Pikmin 2, sequel to the original Pikmin, has followed its predecessor quite closely. The sequel has some nice new additions, but it mainly is the same game with new levels. I would have enjoyed Pikmin 2 just as much if it had just duplicated the first, but they were able to make the game a little more varied, a little more strategic, and a lot more fun. I will assume that the reader is familiar with the original Pikmin game so I will discuss the new features found in Pikmin 2: new pikmin, underground caves, the controversial lack of a time limit, and Louis. This time when Captain Olimar returns to the pikmin planet he brings with him a sidekick named Louis. While adding some humor to the story plot, Louis is a fully controllable character. Having two characters who can control pikmin is very useful. You can now split your pikmin into 2 groups to perform different activities (something you had to do in the first Pikmin game to beat the time limit) but now you don’t have to leave them alone. By leaving one of your characters with them you can now quickly jump back to check on them to see if they are alright, or to collect them as the day comes to an end. There are also a number of places where geographically speaking it will be useful two characters. For example there is cliff where it is useful to have Olimar at the top of the cliff to control the pikmin on the plateau, then he can send them off the cliff to the ship and Louis can watch over them from there. It can also be useful to tag-team enemies by forming two groups and alternating attacks. Having Louis along just adds better control over your pikmin. The sequel also adds two new pikmin, purple and white, to the original three (red, yellow, and blue). These new pikmin are quite specialized and you will not be able to grow them as rapidly as your other pikmin because they don’t have pikmin flowers of there own. The only way to obtain the new pikmin types are to find the appropriate flower colors in underground caverns (more on these later) and toss in the flower up to five pikmin that you already own to change them to five purple or white pikmin. While you won’t get as many of them, these pikmin can become some of your most useful. The purple pikmin are the sumo wrestlers of the pikmin world. These large, heavy, and strong pikmin can be the tanks of your pikmin strategies. Due to their heavy weight when you throw them on your enemies they can actually stun some of the larger enemies, like the giant Bulbubs, which gives you a few extra seconds to attack them before they retaliate. In most cases this is enough time to take them down without losing a single pikmin. Also, the purple pikmin have the strength of ten ordinary pikmin. This means that 5 purple pikmin can carry an item requiring 50 pikmin usually. Unfortunately a drawback to their great size is that they are much slower than your other pikmin. You will need to constantly keep your purple pikmin at the ‘flower’ level just to have them keep up with our other pikmin. The other new pikmin are the tiny, poisonous, white ones. These small guys are quite quick on their feet and scurry faster than all your other pikmin. What they lack in size, they make up with specialization. The white pikmin are no better at fighting than your average pikmin, but they are highly poisonous. Creatures will be damaged should they eat any of the poisonous white pikmin. Since obtaining white pikmin is slightly more difficult that getting red or blue, it is not a wise idea to serve up your white pikmin as a poisonous schmorgesborg to the enemy, but you may choose to sacrifice one or two in that manner because poisoning an enemy also has the effect of stunning them for a few seconds that can really help. Due to their poisonous nature, the white pikmin are the only pikmin immune to poison generators, located through out the game, and consequently the only pikmin who can destroy them, making it same for your other pikmin. While these abilities would make the white pikmin valued resources, they also have the abilily to digup treasures that are buried under the ground. Because of this unique ability, who will find it necessary to always have a few white pikmin in your group since you never know where you might find buried treasure. As I made reference to earlier, the geography of Pikmin 2 has grown to include underground caverns. These new caverns are both fun and challenging. To begin with, caverns have about an average of ten levels if you leave the cavern prematurely you must start the cavern over from the beginning again. This means that there are very few opportunities to replenish your pikmin once you enter the cavern. You must reach the end of the cavern with just the number of pikmin you enter with. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that every cavern ends with a boss. Some of the bosses are easy but deadly, and some are even trickier, either way you’ll want to have as many pikmin as you can get when you meet them. To compensate for their difficulty the caverns have two properties that help the player out: Time doesn’t pass while in the cavern, and the game automatically saves every time you complete a level. These two factors means so you can take as much time as you need to come up with different strategies, and when the unexpected happens (and it will, causing you to lose 80 pikmin at once) you can reset and start the level over with no ill effects. This brings us to the point of controversy. The thirty day time limit found in the first Pikmin game was the most innovated and most hated feature of that game. Well this time around the time limit has been lifted....sort of. I believe that the decision to lift the time limit was a last minute decision, because the game still keeps track of how many days go by. Also at the end of every day you receive a message from home, but these messages start to repeat after forty days. Now I beat the game in fifty days, not forty, but I was taking extra time to explore and grow my pikmin. Given that most treasures are underground where time doesn’t pass, I think they should have kept the forty day limit to give the game more pressure. All in all, Pikmin 2 is a superb sequel, that adds just enough new elements to keep the game fresh and exciting, while leaving the main backbone of the game that made the original fascinating.
The original Pikmin game was released in 2001 around the Gamecube launch. It was another masterpiece in sense from the maker of Zelda and Mario. However the series had a lot of potential and the series could be improve... Read Full Review
Pikmin 2 is an exciting, quirky game for the GameCube. Some describe it as a real-time strategy game, but it doesn't really fit the description of any genre. It leans toward action/adventure/strategy, but it's hard to sa... Read Full Review
