While I appreciate what Pikmin 3 tried to accomplish, I like to think of this game as "Baby's First Pikmin." The gameplay, while still entertaining, feels TOO redefined and dumbed down for my taste. While the new charge command was definitely helpful in combat, having it replace the "Swarm" function overall was a weird choice, as I found it more annoying than useful.

The Rock Pikmin are the Purple Pikmin of this game, except they somehow break the game even more, mainly because of the dumbed-down difficulty. Bulborbs, common enemies that can be challenging when you don't know what to do, are now absolute cakewalks, as they can quickly be defeated even by a few amount of Blue Pikmins, and not even mention the insane damage of the Rock Pikmins.

The game gives you access to 3 total captains to play as, and the best part of the game is easily the cooperative-style puzzles you can solve with your characters. However, the main collectibles of the game, the fruits you find for survival, didn't feel as satisfying to collect as in the other games. When a game about "doing your best to survive off of limited resources" is so easy that you are able to collect 5-7 days' worth of food in a single day of work, it doesn't feel as satisfying to obtain them. There is also no proper "incentive" to collect them because if you've already collected a massive amount of food for extra days, there is no need to hunt every single fruit in an area.

The bosses, while very cinematic, felt very dumbed down, once again feeling too easy to beat with the help of Rock Pikmin, as well as feeling uninspired in terms of design (Except for the Final Boss and the chase, easily the coolest part of the whole game.)

I think the game's biggest letdown is the presentation. The cartoony and wacky charm of the first two games feels absent, as the game aims towards a more "realistic" presentation of the world, which ends up making the game look less interesting. The main ship and the new Onion design feel very "modern Sci-fi movie"-y for my taste, losing the charm that made them unique in the first two games.

The side campaigns with Olimar were the highlight for me, as they were kinda what I was expecting from a Pikmin 3, giving you time missions to complete, and it feels satisfying to earn a Platinum for them.

Overall, while still an enjoyable experience, it felt like a massive downgrade compared to 1 and 2.

Pikmin 2 makes me feel conflicted because even tho all of its newly added content and QoL improvements would automatically make it better than Pikmin 2, it's also how those add-ons are executed that makes it a bit difficult to explain.

The game now lets you control two characters, Olimar and Louie, allowing you to split your Pikmin into two groups for some coop puzzle solving. While it's a great idea, it's not implemented to its full potential, only necessary for a few overworld treasures.

The Pikmins have also been redefined, as Yellow Pikmin are now immune to electricity, making them more useful from the first game (albeit you don't have access to bombs anymore as those are now traps and obstacles seen during the Caves). The game has also added two new types, Purple and White. While the new Pikmin are appreciated, Purple breaks the game in every possible way, able to stun almost all enemies and deal massive damage. They also render Red Pikmin useless, aside from a few fire traps, which can be taken care of by other Pikmin anyway, as long as you're careful.

The Caves are a cool new way of giving depth to the areas in the game, with brand-new enemy types and bosses waiting at the end. But their inclusion ends up affecting the Areas overworld, as they're much less interesting to explore than in Pikmin 1. Not only that but the RNG system and layout of some of the Caves can be a bit cheap, forcing you to trigger enemy traps that you have almost no time to react to, making you lose Pikmin in the process.

"Beating" the game was also surprisingly easier than Pikmin 1, thanks to the mentioned Purple Pikmin and the fact that I was able to "finish" the game and collect the debt in a very quick manner. While it had some challenging parts, a lot of it felt too basic in some parts, not being as engaging as a result.

......until you "beat" the game and gain access to the fourth final area, Wistful Wild. And suddenly, the game goes from being easy to absolutely cheap in every way possible, amplifying the unavoidable traps, more possibilities of the RNG layout messing you up for no reason, enemies that are too difficult to deal with and will guarantee you losing a good amount of Pikmin. While the game is VERY generous with saving and continuing after a save, it feels very tedious to restart a sublevel and play for 10 mins only for an out-of-nowhere "fuck you" trap to mess you up and kill half of your Pikmin, causing you to want to restart or quit the cave halfway.

Overall, while there was clearly an idea, it could have been executed better. I wouldn't say it's worse than Pikmin 1, nor would I say it's better. I'd say "Paying off the debt" is more fun than Pikmin 1, while actually "Beating" the game is worse than Pikmin 1.




AlsoLouiefuckingsuckswhytheFUCKwouldyousendthepersonresponsibleforyourcompanyfallingindebttocollectthetreasureheistheworst

While the 30-day time limit and the slightly janky AI of the Pikmin were offputting at first, I ended up adoring this game. The exploration of the areas felt immersive, and unlocking new parts of the area and hearing that jingle was always satisfying. The atmosphere and it's presentation (mainly sound design) are easily the most charming part of the game, the colorful Pikmin making sounds related to whatever they're doing, the whistle and trumpet jingles that Olimar plays to command the Pikmin, etc.
I also enjoy how when you know how the Pikmin work in mechanics, there are multiple ways you can go about obtaining a certain part, making it feel very satisfying when you pull off a risky move.
My biggest issue was really the effectiveness of the Pikmin. Yellow Pikmins have no elemental immunity and can carry bombs, but there are not really many areas where bombs would be required, so Yellow's most effective trait is just the ability to throw them higher due to their smaller weight. Blue Pikmin, on the other hand, are pretty much a necessity for everything. Having all of the areas contain massive sections filled with water basically deemed non-Blue Pikmins useless, meaning most of my Pikmin army was always composed of Blues.
The AI can also sometimes suffer from some really poor decisions. It mainly occurs when you disband your Pikmin, and they immediately proceed to pick up an item or try fighting an enemy they're unequipped to go against.
Aside from some jank, however, Pikmin 1 is absolutely worth your time nowadays, especially with the Switch port they recently released.

I honestly was ready to give this game a 7 or 8, cause while it wasn't perfect, I definitely had fun with the game. But, the last two stages singlehandedly dropped the game to a 6, because they pretty much highlighted all of the biggest problems with the game.
I wish this game didn't suffer through development hell and a rushed release date, because I can see a good game hidden underneath all the janky parts.
The combat can be fun but gets repetitive when you don't have much variety in your moves, especially when a lot of the enemies can only be defeated using a single specific move. The enemies and their designs and movesets are fine on their own, but then the game suddenly throws around 10 of them at the same time, getting hit once can lead you to getting wailed nonstop with no way to defend yourself. The "gore kills" are cool, but do get stale when you have to do the qte's so many times.
The presentation is easily the best part of the game, the reimagined monsters and bosses are fantastic, the soundtrack is fantastic and hypes you up when necessary, and the story was actually a nice touch (aside from the shitty cliffhanger ending lol). Also, Jim Cumming's and Josh Keaton's banter as Rick and the mask is the highlight of the game.
I really hope this series will return one day and give us a proper great beat em up that Splatterhouse rightfully deserves.

This game is absolutely worth your time and is a great new entry for the Yakuza series, but honestly seeing all the 5-star ratings make me feel like I'm missing out on something, cause it's not without its issues. The story is a very strong part of the game, and Ichiban and all of the party members are well-written and fleshed out. But at the same time, just couldn't get myself interested in the "villain" and the Arakawa family at all, despite them playing a major role. The game's side content, while still entertaining, doesn't feel as strong as in the previous games. The gameplay is fun for the most part, with just how ridiculous some of the moves are, but there were also parts where the game would suddenly throw a boss that is around 20 Levels above yours, forcing you to grind.
All that being said, I still had a great time with this game, it's just that issues are personally more glaring since this is the seventh game in a series that has so much content that it could be compared to (as well as my bias for turn-based RPG's lmao). I hope they learn from this game and make Yakuza 8 much more fleshed out because I can definitely see why people appreciate it.

This honestly became one of my favorite games of all time. From the fast paced "speedrunning" nature of the gameplay, to the fantastic presentation of the game from it's Suda51 inspired graphics and unique soundtrack, and the corny but still entertaining story and the characters. Some of the dialogue can absolutely be silly, but it's never the main aspect and it feels like the devs know about it as well, so you can't help but appreciate the game's transparent humour. Absolutely worth your time, and definitely try getting all the collectibles for extra lore and stages to play.

It's a pretty short game only clocking in around an hour and a half if you know what you're doing, but god damn if it isn't one of the most memorable rhythm games ever. The best aspect of this game is easily its style and environments which just scream "2000's Dreamcast Era", coupled with the funky soundtrack. My biggest issue with the game is that some of the command lines sound muffled, so you end up having to guess the button to press for said command. Other than that, definitely worth checking out.
TLDR there is a mission where you save Space Michael Jackson