N-Philes

Pikmin 2

Posted by Dannielle.

At last, the long-awaited sequel to Miyamoto's quirky, garden-inspired strategy game has hit shelves stateside. Fans of the original will be happy to learn that this is one sequel that certainly does not disappoint, retaining integral elements that made its predecessor great, and improving upon or eliminating nearly every negative aspect of the first.

The story is comparable in terms of simplicity - rather than being stranded on an alien planet, collecting ship parts to save his life, Olimar travels willingly to the planet of the Pikmin with his assistant Louie in order to collect a multitude of "treasures" meant to save his company from bankruptcy. These treasures range from bottle caps to batteries, though they'll be referred to in the game as "Quenching Emblems" and "Courage Reactors" -- a silly touch that should at least earn amused smiles. The attention to detail is much improved; Pikmin 2 sports information on just about every plant and animal in the game, as well as every treasure salvaged, in the form of meticulous journal entries from Captain Olimar that range from vaguely humorous to downright hilarious.

In terms of gameplay, Pikmin 2 is, as expected, quite similar yet significantly improved over its predecessor. The basic Pikmin controls return: B to call Pikmin, A to throw them, the C stick to command the entire group, and X to release them. Newly added features include using both Olimar and Louie to command separate groups of Pikmin - the Y button is used to switch between the two captains. Additionally, the up and down buttons on the D-pad are utilized to spray "Ultra-Bitter" and "Ultra-Spicy" potions; the former will petrify enemies and the latter will grant your pikmin army additional speed and strength.

Undoubtedly, the most important change in Pikmin 2 is the lack of a time limit. Though days still pass as they did in the first, there is no thirty day time restriction forcing you to rush through each area as fast as possible. There are also a multitude of "holes" in each area, which lead to multi-leveled caverns filled with treasures and enemies alike. Inside these caves, time does not pass at all, but you cannot create more Pikmin. Thus you are limited not by time, but by your skill in preserving Pikmin from enemy attacks and other various hazards. The cave levels are randomly generated, though each floor sports the same challenges, enemies, and treasures no matter how many times it is reset. Each cave also contains a boss creature on its deepest floor, which usually yields a "special" treasure - a shoe that increases walking speed, a device that informs you of how close you are to a treasure, etc.

Two new pikmin types are yet another notable addition; purple pikmin are large, slow, and provide ten times the power of a normal Pikmin, and white pikmin are tiny, fast, and immune to poisons. Purples are useful for carrying heavy objects and combating most enemies, while white pikmin can access areas blockaded by poisonous gas and unearth objects buried underground. Neither of these types have an Onion to call home; rather, they are created exclusively by transforming red, blue or yellow pikmin by way of purple or white "Candypop Flowers." Each of these flowers can transform up to five pikmin, and they can only be found in caves.

Even the old red, blue and yellow pikmin types sport new tricks - there are a multitude of elemental type puzzles designed to take advantage of the red's immunity to fire, blue's immunity to water and yellow's newly discovered immunity to electricity. Fire jets, pools of water and electrically charged gates combine with poison gas themed traps to ensure that each Pikmin type is integral to reaching new areas and finding new treasures. Exploration is heavily emphasized in Pikmin 2, and in order to see all there is to see, learning to build up and wisely use each of the different colored pikmin is essential.

Graphically, Pikmin 2 certainly delivers. The game's environments are quite varied: The Valley of Repose is a wintry, snow-covered landscape, while the Awakening Wood (formerly known as the Forest of Hope) exudes a spring time theme, complete with drifting flower petals and blooming plant life. The caverns are probably the least impressive areas graphically, which is a shame considering how much time is spent inside of them. Character and enemy models are for the most part unchanged in quality, though the Pikmin do have some new animations, and there are many, many new enemies to encounter.

Strangely, it is not the music of the game that spurs my endearment of Pikmin 2's audio - it is pleasant, but for the most part forgettable. Music only really becomes apparent during boss fights or situations otherwise high in stress, and several tunes are either slightly modified or shamelessly recycled from the first Pikmin. The sound effects are, oddly enough, my favorite aural aspect of the game. Pikmin hum, sing, and provide a whole slew of new and oftentimes hilarious sound effects, and even Olimar and Louie have very limited things to say.

The single player game is endearing enough on its own, but if you want to try something completely different, Pikmin 2 sports a surprisingly fun multiplayer mode. There is both a competitive mode in which players compete to acquire large marbles hidden throughout a stage before their opponents can, and a cooperative "Challenge Mode" that becomes available after unlocking it in the main game. Challenge mode can be played with a friend or by oneself, and involves defeating enemies and acquiring treasures with both time and pikmin limits. As the name might imply, this mode does in fact become quite challenging.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B+.

In the end, Pikmin 2 manages to be a very worthy sequel to a great game. The elimination of the time limit allows for a much longer and more satisfying experience, emphasizing exploration over streamlined strategies designed for speed. The addition of Louie provides for new puzzles and should make fans of multitasking happy, and naturally, the new pikmin types and qualities offer worlds of new experiences. The only aspect of this game that can be considered negative is the repetition - once all five pikmin types are unlocked there is very little in the way of variation - but the game is easily enough fun to obscure this fact.

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