Lunabean's Pikmin 2 Review

Jeremy and I both loved the original "Pikmin". It has maintained its number 1 position on our Favorite Gamecube Game List, even after such greats as "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" and "Viewtiful Joe. There's something beautiful, pure and strategic about the Pikmin. "Pikmin" is the ultimate game for the gamer who loves both original Nintendo games and the puzzle solving genre. With that being said, "Pikmin 2" had a lot to live up to as far as we were concerned. Did it make it? Not so much. Is it still a great game? Absolutely.

Characters return and the story remains simple. In the original game Olimar crashed on the planet and it was your job to assign the Pikmin to various jobs and challenges in order to collect the 30 pieces of Olimar's space ship in 30 days (a Pikmin "day" equates to 15 minutes). This time Olimar and his subordinate, Louie, return to the planet to gather treasure in order to save their company on their home planet of Hocotate. They have as much time as they need and a few more Pikmin with which to play. They also have underground levels to explore, where time does not pass and team building is not an option.

The new Pikmin are a definite positive. The Purple Pikmin act as your Pikmin Sumo Wrestlers. They're bigger, they hit harder and they carry ten times the weight of regular Pikmin. Since they're only found in caves, they're more rare than the others and, therefore, need some special protecting. White Pikmin are also found in caves and are also on the rare side, but White Pikmin serve a different purpose as they are immune from poison, they act as the team excavators, and if an enemy gets a hold of one, well, let's just say the Whites don't go down easy. Like in the original, the Blue Pikmin love water, the Red Pikmin have no fear of fire, and the Yellow Pikmin are light and airy (Yellows also have a new and fun immunity to electricity).

What changed the game was the addition of the underground caves and the near elimination of the time requirement. As I stated before, you have as many days as necessary to collect all of the treasures. The time clock is still 15 minutes per day, but time does not pass while underground, and if you're collecting all 201 treasures, you're going to be spending the vast majority of your time underground. This requires a new way to strategize and, honestly, I wasn't comfortable with the change.

The new multi-player option to the game is definitely a good time, but it should only be thought of as an added bonus to the complete package as it does get old relatively quickly.

Again, there was something about the simplicity of the original that made it beautiful. These new additions, while improving the length and depth of game took away from the simplicity. However, that's just me. I held this game to a very high standard, and I was, therefore, disappointed. It was still a great gaming experience, and, for that I give it an 8.2. **This page, along with all pages at Lunabean.com, is copyrighted. You may not reproduce any portion of this page anywhere without the express written consent of Lunabean, LLC.
***Purchase required to print any portion of this guide.