Collection essentials #562: Pikmin (GC)

Here we have one of the last major IPs produced by Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, who does still actively work with Nintendo to this day but had his run of developing major Nintendo franchises from the 1980s to the early 2000s. 

Pikmin features an astronaut named Captain Olimar who crash lands on a strange planet while on an interstellar vacation. He’s unable to breathe in the planet’s atmosphere, but he has an air supply that will last him 30 days while he tries to gather parts of his ship to rebuild it and blast off towards home. Luckily for him, he finds helpers to aid him in this campaign. The friendly creatures he meets are the Pikmin, small sentient plant-like beings that grow in the ground and have what appear to be flower-like parts on the top of their heads, but have a humanlike body with eyes and a nose. These Pikmin can reproduce rapidly using certain objects and dead bodies of other creatures, and they have great strength in numbers. Olimar learns that he is able to command a large horde of Pikmin at once, up to 100 at a time.

Pikmin (as a game) is played with a time limit. In real-life time, a day lasts roughly about 13 minutes. And of course, the whole game must be beaten within 30 in-game days. On a typical day, Olimar has to find ways to grow more Pikmin, and then use more Pikmin to locate parts of his ship and deal with any dangers and hazards along the way so they can bring it back to his base. 

There are three types of Pikmin in this game: red, blue and yellow, and each have their own skills and attributes. Red Pikmin are immune to fire, yellow Pikmin are able to use bomb rocks, and blue Pikmin can survive in water. Olimar must efficiently be able to assess which Pikmin are needed for each task and swap them out when necessary. He also has to make sure to return Pikmin to the home base by nightfall when possible, because any Pikmin left outside will be killed by predators. 

Olimar can’t do very much on his own, but once Pikmin are present then a lot of moves open up. While walking around, your active bunch of Pikmin will follow you, and you can also move them individually using the C-stick (the GameCube’s equivalent of the right analog stick). There are some convenient buttons you can use to control the status of Pikmin, such as “dismissing” them into idleness and sorting them by color, so “managing” them is pretty easy and intuitive. Olimar can throw Pikmin, which is often necessary to get them to hard-to-reach places or get them on the body of a large enemy to fight. Speaking of fighting, the Pikmin mostly fight automatically when they come into contact with enemies, and the player doesn’t have to worry about things like dodging or aiming shots. Inevitably, some Pikmin will die in combat, but hopefully you will be able to arrange things as favorable for them as possible so casualties can be kept to a minimum.

The main campaign isn’t terribly long, though many players will want to play it more than once to try and get the best ending. In addition to the campaign, players will quickly unlock a “Challenge Mode” in which the goal is to grow as many Pikmin as you can within a time limit for a high score. 

Pikmin was one of the first GameCube games, hitting shelves a month after the system’s launch. It was a significant success, selling over a million copies and spawning sequels that have continued to be made over 20 years later. However, unlike some of Miyamoto’s other work, it wasn’t quite as enormously popular or transformative to the industry as some of his other iconic creations. The GameCube wound up losing even more ground just as it had in the previous generation, despite Pikmin being an early potential system-seller. 

As for my own history, I was a subscriber to Nintendo Power magazine so I read and saw an awful lot about the game leading up to its release. It wasn’t my first priority when I got my GameCube, but I did get it before very long and played through it. I believe I was one ship piece short of the best ending on the last day, but ran out of time and couldn’t get it…dang! I haven’t put a ton of play time into Pikmin, but it’s a very cool and unique game. Pikmin 2 came out later in the GameCube’s lifespan, but I didn’t care for that one too much when I tried it. The second game removes the time limit and I wasn’t a fan of other changes it made. A lot of people do like Pikmin 2, though, so I’m not saying it’s a bad game, just that it won’t be making my list.

Pikmin has been ported to multiple newer Nintendo consoles since its original release, so it’s a pretty accessible title. If the thought of controlling a little army of plant dudes sounds like fun to you, then it’s something you ought to try. It’s another cool and creative title from the great Miyamoto, and for that it deserves its place as an essential in my collection.