Pikmin 2
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| Pikmin 2 | |
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Designer(s) | Shigefumi Hino Masamichi Abe Shigeru Miyamoto |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo GameCube |
| Release date |  April 29, 2004 August 30, 2004 October 8, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone PEGI: 3+ OFLC: G8+ |
| Media | 1 × GameCube Optical Disc |
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Pikmin 2 (ピクミン2?) is a real-time strategy video game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan on April 29, 2004, in North America on August 30, 2004, and in Europe on October 8, 2004.
Pikmin 2 is the sequel to Pikmin, also for the Nintendo GameCube. This game was considered an improvement over the original Pikmin; CNET reported that it "addressed the bulk of the shortcomings of its predecessor by crafting a game that tops the original in nearly every way."[1]
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[edit] Gameplay
Gameplay in Pikmin 2 revolves around using different combinations of Pikmin to retrieve various treasures from the planet's surface. These treasures range from a Duracell battery to a Dannon yogurt lid. Different obstacles and enemies make the retrieval of each treasure unique. Because of this, the player must carefully consider which colors of Pikmin and how many of those colors will be needed to complete a certain task. This is compounded in difficulty by the fact that no more than 100 Pikmin may be in play at any given time. The player is given one day at a time to play, with each day equaling about 15 minutes in real-time. Typical tasks involved in collecting treasures include defeating enemies, building bridges, destroying walls, or removing other obstacles, just like in Pikmin 1.
In addition to above-ground areas, caves can be found throughout the landscape. Caves contain multiple treasures and enemies spread across multiple "sublevels." Each sublevel in a cave contains certain treasures and a fixed array of enemies, but the layout of the sublevel and the placement of the enemies and treasures within the sublevel is random, and changes each time the player enters the cave. A player can exploit this, as the game saves automatically after the completion of each sublevel. If the layout of a sublevel is unfavorable to the player, he or she can simply begin the sublevel again, and it will have a new, possibly more favorable, layout.
Special rules apply to exploring caves. When the player is exploring a cave, time does not pass above ground. The main restriction regarding cave exploration is that there is no access to the Pikmin Onions from underground. This means that once players enter a cave, they can only use the Pikmin that they brought with them (see Bulbmin for the exception).
[edit] Differences from Pikmin
There were several major differences between Pikmin and Pikmin 2. One of them was the elimination of the 30-day time limit which was imposed during the course of the first Pikmin game. In Pikmin 2, a player may continue to search for treasure for as many days as he or she wishes. The game contains 201 collectible treasure pieces, as opposed to the 30 ship parts of the original Pikmin game.
Another addition was the ability to use two captains at once, making multitasking easier. In the previous Pikmin game, multitasking was difficult as there was only one captain to direct multiple groups of Pikmin. In both Pikmin games, commands cannot be issued from a distance, meaning that a one captain system caused a lot of running between multiple working Pikmin groups. Another gameplay change was the addition of sprays, which have two effects on gameplay. The red spray energizes Pikmin to increase both speed and attack strength. The purple spray temporarily turns enemies caught in the blast radius to stone. Sprays are obtained by collecting 10 berries of the corresponding color, but can occasionally be found in egg-like vessels when smashed, instead of the usual yellow nectar.
The controls are also improved: holding A will cause Pikmin to line up behind the leader in color groups, and the color can be cycled with the d-pad. The player can even choose "leaf" or "flower" Pikmin to be thrown first with d-pad up/down. In Pikmin 1, selecting a specific Pikmin color was very fiddly and difficult. Finally, Pikmin can be thrown slightly faster in Pikmin 2.
A major difference between the games is the playability of the yellow Pikmin. In Pikmin, the yellow Pikmin have the ability to pick up bomb rocks and throw them, in order to break walls of dirt and stone. In the sequel, the bomb rocks are not able to be picked up, but the yellow Pikmin have gained the ability to withstand electricity.
[edit] Pikmin 2 e-Reader
In Japan, after the release of Pikmin 2, they had also released e-Reader cards that had contained mini games. Some of these mini games required the player to pluck all the Pikmin in an area in a set amount of steps, or to try to get Pikmin from one point to another. These cards were not released outside of Japan, as the e-Reader was not released in Europe, and had been discontinued in the United States at the time. The cards contain region-specific encoding which blocks their use with North American e-Readers.
[edit] Other Game Modes
Including the Main Game (Story Mode), there is also 2-Player Battle, and Challenge Mode. 2-Player Battle is unlocked from the beginning of the game, and two players (Olimar and Louie), are each controlled by a player. The object is to take 4 yellow marbles or the opponent's red or blue marble back to the player's ship. (It should be noted, however, that if either player dies or runs out of pikmin, the other player wins, making a total of 4 different win conditions.) The player's own marble cannot be carried by that player's Pikmin, allowing the opponent to gradually steal it over several assaults. If Pikmin come across a cherry and bring it to their onion, a wheel full of bonuses spins at the right side of the screen. Press Y to spin it. The bonuses range from getting ten more pikmin or turning all of your pikmin to flower pikmin to sending an avalanche or a Volatile Dweevil (useful as a self-propelled bomb) upon your enemies. While Pikmin can fight each other, they will not actually kill each other. When defeated, the Pikmin reappear next to their Onion to be re-picked. Likewise, the purple spray functions differently against enemy Pikmin - it buries them in the ground rather than allowing them to be frozen.
Challenge mode is obtained after obtaining The Key, found in the single-player game. This mode is like exploring a cave in story mode, except 2 players can play. An arena or cave is selected and players attempt to reach its bottom within a time limit. Each time a key is found, the player advances to the next level. At the bottom floor, the key creates a closed geyser. Pikmin must dig at this to activate it. Players try to get as many points as they can by retrieving treasures on each sublevel, leaving with as many Pikmin as possible, and completing it as quickly as possible. After completing an arena without losing any Pikmin, a player achieves "perfect" status.
[edit] Story
Pikmin 2 starts when Olimar returns home from his "vacation".
He finds that his company, Hocotate Freight, is in serious debt. They even had to sell Captain Olimar's ship, the S.S. Dolphin, which was the only remaining corporate asset worth anything. Shocked by this sudden turn of events, Captain Olimar drops the bottle cap he brought with him as a souvenir for his child. It rolls in the vicinity of the company's only remaining ship Hocotate ship (a rusty, dilapidated dual-cockpit ship which contains a smart aleck personality, and a treasure sensor) and is found to have a value of 100 Pokos, the unit of currency on Hocotate. After commenting that this is more than a year's salary, Olimar's boss sends him on a trip with Louie, a fellow employee, to the Distant Planet to scrounge up 10,000 Pokos worth of treasure to get the company back up and running. Olimar returns to the planet of the Pikmin (there are some telltale signs that the Distant Planet is Earth, because of the two sections of the globe and the visible continents on the planet as seen from space). During their descent, Louie's cockpit bursts open, and the two are separated. The game then centers on finding Louie, exploring the planet, and collecting treasures. Once 10,000 Pokos have been acquired, the ship automatically blasts off, taking off towards Hocotate. Louie is then shown asleep on a tree. After the credits have rolled, Olimar and the President go back to the Pikmin homeworld to collect the remaining treasure. At Dream Den, in the Wistful Wild, the President and Olimar discover Louie lying around at the last sublevel atop a pile of treasure. However, the final boss, the Titan Dweevil, emerges from the ground and uses the four treasures it has equipped. After destroying it, they take Louie back in the cargo bay, because there is not enough room in the cockpit.
[edit] Louie's Dark Secret
After completing the thirty Challenge Mode levels, a cinematic is unlocked, showing that the company is in debt because Louie had secretly eaten all the Gold Pikpik Carrots that were supposedly stolen by a Space Bunny.
[edit] Similarities to Past Video Games
There are a few similarities in both Pikmin and Pikmin 2 that are seen in other games previously created by Nintendo, notably Super Mario Bros. The protagonists, Olimar and Louie are similar in size to Mario and Luigi with the shorter character being slightly bulkier and the taller one possessing a slimmer figure. In addition, the name "Olimar" (orima) is an anagram of "Mario" in Japanese kana. "Louie", while being already superficially similar to the name "Luigi" in English, is actually the first part of the same name in Japanese.
[edit] Items in Pikmin 2
Several of the treasures found on the planet in Pikmin 2 are items from previous Nintendo ventures. One item, the Dream Architect, is a Game & Watch, one of a series of LCD games created by Nintendo in the early 1980s. Another, the Remembered Old Buddy, is the head of R.O.B., a peripheral device packaged with the original NES after the video game crash of 1983. Found in the same cave as the Remembered Old Buddy are five Gyro Blocks, the blocks used in one of R.O.B.'s games, Stack-Up. Other Nintendo items are also included, such as a tube of paint and a crayon from Mario Paint, and The Key used in Super Mario World.In the Valley of Repose on top of one of the snowmen is a crown which just so happens to also belong to Princess Peach, the damsel of distress in most of the Mario games. The card is a reference to when Nintendo was a card company around 1889.[2] Another interesting item is a creepy doll head called the Silencer, which in the Japanese version of the game is worth 666 pokos. In the English version, this was changed to 670.
[edit] Characters
The red, yellow, and blue Pikmin from the previous game return, along with two new colors of Pikmin, purple and white. Unlike the originals, they are not believed to come from the Onions which generate and house the three primary Pikmin colors, as no purple or white have yet been discovered. Instead, they are created when an existing Pikmin is thrown into a purple or white "Candypop bud", a type of flower found underground in caves. White Pikmin are a bit smaller than other Pikmin, although not necessarily weaker, and are extremely fast and immune to poisonous gases. They can also poison enemies who eat them. Purple Pikmin are bigger and a little taller than other Pikmin, and are very slow, but strong, and count for ten Pikmin when lifting things. When thrown, purple Pikmin land with a resounding 'Boom!' that can stun enemies.
There are also Bulbmin, a type of parasitic Pikmin that infects Bulborbs. Being in the body of a Bulborb protects them from drowning, electricution, burning, and poisoning (but then again bulborbs can be poisoned by white pikmin, suggesting that the white Pikmin have a different type of poison). They are found only in a few caves throughout the game, and they will assist the player-controlled captain in the cave in which they are found once their larger captain Bulborbs is killed. They cannot be removed from the cave.
[edit] Pikmin Characteristics
There are special traits shared by all pikmin, as well as many that are unique to special kinds. Every Pikmin has small arms and legs, and a head that is topped with a leaf, bud, or flower. As every Pikmin matures, they go in a state of maturity using the sequence that was just mentioned. The flower Pikmin, the most mature Pikmin, are the fastest and fiercest Pikmin fighters. The leaf Pikmin, which are the least mature, are quite slow and don't fight with the same ferocity. Bud Pikmin are somewhere in between.
Red Pikmin are the traditional (so far in the series) "starter Pikmin" that Olimar and Louie first find. They are generally the toughest fighters of all the known Pikmin species, and are also flame-resistant, making their strength against fire creatures invaluable. As well as being generalized by their bright red color, they also have a small, pointed nose.
Purple Pikmin are the strongest Pikmin. Instead of finding a purple Onion which sprouts them, they are a conversion of regular Pikmin that are tossed into purple flowers which can only be found in some caves. They are the heaviest Pikmin and strongest when it comes to lifting items, making their weight and lifting strength equal to that of 10 Pikmin. They are purple, but are also known for their hair and stocky bodies. They are found in the Emergence Cave in the Valley of Repose. They do more damage against enemies than Red Pikmin.
White Pikmin are the third Pikmin species the player finds. Like the Purple Pikmin, they can only be obtained by tossing them into flowers. They have multiple abbilities.The first is being able to unearth any item that is completely covered underground. The second and third are the immunity to poison and being able to poison any enemy that consumes them. They are smaller and skinnier than any other species, and have large red eyes. They are found in the White Flower Garden in the Awakening Wood.
Yellow Pikmin are another species of Pikmin that have an Onion with them to eat. Unlike the previous game, they do not wield bomb-rocks, but are now resistant to electricity, which allows them to tackle down gates made out of electrical wiring. They can be thrown higher than any other Pikmin breed, allowing them to lift up items that are too high for normal Pikmin to reach. They are yellow and have cat-like ears. They are found in the Perplexing Pool, idle in a tree.
Blue Pikmin are the last type of Pikmin one can find, as one needs Yellow Pikmin to acquire them. Similar to Pikmin, they are able to survive underwater without drowning due to their gills. This, of course, leads many opporitunities for water exploration and foraging with these Pikmin. They can also act as lifeguards and rescue any other Pikmin type drowning in water by simply being near them. They pick up and throw the rescued Pikmin back onto land. They are found chasing prey in a pool of water within the Awakening Wood.
[edit] Areas
The main action of the game takes place in four separate areas. The player chooses which area will be visited at the beginning of the day, and only one area may be visited each day. The areas contain treasures, enemies, and other gameplay elements. Also, caves can be found within each area. Each cave contains a set number of chambers called sublevels. Most sublevels are random in layout, but contain a set number of treasures and a set assortment of enemies and obstacles. Only a few sublevels overall are of a fixed layout. The final sublevel of each cave, except Emergence Cave, contains a "boss" creature. The above-ground areas have fixed layouts. It can be noted that all areas from Pikmin 2 are near replicas to the levels of the original game.
The Valley of Repose is the first area that is visited in the game. It is winter in this area, and most of it is covered in snow. Players learn most of the basics here, as well as find the red and purple Pikmin. There are three caves in this area, the second two of which aren't accessible until later in the game: the Emergence Cave, the Subterranean Complex, and the Frontier Cavern. There is a strong resemblance to Pikmin's Forest Navel.
The Awakening Wood is the second area in the game, and is opened up when an item that appears to be the northern hemisphere of a globe is found. It is spring in this area, and flower petals gently float down as opposed to the snow in the Valley of Repose. It is also the area where Blue Pikmin (which are inaccessible without Yellow Pikmin) and White Pikmin are found. This area was formerly known as The Forest of Hope in the first game, though it has slightly changed, presumably due to the passage of time. There are four caves in this area: the Hole of Beasts, the White Flower Garden, the Bulblax Kingdom, and the Snagret Hole.
The Perplexing Pool is the third area in the game, and is opened up when the other hemisphere of the globe is found. It is summer in this area, and the Yellow Pikmin can be found here, as well as the Bulbmin in the Submerged Castle. This area was formerly known as The Distant Spring in the first game, and like the Awakening Wood has changed little since its appearance in the original Pikmin. There are four caves in this area: the Citadel of Spiders, the Glutton's Kitchen, the Shower Room, and the Submerged Castle. The Submerged Castle cave is unique in two ways: firstly, the entrance is underwater, forcing the use of blue pikmin. No other colors can enter safely. Secondly, there is a hidden time limit on each sublevel after which the boss of the cave will appear, invincible until the final floor. He is known as the Waterwraith and can only be beaten by purple pikmin. This enemy is extremely dangerous, and puts more pressure on players than other caves.
The Wistful Wild is opened up when the player reaches the 10,000 Poko mark. It is autumn in this area. This area contains what was known in the first game as The Impact Site, as well as The Final Trial linked side by side. There are three caves in this area: the Cavern of Chaos, the Hole of Heroes, and the Dream Den. A unique treasure is located near the landing side, called the Doomsday Apparatus. This treasure requires 100 Purple Pikmin to carry it, but it is worth 3.000 pokos. However, since the President's debt has alrady been paid off, pokos are no longer an issue.
It can be noted that the landing site of Wistful Wild has a yield sign under it. In the Japanese version, it is a stop sign, as stop signs in Japan are triangular, not octagonal as in North America.
[edit] Reception
Pikmin 2 was rated the 47th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.[3]
- Famitsu Weekly - 36/40
- Famitsu Cube & Advance - 39/40
- Gamespot gave the game a 9.2, stating that the game fixed nearly every problem the original had.
- IGN gave Pikmin 2 a 9.3, and was extremely pleased at the multitude of ways the game had improved upon what was good about Pikmin and fixed the problems it had, such as a lack of multiplayer and a 30-day playing limit.
- DL Game Reviews - 9/10 and 8.9/10.0. Rated the second best game for Gamecube.
- X-Play - 4/5
[edit] "Totaka's Song"
"Totaka's Song" by Kazumi Totaka can be found in Pikmin 2. It has made appearances in other games composed by Totaka, such as Mario Paint, Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Link's Awakening, Yoshi Touch & Go, Super Mario Land 2, Virtual Boy Wario Land, Luigi's Mansion, and Yoshi's Story.
[edit] The future of the series
In an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, the interviewer asked if he planned to do anything with Pikmin. Miyamoto stated that "I certainly don't think we've seen the last of Pikmin," he said. "I definitely would like to do something with them, and I think the Wii interface in particular is very well suited to that franchise."[4]
Nintendo has also recently renewed its patent of the Pikmin franchise.[citation needed]
More recently, Captain Olimar appeared in Nintendo's fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Olimar plucks up to six pikmin of varying color for use as weapons.
[edit] References
- ^ Pikmin 2. cnet.com.au (October, 12th, 2004). Retrieved on 2006-09-29.
- ^ N-Sider.com: Nintendo History Lesson
- ^ “NP Top 200”, Nintendo Power 200: 58-66, February 2006.
- ^ IGN: E3 2007: Miyamoto: We Haven't Seen the Last of Pikmin
[edit] External links
- Pikmin Official Website
- Pikmin 2 at Nintendo.com (archives of the original at the Internet Archive)
- Pikmin Returns
- Pikmin 2 at GameFAQs
- Pikmin 2 at MobyGames
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