My God every cloud has a silver lining and not getting a Wii opened a whole new world to me full of brightly coloured Pikmin.
I love it, I'm only onto day with 6 parts and hunting wildly for the "Blue Onion".
What a charming little title, I've had it in my collection for a while now but never cracked the case open.
The pacing is wonderful I'm constantly being rewarded with parts each day, and whilst some puzzles seem to be a bit confusing, I'm pretty much sure that's due to me having to explore other areas to gain new parts/pikmin. To then later return to a previous area on the map.
The puzzles themselves are great fun to work out, challenging (for me) but not so hard that I want to give up at the first hurdle.
I love the notion of grouping pikmin together to collectively complete a task like say expanding those wooden bridges. I'm slowly but surely remembering my Starcraft skills where you could never have a group sitting idle, which I'm slowly implementing into my Pikmin game play for example one group knocking down a wall; while another group are fighting off those giant bugs.
I don't really want to but the joypad down cos I'm having such a blast playing it, did anyone else have as much fun with this title as I'm having?
It really is a great game isn't it? Near-perfect design, and a great place to explore.
The only real problem with the first is the time limit - I don't think the game makes it quite clear enough what should happen if you miss an important piece, and first time through there is no help in judging how much time you have to explore picking up the extra pieces.
I've watched someone play this through three times, and miss one vital piece each time...
That is sort of fixed in the second, but it removes any sense of urgency. The dungeons in Pikmin 2 completely break the consistancy of the whole thing, although it is still worth playing.
Yeah I remember getting this when it came out, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's sort of strategy-lite, big N style.
The whole atmosphere is a delight; you kinda want to sit back and take it all in and explore, but apart from the first few days you just can't afford to.
I recall a great sense of pride watching my carefully nurtured band of pikmin team up to smash a giant beetle.
The last few stages get tough, and the lush green foliage of the opening days is replaced by some harsh landscapes, but it always remains good fun.
The last few stages get tough, and the lush green foliage of the opening days is replaced by some harsh landscapes, but it always remains good fun.
I've just hit this part of the map, although I just had a quick look without saving anything I can see a harder area to explore.
I'm really loving this game, I'm 15 days in with 15 parts, although the last end of day report I read, referred to something that Papercut mentioned that not all the 30 parts are essential. So I dunno if I've got all the 'good' ones, I've also now dodged both bosses I've come across cos I'm a wimp and they seem quite difficult.
It's such a fab game though, the music just adds to it's tranquil nature, and slowly but surely some many little additions to the gameplay are becoming apparent.
Like taking time out to make sure you're Pikmin bloom, so they move quicker and occasionally once killed, produce a seed so it's almost like they're reincarnated
Played half of this in Japanese (By half I mean about 5 days) then tried again in English... that certainly helped... never really progressed that far, the ever looming time objective freaked me out considerably... it stalks you in whatever you do.... But I REALLY want to finish this game.... I think the premise was that you were meant to spoon up first time round then play again with more knowledge. I believe Pikmin 2 addressed a few of my issues... but I think Pikmin 1 is a more puuuurre experience if you know what I mean.
I can see the time thing getting on some people's nerves but I've kinda got around that by having cloned saves at various different points so I can fall back, without having to start the game over again cos my days are over and the poor ol' fella get back home
I dunno if that's deemed cheating or not, but that's how most people do RPG's so I can't be the only person to of played Pikmin in this manor.
I can see me nailing this game 30/30 quite quickly which is great, as I don't have to deal with the bloat that most games seem to come with these days.
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"Does it have a roll button?"
I don't clone saves on principle. Never have done, never will. Adds to the flava! (or makes games more and more frightening)
I don't clone saves on principle. Never have done, never will. Adds to the flava! (or makes games more and more frightening)
Go away and play FF Tactics GBA to near completion. Leave it for six months, go back and then fuck up by forgetting about the Law system and getting all of your high level characters killed off without really registering the fact only to then save over your save game and then tell me you wouldn't consider cloning. GRrrrrrr.
I completed this today what an amazing title.
Every area is superbly crafted, it's so relaxing playing the intial levels, then as the difficulty cranks up, you actually start to feel an urgency about you wandering around the map.
I also felt all warm inside watching my Pikmin defeat a big foe or building a bridge.
The difficulty spikes are perfectly placed and I always felt guided along the way the end of day reports, are a great way to introduce new concepts to you as you go along or act as gentle reminders.
It's the perfect length for me really, it certainly isn't to taxing and can be played in tiny chunks at your own leisure.
Fab title 8/10
Oh and I got 29/30 parts I just missed one the final big boss, but I'll prolly have a replay to mash him up.
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"Does it have a roll button?"
I found the spector of time pervaids the titles, intertwined... Half of me knows its a Nintendo game, so it can't be that gittacious.
Must try it again.
I suspect a Wii version has an inevitability.
Hmm could work well. Olimar on the nunchuck and pickmin picking on the remote. This game never really grabbed me. One to add to my ever increasing list of 'must finish' titles