Pikmin (GameCube) review "Kinda like a cross between a Real-time strategy and a puzzle game Pikmin is a game where you play as a spaceman who has crashed his ship on a strage planet, and the only way to fix it and get home to to enlist the aid of the freaky little critters called Pikmin. Appearently the Creator, genius Shingeru Miyamoto, got the idea for this game while tending his garden at home. oddly enough, the way to win this game is to collect your small gang of ragtag pikmin and gather food tablets for them, placing them at the correct spawning ground ship of the Pikmin (yes, I know it sounds weird)."

After nearly spending 4 days in Nintendo's ''Cube Club'' in the elustrius Mall of America, I've come to 2 decisions for game of games for the Gamecube. the First one being this awesome little Gem called Pikmin. Kinda like a cross between a Real-time strategy and a puzzle game Pikmin is a game where you play as a spaceman who has crashed his ship on a strage planet, and the only way to fix it and get home to to enlist the aid of the freaky little critters called Pikmin. Appearently the Creator, genius Shingeru Miyamoto, got the idea for this game while tending his garden at home. oddly enough, the way to win this game is to collect your small gang of ragtag pikmin and gather food tablets for them, placing them at the correct spawning ground ship of the Pikmin (yes, I know it sounds weird). it's so cute the first time you see the little pikmin work together and lift these huge tablets and waddle their way back to camp, it's almost sickening.after collecting these tablets you can spawn hundreds of these little creatures to help you find your ship. you can even have upwards of 100 pikman following you around, it looks like a little riot mob. but not to say that this game is only about finding tablets and growing Pikmin, you also have to deal with many terrain obsticles and even enemies! some Pikmin will help you destroy walls, or make ladders, or even form a bridge for you to walk over. And all the while you have to deal with enemy's eating your poor little Pikmin. they can fend for themselves though, as you can luanch pikman at enemies and take them down as they chew and claw their way through the enemy. the best part is, after the enemy is dead, they grab them and take them back to base for food! Not all enemies are easy though, many are huge bosses that look like spiders or huge frogs, some will even attack your base and eat helpless Pikmin. the hardest part by far though is that you have a limited time in which to complete your goals, it seems the little pikmin aren't too partial to darkness, you have only til when the sun sets to find your ship parts.

Graphics: by far it seemed to me that this game showed some of the best Graphics on the system as of now. the Backrounds and ambient life are simply astounding. The detail on the little Pikmin and your spaceman are awesome. The little leafy heads of the Pikmin bounce and sway to the wind. and sometimes when they are bored they will do little dances! the enemies and everything else in the game is about the same, great textures and colors, leaving a feast for your eyes to take in.

Sound: The only thing I'm a little dissappointed at in this game is the sound, namely the music. it gets kinda repeatative and boring after like the first 10 minutes or so (thank god they had a DJ that was spinning some good music at the time). so the music is a little Lackluster. Sounds though are decent Flair. little Pikmin noises along with the chirp of birds and bugs in the backround are a little treat. it was a little loud in the Club so I really didn't get the chance to really take in all the sounds and music in the game, though most of it seemed decent.

ControlGameplay: This seems to be the only game that I could play well with the ackward controller that GC has. since there is little heavy action in the game you have plaenty of time to react and find the correct botton controls. the A button Summons your little Pikmin and the B button luanches them at enemies and obsticles. the other buttons are mostly for camera control which was very well done as to make it simplistic for anyone to change the angle of the cam to get a better view. and you only use the Joystick, leaving the D-pad and the weird yellow joystick out of the way and unused. overall, best use of the Controller i've seen yet.

Overall: Like I said before, Pikmin is easily one of my choices for best game on the system right now. It's pretty, it's fun, it's chalanging, it's everything alot of gamers are looking for to take a break from the FPS and action games. beautifully colored and textured, along with a decent set of sounds to back it up. Easily one of the better titles on the Cube so far, I reccomend everyone at least try this little Masterpiece that i'm sure will get neglected for it's odd concept.

Community review by johnnythm (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.