Pikmin
Pikmin is a simple real-time strategy game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube video game console. It is a single-player game with 3 save slots per memory card used. Pikmin is rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB and is suitable for all ages.
Premise
A small freight trader from the planet Hocotate takes a long needed vacation in his space ship. However, his ship is hit by a meteor at the outset and crash lands on a strange planet, parts breaking off as it plummets through the atmosphere. With the help of small, half-plant, half-animal creatures called Pikmin, Captain Olimar must find the 30 missing pieces of his ship before before his space suit's life support system runs out.
Gameplay
In the game, you control the main character to lead around groups of Pikmin, and use a cursor to direct them for different tasks. There are three colors of Pikmin--red, yellow, and blue--each with various specialties. Red Pikmin, for example, are powerful fighters while yellow Pikmin are light and have large ears, so they can be thrown higher.
Pikmin follow you as you explore the Earth-like forest you crash land in. You assign them to tasks by throwing them with the A button or directing the entire group with the C-stick. When thrown, Pikmin will attack enemies or gather food and bring it back to the hives where they live (called Onions). While exploring, you will have to interact with the environment and find ways to avoid or defeat the many enemies that are the Pikmin's natural predators. Each game day lasts for about 15 minutes, and the game ends when you retrieve every missing part of the ship, or after 30 days when your life support system fails.
Playability
This game is very simple to learn and rather charming. The Pikmin creatures are very cute and rather enduring. They are very personable. If you have a number of them try to carry an item that is too heavy for them, they will strain and grunt trying to lift it. While you are leading them, occasionally one trips, and jumps up, shakes itself and hurries to catch up. The environments are very lush and beautiful with excellent water effects. The environment is clearly earth like, but the main character observes everything from an alien point of view, and the ship parts are pretty silly sounding with descriptions that are fanciful. The crafted world should be a delight for boys.
There are five unique, fun areas to explore. Unfortunately, the game is limited to 30 days of 15 minutes each, which means if you spend too much time exploring and enjoying the scenery, the game is unbeatable without restarting. This sense of urgency really hampers the enjoyment of later levels, and makes the game seem very short. Fortunately, the sequel fixes this problem.
This single-player game is enjoyable to watch, and extra fun will come from reading the part descriptions and daily logs to younger boys. The strategy element of the game encourages problem-solving and critical thinking, and the cute nature of the Pikmin means players want to protect them instead of sending them on suicide missions as in most other real-time strategy games. Pikmin keeps track of simple statistics during play, and can be replayed to try and complete the game faster, with less Pikmin lost, and so forth.
This is a very enjoyable game, and might be a good discount purchase. If your young friend enjoys the game, the sequel offers better ways to divide groups of Pikmin, licensed objects, larger areas to explore, no time limits, and multiplayer support.
