Pikmin is one of those games that comes along once in a console generation that delivers both great style and gameplay.
In Pikmin, you take the role of Captain Olimar, who, during a deep space voyage, struck a meteor, lost all the pieces of his ship, and was deserted on an uncharted planet. Readings of the planet's atmosphere detect high levels of deadly oxygen gas and, with his air supply running low, Olimar calculates that he only has 30 days to live. But when all hope seems lost, Captain Olimar finds the Pikmin, his last hope for survival on this planet. With the Pikmin's help, you must find your 30 missing pieces and rebuild your ship to escape your own death.
The main gameplay elements of Pikmin include exploring the well designed maps in search for your missing pieces. But, it's never that easy, is it? The terrain is littered with hostile organisms and obstacles that Olimar could never overcome by himself, not to mention the parts are too heavy for him to carry alone. Luckily, the Pikmin follow you like ducklings would for their mother duck. The Pikmin are ready to build, carry, fight, and die for you or for some other unknown purpose. Combat and commands seem simple at first, with only the red Pikmin at your disposal. But later, the game eases you into greater levels of complexity as you encounter yellow and blue pikmin, both of which have their own unique advantages and disadvantages. Also every map has different enemies with a different way of disposing them. Some may lap over, but there are always unique enemies for each level. And then there's pikmin ranks and weight issues and speed issues and this and that, but all these factors together never seem overwhelming, they almost sort of come naturally. While the game does a great job of easing you into the strategy elements, some of the enemies really are difficult and you really don't see them coming. I particularly found the final boss to be a lot more challenging than I expected, so much that I actually spent two days amassing a pikmin armada to combat it. But, once you get past these minor setbacks, the gameplay is satisfying, unique, and, most importantly, fun...well at least for the maximum seven and a half hours it lasts. Seriously, I did the math (15 minute days x 30 days= 450 total minutes/60 minutes per hour= 7.5 hours...). As for visuals, the game looks great, even if it did come out at the beginning of the Gamecube's lifetime. I found the water effects to be particularly eye-fetching and it amazed me that, even though I can have 100 pikmin on screen at once, I never see an ounce of slow down. And at the same time, there's all sorts of little effects going on, like how pikmin can randomly trip or how smooth enemies movements are, which I found to be particulary impressive. I also found the subtle comedy in the movements of every living thing in the game to be entertaining, making the entire visual package a whole lot sweeter.
The sound system in Pikmin can be, at times, flawed, but is mostly well rounded. The music is calm and hypnotic while you're exploring and dramtically tense when you go into battle. It's not the best music I've ever heard, but it's quite adequete and fits the game's personality. As far as effects, there are ups and downs. Sometimes, for example, the game will glitch when multiple pikmin are half out of the water, which causes tons of little clicking splash sounds over and over again until they're unstuck and that can get pretty annoying. The other sound effects are the kind of things that make cartoons great: the little wine bottle pop! when a pikmin is pulled out of the ground, the plop! of school lunch when nectar is pulled out of special grass, and the squeaky little grunts the pikmin make while they work are all comical and make the more agressive parts of the games still feel relaxed. Altogether, if you're looking for something fun, cheap, and original, look no further than Pikmin for a well polished niche fix.