The term Pikmin originated from Colin Reed, a programmer on the Pikmin team. During development, the team would count the characters with the Japanese word “ippiki”, which means “one small animal.” Reed, however, when hearing the counting, mistook the Japanese word for “piki” instead. “Piki” is a counter word in Japanese meaning “small animal”, which fits the Pikmin prototype since Pikmin are a half-plant, half-animal species. According to Masamichi Abe and Shigeru Miyamoto, “piki” would make a transition to picky, but when they decided on the official name, they decided to go with the iconic moniker, “Pikmin”. To Abe, it sounded like “pick me,” but to Miyamoto it sounded like “vitamin.” Furthermore, Pikmin came into fruition through the eyes of Shigeru Miyamoto, a legendary video game developer within Nintendo who has created franchises like Mario and The Legend of Zelda. During the development of Pikmin, Miyamoto started to have an interest in gardening, which contributed to creating the lush environments within the Pikmin world and why Olimar and the Pikmin see the world at a microscopic level.

The story of Pikmin details Olimar, a spaceship captain from the planet Hocotate, crash landing his ship on an unknown planet, nicknamed PNF-404. When you have landed on PNF-404, you are faced with the uncertainty and unknown of a new world you are unfamiliar with. Although both you, the player and Olimar are terrified of the unknown, you begin to see the beauty of it when you start to encounter Pikmin and learn to incorporate them as you explore and search for your ship parts to fix Olimar’s ship. Since this new planet is vast and unknown, there is more incentivization and crunch time. You get a time limit of 30 days to get the priority parts needed to fix Olimar’s ship to escape from PNF-404.

Pikmin is like an ant hill; various Pikmin carry ship parts to Olimar’s ship in the same way ants carry food back to ant hills to support their colony. There are three types of Pikmin on PNF-404 that encompass our adventure for Olimar’s ship parts, just like there are different types of ants within ant hill colonies. There are red Pikmin, which are good for combat and are resistant to fire, yellow Pikmin, which can be thrown at high points and are resistant to electricity, and blue Pikmin, which are resistant to water. These three types of Pikmin are utilized depending on the type of environment the player is presented with. It is up to the player on how to approach the situations of grabbing ship parts, defeating enemies for ship parts, and defeating enemies as a way to gather more Pikmin for a colony. That’s the art of Pikmin: there is a freedom of utilization and choice, which helps the player pave their own, unique experience. You will have to take risks with your Pikmin, which may mean you will have to sacrifice your Pikmin to carry out the goals you have in mind.

Pikmin is an allegory for life; you are thrust into the unknown at many points in your life and it is up to you how you pave your journey. Although death in Pikmin is dark and gritty, it is a part of life. Pikmin can die in a variety of ways, like being crushed by enemies and being burned alive, and although your beloved companions disappear into a ghostly husk, you learn to push on and keep on acquiring a colony of Pikmin and in life, you keep acquiring friends and knowledge on your journey. Pikmin is a story that is about accepting death, even if fictional, and learning to move on and keep pushing. In life, we are going to lose people, whether that is through death or strife, but that doesn’t mean we quit pushing for our purpose in life.

I never expected to appreciate and adore a game like Pikmin as much as I do. Going into various worlds while discovering the different Pikmin, items, and enemies that inhabit these environments made the experience more engaging. Learning along your journey how maps are laid out and what to be careful of is not only satisfying for concurrent replays of the game but shows that you grow with the game of Pikmin. You are getting used to the world the same way Olimar is; you’re going on the same journey Olimar is but in your own way. Playing Pikmin through the first time before I restarted was difficult and frustrating; that’s how it’s meant to be. Failure is okay as long as you get back up and don’t give up. When I restarted a second time, it felt better going through the maps and navigating with my Pikmin to get the necessary ship parts. Although the way I execute my missions with getting my parts may end up in me losing some or the majority of my Pikmin, I didn’t let it hold me back from experiencing the true beauty behind what Pikmin is about. I had a time limit of 30 days, but I had to find ways to improvise and understand the mechanics of the game and where I went wrong. Some of this improvisation, however, would be aggravating at times. This is because the Pikmin AI wouldn't function with the commands you wanted and the prevention of not being able to switch over to the Pikmin you wanted in a seamless manner. They do improve on these issues on future games, but Pikmin is a stellar starting game for what would become one of the main franchise games in Nintendo. I am glad that I got to experience the world of Pikmin and all the wonders of its themes and explore the world around you at a smaller level.