This review contains spoilers
Been wanting to play Pikmin 1 for a while, and while I can certainly say I wasn't perfect at it, my count was 21 days (but tbf, I did waste a couple days fighting bosses), but it was overall really fun.
That being said, I can't say I left with the absolute strongest impression. I mean, I like the levels fine enough. The bosses are overall fine. The Forest Navel is probably my favorite area when it comes to bosses, puzzles to solve, and pure aesthetics. And Emperor Bulblax kind of sucks.
The Pikmin are all pretty fine in this game, and each type is made all the more distinct due to there being only 3 types. Reds are fighters and immune to fire. Blues aren't great fighters but can walk in water without dying so that makes them the best at traversal puzzles, and yellow pikmin are odd. They lack the electrical immunity and puzzle solving later games gave them, so they really only have their higher throwing potential, and they are also the only ones that can hold bomb rocks. Reds are good at fighting, Blues are good at item traversal, and Yellows deal with obstacles. There's more to it than that, but that's basically each niche all three fill.
I think that these three make a good case for units on their own, but the one downside is with the Pikmin AI, because it's not great. There's a lot of times I see pikmin get caught on something or just fall behind and I have to go get them that it just sort of broke the pace of things, and it did sometimes sour puzzles or force a reset because the 3 I needed got stuck behind the rock wall or some of them just walked into water and weren't blue.
Honestly though, I think if I'd say what I think the biggest takeaway is from this game, it's a growing appreciation for the 30 day challenge set-up. It's a simple objective, but it's really fun figuring out ways to cut down times. It's got all the same appeal of a time trial, and that's why speedrunning it is so cool. I've seen the crazy shit people can do by cutting it down to 6 days. If I ever start speedrunning... well it wll probably be a yakuza title..., but if not that, it's this game.
Overall, fun game, hope to come back one day, but for now it's time for Pikmin 2.
That being said, I can't say I left with the absolute strongest impression. I mean, I like the levels fine enough. The bosses are overall fine. The Forest Navel is probably my favorite area when it comes to bosses, puzzles to solve, and pure aesthetics. And Emperor Bulblax kind of sucks.
The Pikmin are all pretty fine in this game, and each type is made all the more distinct due to there being only 3 types. Reds are fighters and immune to fire. Blues aren't great fighters but can walk in water without dying so that makes them the best at traversal puzzles, and yellow pikmin are odd. They lack the electrical immunity and puzzle solving later games gave them, so they really only have their higher throwing potential, and they are also the only ones that can hold bomb rocks. Reds are good at fighting, Blues are good at item traversal, and Yellows deal with obstacles. There's more to it than that, but that's basically each niche all three fill.
I think that these three make a good case for units on their own, but the one downside is with the Pikmin AI, because it's not great. There's a lot of times I see pikmin get caught on something or just fall behind and I have to go get them that it just sort of broke the pace of things, and it did sometimes sour puzzles or force a reset because the 3 I needed got stuck behind the rock wall or some of them just walked into water and weren't blue.
Honestly though, I think if I'd say what I think the biggest takeaway is from this game, it's a growing appreciation for the 30 day challenge set-up. It's a simple objective, but it's really fun figuring out ways to cut down times. It's got all the same appeal of a time trial, and that's why speedrunning it is so cool. I've seen the crazy shit people can do by cutting it down to 6 days. If I ever start speedrunning... well it wll probably be a yakuza title..., but if not that, it's this game.
Overall, fun game, hope to come back one day, but for now it's time for Pikmin 2.