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To arms little ones!
When the Gamecube was just hitting these shores three years ago, a new game from master game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was released. That game seemed like the strangest of his titles yet. It was a creature farming game that contained elements of action games, real-time strategy and um... gardening. Who in their right mind would find game ideas in their garden? Mr. Miyamoto did and the resulting game was a stellar achievement called Pikmin. The title characters are plant/animal hybrids plucked from the ground and controllable by a miniature spaceman named Olimar. Using the pikmin's undeniable might as well as increasingly complex problem solving, gamers had to help Olimar escape from Earth. In Pikmin 2, Olimar is returning in search of treasure to pay off the massive debt incurred by his company while he was stranded on Earth. Olimar's return is an excuse for us to harvest more pikmin and once you get your hands on the game you will definitely welcome the opportunity. Pikmin 2 is longer, harder, crazier, more social and altogether better than its prequel. The first Pikmin was rather short because it offered time-limited gameplay and a small number of areas to play in. Pikmin 2 enhances all that beautifully by offering a longer main quest, underground dungeons that even feature randomized layouts, the removal of the previous game's quest time-limit and infinitely enjoyable multiplayer gameplay. Some would say this is the game that Pikmin should've been but it's hard to argue with time spent introducing a solid original concept the first time around and then offering expansion and high quality refinement in a sequel.  Pikmin 2's biggest assets are its character and the gameplay. It's a great looking game that has very understated but technologically superior graphics. It's organic, for lack of a better word. You feel like you're running around the backyard with an army at hand because the visuals represent our world so well. But to make sure you're on your toes, the game is also filled with alien hybrids of animals and plants that some wacko designer dreamed up to exist in our world. Fighting the land's various beasties is tremendously rewarding entertainment. Each living organism requires different tactics that only reveal themselves through experimentation, failure and ultimate success. Sometimes you're well served by frontal assaults of Pikmin while at other times it might pay to feed a creature three or four poison Pikmin. You'll be channeling Spock when the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...or the one. Poison Pikmin are one of the new features of gameplay that help make this game distinct. They're white, they have the ability to sense treasures under the ground and they can survive in poison clouds. These environmental hazards are just one of the many that you will face calling for a variety of Pikmin to accomplish your goal of fiscal solvency. Purple pikmin are another new wrinkle with the strength of TEN GRINCHES...no, no... ten pikmin. Their powerful bodies are fat and slow but their ability to lift is unquestioned. These new purple and white pikmin are unique in that you can only get more through special flowers found underground. That makes them ultra valuable and directly influences strategy throughout gameplay. You will still need the red (fire retardant), yellow (electrically sound) and blue (underwater) pikmin of the previous game but the white and purple are great additions to the cast that really do influence your every move. The gameplay stands on its own as testament to imagination in design. But it's only one piece of what makes this series so darn good. The game's use of character is quite definitively part of its appeal. The pikmin are cute. They sing while they follow Olimar and Louie around. Leave them somewhere and they'll lie down and just generally act like, well, pikmin! Take them into battle or near something that catches their interest and they might even stray from control in an ever so subtle way. They pull grass looking for the juice that makes them flower or they go nuts over a certain type of bug they know has a stash of nectar inside to create more pikmin. When they really get going, it's like one chaotic masterpiece that is always within your control with the whistle. All that character now carries over to entertaining descriptions by Olimar of the items you find as well as nature film-like descriptions of the flora and fauna you find along the way. The game is unique in everything it does visually to give enhance character. It would be great if all that was here was a new adventure and more pikmin but multiplayer adds a whole new lovable dimension to the game that is sure to prolong its appeal. You get both competitive and unlockable cooperative multiplayer. Fighting against another human opponent is a back and forth action/strategy battle of wits. You can dig up four neutral marbles or steal your opponent's one to win and the resulting conflagrations of pikmin against pikmin are a hoot! There's often a lot of environmental hazards as well as a roulette wheel of danger, activated by retrieving cherries from the battlefield, that adds to the chaos. However if cooperative play is more your thing, the game also includes over twenty challenge levels to complete with your friends. These are timed and award scores based on both completion time and treasures acquired giving them longevity even after you've gone through them once. Multiplayer can be very chaotic but that chaos is part of its appeal. It takes a long time before you run out of things to do in this game. Pikmin 2 is definitely one of the best games released so far this year. It takes a completely unique concept from the first game and expands on it to the point that it seems brand new again. It's even comparable to Grand Theft Auto III in that you have goals to complete but you can take them on entirely at your own pace and mostly in any order. You can even stray from them in the quest for more pikmin. There are at least twenty hours of gameplay in the main adventure and there's incentive to play it multiple times too. Combining a lengthy campaign with the challenge levels and multiplayer, the package is now truly complete. Don't hesitate to dive into the backyard with these lovable little creatures. They're eager to obey! 
Pikmin 2 is one of those games that ignites kids' imaginations in ways that a lot of games don't even try to do. The creatures you face are all imaginatively designed and feature unique characteristics that solidify them as memorable challenges. Kids will undoubtedly enjoy the lighthearted romping nature of play. There really isn't anything objectionable in the game though there is a lot of non-essential reading. Probably the toughest thing for kids could be the pikmin's often untimely demise. The little guys get burned, suffocated, electrocuted, drown, and of course are eaten regularly. As long as your youngsters don't get too attached to them, they should be ok. Beating those "eatin' guys" means you have to break a few eggs to complete the omelette.
Kid Factor by Dave Long
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