Pikmin (video game)


Pikmin is a real-time strategy and puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube in 2001. It was created and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, and is the first game in the Pikmin series. The player controls Captain Olimar, an alien, who crash lands on a mysterious planet, where he befriends creatures called "Pikmin", and utilizes their abilities to collect the parts for the SS Dolphin, his beloved ship. The player has thirty days to recover the pieces and repair the ship.
The game was both a critical and commercial success, spawning three more games in the series: Pikmin 2 for the GameCube, Pikmin 3 for the Wii U and Hey! Pikmin for the 3DS. In 2009, Pikmin was re-released for the Wii as part of the New Play Control! series. In 2016, the Wii version of Pikmin was re-released for the Wii U.

Gameplay

The main goal in the game is to retrieve ship parts by using the three varieties of Pikmin available in different combinations. Captain Olimar discovers multi-colored plant-animal hybrids that willingly follow his orders and help him recover the parts. All three of the Pikmin colors that Olimar discovers must be used in order to overcome various obstacles and complete the game. The Pikmin creatures come in three colors, including red, yellow and blue. Red Pikmin are the first type found in the game, and more powerful than the other two varieties and resistant to fire. Yellow Pikmin can be thrown higher than the other two, can carry explosives called "bomb rocks", and also excel at trivia. They are utilized in various tasks, including carrying objects and enemies, breaking down walls, and defeating enemies. Blue Pikmin are the only ones that are able to survive in water. Objects that can be carried vary between ship parts, enemy bodies and pellets. Only one hundred Pikmin can be on the ground at a time.
The time limit is divided into thirty days. With the exception of the first day, which lasts until the player finds the first ship part, all days in the game are about thirteen minutes in length. By the end of each day, all Pikmin should be immediately rounded up, work halted, and Olimar must return with the Pikmin to the ship. The reason for this is that many of the creatures inhabiting the Pikmin's planet are nocturnal predators and eat all unattended Pikmin on the surface after the sun sets. The game has three different endings, depending on Olimar's progress in collecting ship parts. Collecting all thirty grants the best ending, while collecting at least the twenty-five mandatory parts within the 30-day time limit grants the normal ending. Failing to do so results in Olimar's ship's life support system failing and Olimar will die from oxygen poisoning.
Apart from the main gameplay, Pikmin also contains a Challenge Mode that is unlocked once Olimar gets all three types of Pikmin. Each of the five levels in the main game are available for play. The object of Challenge Mode is to grow the greatest number of Pikmin in one day as is possible.

Plot

In Pikmin, the main protagonist is Captain Olimar, a tiny, one-inch tall humanoid extraterrestrial from the planet Hocotate. The story starts when Olimar is taking an intergalactic vacation in outer space. However, during his flight, a comet hits his spacecraft, the S.S. Dolphin, which is then pulled into the gravity field of an uncharted planet. Parts of the spaceship fall off as it plummets to the ground and crashes.
When he regains consciousness, Olimar finds out that the planet's atmosphere contains high levels of poisonous oxygen and he can stay on the planet for only thirty days before his life support system stops functioning. Olimar must retrieve all 30 of his lost spaceship parts so he can rebuild his spaceship and return to Hocotate. Although Olimar initially states in his journal entries that he needs all thirty parts, as the game progresses, it is hinted that some parts might not be needed to actually lift off and, indeed, one can successfully complete the game with only 25 parts rather than all 30.
To help Olimar are indigenous creatures called Pikmin, which are nearly extinct and unable to survive in the environment without direct leadership. As this element of symbiosis develops, Olimar discovers parts of the Dolphin and travels across the Pikmin Planet, which is assumed to be Earth, albeit with fictional fauna and far after the extinction of humans. The game has three endings depending upon how many ship parts the player successfully reacquires. Two good endings occur should the player retrieve all thirty parts or twenty-five necessary parts, and a bad ending occurs should the player fail to find twenty-five parts.

Development

The foundation of Pikmin technology is in the animation and agency of a multitude of interacting characters. A technical demonstration called Super Mario 128 was shown at Nintendo Space World 2000, showing the performance of the prototype GameCube hardware by animating up to 128 copies of Mario at once. Shigeru Miyamoto stated in 2007 that "most of you have already played - but you played it in a game called Pikmin."
The development team of Pikmin expressed their initial trouble finding the game's direction. Director Shigefumi Hino explains:
Pikmin was developed on Microsoft Windows. A Windows version of the game with debugging features is hidden on the GameCube version's disc.

Reception

Upon being revealed at E3 2001, Pikmin garnered positive reception. IGN praised it for its uniqueness and its stunning graphics, with only a few negative points such as a poor camera. It was awarded the title of "Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlor Game" from the Game Critics Awards, beating out ChuChu Rocket! for the Game Boy Advance. It was also runner-up for "Most Original Game", losing out to Majestic.
Since its release for the Nintendo GameCube, Pikmin has received positive reception. It holds an average score of 89/100 and 86.71% from Metacritic and GameRankings respectively. It was given the award for interactivity from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Pikmin has received significant praise for its graphics, in particular the design of the surrounding environment. Gaming Age editor Craig Majaski described Pikmin as both stunning and having a detailed environment. As of March 31, 2002, Pikmin has sold over one million copies.
Chris Slate reviewed the GameCube version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "A charming, addictive game that backs up Nintendo's promise to innovate on GameCube. If you like puzzles, then get your thinking cap on and put those Pikmin to work."
The Wii re-release of Pikmin was not as well-received as the GameCube version, though it still had mostly positive reception; it holds an average score of 77/100 and 79.13% from Metacritic and Game Rankings respectively.

Sales

In its first week, Pikmin sold more than 101,000 copies. However, sales fell to only between 10,000 and 15,000 copies in the weeks following. Following the release of "Ai no Uta" by Strawberry Flower, an image song related to Pikmin, its sales recovered slightly to about 22,000 copies in a week. The song appeared in the Japanese commercials for the game, but soon became an unexpected hit song, eventually eclipsing Pikmins sales. In the weeks of December 24, 2001 and January 6, 2002, Pikmin sold approximately 53,000 copies and 102,000 copies respectively. To date, Pikmin has sold approximately 1.19 million copies worldwide; 680,000 in the United States and 507,011 in Japan. By January 3, 2010, the Wii version of Pikmin had sold 169,036 copies in Japan. Since its release, Pikmin has developed a vocal and devoted fanbase.

Sequels and re-releases

Pikmin 2 was released in 2004 and features the same basic idea with some new multiplayer modes, three new Pikmin colors, caves, more beasts and Bosses, and an unlimited number of days allowed in single-player mode. When asked about Pikmin appearing on the Wii at E3 2008, Shigeru Miyamoto simply replied, "We're making Pikmin." There were originally suspicions that he may have been referring to the re-releases of the two games, but it was confirmed in an interview that he was talking about a completely new game. At his developer roundtable at E3 2011, Miyamoto revealed that development for the new Pikmin game called Pikmin 3 was moved over to the newly announced Wii U.
Both Pikmin and Pikmin 2 are part of the New Play Control series, a selection of GameCube video game remakes with additional support for features of the Wii. It was released on December 25, 2008 in Japan, February 6, 2009 in Europe and March 9, 2009 in North America. New Play Control! Pikmin uses the Wii Remote, and requires the player to point and click on the screen to do various tasks instead of manually moving a cursor with a control stick. It was also announced that the game saves day-by-day records of the player's playthrough, allowing the player to restart from any recorded day of his or her choice. In an interview, director Shigefumi Hino stated that besides adding motion controls, they wanted to include the ability to go back to saves they have made in the past, allowing players to replay all 30 days one by one in order to improve.
Pikmin 3 was revealed at E3 2012 for the Wii U. It involves two new types of Pikmin, Rock Pikmin and Winged Pikmin, and three leaders instead of two. The Rock Pikmin take on the form of small polished pebbles, rather than plants. They are immune to attacks involving blunt force, such as Crushing or Piercing. When thrown, they deal a large amount of damage. They are used to destroy crystalline obstacles. The winged Pikmin are small, pink Pikmin resembling bees that are capable of flight. This makes them immune to ground hazards, such as bodies of water, as they will simply fly over them. They are weak in battle. The game was released on July 13, 2013 in Japan, July 26, 2013 in Europe, July 27, 2013 in Australia, and August 4, 2013 in North America.
A spinoff game of the series, entitled Hey! Pikmin was revealed on September 1, 2016 for Nintendo 3DS and was released worldwide on July 28, 2017.