Very good game. Honestly super glad I tried out Pikmin this year since my copy has been rotting on my shelf for years. I never found myself getting past like the 2nd level as I was stuck and had my pikmin always dying. Thankfully, I beat it, and it's a pretty short and definitely sweet game. You could probably beat it in one sitting if you know all the part locations and the puzzles and such... Alright then, on with the review-time! Story first. It's very simple, Captain Olimar is flying somwhere for a vacation and then he gets hit by an asteroid and crashes down to an unknown planet. He crash lands, making 30 of his ship parts go missing all over, and he can only survive on the planet for 30 days, since oxygen is posinous for him. So yeah, you have a time limit basically. And plus, only 25 parts are required to get a decent ending in this game (yes there arem ultiple endings) Olimar arrives at the Impact Site at the start of the game and you meet these pikmin! Small plant like creatures that look like carrots to Olimar. You can throw them, make them push down walls, fight enemies, and stuff. There are three kinds all with unique abilities. Red being immune to fire and have high attack power, blue being immune to water (as every other is not), and yellow being able to pick up bombs and be thrown very high. The pikmin live in designated onions, each for their own color, which are like their spaceships i guess. At the start of each day, you can deposit how many you'd like from each onion, which adds even more planning into what you want to do in that day. You first start off with red pikmin, but you quickly unlock yellows, then blues. So yeah all of these make for some interesting strategies, youd say? okay but we have my first issue... The yellow pikmin abilities seem a little shoe horned in... The rest of the pikmin get super neat and unique abilities that actually make you wanna choose this specific pikmin for battle or something.
But yellow pikmin, my first playthrough I chose to have not that many since they're only used for like 5 puzzles and 2 battles, which is quite dissapointing in general. You only need like 20 for the entire game, so don't farm that many yellows. This is a real time strategy game or whatever... so fighting enemies could be pretty simple, just rush pikmin into them, or throw it on them to deal damage. It's super duper satisfying with that bongo sound thing playing every time you deal a good hit, and even then some enemies are tough to figure out their patterns for. Wollywogs are very infamous for being a struggle for most players since they can kill like an entire army of pikmin with one stomp! However,... i really like this though as not every enemy is not gonna have the same strategy to deal most damage on them, and plus ive gotten good at defeating wollywogs so yeah whatever. You might want to strategically throw them, rush into them at the back, or use only a specific pikmin. And all of the enemies have pretty cool designs too, which adds even more charm to this game. Alright, time for the levels... and overall theyre decent. Like I said earlier, this game is pretty short, and there are a total of only 5 levels. Might as well go through them all. Impact Site, its the beginning area and its pretty good. Although a little later in the game, you can come back here and farm so many pikmin which makes it definitely worth going back to. Forest of Hope... I love this area. The music is super great, theres so many ship parts here, and its a pretty nice and peaceful area to traverse through. Also, you unlock the yellow pikmin here. Forest Navel, this area is pretty dark so I recommend using the map which helps out a ton. It's where you get the blue pikmin too. I like this area a lot since theres a neat boss battle involving some strategy and planning, and a cool puzzle which gets you two ship parts on the side of the map. Distant Spring, holy shit this area is huge. Blue pikmin definitely are needed for this area, since most of it is water. Lots of people say this area is hard, and I guess it is. I recommend just beating as many enemies as you can the first time you get here, it just helps a lot. Also, the music here is pretty damn relaxing, go listen to it. And finally (hehe), the Final Trial!!! Oh my god, the entire level is one good puzzle involving literally all of your pikmin. And then, of course, the final boss battle. We will get to that a little later. So overall, the levels are good, but it leaves a lot to be desired tbh. I know I said good things about it, but the amount of levels could've been increased. I mean, this game is short. Plus, the variety in
levels isn't that spectacular. Basically, you're in a grass level, a forest/grass level, a cave, a grass level, and another grass level. Yeah... could've been way more interesting. Assuming the planet you're on is Earth, they could've included like a volcano or something.. that wouldve been sick! Im pretty sure this is fixed to a degree in Pikmin 2, and I'll play that pretty soon so eh. Alright, lets talk final boss time. SPOILER TERRITORY BTW, if you care!!! Remember when I said yellow pikmin are useful for only a few battles? Well, this is one them. Meet Emperor Bulbax (wish i could show an image) Bomb rocks are highly recommended for making this boss much easier. You can throw them when it opens it mouth, and that will stun it for a bit and then you can go nuts at bashing it with the red pikmin. Pretty good boss tbh, couldve used like a second phase or something idk, just to spice things up. After you defeat it, you get the final ship part, which is the piggy bank (i think). And damn, does it feel ever so satisfying, making your pikmin army carry that prized treasure to the almost complete ship. Btw, i think this boss is optional since this part is also optional so you dont have to do the final trial really lol. Anyways, for the good ending, you finally get all 30 of the parts. And head back home, or something. I think the pikmin learn how to defeat enemies on their own shown in the cutscene where they attack a bulborb.
And yeah, Olimar goes back to Hocotate and stays safe. HOORAY!!! In the 25 part ending, i think its the same ending, but Im not sure if the pikmin say goodbye or not. Honestly i dont remember sorry. But it is slightly worse i guess. You probably should go for all 30 parts instead of 25 if you ever play this game, it's not really that bigger of a task. And plus, you can get upwards to 2 parts a day easy, (3 if youre good). And then the bad ending. The ending you get if you don't get nearly 25 ship parts and the 30 day time limit ends! Well, you're stuck on the planet and you die from the oxygen. And as I said with the other endings, I don't remember this one fully, but the pikmin carry your corpse to one of their onions, and turn you into a olimar... human pikmin. Kinda brings up a bunch of questions but whatever. THE END! Oh and you get shown a beautiful credits along with a good theme too, and an awesome creature montage. So that was my long ass fuck pikmin review. Kinda was all over the place, and I don't think I covered nearly everything, but its fine. Overall, this game is great. I just love the charm of it all. It could've used a bit more content, but its the first game in a beloved series, and it has an amazing concept. I really want to play the next 2 pikmin games this year as I hear theyre better in a lot of ways, and thats definitely exciting! Anyways, thanks for reading my thoughts, and perhaps ill write more reviews like this. Bye!
If yo uwant my full thoughts, wtach my video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IxeKi_IF-j
But yellow pikmin, my first playthrough I chose to have not that many since they're only used for like 5 puzzles and 2 battles, which is quite dissapointing in general. You only need like 20 for the entire game, so don't farm that many yellows. This is a real time strategy game or whatever... so fighting enemies could be pretty simple, just rush pikmin into them, or throw it on them to deal damage. It's super duper satisfying with that bongo sound thing playing every time you deal a good hit, and even then some enemies are tough to figure out their patterns for. Wollywogs are very infamous for being a struggle for most players since they can kill like an entire army of pikmin with one stomp! However,... i really like this though as not every enemy is not gonna have the same strategy to deal most damage on them, and plus ive gotten good at defeating wollywogs so yeah whatever. You might want to strategically throw them, rush into them at the back, or use only a specific pikmin. And all of the enemies have pretty cool designs too, which adds even more charm to this game. Alright, time for the levels... and overall theyre decent. Like I said earlier, this game is pretty short, and there are a total of only 5 levels. Might as well go through them all. Impact Site, its the beginning area and its pretty good. Although a little later in the game, you can come back here and farm so many pikmin which makes it definitely worth going back to. Forest of Hope... I love this area. The music is super great, theres so many ship parts here, and its a pretty nice and peaceful area to traverse through. Also, you unlock the yellow pikmin here. Forest Navel, this area is pretty dark so I recommend using the map which helps out a ton. It's where you get the blue pikmin too. I like this area a lot since theres a neat boss battle involving some strategy and planning, and a cool puzzle which gets you two ship parts on the side of the map. Distant Spring, holy shit this area is huge. Blue pikmin definitely are needed for this area, since most of it is water. Lots of people say this area is hard, and I guess it is. I recommend just beating as many enemies as you can the first time you get here, it just helps a lot. Also, the music here is pretty damn relaxing, go listen to it. And finally (hehe), the Final Trial!!! Oh my god, the entire level is one good puzzle involving literally all of your pikmin. And then, of course, the final boss battle. We will get to that a little later. So overall, the levels are good, but it leaves a lot to be desired tbh. I know I said good things about it, but the amount of levels could've been increased. I mean, this game is short. Plus, the variety in
levels isn't that spectacular. Basically, you're in a grass level, a forest/grass level, a cave, a grass level, and another grass level. Yeah... could've been way more interesting. Assuming the planet you're on is Earth, they could've included like a volcano or something.. that wouldve been sick! Im pretty sure this is fixed to a degree in Pikmin 2, and I'll play that pretty soon so eh. Alright, lets talk final boss time. SPOILER TERRITORY BTW, if you care!!! Remember when I said yellow pikmin are useful for only a few battles? Well, this is one them. Meet Emperor Bulbax (wish i could show an image) Bomb rocks are highly recommended for making this boss much easier. You can throw them when it opens it mouth, and that will stun it for a bit and then you can go nuts at bashing it with the red pikmin. Pretty good boss tbh, couldve used like a second phase or something idk, just to spice things up. After you defeat it, you get the final ship part, which is the piggy bank (i think). And damn, does it feel ever so satisfying, making your pikmin army carry that prized treasure to the almost complete ship. Btw, i think this boss is optional since this part is also optional so you dont have to do the final trial really lol. Anyways, for the good ending, you finally get all 30 of the parts. And head back home, or something. I think the pikmin learn how to defeat enemies on their own shown in the cutscene where they attack a bulborb.
And yeah, Olimar goes back to Hocotate and stays safe. HOORAY!!! In the 25 part ending, i think its the same ending, but Im not sure if the pikmin say goodbye or not. Honestly i dont remember sorry. But it is slightly worse i guess. You probably should go for all 30 parts instead of 25 if you ever play this game, it's not really that bigger of a task. And plus, you can get upwards to 2 parts a day easy, (3 if youre good). And then the bad ending. The ending you get if you don't get nearly 25 ship parts and the 30 day time limit ends! Well, you're stuck on the planet and you die from the oxygen. And as I said with the other endings, I don't remember this one fully, but the pikmin carry your corpse to one of their onions, and turn you into a olimar... human pikmin. Kinda brings up a bunch of questions but whatever. THE END! Oh and you get shown a beautiful credits along with a good theme too, and an awesome creature montage. So that was my long ass fuck pikmin review. Kinda was all over the place, and I don't think I covered nearly everything, but its fine. Overall, this game is great. I just love the charm of it all. It could've used a bit more content, but its the first game in a beloved series, and it has an amazing concept. I really want to play the next 2 pikmin games this year as I hear theyre better in a lot of ways, and thats definitely exciting! Anyways, thanks for reading my thoughts, and perhaps ill write more reviews like this. Bye!
If yo uwant my full thoughts, wtach my video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IxeKi_IF-j