The Pikmin
Trilogy: Game Two
Hello and welcome
back! Last time we went over the first installment of the Pikmin game, where
our hero had to rebuild his ship with help from Pikmin and return home, but
trouble arose when he reached his home planet, so join me as we enter the world
of Pikmin two…
Before we start,
if I could say something about Pikmin 2, it would be that Pikmin 2 took every
aspect of the first Pikmin game, and found a way to improve it. Less glitches,
more Pikmin, loads more things to find, more places to explore, improved
mechanics, better graphics, more creatures and bosses to defeat, more story, an
after game, a REAL challenge mode, more than four hours of gameplay and lots
more! Truly Pikmin 2 is not only a great standalone game, but did everything
the first game did, but better, Pikmin 2 is what all sequels should be and because of that this
remains my favorite of all the Pikmin game. Now with that out of the way, time
for Pikmin 2.
He’s done it! With
the help of the Pikmin; Olimar had successfully collected all his lost hip
parts and repaired his ship. He flew back to his home planet to see his family
once again, but when he arrived, it wouldn’t be the happiest of time for
Hocotate Freight…
Olimar carefully
lands his ship on the grounds of Hocotate, here he find his boss, and a new
recruit for the company, named Louie. His boss, called the President, tells him
that while Olimar was away, the company had fallen into deep debt, 10100 Pokos
(the hocotate currency) to be exact. Along with many other things, they had to
sell Olimar’s ship (the one he worked so hard to repair) to help repay the
debt, and as he told Olimar this, a repo ship came by and flew off with the
dolphin. In shock, Olimar had dropped a souvenir he found on the planet for his
kids. The thing he found on the planet was a bottle cap (about the size of
trash bin’s lid compared to Olimar) and it had rolled over to a very knackered
looking pink and white ship, the ship proceeded to take the bottle cap into its
treasure hold and analyze it, and what the ship found was the bottle cap’s
worth was 100 pokes.
Seeing the opportunity
for more money, the president sent both Olimar and Louie back to the planet to
collect more treasure and erase the debt.
When they reached
the planet, they were to land in a region covered in snow, but upon arriving
they found themselves in the middle of a blizzard, and in the harshness of the
blizzard Louie was knocked out of the ship. After landing, Olimar found Louie,
the red Pikmin and a treasure. The next day the two discovered a cave, and
decided to go in it, what they found was
an odd purple flower, which when a Pikmin was thrown in, would pop out a seed
of a purple Pikmin. They found these purple Pikmin are ten time stronger than
the regulars ones.
Fast forward, the
two have explored three areas with numerous caves, found the blue and yellow
Pikmin, as well as a new white Pikmin that has a poison immunity, and they have
erased the debt. Triumphantly, they ride back to Hocotate, and Olimar looks
back on the planet, leaving it behind for a second time. Satisfied he looks
away from the planet, but instantly after takes a double take and realizes that
he left Louie on the planet… (I just want to say that the few notes that played
when Olimar realizes he left Louie gives me Goosebumps every time)
Olimar arrives at
Hocotate, to see him boss is ecstatic about the debt being erased, but being
the greedy man he is, he sends them back to get ALL of the treasures, but find
that Louie is missing, so instead the president decides to join you. Now Olimar
returns to the planet for the third time but this time to find Louie.
They land in an
autumn themed region called “The Wistful Wild” (fun fact, the wistful wild is
actually a joint map between the final trial, and the crash site from the first
games, except that the new map looks a bit different due to erosion and plant
growth and such) and after a long journey they find a cave and name it the “Dream
Den” in this cave they find Louie… stuck on a giant spider that wield the four
Pikmin element of course!
After a long hard
battle, they finally get Louie back (who now insists that he be called by his
proper title “king of bugs”) and they ride home for the last time on their gold
plated ship…
Phew, and that
concludes the Pikmin two story, although it should be noted that while on the
planet, you get messages from people like the president, and Olimar’s family
telling them what’s happening on their home planet as well as chronicling the
President’s journey of avoid the debt collectors, so that’s a fun little
sub-plot.
For the most
part, I won’t be doing a review of this game, since I mentioned in the second
paragraph that everything was done better in this game then the last. So
instead I’ll tell you about my experience with the game.
My first exposure
to the Pikmin games was when my brother would play Pikmin 2, and I would always
watch him play. I loved watching him play it, but he never really played it that
much, and when I would suggest that he play it when he wanted to play GameCube,
he would most likely turn it down. One day he decided to sell all his GameCube
games, and I only had enough money for one game (keep in mind neither of us was
old enough to know what a loan or down payment was) and I bought Pikmin 2, this
was easily one of the best purchases of my life. After playing the game for
many years I got very good at the game, which will lead me to the next segment,
where I talk about the most infamous cave in the game…
The music is
creepy, distorted and unnerving, those people who have never been in this cave
before will notice something… off about it. Those who know this cave inside and
out will be rushing as fast as they can to get through to the next sublevel of
the cave. This cave is a bit taboo in the Pikmin fandom; the cave’s name is
“submerged castle” and its very name gives a shiver to anyone who knows the
cave.
It’s in the
furthest reaches of its region, and is surrounded by water, so only blue Pikmin
can go in, but when you go in, the first floor is filled with fire, and the
next floors with poison, electricity, and explosions, but oh no… those are
nothing compared to the timer of death. When the invisible timer runs out, two
stone rolling pins come down from the sky, and a giant humanoid creature made
of inter-dimensional liquid comes down and lands on them. You can’t hurt this
thing, not even a scratch! It’ll flatten your Pikmin with no second though or
hesitation. Every sublevel you don’t finish in time, this thing will torment
you, and once you know what’s to fear in this cave, you can’t help but break
into a cold sweat as you rush to finish the sublevel.
Finally, when you
reach the last sublevel, you’re presented with purple pikmin flowers, and a
large circular zone, and given that it’s the last sublevel, and you see an
arena, you know you’re going to have to face off against this thing.
So you’ve prepared,
you have your team of purple and blue Pikmin. The monster falls from the sky
once more. You frantically throw your Pikmin until you find yourself throwing
the purple Pikmin, and when the purple pikmin strikes the grown, the monster
recoils and turns purple. You have found its kryptonite. You swarm your pikmin
and defeat the monster. Its two stone rollers that once squished you’re Pikmin
explode, as triumphant music…—wait what? It’s not dead? It’s just running
around like a chicken with its head cut off!
This once fearsome
creature now run from you like a coward, and you finally put an end to its tyranny.
The “water wraith” as Olimar named it, dropped a bullhorn upon its death. The
“pluck-a-phone” is what’s called, and it plucks pikmin just by whistling at
them, so very much a worthwhile upgrade for that cave… although the memories
will never leave you, you will always remember that cave.
one last thing i should mention is that another feature in pikmin 2 that wasn't in the first game is the multiplay aspect. In the multi-player, two people, taking the role of either blue or red (with their corresponding captains) battle it out in a capture the flag type scenario, where the first person to collect four marbles wins, or the first person to grad a red/blue marble in others base and bring it to their own wins. Throughout the game you'll get a roulette type thing on the side of the scene, where you can mess up the other person with traps like blowhogs, dweevils, and more.
one last thing i should mention is that another feature in pikmin 2 that wasn't in the first game is the multiplay aspect. In the multi-player, two people, taking the role of either blue or red (with their corresponding captains) battle it out in a capture the flag type scenario, where the first person to collect four marbles wins, or the first person to grad a red/blue marble in others base and bring it to their own wins. Throughout the game you'll get a roulette type thing on the side of the scene, where you can mess up the other person with traps like blowhogs, dweevils, and more.
So that’s pikmin
2 everybody. If you enjoy the first game I would highly recommend this one,
it’s full of content and guaranteed hours of enjoyment.
Stay tuned for
the final entree as we return to the planet in the most recent installment of
the pikmin franchise- Pikmin 3.
