That Time I Played Every Pikmin Game

Ok, the title is a bit of a lie. I haven't played Hey! Pikmin or Pikmin Bloom. I learned my lesson when I spent my allowance money on Hey You Pikachu. You won't get me this time Miyamoto! I also haven't completely beaten Pikmin 4 at the time that this blog was written. We play fast and loose with the truth here at the SuperPod Network. Serendipity is a great SAT word and it's also the reason I played the mainline Pikmin games in 2024. Simply put, I played Pikmin 1 and 2 when they released on the Gamecube and never touched another Pikmin game until 3 was re-released on the Switch in 2020 (to the annoyance of all 3 people who had it on the Wii-U). In 2023 Nintendo followed this up with a brand new title that had been rumored for years: Pikmin 4. Our benevolent dictator Miyamoto decided 2023 would be a good year to have the entire series on Switch, and so 1 and 2 were bundled and ported as well. Serendipity indeed. As a result, I had the opportunity to revisit all 3 titles in the last 6 months, and I am nearing 100% completion in 4 as of today. From Miyamoto's gardening habit to my pen, what follows is a review of the Pikmin franchise.

It is well known that the GameCube is a beloved console. It is somewhat less well known outside of video game hobbyist spaces that it was a commercial failure. The console scarcely moved more units than the Saturn which almost singlehandedly removed Sega from the hardware board. Nintendo in the new millennium was determined to make their fans upset, and it worked. When consumers wanted Mario 128 and Ocarina of Time III, the big N gave them a talking water jetpack and cartoon Link. As far as Americans were concerned, it was the first console to debut without a Mario title. Mature games had made a steady march to pop culture domination during the Playstation 1's reign of terror, so naturally Miyamoto responded by developing one of his last titles before ascending to company deity in 2001, Pikmin: a cartoony RTS/puzzle hybrid starring little carrot plant things with eyes. One can scarcely imagine how Nintendo was able to survive financially in this environment (the answer is the sacred (cash) cow that is Pokemon).

The fact that Pikmin made it to 2023 at all while F-Zero and Star Fox languish on old consoles is almost certainly because of Miyamoto's hand. But like most of the landmark GameCube titles, the kid friendly graphics disguised an incredible game you wouldn't be able to find on PS2 or Xbox. Nintendo was already stepping into the Wii mindset of making games on their terms whether the consumer liked it or not.

The original Pikmin starts out with the barest of story: the protagonist, Olimar, finds himself crash landed on a planet with a toxic atmosphere heavily implied to be Earth (maybe he landed in Houston). Luckily for Olimar, he has enough oxygen in his suit to last 30 days. Theoretically more than enough time to get all the ship parts for the S.S. Dolphin (the GC's codename). Inexplicably there to assist him are little red creatures dubbed "Pikmin" who can fight monsters, collect parts, and remove obstacles all in Olimar's name.

The game's conceit is that the "30 days" really amounts to around a 15 minute span to complete as many tasks as possible in a world using red (fire proof), yellow (jump high/suicide bombers), and blue (can swim) Pikmin. You have to face every ADHD kid's greatest fear: time management. You also have to fight enemies that periodically respawn. This is not for the faint of heart; when the Pikmin get eaten they make pitiful little cries before their sad ghosts shimmer off into Pikmin Hades. Or maybe they go to heaven, but Thomas Aquinas doesn't think so. After getting all of the parts in 3 progressively difficult worlds, you face the ultimate test of your skills in building a bridge to the final boss: a gigantic bulbasaur looking monster who can wipe out your army pretty efficiently with his massive tongue. In today's world beating the game might take you 10 hours: the replayability was in young kids having to play through a few game overs to reach the finish line.

When it became clear that the GC was going to be a sunk cost, Nintendo commissioned sequels to games that could reuse assets and game engines a la Majora's Mask. This fact, combined with the God Emperor's forbearance, is why Pikmin 2 was released in 2004. In this game, it's revealed that Olimar works for a "black company" (the Japanese concept not Tyler Perry), and his boss immediately sends him back to Earth to collect treasure and make their company money. Much like Majora's Mask, Pikmin 2 looks a lot like its predecessor but represents a fundamental shift in how the game is played. Gone is the 30 day time limit. You can use as many 15 minute days as you need to provide shareholder value. Overworld exploration is also severely curtailed in an effort to save development time and money; the worlds of Pikmin 2 still contain enemies and treasure, but it's maybe half of what you had access to in Pikmin 1. This sounds like I'm mocking the game, but much like the 3 day time limit in Majora, the fix is genius. Pikmin 2 introduces procedurally generated dungeons, known as "caves" where time stops and you must clear floors to get all of the treasure.

Two recurring trends are also introduced: you get a second playable character in Louie, though both the character and the 2 character system don't really work. New flavors of Pikmin also make an appearance along with the return of red/yellow/blue (author's note: I just realized this was a Pokemon allusion); large combat oriented purple Pikmin and fast but weak white Pikmin. The dungeons have a massive difficulty spike towards the end and make Pikmin 2 the most difficult game in the series by far, but some of the charm from the first game is lost with the reduced overworld. Exploration in Pikmin 2 is not nearly as much fun. Still, it's worth playing today even if the boss rush made me want to throw my controller into the TV.

After this, Pikmin had a 9 year hiatus. It didn't sell particularly well on the GC, but hardly anything did. 1 and 2 did get re-released on the Wii, but otherwise that was all she wrote until 2013. Apparently 3 had been in development since at least 2007, but the game was moved to the Wii-U to bolster the lineup. In most cases a long hiatus for a game means that Nintendo can't figure out how to go in a new direction with a title. If that was the case with 3, they could've fooled me. Pikmin 3 is more of the same, but it is the best game in the franchise and I will die on that hill. The new plot is that 3 spacefarers from another planet that are not Olimar find his distress signal on Earth. At this point Olimar may have been the dad that went for milk and never came back since he seemingly hasn't seen his children since before the first game. While searching for Olimar they find treasure (which will make them money) and a new addition, fruit, which basically takes the place of ship parts but it is virtually impossible to run out of time in Pikmin 3.

What makes 3 so good is that it really perfects the formula established in 1. Gone are the procedurally generated dungeons; they are replaced with large overworlds begging to have their secrets penetrated. Everything that was enjoyable about 1 is cranked up to 11 with the added wrinkle of multiple playable characters that actually work. Now you can have one explorer clear enemies with red Pikmin while another is riding lily pads to hidden treasure with the rest of your squad. This really breaks down the gigantic worlds into digestible chunks and it only works because the Pikmin AI get a lot smarter in 3. Previously they would develop a mind of their own and if you weren't watching them constantly, you'd find them trying to break down an unbreakable wall or getting eaten by bug Pokemon. Now you can actually target their attention on multiple tasks. New flavors of Pikmin again make their debut with flying Pikmin, who have weak attack but have a wide reach that avoids obstacles, and rock Pikmin who can break down walls and are sort of a nerfed purple Pikmin in combat (seriously, the purple Pikmin were broken).

The only area where 3 really falls short is boss battles, both Pikmin 1 and 2 have more enjoyable encounters on the whole. The major exception is the final fight which, like 1, combines everything you've learned about dividing up your army amongst the 3 explorers to clear obstacles and escape this amorphous blob that's chasing you. After solving the various puzzles you get to face the blob in combat, which is a rigorous experience in and of itself. It is unlikely that you will be able to clear both of these challenges in one try which is the hallmark of a good final boss fight. To round things out, 3 adds a timed trial mode after you beat the game that is a lot of fun. If you're going to just play one Pikmin title, this it.

That's not to say that 4 is bad, if anything Pikmin is the most consistently good Nintendo franchise this side of Mario. Like its predecessors, 3 got stuck on a failing console and did not sell well. It once again entered a long hiatus, 10 years between the release of 3 and 4. It really is all about the sales figures, sorry Champ. In that time, the Switch developed a reputation for having the Midas touch: Zelda, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, and Kirby all had their best selling titles on the system. The time seemed right to take another crack at the Pikmin franchise, and they did not disappoint. Despite the praise I've just heeped on 3, 4 is still a title worthy of your time. Once again, Olimar has found himself mysteriously disappeared on Earth (guy avoids his family more than Goku). This time, he's not alone: a whole mess of people have been kidnapped by a leafy figure. Now an entire rescue corps is dispatched to solve the mystery.

For the first time, you get to create your own character, which doesn't have much bearing on the story. The conceit behind 4 is that you now get a dog to assist you. You can ride the dog at the cost of some speed, but it can sniff out treasure, fight enemies, and help drag treasure to your ship. All of the Pikmin types make their return along with a new type: Ice Pikmin, who can freeze enemies and water. Pikmin 4 does a good job of synthesizing all that came before it: the large overworlds from 3 return, and so do the caves. Mercifully, the caves are much shorter this time, and they have different modes to boot. You will have to complete objectives within a time limit, fight through floors of monsters like in 2, and take on these mysterious leafy aliens (that turn out to be possessed uh...I'm not sure what species Olimar is) in a race to see who can collect more treasure. This keeps things flowing smoothly, and unlike 2 there's plenty of exploration above ground as well. Lastly, you finally get to explore Earth at night in what is basically a tower defense mode where you spread your dog and your Pikmin army around defensive positions against hordes of enemies until sunrise. It's not particularly difficult but it's a welcome break from the game loop.

If I have to knock 4, it's that it starts out way too easy.. The first 3 worlds can be completed with little trouble by just about anyone. It's not until you hit the suburban house world (the final confirmation that we're on Earth) and the primordial thicket that the game gets reasonably difficult. Additionally, Pikmin 4 introduces a whole mess of side characters in the rescue corps, and they have far too much dialogue. The game really holds your hand in the early worlds which makes for a slog. Nintendo needs to take a page from BOTW's book and just drop you into the world. Despite these nitpicks, Pikmin 4 is easily one of the best games released in a very crowded 2023. If you missed it in the rush of TOTK and BG3, give Pikmin 4 a look.

Overall, this is one of the best series from a company renowned for its great games. I highly recommend all 4 Pikmin titles to anyone, even if it (regrettably) lacks titties and F bombs. Sometimes you have to take a break from killing hookers in GTA to clear a pile of rubble in Pikmin. If you didn't own a Gamecube or a Wii U, which I wouldn't blame you for, there has never been a better time to get into the series.