The Pikmin Trilogy: Game 2

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.

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.