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Pikmin 2 Gamecube Nintendo  In the first Pikmin game, hapless space adventurer Captain Olimar crashlands on a mysterious planet. Its inhabitants - tiny animal/vegetable hybrids he christens "Pikmin" - help him to mend his ship and return to his home planet before his supply of breathable air is exhausted. In the sequel, Olimar returns to the planet to call upon the Pikmin's assistance once again, now with unlimited time and a brief to fully explore the planet. The Pikmin are supposed to be expendable: they're there to do youR dirty work for you, to lay down their lives in your service and once again, you battle enemies by flinging your Pikmin at them. The basic problem with this game, as with its predecessor, is that one gets so attached to the little cuties. I have, to date, spent at least forty hours on this game, a good half of which has been spent banging away at massive, fierce creatures with Olimar's tiny head so as not to put my little friends in danger, and replaying levels to minimise their loss. The enormous moral problems inherent in the first game (is it right to ask that others sacrifice their lives to save yours, even if they seem positively eager to do so?) are amplified in the sequel: Olimar is employing the Pikmin not to gather the parts of his ship and thus save his life, but in gathering treasure from their planet's surface in order to save his company from bankruptcy. Like the British in India and the Americans in Iraq, Olimar plunders the planet's resources and enslaves its natives in the pursuit of base profit. I'm really not comfortable being complicit in the colonising process. Despite these quandaries, 'Pikmin 2' is a fiendishly addictive game, pushing one's problem-solving skills to their limits. The three groups of Pikmin from the first game - the reds, which are the bloodthirsthy warrior caste and are fire-resistant; the blues, adept at swimming; and the yellows, able to be thrown great heights and now, it transpires, resistant to electricity - are joined by more types. The player must use their little beasts to navigate through the landscapes - including lakes, fire geysers, poison gas vents and electric fences - and collect treasure to take back to the ship. All of the enemies from the first game are back, along with some horrible new ones, and all of them have a taste for Pikmin. 'Pikmin 2' is the ideal sequel: it's just like the first game, but bigger and better. The landscapes are larger and more varied, with limitless time to explore them; the enemies are more difficult to beat and the problems more tricky to solve. With the Challenge Mode from the first game returning, and a new multiplayer game as well, kiss goodbye to the next month's worth of leisure time.  |
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