timrtabor123
123 Reviews liked by timrtabor123
fine needs more work than dev can do
Decided to get this one out of the way in advance of Spider-Man 2 later this week. Not too much to say about it, honestly. This is, gameplay-wise, pretty much a minor improvement on the original in every way, but falls a little shorter on the story front.
Swinging as Miles is just as good as the original, and the snowy Manhattan backdrop fits very well. Exploration is always going to be fun in the Insomniac Spider games, so no complaints there. The side quests are pretty solid, but since this is a half-sequel / big DLC / spinoff with a length of only like 10 hours or so, they kind of have to be since the main story is quite abridged. If they were more checklist-y (like the other activities) the game would feel far more empty.
Combat-wise I do prefer Miles to Peter - the venom punch is satisfying and his moves look great. Stealth is greatly improved with his cloaking ability and actually felt far more convincing than any of the stealth sections in the first game. The skill tree is pretty small but there are a couple good additions. I wasn’t fond of the “anti-venom-powers-energy” that Roxxon goons have since it largely felt unfun to have your abilities taken away and it never felt earned on the part of the villain to adapt to Miles’ powers.
Overall, the story lands the largely unsurprising but effective beats outside of the villain. The Tinkerer is largely forgettable in terms of design and threat level, but mostly suffers most in the writing. More than a couple ??? moments to be had here for sure. This isn’t super surprising since the first game used a number of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery and the ones that went unused were certainly already planned for the sequel in development. Ganke is a nice highlight, he’s played well and never feels forced - I look forward to seeing him more in 2. Prowler is neither here nor there. He’s competent in the “Miles’s backstory and family problems” vein, but doesn’t really make too much of an impact. While it is largely rote, I would be lying if I said the ending didn’t elicit an emotion from me. A broken and battered Spider-Man fighting to save his neighborhood will always land well.
Good stuff overall, if still playing it relatively safe after the first game. Looking forward to Spider-Man 2 in 36 hours.
Swinging as Miles is just as good as the original, and the snowy Manhattan backdrop fits very well. Exploration is always going to be fun in the Insomniac Spider games, so no complaints there. The side quests are pretty solid, but since this is a half-sequel / big DLC / spinoff with a length of only like 10 hours or so, they kind of have to be since the main story is quite abridged. If they were more checklist-y (like the other activities) the game would feel far more empty.
Combat-wise I do prefer Miles to Peter - the venom punch is satisfying and his moves look great. Stealth is greatly improved with his cloaking ability and actually felt far more convincing than any of the stealth sections in the first game. The skill tree is pretty small but there are a couple good additions. I wasn’t fond of the “anti-venom-powers-energy” that Roxxon goons have since it largely felt unfun to have your abilities taken away and it never felt earned on the part of the villain to adapt to Miles’ powers.
Overall, the story lands the largely unsurprising but effective beats outside of the villain. The Tinkerer is largely forgettable in terms of design and threat level, but mostly suffers most in the writing. More than a couple ??? moments to be had here for sure. This isn’t super surprising since the first game used a number of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery and the ones that went unused were certainly already planned for the sequel in development. Ganke is a nice highlight, he’s played well and never feels forced - I look forward to seeing him more in 2. Prowler is neither here nor there. He’s competent in the “Miles’s backstory and family problems” vein, but doesn’t really make too much of an impact. While it is largely rote, I would be lying if I said the ending didn’t elicit an emotion from me. A broken and battered Spider-Man fighting to save his neighborhood will always land well.
Good stuff overall, if still playing it relatively safe after the first game. Looking forward to Spider-Man 2 in 36 hours.
It’s a glorified DLC expansion released as a standalone for the PS5’s launch, but it’s a good glorified DLC expansion released as a standalone for the PS5’s launch
The word "deconstruction" gets thrown around a lot these days. Formally defined as "questioning traditional assumptions about the ability of language to represent reality", it's often used to describe works that seek to criticize a specific genre. I disagree with this use of the word, but less because of the "what" and more because of the "why". I believe deconstruction should be used not only to criticise media, but to use that media's pieces to build something new.
An excellent example of this is one of my favorite films: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's 2007 action-comedy masterpiece Hot Fuzz. It deconstructs both the contemporary American cop flick and the traditional detective story by flipping classic tropes on their heads. However, all of this is done not out of criticism, but as a way to both pay tribute to those genres and highlight their potential.
In that sense, yes, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a deconstruction of the JRPG. Rather than a teenager killing God, you're a 40-year-old man trying to find a job. But the game is still very much a JRPG: It has all the classic mechanical trappings, numerous references to other games, including multiple explicit mentions of Dragon Quest (and people still compare it to Persona), and yes, it relies on the tried-and-true trope of the power of friendship.
That last one is a major criticism of JRPG's I've seen from certain online sources, and I feel Like a Dragon does everything in its power to embrace it. Everything from the combat to the substories to the summons to the incredibly complex management minigame revolves around helping others. There's a major mechanic that involves spending time with your friends and helping them work out their personal issues (alright, it's a little like Persona). A lot of the strongest attacks in the game involve working with your other party members.
But more than anything else, Yakuza: Like a Dragon embraces the theme of friendship through its story, especially through its protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. He's someone who spent most of his life at "rock bottom", and gets dragged through the mud on a regular basis, often by powers much greater than him. But he gets out through a power even greater than that: the people he can count on. Everyone who supports him, from his party members to the most insignificant NPC, makes his journey just a little bit easier. Even in his darkest times, Ichiban can still bounce back to his infectious optimism thanks in no small part to the support he gives to and recieves from the people around him.
Of course, the game still isn't perfect. While it's an amazing first attempt at a JRPG, you can also tell it's a first attempt. Dungeons are a slog and sometimes combat is too (you didn't have to borrow everything from Dragon Quest, guys). Job systems are fun, but the lack of ability mixing combined with not being able to switch on the fly means there's very little reason to experiment. Also, there are some pretty nasty difficulty spikes near the very end. I get why they're there, but I would've appreciated a little warning.
Despite all my criticisms, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is still an excellent game with a wonderful story and the best deconstruction ever made of the JRPG. Suck it, Undertale.
An excellent example of this is one of my favorite films: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's 2007 action-comedy masterpiece Hot Fuzz. It deconstructs both the contemporary American cop flick and the traditional detective story by flipping classic tropes on their heads. However, all of this is done not out of criticism, but as a way to both pay tribute to those genres and highlight their potential.
In that sense, yes, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a deconstruction of the JRPG. Rather than a teenager killing God, you're a 40-year-old man trying to find a job. But the game is still very much a JRPG: It has all the classic mechanical trappings, numerous references to other games, including multiple explicit mentions of Dragon Quest (and people still compare it to Persona), and yes, it relies on the tried-and-true trope of the power of friendship.
That last one is a major criticism of JRPG's I've seen from certain online sources, and I feel Like a Dragon does everything in its power to embrace it. Everything from the combat to the substories to the summons to the incredibly complex management minigame revolves around helping others. There's a major mechanic that involves spending time with your friends and helping them work out their personal issues (alright, it's a little like Persona). A lot of the strongest attacks in the game involve working with your other party members.
But more than anything else, Yakuza: Like a Dragon embraces the theme of friendship through its story, especially through its protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. He's someone who spent most of his life at "rock bottom", and gets dragged through the mud on a regular basis, often by powers much greater than him. But he gets out through a power even greater than that: the people he can count on. Everyone who supports him, from his party members to the most insignificant NPC, makes his journey just a little bit easier. Even in his darkest times, Ichiban can still bounce back to his infectious optimism thanks in no small part to the support he gives to and recieves from the people around him.
Of course, the game still isn't perfect. While it's an amazing first attempt at a JRPG, you can also tell it's a first attempt. Dungeons are a slog and sometimes combat is too (you didn't have to borrow everything from Dragon Quest, guys). Job systems are fun, but the lack of ability mixing combined with not being able to switch on the fly means there's very little reason to experiment. Also, there are some pretty nasty difficulty spikes near the very end. I get why they're there, but I would've appreciated a little warning.
Despite all my criticisms, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is still an excellent game with a wonderful story and the best deconstruction ever made of the JRPG. Suck it, Undertale.
Final Fantasy X
2001
Expectations are funny things. They're often hard to meet, even harder to meaningfully subvert, and very easy to poke fun at. When someone is disappointed with a game, it's never the game's fault; it just wasn't what they expected and they need to learn to accept that. And if the game is a universally acclaimed masterpiece? Well, they just didn't get it. And I very much did not 'get' Final Fantasy X.
That said, there are quite a few things I liked about the game. For one, the visuals hold up incredibly well. Even though I technically played the remastered edition with enhanced graphics, the aesthetics are phenomenal over 2 decades later. The music is also very nice, with each piece being nice to listen to and a good complement to its place in-game. Speaking of sounds, the voice acting's pretty good, and not just for the time. Even in its awkwardness, all the VAs give convincing performances that fit the characters well (insert line about the laughing scene being taken out of context that you've heard in every other review of FFX). Finally, I enjoy a lot of the core battle mechanics. They're easy to understand, yet have high strategic potential, and the game's boss fights do a pretty good job of bringing that potential out.
Unfortunately, the base combat mechanics are heavily bogged down by everything surrounding them. While the bosses are pretty varied and interesting, the bulk of random encounters are anything but. Up until the endgame, 95% of basic enemies are fatally weak to one specific character, turning that potentially interesting combat into a cavalcade of glorified rock-paper-scissors matches. Granted, some enemies later on do require a bit more strategy, as do some of the bosses, but the game also limits the strategic potential in a lot of these fights. Many stronger enemies and all the bosses are immune to one or more status effects, making interesting abilities like Tidus' slow, Wakka's ailments, and Auron's breaks completely useless. On top of all that, the random battles are painfully slow thanks to what is easily the game's worst design choice: Only party members who participate in battles gain EXP. In other words, playing optimally means switching out every party member, having them defend, and then finally defeating the enemies with the one party member they're weak to, making battles uninteresting and a slog.
Now, the combat being uninteresting might be forgivable if progression was fun, but this is another area where the game fumbles the ball. At first glance, the sphere grid is a behemoth of customization: a sprawling skill forest with tons of active abilities, passive abilities, and stat boosts available to every party member. Of course, looks can be deceiving, as a glance at the grid's actual structure reveals how linear it truly is before the endgame (I know the international sphere grid improves on this, but I'm reviewing the game I played). But hey, my favorite game of all time is Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a game which takes about 20 hours to unlock the full scope of its (Absolutely fantastic) combat system. It's perfectly fine if the sphere grid takes a long time to open up, right? Well, that would be the case...if it was actually fun to use in the endgame. In another painful misstep, the late-game alternate paths on the sphere grid are locked behind incredibly rare items, and by the time you actually reach the ends of characters' sphere grid paths, you're already at the final boss. The equipment modifiers, another potentially fun source of customization, require those same materials, often in far greater capacity, just to give an ability to one character. Ergo, you can only really customize your characters by grinding for long periods of time in the endgame, either by fighting the same battles for hours on end, or by playing minigames.
Speaking of which, I've often heard people defend FFX's constant string of battles and 'hallway simulator' by pointing to its variety in gameplay. With how critical I've been of the game so far, I surprisingly don't really mind the hallways. I don't like the things you do in the hallways or the game's random encounter system (If you seriously prefer those to on-screen encounters I can only assume you're some kind of masochist), but by themselves, they're...fine. If nothing else, they're pretty. I do, however, strongly dislike the breaks FFX takes from its constant string of fighting. The temples are slow, boring puzzle segments with arbitrary mechanics that, at most, amount to small annoyances rather than fun diversions (although I did have some fun finding the bonus chests). The sidequests provide much larger, albeit optional, annoyances that gate far more of the game's progression than they should. The minigames are uninteresting at best and frustrating at worst, with the most notable one, Blitzball, being a simple case of "have the bigger number and hope the AI doesn't fuck up". The extra bosses, much like the customization, often make you capture multiple of every enemy in the game to unlock them, which leads to...more battling. I'll admit I liked exploring the towns, though. It was nice getting to see the different visuals, talk to locals, and learn more about the world and story.
And on that topic, I don't have much to say about the story. The characters are cool, if a bit shallow. The romance is nice, if very shallow. The actual plot is kind of interesting, if weirdly paced and a little too dependent on Seymour. It's good, just not one of the best things I've ever seen. And that's the thing: despite how much I've criticized it, I like Final Fantasy X. I just think I'd like it a lot more if I didn't expect to love it. I've seen countless people hail the plot as a subversive epic, the romance as the greatest love story ever told, the sphere grid as an unmatched progression system, the combat as timeless, and the game as one of the best JRPG's ever. Meanwhile, I simply scratch my head and wonder if we played the same game. Is it nostalgia? Am I just crazy? Or did I just expect too much? Whatever the case, I'm glad I at least played FFX. I regret playing it for an entire summer, but I'm grateful for the experience, despite my gripes. Because if nothing else, it taught me the internet can be wrong about things. Maybe I should stop believing the hype, keep my expectations in check, and realize that I do 'get' it. I'm just not a big fan.
That said, there are quite a few things I liked about the game. For one, the visuals hold up incredibly well. Even though I technically played the remastered edition with enhanced graphics, the aesthetics are phenomenal over 2 decades later. The music is also very nice, with each piece being nice to listen to and a good complement to its place in-game. Speaking of sounds, the voice acting's pretty good, and not just for the time. Even in its awkwardness, all the VAs give convincing performances that fit the characters well (insert line about the laughing scene being taken out of context that you've heard in every other review of FFX). Finally, I enjoy a lot of the core battle mechanics. They're easy to understand, yet have high strategic potential, and the game's boss fights do a pretty good job of bringing that potential out.
Unfortunately, the base combat mechanics are heavily bogged down by everything surrounding them. While the bosses are pretty varied and interesting, the bulk of random encounters are anything but. Up until the endgame, 95% of basic enemies are fatally weak to one specific character, turning that potentially interesting combat into a cavalcade of glorified rock-paper-scissors matches. Granted, some enemies later on do require a bit more strategy, as do some of the bosses, but the game also limits the strategic potential in a lot of these fights. Many stronger enemies and all the bosses are immune to one or more status effects, making interesting abilities like Tidus' slow, Wakka's ailments, and Auron's breaks completely useless. On top of all that, the random battles are painfully slow thanks to what is easily the game's worst design choice: Only party members who participate in battles gain EXP. In other words, playing optimally means switching out every party member, having them defend, and then finally defeating the enemies with the one party member they're weak to, making battles uninteresting and a slog.
Now, the combat being uninteresting might be forgivable if progression was fun, but this is another area where the game fumbles the ball. At first glance, the sphere grid is a behemoth of customization: a sprawling skill forest with tons of active abilities, passive abilities, and stat boosts available to every party member. Of course, looks can be deceiving, as a glance at the grid's actual structure reveals how linear it truly is before the endgame (I know the international sphere grid improves on this, but I'm reviewing the game I played). But hey, my favorite game of all time is Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a game which takes about 20 hours to unlock the full scope of its (Absolutely fantastic) combat system. It's perfectly fine if the sphere grid takes a long time to open up, right? Well, that would be the case...if it was actually fun to use in the endgame. In another painful misstep, the late-game alternate paths on the sphere grid are locked behind incredibly rare items, and by the time you actually reach the ends of characters' sphere grid paths, you're already at the final boss. The equipment modifiers, another potentially fun source of customization, require those same materials, often in far greater capacity, just to give an ability to one character. Ergo, you can only really customize your characters by grinding for long periods of time in the endgame, either by fighting the same battles for hours on end, or by playing minigames.
Speaking of which, I've often heard people defend FFX's constant string of battles and 'hallway simulator' by pointing to its variety in gameplay. With how critical I've been of the game so far, I surprisingly don't really mind the hallways. I don't like the things you do in the hallways or the game's random encounter system (If you seriously prefer those to on-screen encounters I can only assume you're some kind of masochist), but by themselves, they're...fine. If nothing else, they're pretty. I do, however, strongly dislike the breaks FFX takes from its constant string of fighting. The temples are slow, boring puzzle segments with arbitrary mechanics that, at most, amount to small annoyances rather than fun diversions (although I did have some fun finding the bonus chests). The sidequests provide much larger, albeit optional, annoyances that gate far more of the game's progression than they should. The minigames are uninteresting at best and frustrating at worst, with the most notable one, Blitzball, being a simple case of "have the bigger number and hope the AI doesn't fuck up". The extra bosses, much like the customization, often make you capture multiple of every enemy in the game to unlock them, which leads to...more battling. I'll admit I liked exploring the towns, though. It was nice getting to see the different visuals, talk to locals, and learn more about the world and story.
And on that topic, I don't have much to say about the story. The characters are cool, if a bit shallow. The romance is nice, if very shallow. The actual plot is kind of interesting, if weirdly paced and a little too dependent on Seymour. It's good, just not one of the best things I've ever seen. And that's the thing: despite how much I've criticized it, I like Final Fantasy X. I just think I'd like it a lot more if I didn't expect to love it. I've seen countless people hail the plot as a subversive epic, the romance as the greatest love story ever told, the sphere grid as an unmatched progression system, the combat as timeless, and the game as one of the best JRPG's ever. Meanwhile, I simply scratch my head and wonder if we played the same game. Is it nostalgia? Am I just crazy? Or did I just expect too much? Whatever the case, I'm glad I at least played FFX. I regret playing it for an entire summer, but I'm grateful for the experience, despite my gripes. Because if nothing else, it taught me the internet can be wrong about things. Maybe I should stop believing the hype, keep my expectations in check, and realize that I do 'get' it. I'm just not a big fan.
Hey! Pikmin
2017
Hey! This sucks.
Alright, that's mean, but I couldn't resist. Unfortunately, it encapsulates my thoughts on this game. This is another game by Arzest, who I best know for bastardizing Yoshi's Island (as "Artoon", originally) and who most people best know for Balan Wonderworld. Insofar as I'm concerned, Arzest understands Pikmin about as well as they understand Yoshi.
Adapting Pikmin to a 2D platformer is an interesting idea. I'm not necessarily opposed to this, much as it reminded me of the ill-fated Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash, because there are a lot of interesting ways Pikmin's puzzle RTS mechanics could adapt into a platformer setting. I'm not fond of Olimar's Smash Bros. interpretation, but Brawl has the start of an idea with the Pikmin Chain - theoretically you can do things with that, Bomb Rock puzzles, elemental affinities, weight and flight, etc etc etc. problem is, Hey! Pikmin rarely goes for any of that. Most puzzles in the game are of the lock-and-key variety; bring X Pikmin [of Y type] here to solve the puzzle. This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing - lock-and-key puzzles are your bread and butter in video games - except that the game has little interest in iterating upon its own mechanical challenges. By way of example, there are these optional challenge rooms throughout the game. I wasn't really challenged by the first few of these, but I figured the game would ramp up the difficulty once it established what it was going for. But in fact, I found the final challenge room exactly as difficult as the first one had been.
Pikmin is a series I love for its quiet touches and moments. Especially in the first game, everything is so understated: you aren't on a big, bombastic adventure, but rather a fight for survival on a hostile world. Later games step away from this, but there's always a sense of trying to hold onto little things in a bigger universe. The Piklopedia in 2, the team chatter in 3, and I haven't played 4 as of this writing.
Hey! Pikmin doesn't seem to understand this. It has the shape of these ideas with things like Olimar's monster/treasure notes, but it doesn't really get them. It doesn't get Olimar. There's the understanding that Olimar is a salaryman who does everything he can to support his family, but... like, he sounds whiny about it here. The game knows that Olimar should fundamentally misunderstand the Earth treasures he comes across, but then the game lets him understand what humans are (for goodness' sake, he comes across a snowglobe with Santa Claus, and he recognizes that that's what a person looks like. That feels like that breaks so many rules. To say nothing about Donkey Kong Land, specifically, being canon to this game).
Then there are the little skits with the Pikmin. Every so often, you'll be treated to a little scene of the Pikmin doing something cute in the level. I really don't like this. There's an increased emphasis on Pikmin domesticity throughout side material that rubs me the wrong way. They are a hunter-gatherer people who must be accustomed to the hardships of their way of life. I'm fine seeing them as a curious child-like people in the context of something like the Piklopedia treasures, where it's clear that the Pikmin are leveraging the free time they have under Olimar's leadership and exploring the elements of their world with their newly-afforded freetime. Not like how it's done here, when in the middle of every level, there are scenes - sometimes multiple per level - of the Pikmin tripping or pushing each other around or waving at each other or SOMEthing like that. Stuff clearly engineered to make the player go "awwwww lookit em". It's such a blatant, cloying attempt to turn the Pikmin into Minions that I just got annoyed seeing the little guys do their thing (this coming from someone who's generally tolerant of the Minions).
Two things I like to this game, or at least one I like and one I am at an understanding with. To start with the latter, I don't love any of the bosses, and in point of fact I rather hate how over-the-top dramatic the final boss is (they've been hinting at him the whole game!!!!! Guys this is the ultimate pimpkin fight!!!!!!!!!!!) - but I do think the first boss fight, against an ordinary Red Bulborb, is an interesting concession. There was no real way to communicate the feeling of fighting an enemy like a Bulborb in the normal gameplay of a 2D platformer, so as weird as it sounds, I'm okay with it as an early game boss. Makes for a decent enough chiasm with Emperor Bulblax being one of the late game bosses, too.
The one level I really like is "The Lonely Tower", which comes about halfway into the game. As a change of pace, Olimar starts the level completely alone. You don't get any Pikmin until a decent way through the level, after you've already had to do some platforming to scale the titular tower. It's the one time I feel like the game gets Pikmin's tone, and I honestly think that'd be fascinating design to explore in the context of a mainline Pikmin game. As essential as the Pikmin mechanics are to series identity, there's something to be said for the moods a player can experience by their absence.
If more of Hey! Pikmin had this level of thought, it'd have the potential to be an understated entry in such an understated series. As it is? Stay away unless you're a die-hard fan, and even then, don't expect much.
Alright, that's mean, but I couldn't resist. Unfortunately, it encapsulates my thoughts on this game. This is another game by Arzest, who I best know for bastardizing Yoshi's Island (as "Artoon", originally) and who most people best know for Balan Wonderworld. Insofar as I'm concerned, Arzest understands Pikmin about as well as they understand Yoshi.
Adapting Pikmin to a 2D platformer is an interesting idea. I'm not necessarily opposed to this, much as it reminded me of the ill-fated Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash, because there are a lot of interesting ways Pikmin's puzzle RTS mechanics could adapt into a platformer setting. I'm not fond of Olimar's Smash Bros. interpretation, but Brawl has the start of an idea with the Pikmin Chain - theoretically you can do things with that, Bomb Rock puzzles, elemental affinities, weight and flight, etc etc etc. problem is, Hey! Pikmin rarely goes for any of that. Most puzzles in the game are of the lock-and-key variety; bring X Pikmin [of Y type] here to solve the puzzle. This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing - lock-and-key puzzles are your bread and butter in video games - except that the game has little interest in iterating upon its own mechanical challenges. By way of example, there are these optional challenge rooms throughout the game. I wasn't really challenged by the first few of these, but I figured the game would ramp up the difficulty once it established what it was going for. But in fact, I found the final challenge room exactly as difficult as the first one had been.
Pikmin is a series I love for its quiet touches and moments. Especially in the first game, everything is so understated: you aren't on a big, bombastic adventure, but rather a fight for survival on a hostile world. Later games step away from this, but there's always a sense of trying to hold onto little things in a bigger universe. The Piklopedia in 2, the team chatter in 3, and I haven't played 4 as of this writing.
Hey! Pikmin doesn't seem to understand this. It has the shape of these ideas with things like Olimar's monster/treasure notes, but it doesn't really get them. It doesn't get Olimar. There's the understanding that Olimar is a salaryman who does everything he can to support his family, but... like, he sounds whiny about it here. The game knows that Olimar should fundamentally misunderstand the Earth treasures he comes across, but then the game lets him understand what humans are (for goodness' sake, he comes across a snowglobe with Santa Claus, and he recognizes that that's what a person looks like. That feels like that breaks so many rules. To say nothing about Donkey Kong Land, specifically, being canon to this game).
Then there are the little skits with the Pikmin. Every so often, you'll be treated to a little scene of the Pikmin doing something cute in the level. I really don't like this. There's an increased emphasis on Pikmin domesticity throughout side material that rubs me the wrong way. They are a hunter-gatherer people who must be accustomed to the hardships of their way of life. I'm fine seeing them as a curious child-like people in the context of something like the Piklopedia treasures, where it's clear that the Pikmin are leveraging the free time they have under Olimar's leadership and exploring the elements of their world with their newly-afforded freetime. Not like how it's done here, when in the middle of every level, there are scenes - sometimes multiple per level - of the Pikmin tripping or pushing each other around or waving at each other or SOMEthing like that. Stuff clearly engineered to make the player go "awwwww lookit em". It's such a blatant, cloying attempt to turn the Pikmin into Minions that I just got annoyed seeing the little guys do their thing (this coming from someone who's generally tolerant of the Minions).
Two things I like to this game, or at least one I like and one I am at an understanding with. To start with the latter, I don't love any of the bosses, and in point of fact I rather hate how over-the-top dramatic the final boss is (they've been hinting at him the whole game!!!!! Guys this is the ultimate pimpkin fight!!!!!!!!!!!) - but I do think the first boss fight, against an ordinary Red Bulborb, is an interesting concession. There was no real way to communicate the feeling of fighting an enemy like a Bulborb in the normal gameplay of a 2D platformer, so as weird as it sounds, I'm okay with it as an early game boss. Makes for a decent enough chiasm with Emperor Bulblax being one of the late game bosses, too.
The one level I really like is "The Lonely Tower", which comes about halfway into the game. As a change of pace, Olimar starts the level completely alone. You don't get any Pikmin until a decent way through the level, after you've already had to do some platforming to scale the titular tower. It's the one time I feel like the game gets Pikmin's tone, and I honestly think that'd be fascinating design to explore in the context of a mainline Pikmin game. As essential as the Pikmin mechanics are to series identity, there's something to be said for the moods a player can experience by their absence.
If more of Hey! Pikmin had this level of thought, it'd have the potential to be an understated entry in such an understated series. As it is? Stay away unless you're a die-hard fan, and even then, don't expect much.
Pikmin 4
2023
This review contains spoilers
Wish I could say I liked this more after the decade long wait.
Pikmin has always been a unique series. Put on the gamecube, a console known for its creative choices, Pikmin was a cutesy RTS game with AI that was too bad to ever be dependable. It was a weird game, that was deceptively unforgiving in its difficulty. Pikmin 2 came out on the same console with several new decisions made, and overall being a significantly more difficult game. A lot of time passed before Pikmin 3 came out, but it was perfect when it did. Each of these games felt unique from each other, like they were all trying to both build off of each other while still adding its own things, and always having a certain feeling to their gameplay that made it feel like they were only designed for people who actually enjoyed doing difficult, on the fly strategy under a timer.
Pikmin 4 attempts to be a love letter to the series, in that it constantly brings in elements from all of the other games in a way that makes it feel like some sort of anniversary game or victory lap. However, Pikmin 4 also makes a lot of choices that felt antithetical to Pikmin's unique feeling as a series. Frankly, it streamlined everything. It sanded off all the edges. I barely had any deaths in the course of a full playthrough. Oatchi trivializes combat, features like Idler's Alert minimize the amount of effort you have to put into Pikmin management, and the in-game time rewind mechanic takes almost all of the danger out of the atmosphere. I hate to use buzzwords, but they took out the soul and try to appeal to nostalgia to make you fill in the gaps. As an example of this, after the initial shock of seeing the Water Wraith appear, I was disappointed after it failed to actually kill a single one of my Pikmin. Not to say that it doesn't provide any new content, I found the night missions mildly entertaining if nothing else, but it doesn't feel like much.
The game also feels very handholdy in general. You can't go a single day without having some NPC give you a text alert for something that Pikmin 2 would've just let you suffer through. You have a quest log and a skill tree, for some reason. You can purchase upgrades for yourself, some of which are completely game changing and all of which would've just been available from the start if it were any other game in the series. It feels like pointless padding, pointless extra menuing because for some reason Nintendo felt like they needed to add additional rewards to encourage you to actually engage with the game's optional content. A lot of the game's design decisions feel very corporate, where originally the series felt anything but.
To sum things up: this is the first time I've chosen not to 100% a Pikmin game out of sheer boredom.
Pikmin has always been a unique series. Put on the gamecube, a console known for its creative choices, Pikmin was a cutesy RTS game with AI that was too bad to ever be dependable. It was a weird game, that was deceptively unforgiving in its difficulty. Pikmin 2 came out on the same console with several new decisions made, and overall being a significantly more difficult game. A lot of time passed before Pikmin 3 came out, but it was perfect when it did. Each of these games felt unique from each other, like they were all trying to both build off of each other while still adding its own things, and always having a certain feeling to their gameplay that made it feel like they were only designed for people who actually enjoyed doing difficult, on the fly strategy under a timer.
Pikmin 4 attempts to be a love letter to the series, in that it constantly brings in elements from all of the other games in a way that makes it feel like some sort of anniversary game or victory lap. However, Pikmin 4 also makes a lot of choices that felt antithetical to Pikmin's unique feeling as a series. Frankly, it streamlined everything. It sanded off all the edges. I barely had any deaths in the course of a full playthrough. Oatchi trivializes combat, features like Idler's Alert minimize the amount of effort you have to put into Pikmin management, and the in-game time rewind mechanic takes almost all of the danger out of the atmosphere. I hate to use buzzwords, but they took out the soul and try to appeal to nostalgia to make you fill in the gaps. As an example of this, after the initial shock of seeing the Water Wraith appear, I was disappointed after it failed to actually kill a single one of my Pikmin. Not to say that it doesn't provide any new content, I found the night missions mildly entertaining if nothing else, but it doesn't feel like much.
The game also feels very handholdy in general. You can't go a single day without having some NPC give you a text alert for something that Pikmin 2 would've just let you suffer through. You have a quest log and a skill tree, for some reason. You can purchase upgrades for yourself, some of which are completely game changing and all of which would've just been available from the start if it were any other game in the series. It feels like pointless padding, pointless extra menuing because for some reason Nintendo felt like they needed to add additional rewards to encourage you to actually engage with the game's optional content. A lot of the game's design decisions feel very corporate, where originally the series felt anything but.
To sum things up: this is the first time I've chosen not to 100% a Pikmin game out of sheer boredom.
Pikmin 4
2023
There were moments of this where I felt the simplicity and purity and loneliness of the first game were missed, and then I just decided to shut up and play the fuck out of this absolute FEAST.
I had thought they may be missing a mark by making it ‘Pikmin, but BIG’ , but I ended up wanting more. Was desperate enough to keep playing that I platinum’d every single dandori challenge thing and have been excited to brag about it ever since. Look at me!
Only a couple of tiny little complaints:
-the lock on controls were a little annoying at times.
-I wish you could have more than 3 pikmin types out on the field at once. I really wanted to see my little army of every type.
-I wish the rewind feature was tied to a specific difficulty mode. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I didn’t use it so much. And my brain couldnt resist instantly clicking on it whenever things every went slightly wrong.
I loved it. Move over Mario.
I had thought they may be missing a mark by making it ‘Pikmin, but BIG’ , but I ended up wanting more. Was desperate enough to keep playing that I platinum’d every single dandori challenge thing and have been excited to brag about it ever since. Look at me!
Only a couple of tiny little complaints:
-the lock on controls were a little annoying at times.
-I wish you could have more than 3 pikmin types out on the field at once. I really wanted to see my little army of every type.
-I wish the rewind feature was tied to a specific difficulty mode. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I didn’t use it so much. And my brain couldnt resist instantly clicking on it whenever things every went slightly wrong.
I loved it. Move over Mario.
Arcade Paradise
2022
The idea is great. Build your own arcade at the back of a laundromat and have the ability to play on all the machines you buy for your arcade. As you progress, you get more machines to buy and play on as you expand your arcade.
The laundromat management part of the game is designed to be a side hustle to the arcade and to be monotonous on purpose. It ties into the theme of the story in many ways, but even so, you still spend so much time on it that you end up wishing it was more fleshed out. Unless you ignore it completely, which is possible to do, and only play arcade games.
You are at the mercy of the arcade machines, if you don't enjoy them, there is not that much else to do. I liked 5-6 of them, but the rest I had to force myself to play on. The thing is, the more you play on them, the more money they bring in, so if you don't play on them a lot, you are gonna earn slowly, something that comes close to killing the game towards the end where you have some of the bigger expenses.
The laundromat management part of the game is designed to be a side hustle to the arcade and to be monotonous on purpose. It ties into the theme of the story in many ways, but even so, you still spend so much time on it that you end up wishing it was more fleshed out. Unless you ignore it completely, which is possible to do, and only play arcade games.
You are at the mercy of the arcade machines, if you don't enjoy them, there is not that much else to do. I liked 5-6 of them, but the rest I had to force myself to play on. The thing is, the more you play on them, the more money they bring in, so if you don't play on them a lot, you are gonna earn slowly, something that comes close to killing the game towards the end where you have some of the bigger expenses.
Pokémon Play It!
2000
Poking around this site reminded me that this game existed! Thank you, Backloggd! I had v2 back in the day, which I'll rank once I'm able to get a version working on my current computer, but I was able to play a couple matches of this version.
Pokémon: Play It! v2 scratched a very specific niche - if you loved the Pokémon Trading Card Game back in the day, didn't have anyone to play it with, and did not have access to the GameBoy Color game based on the TCG, that was your best bet. But for a brief window of time, you had to go with this instead. To be clear, this game is super limited - you can choose from one of initially two decks, though you can unlock two more with a code. There is no way to build additional decks, and outside a few lessons, a couple quizzes, and a few downloadables/printables, there isn't much else to do.
The decks also kind of suck. This is to be expected since the game was packaged as a "learn to play" set, and obviously you're not gonna start newbies out with all the most technical metagame cards. But you do feel that suckiness in a vacuum. They're all half-decks (30 cards instead of the standard 60), and there aren't any real power cards in play. Your hardest hitters are Base Set Machoke, Jungle Seaking, Base Set Charmeleon, Base Set Arcanine, and (due to a glitch) Base Set Magmar - cards that don't have much going for them besides hitting hard (not even type effectiveness, since Julie exclusively uses the Fighting deck against the two Fire decks). Draw power, the absolute cornerstone of the early TCG, is almost nonexistent; three decks have exactly one Bill, and the other deck has two Jungle Meowth. You have very few Trainer cards overall, and each half-deck is filled to bursting with energy cards and Basic Pokémon. And since they're half-decks, each game wraps up right around the time it's getting interesting.
As a tool to learn the TCG, this disk is fine. It captures the novelty of the TCG well enough, incorporating things like anime voice clips and special effects to make matches more showy and flashy. But it doesn't really capture the essence of the TCG. v2 didn't do so hot in that regard, either, but there was enough to keep me coming back there as a kid. I suspect I would've bounced off this release pretty hard.
Also, the CGI is terrifying. Opponent Julie always creeped me out as a kid, between her dumb hair and dopey overalls and eerie smile. And I don't even know what the hell is going on with those other kids in the opening.
Pokémon: Play It! v2 scratched a very specific niche - if you loved the Pokémon Trading Card Game back in the day, didn't have anyone to play it with, and did not have access to the GameBoy Color game based on the TCG, that was your best bet. But for a brief window of time, you had to go with this instead. To be clear, this game is super limited - you can choose from one of initially two decks, though you can unlock two more with a code. There is no way to build additional decks, and outside a few lessons, a couple quizzes, and a few downloadables/printables, there isn't much else to do.
The decks also kind of suck. This is to be expected since the game was packaged as a "learn to play" set, and obviously you're not gonna start newbies out with all the most technical metagame cards. But you do feel that suckiness in a vacuum. They're all half-decks (30 cards instead of the standard 60), and there aren't any real power cards in play. Your hardest hitters are Base Set Machoke, Jungle Seaking, Base Set Charmeleon, Base Set Arcanine, and (due to a glitch) Base Set Magmar - cards that don't have much going for them besides hitting hard (not even type effectiveness, since Julie exclusively uses the Fighting deck against the two Fire decks). Draw power, the absolute cornerstone of the early TCG, is almost nonexistent; three decks have exactly one Bill, and the other deck has two Jungle Meowth. You have very few Trainer cards overall, and each half-deck is filled to bursting with energy cards and Basic Pokémon. And since they're half-decks, each game wraps up right around the time it's getting interesting.
As a tool to learn the TCG, this disk is fine. It captures the novelty of the TCG well enough, incorporating things like anime voice clips and special effects to make matches more showy and flashy. But it doesn't really capture the essence of the TCG. v2 didn't do so hot in that regard, either, but there was enough to keep me coming back there as a kid. I suspect I would've bounced off this release pretty hard.
Also, the CGI is terrifying. Opponent Julie always creeped me out as a kid, between her dumb hair and dopey overalls and eerie smile. And I don't even know what the hell is going on with those other kids in the opening.
Open Season
2006
Another banger movie video game from the XBOX era. Similar to Madagascar, there was a ton of variety in this game and it was so much more than just one idea, making it a really fun game on it's own, disregarding the source material. Not sure why I exclusively played animated movie-based games on the original XBOX but I know I got a hell of a lot of worth out of these. Lots of memorable levels from this game to this day for me, like the rafting level, the minecart levels, surviving different hunters and more. Really good presentation of ideas that made it yet another important game from my childhood that I enjoyed putting a ton of time into.
Dots
2013
Years ago, back when I wanted to break into the game industry, I found a job listing for Playdots. It seemed poor form to send in an application when I wasn't familiar with their work, so - since it was free - I downloaded Dots to acquaint myself. I never did hear back from Playdots (so it went with most companies to which I applied), but I've spent the last 8 years since playing their game on and off.
I'll get to why I'm "abandoning" this rather than "completing" it, but I'll go ahead and say upfront that the game ain't bad. It's about as simple as you can get for a "falling blocks" puzzler - string together two or more dots of the same color to clear 'em, make a square to clear all of that particular color, shoot for a high score in either a certain amount of moves or a certain amount of time. Apart from a couple power-ups, that's pretty much it. It's as minimalist and barebones as they come, but that's precisely what they're going for, and it's still satisfying to see all them dots go away all at once. Of interest to me, there's a color blind mode that adds symbols to the dots; removes some of the simplicity, but I certainly appreciate that the option's there.
So that's all well and good, but what's the incentive to keep coming back for 8 years? That would be the game's achievements. There are only 32 of 'em - nothing super complicated, just li'l incentives to challenge yourself and keep going, getting a little better so you can nail those high score achievos, or maybe try to nail those achievements to clear more dots with squares...
Now let's talk strategy. As mentioned, you have two different modes to work with, Time and Moves. Right away, you can forget about getting high scores with Time, because unless the RNG is in your favor and, like, you train up on this extremely specific skill of seeing and swiping dots, you're fighting a losing battle. You're much better off trying for it in Moves, since you can take your time to strategize and maximize your pulls. If you're good, you can pretty consistently rack up over 200 points (one for each dot cleared) in the allotted 30 moves.
The highest score-based achievement requires a game of 500 or more. You'd have to average almost 17 dots a move. You're likely to have a string of just 3 dot moves, so... that's not happening.
But wait, there are those power-ups. You pay for them with the points you've earned in each game. One gives you extra time (i.e. 5 extra moves), one expels all dots of a given color, and one will "shrink" a single dot and remove it from play (more useful than you'd think - you get a lot of cases where a square is broken by a single misplaced dot). Sure, the first two of those are limited to one per game, but that'll still help you get more of the way there...
The highest score I've managed to achieve was 397. I'm sure I could get a 400 game if I had another lucky streak where the falling dots matched up nicely, but I don't think I'm ever getting 500, nevermind the sheer luck required to fill the full 6x6 grid with the same color.
You have two options for how you're SUPPOSED to get those last few achievements. One, you buy the "Double Dots" power-up for $5. This does what you'd expect. Two, you buy the third "Endless" mode for $2. This also does what you'd expect.
I am making an assumption on all this, since I have never bought either of these things. I do not buy microtransactions as a rule. Not because I'm opposed to them or anything like that, but because I know my limits. I have an addictive personality, and I know, once I cross that threshold, it'll be hard for me to rein myself in. Same reason I don't drink or smoke or anything like that. So even in a case here, where $7 would permanently unlock features that would easily let me finish the game, I dare not shell out the money.
As you might surmise, I played this game for 8 years because I wanted to see if I could beat it without paying for things in-game. After all this time, and in particular after spending a flight doing nothing but trying to grind out those achievements, I've decided I cannot. Not without ridiculously good luck or mastery of skills I am not interested in mastering.
Dots is not a bad game, but it is a bad game to go achievement hunting for. It's worth the free download, it's worth playing if you need something zen to center yourself, and honestly, it might be worth it to you to reward the developers $7 for putting together such a nice li'l game. But it's not worth it to me to give the developers $7 so I can finally put this game to bed. I did as good as I'm gonna do, and I can live with that.
I'll get to why I'm "abandoning" this rather than "completing" it, but I'll go ahead and say upfront that the game ain't bad. It's about as simple as you can get for a "falling blocks" puzzler - string together two or more dots of the same color to clear 'em, make a square to clear all of that particular color, shoot for a high score in either a certain amount of moves or a certain amount of time. Apart from a couple power-ups, that's pretty much it. It's as minimalist and barebones as they come, but that's precisely what they're going for, and it's still satisfying to see all them dots go away all at once. Of interest to me, there's a color blind mode that adds symbols to the dots; removes some of the simplicity, but I certainly appreciate that the option's there.
So that's all well and good, but what's the incentive to keep coming back for 8 years? That would be the game's achievements. There are only 32 of 'em - nothing super complicated, just li'l incentives to challenge yourself and keep going, getting a little better so you can nail those high score achievos, or maybe try to nail those achievements to clear more dots with squares...
Now let's talk strategy. As mentioned, you have two different modes to work with, Time and Moves. Right away, you can forget about getting high scores with Time, because unless the RNG is in your favor and, like, you train up on this extremely specific skill of seeing and swiping dots, you're fighting a losing battle. You're much better off trying for it in Moves, since you can take your time to strategize and maximize your pulls. If you're good, you can pretty consistently rack up over 200 points (one for each dot cleared) in the allotted 30 moves.
The highest score-based achievement requires a game of 500 or more. You'd have to average almost 17 dots a move. You're likely to have a string of just 3 dot moves, so... that's not happening.
But wait, there are those power-ups. You pay for them with the points you've earned in each game. One gives you extra time (i.e. 5 extra moves), one expels all dots of a given color, and one will "shrink" a single dot and remove it from play (more useful than you'd think - you get a lot of cases where a square is broken by a single misplaced dot). Sure, the first two of those are limited to one per game, but that'll still help you get more of the way there...
The highest score I've managed to achieve was 397. I'm sure I could get a 400 game if I had another lucky streak where the falling dots matched up nicely, but I don't think I'm ever getting 500, nevermind the sheer luck required to fill the full 6x6 grid with the same color.
You have two options for how you're SUPPOSED to get those last few achievements. One, you buy the "Double Dots" power-up for $5. This does what you'd expect. Two, you buy the third "Endless" mode for $2. This also does what you'd expect.
I am making an assumption on all this, since I have never bought either of these things. I do not buy microtransactions as a rule. Not because I'm opposed to them or anything like that, but because I know my limits. I have an addictive personality, and I know, once I cross that threshold, it'll be hard for me to rein myself in. Same reason I don't drink or smoke or anything like that. So even in a case here, where $7 would permanently unlock features that would easily let me finish the game, I dare not shell out the money.
As you might surmise, I played this game for 8 years because I wanted to see if I could beat it without paying for things in-game. After all this time, and in particular after spending a flight doing nothing but trying to grind out those achievements, I've decided I cannot. Not without ridiculously good luck or mastery of skills I am not interested in mastering.
Dots is not a bad game, but it is a bad game to go achievement hunting for. It's worth the free download, it's worth playing if you need something zen to center yourself, and honestly, it might be worth it to you to reward the developers $7 for putting together such a nice li'l game. But it's not worth it to me to give the developers $7 so I can finally put this game to bed. I did as good as I'm gonna do, and I can live with that.
Pikmin 4
2023
It's my first Pikmin game and I loved it. I kinda wish more areas would be themed around civilization, as 4 levels are basically just forest with different themes, but I'm likely in a minority that enjoyed the house stage the most.
Dandori challenges are absolutely sick and despite me not liking speedrun-type content, I absolutely adore those.
There are some pacing issues, mainly with how quickly you can roll the credits when the story is in no way over. No "post-game" content is really that hard, either? Weird. I get that Ninty likes little Jimmy to stop playing and feel a sense of completion so to not torture him with Champion Roads, but last 2 levels are fine, and I think have some of the easiest Dandori Challenges.
Oatchi is a friend
Dandori challenges are absolutely sick and despite me not liking speedrun-type content, I absolutely adore those.
There are some pacing issues, mainly with how quickly you can roll the credits when the story is in no way over. No "post-game" content is really that hard, either? Weird. I get that Ninty likes little Jimmy to stop playing and feel a sense of completion so to not torture him with Champion Roads, but last 2 levels are fine, and I think have some of the easiest Dandori Challenges.
Oatchi is a friend
Pikmin 4
2023
It's fine. The more I think about it, the more issues I have with it, mainly pertaining to Oatchi and his ridiculous arsenal of abilities that make him into a bonafide powerhouse by mid to late game. Combat is more mindless than ever since you can just use Oatchi's Rush attack to instantly latch your squad of Pikmin onto an enemy. I hardly ever felt the same kind of satisfaction I'd get from besting a Wollyhop in the first two games, hell any enemy for that matter. It was all about the timing, knowing when to bait for an attack and then when to back off, how many Pikmin to throw before you gotta whistle them back. That's largely gone in 4, replaced with an utterly dull system with little to no strategy required. There's no real weight to losing Pikmin anymore either. It always hurt to lose Pikmin in 1&2 since every one of them counts, meanwhile in 4 I felt nothing when losing any of my little guys since I have a tank in the form of a dog.
Even the bosses left me feeling underwhelmed (especially considering a good chunk of them are recycled from 1&2). The Water Wraith was neat to see again, although not even half as threatening as it could be in 2. Would've been better if it was a different kind of "wraith" akin to the Plasm Wraith.
I also really hate how you can only have 3 types of Pikmin out on the surface, worse yet it TELLS you which Pikmin you'll need for the area. In prior games, I was always carefully considering which Pikmin types I'd need and how many of each, but in 4 you just have to push X. Would've made for an interesting challenge paired with the new Survey Drone, but oh well. So much for asking the player to think for themself.
I think the areas are okay, but they hardly hold a candle to anything in 1 or 3. It really does feel like a sequel to 2 in that way. The areas in both games largely serve as sandboxes. I honestly preferred the linear area design of 3, because what you got were carefully designed challenges that I felt took advantage of the abilities of the Pikmin in far more interesting ways than what 4 tries to do. By that I mean the areas look nice at first glance but they feel very... empty? It's partially an issue with the fact that there's no day limit, so you're under no stress to explore any faster. That's always been one of my favorite things about Pikmin, working to beat the clock by figuring out which challenges to tackle first. Micromanagement played a key role in 1&3. Yes, you can easily beat them with plenty of time to spare, but it's the fact that the game pushes you to do better with little things like the more triumphant music that plays at the day end cutscene if you've collected a large number of fruit. Stuff like this makes it immensely more satisfying to play my best, learning and adapting my strategies when necessary. It's a core value of 1 that is lost in 2 and lost again in 4. I had some fun exploring the areas in 4 but they're really nothing special.
At the very least the caves are a step in the right direction, they have some neat new gimmicks that make for some fun little puzzles to solve. Miles better than what 2 attempted with its randomly generated cave layouts. The caves in 4 are a bit too short though, most of them don't get enough floors for their gimmicks to be fully fleshed out.
Oh yeah there's also the night expeditions which were rather dull. They're far too easy, even the later ones end just as the difficulty starts ramping up. I've got nothing else to say about these, they're very unimaginative.
Pikmin 4 plays it way too safe for the sake of appealing to new players, to a point where it loses some of that edge the prior games had. Not to say the rest of the series is perfect, I have my issues with each of them. It just happens that 2 is my least favorite, and 4 takes after it in more ways than one.
If you've never played a Pikmin game before, I'm sure you'll love 4. I can't say I did, unfortunately.
Even the bosses left me feeling underwhelmed (especially considering a good chunk of them are recycled from 1&2). The Water Wraith was neat to see again, although not even half as threatening as it could be in 2. Would've been better if it was a different kind of "wraith" akin to the Plasm Wraith.
I also really hate how you can only have 3 types of Pikmin out on the surface, worse yet it TELLS you which Pikmin you'll need for the area. In prior games, I was always carefully considering which Pikmin types I'd need and how many of each, but in 4 you just have to push X. Would've made for an interesting challenge paired with the new Survey Drone, but oh well. So much for asking the player to think for themself.
I think the areas are okay, but they hardly hold a candle to anything in 1 or 3. It really does feel like a sequel to 2 in that way. The areas in both games largely serve as sandboxes. I honestly preferred the linear area design of 3, because what you got were carefully designed challenges that I felt took advantage of the abilities of the Pikmin in far more interesting ways than what 4 tries to do. By that I mean the areas look nice at first glance but they feel very... empty? It's partially an issue with the fact that there's no day limit, so you're under no stress to explore any faster. That's always been one of my favorite things about Pikmin, working to beat the clock by figuring out which challenges to tackle first. Micromanagement played a key role in 1&3. Yes, you can easily beat them with plenty of time to spare, but it's the fact that the game pushes you to do better with little things like the more triumphant music that plays at the day end cutscene if you've collected a large number of fruit. Stuff like this makes it immensely more satisfying to play my best, learning and adapting my strategies when necessary. It's a core value of 1 that is lost in 2 and lost again in 4. I had some fun exploring the areas in 4 but they're really nothing special.
At the very least the caves are a step in the right direction, they have some neat new gimmicks that make for some fun little puzzles to solve. Miles better than what 2 attempted with its randomly generated cave layouts. The caves in 4 are a bit too short though, most of them don't get enough floors for their gimmicks to be fully fleshed out.
Oh yeah there's also the night expeditions which were rather dull. They're far too easy, even the later ones end just as the difficulty starts ramping up. I've got nothing else to say about these, they're very unimaginative.
Pikmin 4 plays it way too safe for the sake of appealing to new players, to a point where it loses some of that edge the prior games had. Not to say the rest of the series is perfect, I have my issues with each of them. It just happens that 2 is my least favorite, and 4 takes after it in more ways than one.
If you've never played a Pikmin game before, I'm sure you'll love 4. I can't say I did, unfortunately.
Pikmin 4
2023
This review contains spoilers
I am a MASSIVE Pikmin fan, but this is a recent development. For years, I didn't actually like Pikmin at all. Probably because my first game was Pikmin 2, which to this day I still don't really like as much as everyone else. This year though, I impulse bought 3 DX and thank god I did. It made me go and play 1 which became one of my favorite games ever VERY quickly, and give 2 another shot which...eh yeah still not a huge fan. BUT I was still a fan. So much so that I played and replayed ALL of the games within 6 months. And just in time because Pikmin 4 was coming, which I was excited for for the Arlo videos alone. BUT NOW, I was excited to play the game! And god WHAT A GAME.
Normally when I write super long essay like reviews like this I break down a game to a science, but for Pikmin 4 that's more difficult. Things definitely lead into others, but it's so open ended that you can skip by it all, just doing the bare necessities, or fully 100% (or get damn close to it) before moving to the next. So let's just start with the plot (which believe me, is a whole discussion), onto the overworlds, onto treasures, leading into caves, dandori battles, timed challenges, Night missions, THEN the extra stuff.
So the plot of this game is a retcon. People will try and be like "BUT BUT IT TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 2 AND 3" and no it doesn't. All evidence I see of it is extremely reachy stuff that doesn't seem plausible. But basically, Olimar has crash landed on PNF-404 (although I don't know that they call it that in 4?) and he meets a doggie named Moss. THEN HE FUCKING DIES. His life support runs out, and he gets pikminified. Before he does, though, he sends out a distress signal and people from all over the galaxy come to PNF-404. Primarily, the Rescue Corps! And they crash too. So you, the new recruit who stayed behind, goes and finds everyone who crashed, including the rest of the rescue corps, Olimar, and many more. After you rescue Olimar, you leave the planet when you realize Oatchi, the rescue dog, is sick. You then travel through 2 new areas looking for a veterinarian team, who are ALL one big Pikmin 3 reference, and chasing Louie who is LITERALLY trying to kill you. That's why I don't think this game is between 2 and 3. Why would Olimar voyage with Louie again after he does this? Why wouldn't the 3 Pikmin 3 references, one of whom is directly related to Alph, tell them about this experience? Olimar would naturally come up and they'd know him in 3. WHY in 3 would Olimar say he's on his 3rd voyage? It's a reboot, which sucks, but it is. Anyways, that's the story, onto the gameplay part, starting with the overworld.
The overworlds in Pikmin 4 are like the other games, just expanded. Still able to wander, kill creatures, gather more pikmin, etc. The biggest difference you’ll notice when you first load into one is a difference to the gameplay as a whole. The game is played from a behind the back perspective rather than a top down one. This is fine, it takes a little getting used to and I think I prefer top down but this is fine. This new perspective DOES, however, make the new rescue pup Oatchi much easier to use. Oatchi acts as sort of an expanded second captain/mega pikmin and also an upgrade to general mobility. He can dash, grab objects, carry you and your pikmin, etc. He’s great! Part of me hopes that in the next game we go back to the whole Dual/Trio Captain structure but Oatchi works fine as well. Anyways, on the overworld you can find treasures! Treasures have Sparklium in them (that thing from Hey! Pikmin) that powers your ship. So, you need to collect them to expand your ships travel capabilities and unlock more areas. There are 6 main areas and they're all big with many nooks and crannies to find and explore. Treasure isn't only found on the overworld though. It can also be found in caves.
While exploring the overworld, sometimes you'll come across these strange holes in the ground. These are entrances to caves. Caves, like in Pikmin 2, are small contained gauntlets with many creatures and treasures to find. However, unlike Pikmin 2, they are EASY as fuck. While I didn't like the absurd difficulty in 2, this feels like an overcorrection. By the end I was just entering caves so I could get 100% on all areas. They're still pretty fun, just not my favorite part of the game. Anyway, in caves you can find Castaways as well. You, as a Rescue Corps member, have a duty to rescue all of these Castaways. Some of them even give you new things like the Piklopedia and Treasure Catalog. They all have unique designs and look good! It's honestly so crazy to me that THIS is probably Nintendo's most diverse game. Anyway, Caves aren't the only place you can find Castaways. You can also get them by participating in Dandori Battles and Challenges.
Sometimes in the Overworlds you'll come across differently colored holes. The red ones are Dandori Battles. In these you'll compete against either Olimar or Louie and try and gather as many things as you can on the map. These are AMAZING, chaotic fun that I could grind for Platinum medals forever. Yeah, these are graded on a Bronze-Platinum medal system depending on how much you win by. I think that the fact that you have to win by a certain amount to get better medals is a little clunky, because you can't ever really predict the COM but still, very fun. In the Dandori Challenges, however, you don't have that problem. In these you're tasked with gathering everything on the map in a certain amount of time. These are great, but not as fun as the battles. Some of the times to get platinum medals are STRICT, but it makes for great replay value. If you beat these Challenges and Battles, you are rewarded with a Leafling (someone who Olimar turned into a Pikmin so they didn't die). Actually, if you gather enough Leaflings and talk to the person who can change your appearance, you can become a Leafling too! Awesome detail. Actually, lets talk about the hub while I'm on it.
In the hub all the Leaflings and Castaways you rescue are there. Some give you sidequests, some have fun dialouge, and some let you replay previous battles and stuff. You can also talk with the rest of the Rescue Corps here. One in specific, Russ, allows you to purchase upgrades. Honestly, these are all useful, but HORRIBLY overpriced. I 100% completed all the areas and was still 3 short. But, whatever. Anyway, in this hub, you can also talk to two people to access different modes. One being the ship's doctor, and the other being Olimar. Let's start with the doctor.
If you go up to the Doctor, you can access Night Expeditions. When every Pikmin fan heard this announcement they FREAKED OUT, but even then I didn't understand why. The areas are the same, and it's not like new collectibles would spawn like people thought. No, instead we get a TD mode where you use your Pikmin to protect these large mound things that can generate Glowsap, the thing needed to purify Leaflings. These are VERY fun, my only thing is that I wish you got a bonus for protecting the Tricknols as well. They feel like they don't matter that much. Besides that, great mode and super sick that they bring back the Progg as a final boss equivalent. Anyway, in this mode you use Glow Pikmin, as they come out at night. Actually, let's take a side bar and talk about the Pikmin types in this game.
So, in this game ALL the Pikmin types come back. Let's go down the list and rank them. The Red Pikmin are as basic as always, still just as decent. Fire traps are as prominent in most of this game so they're kinda useless after Purples come in and make their strength obsolete. They can carry these Fire Pinecones, but that feels like a half assed attempt to give them usage. C Tier. Yellow Pikmin blow. I used them only when the game recommended. Even then, They weren't useful most of the time. F Tier. Blue Pikmin aren't as useless as I thought they'd be! I was worried Ice would make the obsolete, but they're plenty of underwater treasures and they get a cave or two to themselves. B Tier. Purple Pikmin are busted again. They're randomly given an element in this game, that being Gravity which...neat ig. Anyway ,They're strong as fuck and them being slow doesn't matter here because Oatchi can just give them a ride. Easy S Tier. White Pikmin also get a shocking amount of use. In late game, they become VITAL especially because Oatchi's poision upgrade is so expensive. A tier. Rock Pikmin SUCK. They're given no real usage and have garbage attack power. F Tier. Winged Pikmin are great. They're fast, are always optimal to carry things and are very useful in late game dungeons. Just REALLY bad attack power. A Tier tho. Ice Pikmin are insane. They can freeze enemies SO fast and an army of 100 can destroy anything in the game, as well as being able to freeze any body of water. S Tier. Finally, Glow Pikmin. You can only find Glow Pikmin at night, and they're very good! They can swarm into a ball and stun any enemy, and are very fast. Only downside is that they're only usable at night and in caves are you have to grind for them at night. Still, a pretty good balance in this game.
Anyway, back to the final mode. If you talk to Olimar, you can access Olimar's Shipwreck Tale WHICH IS A REIMAGINING OF PIKMIN 1. HOLY FUCK. You do the same as that game, going and getting all the ship parts with red, blue, and yellow pikmin, BUT NOW IN THE PIKMIN 4 AREAS AND MOSS. AND WHEN YOU BEAT IT YOU UNLOCK A GEAR PART AND NEW ABILITY FOR OATCHI. AND A SPECIAL ULTRA HARD TRIAL MODE WHERE YOU DO CHALLENGES FROM THIS DECADES OLD LEAFLING WHO TF IS THAT GUY???? AND IF YOU BEAT THAT YOU GET A PURPLE AND WHITE ONION. FINALLY IN A PIKMIN GAME. There is just SO much to do in Pikmin 4 and if you couldn't tell that by this review idk what to tell you. You owe it to yourself to play this game. I am begging you. Please.
Normally when I write super long essay like reviews like this I break down a game to a science, but for Pikmin 4 that's more difficult. Things definitely lead into others, but it's so open ended that you can skip by it all, just doing the bare necessities, or fully 100% (or get damn close to it) before moving to the next. So let's just start with the plot (which believe me, is a whole discussion), onto the overworlds, onto treasures, leading into caves, dandori battles, timed challenges, Night missions, THEN the extra stuff.
So the plot of this game is a retcon. People will try and be like "BUT BUT IT TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 2 AND 3" and no it doesn't. All evidence I see of it is extremely reachy stuff that doesn't seem plausible. But basically, Olimar has crash landed on PNF-404 (although I don't know that they call it that in 4?) and he meets a doggie named Moss. THEN HE FUCKING DIES. His life support runs out, and he gets pikminified. Before he does, though, he sends out a distress signal and people from all over the galaxy come to PNF-404. Primarily, the Rescue Corps! And they crash too. So you, the new recruit who stayed behind, goes and finds everyone who crashed, including the rest of the rescue corps, Olimar, and many more. After you rescue Olimar, you leave the planet when you realize Oatchi, the rescue dog, is sick. You then travel through 2 new areas looking for a veterinarian team, who are ALL one big Pikmin 3 reference, and chasing Louie who is LITERALLY trying to kill you. That's why I don't think this game is between 2 and 3. Why would Olimar voyage with Louie again after he does this? Why wouldn't the 3 Pikmin 3 references, one of whom is directly related to Alph, tell them about this experience? Olimar would naturally come up and they'd know him in 3. WHY in 3 would Olimar say he's on his 3rd voyage? It's a reboot, which sucks, but it is. Anyways, that's the story, onto the gameplay part, starting with the overworld.
The overworlds in Pikmin 4 are like the other games, just expanded. Still able to wander, kill creatures, gather more pikmin, etc. The biggest difference you’ll notice when you first load into one is a difference to the gameplay as a whole. The game is played from a behind the back perspective rather than a top down one. This is fine, it takes a little getting used to and I think I prefer top down but this is fine. This new perspective DOES, however, make the new rescue pup Oatchi much easier to use. Oatchi acts as sort of an expanded second captain/mega pikmin and also an upgrade to general mobility. He can dash, grab objects, carry you and your pikmin, etc. He’s great! Part of me hopes that in the next game we go back to the whole Dual/Trio Captain structure but Oatchi works fine as well. Anyways, on the overworld you can find treasures! Treasures have Sparklium in them (that thing from Hey! Pikmin) that powers your ship. So, you need to collect them to expand your ships travel capabilities and unlock more areas. There are 6 main areas and they're all big with many nooks and crannies to find and explore. Treasure isn't only found on the overworld though. It can also be found in caves.
While exploring the overworld, sometimes you'll come across these strange holes in the ground. These are entrances to caves. Caves, like in Pikmin 2, are small contained gauntlets with many creatures and treasures to find. However, unlike Pikmin 2, they are EASY as fuck. While I didn't like the absurd difficulty in 2, this feels like an overcorrection. By the end I was just entering caves so I could get 100% on all areas. They're still pretty fun, just not my favorite part of the game. Anyway, in caves you can find Castaways as well. You, as a Rescue Corps member, have a duty to rescue all of these Castaways. Some of them even give you new things like the Piklopedia and Treasure Catalog. They all have unique designs and look good! It's honestly so crazy to me that THIS is probably Nintendo's most diverse game. Anyway, Caves aren't the only place you can find Castaways. You can also get them by participating in Dandori Battles and Challenges.
Sometimes in the Overworlds you'll come across differently colored holes. The red ones are Dandori Battles. In these you'll compete against either Olimar or Louie and try and gather as many things as you can on the map. These are AMAZING, chaotic fun that I could grind for Platinum medals forever. Yeah, these are graded on a Bronze-Platinum medal system depending on how much you win by. I think that the fact that you have to win by a certain amount to get better medals is a little clunky, because you can't ever really predict the COM but still, very fun. In the Dandori Challenges, however, you don't have that problem. In these you're tasked with gathering everything on the map in a certain amount of time. These are great, but not as fun as the battles. Some of the times to get platinum medals are STRICT, but it makes for great replay value. If you beat these Challenges and Battles, you are rewarded with a Leafling (someone who Olimar turned into a Pikmin so they didn't die). Actually, if you gather enough Leaflings and talk to the person who can change your appearance, you can become a Leafling too! Awesome detail. Actually, lets talk about the hub while I'm on it.
In the hub all the Leaflings and Castaways you rescue are there. Some give you sidequests, some have fun dialouge, and some let you replay previous battles and stuff. You can also talk with the rest of the Rescue Corps here. One in specific, Russ, allows you to purchase upgrades. Honestly, these are all useful, but HORRIBLY overpriced. I 100% completed all the areas and was still 3 short. But, whatever. Anyway, in this hub, you can also talk to two people to access different modes. One being the ship's doctor, and the other being Olimar. Let's start with the doctor.
If you go up to the Doctor, you can access Night Expeditions. When every Pikmin fan heard this announcement they FREAKED OUT, but even then I didn't understand why. The areas are the same, and it's not like new collectibles would spawn like people thought. No, instead we get a TD mode where you use your Pikmin to protect these large mound things that can generate Glowsap, the thing needed to purify Leaflings. These are VERY fun, my only thing is that I wish you got a bonus for protecting the Tricknols as well. They feel like they don't matter that much. Besides that, great mode and super sick that they bring back the Progg as a final boss equivalent. Anyway, in this mode you use Glow Pikmin, as they come out at night. Actually, let's take a side bar and talk about the Pikmin types in this game.
So, in this game ALL the Pikmin types come back. Let's go down the list and rank them. The Red Pikmin are as basic as always, still just as decent. Fire traps are as prominent in most of this game so they're kinda useless after Purples come in and make their strength obsolete. They can carry these Fire Pinecones, but that feels like a half assed attempt to give them usage. C Tier. Yellow Pikmin blow. I used them only when the game recommended. Even then, They weren't useful most of the time. F Tier. Blue Pikmin aren't as useless as I thought they'd be! I was worried Ice would make the obsolete, but they're plenty of underwater treasures and they get a cave or two to themselves. B Tier. Purple Pikmin are busted again. They're randomly given an element in this game, that being Gravity which...neat ig. Anyway ,They're strong as fuck and them being slow doesn't matter here because Oatchi can just give them a ride. Easy S Tier. White Pikmin also get a shocking amount of use. In late game, they become VITAL especially because Oatchi's poision upgrade is so expensive. A tier. Rock Pikmin SUCK. They're given no real usage and have garbage attack power. F Tier. Winged Pikmin are great. They're fast, are always optimal to carry things and are very useful in late game dungeons. Just REALLY bad attack power. A Tier tho. Ice Pikmin are insane. They can freeze enemies SO fast and an army of 100 can destroy anything in the game, as well as being able to freeze any body of water. S Tier. Finally, Glow Pikmin. You can only find Glow Pikmin at night, and they're very good! They can swarm into a ball and stun any enemy, and are very fast. Only downside is that they're only usable at night and in caves are you have to grind for them at night. Still, a pretty good balance in this game.
Anyway, back to the final mode. If you talk to Olimar, you can access Olimar's Shipwreck Tale WHICH IS A REIMAGINING OF PIKMIN 1. HOLY FUCK. You do the same as that game, going and getting all the ship parts with red, blue, and yellow pikmin, BUT NOW IN THE PIKMIN 4 AREAS AND MOSS. AND WHEN YOU BEAT IT YOU UNLOCK A GEAR PART AND NEW ABILITY FOR OATCHI. AND A SPECIAL ULTRA HARD TRIAL MODE WHERE YOU DO CHALLENGES FROM THIS DECADES OLD LEAFLING WHO TF IS THAT GUY???? AND IF YOU BEAT THAT YOU GET A PURPLE AND WHITE ONION. FINALLY IN A PIKMIN GAME. There is just SO much to do in Pikmin 4 and if you couldn't tell that by this review idk what to tell you. You owe it to yourself to play this game. I am begging you. Please.