Now I’m a first time player on Pikmin, so everything is completely new to me. So we start Pikmin 3 with a nice backstory about how we have used up all our natural resources on our planet, and we need to find somewhere else to live otherwise we won’t be able to survive. Our 3 astronauts discover a nice looking planet which seems perfect to survive on. But as sods law would have it, they have a complication while heading into the planets atmosphere and they are all sent flying into different areas of the planet.
This is where we, the player, come into the game. We are take control of the first astronaut for a quick tutorial on how the controls work and a very small introduction to the Pikmins. After we have done this, we take control of what is possibly the youngest of the astronauts, and that’s where the main focus of the game lies.
Once the game got started, the very first thing I noticed was the graphics of the world around me. I did actually spend a little time just taking in the surroundings, gobsmacked at how detailed it all is. For some reason it was something that I wasn’t expecting, so to be hit by it just like that was a really nice surprise.
The Pikmin are born and raised by what I like to call the Helicopter plant. At the start of the game you start with a few of just one colour. But once you get a couple of levels in you do get a new colour of Pikmin. To increase your Pikmin army you can take items (like flower heads) and defeated enemies to these plants to generate more Pikmin for you to use in your daily missions. You can use the increase of Pikmin to help defeat a nasty enemy or boss, help carry the body of big enemy/object/fruit you have found. It’s always nice to walk around with a massive posse behind you though!
You saw that I mentioned fruit in that last paragraph. As I explained at the start of the game, you have crash landed on a strange and unknown planet, which leads to one of the most interesting but highly annoying mechanics of the game. You will run out of food. Luckily during my playthrough I never have, but you will use one bottle of food (yes it’s bottled food) per mission, to increase your food supply you need to find fruit lying around the levels of the game and instruct the Pikmin to bring it back to your ship. Doesn’t sound too bad when it’s on text. But the main issue I have with it is that the levels/missions are timed, so you have precious little time to accomplish what needs to be done.
This can make the game rather tense at times, because if you have any Pikmin out of the Helicopter plant when night falls, they all die. When you start walking round with an army of one hundred, then this is a nasty penalty to behold. You will constantly be on the look out for food to help progress in the game which to some people (like myself) could be rather annoying. I know people were annoyed in Dead rising 2 when they kept having to go back to finding more Zombrex to help keep your daughter alive. The scenario may be completely different, but the annoyance is the same.
The control system on Pikmin is simple enough to understand. To grab the attention of the Pikmin you have to whistle them over. You do this by holding your left thumbstick over the guys and pressing the right trigger. This grabs their attention and they run over to you. You then tell the Pikmin what to do with the ‘A’ button while choosing what colour with the Left bumper. If you have another crew member available you can swap to them by pressing ‘Y’. This gives you the chance of a kind of ‘micro-managing’ opportunity within the game. Each crew member can have their own group of Pikmin to go and explore, collect or break things. However, I do sometimes struggle with the camera or the aim of the circle of instruction (as I’m calling it).
The circle of instruction is what you use to hover when you whistle or tell Pikmin what to do. But the circle is controlled via the left thumbstick, but so is your movement. This doesn’t sound too hard or awkward. But when you’re trying to get out the way of a bosses attack and grab the attention of some Pikmin that are in direct line of the boss, you will have to stop walking to aim, whistle and then run. I think it would’ve been a lot easier if they moved the circle of instruction to the right thumbstick to use as well as the camera. Makes more sense.
Once you finish or get fed up of the story mode, there are another couple of modes for you to try out. You have two choices, ‘Mission Mode’ and ‘Bingo Mode’. In mission mode you have a choice of three styles. Collect Treasure, battle enemies and defeat bosses, which are new to this game. All these missions are timed and the aim is to finish this mission as quickly as you possibly can. ‘Bingo Mode’ is slightly different and relies a little bit on multiplayer. You have a bingo card, but instead of numbers it’s pictures of fruit. You are wandering around trying to find the fruit for your bingo card, the first one to get a line wins. BINGO!
I think that Pikmin 3 is a game you do need to try on the Wii U, I can understand why people can get really into it and to be truthful, the little critters are rather cute. I have enjoyed what I played and like I said before, this is the first time I’ve ever played a Pikmin title. The main gripe I have with it is the horrible circle of instruction aiming and the timed missions (day to night), because I do feel rushed to run through the levels instead of taking my time and enjoying the scenery. Sure the game has problems, but what game doesn’t? I can easily over look the food issue because it is part of the game (I’m just the kind of person it annoys!) and the camera is something you could get used to. Hence the scoring of an 8. I do recommend giving it a go though, it could very well surprise you like it surprised me!