In this review, we gather the treasure in the GameCube game, Pikmin 2. We find out how well this puzzle game plays.
This game was released in 2004 and is the sequel to the original Pikmin game. Earlier, we reviewed the original Pikmin game and it earned a very solid score. So, it is with great interest that we check out this sequel to see what it is all about.
The story takes place right after the events of the first Pikmin game. Olimar has pieced the space ship he is flying back together and lands on his home planet. Relieved that his ordeal is over, he is greeted with the president of the company behind the space ship and Olimars mission. Unfortunately, the company is now in a pile of debt. They have already sold off all of their other assets and the Dolphin, the space ship Olimar was flying in, is part of that repossession. At that moment, the space ship is taken away.
In all, the company owes 10,100 poko’s. At that point, Olimar shows a souvenir that he brought back for his son. A rusted space ship augmented with a robotic assistant, detects it. When Olimar places it on the ground, the ship sucks it up and determines that the object is worth 100 poko’s. This brings the debt down to exactly 10,000 poko’s. The president is excited because there is probably more where that treasure came from. So, the president orders Olimar and a second space traveller, Louie, to fly back to the planet and gather a much treasure as they can find. So, the two of them hop onto the rusted ship and fly back to the planet.
When you crash land, you only have Captain Olimar. Your first two objectives is to find a Pikmin Onion ship and to re-locate Louie. When you locate Louie, this is where the first change from the first Pikmin becomes apparent. You now have the capability of switching between two team leaders. If you are simply going for the original 10,000 poko goal, this really only becomes essential for a couple of puzzles. Otherwise, this feature is generally useful for additional organization of your Pikmin and trying to be in two places at once. Otherwise, the second character simply speeds up the process of picking Pikmin out of the ground. That’s about it. The feature really doesn’t hurt anything and it does add a bit of variety to the game and makes one mundane task go by a little quicker.
Like in the past game, there are different types of Pikmin. Red is immune to fire and blue can go through water unharmed. Yellow Pikmin, however, have been changed from the previous game. Instead of being able to throw grenades and being a general utility Pikmin, they are simply immune to electricity. Each of these main three Pikmin can be obtained through getting the respective colour coded onion space ship. After that, you can produce more of these Pikmin and increase your army size.
One of the objectives is to grow your Pikmin population. The more Pikmin you have, the better your chances of completing various objectives. The rule of “strength in numbers” really does apply to this game. To increase the population of your Pikmin, you can either collect numbered discs or defeat enemies. Either way, the Pikmin will carry the objects to their respective unions. This will produce seeds. After that, you can simply go over to the Pikmin and pick them out of the ground. If you wait, the Pikmin can also mature in the ground and sprout bulbs or flowers. This will help the Pikmin move faster as you navigate the various levels.
Another returning feature is the ability to guide the Pikmin with the C-stick. Initially, this doesn’t seem all that useful, however, in small dangerous and cramped areas, you can move through some of these areas with a bit of ease. Additionally, you can obtain otherwise out of reach objects with this feature, so it does play a role as you play. You can also, of course, make your Pikmin more agile as you fight bosses with this feature.
Another returning feature is the yellow nectar. Sometimes, you have to hit certain flying enemies for them, but others can be located in eggs and in grassy areas. Like in the previous game, this feature will allow you to instantly upgrade lower level Pikmin to the higher level flower status. Each droplet only upgrades a few at a time, so while convenient, there is limitations to how much this can help.
Standing in your way are various barriers as well. A new barrier is the bag. You simply throw enough Pikmin on top of it to bring it down. How many depends on the bag, but the numbered requirement does vary. A returning barrier, however, is the stick walls. You simply throw your Pikmin at it and let them gradually take it down. The more Pikmin you have taking down the wall, the faster the process is. Another new barrier is the electric fence. Any Pikmin that touches the fence gets electrocuted and dies except the yellow Pikmin. So, it’s basically an elemental-based barrier.
Another feature is the use of bridges. Bridges can help you clear gaps or bodies of water with non-blue Pikmin. Like walls, you simply throw your Pikmin at it and attack it until the bundle unrolls all the way across. Note that bridges only last a couple days, so once you’ve unrolled it, use it to your advantage while you can.
As mentioned, your main objective is to find various treasure. Now, in most games, treasure can be gold, special magical items, or tomes of new knowledge. This game, however, takes a completely different approach. Instead, it uses common everyday objects as treasure. This can include batteries, drink caps, marbles, or other every day objects. What is creative is the fact that the bot attached to your space ship attaches names to these objects like a being who has never seen the object before. A few names are reasonably close to the actual object name, but others can be way off. The backstory here is that the bot is trying to come up with marketing names to help sell these objects back home.
Of course, treasure isn’t the only thing you can find even though that is the main objective of the game. You can find other interesting items as well. One item that can help you are the various small berries (not the treasure variation). These can be largely found by looking for special plants on the ground. If you collect enough of a certain type, you can obtain a temporary upgrade to your current Pikmin army. These upgrades can add strength or a number of other special capabilities. In addition to this, once you have “examined” enough specimen’s for a certain type, you’ll unlock the ability to collect nectar of that colour. Olimar or Louie needs to suck this up and its good for an additional dose.
As you explore the world, you’ll encounter something that is new in this game: caves. Caves offer a random element to this game because each cave system is randomly generated. While they are randomly generated, there are specific aspects each cave as. An example is the number of “sub levels” each cave system has. Sometimes, it can be as low as 3, but other times, it can be as high as 8. Just know that the number of sub levels is hard coded.
Another thing that is fixed is generally what is in each sub-level. An example of this is the treasures located in the caves. So, there is no way you can obtain a higher or lower than expected amount in Poko’s based on nothing more than what people in the speed running community calls RNG (Random Number Generator). What’s also generally fixed are the enemy types you see as well as the flowers you encounter.
Flowers have been changed around by quite a bit in this game. While some simply allow you to change your Pikmin from one main colour to another, this also happens to be the only way you can collect two new types of Pikmin: Purple and white. By finding these flowers, you also unlock the capabilities these Pikmin offer. Both Pikmin are necessary and, as far as I can tell, there is a limited number of white Pikmin as well (correct me if I’m wrong of course).
Purple Pikmin could be described as the sumo-wrestling style of Pikmin. They are heavy and have a lot of strength. If you throw them on top of some enemies, their weight stuns them. This, of course, doesn’t necessarily apply to all enemies, but they are effective on some enemies. They also have the ability to carry 10 times the weight of a normal Pikmin. So, 1 purple can carry the weight of 10 normal Pikmin. At first, this sounds like a convenience thing, but it is actually required to lift some treasure items. This is because you can only have 100 Pikmin at a time in the world map at any given time. So, what do you do with a treasure that weighs more than 100 (they do exist in this game)? Get purple Pikmin to help.
The other Pikmin is, of course, the white Pikmin. Generally, these are the poison Pikmin. Their immediately apparent use is to destroy poison stacks in the ground (exists both in the overworld and underworld). Their other feature, however, is the fact that if an enemy happens to eat one of them, they will poison that enemy and cause a good deal of damage. While a great feature, you might want to consider doing this sparingly given how many breakable walls also have poison stacks layered in with them.
In the cave systems, there are multiple barriers over top of the overworld ones. These include fire chutes, water hazards, and electric fields. As you can imagine, you need to have the respective coloured Pikmin to take them down. Since you can only bring with you a batch of up to 100 Pikmin, you more or less need to have an idea what to expect ahead of time. This can be found on the screen when you enter a cave. If there is a fire hazard symbol, it might be a great idea to bring red Pikmin. Electricity means yellow Pikmin may be advised. Water means you might like to have blue.
The thing to remember about the flowers you find is that you can only convert up to 5 Pikmin over. There is an exception to this rule and that revolves around what appears to be the queen flowers. These flowers gradually cycles through the three main coloured Pikmin. If you throw one Pikmin in, it will sprout 9 (I think) Pikmin, netting you a gain of 8 Pikmin. What those colours are depends on which colour the flower was on when the Pikmin entered this flower. Just remember that it will be all one colour.
Another aspect about the cave is the fact that the passage of time stops while in a cave. This is hugely important to keep in mind. If you are running short on time in the overworld and still have a cave to explore, you can jump into this cave late in the evening. When you emerge, you won’t be any closer to the end of the day.
Generally speaking, caves have the most treasure, so exploring them can end up being a requirement. This is especially so because one of them contains a globe part which is needed to unlock another area. In all, there are 4 areas to explore. Each one has at least 3 cave systems (4 generally). So, you are looking at a lot of areas that have treasure for you to collect.
One thing about cave systems is that many of them have boss fights in the bottom. Some of them have special treasure in them. A special piece of treasure allows you to have special capabilities. For example, in one cave system, you can find a robot-looking treasure. When returned to the start point of the sub-level, this will upgrade your suit so you can be immune to fire. This, of course, is quite convenient as you explore. As an added bonus, they are also worth a nice chunk of poko’s, so you have two great reasons to seek these out.
Another aspect to know is the fact that a few caves have small helpers. They look like an enemy, but they have small green leaves like low level Pikmin. They operate like blue Pikmin in that they are immune to water. The only thing is that they cannot follow you out once you leave a cave, so use them while you can because they will disappear from your army.
One last aspect is the passage of time. In caves, as mentioned, time is frozen. On the overworld, however, time moves gradually. This is important because, like the previous game, you must go back into orbit once night hits. The game does warn you if you are approaching the end of the day. If you reach the end of the day (which you will do often) then the game will tell you to gather your Pikmin. This is because any Pikmin not following you will be left behind (and die). Pikmin still sprouting will be there when you land the next day, so they are protected. So, something to keep in mind.
Players of the original Pikmin game will likely remember the fact that you have 30 days to complete your objective. In this game, this limit has been dropped. However, you will get mail as the days pass by between days.
For me, a great place to start is the removal of the day limitation. I think this wound up being a great move because I remember playing the original game. That limitation did add a lot of stress and planning in the game that I thought was kind of unnecessary. With the removal, you are free to simply explore and discover at your own pace. Some might argue that it just makes the game easier, however, I’d argue that it makes the game more approachable to less experienced players.
Another thing I think is good about the game is the re-thinking of some elements. Adding two additional Pikmin and changing the yellow does add some variety to the game. Honestly, the grenades in the first game can be pretty finicky to deal with. So, removing that feature wound up being a good move in the long run I think.
Another aspect that I think works is the fact that a lot of the features that made Pikmin a really good game returned into this sequel. The coloured Pikmin having different strengths and weakness and the many enemies and obstacles for you to solve works quite well.
Probably the only complaint I have about this game is that commanding the Pikmin can be really annoying at times. There are moments where you have to seriously micromanage them. I don’t mean trying to use different colours for specific tasks, but rather, you have to plot out routs to the finest detail. Sometimes, Pikmin will just carry treasure over water (which will drown all non-blue Pikmin in the process). Other times, a Pikmin might catch a lip of a map feature and just randomly wander into water and drown. While I don’t mind the concept of moderating my walking speed, the AI can leave a bit to be desired for the Pikmin.
Generally speaking, Pikmin 2 does carry over much of what made the first game so successful. What it also does is remove some of the less desired features and incorporates some new concepts. This is great because it shows that this game is showing off progress and keeping things interesting for players. The AI does leave a bit to be desired for the Pikmin, but that really is my only gripe about this game. Otherwise, this game features several hours of nice gameplay that will keep you occupied for a while. It’s worth playing for the gameplay alone.
Graphically, this game does retain all of the quality that made the original Pikmin so great. It offers some minor improvements with the variety of levels, but the problem here is that the game industry has progressed by quite a bit since then. This game was released on the same year as Burnout 3: Takedown, Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal and Sly 2: Band of Thieves. It’s still a great game in the graphics department, but not that, “Wow! Amazing!” reaction I got while reviewing the previous instalment.
The audio is pretty solid here. For the music, this game offers a nice array of tracks including the relaxing music found in the overworld and the more moody cave levels as well. The music even changes when you get close to enemies as well which is a nice touch. For me, in this area, the game most excels in the sound effects used. There isn’t really any audible dialogue, however, different creatures have a nice amount of sounds. Sometimes, it’s really satisfying taking down some of the larger enemies while other enemies have some nice idle sounds as well. So, a nice effort all around here.
Overall, this game nicely builds on the success of the previous game. It removes some of the more annoying aspects of the first Pikmin and adds some interesting new features. While the AI of Pikmin does still leave quite a bit to be desired at times, it’s hard to really find a whole lot to complain about here. Graphics are great, though the competition is catching up to this one a bit by this point in history. Audio is also pretty decent. So, an overall great game worth playing.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Got 10,000 Poko’s in 21 days. Didn’t really get much further after that simply because it wouldn’t change the score, but will consider continuing if I have free time.
General gameplay: 23/25
Replay value: 8/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 84%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
Discover more from Freezenet.ca
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
