Who in the world could have thought of a game that involves little colored ants with flower buds on their heads that listen to everything you say, which is a whistle, follow you into battle against some of the biggest (for them) monsters this side of the backyard? The creator of this game, Shigeru Miyamoto, is credited to little known series like Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, F-Zero, and others. You know...THE LONGEST RUNNING SERIES IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY THAT'S ALL!!!
So, what should you expect from a series like Pikmin? Well, the backstory to the Pikmin series is that he came up with this idea from gardening...gardening...oh well that's cool. But, Pikmin has been going since the 2001 debut on GameCube with this newest installment being the third game in the installment. How does it stack up? Let's find out for you...
So, what should you expect from a series like Pikmin? Well, the backstory to the Pikmin series is that he came up with this idea from gardening...gardening...oh well that's cool. But, Pikmin has been going since the 2001 debut on GameCube with this newest installment being the third game in the installment. How does it stack up? Let's find out for you...
STORY: RYZE
Back in 2001, the story starts off as you, Olimar, traveling from a planet from scavenging for treasures when all of a sudden your ship malfunctions and you fall onto a planet where there are these tiny creatures that you dubbed "Pikmin" (cause they can't talk, but they sing melodies while walking) that actually follow and help you as you try to find parts and pieces to fix your ship so you can get off the planet while collecting some booty as well (if you are slow to English, booty means treasure, just wanted to say booty in this review...BOOTY). Fast forward to this installment, you are now a group of three explorers who are trying to find food for their dying planet on other planets and (oh how history repeats itself sometimes) you crash onto this planet, but the crew is split up during the crash! But guess who the split up crewmembers run into to help them find each other? Yep, you guessed it...THE JUSTICE LEAGUE! Wait...I mean PIKMIN!!!
This story follows how the other 2 installments go about the game. You find each color of Pikmin as the story unfolds that have certain attributes the other may not be able to do and you collect pieces to A) find the other crewmen and B) find the necessary pieces to fix the ship all the while you C) pick up nick-knacks that are normal to us but something new and unique to the crewmen and fruit. Also, they threw in an additional part of the game. The fruit you collect yields a certain amount of "fruit bottles" that the crewmen drink at the end of each day. If you run out of the fruit bottles, then the game is over because of starvation. Does Captain Olimar and his companion from Pikmin 2, Louie, make an appearance in the game? Maybe...I won't tell.
Back in 2001, the story starts off as you, Olimar, traveling from a planet from scavenging for treasures when all of a sudden your ship malfunctions and you fall onto a planet where there are these tiny creatures that you dubbed "Pikmin" (cause they can't talk, but they sing melodies while walking) that actually follow and help you as you try to find parts and pieces to fix your ship so you can get off the planet while collecting some booty as well (if you are slow to English, booty means treasure, just wanted to say booty in this review...BOOTY). Fast forward to this installment, you are now a group of three explorers who are trying to find food for their dying planet on other planets and (oh how history repeats itself sometimes) you crash onto this planet, but the crew is split up during the crash! But guess who the split up crewmembers run into to help them find each other? Yep, you guessed it...THE JUSTICE LEAGUE! Wait...I mean PIKMIN!!!
This story follows how the other 2 installments go about the game. You find each color of Pikmin as the story unfolds that have certain attributes the other may not be able to do and you collect pieces to A) find the other crewmen and B) find the necessary pieces to fix the ship all the while you C) pick up nick-knacks that are normal to us but something new and unique to the crewmen and fruit. Also, they threw in an additional part of the game. The fruit you collect yields a certain amount of "fruit bottles" that the crewmen drink at the end of each day. If you run out of the fruit bottles, then the game is over because of starvation. Does Captain Olimar and his companion from Pikmin 2, Louie, make an appearance in the game? Maybe...I won't tell.
GAMEPLAY: RYZE
If Nintendo knows anything about games, it knows this one thing...don't fix anything that isn't broken, so the gameplay, once again, stays true to the first two installments. You can control up to 100 of the Pikmin, no matter what color, you can call them or separate them into their respective colors with the blow of your whistle, you can direct them to attack anything that you target, and lastly, you can throw them (almost) wherever you need to throw them. An added addition to the game because of the Wii U Gamepad is that, since you have 3 crewmen, you can divide up task between the three with the gamepad. You can send them all in different directions and a ring of a bell tells you when they arrive at the destination you send them to. But of course, it's not as sweet as you think. When you send someone to a destination without first scouting out the path, they might run into water, monsters, or an unfinished bridge. The great part is that whoever the Pikmin is with that are losing the Pikmin will pop up and tell you that they are losing Pikmin if you are looking at a different Pikmin. As you can see, the game makes multi-tasking an easy, yet difficult for the youngest of children to understand, but challenging enough that a advanced gamer can appreciate the simplicity, but see the difficulty behind the gameplay.
Two new features of the game is the actual Pikmin themselves. They changed two Pikmin from the second installment into two different Pikmin. Nintendo kept the originals: Red (immune to fire and the main fighter Pikmin), Blue (immune to water and can breath under water), and Yellow (immune to lightning and can be thrown the farthest). The two they changed: Purple (immune to poison gases and the strength of 5 regular Pikmin) and White (able to see hidden items and fight faster than other Pikmin) were changed to Rock (color black and can be thrown into glass barriers, which is also new to Pikmin 3) and Pink (they can fly and when carrying items, hover over the crewman and even water). But do not fret, they did return the previous 2 Pikmin to the mission and bingo modes in Pikmin 3, which could be a relief to some.
The mission modes and the bingo modes are pretty much well spoken for if you had a chance to play Pikmin 2, but for the new generation to Pikmin, bingo mode is where you must collect 5 items in a row like a bingo cardsheet, but keep in mind that some of the items you are trying to collect, your opponent might need the same, so it becomes a race against them and who can get the most Pikmin on the item. Mission mode gives you a list off challenges you must complete before time runs out. It's either do all objectives or game over. This is where the gamepad became of extreme help to me.
If Nintendo knows anything about games, it knows this one thing...don't fix anything that isn't broken, so the gameplay, once again, stays true to the first two installments. You can control up to 100 of the Pikmin, no matter what color, you can call them or separate them into their respective colors with the blow of your whistle, you can direct them to attack anything that you target, and lastly, you can throw them (almost) wherever you need to throw them. An added addition to the game because of the Wii U Gamepad is that, since you have 3 crewmen, you can divide up task between the three with the gamepad. You can send them all in different directions and a ring of a bell tells you when they arrive at the destination you send them to. But of course, it's not as sweet as you think. When you send someone to a destination without first scouting out the path, they might run into water, monsters, or an unfinished bridge. The great part is that whoever the Pikmin is with that are losing the Pikmin will pop up and tell you that they are losing Pikmin if you are looking at a different Pikmin. As you can see, the game makes multi-tasking an easy, yet difficult for the youngest of children to understand, but challenging enough that a advanced gamer can appreciate the simplicity, but see the difficulty behind the gameplay.
Two new features of the game is the actual Pikmin themselves. They changed two Pikmin from the second installment into two different Pikmin. Nintendo kept the originals: Red (immune to fire and the main fighter Pikmin), Blue (immune to water and can breath under water), and Yellow (immune to lightning and can be thrown the farthest). The two they changed: Purple (immune to poison gases and the strength of 5 regular Pikmin) and White (able to see hidden items and fight faster than other Pikmin) were changed to Rock (color black and can be thrown into glass barriers, which is also new to Pikmin 3) and Pink (they can fly and when carrying items, hover over the crewman and even water). But do not fret, they did return the previous 2 Pikmin to the mission and bingo modes in Pikmin 3, which could be a relief to some.
The mission modes and the bingo modes are pretty much well spoken for if you had a chance to play Pikmin 2, but for the new generation to Pikmin, bingo mode is where you must collect 5 items in a row like a bingo cardsheet, but keep in mind that some of the items you are trying to collect, your opponent might need the same, so it becomes a race against them and who can get the most Pikmin on the item. Mission mode gives you a list off challenges you must complete before time runs out. It's either do all objectives or game over. This is where the gamepad became of extreme help to me.
Overall: Ryze
What can be said about a race of plant-like aliens that will fight for you at the drop or a dime, or a blow of a whistle in this case, and give you countless hours of challenges, fun with or against a friend, and an hilarious story about 3 crewmen landing on a makeshift planet that looks like a bite-sized backyard? Lots of fun and thanks to Nintendo, for not only bringing a Triple A title out finally for the Wii U, but keeping my hope that the company do have good, exciting, and upcoming titles that will spark my interest and keep my hope for the console to be able to withstand the PS4 and Xbox One onslaught this Holiday 2013.
Did you get to play the game? How did you like Pikmin 3? Comment below to tell us if this review helped or how your experience with Pikmin 3 was. Also, check out our Facebook page here!
What can be said about a race of plant-like aliens that will fight for you at the drop or a dime, or a blow of a whistle in this case, and give you countless hours of challenges, fun with or against a friend, and an hilarious story about 3 crewmen landing on a makeshift planet that looks like a bite-sized backyard? Lots of fun and thanks to Nintendo, for not only bringing a Triple A title out finally for the Wii U, but keeping my hope that the company do have good, exciting, and upcoming titles that will spark my interest and keep my hope for the console to be able to withstand the PS4 and Xbox One onslaught this Holiday 2013.
Did you get to play the game? How did you like Pikmin 3? Comment below to tell us if this review helped or how your experience with Pikmin 3 was. Also, check out our Facebook page here!