Customer Reviews

New Play Control! Pikmin

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you haven't already played Pikmin on the GameCube, this game is an excellent opportunity to catch up with a great game. If you've already played this game there is literally nothing new here besides the controls. No new extra modes, no multi-player, no extra levels, no noteworthy graphical upgrades. Just new controls.

For those of you who haven't played the game yet, it is a very solid game. To sum it up simply, you take control of Olimar, a diminutive space explorer that crash lands on an earth like planet filled with hostile bugs and critters. You control a small army of Pikmin that do your bidding by fighting and carrying stuff for you. Red, Yellow, and Blue Pikmin have different abilities which you must take advantage of as you traverse the terrain of each of the levels. In typical Nintendo fashion, there is a great deal of exploration where you can see an area of the game but can't get to it until you unlock new abilities which require you come back to previous levels. Gameplay is broken into thirty 15-20 minute "days" in which you frantically try to cram as many accomplishments as possible into the short time frame. It all works very well, although I wish the 30-day limit wasn't in place. I found Pikmin to be quite entertaining 8 years ago, and still like it to this day.

THE NEW CONTROLS: The new controls work extremely well. There isn't any pointless remote waggle and the pointer controls work pretty well.

GRAPHICS: Aside from progressive scan support and 16:9 wide screen support, there isn't anything new here. The artwork was gorgeous years ago, but nowadays it's only pretty good. Textures look low res but the art style makes up for the deficiencies. The sad thing is that this two generation old game still looks better than most modern Wii games.

SOUND: Time has been kind to me because I apparently forgot how cheesy parts of the game are, and sound is simultaneously a strong and weak point for the game. Some of the music is very pleasant and relaxing while the cut-scenes have some extremely annoying music.

REPLAY: Aside from a points mode at the end, there isn't a whole lot of replay value to the game. It can be beat in about 10-15 hours, including time spent having to replay levels due to unfortunate death situations.

All in all, I recommend this game to anyone that didn't get the chance to play the game on the GameCube. The new controls provide a superior experience. There really aren't many games like Pikmin which makes even this remake feel unique and fresh. For those of you who have already played the game on the GameCube, this game is pretty much just a pure nostalgia purchase.

[Edit: Fixed some embarrassingly bad grammar]

This is an excellent game for those who missed the game on the GameCube (Like me). People who already have it for GameCube will not find anything new here. The motion controls work really well with this game. The only thing kind of frustrating is the camera mover, but what game doesn't have that problem? Here is a rating on each area of the game on a 1-5 star rating system

Graphics: ****
The graphics for this game were considered top-of-the-line 8 years ago, but are still pretty good today.

Gameplay: *****
This is one of those games that are great in gameplay, superb in graphics, and suitable for kids.

Controls: ***
Controls were really good for Gamecube, but are kinda odd feeling for Wii, but are still easy to use.

Storyline: **
This game has a good storyline, it really does, but the reason I gave it a lower rating is because it doesn't go really in-depth.

Cover: *****
Yes, you read this correctly, the cover. I like how they didn't drastically change the cover, something most companies do.
Plus, there are two covers. You just need to flip the cover-thing-a-ma-jig under the plastic around.

Overall this is awesome game, but I'd recommend to people who don't have it for GameCube.

Pikmin is a remake of a game that came out way back in 2001, so if your kids played that one, there's not a lot different for them this time around.

The concept is simple: A little guy has crash landed on a planet and the parts of his ship are scattered everywhere. He's about 2 inches high, so it's not like he can just walk over and pick up the pieces. The environment is like something out of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids where a small rock is a mountain of an obstacle and simple bugs are monsters.

Luckily, you quickly find help in your quest, and it's what this game is all about. There's these little seed creatures that apparently think of you as their mother and will blindly follow you wherever you go. You direct them to create more creatures, tear down obstacles, and battle bugs on your hunt for parts of your ship. There are 3 different types that you can direct, each with their own capabilities and you have to figure out how to leverage them to gain access to different areas of the world.

The crux of the game is to figure out what needs to be done to find the next part of your ship. What makes that difficult is the time limit the game imposes on you. You have 30 game days to gather what you need before your air supply runs out and you apparently die some horrible death. Each day is about 15 minutes long, so you need to get whatever you plan on doing done in that amount of time.

This is what can make the game frustrating for kids who oftentimes just want to explore and have fun. If you really want to make progress, you'll have to hit the ground running and solve puzzles as fast as you can. Otherwise, it will be impossible to complete it within the time given. If you do really screw up one of the days, you can go back to a previous day and try again, but it would have been nice if the game allowed more freedom for the kids just to do whatever they want. Furthermore, you don't have much area to explore unless you do make progress, so you'll get extremely tired of seeing the same blades of grass and flowers if you're just looking to explore.

The kids did enjoy the fact how everything was giant and got a kick out of directing a mob of 100 creatures around (which really is fun for a while), but quickly grew frustrated when they couldn't proceed past certain points in the time given. I think without the time limits, they would have been able to think about and try different tactics, but ever-present push to make progress all the time took some fun out of it. In the end, it's a cute and unique concept, but younger kids will probably need assistance in the difficult parts or they'll quickly abandon it.

This game was already a classic on the Gamecube that I enjoyed very much, but I felt that the controls were somewhat clunky and hard to get used to. This new version however, features new Wii pointer controls that take this game to a new level. These new controls are perfect for this game! The new controls make this game 10 times better than it was before. I found that the Gamecube version got very stale and boring after a while but this new version is hard to put down, even after playing for hours. GET THIS GAME! For $30, how could you lose?

The original Pikmin was an underrated game on The Gamecube Console back in 2001. Now it seems to be suffering the same fate. The title and cover suggest a cutesy and shallow game experience for the very young ones only. However this is an in-depth real time strategy game that is a lot of fun and I'm a big fan of games like StarCraft and even Warcraft III! It is certainly far from shallow! The Wii controls on this game work perfectly and complement the game well. Overall If you missed it on Gamecube (or finished it back in 2001 like me) this is your chance to enjoy an amazing game experience and at this price, it's a steal!

Actually when I passed this version a couple weeks ago I immediately started playing it again from the beginning, no breaks with other games, and then I passed it and immediately started playing it again, each time passing it at a better time. You won't want to put it down! I know I sure didn't. Now I can't wait until they release Pikmin 2 for the "New Play Control" series!

Pikmin was among the earlier GameCube titles, among others such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Metroid Prime. Pikmin was very fresh and innovative, though, because the concept was different than your usual game, causing it to stand out a bit. Commanding an army of little creatures called Pikmin to help a very small man when he crash lands on a strange planet just hadn't really been done in games before. Pikmin sure got it right the first time, though, in a great, creative game that earned a pretty strong fan base. Now, with Nintendo's New Play Control, Pikmin has come to Wii with new controls and... new controls. Is this Wii rendition still a great game or just a tired concept?

Pikmin's story involves Captain Olimar crash landing on a strange planet on a trip of some sort. His ship is in shambles, and he is able to locate 30 parts from the ship that he needs to get home. His life support will only last him for 30 days, though, because a toxic substance called 'oxygen' exists in the air. He quickly encounters a small creature which he names Pikmin, and this interesting species of little beings help him find the 30 parts of his ship and return home, and along the way the Pikmin learn independence and gain the ability to survive on their dangerous home planet. The story is very unique and that's what makes it great. The game is all centered on these concepts and they work extremely well in every aspect of the game.

Commanding Pikmin is easy enough. Simply press A to throw one or pick one out of the ground, press B to call them to you, C to sort them, and down on the control pad to direct them. The Wii's unique controls come into play with the pointer; you point at the screen to direct your throwing and where your Pikmin will go. All of these functions work almost perfectly; all potential frustrations are very few and far between. The Wii's small additions to the controls are quite good too, and the game fits perfectly with the new control scheme.

The gameplay is all about getting the Pikmin to carry parts back to your ship and create even more Pikmin (they carry things back to their 'Onion' which spits out new ones). Getting your Pikmin to do what you want them to is the key to your success, and there are many strategies involved with that. Strategy comes in especially with the three types of Pikmin: the reds (resistant to fire), yellows (can be thrown higher and can also use bombs), and blues (weaker but able to go in water). There are many challenges involved with using the different types of Pikmin, which at least keeps the game from being a walk in the park the first time through.

Once you've beaten the game, though, it truly is a walk in the park to beat it again. This is where all the replay value lies: seeing how fast you can beat the game and how many Pikmin you can produce within the 30 in-game days. Aside from the main story there is a challenge mode, in which you see how many Pikmin you can get in one day, but that feels like a waste of time when the real game is so much more fun. Overall Pikmin suffers from a lack of content, even if the bulk of what it has is simply fantastic.

Pikmin looked pretty good on the GameCube as a launch title; the difference between it and games from the generation before is pretty drastic. Nowadays the graphics still look passable and sometimes pretty nice (especially the water) but there isn't any improvement from the game that came out so many years ago. With the New Play Control version there are supposedly HD graphics, but HD always makes even the sharpest of Wii games look like a mess.

Pikmin still sounds great, though. Everything from the gut-wrenching death sounds the Pikmin make to the sounds they make when they triumph are just great. All the effects fit very well with what they go to and sound great all the time. The music is also awesome, especially the unforgettable theme from the Impact Site.

Being a total rehash with updated controls, New Play Control Pikmin has its ups and downs. The bad part is just that: it's simply a rehash of a 7-or 8-year-old game with new controls. The good part comes to the people who don't already own the game, though: they get to experience a fantastic game in a new way, and those are the people who should buy this Wii version. If you own the GameCube game then don't bother with this, just play through that version again. But if you don't own the original game, I highly recommend you give New Play Control Pikmin a shot, because you don't want to miss out on this fun, innovative, and high quality game a second time.

Positive:
+ solid, fun gameplay
+ commanding 100 little Pikmin is pretty awesome
+ new Wii controls suit the game nicely
+ great replay value
+ plenty of challenges along the way

Negative:
- no graphical improvements from GameCube game
- very little content

I love this kind of game but, I can honestly say that, "I hate PIKMIN" This could have been a pretty cool game, maybe a 3 or 3.5 except for one major thing. The game is set up and divided into a series of very short "Days" and this is the problem. Each day is maybe 15 min, or so. Now it would be really cool if you could just go around exploring these different worlds trying to find these different pieces of the ship and then trying to figure out how to get them back to your ship using the different PIKMIN but, rather than that every 10 min you have to start rounding up your PIKMIN so that you can get them back to your landing site before dark because any PIKMIN that get left behind will be lost. This destroys the game. And with each passing day you begin to hate this game more and more and more. I have played this game for over 10 hrs and am currently on day 28 of 30 days. But, that's as much wasted time as I'm willing to give this game, I'm DONE.

I didn't get to play Pikmin on the GC so I started with this new play control version for the Wii. I had so much fun playing this game. If you enjoy puzzle/strategy type games this one will suck you right in. The motion controls are used perfectly. There is no useless waggling and they are spot on. The graphics are decent and were probably top notch in the GC days. However this isn't a game where graphics really matter. The length and difficulty were just right.I wish that North America had seen the release of play control Pikmin 2 but sadly this game didn't sell well enough. This is now one of my favorite series and if the rumor is true of a Pikmin 3 for the Wii U I may end up buying the system. If you have a Wii take advantage of this Nintendo exclusive!

I purchased this for my two little brothers, one five and the other four years old. This game looks very repetitive and annoying to me (I'm 18 years old), but my little brothers love it!

I highly recommend this for little kids around 4-12, but not so much to older kids and adults.

This game is really addictive, and also really emotionally engaging. At the end of each "day" I get really stressed trying to make sure I have all my guys up in the ships, I hate losing them to the scary night creatures! And some of the baddies and crazy hard to beat!! The purple frog is especially tough!