adventure

Boy, did I make the right choice.

Let me start by saying that I would have given this game five stars, but it has no replayability. Once you've beaten it, it loses a lot of appeal.

Pikmin is extremely addictive. It is played in thirty "days", each lasting about 15 minutes, so it's extremely easy to get lost in the adventure and become glued to the Gamecube.

As all the other review tell you, you play as Captain Olimar, who crash-lands on a planet inhabited by the Pikmin. Your job is to manipulate the Pikmin to repair your spaceship and fly home.

What the reviews don't tell you is that the game is far more sophisticated than its bright colors would indicate. Two minutes into the game, it becomes clear that no six-year old could possibly possess the problem-solving skills required of anyone attempting to save Captain Olimar.

All gameplay aside, it usually takes a few tries to get each day done right. The game kindly asks you after every day if you'd like to try again, which often helps correct dumb mistakes. I learned to run a day two or three times in order to finish two or three tasks each day, instead of one or (sometimes) none.

Pikmin is an easy-to-play, tough-to-beat cleverly original masterpiece from Nintendo. If, like I did, you're teetering on the edge as to whether or not to buy it, let me make it perfectly clear: Go for it. This game rocks.

The game looked deceptively simple...but as I sat down and watched my kids trying to get the various Pikmin around (red, blue, yellow, each group with specific functions), I realised that there was a fair bit of game management and some brainwork involved (my kids insist that strategy is involved too). The game pace is kept at a decent level, driven by the urgency that all 30 spaceship parts have to be recovered within a 30 days period. And, having characters that are really cute only makes the overall game all the more appealing.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the graphics e.g. the realism of the water in the ponds for instance. It is definitely a great improvement over the graphics of previous Nintendo games such as Mario Party, Pokemon Stadium, Hey You, Pikachu! or Donkey Kong.

Of course, this game was meant to complement and showcase the Gamecube console. Given the features and gameplay, this game does an admirable job of that, and it's worth the buy if you are fan of Nintendo's popular games such as Pokemon or Mario Bros.

Note that this game is not a great deal of fun if you don't like real-time strategy games. Young children will get bored quickly. But if you like games like Red Alert, Age of Mythology, or even The Sims, give this one a shot.