Just wanna quickly say that Louie is a menace and also one of the funniest characters I’ve ever come across simply by existing; me and a friend of mine found him and the face icons he has in the battle mode the funniest shit ever, and now that I’ve finally played and beat the game, I’m happy to say he’s just as deranged as I hoped him to be. His deadpan expression in the credits as he’s left stranded will never not be hilarious.

I think there’s no better way to see and understand just how much Pikmin 2 differs from the original than by just looking at how it handles the end of a day in both games:

In the first game, we are given a peek into Olimar’s thoughts thanks to its captain log, a collection of texts he himself acknowledges deep down may go unread by other eyes if he’s to fail in his mission, somber pieces that show glimmers of hope as he gathers more parts and discovers more and more about the fauna of this strange new world.

In Pikmin 2 we get a bunch of comical e-mails, most of them focused on the Boss’ misadventures escaping the space IRS and as he becomes friends with wild animals.

And I love both approaches almost equally.

2 may still revolve around having an army of 100 little aliens following you and most of the elements that it introduces and expands upon are from systems already present in 1, but as experience on its own, Pikmin 2 clearly strives for VERY different things than that of the first entry, things that distance it from the meditative and time-management experience that it once was and instead made a… I honestly struggled to find ways to exactly describe it, but I think the better term for it would be ‘’arcadie’’.

Pikmin 2 is an inherently ‘’arcadie’’ experience, more challenge based than ever and removing the external factors like the 30 day time limit and putting all lights on the core mechanics of managing the legion of these adorable colored aliens. A lot of the tension is gone, but at the same time is substituted by the challenges the caverns and even the surface holds… not that those some of those challenges are exactly great but ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh BOI we’ll get to that when we get to that.

I’m gonna be blunt, I fucking LOVE these ideas and this direction for a Pikmin sequel; I really thing you can’t exactly pull off the same thing 1 did without it feeling lesser or making both games less special by proxy, so instead… they didn’t do 1 again, and I really like that, furthermore, I commend the BALLS to have such a banger idea like that of Pikmin and pivot into a complete different direction tonally and structurally wise.

Hell, Pikmin 2 kinda fixes every single qualm I had with the original game! The flowers that once felt underused and a huge miss potential? Now they are a godsend, the only way to obtain other colored Pikmin in dungeons PLUS being the only source of both White and Purple Pikmin, which is also nice, considering how useful they are (specially the latter) and how it acts as a neat way of balancing and keeping the numbers of that Pikmin low, they may not outright fix just how powerful Purples are and how Whites are generally more useful than the three main types, but I like it! The bridges getting destroyed? Now it actually feels impactful, since they now act more as shortcuts than ever before and sometimes they are even mandatory pathways. And the Pikmin AI? THEY FIXED IT, SWEET MOTHER OF HOCOTATE THEY FUCKING FIXED IT. They still sometimes act dumb and get distracted even when it kills them BUT I DO NOT CARE, THAT’S PRETTY FUNNY AND NOW THE FRUSTRATING PART IS GONE; I lost like, 2 Pikmin to drowning in the entire game, and that plus the returning hazards being generally more manageable (emphasis on manageable) makes it feels far more lenient in that regard and eliminates the only enraging aspect I found in the first game, WE ARE SO BACK WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

And to be completely honest, even tho as I said I do like the e-mails and what they represent, hearing about the President and Olimar’s family wouldn’t be as cool if the Piklopedia wasn’t also on here. Reading through Olimar’s (and eventually Louie’s) thoughts about the creatures and objects they come across is such a interesting and cool evolution of the captain logs, while also functioning as a sort of easy tracker for completionist and perfectly fitting with the more laid-back tone. Plus, the text themselves are really entertaining, nothing’s better than reading of Olimar and Louie being a comical duo and seign this small fellas and the ship trying to make sense of common human artifacts, it’s a super pleasant experience to go through, just like some of the changes!

Gathering and farming Pikmin feels a lot faster and rewarding, the new sprays are amazing tools that make certain sections far more tolerable, returning to areas from the first game and see just how much they changed and how each basically represents one of the four seasons and they all feel equal in scale… I like these tweaks! Pikmin 2 doesn’t seem to me interested in introducing quality of life changes, but more so to accommodate for the treasure hunting and more linear gameplay of the caverns… or at least it tries to. Sometimes it succeeds, like in everything I just said up until that point but… I think it’s time… it’s time to be a meanie.

Pikmin 2’s pitch is incredible; like picture this: you can play as two captains, the world is now full of caves which are entire more linear gauntlets that test your Pikmin management abilities to your limits, and now there are more bosses, enemies, and surprises than ever on top of the normal surface exploration! Sounds like a killer game, and it would be!... But Pikmin 2 flounders in every single one of these aspects in some way or another, in a one step forward one step back kind of way, two in the worst of cases…

Having two captains sounds nice, and it kinda is. Like I said, we have Louie which is peak, and eventually we get to play as the President which is funny, and every single character gets his own whistle AND theme variations on top of the constantly changing music, which to me is insane and an amazing detail that elevates this game’s soundtrack to even greater heights. But… I don’t know, on the one hand is kinda nice to not have to go back to base change Pikmin constantly since you can do it with one while the other captain is exploring, but… it feels clunky? In 1, everything felt like constant motion, even during downtime, and even then, you could take those moments of waiting for Pikmin to bring back something or bringing down a wall to do some other stuff. Here, while a cool new addition, I feel like is doing the same we once did with extra steps. You still have to control manually each captain, and I think having at least one option to make a captain go automatically to a certain part of the map while you control the other could have been an incredible addition, ‘cause as it is it doesn’t feel satisfying, not I feel like the game itself uses it in interesting ways.

The tutorial leads you to believe that there may be times when both captains may be separated or may need to resolve puzzles together to progress, and the caves sound like a perfect opportunity to create that kind of challenge, right?!... I think that in all the caverns I completed, only one boss required me to use both captains, and it wasn’t a particularly fun fight either; and in the surface, I can only remember one cool puzzle that asked coordination of the dynamic duo, soooo… yeah… I think I spend like 75% of the game with the Captains together, and considering the potential of this idea, that’s a huge bummer, to be honest…

It's a weird thing ‘cause I don’t know if the problem resides in the game biting more than it can chew, or simply poor execution… That’s funny, now that I think about it, that could also be said about the caves and their relationship with the surface-OH NOES.

Listen, I like the caves… I think. Considering what this game is trying to be, considering its focus is found on endurance test and hunting for items and creating a cool recollection extravaganza, the caves are a no brainer. They can be fun challenges, it feels rewarding to grab treasure and clean rooms from enemies, it’s satisfying to complete them and overcome their challenges. The caves are fun, the caves are cool… SOMETIMES.

This game… this fucking game… it’s a fucking looney, to put it lightly. The caves don’t take prisoners, THEY DEMAND BLOOD. Every single moment of frustration that could be found in the original game PALES as the mere sight of three rock bombs falling at the same time while being chased by a Bluborb on flames, or at the avalanche of spiders that steal your items or carry more rock bombs, or the barrage of enemies in tight corridors that launch every projectile imaginable while you are surrounded by some of the most punishing hazards I’ve seen in a while (LOOKING AT YOU, ELECTRCITY), or better yet, everything I just mentioned at the same time while boulders are falling out of nowhere! What could be worse than thi- OH GOD NOT THE FUCKING FROGS

This game throws at you so much unpredictable bullshit at the same time at some point I began to wonder if I was going insane or if I was just bad at the game, but after the madness of the late game caverns I think it’s safe to say they went sicko mode in the worst way possible. Plus, every single cavern floor’s layout is randomly generated every time you load and for the life of me, I have no clue why. The enemies and treasures and always the same, yeah, but when you are met with corridors that let to nowhere and entire sections FLOODED with enemies, explosions, and impossible to reach treasures unless you have the exact number of Pikmin of one type, I couldn’t stop wishing that these were just either being manually designed or that the level generator was more even. It’s not like randomness gives interesting challenges to begin with, some even repeat in separate caves! Why would they do this?!

The caves can be fun, they have the potential to be fun, but when, most of the difficulty comes in complete and utter randomness and total bullshit that turns entire levels into a fucking stressful chore, by the end of it I wasn’t even feeling rage when a rock bomb fell just as I was sending my Pikmin to attack a wall, I just felt resignation. On top of that, the dungeons also make the world feel… smaller? In some of them there isn’t much constancy visually wise and because of the artificiality of the hazards and how every single time there’s a boss at the end, they feel more like stages than actual unexplored caverns. Even the one that feels unique, the Submerged Castle, is still plagued by the same random bullshit as the rest, so it isn’t even cool!... well, maybe a bit. It’s still fun to battle the Waterwraith, and so is encountering many of the other bosses, but in many cases, I feel like they turn what they should be special encounters into something more forgettable.

The Breadbug in 1 was a funny yet incredibly unique enemy that hold one of the optional pieces. In 2, they plague one of the dungeons, and thy aren’t that fun to deal with at all…

There’s so much missed potential with he caverns is honestly depressing, like how they bleed into the surface, not factoring into the time system at all and generating grind both at the beginning and SPECIALLY end of the game, and how that just makes you realize in some cases the best way to traverse them is to… not engage with them. Just make a run for the exit until you arrive at the floor you want to, just make a run for the treasure you missed on your first go…

The caverns can and should have been a standout of the game, a wonderful collection of challenges that showcase what kind of game Pikmin 2 is… and to my knowledge, some people really like them, and I’m glad it clicked for them, but to me, Pikmin 2 is a collection of amazing ideas gone down he drain thanks to poor execution. I actually hope to see them again and improved upon, ‘cause the potential is right there man, you just got to use it!

I haven’t even talked about how messed the balancing is now (my poor blues and reds… what did they do to you…), or how now enemies respawn faster than ever and some can even revive, or how as much as I respect the different tone I don’t really think it’s saying anything substantial, but honestly, I don’t think there’s much to get to aside from everything I’ve been yapping about…

Pikmin 2 still makes me smile, it has the core I love so dearly and some fun moments, it has the Bulbmin for crying out loud! But it also makes me sad, sad that it had such an amazing concept and made so many mistakes along the way, because that’s the thing; 2’s problems don’t reside in what it wants to be, hey reside in the execution and its conflict with man aging the openness of the surface and its own identity. It was to be both a brand-new entry while also not really committing to that, and I think I had that realization the moment I noticed many of the treasures are in the exact same place that some ship parts were in one.

It was to be Pikmin 1 on top of being its something, and when you throw that on top of the mistakes it already makes, the result is a game I wish had more confidence in balancing and committing completely into its new ideas.

Having said all of that I still maintain that I adore this cast of characters, seriously, these goofballs are funny as hell, and I wished I could see even more of them. But oh well, good thing Louie won’t show up again to commit even more deranged acts, right?...right?...

Still an incredible experience.

The GameCube version was the first Pikmin game I ever played and I was incredibly captivated by it. Playing as two tiny dudes exploring a big world lush with greenery and strange menacing creatures. In my opinion, no other game has ever replicated that level of charm or sense of scale. I loved everything the game had to offer, the imposing boss fights, the fun treasures you could collect from giant everyday household items to Nintendo memorabilia. The Pikmin themselves are still as charming as ever, control better than the first game and hum songs while you guide them back to their base (or their doom). Even the multiplayer is fun.

This HD version is the perfect way to experience this game for the first time or relive the magic of this GameCube classic. It doesn't change much, if not anything at all so if you were expecting some QoL improvements or things like that, the price may seem a bit steep but it's still such a joy to experience and play.

The core of Pikmin is excellent so this is still a good game, but most of the decisions made for the sequel really don't work for me. On the positive side, I like the addition of White and Purple Pikmin (even if the latter are a little bit broken in battle) which add a little more strategy to your daily loadout and what you need to take into caves. The variety of enemies also gets a little boost, with some expert planning required in order to limit your losses as much as possible, while the Pikmin themselves get a nice little improvement in AI and no longer feel like they have the IQ of a rock. Also the Piklopedia, treasure descriptions and Louie's recipes add a lot of humour and charm to the series, so much so that I think a good hour of my playtime was purely down to reading every entry and regularly chuckling to myself.

I don't mind the overall timer being taken away (even if I prefer it), but I'm not a fan of the cave system and there being no kind of time limit there at all. To me, Pikmin always needs some kind of urgency, whether that's an in-game day limit, needing to get your Pikmin to a safe space by nightfall or just through challenges and missions. Once you enter a cave, all that evaporates and the game becomes something very different, something more survival focused. Not necessarily bad, but not what I was expecting or hoping for. The first Pikmin was a shorter and smaller game, but I felt like I was exploring a world. Here, the overground sections felt like I was walking through a large menu to get to the next cave.

In isolation I could deal with that, but with non-curated levels, random enemy placement and the occasional bomb falling from the ceiling with no warning, my enjoyment levels did start to take a slight hit. It hits its nadir when all of the above combine with having treasure nearby - not because of the gameplay of collecting them but due to the incessant and incredibly annoying chirping of the treasure radar. It's distracting mid-battle, and the ringing just won't stop even after that point until its deposited safely - the only way it will go away is by turning all in-game sound effects off which isn't a great solution.

But as I said at the start, this is still Pikmin. They're still a bunch of little guys working together in a big world to collect objects and dissolve bulborbs. The review sounds quite negative but I still had a good time playing through - I just don't think I'll be returning to this entry in the series much compared to the first and third.

The caves single-handedly ruined my enjoyment of Pikmin 2. They started out as fun diversions from the regular gameplay, but once I realized most of the game’s content is in them, they began to drag. The later caves amplified this feeling as they were much longer and kept recycling the same enemies and hazards without iterating on any type of challenge. Some asshole also decided to make enemies, bombs, and rocks fall from the ceiling in some caves. This alone would be enough to convince me these were thrown together just to spite players, but I believe there’s a bigger issue at hand: the player is not pressured in an engaging way.

The inability to reproduce Pikmin underground initially seemed like a good stressor, except you can take as much time as you want with these often brutal challenges. When combined with the game saving every floor, the caves had a lethargic pace where I would reload my save file when losing more than a few Pikmin. I had no idea how long each cave would be, so why not reset when things inevitably go awry? Annoyingly, Nintendo did not include the save reload option from Pikmin 1, requiring me to close and reopen the game every time I wanted to try again. The randomly generated map and enemy placements often made treasure rage-inducing to acquire, so much so I had to take a week-long break before completion. The Submerged Castle was the only cave I found enjoyable and challenging. Being forced to use a specific Pikmin to eliminate obstacles and collect treasure before an invincible foe showed up was an excellent change of pace and brought back the first game’s urgency without feeling unfair. Its five-floor count also ensured it never overstayed its welcome.

The above-ground sections were fine, but they felt like a means to a miserable end with the abundance of caves. I can only hope they are better in Pikmin 4. They’re a good idea, but I hate the execution here. Definitely a one and done experience.

i never made it through pikmin 2 before in the several attempts i made in the past but even bad pikmin is better than a lot of other games.

it's very much a love it or hate it game in the series, while lots of people like the randomized dungeon additions, i always found them tedious. but i think you have to get over the fact that even best case scenario you're probably going to lose a few pikmin sometimes. that said, you can restart each level of the dungeon and the roll of the dice might make it more favorable this time. or worse.

pikmin 4 is my goty (sorry totk) and once i 100% completed it i still had the pikmin bug so i went back and beat pikmin 3 for the first time then beat pikmin 1 for my fourth time then finally arrived at this one, my most fearsome foe.

and i stuck with it and i gotta still say, "bad" pikmin is still hella fun.

edit: okay i take it all back after getting all the treasures... this game is just straight up tedious. i hate when games think just adding more stuff is the way to make it harder. i mean it does, but in a cheap way. last boss was not fun. mostly glad i'll never touch this game again. i beat every mainline pikmin tho. time to try hey! pikmin.

Yeah, I can't say I liked this one.

There are parts of the gameplay that I like (whites/purples, actual bosses, two captains at once for improved multitasking), but it feels like a missed opportunity in that they didn't focus on more of the things 1 did well too (richer exploration and puzzle-solving).

Caves are cool in concept but get completely torpedoed by the procedural generation. Some floors have fixed layouts, but most of them don't, and the algorithm is far from advanced enough to create level designs on par with hand-made areas. And since the current floor design is randomized every time the game is closed/reopened, a simple soft reset can move the hole to the next sublevel from one of the far ends of the map to right near the entrance, which makes all of the effort put into navigating the floor feel disposable. They're blatant padding and I really hope that Nintendo plans on hand-crafting actual level designs for the caves in 4. The prospect of exploring massive underground labyrinths as a super tiny creature is really fascinating, which is why I was also let down by the aesthetics, which were (barring a few standouts like the subterranean complex) either super boring or completely out of place in the game's world.

I do appreciate my pikmin not committing suicide in droves every time I try to cross a small bridge though

3>1>>>2

Os Horrores da Guerra 2: O Inimigo Agora é Outro

Em questão de gameplay ele é muito melhor que o antecessor, o controle e gerenciamento dos Pikmins melhorou muito, ainda mais com a adição do Louie. Os Pikmins roxo e branco também ótimas adições, principalmente se eles forem usados nos combates.

Mas o que mata esse jogo para mim são as cavernas, já que elas são um dungeon crowler ao invés do gerenciamento de tempo e recursos, no começo elas são legais para dar uma diferenciada loop padrão, mas ela rapidamente ficam insuportáveis, porque além delas não se diferenciarem muito uma das outras, elas são enormes com andares sem fim. Quando eu cheguei no dia 12, eu basicamente já visto tudo que esse jogo poderia oferecer.

Não é um jogo ruim, mas as cavernas são uma parte tão grande do jogo, elas determinam o seu aproveitamento.

I've played 1 and 3 over and over and over again, over the years. And I've been meaning to play 2 again for a long time but was always afraid of doing so because of how often I heard (and remembered) how full of shit the game is.

I was correct.

I don't know if I can bring myself to dislike Pikmin 2 because at the end of the day it's still Pikmin. It's just the least good Pikmin. Purple Pikmin make combat so trivial most of the time, but at the same time you're having to play the game like you're walking on eggshells because enemies and bombs will just drop from the ceiling unprompted. Some of which will ONLY trigger around Pikmin that are carrying something. Like I swear this game is specifically designed to make the player upset, the fuck is up with that.

As such, the difficulty curve is more like a difficulty stock market line graph. Just shooting up and down for arbitrary reasons. A cave will be a slog to get through but then the boss at the end is completely trivial. Several enemies like Bulbears and Gatling Groinks are disproportionately dangerous but also made a joke so long as you have an ultra bitter spray on you. It's just a mess.

An exhausting game that's carried by the fact that it's Pikmin.

die louie die


A step down from pikmin 1 in my opinion, the strength of the arcade-y feeling of 1 is lost here, instead trading it for the caves. The caves are fun, but they really do lose steam if they go for more than 7 floors, making them a bit of a slog to get through

Still pikmin though! The pikmin formula still clearly works.

Oh boy



Yeah I did not like this one nearly as much as 1, I will say that it has improved in multiple areas, in fact I’ll list them right now.
The AI and general controls feel better and less clunky, like how the pikmin follow you more closely don’t get lost from the group as often as they did in the first game, the enemy variety has been expanded, I like exploring the worlds and seeing how these areas have changed since the first game, the story and characters are all actually pretty funny, with how the President is basically in debt to loan sharks because something ate some food, and also the dialogue you get with a bunch of different characters after the days are done, it’s all really charming and fun, I was really enjoying the game up until the debt was fully paid………..then the game got worse, now let me explain why I liked this game a lot less than the original.

You can probably guess why I like it less, one simple five letter word that brings this game down for me and many others…….caves.
Now at first, I actually liked the caves, at least when they started out they weren’t overly difficult and didn’t overstay their welcome, but then I started to worry cause the caves appeared a lot throughout the game, I was thinking this was just gonna be like 20-30% of what the game would be and the rest are just exploring the worlds………nope, it’s about what 60-70% of the game is, just going through these caves that are all randomly generated, and kinda detract from the game’s world, like it’s just little dark tunnels with no connection to the world’s theme, all randomly generated in ways.
Now I could forgive them not looking great if we didn’t have to spend too much time in them……..well, some of these fucking caves can go on for a while, the early ones are nice cause they only go on for like 4-5 levels and are generally over quick, but later in the game they go up to 7, 8, 9 levels, and particularly in the wistful wilds, they go over ten levels, which is just fucking crazy, not to mention that they get way harder as the game goes on, and not in a fair way, more in a “let’s put all these fucking enemies in here with bombs and rocks falling from the ceiling while we have electricity gates all around, which instantly kills any non yellow pikmin”, it’s fucking insane, and not in a good way………but I still got every treasure, still fought the final boss which was actually really cool, but was made unnecessarily difficult because of the gauntlet of a cave you gotta go through before, so I only had like 60 pikmin left, which could all easily be wiped out by the electrical attacks………..but I did it, saved Louie, and went for the final treasure, the weight………which needed 100 purple pikmin to carry it, so I went back and got that and got them to carry it, and I watched them carry it. Slowly. Watching. Them. Carry. It.
The speed of the carrying here felt like the developers just laughing at me, all this agony, all the pikmin lost, and this is what I get………..then you learn that Louie was actually the reason why the whole game happened, it’s like great, I should’ve just left you on the planet.


Look, this game is good, but it just feels like an overall downgrade from Pikmin 1, I think if they had tone down the caves and made them more easily digestible (or not randomly generated) and made them more like the theme of the world above, it would’ve improved the game tenfold.
It’s a game that’s great in short bursts but it sadly really overstays its welcome.


Now onto Pikmin 3

I believe in Pikmin. I am certain that human life will end through nuclear war or ecological negligence, and someday a funny little man will land here on a spaceship and pluck doting vegetable guys out the ground to fight mutant spiders and frogs. I think the setting raises interesting and prescient ideas about the nature of survival and social hierarchies. It's the central reason I have such a problem with Pikmin 1 receiving a staight-to-VHS comedy sequel.

Having survived the first game by the skin of his teeth, Olimar arrives home and is immediately sent back to Pikminland because his boss is skint. I hate this miserable coda. I hate that his longing to see his family again is put on hold to chase money. I hate that earth is immediately seen as a place to mine for resources. I think there's a kind of dark satire about capitalistic greed in it, but I do not enjoy this part of the fantasy. I feel sick.

Pikmin 2 isn't a game about survival anymore. There's no time limit, except the daily clock, which seems more of an irritation here than the structural grounding it served as in the original game. The game's more willing to kill off your Pikmin now, because you can just go farm more. Olimar and Louie can stay here as long as they want, and seemingly, the only reason to rush is to complete the game with a score you can boast about. There's still the familiar Pikmin gameplay, but that's largely relegated to the overworld sections. The bulk of Pikmin 2's content is found in the caves; RANDOMLY GENERATED dungeons with a series of floors to excavate treasures from. Pikmin 2's quite antithetical to 1's carefulness. The Pikmin are fodder now. If they die, tough luck. Fuck your wasted time. Go find some more and try again. They probably don't have souls, right?

I've got as much distaste for randomly generated content and roguelikes as anyone, and it's a big sticking point with the game for me. It's tempting to lay it on too thick. In reality, Pikmin 2 is generating content from a fairly well-crafted library of pieces. There's still humanity in the product. Some cave floors are clever and creative. One uses a toy train track to create a central barrier that Pikmin can walk on top of without falling off, but they can walk under the drawbridge. It's cute and smart, even if it does undercut the game's setting pretty dramatically. Random elements generally come in the form of enemy and item placement, and it never creates anything unplayable, even if there are a few too many dead ends and groups of explosive nightmares.

This review follows the new Switch release of the game. It's an awkward thing. I became a Pikmin fan through the original Wii U release of 3, and the New Play Control versions of 1 and (to a lesser extent) 2. To me, pointer controls are just how Pikmin is supposed to play. I'm aware there's GameCube folk who think being able to aim all over the screen messes with the intended balance, but it's just a much more deliberate aiming system than wobbling a cursor based on where your character's facing. I think 4's implementation of a lock-on system was a decent compromise, but Nintendo's already come up with the solution to this problem. Going back to the classic controls feels like playing an FPS on the Dreamcast. There is motion control support in here, but it's the airyfairy implementation from 4, where you can manipulate your cursor within the character's throwing range, and it doesn't feel any easier or more intuitive than just accepting the rudimentary 2001 standard.

In an act of curious apathy, Nintendo have chosen to base the widescreen implementation on the Wii version's clumsy presentation. While gameplay and cutscenes are presented in a native 16:9 aspect ratio, menus and text are consistently stretched to fit the dimensions of modern TVs. As the traumatised Captain Olimar is sent back to PNF-404, I'm being dragged back into the horror of friends' 2004 living rooms to suffer wrong-looking Simpsons.

I'll admit I've had a better time with Pikmin 2 on Switch than I did on my initial Wii playthrough. Knowing this is the one I didn't have much emotional attachment to helped warm me to the idea of the Pikmin gameplay grab-bag. It's a shallow pleasure, and I'd be callous enough to suggest its biggest fans have shallow appreciation for the games' setting. That said, previous releases of the game featured licensed products as its "treasures", and I've always felt a bit of a thrill from their subversive implication. The human race is dead, and the only remaining evidence of their civilisation is capitalistic waste. The Duracell batteries and Haribo bags are, understandably, not in this new version, I'll always have a bit of respect for Pikmin 2 for how it egged corporations into painting themselves as the problem.

Some people think Pikmin 2 is the best in the series. Who am I to say otherwise? Maybe you'll love it. I just hope I helped you understand why I really don't.

Pikmin 2 is incredible, so much so that it not only eclipses even its predecessor, which I found to be astounding in quality, but also remains distinct and fresh despite having the same core gameplay.

Pikmin 2 does away with the overarching time limit in Pikmin 1, a decision I'm surprised some view as controversial, as an overarching time limit wouldn't really fit for Pikmin 2. In addition, this allows players to take all the time they need to soak in the world and move forward at their leisure, just as Olimar wants to do in the story. Speaking of, the world and visuals in general look fantastic, I haven't played the original version so I can't speak on the difference in quality, but this version looks really good.

Another divisive part of the game are the caves, which seem to be what make or break this game for most people. I quite liked it, having smaller challenges where you're encouraged not to rush and take things slow and methodical is not only fun, but also helps differentiate from Pikmin 1. The caves absolutely aren't perfect, the last two I'd say venture into the territory of annoying and tedious, but not for very much of them.

I absolutely adore not only the new pikmin types, namely white and purple pikmin, and spicy and bitter sprays, but the addition of a second captain on top of that massively increases the amount of approaches that can be taken to any problem. Should you bring in a bunch of the rather rare purple pikmin to steamroll some enemies? Or do you save them for fear of losing them and not needing them later? How many blue pikmin will I need for this cave? Should I only bring in a couple so I can bring more combat-suited types? This room looks tough, do I need to use either of my sprays, and if so which one? Pikmin 2 also does a better job of making all types of pikmin valid choices to bring into caves, which is something I felt Pikmin 1 struggled with mightly, as there was basically no reason to bring blues and yellows to bosses. Making it so you have to set up your pikmin team before you enter a cave ensures each type has a role.

On top of all of that, I'd be remiss not to mention what is probably my favorite part of the game, the treasures and logs! All of the journal entries and sales pitches are positively oozing with charming, and the enemy entries are just as amazing. The only real qualm I have with this part of the game is due to what I believe is the only negative change in this remaster, which is the removal of some product placement. Pikmin 2 is the only work I can think of that is hurt by the removal of product placement, but there is absolutely a little something lost by the absence of the duracell battery and all other treasures like it.

This is certainly not a perfect game, there are some definite and easily identifiable issues, such as how aiming and throwing pikmin doesn't always feel quite right, (also an issue I have with Pikmin 1) or how some sublevels in caves can be kinda bullshit. However, the few problems I have with the game aren't enough to hold the game back from being, in my opinion, one of Nintendo's absolute best. I really can't recommend that people try this series enough, its been one of the best decisions I've made in my gaming experience.

I don't know. Mechanically, Pikmin 2 is the better game, but overall I think I enjoyed my experience with Pikmin 1 more.

At the beginning, I was really enjoying this game. The Pikmin controlled way better, the addition of another captain made management more fun (but fuck you Louie), and I loved the change from ship parts to real world objects. It really adds to the world building and I love all the little Nintendo easter eggs. I truly thought this was going to be my favourite in the series, but as I kept playing I quickly realized how much more the caves took a priority over the overworld in terms of core gameplay and finding treasures.

This was my main gripe I had with Pikmin 4 as I found the caves, while at first were cool, became stale pretty quickly. I would much rather explore the overworld than these damp, dark caves that all look the same. The RNG factor was also something I wasn't a huge fan of as there were a handful of times where I would have 50 of my Pikmin insta-killed by an enemy due spawning right next to it. Fuck you Gatling Groink.

But as much as I complain about the caves, it's still Pikmin. I love exploring this mysterious world with my army of colourful little shits. Now onto Pikmin 3.

prior to playing pikmin 2, i had only heard undying praise for it. i knew that it was a fan favorite--not a single peep about it being known as hit or miss. i absolutely adored pikmin 1, so needless to say i was overjoyed to continue experiencing these wonderfully unique games, unaware of the fact that this is the most divisive title in the series

initially, i was intrigued by the lack of the time limit that shaped the first entry's gameplay loop, but i soon realized that the absence of this feature gave me no motivation to keep moving forward--something i found to be an essential part of the first game. however, i don't think that adding a time limit to any or all parts of the game would magically improve it, as the lack of one goes hand in hand with the problems i have with its core design

where pikmin 1 chose to combine micromanagement with skillfully crafted level design, pikmin 2 takes a bold 180 and introduces dungeon-crawling. the caves are an interesting addition and quite exciting at first, having some structure but being largely characterized by random elements. nevertheless, their soulless nature quickly shows itself.

speaking as a big fan of roguelikes and games with roguelike elements, the randomness of pikmin 2's caves feels more like a shallow attempt to change the gameplay loop for the sake of change rather than a well-thought-out, meaningful shift that (better) suits the gameplay. pikmin 1 resonated with me because it has such elegantly crafted level design. both games allow for multiple solutions to the same problem but random enemy placement and level layouts feel at odds with the groundwork that the first game laid out.

the caves, especially the later ones (namely the dream den), drag on for far too long and are a great example of why i think that quantity hardly equates to quality within games.

the strong focus on caves robbed the overworld of its charm, and the lack of a time limit took away my incentive to collect (albeit cool) treasure, at least past the milestone of repaying the entirety of the debt.

towards the end of my playthrough, i was constantly audibly frustrated and desperate to move onto 3, a sharp contrast to my experience with the latter half of 1. the final boss was especially exhausting, as i beat it on my first try but it dragged on for what felt like hours

i think that the dynamic music, addition of boss music, and improvements to quality of life are all great. i love purple and white pikmin they are so soooo silly but pikmin 2 is probably the most disappointing game i've ever played because i had such high hopes for it after becoming completely enamored with 1. it polishes up some jank and adds some neat new stuff but it also strips away what makes the first game so engaging to me

i respect this game's attempts to innovate on the pikmin formula, especially when so many game series prefer to play it safe and fear taking risks, but new doesn't always equal good/better. i can kinda see the appeal of this game's design and its chaotic nature but i guess they thought it was new year's eve because they totally dropped the baaaaaaaaall

It sure is Pikmin 2! Pikmin 2 is one of my favorite games ever, and being able to play it wherever I want is awesome. Upscaled cutscenes were a very pleasant surprise even if the difference is negligible to me, same with the updated renders. While I'm a sucker for the product placement in the original releases, I can't help but to enjoy inspecting the altered forms of the products.

Goes without saying, but if you don't like Pikmin 2, this remaster won't change your mind. Hell, I'm not really sure how much of a "remaster" it is, it's pretty much the same game. I love it, though.

Sublevel 10 of the Dream Den is total bullshit. I still enjoy this game, but the nostalgia can't save it from some really weird and sloppy design choices. I'm just going to list them as I think of them. Purple Pikmin make combat feel pointless as they can just stun and kill enemies so easily. There's also really no reason for them to be able to carry the weight of 10 other Pikmin because there's rarely a situation where you actually need them to carry stuff. There was one item that required 100 Purple Pikmin which was kind of hilarious, but that just means you have to watch the slowest Pikmin carry the heaviest treasure all the way to your ship. It's not even far, but it takes a whole quarter of a day. It's honestly faster to let other Pikmin carry things most of the time anyway because the Purple Pikmin are so much slower than the others. Why do the Pikmin have different speeds at all? It's a nightmare having to wait for leaf purples to catch up with any other Pikmin. Why do the White Pikmin have the ability to find treasure underground when you just get a device that tells you where everything is anyway? Why is there a cave where you HAVE to bring only Blue Pikmin, only for you to need Purple Pikmin to fight the boss? Some of the caves don't give you any warning before enemies just start attacking you right away. Seriously, sometimes it feels unavoidable. You don't get a second to breath when you enter some of the sublevels. The randomly generated cave levels are also just kind of poorly laid out at times too. Sometimes there'll just be walls to break down that lead to absolutely nothing. Sometimes the treasure will be right next to you. Sometimes it'll be at the other side of the whole level. Towards the end of the game I just started solo fighting enemies because it was so much faster than dividing my Pikmin up just to do one obstacle, then again to get through another obstacle, and so on. The difficulty in this game is so all over the place. I didn't lose a single Pikmin one of the final cave bosses in the game and I only lost 1 on the final boss. Some of the other bosses earlier in the game however I lost nearly 30 Pikmin to in one battle. There's a cave where that's just a gauntlet where you fight almost every single boss you've encountered to that point on each sublevel, but then the final boss in that cave is so easy. The later levels also just start throwing so many mixes of elemental obstacles your way with no sensible way to approach them. Going back to my first sentence of this entry, Sublevel 10 of the Dream Den is one where you 100% NEED Blue Pikmin to get the treasure because the Pikmin have to carry it across water. You also need to fight every other enemy in that level with the Blue Pikmin and it throws so many at you at once to the point where you're inevitably going to lose some of them. But of course you need at least 15 of them to carry the treasure at all. It's also the only area of the game in the later stages that I can think of where you absolutely NEED a certain type of Pikmin and a certain NUMBER of the type of Pikmin to get the treasure. If you're even 1 short, you need to either restart that level, or go back to the surface to get more blue Pikmin. It's so frustrating, especially when it's so close to the end. It's honestly hilarious that I avoided the first game for so long because I didn't want to feel stressed out having a time limit only for this game to stress me out WAY more than the first game. I'm honestly not sure if I like Pikmin 2 as much as the first game. I think the first game is at least the better-designed game. Pikmin 2 is ambitious and tries a lot, but a lot of it really doesn't work as well as it should. I still enjoyed it and I honestly got a bit teary-eyed having finally collected every treasure in this game and closing the book on this super nostalgic game for me. Having played everything in this game though (aside from the Challenge Mode, fuck that), I really don't think it holds up quite so well now. I'm honestly really excited to finally play 3 and then 4, because I can see a lot they can improve on.

Pikmin 2 is an all-around improvement to its predecessor, making it an excellent sequel. Almost all of my complaints from the previous game have been addressed -- Pikmin group better and are less likely to get lost when traversing, frustrating enemies seem to have been toned down making it less likely to lose a larger number of Pikmin in one go, and the day cycle is a bit more forgiving making the game feel more relaxed. I also greatly enjoyed the treasure aspect versus collecting ship parts, as it allowed for some wonderful creativity in naming the treasures. Pikmin 2 has certainly aged better than the first game and it makes me even more excited to play the rest of this series.

Has the core gameplay that makes Pikmin fun, as well as a lot of cool additions that had a lot of potential, but sadly it's weighed down by the caves.

These things are fun for like 2-3 floors at a time, but aside from the tutorial cave, they're 5 floors at least and can go up to 15. So, instead of these things giving you a break from the time management, they completely overshadow it and make it so you're only spending 20% of the game doing the thing pikmin is known for. Most of them aren't terrible, but they severely overstay their welcome

In 2023, I triumphed over a childhood fear. Games with timers slashed onto me a mental scar that were never healed until playing through Pikmin and Majora's Mask.

There was a weight lifted off my shoulders. Genuinely, too. In both my gaming and everyday life, I felt I could take any time related problem headed my way. A fog was now cleared.

Having a newfound confidence and developing a bit of a taste for time based challenges now, I've decided to continue my forray into the Pikmin series with Pikmin 2. I've heard in the past the game was somewhat divisive amongst the Pikmin loyalists, but I wasn't sure what I'd find going in.

After having played it, my finding is that Pikmin 2 is... kind of unnecessary as a sequel? I'm glad of it's existence, if not to simply provide more Pikmin style gameplay with new mechanics, but some of the additions feel as though they're unrealized in their potential.

Louie, while a charming character in his own bumbling way, serves very little to the overall gameplay. It's not as if multi-tasking as a feature is useless, it's just I never found myself absolutely needing to utilize this feature.

I could imagine puzzle like labyrinths laid out similar to the elaborate final puzzle of Pikmin 1, needing the player to swap between different Pikmin types as well as between Louie and Olimar. This could take up the main levels you'd traverse and fill out the entirety of the game, but this was never seen anywhere within the game. At least, not on a rudimentary playthrough.

Pikmin 2 is primarily an asset flip style of sequel, so it makes sense as to why this wasn't implemented. You'd have to build on top of iterations of the original game's levels, and would also had to change said levels so drastically to the point that they mind as well be creating brand new ones. Still, there feels like there's missed potential here.

Same could be said about the dungeons. While I enjoy tackling these randomly generated mazes, they leave me wanting more. They're set up as endurance gauntlets, but I would have rather these dungeons contain floors that contained preset puzzles, perhaps alternating every other floor. This to me would not only keep the style of the original game more intact, but would help dungeons feel more engaging.

What also makes the game less engaging is the distinct lack of a timer. Strange coming from the guy who was traumatized by a mere clock ticking down, I know, but I've grown to deeply appreciate the time limit. Call it masochism, call it whatever you'd like, but this element brought a distinct feel and an immense sense of tension to the game, all of which feels lost within the sequel.

All of this isn't to say that Pikmin 2 isn't a worthwhile time, because it most certainly is! Instead, this is meant to exemplify the problems that may occur when designing a game with reusing assets: you can only build on top of what systems and assets existed before.

I've much enjoyed the quality of life changes brought within Pikmin 2. Controlling your squad has never felt better, and being able to organize which group you'd like to take is a godsend! The new Pikmin bring about new advantages and gimmicks to make themselves useful, adding more to your arsenal of tools and boosting the amount of decisions you'll be making.

The dungeons are just endurance gauntlets yes, but they still hold that push and pull struggle for survival that makes Pikmin engaging. Collecting everything within a dungeon feels massively rewarding, especially with some of the later dungeons.

Despite the tension being lost from the absence of a time limit, having the gameplay become more relaxed changes how you approach the game. The tone I could see creating a much smoother experience to experiment within the systems of Pikmin. I personally feel that experimentation is a part of the original's design and it does not feel as punishing due to reseting a day being encouraged, but this circumnavigates those who are still in fear of that hard time limit.

Areas are now remixed slightly, making it exciting to see what new has changed since the first game. Environments now have different seasons, which brings this world more to life. Though the tone may be gone, the serenity is still held intact.

There's much to love about Pikmin 2, but I could see why the divisiveness is present within the community at large. Pikmin 2 doesn't break the mold as much as it fans the flames of the original's originality.

This doesn't make Pikmin 2 a bad nor necessarily a flawed game, but a game that doesn't stand out as much as it could. It's ideas are unrefined from what they may have been capable of achieving, but with what's within the game itself, Pikmin 2 ends up being an enjoyable time within it's own right.