Pikmin 2

Pikmin 2
Pikmin 2 game cover
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shigefumi Hino Masamichi Abe
Platform(s)	Nintendo GameCube
Release	April 29, 2004 August 30, 2004 October 8, 2004
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Pikmin 2 (ピクミン2) is a real-time strategy video game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan on April 29, 2004, in North America on August 30 2004, and in Europe on October 8 2004.

Pikmin 2 is the sequel to Pikmin, also for the Nintendo GameCube. This game was considered an improvement over the original Pikmin; CNET reported that it "addressed the bulk of the shortcomings of its predecessor by crafting a game that tops the original in nearly every way."

Gameplay

Gameplay in Pikmin 2 revolves around using different combinations of Pikmin to retrieve various treasures from the planet's surface. These treasures range from a Duracell battery to a Dannon Fruit at the bottom of a yogurt lid. Different obstacles and enemies make the retrieval of each treasure unique. Because of this, the player must carefully consider which colors of Pikmin and how many of those colors will be needed to complete a certain task. This is compounded in difficulty by the fact that no more than 100 Pikmin may be in play at any given time. Typical tasks involved in collecting treasures include defeating enemies, building bridges, destroying walls, or removing other obstacles.

In addition to above-ground areas, caves can be found throughout the landscape. Caves contain multiple treasures and enemies spread across multiple "sublevels." Each sublevel in a cave contains certain treasures and a fixed array of enemies, but the layout of the sublevel and the placement of the enemies and treasures within the sublevel is random, and changes each time the player enters the cave. A player can exploit this, as the game saves automatically after the completion of each sublevel. If the layout of a sublevel is unfavorable to the player, he or she can simply begin the sublevel again, and it will have a new, presumably more favorable, layout.

Special rules apply to exploring caves. When the player is exploring a cave, time does not pass above ground. The main restriction regarding cave exploration is that there is no access to the Pikmin Onions from underground. This means that once players enter a cave, they can only use the Pikmin that they brought with them (see Bulbmin for the exception).

Differences from Pikmin

File:Pikmin 2 Screenshot OF.jpg

A screenshot of a round of the two player mode.

There were several major differences between Pikmin and Pikmin 2. The first and perhaps most important of these, was the elimination of the 30-day time limit which was imposed during the course of the first Pikmin game. In Pikmin 2, a player may continue to search for treasure for as many days as he or she wishes. The game contains 201 collectible treasure pieces, as opposed to the 30 ship parts of the original Pikmin game.

Another addition was the ability to use two captains at once, making multitasking easier. In the previous Pikmin game, multitasking was difficult as there was only one captain to direct multiple groups of Pikmin. In both Pikmin games, commands cannot be issued from a distance, meaning that a one captain system caused a lot of running between multiple working Pikmin groups. Another gameplay change was the addition of sprays, which have two effects on gameplay. The red spray energizes Pikmin to increase both speed and attack strength. The purple spray temporarily turns enemies caught in the blast radius to stone. Sprays are obtained by collecting 10 berries of the corresponding color, but can occasionally be found in egg-like vessels when smashed, instead of the usual yellow nectar.

The controls are also improved: holding A will cause Pikmin to line up behind the leader in color groups, and the color can be cycled with the d-pad. The player can even choose "leaf" or "flower" Pikmin to be thrown first with d-pad up/down. In Pikmin 1, selecting a specific Pikmin color was very fiddly and difficult. Finally, Pikmin can be thrown slightly faster in Pikmin 2.

Pikmin 2 e-Reader

In Japan, after the release of Pikmin 2, they had also released e-Reader cards that had contained mini games. Some of these mini games required the player to pluck all the Pikmin in an area in a set amount of steps, or to try to get Pikmin from one point to another. These cards were not released outside of Japan, as the e-Reader was not released in Europe, and had been discontinued in the United States at the time. The cards contain region-specific encoding which blocks their use with North American e-Readers.

Other Game Modes

Including the Main Game (Story Mode), there is also 2-Player Battle, and Challenge Mode. 2-Player Battle is unlocked from the beginning of the game, and two players (Olimar and Louie), are each controlled by a player. The object is to take 4 yellow marbles or the opponent's red or blue marble back to the player's ship. (It should be noted, however, that if either player dies or runs out of pikmin, the other player wins, making a total of 4 different win conditions.) The player's own marble cannot be carried by that player's Pikmin, allowing the opponent to gradually steal it over several assaults. While Pikmin can fight each other, they will not actually kill each other. When defeated, the Pikmin reappear next to their Onion to be re-picked. Likewise, the purple spray functions differently against enemy Pikmin - it buries them in the ground rather than allowing them to be shattered.

Challenge mode is obtained after obtaining The Key, found in the single-player game. This mode is like exploring a cave in story mode, except 2 players can play. An arena or cave is selected and players attempt to reach its bottom within a time limit. Each time a key is found, the player advances to the next level. At the bottom floor, the key creates a closed geyser. Pikmin must dig at this to activate it. Players try to get as many points as they can by retrieving treasures on each sublevel, leaving with as many Pikmin as possible, and completing it as quickly as possible. After completing an arena without losing any Pikmin, a player achieves "perfect" status.

Story

Pikmin 2 starts when Olimar returns home from his "vacation".

He finds that his company, Hocotate Freight, is in serious debt. They even had to sell Captain Olimar's ship, the Dolphin, which was the only remaining corporate asset worth anything. Shocked by this sudden turn of events, Captain Olimar drops the bottle cap he brought with him as a souvenir. It rolls in the vicinity of the company's only remaining ship (a rusty, dilapidated dual-cockpit ship which contains a smart aleck personality, and a treasure sensor) and is found to have a value of 100 Pokos, the unit of currency on Hocotate. After commenting that this is more than a year's salary, Olimar's boss sends him on a trip with Louie, a fellow employee, to the Pikmin Planet to scrounge up 10,000 Pokos worth of treasure to get the company back up and running. Olimar returns to the planet of the Pikmin (there are some telltale signs that Pikmin Planet is Earth, because of the two sections of the globe and the visible continents on the planet as seen from space). During their descent, Louie's cockpit bursts open, and the two are separated. The game then centers on finding Louie, exploring the planet, and collecting treasures. Once 10,000 Pokos have been acquired, the ship automatically blasts off, taking off towards Hocotate. Louie is then shown asleep on a tree. After the credits have rolled, Olimar and the President go back to the Pikmin homeworld to collect the remaining treasure. At Dream Den, in the Wistful Wild, the President and Olimar discover Louie lying around at the last sublevel. However, the final boss, the Titan Dweevil, drops down and uses the four treasures it has equipped. After destroying it, they take Louie back in the cargo bay, because there is not enough room in the cockpit.

Louie's Dark Secret

After completing the thirty Challenge Mode levels, a cinematic is unlocked, showing that the company is in debt because Louie had secretly eaten all the Gold Pikpik Carrots that were supposedly stolen by a Space Bunny. This was hinted at in the game, with e-mails from Louie's relatives saying how he enjoyed Pikpik Carrots and other such clues.

Similarities to Past Video Games

There are a few similarities in both Pikmin and Pikmin 2 that are seen in other games previously created by Nintendo, notably Super Mario Bros. The protagonists, Olimar and Louie are similar in size to Mario and Luigi with the shorter character being slightly bulkier and the taller one possessing a slimmer figure. In addition, the name "Olimar" (オリマー orima) is an anogram of"Mario" (マリオ)in Japanese kana. "Louie" (ルーイ), while being already superficially similar to the name "Luigi" in English, is actually the first part of the same name in Japanese (ルイージ).

Items in Pikmin 2

Several of the treasures found on the planet in Pikmin 2 are items from previous Nintendo ventures. One item, the Dream Architect, is a Game & Watch, one of a series of LCD games created by Nintendo in the early 1980s. Another, the Remembered Old Buddy, is the head of R.O.B., a peripheral device packaged with the original NES after the video game crash of 1983. Found in the same cave as the Remembered Old Buddy are five Gyro Blocks, the blocks used in one of R.O.B.'s games, Stack-up. Other Nintendo items are also included, such as a tube of paint and a crayon from Mario Paint, and the Key used in Super Mario World. The card is a reference to when Nintendo was a card company around 1889. Another interesting item is a creepy doll head called the Silencer, which in the Japanese version of the game is worth 666 pokos. In the English version, this was changed to 670.

Characters

Main article: Pikmin (species)

The red, yellow, and blue Pikmin from the previous game return, along with two new colors of Pikmin, purple and white. Unlike the originals, they are not believed to come from the Onions which generate and house the three primary Pikmin colors, as no purple or white have yet been discovered. Instead, they are created when an existing Pikmin is thrown into a purple or white "Candypop bud", a type of flower found underground in caves. White Pikmin are a bit smaller than other Pikmin, although not necessarily weaker, and are extremely fast and immune to poisonous gasses. They can also poison enemies who eat them. Purple Pikmin are bigger and a little taller than other Pikmin, and are very slow, but strong, and count for ten Pikmin when lifting things. When thrown, purple Pikmin land with a resounding boom that can stun enemies.

There are also Bulbmin, a type of parasitic Pikmin that infects Bulborbs. Being in the body of a Bulborb protects them from drowning, electrocution, burning, and poisoning (but then again bulborbs can be poisoned by white pikmin, suggesting that the white Pikmin have a different type of poison). They are found only in a few caves throughout the game, and they will assist the player-controlled captain in the cave in which they are found once their larger captain Bulborbs is killed. However, they cannot be removed from the cave unless they are changed to one of the five other types of pikmin, via candypops.

Areas

The main action of the game takes place in four separate areas. The player chooses which area will be visited at the beginning of the day, and only one area may be visited each day. The areas contain treasures, enemies, and other gameplay elements. Also, caves can be found within each area. Each cave contains a set number of chambers called sublevels. Most sublevels are random in layout, but contain a set number of treasures and a set assortment of enemies and obstacles. Only a few sublevels overall are of a fixed layout. The final sublevel of each cave, except Emergence Cave, contains a "boss" creature. The above-ground areas have fixed layouts. It can be noted that all areas from Pikmin 2 are near replicas to the levels of the original game.

The Valley of Repose is the first area that is visited in the game. It is winter in this area, and most of it is covered in snow. Players learn most of the basics here, as well as find the red and purple Pikmin. There are three caves in this area, the second two of which aren't accessible until later in the game: the Emergence Cave, the Subterranean Complex, and the Frontier Cavern. There is a strong resemblance to Pikmin's The Forest Navel.

The Awakening Wood is the second area in the game, and is opened up when an item that appears to be the northern hemisphere of a globe is found. It is spring in this area, and flower petals gently float down as opposed to the snow in the Valley of Repose. It is also the area where Blue Pikmin (which are inaccessible without Yellow Pikmin) and White Pikmin are found. This area was formerly known as The Forest of Hope in the first game, though it has slightly changed, presumably due to the passage of time. There are four caves in this area: the Hole of Beasts, the White Flower Garden, the Bulblax Kingdom, and the Snagret Hole.

The Perplexing Pool is the third area in the game, and is opened up when the other hemisphere of the globe is found. It is summer in this area, and the Yellow Pikmin can be found here, as well as the Bulbmin in the Submerged Castle. This area was formerly known as The Distant Spring in the first game, and like the Awakening Wood has changed little since its appearance in the original Pikmin. There are four caves in this area: the Citadel of Spiders, the Glutton's Kitchen, the Shower Room, and the Submerged Castle. The Submerged Castle cave is unique in two ways: firstly, the entrance is underwater, forcing the use of blue pikmin to drain the water by attacking a certain area. Only then can other colors enter safely. Secondly, there is a hidden time limit on each sublevel after which the boss of the cave will appear, invincible until the final floor. He is known as the Waterwraith and can only be beaten by purple pikmin. This enemy is extremely dangerous, and puts more pressure on players than other caves.

The Wistful Wild is opened up when the player reaches the 10,000 Poko mark. It is autumn in this area. This area contains what was known in the first game as The Impact Site, as well as The Final Trial linked side by side. There are three caves in this area: the Cavern of Chaos, the Hole of Heroes, and the Dream Den. A unique treasure is located near the landing side, called the Doomsday Apparatus. This treasure requires 100 purple pikmin in order to carry it, but it is worth 3000 pokos. Alas, the 10,000 mark has already been reached and it will not help you out in that way.

It can be noted that the landing site of Wistful Wild has a yield sign under it. In the Japanese version, it's a stop sign, as stop signs in Japan are triangular, not octagon-shaped as in North America.

Reception

Pikmin 2 was rated the 47th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Powers Top 200 Games list.

• Famitsu Weekly - 36/40
• Famitsu Cube & Advance - 39/40
• Gamespot gave the game a 9.2, stating that the game fixed nearly every problem the original had.
• IGN gave Pikmin 2 a 9.3, and was extremely pleased at the multitude of ways the game had improved upon what was good about Pikmin and fixed the problems it had, such as a lack of multi-player and a 30-day playing limit.

"Totaka's Song"

Main article: Totaka's Song

"Totaka's Song" by Kazumi Totaka can be found in Pikmin 2. It has made appearances in other games composed by Totaka, such as Mario Paint, Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Link's Awakening, Yoshi Touch & Go, Super Mario Land 2, Virtual Boy Wario Land, Luigi's Mansion, and Yoshi's Story.

The following steps depict the easiest way to access Totaka's song in Pikmin 2:

1. Load any Pikmin 2 save file.
2. Find and enter any uncompleted cave.
3. Retrieve all treasure in said cave.
4. Exit cave via geyser.
5. The "Treasure" screen will now be displayed. Wait for approximately two minutes without using controls.

Totaka's song will be heard.

Beta differences

There were several things present in the beta testers that were either changed or cut out completely. An example was a yellow bulborb and dwarf yellow bulborb with black spots and greenish yellow eyes that were seen in the E3 video; these were apparently replaced by orange bulborbs. Another bulborb was the dwarf blue bulborb, also present in an E3 video (the larger versions were never seen). These were blue, but otherwise were the same color as reds. These were cut out for unknown reasons.

Awakening Wood was virtually unchanged in the beta. Other differences include the spiderwarts being located in different spots, the Pikmin do not make as much as an effort to stay behind you, and the Ultra Bitter spray was yellow.

Also, there originally was not going to be a limit of the number of Pikmin on the field, as shown in a few very early screenshots and movies, depicting the counter going over 100. This had been changed back to its original limit for an unknown reason.

In the beta, yellow Pikmin could still throw bomb rocks and reds were immune to them as well as falling rocks.

The future of the series

In an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, the interviewer asked if he planned to do anything with Pikmin. Miyamoto stated that "I certainly don't think we've seen the last of Pikmin," he said. "I definitely would like to do something with them, and I think the Wii interface in particular is very well suited to that franchise."

Nintendo has also recently renewed their patent of the Pikmin franchise.

More recently, Captain Olimar appeared in Nintendo's fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Olimar plucks up to six pikmin of varying colour for use as weapons. He is practically helpless without them.

External links

• Pikmin Official Website
• Template:Nintendo.com
• Pikmin Returns
• Template:GameFAQs
• Pikmin 2 at MobyGames