Pikmin 2

Pikmin 2
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Shigefumi Hino Masamichi Abe
Producer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto Takashi Tezuka
Writer(s)	Motoi Okamoto Kazumi Yamaguchi
Composer(s)	Hajime Wakai
Platform(s)	Nintendo GameCube, Wii
Release	Nintendo GameCube Wii
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, in Europe on October 8, 2004, and in Australia on November 4, 2004.

Pikmin 2 is the sequel to Pikmin, also for the Nintendo GameCube, and is considered an improvement over the previous title, receiving universal acclaim from reviewers.

In 2009, both Pikmin games were re-released for the Wii as part of the New Play Control! series.

Story

Pikmin 2 begins after the end of the first game when Captain Olimar returns home from his "vacation", in which he accidentally crashed onto an unknown planet. He finds that the company he works for, Hocotate Freight, is in serious debt, forcing the sale of Olimar's ship, the S.S. Dolphin which is the only remaining corporate asset.

Shocked by this sudden turn of events, Captain Olimar drops the bottle cap he brought with him as a souvenir for his child. It rolls towards the company's remaining ship, which evaluates the object as having 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 a character named Louie, a fellow employee, back to the Pikmin planet to collect 10,000 Pokos' worth of treasure to pay off the debt. The game then centers on exploring the planet and collecting treasures to pay off the debt, a quest made all the more urgent by the increasingly frantic messages received from Olimar's boss back on Hocotate.

After collecting 10,000 Pokos, the credits roll, but the game isn't quite over. Olimar notices Louie is missing on the way back to Planet Hocotate, and there were some treasures that were uncollected. The President decides to team up with Olimar to collect the rest of the treasures and to find Louie.

Louie was found in the game's final cave, Dream Den. After defeating the game's final boss, the Titan Dweevil, Louie was rescued and the game ends after leaving the cave with all 201 treasures collected. As Olimar takes off, hundreds of Pikmin watch him go back to his home planet.

Getting treasures

Gameplay in Pikmin 2 revolves around using different combination of Pikmin to retrieve various 'treasures' from the planet's surface. These treasures range from a Duracell battery to a Dannon yogurt lid. Several of the treasures found on the planet are items from previous Nintendo ventures. Different obstacles and enemies make the retrieval of each treasure unique. The player must take into consideration the strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and numbers of each type of Pikmin when carrying out the challenges needed to retrieve these treasures. This is compounded in difficulty by the fact that no more than 100 Pikmin may be in play at any given time. The player is given one day at a time to play, with each day equaling about 13 minutes in real-time. Typical tasks involved in collecting treasures include defeating enemies, building bridges, destroying walls, or moving obstacles.

Caves

In addition to above-ground areas, caves can be found throughout the landscape. Caves contain multiple treasures and enemies spread across multiple sub-levels. The layout of the sub-level and the placement of the enemies and treasures within the sub-level is random, and changes each time the player enters the cave. A player can exploit this, as the game saves after the completion of each sub-level. If the layout of a sub-level is unfavorable to the player, he or she can begin the sub-level again, and it will have a new, possibly more favorable, layout.

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

There are a total of 105 sublevels divided into 14 caves in the game.

Notes

In Pikmin 2, a player may continue to search for treasure for as many days as they wish. The game contains 201 collectible treasure pieces, as opposed to the 30 ship parts of the original Pikmin.

Another addition to the formula is a mode for two captains to be in the play area simultaneously, making multi-tasking easier. In Pikmin, there was only one captain directing 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 groups.

The addition of sprays is another new feature in Pikmin 2. 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 red spray energizes Pikmin to increase both speed and attack strength. The purple spray turns enemies caught in the blast radius to stone, the downside of this being that if an enemy is killed while frozen, their body will shatter and not leave behind a corpse.

File:Pikmin 2 Screenshot OF.jpg

A screenshot of a round of the two-player mode

The yellow Pikmin have changed abilities between games. In Pikmin, the yellow Pikmin have the ability to pick up bomb rocks and throw them, in order to break walls of dirt and stone or severely damage enemies. In Pikmin 2, the bomb rocks available are too large for a yellow Pikmin to carry or throw, but the yellow Pikmin have gained the ability to withstand electricity.

Two new kinds of Pikmin were added, the white Pikmin and the purple Pikmin. These Pikmin do not have Onions, but rather are created by tossing other Pikmin into violet and ivory Candypop buds (which are only found underground in caves). They live within the spaceship at night. Purple Pikmin have superior carrying ability, a stunning attack, and cannot be blown away, while white Pikmin are poisonous when consumed by enemies, can detect buried treasures, and move (and carry objects) faster than the other colors.

The controls are also improved over the previous game and Pikmin can be thrown slightly faster.

Game modes

As well as the main game (story mode), there are also 2-player battle and challenge modes. The 2-Player battle is unlocked from the beginning of the game where two characters (Olimar and Louie), are each controlled by a player. The object is to take four yellow marbles or the opponent's red or blue marble back to the player's ship. If either player passes out or runs out of Pikmin, the other player wins. The player's own marble cannot be carried by that player's Pikmin, allowing the opponent to gradually steal it over several assaults. If Pikmin come across a cherry and bring it to their onion, a wheel full of bonuses spins at the right side of the screen. The bonuses range from getting ten more Pikmin or turning all of your Pikmin to flower Pikmin, to sending an avalanche or a Volatile Dweevil at your enemies. While Pikmin can fight each other, they cannot kill their opponents. When defeated, Pikmin reappear next to their opponent's Onion to be re-selected as a member of the opposing army. Likewise, the purple spray functions differently against enemy Pikmin – it buries them in the ground rather than petrifying them.

Challenge mode is unlocked after obtaining the key which can be found in the single-player game. This mode is similar to exploring a cave in story mode, except that two 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. If a player completes an arena without losing any Pikmin, they will achieve "perfect" status for that arena.

Pikmin

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, as well as the unique Bulbmin. Purple and white Pikmin are created by "Candypop buds", a type of flower found underground in caves. White Pikmin are smaller than other Pikmin, but are faster and immune to poisonous gases. They can also poison enemies who eat them. Purple Pikmin are bigger than the other Pikmin, but are very slow. However, these types of Pikmin are strong, counting for ten Pikmin when lifting objects. When thrown, Purple Pikmin can stun most enemies. Bulbmin are a parasitic species of Pikmin that infect Bulborbs.

• Red Pikmin are the traditional "starter Pikmin" that Olimar and Louie first find. They are generally the toughest fighters of all the known Pikmin species,second only to the mighty purple pikmin and are also flame-resistant, making their strength against fire creatures invaluable. In addition to being generalized by their bright red color, they also have a small, pointed nose. This is the most common Pikmin.
• Purple Pikmin are the strongest Pikmin. Instead of finding a purple Onion which sprouts them, they are a conversion of regular Pikmin that are tossed into purple flowers (called violet candypop buds) which can only be found in some caves. They are the heaviest Pikmin and strongest when it comes to lifting items, as their weight and lifting strength is equal to that of 10 Pikmin. They are purple, hairy, stocky, and very sluggish as compared to other Pikmin. They do more damage against enemies than Red Pikmin when thrown, as well as when hitting the enemy with their heads.They can also stun their enemies on impact when thrown. Dwarf bulborbs and other small enemies will be crushed instantly if this pikmin is thrown directly on top of it.
• White Pikmin are the third Pikmin species. Like the Purple Pikmin, they can only be obtained by tossing Pikmin into flowers. They are able to unearth any item that is underground, are immune to poison, and are able to poison any enemy that consumes them. Another ability is to walk and carry items 1.5 times faster than Red, Yellow, and Blue Pikmin. They are smaller and thinner than any other species, and have large red eyes, which are used to locate buried treasures.
• Yellow Pikmin they are extremely weak. Unlike the previous game, they do not wield bomb-rocks, but are now resistant to electricity, which allows them to tear down electric gates that would harm other Pikmin. They can be thrown higher than any other Pikmin type, allowing them to access items that are too high for other Pikmin to reach. They are yellow and have large ears.
• Blue Pikmin need Yellow Pikmin to acquire them. They are able to survive underwater, allowing water exploration and foraging. They can also act as lifeguards and rescue any other Pikmin type drowning in water. They are blue, and have a single gill on their faces which resembles a mouth. It is suggested that these and possibly other pikmin are nearly as strong as purple pikmin, considering the fact that if a purple pikmin is thrown into water and begins to drown, if a blue pikmin is thrown near it, it will pick it up and toss it onto land dispite the purple's enormous weight.
• Bulbmin are only found in caves and cannot be taken out of them. According to the in-game Piklopedia, they are juvenile bulborbs (a common enemy) that have been infected with some sort of pikmin parasite. They are immune to fire, water, electricity and poison due to the fact that they are protected by the bulborb's body. They may be used with candypop bulbs just like other Pikmin. Bulbmin will only appear if there are fewer than 100 Pikmin in the field already. They are found following a large 'parent' Bulbmin that must first be defeated to enlist the regular Bulbmin.

Pikmin 2 e-Reader

In Japan, after the release of Pikmin 2, Nintendo released e-Reader cards that contained minigames. Some of these minigames 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 North America at the time. The cards contain region-specific encoding which blocks their use with North American e-Readers.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	90

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	A
Eurogamer	9 out of 10
Famitsu	36 out of 40
GamePro
GameSpot	9.2 out of 10
GameZone	9.4 out of 10
IGN	9.3 out of 10
X-Play

Pikmin 2 was widely considered an improvement on the original game and was rated the 47th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list. and placed 29th in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time.

GameSpot gave Pikmin 2 a 9.2 out of 10, stating that the game fixed nearly every problem the original had. IGN gave Pikmin 2 a 9.3 out of 10, 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 multiplayer and a 30-day playing limit.

Sequel

In a developer round table discussion at E3 2008, Pikmin 3 was confirmed. Pikmin 2 and its predecessor will re-release Pikmin 2 in the New Play Control! collection of revamped GameCube titles for the Wii.

External links

• Pikmin official website
• Template:Nintendo.com
• Pikmin Returns
• Template:GameFAQs
• Pikmin 2 at MobyGames
• Pikipedia - A Pikmin Wiki