New Play Control! Pikmin

10 Review to this product

• 

  James R. Horrocks
  September 27th, 2010 on 3:14 am

  Rating

  This game was already a classic on the Gamecube that I enjoyed very much, but I felt that the controls were somewhat clunky and hard to get used to. This new version however, features new Wii pointer controls that take this game to a new level. These new controls are perfect for this game! The new controls make this game 10 times better than it was before. I found that the Gamecube version got very stale and boring after a while but this new version is hard to put down, even after playing for hours. GET THIS GAME! For $30, how could you lose?
• 

  Anonymous
  September 28th, 2010 on 7:32 am

  Rating

  This is an excellent game for those who missed the game on the GameCube (Like me). People who already have it for GameCube will not find anything new here. The motion controls work really well with this game. The only thing kind of frustrating is the camera mover, but what game doesn’t have that problem? Here is a rating on each area of the game on a 1-5 star rating system

  Graphics: ****
  
  The graphics for this game were considered top-of-the-line 8 years ago, but are still pretty good today.

  Gameplay: *****
  
  This is one of those games that are great in gameplay, superb in graphics, and suitable for kids.

  Controls: ***
  
  Controls were really good for Gamecube, but are kinda odd feeling for Wii, but are still easy to use.

  Storyline: **
  
  This game has a good storyline, it really does, but the reason I gave it a lower rating is because it doesn’t go really in-depth.

  Cover: *****
  
  Yes, you read this correctly, the cover. I like how they didn’t drastically change the cover, something most companies do.
  
  Plus, there are two covers. You just need to flip the cover-thing-a-ma-jig under the plastic around.

  Overall this is awesome game, but I’d recommend to people who don’t have it for GameCube.
• 

  Halicon5
  September 28th, 2010 on 1:56 pm

  Rating

  If you haven’t already played Pikmin on the GameCube, this game is an excellent opportunity to catch up with a great game. If you’ve already played this game there is literally nothing new here besides the controls. No new extra modes, no multi-player, no extra levels, no noteworthy graphical upgrades. Just new controls.

  For those of you who haven’t played the game yet, it is a very solid game. To sum it up simply, you take control of Olimar, a diminutive space explorer that crash lands on an earth like planet filled with hostile bugs and critters. You control a small army of Pikmin that do your bidding by fighting and carrying stuff for you. Red, Yellow, and Blue Pikmin have different abilities which you must take advantage of as you traverse the terrain of each of the levels. In typical Nintendo fashion, there is a great deal of exploration where you can see an area of the game but can’t get to it until you unlock new abilities which require you come back to previous levels. Gameplay is broken into thirty 15-20 minute “days” in which you frantically try to cram as many accomplishments as possible into the short time frame. It all works very well, although I wish the 30-day limit wasn’t in place. I found Pikmin to be quite entertaining 8 years ago, and still like it to this day.

  THE NEW CONTROLS: The new controls work extremely well. There isn’t any pointless remote waggle and the pointer controls work pretty well.

  GRAPHICS: Aside from progressive scan support and 16:9 wide screen support, there isn’t anything new here. The artwork was gorgeous years ago, but nowadays it’s only pretty good. Textures look low res but the art style makes up for the deficiencies. The sad thing is that this two generation old game still looks better than most modern Wii games.

  SOUND: Time has been kind to me because I apparently forgot how cheesy parts of the game are, and sound is simultaneously a strong and weak point for the game. Some of the music is very pleasant and relaxing while the cut-scenes have some extremely annoying music.

  REPLAY: Aside from a points mode at the end, there isn’t a whole lot of replay value to the game. It can be beat in about 10-15 hours, including time spent having to replay levels due to unfortunate death situations.

  All in all, I recommend this game to anyone that didn’t get the chance to play the game on the GameCube. The new controls provide a superior experience. There really aren’t many games like Pikmin which makes even this remake feel unique and fresh. For those of you who have already played the game on the GameCube, this game is pretty much just a pure nostalgia purchase.

  [Edit: Fixed some embarrassingly bad grammar]
• 

  C. Knock
  September 28th, 2010 on 11:18 pm

  Rating

  I loved this game for the Gamecube, and truly it isn’t much different now, you just use two hands to control the characters. If you already have it for the Gamecube and like the old controllers I wouldn’t spend the money on it.
• 

  Dbzgirl
  September 29th, 2010 on 5:30 am

  Rating

  I’ve been a huge fan of the “Pikmin” and “Pikmin 2″ games ever since they came out for the “Gamecube”; I have both of them and I have this one for the Wii too. The gameplay hasn’t changed much at all: you play as Captain Olimar, an astronaut from the planet Hocotate, who, while on vacation, going somewhere in space, accidently has an asteroid crash into his ship, the S.S. Dolphin, which makes him crash onto the Pikmin Planet and scatters his thirty rocket parts all throughout it. He befriends the Pikmin, part-plant, part-animal friendly aliens, that you use to help you get all of your rocket parts back in the thirty day time limit, so that he can get off of the planet before his life-support systems fail and he dies due to the poisonous oxygen on the Pikmin Planet. The only changes to the game are the Wii controls and some sound effects. The controls are, mostly, very easy to use and they feel more natural when you play. Instead of having the cursor a few feet away from Olimar, you now can point at the screen with the Wii Remote to move the cursor to where you want it to go, so throwing Pikmin and calling them to you with your whistle is much easier than in the original game. The only control that I had trouble using is the bottom button on the control pad that you use to swarm/march your Pikmin, that replaces the C-Stick; you press it and your Pikmin will march in the direction where your cursor is, so you have to point the cursor to where you want them to go and hold down the bottom control pad button, and sometimes, all of your Pikmin won’t go to where the cursor is, so you have to move Olimar with the control stick on the Nunchuk controller while doing all of those things, if you want all of your Pikmin to go to where the cursor is, so that takes some getting used to. Some of the sound effects are different too: some of the Bulborb sound effects are a little bit squeakier than in the original and some of the sounds from Olimar’s ship, the S.S. Dolphin, are a little squeaky, too. It’s still as much fun as the original on the “Gamecube”, though! You still collect rocket parts, battle enemies, grow more Pikmin, tear down wooden and stone gates, use bomb rocks, and everything else that you did in the original game. The Challenge Mode is still there, too. It’s an incredibly fun and addictive game and I love it as much as the original on the Gamecube, so the only reason that I’m giving it a four out of five stars is that, since Nintendo remade this game and is remaking “Pikmin 2″, I wish they could have added a few things to it, such as, maybe some unlockable “Pikmin 3″ concept art and photos, or some previews of new Pikmin in “Pikmin 3″, or an extra level or two and some more stuff to collect, or at least a trailer for the “New Play Control! Pikmin 2″ game that is supposed to be released sometime this year. I love this remake of “Pikmin” for the Wii and I hope that “New Play Control! Pikmin 2″ and “Pikmin 3″ are released very soon!
• 

  Goatcrapp
  September 30th, 2010 on 4:00 pm

  Rating

  I never got the original pikmin, so to me this is a whole new experience..

  what a great little game. tons of fun, and easy to play.
• 

  MomAdvice
  October 1st, 2010 on 4:10 am

  Rating

  Pikmin is a remake of a game that came out way back in 2001, so if your kids played that one, there’s not a lot different for them this time around.

  The concept is simple: A little guy has crash landed on a planet and the parts of his ship are scattered everywhere. He’s about 2 inches high, so it’s not like he can just walk over and pick up the pieces. The environment is like something out of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids where a small rock is a mountain of an obstacle and simple bugs are monsters.

  Luckily, you quickly find help in your quest, and it’s what this game is all about. There’s these little seed creatures that apparently think of you as their mother and will blindly follow you wherever you go. You direct them to create more creatures, tear down obstacles, and battle bugs on your hunt for parts of your ship. There are 3 different types that you can direct, each with their own capabilities and you have to figure out how to leverage them to gain access to different areas of the world.

  The crux of the game is to figure out what needs to be done to find the next part of your ship. What makes that difficult is the time limit the game imposes on you. You have 30 game days to gather what you need before your air supply runs out and you apparently die some horrible death. Each day is about 15 minutes long, so you need to get whatever you plan on doing done in that amount of time.

  This is what can make the game frustrating for kids who oftentimes just want to explore and have fun. If you really want to make progress, you’ll have to hit the ground running and solve puzzles as fast as you can. Otherwise, it will be impossible to complete it within the time given. If you do really screw up one of the days, you can go back to a previous day and try again, but it would have been nice if the game allowed more freedom for the kids just to do whatever they want. Furthermore, you don’t have much area to explore unless you do make progress, so you’ll get extremely tired of seeing the same blades of grass and flowers if you’re just looking to explore.

  The kids did enjoy the fact how everything was giant and got a kick out of directing a mob of 100 creatures around (which really is fun for a while), but quickly grew frustrated when they couldn’t proceed past certain points in the time given. I think without the time limits, they would have been able to think about and try different tactics, but ever-present push to make progress all the time took some fun out of it. In the end, it’s a cute and unique concept, but younger kids will probably need assistance in the difficult parts or they’ll quickly abandon it.
• 

  Qlazarus
  October 1st, 2010 on 9:11 am

  Rating

  The original Pikmin was an underrated game on The Gamecube Console back in 2001. Now it seems to be suffering the same fate. The title and cover suggest a cutesy and shallow game experience for the very young ones only. However this is an in-depth real time strategy game that is a lot of fun and I’m a big fan of games like StarCraft and even Warcraft III! It is certainly far from shallow! The Wii controls on this game work perfectly and complement the game well. Overall If you missed it on Gamecube (or finished it back in 2001 like me) this is your chance to enjoy an amazing game experience and at this price, it’s a steal!

  Actually when I passed this version a couple weeks ago I immediately started playing it again from the beginning, no breaks with other games, and then I passed it and immediately started playing it again, each time passing it at a better time. You won’t want to put it down! I know I sure didn’t. Now I can’t wait until they release Pikmin 2 for the “New Play Control” series!
• 

  TissueShoe
  October 1st, 2010 on 3:30 pm

  Rating

  Pikmin was among the earlier GameCube titles, among others such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Metroid Prime. Pikmin was very fresh and innovative, though, because the concept was different than your usual game, causing it to stand out a bit. Commanding an army of little creatures called Pikmin to help a very small man when he crash lands on a strange planet just hadn’t really been done in games before. Pikmin sure got it right the first time, though, in a great, creative game that earned a pretty strong fan base. Now, with Nintendo’s New Play Control, Pikmin has come to Wii with new controls and… new controls. Is this Wii rendition still a great game or just a tired concept?

  Pikmin’s story involves Captain Olimar crash landing on a strange planet on a trip of some sort. His ship is in shambles, and he is able to locate 30 parts from the ship that he needs to get home. His life support will only last him for 30 days, though, because a toxic substance called ‘oxygen’ exists in the air. He quickly encounters a small creature which he names Pikmin, and this interesting species of little beings help him find the 30 parts of his ship and return home, and along the way the Pikmin learn independence and gain the ability to survive on their dangerous home planet. The story is very unique and that’s what makes it great. The game is all centered on these concepts and they work extremely well in every aspect of the game.

  Commanding Pikmin is easy enough. Simply press A to throw one or pick one out of the ground, press B to call them to you, C to sort them, and down on the control pad to direct them. The Wii’s unique controls come into play with the pointer; you point at the screen to direct your throwing and where your Pikmin will go. All of these functions work almost perfectly; all potential frustrations are very few and far between. The Wii’s small additions to the controls are quite good too, and the game fits perfectly with the new control scheme.

  The gameplay is all about getting the Pikmin to carry parts back to your ship and create even more Pikmin (they carry things back to their ‘Onion’ which spits out new ones). Getting your Pikmin to do what you want them to is the key to your success, and there are many strategies involved with that. Strategy comes in especially with the three types of Pikmin: the reds (resistant to fire), yellows (can be thrown higher and can also use bombs), and blues (weaker but able to go in water). There are many challenges involved with using the different types of Pikmin, which at least keeps the game from being a walk in the park the first time through.

  Once you’ve beaten the game, though, it truly is a walk in the park to beat it again. This is where all the replay value lies: seeing how fast you can beat the game and how many Pikmin you can produce within the 30 in-game days. Aside from the main story there is a challenge mode, in which you see how many Pikmin you can get in one day, but that feels like a waste of time when the real game is so much more fun. Overall Pikmin suffers from a lack of content, even if the bulk of what it has is simply fantastic.

  Pikmin looked pretty good on the GameCube as a launch title; the difference between it and games from the generation before is pretty drastic. Nowadays the graphics still look passable and sometimes pretty nice (especially the water) but there isn’t any improvement from the game that came out so many years ago. With the New Play Control version there are supposedly HD graphics, but HD always makes even the sharpest of Wii games look like a mess.

  Pikmin still sounds great, though. Everything from the gut-wrenching death sounds the Pikmin make to the sounds they make when they triumph are just great. All the effects fit very well with what they go to and sound great all the time. The music is also awesome, especially the unforgettable theme from the Impact Site.

  Being a total rehash with updated controls, New Play Control Pikmin has its ups and downs. The bad part is just that: it’s simply a rehash of a 7-or 8-year-old game with new controls. The good part comes to the people who don’t already own the game, though: they get to experience a fantastic game in a new way, and those are the people who should buy this Wii version. If you own the GameCube game then don’t bother with this, just play through that version again. But if you don’t own the original game, I highly recommend you give New Play Control Pikmin a shot, because you don’t want to miss out on this fun, innovative, and high quality game a second time.

  Positive:
  
  + solid, fun gameplay
  
  + commanding 100 little Pikmin is pretty awesome
  
  + new Wii controls suit the game nicely
  
  + great replay value
  
  + plenty of challenges along the way

  Negative:
  
  - no graphical improvements from GameCube game
  
  - very little content
• 

  L. Morgan
  October 2nd, 2010 on 4:27 pm

  Rating

  This is another game that has been approved by my 9 year old daughter. She loves this game & will play it for hours.