| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| Wii U | 7.10 |
| Overall | 7.10 |
|
I am really late to playing Pikmin 3, instead of paying for Pikmin 4 I decided I should play the game I paid for a decade earlier and never got around to playing. So I dusted off the old Wii U, got my wiimote and played Pikmin 3. Is it fun, of course, Pikmin like most Nintendo games follow a formula that just works. Fun gameplay that slowly evolves with new abilities that open up new areas to gain more abilities and so on. Sprinkle in some good boss battles and you got another solid Nintendo game. That said unlike most Nintendo games this one actually angered me because of control issues and weird design choices which were all addressed in the switch rerelease. So this is a review of the original Pikmin 3 before they fixed everything I will be complaining about. I’m not going to explain pikmin much, but it’s basically the simple Nintendo strategy game where you manage troops. I played 2 and greatly enjoyed it, that game had no timer this one like the original (which I did not play) has a timer for each mission. So the game is split into days, you have about 15 minutes to explore, use pikmin to gather fruits, and grow them in number by delivering pikmin tokens or the dead bodies of the enemy bugs to your ship. If your pikmin are not back at the base when the timer is up the ones left out in the world are left behind and killed. Sometimes a little stress is exciting in game, when it works great to complement the gameplay, I don’t think it worked as much here. These levels are a bit like spaghetti, lots of branching paths looping on top of one another and many one way dead ends until you find the necessary pikmin to advance. So exploring takes time, and that’s fun, I love finding things I can’t reach yet and later gaining an ability to open up more of the level. But when that timer is always on your back and you don’t want to get too far in the level or worse get roped into a boss at the worst time possible, that becomes stressful. Then comes how the pikmin are used, I chose the wiimote control so I can move my character and launch pikmin with IR aiming at my target. This works pretty well except when the camera is being a pain which happens too often. There is just a lot to manage when say you are fighting enemies certain pikmin are in danger so you have to use a whistle to gather them up. That whistle automatically recalls all pikmin, so say some pikmin are attacking the boss and some are in danger of dying, if you whistle on that area yeah you save the dying pikmin but the ones attacking come back to you too. This happens for every activity and it has lead me to call pikmin I don’t want into areas that might kill them. This is all solved in the new version as pikmin doing an activity don’t get called by the whistle… that would have changed so much for me. Then comes the team splitting aspect. Part of what makes pikmin 3 unique is you have three characters to control and each of them can take pikmin. You can stay together or split into teams and do things at the same time. Using the Wii U map you can direct teams to a part of the map and they will go on their own while you do something else, it’s multitasking for a game with limited time. If you can manage this I’m sure it’s great but I had issues when I had two teams, for one there was usually some danger that appears and now I have to change my attention. What if I don’t have the right pikmin in that group, I either need to run away to regroup or call another group. And then comes the way you split the team, many times you have to throw a character to reach a new spot and then you one by one throw pikmin to that character so they can have a squad, it’s just slow. The main goal of the game is to collect fruit and find pieces needed to get your ship working. So pikmin have to go and grab things and take them to the ship, thats the core of pikmin. Normally it works right, you send pikmin to grab an object and they take it to the ship and they stay there, where they are safe. And then there are certain items like pieces of a bridge you have to build where for some stupid reason instead of the pikmin delivering the piece to the bridge and just waiting there they always no matter what come back to where the pieces were. Some of these are far away so what happens is I am going to the bridge that’s now complete but my pikmin are running from me, I have to chase them down. So many times when I’m managing multiple groups I don’t even know where these pikmin are cause they go different places on their own and there is no magical recall all pikmin button, you have to physically go find them. Again this was corrected in the new version. So after all that complaining what you should take out of it is that I agree with Nintendo on what was annoying, cause clearly they addressed it all… but why was it there in the first place. Pikmin is a fun game, the formula works and it’s a shame these annoyances made for a game I didn’t care as much as the second one. Now for what does work, it’s addicting, the mechanics are fun, exploring is fun, combat can be fun. The loop of running around and discovering ways to advance deeper and deeper in the map using the different pikmin abilities is great. You start with one pikmin group and add more as you go, this games new addition is the flying pikmin which allows you to reach new areas and battle flying enemies. I enjoyed the planning and executing part of the strategy. Finding a huge monster blocking a path and trying to figure out which pikmin is best here, can I find bombs somewhere to help, is there an alternate path that lets me attack from two sides. And there is lots of cool environmental obstacles where multiple pikmin need to be used. When it’s all working the game is a blast. Each level ends in a massive boss battle. Like I said before some of the control issues make these bosses more frustrating than they should be but ultimately they follow the tired and true formula that works for action adventure games. They have a pattern and a weakness, you have to discover that weakness then execute the attacks to defeat the boss. And of course there are phases to the battle. As much as some of these fights lead to be cursing at the screen because pikmin where being flung everywhere and dying in horrible ways, there is just something about the way Nintendo handles boss battles that are just so good. It’s a good sized game too, about 11-14 hours long, with plenty of bonus stuff to do. This game is clearly designed with speed running in mind which I will not do but I can appreciate the design. Every mission counts as a day, so the first time you play you might do like 40 days to complete the game. But if you know what you are doing you can cut those days down significantly. I’m sure if a player can execute having three teams of pikmin all working efficiently they can beat this game in an absurdly low amount of days. More power to those players that master the game, I don’t want to but I can see the appeal. There is also mission mode which I almost think is better than the main campaign. This distills the gameplay into very focused score based missions which highlights the best part of Pikmin. There are item hunts which is a smallish map with a certain amount of pikmin and a timer of 7 minutes, try to collect as much treasure as possible. All kinds of enemies and obstacles await but since it’s so focused I didn’t really have to worry about all that other nonsense that would irritate me. There is also enemy attack mode and boss rush. There are many missions to unlock and some are hidden in the main campaign as secrets. Pikmin 3 looks really great for a Wii U game. There is something about the Pikmin art style that is stunning. These games have some of the best looking water ever. The locations look beautifully detailed, it’s a simple game but man it looks great even in sub HD. Pikmin 3 has so much potential which I believe they tapped into with the switch remaster. The gameplay loop taps into what works for so many Nintendo games, just that fun interesting gameplay that is well designed and presented. Sadly a bunch of control and strange design choices didn’t sit well with me and made this experience more annoying than it had to be. I still had a ton of fun with it but I kind of wish I had played the switch version. Still Pikmin remains a fun quirky light strategy action adventure game that feels distinctly Nintendo. |
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Posted by Dvader Thu, 10 Aug 2023 06:46:44
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robio (20s)
The clumsiness is part of Pikmin's DNA, having to throw each pikmin one by one makes them all count. Having to keep an eye on strays adds to the tension. I hear Pikmin4 has a lock on system and even a rewind, but where's the fun in that?
Good to hear that you enjoyed the game regardless of the friction you describe in your review.
Low balling it.