Publisher: Nintendo
Ages: six and up.
Parental
Advisory:
Mild violence
For something that's different and lots of fun, Nintendo's Pikmin 2, a follow-up to a popular 2001 title, presents the bizarre and ultra-cute Pikmin world. This sequel is a great game that fixes problems in the earlier version, adds new pikmin and characters and offers multi-player levels.
With distinctive heads that sport leaves, buds and flowers, alien Pikmin are not walking plants, but foot soldiers who gather treasure, fight enemies and solve puzzles. In this strategy game, players try to gather treasure in a variety of hazardous areas and select the best pikmin for the particular tasks at hand.
The game stars Captain Olimar, who works for Hocotate Freight. When Louie, a deliveryman, loses a payload of carrots to an evil, ravenous space bunny, the company plunges into debt. You see, thinking that a ravenous space bunny would be an unusual event, the company's President Freight didn't take out insurance. And with the company 10,000 credits in the red, the only way to save the business is to scavenge the planet of the Pikmin for artifacts. After collecting 10,000 credits worth of items, Captain Olimar and Louie will be able to return to their planet.
Captain Olimar and Louie don't collect the treasure themselves. They rely on the tiny pikmin to do their dirty work. Pikmin come in different breeds that are represented by color: red pikmin are immune to flame, blue pikmin can swim and crack open rocks, yellow pikmin can sail high in the air and resist electric shock and more. Players get to play both Captain Olimar and Louie and organize and control the pikmin. And when the Pikmin defeat a creature, they take it to their Onion ship, which beams it up and plants new Pikmin for Captain Olimar and Louie to pluck from the ground.
The game offers an entertaining multi-player battle mode that lets players build a Pikmin army and try to capture the other player's marble or collect four yellow marbles found on the field of play. There's also a fun challenge mode that offers various scenarios and objectives to accomplish with a given allotment and mix of pikmin.
The game looks fantastic and while it features fighting, is only mildly violent. Fans of the original game will have a blast with this one. And if you've been intrigued by this crazy pikmin world, but wasn't sure if it was worth the price of admission, you can confidently dive right in.
9/7/04 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff
