STILL PLUCKY AFTER 20 YEARS
It’s weird to say that Pikmin is one of the more recent Nintendo franchises but the first two games came out in 2001 and 2004 respectively which I believe makes these titles retro but I can’t be certain of that. What I can be certain of is how much fun Pikmin still is. For those not familiar Pikmin is essentially a real time strategy action adventure where the player controls a small astronaut fellow named Olimar (and Louie in Pikmin 2) who plucks strange flower creatures named Pikmin from the ground who then follow Olimar and can be thrown at objects and monsters in order to harvest and fight. Every Pikmin color brings along a new set of skills and the goal is to collect tech in order to fix the ship to escape the planet (Pikmin) or to further the capitalist exploits of the company Olimar works for (Pikmin 2).
PLATFORMS: SWITCH
MSRP: $49.99 (OR $29.99 EACH)
PRICE I’D PAY: $49.99 (OR $19.99 FOR PIKMIN 1 AND $29.99 FOR PIKMIN 2)
Anyone familiar with Pikmin knows all this and is probably more concerned about a reason to buy this version when they have the original release collecting dust on the shelf and honestly to that I say there isn’t much of a reason. The games feel great to play and the controls have been slightly changed (the right analog stick moves the camera around and holding down a button while using the right analog stick makes the whistle to call Pikmin back) but anyone expecting touchscreen controls from Pikmin 3 or Wii like motion controls like the Wii releases of Pikmin 1 + 2 are going to be disappointed as the former is non-existent and the latter is partially there but basically useless.
The games now run in widescreen (a function I thought existed on the Gamecube version, but I was incorrect) and have clearly had some upscaling done as the HUD is actually really sharp looking and the 3D models look great; some rough polygons here and there show the time period it was made in but the cutesy cartoon style does a lot to make this look more recent than it is. The biggest giveaway of the age of these games is the photorealistic textures used for the terrain as they are very blurry and are simply flat images on the ground despite clearly being aerial photos of grass, dirt, etc. It looks artificial now because of the resolution as I recall the blur from CRT screens helping sell the illusion better. Also in the graphics department, all of the branding on items in Pikmin 2 is gone and while not surprising because licensing is a thing that exists it is slightly disappointing.
If anyone comes into these remasters expecting Metroid Prime or Skyward Sword levels of work, be prepared to be disappointed because these releases are more akin to the Super Mario Sunshine reissue included with Super Mario 3D All-Stars. I see the primary audience from Nintendo’s point of view being those who have never played Pikmin who are interested in Pikmin 4, however not having all the options from Pikmin 3 Deluxe (also on Switch) limits the enjoyment for those introduced to the series from that release as the other main Pikmin games were released on systems that don’t have official support anymore and a very small percentage of people actually had a Wii U. Also, the fact that buying the two games separately is $10 more than buying both together is just an odd business strategy. Overall, I would say these games are worth playing, but are unfortunately not definitive versions that wholly replace previous releases or bring changes that future releases would make to the previous titles.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
