My favorite game of all time! (… Well I don’t know if I can say that as I can’t decide if I like Pikmin 2 or 4 more, but it’s definitely a Pikmin game for sure!)

Anyway, I think the pointer controls make fighting much more enjoyable and I believe combat is at its best in 2 because despite Purple Pikmin’s power, they make fighting real fun.

Also I think the caves are great! I like the unfair difficulty of them a lot (but that may just be me)

And finally the piklopedia makes collecting all the treasures incredibly enjoyable with its humorous dialogue.

All and all, very good game.

I owe a lot to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, thanks to that game I decided to try the "Olimar game" ...And I could not be happier I decided to do that. This is the first Pikmin game I ever played and boy... What a...Great and terrible entry point at the same time.

This game has a lot of what I love about all the other Pikmin games, including the never ending trauma of losing your whole platoon of Pikmin due to your own smallest mistake. Unfortunately, I think this game suffers from a little bit too much difficulty and random bullshit, alongside underground levels that are just waaaaay WAY too long and tedious.

So much so, that I refused to keep playing this game for the longest time, just because I had reached a point where I no longer knew how to continue, and Olimar's boss would constantly send me these desperate emails asking for help and begging me to pay his debt so he would stop sleeping under a bridge. I'm not kidding, the guilt was so strong that I simply stopped playing; I didn't want that man to die because of my incompetence, that old bastard.

Funniest part is, I did come back like a year or two later, and for the longest time I thought that I had beaten the game for sure, only to realize a few years later that Louie being stranded on earth is not the actual ending of the game and there were still more levels to play...

I am planning on replaying it, hopefully sooner than later. And this time I will not leave until I am sure I got the real ending of the game.

Pikmin 2 has a completely different vibe from the first game. It almost feels like you have all the time in the world and you can more leisurely go through the game thank to the lower stakes. Time literally stops while in caves so you can take as long and be as strategic as you wish to save the lives of all your pikmin. The procedural generation of the caves means you're unlikely to see the same cave twice, however, this can lead to strange dead ends with nothing and walls that have nothing behind them. Despite this, I appreciate the developers creativity in making the game unique from it's predecessor and with such a short time frame. Pikmin 2 is just the right balance of challenge, unfairness and relaxed go at your own pace gameplay.

Wenn man wie ich den ersten Teil liebt, fühlt sich Pikmin 2 wie ein herber Absturz an (fast wie der Absturz von Olim-... ach egal). Wobei der Titel an sich nicht zwingend schlecht wäre - an guten Tagen kann ich durchaus die positiven Seiten hervorheben, während ich an schlechten der Wii mal gerne eine Bombenspinne zurückwerfen würde. Viele der (negativen) Gefühle kommen von meiner Beziehung zu "Pikmin", weswegen die Reputation des zweiten Teils schon allein deshalb in einer schwierigen Position steht.

Vielleicht erstmal mit den Stärken beginnen: "Pikmin 2" hat wohl den meisten Charakter der gesamten Spielereihe. Auch wenn es nicht mehr die Drastik von Olimar's Überleben rüberbringen will, ist die Quirkiness der Handlung und vor allem der optionalen Dialoge ein so tonal heftiger Umschwung, dass es sich ganzheitlich vom ersten Eintrag der Reihe abkapseln lässt und keiner der beiden im Schatten des anderen steht. Wieder lässt sich aber Olimar's und auch Louie's Charakter durch die nicht-verpflichteten Textboxen, diesmal in Form von Schatz- und Gegner-Analysen, herauslesen. Ähnlich wie im Vorgänger gibt es einem einen tieferen Einblick in die Persönlichkeiten der beiden, da man das Pikmin-Universum durch ihre Augen kennenlernt.

Während die optionalen Textboxen durchaus erwünscht sind, haben sich die, mit denen man in der Hauptgeschichte konfrontiert wird, gefühlt verzehnfacht. Sie sind jetzt auch nicht mehr auf einer Seite niedergeschrieben, sodass man konstant den A-Knopf hämmern muss, wenn das Spiel einem zum hundertsten Mal erklärt, dass man die Pikmin mit dem C-Button entlassen kann. Auch die Cutscene, die spielt, wenn man einen Schatz eingesammelt hat, werden durch den Combat-Fokus und die erhöhte Anzahl einsammelbarer Gegenstände zu einem regelrechten Jumpscare in Kämpfen.

Interessantes Level-Design geben die Dungeons, aus denen "Pikmin 2" zum Großteil besteht, nunmal nicht her - so sind sie größtenteils aus vorgefertigten Assets, die zufällig Kombinationen generieren, erstellt. Auch Enemy- oder Schatz-Placements fallen darunter. Das bedeutet in der Umsetzung: Spawnen direkt neben der stärksten Kreatur auf der Ebene, einen Haufen an unnötigen Sackgassen und ob man eine viel zu angenehme oder viel zu stressige Zeit mit den Dungeons hat, liegt in denen Händen des Schicksals. Zwar trifft "Pikmin 2" manchmal genau die richtige Gradwanderung, aber rutscht auch viel zu häufig in die Extreme ab. Auffällig dabei ist, dass die Sublevel, welche von Menschenhand vorgefertigt sind, eindeutig die besten im Spiel sind (als Beispiel möchte ich hier "Schnappers Nest - Sublevel 1" in den Raum werfen).

Das ist aber noch nicht das schlimmste an den Dungeons. Wie man in Absatz 1. bereits lesen konnte, ist die Existenz von Bombenspinnen, Felsbrocken oder einfach auch mal einem von der Decke fallenden Gegner eine Konstante Bedrohung, die dich in Kombination mit dem Nicht-Level-Design teilweise in auswegslose Situationen bringt und einen Reset erzwingt. Richtig gebalanced fühlt sich "Pikmin 2" dabei nicht an - man selbst wird mit den viel zu starken Lila Pikmin bewaffnet, die mit ihrem Aufprall kurzen Prozess mit vielen Gefahren machen. Im Endeffekt bewerfen (wortwörtlich) sich beide Seiten nur so lange mit Schwachsinn, bis eine nachgibt. Wobei ich hier anbringen muss, dass es einige Bosskämpfe gibt (als Beispiel, der "Man-At-Legs"), die echte Herausforderungen und coole Szenarien bieten.

Außerhalb der Dungeons sollte der eigentlich nennswerte Part stattfinden, stattdessen sind die Oberwelten auf's nötigste degradiert worden. Auch das Zeitlimit wurde entfernt, zwar gibt es noch Tage, doch, ehrlich gesagt, haben diese keine Bewandtnis mehr, weswegen man sie auch gleich hätte streichen können - dadurch, dass in den Höhlen eh keine Zeit vergeht, verliert man sowieso jegliches Gefühl für den Zeitstand.

Die angesprochenen neuen Lila Pikmin werden (abseits vom schlimmsten Schatz des Spiels, für den man unnötig grinden muss) auch primär für die Kampfsituationen gebraucht. Weiße Pikmin befinden sich mitsamt den Blauen, Roten auch den seit neuestem elektroimmunen Gelben in einer Art "Element-Gefägnis". Sie dienen als eher als Schlüssel für ein Schloss, wenn beispielsweise eine Fontäne aus dem Boden geschossen kommt, ist es im Großen und Ganzen egal, ob da Feuer oder Gift rauskommt. Interessantes Level-Design ist damit schwer möglich. Die Element-Problematik wird die Pikmin-Reihe ab diesem Zeitpunkt nie mehr ganz los werden.

Im Endeffekt könnte ich hier noch weitere zehn Absätze über Aspekte schreiben, die mich an "Pikmin 2" im Hinblick auf den Vorgänger enttäuscht haben. Allerdings muss ich eine Sache hervorheben, die für die gesamte Reihe gilt: Ich mag es sehr, dass jeder Eintrag, egal welcher der bisherigen vier, einen andere intendierte Erfahrung bietet. Auch wenn ich mir wieder einen Titel wie "Pikmin 1" wünschen würde, bin ich doch froh, dass die Teile nicht auf dieser Ebene konkurrieren müssen.

Pikmin 2 is a great entry in the series that fixes a lot of issues with the original game but sometimes fixes aspects that weren't really issues and doesn't replace them with anything better. The worst offender of this is the lack of time limit or urgency with collecting the treasures. They removed the 30 day time limit in the original which I personally really loved and the game's systems were clearly built around, but didn't replace them with anything else like the juice system in 3, so it ends up leaving me wonder why there's even days in the game at all. This is even further exacerbated by the addition of dungeons, which when you're in them, time doesn't pass at all. The dungeons are fun additions though which have you go through them and collecting different treasures on each floor, they're a really fun addition, especially cause that's like 90% of the gameplay, just wish the time of day went down in them too so add some sense of urgency. The best addition to the game has to be the improved Pikmin AI cause holy shit they were bad in 1, and it's completely night in day in comparison. I also love all the treasures as collectables, they're probably my favorite collectables in the series since they're all really fun and add a lot of charm to the game. Finally, the new Pikmin types are also pretty cool and add a bit more strategy and verity how you go about exploring the worlds and collecting items. Overall, 2 is not the magnum opus of the series but still a solid game overall with a lot of positive improvements on the original game.

Got to 10,000 currency at 12 Days.

Decided to pick up a play through of Pikmin 2 given it's 20th Year Anniversary. I like the Wii control scheme where the pointer is used to direct your Pikmin.

Pikmin 2 occurs immediately after the original, Olimar returns after his harrowing experience shipwrecked on an unidentified planet (Earth). The company Olimar works at has just filed for bankruptcy however some stowed away goods from the original game seem to fetch a pretty penny, Olimar returns to Earth with a subordinate Louie to make back his bosses loan.

Talking about Pikmin 2 is often considering what it does compared to the original. Gone is the 30 Day time limit! You've got 2 additional Pikmin including the Purple which can lift 10 and weighs 10 Pikmin and can stun enemies if thrown at them. The White Pikmin are immune to poison, are poisonous and can dig out treasures. Red (fire + building), Yellow ( lightning + heights) & Blue (water) return.

Also new are a tonne of sub-areas, caves that have a degree of randomised floor structures and require strategising Pikmin load-out to solve. These don't have a time limit and save between floors.

I've been playing the game straight without save scumming and I'm blowing away a tonne of Pikmin, it's cathartic knowing I'm going throwing away little plant men in order to make ends means in a capitalistic world. It's a little disheartening when the game throws a random bomb that kills a tonne of Pikmin off screen.

Will update thoughts when I finish.

25/4 - I'm up to the Submerged Castle and this game has just ass pulled the craziest rogue-like enemy I've ever encountered which wiped me immediately due to poor spawning. I'm not above save-scumming, but I was playing the game organically up to this point. What the fuck!

4/5/24 - Saved Louie, I have a few random treasures to get and a whole dungeon to tackle. Feeling some burn out with the difficulty, I’ll give Pikmin 2 a rest and may return later this year.

Honestly improves on almost every aspect of the first game. The cutting difficulty is turned up to 11, and the resource you need to manage changes from time to pikmin. The two captains also open up a whole new level of strategy, once you learn how to use them. Honestly, the last few caves are some of the most fun I've had in any game ever. I also adore the treasures. Collecting real world objects with real world brands makes the whole game feel so much more novel and personal. Like, that my earth, that I live on. I use Duracell batteries. And having 3 different characters is so neat, I guess 4 if you count the president. Instead of captains logs, we learn about them through emails and descriptions of treasures and enemies. Lots of people prefer the logs, but i vastly prefer the hoard and the bestiary. First of all, we learn a lot more about Olimar and his family. His children and his wife seem to love him very much, but at the same time take him for granted. They talk about how they miss him while they spend all of his bonus money. Louie is almost more interesting than Olimar, though. It seems he grew up without parents, instead being raised by his strangely mannered Nana, which led to his strange relationship with both food and bugs. After he is left behind by Olimar, it seems that he grew attached to the planet, and would prefer to attack his coworker and company president instead of go home. This isn't a character study, though, so I'll cut it off here. Louie's bestiary being a cookbook is hilarious and genius. Good game.

I really should have played the Wii version of the original, the controls are sooooo much better here. I didn't feel like I had to fight the game to do what I wanted, which is good because I think the enemies in this game get much harder than the original. The dungeon-style caves were not really my favorite, since they brought you outside of the pastoral wilderness that made the first one so fun to explore. Some of the dungeons were hard too, I felt like I just barely got through some of them. 2 steps forward, 2 steps back. I'm excited to see what ten years and a more modern sense of polish brings to the series in the 3rd game.

The product placement is egregious and makes it unrewarding to find new “treasure”. “Oh wow! Another Duracell battery!”

A shame it reuses so many enemies and the environments. It feels very similar to the first game. Which they actually are supposed to mirror the first game, but it’s kinda lame that they do. The thing that makes this a more relaxed experience is that your time doesn’t matter.

The dungeons are by far the best part of this game. You have to get through the whole thing without dying; there are a lot of traps too (enemies popping out of the ground or falling from the sky and bombs appearing, a lot of environmental hazards). Actually challenging at points.

The drive to complete your task isn’t as motivating. I couldn’t care less that your boss owes loan sharks money. The drive of the first game was very motivating and I felt compelled to see it through. It was a bummer that you didn’t get to explore Hocotate at all and only saw the business rocket launchpad.

For context I played the series in the order 3> Hey!>1>2

I heard Pikmin 2 was the best in the series, but I honestly don’t know where those people are coming from. Pikmin are much less accident prone and likely to die, which while definitely makes caves (I’ll get to caves later) much more forgiving then they would be otherwise, this has the side effect of subtracting from that cruelty of nature theme Pikmin has going on.

Caves. Where do I even start with caves? They are not inherently bad and I’m sure a second attempt at caves could be really fun, however the execution does not vibe with me her. For starters time does not pass in caves, which makes the day/night cycle feel almost cosmetic a good chunk of the time. (Yes I know Olimar’s heath rarely leads to decision making, but losing a day in 1 or 3 because of player character death would feel horrible, it’s for the surviving the elements aesthetic) Days also feel cosmetic as there is no form of timer which again makes the game more relaxed then I want out of a Pikmin game even if again you are given plenty of time to complete the games. Caves don’t have onions which again takes away from the natural cycle of Pikmin from a leudo narrative and gameplay perspective.

Cave’s visually is probably their biggest crime. They often feel like they are game spaces, not a game world, regardless of they look natural or extremely unnatural (One even has the sun? You are underground?) That one felt a little too much for me.

Once again Pikmin end up falling into niche use cases while others have ridiculous flexibility within their use cases, but that’s Pikmin for ya. Speaking of the actual Pikmin. Purple and white don’t have onions and can only have their population increased by flowers which only appear within caves so hope you like having near to 0 amounts of those Pikmin of all times.

In conclusion, is Pikmin 2 a good game? Yes. Is it a Pikmin game? Yeah it’s definitely still Pikmin enough to be one. Is Pikmin 2 a good Pikmin game? Well I would say no.

A game I played a lot as a kid, yet never managed to get really far ... (And I get it now replaying it, it can just get very hard)
I love this world and its creatures, love the new pikmin types; the musics makes me very nostalgic ( I remember spending hours roaming through Piklopedia )
The caves are such a great addition, some can get really hard near the endgame and that's great, very challenging ! Maybe there are just a bit too much and the surface is less interesting than in the first game imo. It makes the overall pacing of the game a bit weird ...