Pikmin (GameCube)

Learning when and how to make the best use of your Pikmin's skills and traits is the essence of the game. You can control up to 100 Pikmin at a time while figuring out which are best suited for a particular task. Some are better fighters, while others can survive in water or handle explosive bomb rocks. However, even the best Pikmin herder will have to sacrifice a few of the plant-headed beasts for the greater good. It's this constant need to refine and create strategies to minimise losses that makes Pikmin challenging and always fun.

For a first generation GameCube title, the graphics, sounds, and music are fantastic and show an awesome amount of detail. Though it's no Pokemon, this game should an appeal to wide-eyed younger gamers as well as seasoned veterans. The controls are intuitive and feel perfect for the standard GameCube controller; however, learning to position the camera can be a tad frustrating during some of the more tense moments, as it has only a few magnification levels and needs constant adjustment.

The biggest obstacle you face is time; you have only 30 days (each day is about 15 minutes in real time) in which to find the necessary parts. While this keeps the pace of the game up, some may find such limits to be somewhat frustrating, as it means there will be a lot of repetition and rethinking of strategy. It also means that diligent gamers may find Pikmin to be rather a short game. At the end of your gaming day, though, Pikmin is one of the best games the GameCube will have for quite some time. --Mark Brooks

You need to stick with the original day or so of getting all your Pikmin together, sorting out your times, trying a few enemies, and then prepare to have the best gaming time of your life. The aim is to help Olimar put his ship back together, using only tiny aliens. These little guys are all so different - some good at fire, some good at jumping... you know the score. It's got the strategy element of Lemmings, but it's much more interesting and equally addictive. You become really involved with the Pikmin characters. In groups they are brave, but as individuals they are heroic - feisty, loyal, unselfish, daring. My last tiny blue Pikmin was with me for three days before succumbing to a horrible slug. I actually wept. We'd been through all sorts together.

Think I'm crazy? Perhaps. But you try it. I bet you cry, too.


Buy It!   March 15, 2002
 48 out of 53 found this review helpful

Pikmin = Organised panic.

This game is difficult to describe as it is so different to anything else. It's like strategy meets lemmings with a time limit. It might not take long to complete, but once you've done so you'll want to play it again to try and do better.

Basically you have 30 days to collect 30 spaceship parts (but you can do it in less). To do so you need to use your Pikmin to kill monsters, knock down walls and carry back the spaceship parts. But you will need to grow more Pikmin so will also need to send them to collect buds and downed monsters etc to plant more Pikmin to add to your army.

The problem is that Pikmin are really stupid and also pretty aggressive so they are prone to wandering off to do just what you don't want them to do. On top of this you have a strict time limit (one day in game time) within which you have to get them all back or they will die. So basically in an average day of game time you need to create as many new Pikmin as possible, collect a spaceship part, knock down walls and kill monsters to help pave the way for the next days action and get as many as possible back safely.

Now this might not sound great but its one of those games you just have to play. Its got the tactical planning of a strategy game, but with an extra element of chaos and madness thrown in, and while it lasts you won't be able to put it down.


Classic Nintendo   November 23, 2004
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Whether you love or loathe bright and colourful games, I doubt that you'll find it hard to like Pikmin. This is classic Nintendo at it's quirky Shiggsy best. Absorbing to the last, you'll find yourself learning to love the Pikmin, who despite their tiny size are full of character.

The game revolves around your character escaping after being ship-wrecked. To do so he must harness the natural resources of the planet (in the form of small plant creatures - Pikmin) to gather his damaged ship-parts.

In gameplay terms, Pikmin features resource gathering to increase you number of Pikmin (collecting tablets, gathering up beaten enemies etc), and using your 'troops' to conquer those enemies. Their isn't a great deal of complicated strategy in this.

The Pikmin come in three different colours with different abilities, which adds great depth to the gameplay. Red Pikmin are strong combatents, yellow Pikmin can be thrown further and can use bombs while blue Pikmin can move through water.

I challenge you not to cringe the first time a non-blue Pikmin stumbles into a lake or river, their death is accompanied by shrieks!

The sounds of Pikmin are functional with a few nice touches. The squeaking of the Pikmin themselves are nice, and the shambling noises of the enemies lend a comical air to them. At places the soundtrack cuts to a menacing score, but usually simple, easy-on-the-ear background music plays.

Visually, Pikmin is smooth and very colourful. The trees and grasses are bright, while the enemies unique and colourful. Your character, Captain Olimar is a character, with a quirky style beneath his spacesuit.

Pikmin isn't a particularly hard game, but it has that certain something that keeps you coming back for more. This isn't the most technically accomplished game about, but still a great play, and on Players Choice, at less than 20 - it's a good buy.


Tired of blood and violence?   July 7, 2002
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

Like Super Mario Bros, Pikmin can be another benchmarking title for the industry. An innovative concept, taking and growing little alien beings to perform tusks. Evolve them for better performances, gather them to break down or build up objects, Pikmin is a healthy and definitive not childish game to play. Certainly a title that the entire family can enjoy, the puzzle solving, surprises of discovery tradition found in earlier Nintendo titles such as Zelda and Super Mario Bros has been carried forward into this title. Easy and short segmentation of the game into Days not stages meant that the player can have unlimited methods to complete the game. The three logs for saving progress meant that each member can have their own log and compete against each others. Unlike most of the 3D engined games available on the market, the game offered a beautiful,relaxing and yet addicting game. The level of violence is at its minimal, even if war is to occur, it emphasis on not the violence nor bloody scenes, but a comedy expression of battle scenes. This game displayed to players the different concept between Eastern and U.S. game designers, violence is a method to the goal but not the goal itself. A must have to Game Cube owners that may even bring the family together infront of the screen to enjoy and interact. (A single player game yes, but observations, suggestions and experience may be very helpful from others). Try Pikmin for a change, excitement and intensive game play does not have to come with violence or gore.


Have Nintendo finally lost it or created another gem?   December 11, 2003
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

It is difficult to sum up Pikmin, but there is one thing I can say about it- Charming. One of the most original games of the last few years, Pikmin is created by the man who made such classics as Mario and Zelda. Based on the designers own back garden, Pikmin is hard not get charmed by. Guiding 100 little flower people around a world in which you MUST multi-task to get through, Pikmin dosn't sound like a hoot, but believe me it is. The graphcis and sounds add a real tone to the game and just seeing 100 Pikmin on screen in real time doing your every command is jaw-dropping. From the first time you set eyes on a Pikmin to the last time you see your Pikmin go into battle, every single second is simply Nintendo.

you deserve it to your stressed out mind to buy this. Yes, it may be short, but trust me this is simply magical. Nintendo have done it again.