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Nintendo GameCube was a great console. It might not have been Nintendo's best-selling system, or even its most popular, but it showed the company was willing to take risks with twists on classic series like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. It also proved to fans that Shigeru Miyamoto wasn't afraid to introduce brand new games unlike anything Nintendo had done before, and judging by the success of Pikmin, that was one risk which worked out pretty well. Despite its success, there were a couple of issues with Pikmin that players wanted sorting out, and that's where Pikmin 2 comes in.
In the first Pikmin game, Captain Olimar crash-landed on a distant planet when his ship, the S.S. Dolphin, was hit by a meteorite. Here, he found the Pikmin, who helped him to repair his ship and let him return home to Hocotate. Now that he's back and has returned to his base at Hocotate Freight, the company for which he works, it turns out the company is in massive debt and has had to sell off most of its assets, including the beloved Dolphin. When the President finds out how much some of the "trash" on the Distant Planet is worth, though, he sends everyone's favourite space captain back with new assistant Louie to collect masses of treasure to pay off the debt.
The concept of Pikmin is quite simple and very easy to pick up once you've started playing the game: you control Captain Olimar and an army of up to 100 Pikmin at any one time. You can use your Pikmin to collect items, attack enemies, build bridges, knock down walls and pretty much anything else you need them to do. By defeating enemies and taking them to the Onion - where the Pikmin are kept when they're not out on the field - you can sprout and pluck more Pikmin. There are five types of Pikmin, each with their own unique traits you'll need to take advantage of: for example, Yellow Pikmin can be thrown higher than any other Pikmin, while Blue Pikmin are the only ones who can travel through water.
Fans of the first Pikmin game will no doubt be aware of the basics of the gameplay, but even so there are new additions to the sequel: for example, Yellow Pikmin are now immune to electricity, something which wasn't noted (or even needed) in the first game. There are two new types of Pikmin: Purple Pikmin have the strength of ten regular Pikmin, but their bulk and strength means they're very slow; White Pikmin, meanwhile, are small and very agile, can be thrown fairly high (but not as high as Yellow Pikmin), and are immune to poison. Hungry enemies won't last very long if they try any funny business with your White Pikmin, either, as they also emit poison when eaten.
The trick with Pikmin is being able to successfully control, delegate and dismiss them as and when required. You might want to leave a few Pikmin behind for a while until you need them, or you may decide to split them between Olimar and Louie for whatever purpose, since another new feature of Pikmin 2 is the ability to switch between the two in order to control them individually. You also need to make sure you've got the right type of Pikmin with you wherever you're going, since certain terrains, obstacles or enemies might prevent you from taking certain Pikmin along with you: for instance, if you need to break down a barrier that's partly submerged in water, you're only going to be able to use Blue Pikmin to knock it down.
One of the main criticisms of the original Pikmin game was its 30-day limit: the storyline dictated that Olimar could only stay on the planet for that length of time before he succumbed to oxygen poisoning. Thankfully, that's no longer the case, and in Pikmin 2 you're able to stay on the planet for as long as you want. The game doesn't end once you pay off Hocotate Freight's debt, as there'll be even more treasure to collect once you've done that, so depending on how you approach the game and how well you know it, an attempt to collect all the treasure could last you around thirty hours. It's a great pull for the sequel, though unlike the original title, its extended length will mean you'll be in much less of a rush to replay it.
While the first Pikmin game featured thirty treasures for you to collect in thirty days, Pikmin 2 features significantly more than that, despite having only four main areas to the original's five. This is because of another major new feature the game introduces: each main area includes a number of caves. Caves feature several sublevels, each one including a number of treasures, enemies and obstacles. You're told before you enter a cave if it features fire, electricity, water or poison, giving you a good indication of which types of Pikmin you should take with you, as very seldom are you able to produce more Pikmin once you enter the cave. Each cave also features at least one geyser, one of which is always on the last floor, and these are your ticket out of the cave. The last floor of each cave usually includes its main boss: these are very tough to beat, but will often give you a pretty important item which will somehow help you, either by upgrading your suit, whistle or visibility.
There are a few notable changes to the Wii version of Pikmin 2, most importantly the new controls. Using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, you're able to point at the screen exactly where you want to throw your Pikmin, or you can go even further afield to whistle to faraway Pikmin to call them to your side. Use the A button to pick and throw Pikmin, the B button to call them, and the Minus button to switch leaders. The 1 and 2 buttons are for your sprays: the ultra-spicy spray makes your Pikmin stronger and quicker for a little while; the ultra-bitter spray temporarily turns enemies to stone. On the Nunchuk, the C button is used to dismiss Pikmin and the Z button is used to rotate the camera (it takes some getting used to, but it works pretty well).
After a couple of in-game days, you'll find the controls are intuitive and easy to work, something which will be more apparent if you've played either Pikmin game on GameCube. The combination of the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk allows a lot more freedom than the GameCube controller, which wouldn't let you move the cursor further than a certain length away from Olimar or Louie. Not only does the Wii version of Pikmin 2 improve the controls, it also provides widescreen support (some things remain a little stretched, though never the actual gameplay) and graphics which, as you would expect, look a lot better than they did on the GameCube. Despite these, the controls remain the standout addition to the game, and it's fair to say they greatly improve the gameplay.
Pikmin 2 also features a couple of multiplayer modes: the two-player battle mode pits you and a friend against each other, challenging you to collect a certain number of marbles before your opponent; the challenge mode, which is also playable in single-player, has you cooperating to find all the treasure in a cave, defeating all the enemies and getting out as quickly as possible. While both modes are a fun alternative to the main game, they're by no means a big pull, nor are they likely to grab your interest for very long. The challenge mode is more fun in single-player mode, though, and can certainly prove difficult at times.
When it originally launched in 2004, Pikmin 2 improved on the first Pikmin game massively, by introducing a ton of new features, masses of new content and removing the time limit. It's even better on Wii, with a better display thanks to widescreen support and enhanced graphics, and, more important, a brilliant new control method. Even if you've played the GameCube version, which was one of the system's best games, the Wii version is still well worth a go; if you've never played it, now's the perfect time.
