Has Miyamoto gone mad?

Take a close look at Pikmin for GameCube

Posted by Staff
Donkey Kong, Mario, Zelda… Pikmin? Shigeru Miyamoto has thought up a new game and it’s called Pikmin. It involves getting a load of plants to help you build a spaceship. Has he gone mad? Or, more likely, is he a genius? We will hope to answer this teaser in the course of the next few minutes…

Created by the EAD in-house development team at Nintendo HQ, Pikmin follows the plight of Captain Olimar who has, to his great displeasure, crash-landed his spacecraft on an unknown planet. The crash results in 30 pieces of the ship being lost around this new world.

As Olimar sets out to explore his new surroundings he happens upon a little nest that ejects a leaf onto the ground. Picking this up reveals a little red creature that seems to miraculously respond to his illuminated antenna and whistle. This little chap follows him around until he comes across another, slightly larger creature.

You, as the player will slowly get a feel for controlling the Pikmin and how you get more of them. The Pikmin can cut down taller flowers that contain a pollen tablet in each one. If this is then taken back to the nest, more Pikmin sproutlings of the same colour will emerge. You will be able to get the Pikmin to build bridges, remove obstacles and do general labour for you, just because you have a glowing antenna. The ship needs to be rebuilt and these little (and very cute) plants will be able to rebuild it. Suckers!

The Pikmin are all different colours and possess different skills. Some are resistant to fire, some can handle explosives, some can build and so on. To retrieve you ship components you must employ teams of Pikmin to extract the parts from a whole host of strange and unusual resting places they are stuck in. Essentially, it’s like Lemmings, in 3D, with a purpose.

You have a time limit of 30 game days to complete Pikmin. As you experiment with employing your new friends to help you, many of them will be killed by your initial wrong decisions. You then have to spend time breeding more and all the time, the clock is ticking.

A strange game in the truest sense, Pikmin is one of those love it or loathe it titles. You can decide which emotion it serves up for you when it released alongside the GameCube at some time in Spring next year.
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