Pikmin 2 is fun, but it felt like a big downgrade from the first for me.
A lot of the good of the original is still intact. All the above-ground gameplay is fun, and has the same fun charm as before with some neat new gameplay changes and quality of life improvements.
However, the problems come in with one big change, and one big removal. That change is that there is no longer a time limit on days. While I'm sure plenty of people prefer this less-stressful approach, I feel that removing that framing device makes the game feel a lot less fun. In the original, timed obstacles were interesting. It was an important decision to leave pikmin at certain spots doing things like tearing down a wall while taking care of something in a seperate section of the level. It made multitasking and efficiency feel important. While you still CAN multitask, it's easier to simply bring the whole squad around at once since there's no reason to take risks anymore. The game IS still fun, but less so.
Now something I like a lot less are the caves. It often feels like I spend way more time down there than I do aboveground, which is a shame since I enjoy those sections a lot less. The lack of a timer until sunset removes yet another thing I really like about pikmin, and the randomly designed level design is often not interesting or frustrating. One example was when I ran into a mortar enemy on a small bridge. If I didn't deal with it, it was a major threat. But if I attacked it, it would shake my pikmin off into a pit. Basically it was impossible to not lose pikmin, which is a real problem when I'm on the 6th of 8 layers that constantly drained my resources.
I want to reiterate that I like this game, but compared to the original, if feels like very little of it was an improvement on the formula. I hope 3 can focus back a bit more and truly improve upon the first game's successes.
A lot of the good of the original is still intact. All the above-ground gameplay is fun, and has the same fun charm as before with some neat new gameplay changes and quality of life improvements.
However, the problems come in with one big change, and one big removal. That change is that there is no longer a time limit on days. While I'm sure plenty of people prefer this less-stressful approach, I feel that removing that framing device makes the game feel a lot less fun. In the original, timed obstacles were interesting. It was an important decision to leave pikmin at certain spots doing things like tearing down a wall while taking care of something in a seperate section of the level. It made multitasking and efficiency feel important. While you still CAN multitask, it's easier to simply bring the whole squad around at once since there's no reason to take risks anymore. The game IS still fun, but less so.
Now something I like a lot less are the caves. It often feels like I spend way more time down there than I do aboveground, which is a shame since I enjoy those sections a lot less. The lack of a timer until sunset removes yet another thing I really like about pikmin, and the randomly designed level design is often not interesting or frustrating. One example was when I ran into a mortar enemy on a small bridge. If I didn't deal with it, it was a major threat. But if I attacked it, it would shake my pikmin off into a pit. Basically it was impossible to not lose pikmin, which is a real problem when I'm on the 6th of 8 layers that constantly drained my resources.
I want to reiterate that I like this game, but compared to the original, if feels like very little of it was an improvement on the formula. I hope 3 can focus back a bit more and truly improve upon the first game's successes.
Reviewed on Jun 08, 2023