Pikmin 3, a brilliant and expansive sequel that is ultimately undone by the ease with which you can defeat its main premise.
I won't dwell too much on positives this time because the improvements are plain to see. The world is gorgeous and fully realised, level and enemy design is outstanding and pretty much everything from the last 2 games (with the exception of caves) is improved and expanded. It's debateable whether the streamlined controls are an overall positive, but they do provide a really smooth experience.
The biggest waste of potential was the fruit collection, which is this game's catalyst for the plot. It's such a non-factor for survival at such an early point of the game that it lacks any real bite. Had they put more thoght into it, it could have potentially been an even better system than the original's 30 day limit. Ideally, it could have been turned into another resource, so the time limit could also have been under the player's control instead of just a hard time limit like in the original. Something like deciding between turning each fruit into juice or saving some for cold storage to send to Koppai would have been interesting. Or better yet, what if the ultra spicy spray had to be made out of the fruits you eat. They could have had more types of sprays for Pikmin, since each fruit has a distinct juice color. This could have brought all kinds of interesting decisions.
These are clearly far from the only or even best solutions to the problem; I'm just putting in my two cents. What's abundantly clear is that Nintendo likely didn't want to limit the game's appeal for a broader audience. Here's hoping they're a little more daring with Pikmin 4, tho I'm not too hopeful, as its demo was rather underwhelming.
I won't dwell too much on positives this time because the improvements are plain to see. The world is gorgeous and fully realised, level and enemy design is outstanding and pretty much everything from the last 2 games (with the exception of caves) is improved and expanded. It's debateable whether the streamlined controls are an overall positive, but they do provide a really smooth experience.
The biggest waste of potential was the fruit collection, which is this game's catalyst for the plot. It's such a non-factor for survival at such an early point of the game that it lacks any real bite. Had they put more thoght into it, it could have potentially been an even better system than the original's 30 day limit. Ideally, it could have been turned into another resource, so the time limit could also have been under the player's control instead of just a hard time limit like in the original. Something like deciding between turning each fruit into juice or saving some for cold storage to send to Koppai would have been interesting. Or better yet, what if the ultra spicy spray had to be made out of the fruits you eat. They could have had more types of sprays for Pikmin, since each fruit has a distinct juice color. This could have brought all kinds of interesting decisions.
These are clearly far from the only or even best solutions to the problem; I'm just putting in my two cents. What's abundantly clear is that Nintendo likely didn't want to limit the game's appeal for a broader audience. Here's hoping they're a little more daring with Pikmin 4, tho I'm not too hopeful, as its demo was rather underwhelming.