Today, I have decided to review a game released way back in August of 2004, as well as one from December of 2001. I had played and beaten the original, and I thought to myself, maybe I should get the next game and see if it's just as good. Though I got it long ago, I decided to review both the first and second at the same time.
These games are marked out of a possible ten, with a zero being the worst and... Do I really need to say what ten is worth?
Story
Pikmin 1: You're Captin Olimar on a vacation in the galaxy. One day, however, your ship, the S.S. Dolphin, is hit by a meteor and crashes on an unknown planet (which looks pretty dang familiar). Upon impact, the ship is badly damaged, losing 30 of its vital parts. Your life support system also happens to be able to last for 30 days. Soon, you meet the Pikmin, of three kinds, red yellow, and blue, who will help you on your mission to find the parts and repair the ship before an untimely doom.
Pretty good, if you ask me. The whole
"do it in 30 days or else" thing may seem like the game is trying to rush
the player, though. The three possible outcomes added a bit of variety,
too. Good, bad, and average endings. Still... 30 days may be more than
enough for me, but could worry amateur players. Score: 7.5
Pikmin 2: After returning from the
unknown planet, Olimar is back on Hocotate, with his boss and new coworker
Louie. It turns out while Olimar was gone, Louie had gone on his first
mission, only to lose the cargo (gold Pikpik Carrots) to a "ravenous space
bunny", as Louie claims. In doing so, the company has a huge debt of 10100
pokos. And this was AFTER the S.S. Dolphin was sold off for money. As it
turns out, a treasure Olimar brought back for his kid (bottle cap) is detected
by the ship, which determines it is worth 100 pokos. After that, the president
instructs Olimar to take Louie with him back to the planet and find more
treasures to pay off the debt of 10000 pokos.
No limit this time. There's all the
time you want on this one. Once again, there are a few multiple endings,
both good. Score: 8.0
Characters
Pikmin 1: Lessee, Olimar, and an army
of Pikmin. Not much if you ask me. While there is the little reference
to Olimar's family in his journal now and then, we hear nothing from them.
The Pikmin themselves don't speak, or exhibit feelings or emotions. Well,
maybe they scream when on fire. Score: 3.0
Pikmin 2: Same characters, plus a few
new ones. Purple and white Pikmin, Louie, the president, and the company
ship. Still not exactly a large amount, but it is an improvement. The president
is also entertaining in his little Emails. Score: 6.5
Sound
Pikmin 1: Wowza, I like these sounds.
The explosions, a suitable sound for terrain being walked on, whether it
be rock or in the water, plus the occasional noises the Pikmin and enemies
make. The music wasn't too bad either, but nothing I could hum along to.
Score: 9.0
Pikmin 2: Just as good as the first...
in most cases. The only music I could hum to was the song the Pikmin made
sometimes. There is something that I came to hate, however. That annoying
beeping... The kind that's made when standing right next to a treasure!
It gets so irritating, I want to get the Pikmin to move it right away so
I won't be near it and listen to that beeping so much! Ugh... The beeping...
Score: 8.5
Graphics
Both: Now these are some good graphics
by my standards. The shining of the water, the swaying of the grass, and
the character designs too. The intermission movies are even better, though
in games they tend to do that... I especially liked the boss designs. Well
detailed, and move smoothly. Score: 9.5
Controls
Pikmin 1: Quite a lot. And it still
manages to be nice and simple. No crazy combos or unreasonable things.
It is easy to do many things at once with these controls. Score: 9.0
Pikmin 2: Exactly the same, except
this time you can switch between the two captains, and really multitask!
That also makes it easier to keep the Pikmin in check. Score: 9.0
Difficulty
Note: Difficulty will be ranked in
terms of how hard the game is, 0 being Very easy, 10 being super hard.
Pikmin 1: If you're determined, you
can beat this game with all thirty parts in one sitting. I know I did once.
Even so, there are some enemies which you will always lose a Pikmin against,
and the bosses show much more power than average enemies. The final boss
himself needs a whole day to kill safely. It is this that makes it so you
need to get at least two parts in one day at some point. But even that
isn't so hard. Difficulty: 2.5
Pikmin 2: Yes, they eliminated the
30 day limit. That makes it easier, right? Wrong! This one is slightly
harder! Instead of thirty parts, now we have 201 treasures (which also
look darn familiar)! The best of the treasure is guarded by giant bosses
as well. With more enemies, dungeons, and the fact white and purple Pikmin
can only be obtained through sacrificing normal ones, this game is quite
a bit harder. And yet... Not all too hard. Challenge mode is pretty tough,
on the other hand. Difficulty: 5.0
Bosses
Pikmin 1: Well... Not exactly a lot.
We got Beady Long Legs, a giant four-legged spider, and Emperor Bulblax,
the final boss. All other reasonably powerful enemies holding ship parts
are merely mini-bosses. Score: 2.0
Pikmin 2: That's more like it. Every
dungeon except the first holds some type of boss! Beady Long Legs and Emperor
Bulblax are extremely powered down, but there are harder enemies to take
their place, such as Man-at-Legs. The first boss even returns as a harder
boss in one dungeon! And the fights are well worth it, since the items
they fork over are either very useful or very valuable. The final boss
gets his own unique fighting style as well. One problem: We don't really
learn anything about the bosses (other than how to cook them, or a biology
lesson). Score: 8.0
Gameplay
Pikmin 1: While you technically only
control Captain Olimar, the Pikmin are nearly just as easy to command.
And boy, can they do a lot! Tearing down walls, killing monsters more than
ten-fold their size, and using their bodies to create an even larger army!
Too bad only 100 can be on the field at once. While this game does have
plenty of action and fighting, there is just as much strategy and thinking
involved to get at some parts. The day length was also nice. It managed
to keep me entertained, so I think that they did a good job here. Score:
9.0
Pikmin 2: Just as good a system. Even
better, in fact. The dungeons were a good addition to the game, as were
more parts with thinking involved. The fighting is just as good as before,
and the ultra-spicy/bitter sprays turned the tables in such ways it was
funny! Score: 9.5
Pikmin
This section is a little different.
Here I actually rank the kinds of Pikmin.
Red: Second best fighters AND resistant
to fire? Now these guys I like. The best to use in a big brawl. Score:
9.0
Yellow: More unique. They can be thrown
higher, and in the first game, can throw explosive rocks. That ability
was lost in the second though, for immunity to electricity (the worst hazard
in the game). Score: 8.5
Blue: Well... Immune to water, but
not much else to look at really. Only useful in places drenched with water,
but otherwise... Score: 6.0
Purple: The strongest of all the Pikmin,
with ten times the strength and weight of a normal one! That really comes
in handy. However, they are incredibly slow, and because of their rarity,
shouldn't usually be taken into big battles in large doses. Score: 8.0
White: The smallest and fastest, they're
just as strong as a yellow or blue. They can even spot underground treasure
and dig it up. Plus, they have an immunity to poison. But that's not all!
If eaten in battle, the creature which ate a white Pikmin is poisoned slightly!
They are just as rare as purples, though, and should be taken in small
amounts into battle. Score: 9.5
Bulbmin: Yes, Bulbmin. Bulborbs with
a parasite in them that causes a leaf to sprout from their back. Kill the
leader and... you get all the small Bulbmin that were following it. They
are only found in dungeons, though, and can't be taken out of them. But
wow, these guys are good! Immunity to electricity, water, poison, and fire,
average fighting skills and speed, it's a shame you can't keep them. On
the other hand, they can be sacrificed for another color of Pikmin, which
you CAN keep! All around, this type would be the best, if not for the fact
that they can't leave the dungeon. Score: 9.5
Items
Pikmin 1: Here we have the ship parts.
Thirty in total. Usually heavier than normal things in the field (corpses
of enemies), they even have a small bit of history behind them. Five aren't
even necessary to beat the game, but necessary for a perfect ending. Either
guarded or swallowed by some giant beast, or in an inconvenient spot to
reach. If only there were more. Score: 7.0
Pikmin 2: Treasures. 201 in total.
Each of them has a journal written about it, and even a sales pitch. Range
in cost from a measly 10 pokos, to a devastating 3000! As said, these items
are awfully familiar, most should be recognizable (Duracell batteries,
anyone?). Some items even give Olimar and Louie special abilities as well
as a few pokos in the process. Obviously, the more precious the item, the
harder it is to get. Same system as before. Either guarded or eaten, or
in an inconvenient spot. Dungeons yield the most treasures of all, however,
and are necessary to complete the game. Sometimes, revisiting a dungeon
might have to be done. All in all, they're much better than the first.
Score: 10
Extras
Pikmin 1: We’ve got challenge mode
where the player tries to grow as many Pikmin as possible in one day. Pretty
fun at first, but gets boring quickly. And that's it. Score: 1.0
Pikmin 2: Challenge is back and improved.
No more planting, just trying to reach the end of a dungeon with the most
treasure possible. There's even a little harder challenge to try to beat
every single level without losing a single Pikmin. A reward is offered
for this as well. Other than this, we have 2-Player mode. You can play
to try to get the marbles, but my friend and I prefer to beat the snot
out of each other with cherries and Pikmin brawls. Good times... Score:
7.5
Replay Value
Pikmin 1: With one file on the last
day, absolutely none. If you have extra days with 29 pieces, then you can
try to grow as many Pikmin as possible, but that gets boring quickly. You
could play through the game again and try to get a better record, but there’s
not much else to look at. Score: 2.0
Pikmin 2: Once you reach the point
of 10000 pokos, you beat the game once. Now the only thing left to do is
get the rest of the treasure. Once you get every piece, though, the same
situation from Pikmin 1 occurs. You either play a second time, or grow
as many Pikmin as possible. Still not much to offer. Score: 3.0
Fun Factor!
Pikmin 1: I had a lot of fun with this
game, whether it was overkilling a helpless little enemy, trying to figure
out a puzzle, tearing down walls, fighting... Point is, this managed to
grab my attention for quite some time. Score: 8.5
Pikmin 2: Even more fun. The dungeons
and new bosses offered a lot more to me, and more treasures to collect
had me playing to the very end. Overkilling is still just as fun. Score:
9.0
Overall
Note: Scores at this point are an average
between Fun Factor, Story, Characters, Sound, Graphics, Gameplay, and Replay
Value.
Pikmin 1: A very nice system to play
with, even if the game is a bit short. I even still play a few times when
I get the chance. A few flaws, though. Score: 6.9
Pikmin 2: Even better if you ask me.
They took the basic game system and improved on it. I play this even more.
In fact, I'm playing a second file right now! Score: 7.7
Recommendation
First off, I should say that the style
this game is played in may not appeal to some gamers. If you haven't tried
either before, I recommend renting before buying. If you like what you
see in Pikmin 1, then buy the second. If not, well that's your opinion.
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