Holy shit this game is just as bad as everyone says. Its really just boring innit. Bad game.
This game is so much better than I expected! I love that this feels more like a DS game than a 3DS game. Levels sprawl between both screens and you use touch controls to attack. It’s such a strangely nostalgic experience in the sense it feels like it came out in 2004. Love the ui as well.
the lynchpin of pikmin 1 discourse is the time limit; intensely upsetting for some and the core of the game's appeal to others. this 30 day time limit serves a dual function: it not only provides a rigid skill barrier for players to overcome in order to reach an acceptable ending, but it also enhances the fear of the unknown. pikmin 1 explicitly highlights olimar's journey as one of necessity, where his survival is never guaranteed or even feasible. he has absolutely no understanding of the planet he's landed on (though his observations form valuable foreknowledge for later series protagonists), and thus every interaction he has with the unfamiliar flora and fauna must be taken with care. the time limit synergizes with this to create a looming, uncertain objective. without a layout of the planet to observe and plan around, every single miniscule decision becomes weighed against hundreds of similiarly small decisions down the line based on their efficiency. this creates an anxious drive to further improve and strategize, with the tension of olimar's life on the line ever growing the more you commit to your actions. while this system is static and not particularly interactive from a mechanical standpoint, and pikmin 3 would toy with its implications on routing via the fruit juice system, pikmin 1's implementation remains finely tuned to maximize the fear of unfettered exploration.
it may surprise you, then, that hey pikmin expertly turns this immersive friction on its head. from the moment it begins, one can sense that this olimar is older, less naive, and more familiar with the eccentricities of faraway planets. when he crash-lands on yet another planet, there is little in the way of suspense or anxiety. immediately there is a new objective put in front of him: 30,000 sparklium needed as fuel to escape. to the casual player, this might seem like an ordinary challenge, one that scarcely can capture the emotional resonance of the original pikmin. many have struggled to stay with this game because of it. I know I fell prey to this way of thinking myself.
however, after a mere few worlds, the genius of this requirement becomes apparent. the necessary sparklium to leave the planet is vast, and the rate at which you obtain it seems slight in comparison. the old fear began setting in, just as potent and all-consuming as before. even without an explicit time limit, hey pikmin weaves the claustrophobia of pikmin 1 by fostering a profound sense of ennui. this is a game shrouded in decay, obsessed with teasing out the ending drops of lust for adventure; exhaustively interrogating olimar's exploitation of each world he encounters. its minimalist level design and mechanics follow suit. I quickly found the further in I dug that these elements combine together to make every second spent fruitlessly in the game's world to be wasted time. every empty corridor without much sparklium or moment of inelegant routing through a level reintroduced that telltale anxiety, the feeling that I might have let more precious seconds slip through my hands. in these times I felt like olimar, synapses blown from an overexposure to new, meaningless experiences while desiring only to escape the planet.
beyond my personal feelings, the game's use of its sparklium as a ludonarrative device becomes essential for routing as well, as there is a vital interplay between treasure collection and overall "speedrunning" through the critical path. while the game features a significant amount of treasure, secret stages, and other collectables, the heady brew of boredom concocted by its featureless environments and slow progression are obviously intended to ensure that no player would be able to stomach actually taking a completionist route through the game (it wouldn't make sense for olimar to want to spend more time on the planet). therefore, the player is met with a choice at every fork in their road. will they spend valuable time searching for more treasure in each level and risk spending unnecessary time playing the game when easier treasure exists later on, or will they beeline towards the exit, expecting that it will be more time efficient to gather treasure in a later level? while this may sound similar to how pikmin 1 lays out many of its interactables such as destroyable gates and bridges that may be unnecessary in the long run, hey pikmin makes a major refinement to this formula. pikmin 1's time limit is cloying and artificial; it forces the player to consider their time spent playing as wasted through the mechanic. hey pikmin manages to instill the feeling of wasted time through its own design; a much more organic solution. this wouldn't be possible if the developers didn't center the game around this simultaneously rich yet hollow sensation of weariness. its lack of design speaks volumes. this unique manipulation of the player's expectations on platformer design spoke to me; I felt a wave of relief that brought me to the verge of tears when I finally reached my sparklium goal a mere two stages before the game was set to finish, saving myself from further time spent backtracking through old levels for treasure.
hey pikmin further breaks down the series' valorization of far-flung exploration by providing a new perspective on the relationship between olimar and the pikmin. other games in the series establish olimar as a paternal figure to the pikmin, as he guides their reproduction through the onion. while the onion is briefly featured in hey pikmin, olimar's primary method of gathering pikmin to his cause is now pulling them out of marked spots in the environment. these spots often replenish when your pikmin stock gets too low, creating an uneasy sense of worthlessness to maintaining a full pack of pikmin. furthermore, pikmin procured in each level are simply discarded after the fact, with olimar extracting more and more pikmin from the environment in each level. indeed, this game goes furthest in suggesting that olimar's direction of the otherwise-sentient pikmin violates their personhood and sense of worth.
there are two main aspects to this. the first is another ludonarrative trick that the series has had up its sleeve since the first entry. this is an incredibly subtle touch by the developers, so it may not be obvious to some, but by making the pikmin AI horrifically stupid, it actually conveys the idea that the pikmin themselves are stupid. hey pikmin goes out of its way to show that olimar takes the pikmin into situations outside of their natural environment they are highly ill-equipped for cognitively, such as moving platforms, small differences in elevation, and areas near tiny enemies. this recklessness on the part of olimar juxtaposed with his inability to emote and lack of character comes off as a recharacterization of him as perhaps sociopathic. hey pikmin approaches this idea from another direction as well; in what seems like a homage to the strong anti-capitalist themes of pikmin 2, olimar uses the pikmin cast aside at the end of each level as a task force for resource extraction in other parts of the planet. this small between-level management minigame reeks of colonial exploitation, casting a new shadow at olimar's "activities" on each planet he visits. while pikmin 2 analyzed the economic implications of resource extraction from the untainted wilderness, hey pikmin instead centers those desperate workers forced into servitude at the fringes of empire.
vastly overlooked by the majority of the gaming public thanks to its late release in the life of the 3ds and seeming low-budget status, hey pikmin is a crowning aesthetic achievement that none should miss. it brilliantly unravels the myths behind pikmin as a series while simultaneously building upon the ideas of its forebears. pass it by only if you want to miss a shocking portrait of the listlessness and apathetic abuse at the heart of exploration. a forward step for the medium; sleep paralysis in video game form.
it may surprise you, then, that hey pikmin expertly turns this immersive friction on its head. from the moment it begins, one can sense that this olimar is older, less naive, and more familiar with the eccentricities of faraway planets. when he crash-lands on yet another planet, there is little in the way of suspense or anxiety. immediately there is a new objective put in front of him: 30,000 sparklium needed as fuel to escape. to the casual player, this might seem like an ordinary challenge, one that scarcely can capture the emotional resonance of the original pikmin. many have struggled to stay with this game because of it. I know I fell prey to this way of thinking myself.
however, after a mere few worlds, the genius of this requirement becomes apparent. the necessary sparklium to leave the planet is vast, and the rate at which you obtain it seems slight in comparison. the old fear began setting in, just as potent and all-consuming as before. even without an explicit time limit, hey pikmin weaves the claustrophobia of pikmin 1 by fostering a profound sense of ennui. this is a game shrouded in decay, obsessed with teasing out the ending drops of lust for adventure; exhaustively interrogating olimar's exploitation of each world he encounters. its minimalist level design and mechanics follow suit. I quickly found the further in I dug that these elements combine together to make every second spent fruitlessly in the game's world to be wasted time. every empty corridor without much sparklium or moment of inelegant routing through a level reintroduced that telltale anxiety, the feeling that I might have let more precious seconds slip through my hands. in these times I felt like olimar, synapses blown from an overexposure to new, meaningless experiences while desiring only to escape the planet.
beyond my personal feelings, the game's use of its sparklium as a ludonarrative device becomes essential for routing as well, as there is a vital interplay between treasure collection and overall "speedrunning" through the critical path. while the game features a significant amount of treasure, secret stages, and other collectables, the heady brew of boredom concocted by its featureless environments and slow progression are obviously intended to ensure that no player would be able to stomach actually taking a completionist route through the game (it wouldn't make sense for olimar to want to spend more time on the planet). therefore, the player is met with a choice at every fork in their road. will they spend valuable time searching for more treasure in each level and risk spending unnecessary time playing the game when easier treasure exists later on, or will they beeline towards the exit, expecting that it will be more time efficient to gather treasure in a later level? while this may sound similar to how pikmin 1 lays out many of its interactables such as destroyable gates and bridges that may be unnecessary in the long run, hey pikmin makes a major refinement to this formula. pikmin 1's time limit is cloying and artificial; it forces the player to consider their time spent playing as wasted through the mechanic. hey pikmin manages to instill the feeling of wasted time through its own design; a much more organic solution. this wouldn't be possible if the developers didn't center the game around this simultaneously rich yet hollow sensation of weariness. its lack of design speaks volumes. this unique manipulation of the player's expectations on platformer design spoke to me; I felt a wave of relief that brought me to the verge of tears when I finally reached my sparklium goal a mere two stages before the game was set to finish, saving myself from further time spent backtracking through old levels for treasure.
hey pikmin further breaks down the series' valorization of far-flung exploration by providing a new perspective on the relationship between olimar and the pikmin. other games in the series establish olimar as a paternal figure to the pikmin, as he guides their reproduction through the onion. while the onion is briefly featured in hey pikmin, olimar's primary method of gathering pikmin to his cause is now pulling them out of marked spots in the environment. these spots often replenish when your pikmin stock gets too low, creating an uneasy sense of worthlessness to maintaining a full pack of pikmin. furthermore, pikmin procured in each level are simply discarded after the fact, with olimar extracting more and more pikmin from the environment in each level. indeed, this game goes furthest in suggesting that olimar's direction of the otherwise-sentient pikmin violates their personhood and sense of worth.
there are two main aspects to this. the first is another ludonarrative trick that the series has had up its sleeve since the first entry. this is an incredibly subtle touch by the developers, so it may not be obvious to some, but by making the pikmin AI horrifically stupid, it actually conveys the idea that the pikmin themselves are stupid. hey pikmin goes out of its way to show that olimar takes the pikmin into situations outside of their natural environment they are highly ill-equipped for cognitively, such as moving platforms, small differences in elevation, and areas near tiny enemies. this recklessness on the part of olimar juxtaposed with his inability to emote and lack of character comes off as a recharacterization of him as perhaps sociopathic. hey pikmin approaches this idea from another direction as well; in what seems like a homage to the strong anti-capitalist themes of pikmin 2, olimar uses the pikmin cast aside at the end of each level as a task force for resource extraction in other parts of the planet. this small between-level management minigame reeks of colonial exploitation, casting a new shadow at olimar's "activities" on each planet he visits. while pikmin 2 analyzed the economic implications of resource extraction from the untainted wilderness, hey pikmin instead centers those desperate workers forced into servitude at the fringes of empire.
vastly overlooked by the majority of the gaming public thanks to its late release in the life of the 3ds and seeming low-budget status, hey pikmin is a crowning aesthetic achievement that none should miss. it brilliantly unravels the myths behind pikmin as a series while simultaneously building upon the ideas of its forebears. pass it by only if you want to miss a shocking portrait of the listlessness and apathetic abuse at the heart of exploration. a forward step for the medium; sleep paralysis in video game form.
Completed it a long time ago, but now, after playing it for a couple worlds, yeah it can definitely be a 10+ hour-long slog that I probably wouldn't want to do again and would rather just focus on my backlog, but it's still fun, and the Pikmin cutscenes were pretty cute to look at (that you can skip after seeing them the first time), alongside the description for treasure being just as grand as always. I say it's worth at least one try.
This game managed to do something illegal by making me absolutely sick of seeing Pikmin do cute Pikmin things. I just want to slowly plod around my sparse environments at glacial speed with my sadsack pilot who moves like there's a dump in his pants but the game keeps interrupting me and going "Look, the Pikmin are screaming and running away again! You can't skip this cutscene!".
Gave this game an extra half star because it has treasure and I love reading depressing Olimar commentary.
Gave this game an extra half star because it has treasure and I love reading depressing Olimar commentary.
Played about 3 worlds, it's about exactly what you'd expect to get by translating Pikmin's helper management to 2D. I don't think you could get anything out of this unless you're a kid, it's very mundane and low on the difficulty spectrum. Its ideas for 'challenges' are shit like, oh, there's a collectible in this one spot and you can't backtrack to get it, now you gotta replay the level all the way from the beginning to get it now that you know where it is. It also has Nintendo bosses, which uh, don't belong in a Pikmin game.
Actually the more I think about it this game is actually just bad, people were right about it, it's flat-out boring and mind-numbing. Literally only for kids.
Actually the more I think about it this game is actually just bad, people were right about it, it's flat-out boring and mind-numbing. Literally only for kids.
I like to pretend this game never existed
so, i went into this game WANTING to like it. i was hopeful. but its so bad guys, like so so bad. i literally stopped playing it and started playing the New Play versions of Pikmin 1 and 2 instead, even tho i had just beat them
Positive note - the little cutscenes you get of Pikmin doing Pikmin things are cute and give those little flower creatures a lot of character that you don't see as much in the mainline games, and that charm did a lot of heavy lifting here.
It's a shame then those same cutscenes kill all momentum you might have in every level in an already glacial-speed platformer. I feel like there are nuggets of good ideas here which I think could have been turned into a decent puzzle platformer-squad management combination but it's something that's barely explored and most of your time devolves into slowly wading through a level and bashing the screen throwing your Pikmin from that stage (usually of just a single type) at any enemy that appears with no thought whatsoever. Some levels have two types of Pikmin (and maybe one has three!) but I only counted a single occasion where this change required any additional thought.
It takes 8 worlds (per world that's 5 stages, one boss encounter, one bonus level and four puzzle levels) for any semblance of challenge to appear and only then because of the risk of falling off a stage and being sent back to the very beginning.
At least it's better than Chibi-Robo Zip Lash.
It's a shame then those same cutscenes kill all momentum you might have in every level in an already glacial-speed platformer. I feel like there are nuggets of good ideas here which I think could have been turned into a decent puzzle platformer-squad management combination but it's something that's barely explored and most of your time devolves into slowly wading through a level and bashing the screen throwing your Pikmin from that stage (usually of just a single type) at any enemy that appears with no thought whatsoever. Some levels have two types of Pikmin (and maybe one has three!) but I only counted a single occasion where this change required any additional thought.
It takes 8 worlds (per world that's 5 stages, one boss encounter, one bonus level and four puzzle levels) for any semblance of challenge to appear and only then because of the risk of falling off a stage and being sent back to the very beginning.
At least it's better than Chibi-Robo Zip Lash.
What a piece of garbage. Runs like shit, looks like shit, gameplay is shit.
Pikmid fans only hate it because it’s actually good
Pikmin is a game that doesn't work in a 2D setting. I had fun playing through it but think of all the games in the series, this one is the worst. That being said it isn't horrible and is unique for what it is. Also I think that this game only works for the 3DS two screen system, this wouldn't work on any other console. Still a good game but I wouldn't replay it.
It's a mediocre boring 3ds platformer. Nothin interesting, nothin cool about it, nothin nothin nothin. It hit the senses like white bread and leaves an aftertaste that's comparable of tap water. 5/10, not bad, not good, does exist!
my honest reaction to that information
Dont know why people hate the game. Love the little intros to the pikmin
Hey! Pikmin is not extraordinary, but it's a perfectly suitable handheld spin-off for its series. While the visual fidelity and performance is lacking, the novel use of both screens in its controls allows it to feel like a worthy addition to the Pikmin franchise.
Juego aburrido nose como llegue al mundo 6 hay como 8 o yo que se
this is not pikmin,but i liked the little duck dudes
this game is so fucking slow
Don't think I've played a game more boring than this. I kinda wanted to finish it so I could tear it apart in detail but it's just such a slog that I can't bring myself to open it again. It lacks the fun movement that would make it a fun platformer, and lacks the challenge to make it a fun puzzle game. From the few worlds that I played through there is nothing in this game worth checking out.
at least I can actually aim in this game :^)
Nope, Never Happened, Doesn't Exist
Author's note:
Played on Citra Nightly 1946.
This is probably the worst thing I've reviewed on this account and the first thing I've had to drop since New Pokemon Snap. The touchscreen controls feel awful and the level design is just a bunch of enemies with ether high HP (relative to lack of combat depth) or crazy reaction times and a few very basic puzzles that honestly feel like they'd be boring even for kids playing this in 2017 when you compare it to other touchscreen controlled games targeting that demographic in the late 2010s like Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, and the IOS port of Fortnite. Like I am baffled this made it out of playtesting session let alone shipped as a $40 release at launch. People are probably gonna argue I should have played more but if a game's fundamentals are just so plain and unpleasant it can be hard for a player to shake off this initial disgust (for lack of better term) and in my experience that will usually end up with a game being made a perpetual backlog slot that never gets touched again. I honestly don't even thinks this merits a full review with proper structured writing. Hence this rambly blurb. I hope the dev team grew from this experience and used it as learning experience to grow as artists because having this on your resume has gotta be rough.
Played on Citra Nightly 1946.
This is probably the worst thing I've reviewed on this account and the first thing I've had to drop since New Pokemon Snap. The touchscreen controls feel awful and the level design is just a bunch of enemies with ether high HP (relative to lack of combat depth) or crazy reaction times and a few very basic puzzles that honestly feel like they'd be boring even for kids playing this in 2017 when you compare it to other touchscreen controlled games targeting that demographic in the late 2010s like Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, and the IOS port of Fortnite. Like I am baffled this made it out of playtesting session let alone shipped as a $40 release at launch. People are probably gonna argue I should have played more but if a game's fundamentals are just so plain and unpleasant it can be hard for a player to shake off this initial disgust (for lack of better term) and in my experience that will usually end up with a game being made a perpetual backlog slot that never gets touched again. I honestly don't even thinks this merits a full review with proper structured writing. Hence this rambly blurb. I hope the dev team grew from this experience and used it as learning experience to grow as artists because having this on your resume has gotta be rough.
Arzest's best game.
this being attached to pikmin is where a lot of the anger comes from, but even completely ignoring that it’s an absurdly boring game that overstays its welcome. there’s some small glimmers of fun (namely any level that focuses on the pink pikmin and changes things up) and the bosses are overall fine, but really only the final boss gets interesting and even then it’s nothing particularly special.
there isn’t anything awful about this game, it has some of the pikmin charm the series is known for like the cute little mid level cutscenes and the names/log entries of treasures. that isn’t enough to fix the insane amount of boredom this game has, if you think the concept sounds vaguely fun just go play kirby mass attack. it’s an infinitely more fun 2d platformer where you throw a ton of little guys around. this game sucked!
there isn’t anything awful about this game, it has some of the pikmin charm the series is known for like the cute little mid level cutscenes and the names/log entries of treasures. that isn’t enough to fix the insane amount of boredom this game has, if you think the concept sounds vaguely fun just go play kirby mass attack. it’s an infinitely more fun 2d platformer where you throw a ton of little guys around. this game sucked!
DMC fans and Pikmin fans both had to wait a full decade while waiting for the next numbered entry. And then inbetween they both got pieces of shit to hold them over (even though I haven't played DmC:DMC yet). I should probably be thankful that I skipped out on this one back in 2017 cause jesus christ this was boring. It does have some charming bits with the Pikmin during the levels but thats it.
At least it didn't kill the franchise just like what happened with Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash.
At least it didn't kill the franchise just like what happened with Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash.
This game single handedly killed me, brought me back to life, tortured me, inflated me like a balloon, shat me out, aggressively blew out my eardrums, and created that annoying ass clucking sound that I still hear in my dreams and I haven’t even started talking about the second level.
Strange how we have only 3 Pikmin games and Pikmin Bloom, you’d think they would make another game or something between 3 and 4 at some point but I guess not, weird…
La gente lo trata fatal y me esperaba algo mucho peor, obviamente no es una locura pero me ha gustado más de lo que imaginaba, los enemigos son bastante originales y la musiquilla me ha gustado bastante
i was playing a spinoff game of some other series when i realized that treating hey pikmin like it was bad solely because it wasnt a mainline pikmin game was really wack!
so i acquired this game from the freeshop and tried it out and
yeah it wasn't very good
never beat it though i did play through several levels so it's not like i didnt try
but man
theres so many other more interesting and fun games out there
i mean truly this game is in a dilemma
it's not interesting enough to be fun for new players, and it's extremely disappointing to old fans of the pikmin series
so thats sad
so i acquired this game from the freeshop and tried it out and
yeah it wasn't very good
never beat it though i did play through several levels so it's not like i didnt try
but man
theres so many other more interesting and fun games out there
i mean truly this game is in a dilemma
it's not interesting enough to be fun for new players, and it's extremely disappointing to old fans of the pikmin series
so thats sad