This week I read that there have been a couple of short Pikmin movies, made by Shigeru Miyamoto that will be shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival next month. Should be nice movies to watch, I have very fond memories of my little champions.
It was the first game I bought for my new WiiU. My WiiU did come installed with Zelda Windwaker, but I’d already played that once on the GameCube, so I was eager to try something new. I’d never played a Pikmin game before, and I must say I bought it on a whim during lunch break at work on a Monday. At the time I wasn’t feeling in the mood to start a new work week at all, I was more in the mood for some serious gaming!
I hadn’t expected to like it quite as much as I did. I should have seen it coming though, as a big part of the game is time management and finding the best way to make the most out of a day of problem solving. And I love my time management games! What I didn’t expect though is that I really felt for the little guys. And there’s my problem.
I suspect most people approach the game with a feeling of having expendable resources. When Pikmin die, they just make new ones. I tried to steel my heart too, but I just couldn’t. I even restarted a day because I couldn’t get the last straggling Pikmin to the ship in time, condemning them to being eating by a giant ladybug. The heart wrenching cries when you see their little ghosts float away….
The game is difficult for me, the boss fights really pose a challenge. None as much as the first boss though. I just couldn’t slay him, I couldn’t throw lives away just like it was nothing. When I finally succeeded I was so sad that I’d lost most of my friends, I couldn’t play on after that. I bet a lot of you readers sit there shaking your head at my sentimentality over little pixel blobs.
Now, months later, it’s one of the few games that I’ve almost finished entirely. I’m saving the last boss battle for a day that I feel really capable. And I look forward to just going on with exploring trying to find more fruit, because it’s the exploring part that I love the most! How I wish they would bring Pikmin to the 3DS. It would be an amazing game for a handheld, wifi-ing to explore together with friends. Streetpassing to find rare fruit. Plus I’d have my little friends with me in my bag all day!
I couldn’t agree more! And you’re definitely not alone – or overly sentimental – about the trauma of losing all the little guys along the way. Sometimes I shake my head, though–they really just want to help, but yet they get themselves so easily separated from the pack. I go back again & again to find the odd straggler here & there, that is just vacantly staring at wall, left behind on an earlier jaunt. >_> I yell at the screen: do you WANT to get killed?! xD As for the first boss battle, which was unnerving (seeing all those razor-sharp little teeth on him, chomping up legions of my crew), I made it a point to re-do it several times. The last time I did the battle, I only lost 1 l’il Pikmin. By the time I had to help Peyton and do that boss fight for her, I had the strategy down pat.
Lol, Sarah, I couldn’t have described it better! Poor little wee critters, they need us to look after them!