First off, I will preface this by saying that this is THE game that I bought a Wii U for. The U is the only console that I ever pre-ordered, in my entire life. Mainly because I wanted Pikmin 3, which was originally supposed to be a launch window title. Hell, it was ORIGINALLY supposed to be a Wii game, which I guess I'm greatful it wasn't, because it likely would have had tacked-on motion controls as the ONLY option available. But still.
So my disappointment with this game started early on. It began by being delayed, not once, but multiple times, and went from being a launch title, to releasing the better part of a year later. I was patient during that time, I was STILL excited, because I love Pikmin 1 and 2 THAT much, that I was very VERY much anticipating the third game.
And when I finally got my hands on it? Whoo boy. The game is GORGEOUS, still, it can't be knocked for graphics. Though the GC games were gorgeous too. But that's about where the positive points end, in my view. Firstly, while I was OK with the game no longer starring Captain Olimar, it still would have been better if it at LEAST had him and Louie and unlockable characters. However, that's the least of the game's problems. To be more organized in my criticisms, here are the main BIG things wrong with Pikmin 3:
1. Only one save filed. This was/is symptomatic of modern Nintendo (more than any other company), and it's a design choice/shift that has NEVER made rational sense to me. I found this out the hard way, by starting a new game to show a friend the beginning, and only THEN did I discover that it erased my first game I had started. I was extremely displeased.
2. They took out, for no discernible good reason, the ability to properly ZOOM your camera in and out. You can still rotate it 360, which is great. But being able to change your camera angles, and zoom in and out as needed, was a PRETTY big/useful element of the first two games. Having ZERO zoom, makes the gameplay far more cumbersome than it should be.
3. They also, quite nonsensically, took out TREASURE hunting. You still hunt for fruit, taking the place of ship parts from Pikmin 1 as the "NEED TO GET" thing you're searching for. But being able to find human trash that these tiny aliens think are priceless "treasures", was a HUGE part of the fun of Pikmin. In fact it was such a popular feature, the ENTIRE second game is built around treasure hunting. Having (that I was ever able to see) ZERO treasures to find, made the Pikmin experience feel pretty hollow.
4. But by far, THE most crippling, absurd, even offensive change they nonsensically made to Pikmin 3, was a doozy. I could have grinned and bared the other exclusions, even though they ALL make me grumpy. I could have still gotten SOME enjoyment out of this game, if those other things were all that was wrong. But no. Nintendo went the extra mile, and removed the ability to MANUALLY second-stick swarm your Pikmin. Like...WHAT?
For anyone who has ever played Pikmin 1 and 2, you know full well that being able to use the c-stick to manually control your Pikmin, SEPARATE of Olimar, was SUPER duper useful. Not only useful, but it made up like 50% of the game's strategy and gameplay. Pikmin is NOT just a "pick little guys up and throw them at things" game. If it were, it never would have been as deep, interesting, and FUN an experience as the first two games were. The ability to manually swarm is FUNDAMENTAL to the gameplay, from moving them out of the way of hazards, gently moving them along precarious paths, moving them AWAY from enemies, pushing them to swarm things you want them to, without HAVING to throw them, etc. etc.
And Pikmin 3? It cut that ability out completely. In P1 and 2, when you blow your whistle, the Pikmin will corral back behind you, in a semi-neat swarm, that YOU control. In Pikmin 3, when you blow the whistle, to make NOT being able to control/swarm them even worse, it causes the Pikmin to form a straight line behind you! Again...like, WHAT? That makes them even WORSE of a target for hazards and enemies. Boss fights, especially, without manual swarming, can be a nightmare, and SUPER tedious.
They literally reduced Pikmin 3 to a "pick little guys up and throw them at things" game. And people who ONLY ever played 3, thought that's all the series was, or was supposed to be, and called it "great". No. I'm sorry, it was not great at all. It as neutered, and gimped, and it never should have been. I likened it to having a Mario game, but they took the ability to RUN out of the gameplay. So all you could do was walk slowly and jump. Running, much like manual swarming, IMO, is INTEGRAL to the Mario experience, in much the same as was swarming was to Pikmin. Granted, I will admit that out of frustration and disgust, I did not play through the entire game. But I seriously doubt they suddenly added in the missing things, including swarming, later in the game.
The fact that they did this, to this day blows my mind. It feels like whoever developed Pikmin 3, hadn't even played 1 and 2, and didn't really understand the concept. They just based what they made off of some short videos or pictures or something. And that sucks, hard. Because Pikmin 3 SHOULD have been great like the first two. It SHOULD have been even better than 2, a masterpiece. Trust me, I WANTED very badly to love Pikmin 3. I had been waiting for it for pretty much a decade. And instead, it wound up being one of my single biggest gaming disappointments of all time.
I would LOVE to be enthusiastic for 4. But I have zero faith, at this point, that they'll fix the things they broke about 3, and make it more like 2 again. Which makes me sad.
So my disappointment with this game started early on. It began by being delayed, not once, but multiple times, and went from being a launch title, to releasing the better part of a year later. I was patient during that time, I was STILL excited, because I love Pikmin 1 and 2 THAT much, that I was very VERY much anticipating the third game.
And when I finally got my hands on it? Whoo boy. The game is GORGEOUS, still, it can't be knocked for graphics. Though the GC games were gorgeous too. But that's about where the positive points end, in my view. Firstly, while I was OK with the game no longer starring Captain Olimar, it still would have been better if it at LEAST had him and Louie and unlockable characters. However, that's the least of the game's problems. To be more organized in my criticisms, here are the main BIG things wrong with Pikmin 3:
1. Only one save filed. This was/is symptomatic of modern Nintendo (more than any other company), and it's a design choice/shift that has NEVER made rational sense to me. I found this out the hard way, by starting a new game to show a friend the beginning, and only THEN did I discover that it erased my first game I had started. I was extremely displeased.
2. They took out, for no discernible good reason, the ability to properly ZOOM your camera in and out. You can still rotate it 360, which is great. But being able to change your camera angles, and zoom in and out as needed, was a PRETTY big/useful element of the first two games. Having ZERO zoom, makes the gameplay far more cumbersome than it should be.
3. They also, quite nonsensically, took out TREASURE hunting. You still hunt for fruit, taking the place of ship parts from Pikmin 1 as the "NEED TO GET" thing you're searching for. But being able to find human trash that these tiny aliens think are priceless "treasures", was a HUGE part of the fun of Pikmin. In fact it was such a popular feature, the ENTIRE second game is built around treasure hunting. Having (that I was ever able to see) ZERO treasures to find, made the Pikmin experience feel pretty hollow.
4. But by far, THE most crippling, absurd, even offensive change they nonsensically made to Pikmin 3, was a doozy. I could have grinned and bared the other exclusions, even though they ALL make me grumpy. I could have still gotten SOME enjoyment out of this game, if those other things were all that was wrong. But no. Nintendo went the extra mile, and removed the ability to MANUALLY second-stick swarm your Pikmin. Like...WHAT?
For anyone who has ever played Pikmin 1 and 2, you know full well that being able to use the c-stick to manually control your Pikmin, SEPARATE of Olimar, was SUPER duper useful. Not only useful, but it made up like 50% of the game's strategy and gameplay. Pikmin is NOT just a "pick little guys up and throw them at things" game. If it were, it never would have been as deep, interesting, and FUN an experience as the first two games were. The ability to manually swarm is FUNDAMENTAL to the gameplay, from moving them out of the way of hazards, gently moving them along precarious paths, moving them AWAY from enemies, pushing them to swarm things you want them to, without HAVING to throw them, etc. etc.
And Pikmin 3? It cut that ability out completely. In P1 and 2, when you blow your whistle, the Pikmin will corral back behind you, in a semi-neat swarm, that YOU control. In Pikmin 3, when you blow the whistle, to make NOT being able to control/swarm them even worse, it causes the Pikmin to form a straight line behind you! Again...like, WHAT? That makes them even WORSE of a target for hazards and enemies. Boss fights, especially, without manual swarming, can be a nightmare, and SUPER tedious.
They literally reduced Pikmin 3 to a "pick little guys up and throw them at things" game. And people who ONLY ever played 3, thought that's all the series was, or was supposed to be, and called it "great". No. I'm sorry, it was not great at all. It as neutered, and gimped, and it never should have been. I likened it to having a Mario game, but they took the ability to RUN out of the gameplay. So all you could do was walk slowly and jump. Running, much like manual swarming, IMO, is INTEGRAL to the Mario experience, in much the same as was swarming was to Pikmin. Granted, I will admit that out of frustration and disgust, I did not play through the entire game. But I seriously doubt they suddenly added in the missing things, including swarming, later in the game.
The fact that they did this, to this day blows my mind. It feels like whoever developed Pikmin 3, hadn't even played 1 and 2, and didn't really understand the concept. They just based what they made off of some short videos or pictures or something. And that sucks, hard. Because Pikmin 3 SHOULD have been great like the first two. It SHOULD have been even better than 2, a masterpiece. Trust me, I WANTED very badly to love Pikmin 3. I had been waiting for it for pretty much a decade. And instead, it wound up being one of my single biggest gaming disappointments of all time.
I would LOVE to be enthusiastic for 4. But I have zero faith, at this point, that they'll fix the things they broke about 3, and make it more like 2 again. Which makes me sad.