Everything wonderful about the first game and more.
This game brings back Captain Olimar and his Pikmin buddies, but then adds in two new kinds of Pikmin (white and purple) along with a second ship mate. Having two people allows you to be doing two things at once and new kinds of Pikmin open up the strategy aspect causing you to utilize them along with the other 3 kinds (red, blue, yellow) from the first game.
If you know nothing about the Pikmin here's the rundown. Red: resistant to fire and are your best fighters. Blue: can breath underwater (only kind that can). Yellow: resistant to electricity, lighter and can be thrown higher, carry bomb rocks. White: poisonous if eaten by monster, resistant to poison. Purple: weigh as much and are as strong as 10 regular pikmin, good for knocking enemies unconcious and using their size to their advantage.
Unlike the first game, there is no time limit in this game. Also, you are going to be basically dungeon exploring instead of staying on the surface. However, you have the surface to explore as well.
Your goal for this one is to collect treasures which will earn you money. These are actually pretty funny being as a machine gives everything names. They are all everyday objects that you will recognize and you'll find the names they give to them pretty funny.
The game technically ends when you hit $10,000, however, a whole new place opens up when you reach that. A place thats going to take a lot of Pikmin making to conquer. There's also a bunch of extra areas to explore in the places you've already been to so you won't be running out of stuff to do anytime soon.
The overall length of the game is longer to begin with, but these extras almost double the length.
The switching between characters is cool as well. All it takes is the press of a button and no matter where your other character is you'll go over ot him and the Pikmin he's controlling. This doesn't only allow you to do two things at once, but it also comes into play for some boss battles in which you'll need to do something from one side then something from the other side as well.
The game starts off fairly easily, allowing you to get used to controlling Pikmin. However, the difficulty definitly ramps up to give you quite the challenge. Not to mention after you have it the new place that opens ramps up the difficulty even higher. So don't let it's cutesy graphics make you think it's going to be a walk in the park.
So, for Pikmin lovers or those who have never experienced Pikmin this is an excellent game to play. It's fun all the way through and it'll leave you wanting more. Don't miss this one.