New Play Control! Pikmin 2 Review

Old Game Still Better!

Version tested: Wii

"In the last seven years, there's been nothing like it," I wrote in my review of New Play Control! Pikmin a couple of months back. I eulogised the surreal strategy adventure's charm, still-striking originality, perfect balance and faultless new pointer control - but gave it the mildly disappointing score of 7. On this occasion at least, there was method to my madness.

"Only, of course, there has: its sequel," I wrote. "And this presents us with the biggest problem by far with this release. Pikmin 2 is also due a New Play Control! reissue this year, and it's a better game in every respect. It's longer and more sophisticated, with more varied Pikmin and enemy types; it has co-operative and competitive multiplayer; it has randomised caves with finite Pikmin numbers, ideal for the game's challenge mode; it has no time limit. It represents much better value, and we're hard-pressed not to recommend you hold off and buy that instead."

The happy day has come: you don't need to hold off any longer (well, not any longer than a week - it's out on Friday 24th). And I don't need to qualify my statements any more, or temper my love of Pikmin with a stingy score. Pikmin 2 is back, and in the last five years, there's been nothing like it.

The foundations of Shigeru Miyamoto's gardening-inspired sort-of-strategy sequel are identical to the first game; refer back to the New Play Control! Pikmin review for a study of those, and of the impact of the new Wii control scheme. For those who don't want to click away, here's the précis: inch-high spaceman cultivates and commands an army of ant-like flower-people to do his bidding in backyard landscapes.

They collect and harvest stuff, fight all manner of wondrous and bizarre creatures, overcome obstacles, die pathetically in a manner that makes grown men cry and are adorable. The game is beautifully designed within a short span and rather clumsy time limit, the pointer controls are a perfect fit for it, and the music and atmosphere are reminiscent of the dreamlike lullaby weirdness of 1970s preschool childrens' TV.

'New Play Control! Pikmin 2' Screenshot 1

Pikmin 2 is rife with product placement. Must be easy to sell to advertisers when it's all called "treasure".

In Pikmin 2 Captain Olimar returns from his adventures to discover that his employers, an intergalactic shipping firm, are going bust. He's dispatched with clueless dogsbody Louie to return to the Pikmin planet and bring back "treasure" (batteries, crushed cans, fruit and vegetables, Nintendo memorabilia) with which to pay off the company's debt.

It's a silly plot - albeit nicely exploited for gentle laughs by a witty script in a superb translation (as ever with Nintendo). But it has two salient consequences for gameplay. One, the pressure is off - Olimar's not running out of oxygen, so although play is still broken up into days, there's no hard time limit and you can take as long as you like to complete the game. Thus there are no changes to Pikmin 2's save structure for this new Wii version, because this time, it doesn't need them. (In fact, controls aside, there are no changes to the game at all.)

Two, you now have two spacemen on the ground, Olimar and Louie, who can be switched between at will in single-player. Each can command a separate Pikmin squad, which makes multi-tasking considerably easier than it was in the first game, a boon when things gets busy. Louie's presence also paves the way for the game's two multiplayer modes, Battle and Challenge (the latter needs to be unlocked in the single-player campaign).

Other than that, you get two new flavours of Pikmin: the chunky purple sprouts, who land with an earth-shaking thud and have the strength (and weight) of ten plant-men; and the sickly, eerie-looking white Pikmin, who can withstand poison and dig up hidden treasures. Cultivation of these types is limited, since they can't be grown from raw materials, only converted five at a time in certain flowers, which adds an interesting new dynamic to population management. With some small adjustments to the abilities of the original red, yellow and blue trio, the new Pikmin open out the game without overwhelming you with choice or disturbing its fine balance.

None of the above is what really makes Pikmin 2 outshine its predecessor, however. More important is the increased density and length of the game, with some 200 items to find versus Pikmin's 30. More important still is the way much of this abundance of content is delivered: in dungeon crawls.

When your game is already an unclassifiable blend of RTS and action-adventure, throwing in the level-plumbing, loot, and no-turning-back risk and reward of a dungeon-crawling RPG is either genius or madness. I'm going with the former. Pikmin 2's caves suspend the passage of the time, allow only a finite number of Pikmin (you can choose how many, but whatever you lose can't be replaced until you emerge), and descend through a series of one-way levels before culminating in a boss fight.

They're a total success, giving the Pikmin template more variety, greater focus, more condensed and crafted level design, more shiny rewards, and restoring a sense of urgency without introducing the stressful constraints of the first game. They heighten that weird microcosmic atmosphere too, with the lilting tunes of above ground taking a turn for moody radiophonic experiments below.

'New Play Control! Pikmin 2' Screenshot 2

Isn't that a Piranha plant? There are plenty of sublte alternate-universe Mario references if you look for them.

Finally, they make for a neat competitive/co-operative two-player mode in Challenge as you seek to complete caves in the fastest time, losing the least Pikmin, working with and against a friend. Battle mode isn't quite as fun - the race to move marbles to bases works well enough as a design, but it's a forced attempt at softening the brutal dynamics of competitive RTS for Pikmin's family-friendly world. It doesn't sit right. Both modes suffer from tight split-screen presentation too, which can be awkward when tracking large crowds of scurrying Pikmin.

They're not to be sneezed at, all the same, and contribute more than a little to Pikmin 2 being a delight to rediscover. It's expansive, compulsive and overloaded with thoughtful and beguiling details, from Olimar's encyclopaedic log entries on every specimen and artefact in the world to the game's insane menagerie of tactically interesting enemies.

It's so good, there's been no need to change it. As well as the pointer works, it's probably not justification enough of this reissue for Pikmin 2 veterans who still own their GameCube copies. For those who've never experienced this true original, however, or for those who want to be reunited with it, New Play Control! Pikmin 2 comes highly recommended.

8 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy

Comments (33) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MORZTAN #1 3 years ago

    Finally!!! It's here.

    Waited 5 years for this! Finally! It's here!
  • jim1975 #2 3 years ago

  • Psychotext #3 3 years ago

    Can't speak for the NPC version... but the Pikmin games are some of the most enjoyable I've ever played. :)
  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #4 3 years ago

    I have no problem with this a re-release (unlike those that I'm sure will post below will yet who will have merrily forked for SFII in HD), however I think it would've been a more compelling package, for me at least, to have the two as a package together rather than as seperate releases.
  • darc #5 3 years ago

    So no change in the graphics, even? I'm assuming we can at least expect wide-screen?
  • sneetch #6 3 years ago

    @Pac-man ate my wife
    Ah, so you do have a problem, you're just carefully avoiding stating it as a problem. :p

    As for me, the same applies as for the first one, I cannot recommend this enough to people who have never played it.
  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #7 3 years ago

    @ darc

    Why didn't they change the controls of SFII HD?

    @ sneetch

    It's not really a problem, I just think it would've been a must own as double-pack, whereas on it's own it's less compelling. Just as if it'd been regular Street Fighter II made HD would've been good, but Super Street Fighter II Turbo makes it more so.
    Edited by 1 at 17/04/09 @ 15:14
  • Burkey123 #8 3 years ago

    Never played Pikmin 1 or 2 but my brother does have the Cube versions. I still think I'll get the wii versions.
    From this review, Pikmin 2 is far superior to the first. Should I try the first one before I get this or should I just go straight to Pikmin 2?
  • muscleblade #9 3 years ago

    Its sad really that the best Wii games are old gamecube titles.
  • Golgo #10 3 years ago

    Either this or Little King's Story?
    Hurry up with the review please, Eurogamer ;)
  • Der_tolle_Emil #11 3 years ago

    Since I own both cube titles I don't really need this. I do feel the urge to play them again however. Both games are fantastic, I did enjoy the first one a bit more then the sequel though.

    Now I only need to wait for Metroid because I will buy it when it comes out even if I do own the cube games. I think that the new controls add a lot more to Metroid than they do for Pikmin.
  • sneetch #12 3 years ago

    @Burkey123
    Never played Pikmin 1 or 2 but my brother does have the Cube versions. I still think I'll get the wii versions.
    From this review, Pikmin 2 is far superior to the first. Should I try the first one before I get this or should I just go straight to Pikmin 2?


    It's superior but not hugely, I thought the caves are a great addition and all but I'd play Pikmin 1 then 2. The 30 day limit isn't that harsh (you don't need to recover every bit to "win" the game).

    @darc
    Pikmin 1 on Wii had a 16:9 widescreen mode, so this probably will too.
    (This is not a guarantee, consult other sources before acting, side effects of reading post may cause headaches, nauseousness and kidney infections).

    More importantly, why the hell didn't they change the controls of SFII HD?!? Huh? C'mon darc, explain yourself! ;)
  • Cappy #13 3 years ago

    I wouldn't choose one Pikmin game over the other. Play both, they're both great, though Pikmin 2 is slightly more so.
  • sneetch #14 3 years ago

    @Pac-man ate my wife
    It's not really a problem, I just think it would've been a must own as double-pack, whereas on it's own it's less compelling. Just as if it'd been regular Street Fighter II made HD would've been good, but Super Street Fighter II Turbo makes it more so.

    Yeah, I know, just being a jerk. :) I'd snap it up as a double pack too for the widescreen alone (and that new game manual smell).
  • Burkey123 #15 3 years ago

    Cheers sneetch and Cappy

    I probably will get Pikmin 1 first. It just seems logical. I'm really looking forward to them tbh. They look like something different and look really fun.

    I think the remakes are good once the controls actually bring something to the game. From what I've read, they do improve the Pikmin and Metroid games.
    Edited by 2 at 17/04/09 @ 15:27
  • Stompy #16 3 years ago

    One sentence on the second page of this review reads: "With some small adjustments to the abilities of the original red, yellow and blue trio, the new Pikmin open out the game with overwhelming you with choice or disturbing its fine balance."

    That should presumably read "without overwhelming you"?

    Thanks for convincing me to spend my recession-hit money on this game, by the way. :(
  • peterfll #17 3 years ago

    This type of game is so not my cup of tea, but it was testiment to Nintendo's brilliance that I actually bought both titles for the Gamecube and loved them both.
  • jamhead #18 3 years ago

    "Finally!!! It's here.

    Waited 5 years for this! Finally! It's here! "

    +1
  • Toothball #19 3 years ago

    Picked this up on the Cube during a Play Asia sale ages ago for £4. Haven't got round to playing it yet though.
  • electrolite #20 3 years ago

    Missed out on this after getting bored of the 'Cube so this is a big fat SOLD for me
  • BartonFink #21 3 years ago

    So basically if you have the Cube version then there is no point.
  • scouserfuller9 #22 3 years ago

    I found the length of Pkmin 2, challenges and multiplayer fantastic compared to Pikmin 1 although the caves where you have unlimited time I have mixed opinions with. I loved the bosses you thought right at the very bottom but the unlimited time just gives you the chance to kill some enemies yourself (although it takes time) and if you were to lose a bunch of Pikmin in one go you could just reset it and begin on the very floor you were on with your Pikmin all back with you. Although it is a strategy game when you look back and compare it to Pikmin 1 it looks more about battling enemies than using your Pikmin to solve problems. It's still a great game though and I will be buying it.
  • charliemouse #23 3 years ago

    I hated the dungeon crawls. Nintendo games should be finely crafted, not randomly generated. Loved the stress of the time limit in the first one.
  • smelly #24 3 years ago

    i never did complete my pal copy.. i might pick this up on ntsc...
  • smelly #25 3 years ago

    "From this review, Pikmin 2 is far superior to the first. Should I try the first one before I get this or should I just go straight to Pikmin 2? "


    The first game is short and rediculously easy (well at least i thought so).

    the 2nd game is much more of a challenge imho (mainly thanks to the random dungeons)
  • last.pro.tender #26 3 years ago

  • RedSparrows #27 3 years ago

    I luv pikmin
    Edited by 1 at 18/04/09 @ 11:26
  • SG #28 3 years ago

    WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE US EURO METROID PRIMES?

    Off all the NPC games these will benefit the most. Japan have got MP1 and it's the least popular type out of all the NPC games anyway I'd imagine. FFS Nintendo!
  • SG #29 3 years ago

    As regards widescreen, the shots from Pikmin 1 NPC appear 16:9, these appear 4:3. I would consider 'upgrading' if this offers 16:9 too.
  • Lemming81 #30 3 years ago

    First of all, I can't recommend this game enough if you missed it the first time round.

    Second of all, there is zero point in buying Pikmin 1 and 2. 2 Makes the first one completely superfluous. You are not missing anything bare a shorter game and frustrating time limit by skipping it and going straight for this superior gem.

    Finally, the 'randomly generated' aspect of the dungeons is what order the levels appear before the final boss level, if I remember. It doesn't mean the layout of each map changes because I'm pretty sure it doesn't (been a while).

    If you never got this on the Cube and you own a Wii, get it. It's not as if you are going to be getting any more good 'hardcore' games for your Wii any time soon and this certainly qualifies as one packed with Nintendo whimsy.
  • SG #31 3 years ago

    I disagree with not getting 1.

    The time limit isn't bad because completing the game within 30 days is laughably easy, having played the first lets you appreciate #2 more, and it's still fun in itself with different strategies to get various parts.

    I DO think they could have tweaked #1 bit like maybe adding dungeons, extra parts, etc. though.

    Oh, and they DO come with 16:9 support so I'm considering a purchase.
  • macmurphy #32 3 years ago

    One of the most enjoyable games ever, the two player mode was the stuff of legend. Buy it.
  • zakrocz #33 3 years ago

    Had both on the GC, traded them in as you do, but will definately be picking up 2 as i never got round to finishing it and the splitscreen versus multiplayer is a lot of fun. I preferred the singleplayer in pikmin 1 with the time limit as i seem to remember 2 lost the focus with no time limit & i don't enjoy randomised levels, never have, never will.