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Pikmin 2 Review - Gamecube

No matter how many games have been released for the GameCube, Pikmin has proved to be one of the best. Making full use of the GameCube's abilities Pikmin turned out to be a surprise hit after much speculation. Although, it was Miyamoto himself who came up with the idea after working in his garden so Pikmin was already sure to be a best seller. By itself, Pikmin proved to have originality and a unique control system that let you guide 100 small creatures across four areas on an alien planet.

Gameplay

Set directly after the first Pikmin outing, Captain Olimar has landed back on his home world Hocotate to discover that Hocotate Freight (the company he works for) has become bankrupted since his 30-day absence. Our hero then teams up with Louie, who just happens to be the cause of company's bankruptcy, and goes to the home world of the Pikmin in search of treasure in order to help bring Hocotate Freight out of its debt. However, as you'll discover, the Pikmin planet has evolved a little bit with new creatures running amuck and two new Pikmin colours. Using the team of both Olimar and Louie, you'll be able to explore areas in groups of two as you take control over the Pikmin once more.

Pikmin are the good creatures on the strange planet that you will encounter, these guys are basically the soldiers that you order to do various tasks which include fighting enemies, carrying items and blowing up obstacles that block your path to an item. When carrying items, you will often have to have multiple Pikmin lift the item up and carry it back to base because usually items are bigger than the Pikmin themselves and of corse, this means more Pikmin have to help lift it. Orders are given by simply throwing the Pikmin at an item/enemy or by blowing a whistle, which will call your Pikmin to follow you. However, as with most creatures on Earth, Pikmin are assorted into five colour-groups, which have their own special abilities over each another. To some the groups up, Yellow Pikmin are resistant to electricity, Red Pikmin are resistant to fire and Blue Pikmin can swim in the water as apposed to the other groups which drown. New to the franchise are the White Pikmin who are resistant to poisons and can even poison enemies if they eat them. Last, but not least, are the new Purple Pikmin who are the fatter, yet stronger Pikmin that are ten times heavier and stronger than the other Pikmin. Be warned though that you may only have 100 Pikmin outside of their onion at any given time.

Onions are basically what the Pikmin live in but they also serve three other purposes. These purposes are to keep the Pikmin safe from predators outside, spawn new Pikmin and make it easier for you to organise your Pikmin-colour numbers because the Pikmin will be inside the onion ... (continued next page)