Game Of The Week: Pikmin 2

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. Today I’m taking a look at a great sequel to a great game, one of the best for the Nintendo Gamecube and one I love to start back up every now and then: Pikmin 2. I love both games in different ways and it’s hard for me to choose which one I like better, but I’ve decided to a do a review of Pikmin 2 because there’s a bit more for me to talk about when discussing it. So let’s get small and dive into the grass as we take a look at Pikmin 2.

 Released in 2004 for the Gamecube, Pikmin 2 did exactly what any good sequel should do: keep the core gameplay that made the original great intact while improving and expanding the universe created by the first game. The story picks up right where the first left off, with the protagonist Captain Olimar returning home from the alien planet where he crash landed in the first game. However, his triumphant return is short-lived when he discovers that in his absence, the freight company he works for has gone bankrupt and if its massive debt isn’t paid back soon, he’ll be out of a job. The boss of his company is at a loss for what to do- that is, until he discovers that a small object brought back from the alien planet by Olimar is extremely valuable, and that more treasures are there waiting to be collected. In order to save his company and his job, Olimar then travels back to the planet with his fellow employee Louie in search of more treasures.

This is where the primary addition to gameplay in the second game comes in- with the two playable characters of Olimar and Louie, you’ll be able to switch between the two and divide up your Pikmin squads around each of the levels. This pushes multitasking even further than in the first game, as now you’ll be able to simultaneously work on accomplishing different goals around the map by controlling two characters. There are also certain bosses that take advantage of this switching system- for example the toady bloyster boss, which you’ll have to distract using one character and launch Pikmin at from behind with another. It’s a very intricate system which allows you to tackle multiple tasks on completely different sides of the map while maintaining a greater level of control than the first game allowed. Another major difference between the first and second games is the introduction of “caves” throughout each of the maps, which are multilayered underground voids in which both the layouts and enemy/treasure placements are completely randomized. At the final floor of nearly all of the caves is a boss fight in which you’ll have to do battle with a massive enemy which will yield a special item upon being defeated. These items are mostly upgrades to Olimar & Louie’s suits that make the gameplay a little easier (for example, being impervious to fire, a larger whistle range to corral Pikmin, etc). There are four caves per map, with the exception of the last map in which there are only three, for a total of 15 in the whole game. Unlike above ground, when inside of a cave time does not pass, allowing for exploration of a cave without the urgency of moving quickly before a day ends.

Being able to split up your squads between two playable characters exponentially changes the multitasking dynamic of the game.

Speaking of urgency, there is no overarching “time limit” as there was in the first game. In the first game the player has 30 days to recover all of the ship parts before the game ends, whereas in the second game, there’s an unlimited amount of days to explore and collect all of the treasures. The second game doubles down on enemies, adding many new types that present a multitude of different threats to your Pikmin squad. There are a few enemies from the first game that don’t return, but the myriad of new ones makes up for that fact nicely. In addition to the enemies, two new Pikmin types join the ranks of the reds, blues and yellows: purple and white Pikmin. Purple Pikmin are slower than molasses, but their massive weight allows them to briefly stun enemies when thrown, making them extremely useful in combat. Also, they can carry ten times their own weight, allowing just one of them the lifting capacity of ten other Pikmin. By contrast, white Pikmin are small and swift, rapidly following behind you and carrying items. They are immune to poison and can dig up underground objects that other Pikmin can’t see. Additionally, they deal substantial damage to enemies if eaten. Both of these new types are very useful and valuable to have throughout the game, but there’s a major hitch- they can only be spawned in caves by throwing red, blue or yellow Pikmin into their respective candypop flowers and not by the traditional means of transporting dead enemies or pellets to the onions. These flowers only spawn a maximum of five Pikmin, meaning that you’ll have to very slowly build up a squad over the course of the game. However, the usefulness of both types for different tasks makes it very much worth the time and effort to do so.

It sucks that you aren't able to spawn purple & white Pikmin as quickly as the others, but it's certainly worth it to take the extra time to do so.

Lastly, there’s the introduction of items which aid in your adventure. I already mentioned the special items you’ll receive from defeating bosses, but there are two others that are very useful to collect as you progress- spicy and bitter berries, which can be used to create spicy and bitter spray, respectively. By pressing up or down on the D-pad, you’ll use one of these sprays which greatly helps in combating enemies; spicy spray causes your Pikmin squad to become temporarily enhanced, making them move and attack faster, while bitter spray briefly freezes enemies allowing your squad to attack them without being counterattacked. You’ll find the berries to make both types scattered in flowers around the maps, and by bringing five berries back to your ship you’ll be able to make one spray. 

By far, the biggest aspect that sets this game apart from the first is the cave system, which is also where my biggest critique is. I do like the randomization aspect, as the challenge always slightly differs every time you enter a different level of the cave. Also, I like that time doesn’t pass in the caves, so you have an unlimited ability to explore and strategize. However, the thing I didn’t enjoy about the cave system in comparison to the first game is that spending time in the caves makes up a majority of the game. Because of this, there’s a noticeable lack of emphasis on above ground exploring and puzzle solving, where you’ll be working against the clock to find items, break down barriers, build bridges, etc. until the day ends. Also, another above ground aspect lost by spending most of the game in the caves is the ability to sprout new Pikmin from dead enemies. Since the onions don’t follow you into the caves, you lose a lot of the satisfaction from defeating enemies and then using their carcasses to create new Pikmin, which is one of the most fun things about the first game and being above ground in the second. And lastly, the caves really don’t present much of a challenge at all unless you really act on an “honors system” for yourself, so to speak. Every time you enter a new sublevel of the cave, the game automatically saves. I’m not sure if there’s some practical reason for this, or if this feature can be manually shut off for that matter (honestly, I’ve never thought of checking until writing this sentence), but it happens every single time you finish a cave level and then move on to the next. Because of this, if something horrific happens and half your squad gets obliterated by an enemy that dropped in while you weren’t paying attention, you can simply reset the game and start over in that level like nothing ever happened. Like I said, you can impose an honors system on yourself and not do this if you have the discipline to do so, but more often than not I just got so annoyed at losing a ton of my hard earned purple Pikmin because a bomb rock exploded near them while I was off on the other side of the cave that I’d jump up and do a reset out of anger. I know they were trying to put a little less pressure on the player than in the first game, but I think this kills a lot of the challenge in making it through the caves, especially in the later ones when things start getting extremely difficult.

It's kind of like using save states in the caves, if you think about it.

Despite these things, the caves are really my only gripe with the game. I love the diversity of enemies new and old, plus the in-depth enemy analysis in the “Pikelopedia” which appeals to both my inner biologist and nerd at the same time. The new stage hazards of poison and electricity are very cool, as well as the enemies that utilize both, along with fire and water too. The game throws multiple hazards at you at once and you have to come up with some intricate strategies to deal with them. For example, there’s one part of the game where an enemy called the fiery bulblax (as the name implies, it’s on fire) is holding a treasure and sitting across a lake in a little enclave. There’s no other way around and only blue Pikmin can cross the lake, but they can’t attack the beast without being incinerated if they touch it. So, you’ll have to quickly wake it up and retreat into the lake, hoping it will follow you into the water and have its flames doused, at which point you can attack it. The game throws multiple hazards like that at you all throughout the game, and I like the creativity implemented there.

This guy takes a bit of fanagaling to take down, and it's just one instance of the game putting multiple obstacles in your way to complete a goal.

As in the first game, the graphics and music are both great. The music amps up in tension as enemies attack and then slows down peacefully when there’s no threats. The enemies are designed quite nicely and really give you a sense of accomplishment when you take down the massive, ugly boss enemies. Besides the main game, there’s also plenty of time to be spent in challenge mode, in which you’ll have to collect a certain amount of items within a time limit while dodging enemies and other obstacles.

All in all, Pikmin 2 is a great sequel and a worthy successor to the first game. It does lack some aspects that make the first game a lot of fun, so it’s kind of hard for me to choose which one I like better. I usually keep them separate in my mind and enjoy them both equally for their own reasons. Now I just need to get my hands on a Wii U so I can check out the third one…but that will be another story for another time. For now, so long and be careful where you step in your backyard, you never know what’s crawling around in the grass beneath you.

My Top 10 WTF Moments in Video Games

Welcome back to the game room dear readers, and prepare to travel to the weird side today as I discuss some of the strangest, outrageous, and most ridiculous moments I've experienced while playing video games over the years. Also, I should warn that this will contain spoilers for a lot of games.

10. Doom II (PC)- John Romero’s head

So the year was 1994 and I was just having a blast slaying demons from hell in this game. In fact, much of my childhood was spent exactly this way with the granddaddy of all first-person shooters. I hadn’t even really learned the term “Easter egg” yet, but probably the first time I ever experienced one was when I was having fun playing with the no clip feature of Dooms’ cheat codes that just about everyone on the planet knew. In the last level of the game, Map 30 (the Icon of Sin, as you Doom fans should know already), upon clipping into the hole fixed to the wall that is supposed to be the final boss monster’s head, you’ll be treated to the surprise of a small hidden chamber with a bloody, impaled head on a stick. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I discovered that this was the head of John Romero, one of the head programmers of the game who had craftily snuck his own image into the level, but at the time, I had no idea as a 7 year-old playing this game. I just remember being utterly shocked and disturbed not only to find it there after a bit of random futzing around, but also that the head actually screams if you shoot at it! Might not seem like such a big deal by today’s standards, but this may have been the very first time I ever really felt taken aback by something I saw in a video game.

9. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genesis)- Metropolis Zone has three acts

 

Sonic 2 is one of the all time great video game sequels and probably the most well known and beloved entry in the series (I personally like Sonic & Knuckles the best, but I’m an asshole). This game is always worth a playthrough if you’re bored with other games, but unless you’re a video game wizard (which I am certainly not), be prepared to die at least a few times once you get to the later levels- especially the freakin’ Metropolis Zone. Even if you’ve gathered the 7 chaos emeralds and blasted through the previous levels as Super Sonic, this zone simply has no mercy. You’ll find yourself lost in a maze of machinery, plagued by those goddamn mantis and crab robots, and begging for just one spare ring as you traverse the level. But the worst part about this wretched level? Unlike all of the previous levels you’ve been through so far, this relentless level has THREE ACTS! In the previous seven zones, you’ve already grown accustomed to navigating two levels and facing a boss at the end of the second, but not this time! As a kid, I remember wanting to break my Genesis in half over the shock that I had barely made it through the first two levels, yet it still wasn’t over upon entering that third act for the first time.

8. Resident Evil 3 (Sony Playstation)- Nemesis follows you through rooms

 

If you’re an adamant fan of the Resident Evil series, you’ve probably played through the first three games of the franchise at least once in your life. And what was one precedent that was set in the first two games that we could always fall back on when the situation got dire? That’s right- exiting a room will allow you to escape danger. I know I certainly exploited the hell out of this in the first two games when I found myself overwhelmed with zombies and other bio-organic monstrosities. But then RE3 came along and shattered that precedent before your very eyes as you encounter the Nemesis, a horrifically powerful monster that relentlessly stalks you throughout the game. If you’re low on ammo and health, running into this guy can be the worst thing ever- but hey, no big deal, right? Just use that newly implemented 360 degree spin on the controller and hop on outta that room, he can’t get to you that way. Right? Uh….right? Wrong. As soon as the door is off screen, you’ll hear it slam open and Nemmy will be right on top of you once again. This completely threw out the previously established rules of the first two games that monsters can’t follow you through different rooms. Well, as was in my case when I first tried this…it’s time to think again about that strategy.

7. Pikmin 2 (Nintendo Gamecube) –The Water Wraith

 

What’s worse than an enemy that relentlessly stalks you from room to room? Why, an enemy that relentlessly stalks you from room to room that you can’t even fight back against! Such is the case of the horrific Water Wraith enemy in Pikmin 2, which thankfully you will only encounter once in the game in the Submerged Castle dungeon of the Perplexing Pool level. The creature, which looks like the Pillsbury doughboy if he were made out of Jell-O and riding on a concrete steamroller, unexpectedly drops in on you in the second floor of the dungeon. Try attacking it like any other enemy you’ve encountered to this point and you’ll find that it’s utterly useless- the thing can’t be hurt at all. At the final floor of the dungeon, you’ll discover that only Purple Pikmin can destroy the beast- however, since the entrance to the dungeon is underwater, you’ll only be able to enter with blue Pikmin, meaning that until you get to that last floor, you’re at this monstrosity’s mercy. Not only that, but it can instantly flatten and decimate your entire Pikmin squad in seconds and it’ll actively hunt you throughout the dungeon while emitting horrible otherworldly grunts. It even has it's own horrific theme song. The first time encountering this thing, I had no idea how to handle it. All I could do was run around in circles scrambling to figure out what the hell to do and how to escape the wrath of this monster.

6. Halo (Microsoft Xbox)- The special legendary ending

 

Admittedly, it’s not too terribly difficult to beat the original Halo on legendary anymore, after playing it and it’s sequels for over a decade now. But back in the day, some of us first-time Xbox players had quite an ordeal escaping the clutches of the legendary difficulty in one piece. I distinctly remember my friend Dave telling me he’d heard a rumor that upon beating the game on legendary, a spectacular secret awaited those who managed to make it through. Nearly every day that summer, I’d get up in the morning and race over to his house, where we’d take on the horrible legendary mode playing cooperatively, dying over and over and over again through each level (The Library, anyone?) until one by one, we eventually conquered them. Finally, when at last the final level of the game was beaten, we eagerly awaited our prize. But for all of our hard work and dedication, what did we get? A 20 second clip of Sergeant Johnson fighting over an assault rifle with an elite, only to reconcile their differences with a big ‘ol hug as the Pillar of Autumn explodes behind them. And that’s it. Our jaws were on the floor as the credits began rolling afterward. Nowadays we joke about this and always have a good laugh, so I guess it did its job at being memorable- but back then, we felt anything but rewarded after going through that hell and back.

5. Bomberman 64 (Nintendo 64)- Sirius’ betrayal and Rainbow Palace

 

I have a lot of truly fond memories of playing this game, and unless I’m mistaken and this game is more popular than I know, I feel like it’s a criminally underrated N64 classic. Back in the day I played the shit out of this game, whether it was in the story mode or doing battle with friends in the insanely fun multiplayer. However, I had quite difficulty obtaining all 100 of the golden cards that are scattered throughout the levels and are awarded by beating bosses in certain ways. In particular, I couldn’t figure out how the hell to get one of them in particular in the 2^nd stage boss of Black Fortress, the final world of the game. I stuck with it though and one day was finally rewarded by obtaining it, at which point I promptly headed to the final boss to see if there was any extra reward. However, what I completely didn’t expect was that upon beating the game with all 100 golden cards, you’ll be betrayed by Sirius, a character who’d been previously helping you throughout the game. And not only that, but to my utter shock, the game wasn’t over yet and a secret 6^th world awaited! By this point I’d been playing the game for a very long time and was so completely stunned to find that there was more to it than I knew. And not just more, but a very surreal and dream-like world with extremely difficult puzzles to solve (and a very creepy 2^nd level boss, I might add).

4. Earthworm Jim 2 (Sega Genesis/SNES)- Jim Is Now A Blind Cave Salamander!

Earthworm Jim and its equally wacky sequel are easily some of most outlandishly creative and fantastically weird games ever conceived. I mean, as if the premise of an earthworm running around inside of an alien suit chasing an intergalactic alien crow across the galaxy wasn’t crazy enough, the second game will have you fighting a giant unicycle-riding maggot, bouncing puppies off of a giant marshmallow, and being attacked by a salt shaker through a level made entirely of food. But the most bizarre level of the game has to be the aptly-titled “Jim Is Now a Blind Cave Salamander!”, also known as “Villi People.” After 3 levels of playing as Jim, you’re now transformed into a salamander carrying a gun, swimming through what appears to be intestines (intestinal villi are tiny buds that line the walls of the small intestine and aid in digestion) while shooting at sheep, dodging bumpers and pencils sticking out of the wall, and collecting worms (more on that in a moment). Oh, and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata is playing as the level music. There’s also what appears to be a tiled floor and windows looking out on the world. What drugs were they on when they made this? This level actually disturbed the hell out of me when I was kid. These days I love how spectacularly nonsensical it all is, but something about the surreal and strange nature just really weirded me out when I was younger. Oh, and remember those worms I mentioned before? At the end of the level you’ll suddenly find yourself in a gameshow out of nowhere, where you can exchange the worms for chances to answer questions and win prizes. And by the way, the questions make no sense whatsoever and it’s fantastic.

3. Silent Hill 2 (Sony Playstation 2)- Two Pyramid Heads

I’ve been talking a lot about relentlessly stalking enemies, haven’t I? Well good old Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2 pretty well fits the bill in that category. The hulking, knife-wielding monster periodically materializes from the darkness and attacks you, and I was certainly one of those gamers terrified at the mere mention of his name. However, nothing on Earth could prepare me for the penultimate confrontation of the game, in which you’ll do battle with not one, but two Pyramid Heads. Admittedly, the first time I played this game I wasn’t too well-versed in subtext (or psychopathology for that matter, which I am now) and at that point in the game, I had no idea what the hell was even happening in the story anymore. I understand the reasoning now and it certainly makes sense within the lore of the game, but at the time I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it, so walking into that room and seeing two of those evil bastards just completely blew my mind. As if one of them chasing me around wasn’t bad enough, here was a second one out of nowhere. And worst of all, I had to fight them both at the same time.

2. Pokémon Red & Blue (Nintendo Gameboy)- Encountering MissingNo for the first time

MissingNo is probably the most well-publicized video game glitch of all time and probably the one that spawned the most schoolyard urban legends and myths of any video game I ever played. I remember constantly hearing about it and the subsequent infinite item glitch that can be triggered by spawning the strange mess of pixels, so I certainly knew what to expect after hearing all of the rumors and fantastic stories. However, I was still totally blown away the first time I ever encountered the garbled mess of a sprite for myself on the side of Cinnabar Island. Even stranger was what happened if you decided to catch and use the glitched-out mess in a battle, where it could spawn even further glitches and devolve your game into a complete mess. 

1. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty (Sony Playstation 2)– Colonel Campbell was actually GW

Was I just talking about how the plot of Silent Hill 2 confused me? Weh-heh-hell…let me tell you about the utter insanity that is Metal Gear Solid 2. The game begins just the way you’d expect it to be as you take control of Solid Snake and resume the usual tactical stealth antics. However, as the Tanker chapter ends, the game pulls a complete 180 and drops you in control of a new character named Raiden, who’s pretty much the antithesis of Snake. Nonetheless, you progress from this point forward as Raiden, who’s being aided by a familiar face: Colonel Campbell, who assisted Snake all throughout the first game. As you move forward through the game completing objectives, something seems oddly familiar about everything you’re doing. And then they hit you with a bombshell: the entire mission you’ve been a part of is a complete fabrication, designed to exactly emulate the events of the first game. And if that weren’t enough, when you find yourself inside of a massive war machine called Arsenal Gear, it’s discovered that Colonel Campbell was actually just an AI program, a complete façade designed to fool you the entire time. And not only that, but after a virus is uploaded to destroy the system core, the AI starts going haywire and Campbell starts repeatedly calling and babbling on about utter nonsense. As if everything in the game hadn’t been outrageous enough up to this point, I was really ready to just put my controller down and quit video games forever once the Colonel started calling and talking about purple stuffed worms in flap-jaw space.