Review of New Play Control! Pikmin

If you haven't already played Pikmin on the GameCube, this game is an excellent opportunity to catch up with a great game.If you've already played this game there is literally nothing new here besides the controls.No new extra modes, no multi-player, no extra levels, no noteworthy graphical upgrades.Just new controls.

For those of you who haven't played the game yet, it is a very solid game.To sum it up simply, you take control of Olimar, a diminutive space explorer that crash lands on an earth like planet filled with hostile bugs and critters.You control a small army of Pikmin that do your bidding by fighting and carrying stuff for you.Red, Yellow, and Blue Pikmin have different abilities which you must take advantage of as you traverse the terrain of each of the levels.In typical Nintendo fashion, there is a great deal of exploration where you can see an area of the game but can't get to it until you unlock new abilities which require you come back to previous levels.Gameplay is broken into thirty 15-20 minute "days" in which you frantically try to cram as many accomplishments as possible into the short time frame.It all works very well, although I wish the 30-day limit wasn't in place.I found Pikmin to be quite entertaining 8 years ago, and still like it to this day.

THE NEW CONTROLS: The new controls work extremely well.There isn't any pointless remote waggle and the pointer controls work pretty well.

GRAPHICS: Aside from progressive scan support and 16:9 wide screen support, there isn't anything new here.The artwork was gorgeous years ago, but nowadays it's only pretty good.Textures look low res but the art style makes up for the deficiencies.The sad thing is that this two generation old game still looks better than most modern Wii games.

SOUND: Time has been kind to me because I apparently forgot how cheesy parts of the game are, and sound is simultaneously a strong and weak point for the game.Some of the music is very pleasant and relaxing while the cut-scenes have some extremely annoying music.

REPLAY: Aside from a points mode at the end, there isn't a whole lot of replay value to the game.It can be beat in about 10-15 hours, including time spent having to replay levels due to unfortunate death situations.

All in all, I recommend this game to anyone that didn't get the chance to play the game on the GameCube.The new controls provide a superior experience.There really aren't many games like Pikmin which makes even this remake feel unique and fresh.For those of you who have already played the game on the GameCube, this game is pretty much just a pure nostalgia purchase.

[Edit: Fixed some embarrassingly bad grammar]



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