after the GameCube itself released in 2001. I played the first Pikmin game rather briefly, but didn't enjoy it much. The concept was promising, though. The idea of the game was for the player, controlling Captain Olimar, to guide a small army of tiny soldiers known as Pikmin, and command them effectively in order to take down larger creatures. The end goal was to find all of the pieces of your broken spaceship so you can return home before your oxygen supply ran out. Not sure which came first, the story or the gameplay, but the end result is the same: a 30-day time limit. 30 in-game days, which can be rather brief. This was the part of the game that turned me off the most.

Enter Pikmin 2. This game fixed all that and more. Even though I was intrigued by the concept of the first Pikmin game, the imposed time limit seriously stymied my ability to enjoy it. Pikmin 2's most shining feature is the absence of this limit, giving me the ability to enjoy the game at my own pace. Pikmin is a game that prioritizes micromanagement and time efficiency, and I don't really care to be in such a rush, so I slowly played the game at my own pace without worrying about running out of time, and I enjoyed it a lot. I was able to appreciate the nuances of the game a lot more, and even though I've never considered myself a big strategy fan, I was able to enjoy navigating the caves and even attempting rudimentary battle tactics in order to avoid losing quite so many Pikmin.

The game's namesake, the Pikmin, are probably the most appealing aspect of the game at first glance. Even though the gameplay essentially boils down to abusing and sacrificing your mindlessly obedient minions for your personal devices, there is a certain charm about them that is impossible to ignore. I think the classic Nintendo charm evident throughout this game makes it a stand-out of its genre. Maybe it won't please the hardcore strategy fans with its rather simplistic control scheme and occasionally awkward controls, though.

The game can be frustrating at times. When you confidently enter a cave with a full 100-man strong army of Pikmin, only to come out the other side with more than half (or sometimes almost all) of them dead, it can be irritating to have to spend a day or two breeding more. Sometimes I found the enemies later in the game to be a bit too challenging. Particularly, the flying enemies, whom are very challenging to attack with the landlocked Pikmin.

But despite that, there is plenty that Pikmin does right. It has a very cheeky sense of humour, particularly in the variety of treasures that you will find as you progress through the game. The planet you are exploring is supposed to be Earth, it seems, however the player's point-of-view is quite small, resulting in everyday knickknackery being evaluated as treasure to the foreign eyes of Captain Olimar. Olimar's spaceship also likes to give names to the treasures you find, such as the "Courage Reactor" depicted to the left. Also, a couple fun facts: Olimar, written in katakana (オリマ, Orima) is Mario (マリオ) backwards. Also, Captain Olimar is the only major Nintendo character to have a wife and children, whom you encounter via emails received at the end of each day as you progress through the game.

The music and sound in this game really stands out. Nintendo has always put a lot of effort into music and sound in its games, and that definitely shows here. The peaceful tracks that play on the map screen and in the overworld areas are quite well-made and wonderfully capture the tone of the game. The sound stands out most significantly in the Pikmin sounds. While walking along behind you, often they will start chanting or humming something as a group, which I thought was a really nice touch.

In short, I highly recommend that everyone give Pikmin 2 a try, even if they aren't fans of the strategy genre. This game has so much more to it than just that, but it's something that needs to be experienced to be appreciated. I can recommend Pikmin as well, if you can handle the 30-day limit, since the gameplay is similarly enjoyable. In short, thumbs up all around. If I had to place a number value on my enjoyment of the game, I would say 85/100. Not without its flaws, but definitely a shining gem in the GameCube's library.