Scale
2011
Really fun progression system with multiple classes to make each playthrough different if you want. Easily moddable for if you get sick of the base game. Best played with friends.
2016
Probably has one of the most satisfying gameplay loops of any game I've ever played. The small optimizations and customizations you do in each playthrough are really fun and satisfying to see the results of.
All time great strategy game. Sometimes I'll forget about it for a few months and then play it again and remember that its the best
1998
a lot of aspects of this game feel purposefully designed to torture you. No items, bad coin balance for minigames, bad maps, bad minigames (control stick ones are garbage no matter how you play), everything about it is terrible. The most you can claim that it has is soul.
2003
Probably the most medicore, middle of the road mario party of all time. Not much good or bad about it. the minigames weren't good from what I remember and the orbs are just bad compared to how they're done in 6.
2012
car. think the minigames were bad too
2015
car. i liked bowser party but its unbalanced. iirc the minigames are a little better
2018
the minigames are ok but the boards suck and the star costs suck and the different dice suck. I guess it was an alright return to form
I appreciate them having online vs, and generally it has some of the best minigames from each game. They made some weird balancing decisions though and the board choice is horrendous, why is the only decent one space land. They could've added more boards without much effort but they didn't for some reason. wasted potential.
2022
It's painful how close this game is to being really good, yet so far. It really needs another year or two in the oven. The economic gameplay is really fantastic, but it suffers from some of its main systems being extremely poorly though out. Although warfare is mostly alright now with the 1.5 update, diplomacy is still severely lacking and really frustrating.
2013
honestly the original version of 3d world is mid as hell, especially single player
I love a lot of the writing in this chapter, the ambiguity of stuff like the final scene makes it have a completely different meaning on reread. It still does a solid job of establishing what Higurashi is about and a good baseline for the characters. This arc is way better on reread than the first time around, since it lets you appreciate the double-meaning of scenes a lot better.
2001
The coolest pikmin game conceptually, but struggles from bad controls and mechanics. The original gamecube release is particularly bad, not even letting you swap pikmin. Only 1 captain and the high carry counts for parts reduces how much you can multitask too. The main difficulty comes from the unwieldyness of its controls
2004
The pikmin game with the most soul, Louie and the President really help make this series what it is. Time not mattering in this game gives it a different feel, but honestly makes it less replayable imo. Even though the caves are slightly different each playthrough, the core gameplay is exactly the same and there's no fun in optimizing your day count like there is in pikmin 1 and 3. Controls/mechanics can still be a little clunky, but much better than GC pikmin 1.
Electricity being instakill in this game makes yellows extremely overcentralizing. Every cave ends up being around 5 whites to get buried treasure, 30 or 40 purples to kill everything, and 20 yellows to deal with all the electricity. Everything else is filler (typically reds if there's fiery bulblaxes and 20 blues for water treasures). If electricity functioned more like it does in 4, with a slight stun and then death if you dont whistle, it'd be much better and allow for more variety among the elemental types (purples would still be overpowered though)
I'm not too big on dungeons, they're alright overall but IMO not really replayable. This issue persists in 4 where they return. Pikmin 2 dungeons are also way longer than 4's and can overall just become a slog to complete. The last area's dungeons just become tedious at some point.
If this game just had a go-here feature and the aforementioned electricity change, it'd probably be the best pikmin game. The AI for dispersing pikmin is also terrible in this game and makes it really hard to actually separate out your squad.
Electricity being instakill in this game makes yellows extremely overcentralizing. Every cave ends up being around 5 whites to get buried treasure, 30 or 40 purples to kill everything, and 20 yellows to deal with all the electricity. Everything else is filler (typically reds if there's fiery bulblaxes and 20 blues for water treasures). If electricity functioned more like it does in 4, with a slight stun and then death if you dont whistle, it'd be much better and allow for more variety among the elemental types (purples would still be overpowered though)
I'm not too big on dungeons, they're alright overall but IMO not really replayable. This issue persists in 4 where they return. Pikmin 2 dungeons are also way longer than 4's and can overall just become a slog to complete. The last area's dungeons just become tedious at some point.
If this game just had a go-here feature and the aforementioned electricity change, it'd probably be the best pikmin game. The AI for dispersing pikmin is also terrible in this game and makes it really hard to actually separate out your squad.
2020
The best pikmin experience. 3 is already the best game in the series in regards to gameplay IMO, and this game just enhances it. The mechanical changes that this port brings are generally really nice, but I'm not a fan of how many commands are shoved into the Y button.
The multiplayer story mode is the most fun I've ever had in pikmin. If you have a friend who is similarly into the series, it's a great experience. Extremely fun to see how well you can optimize days with 2 people working in tandem, and having a 3rd captain lets either of you switch it up for the sections where you wait.
The added content for Olimar and Louie is short but fun.
The added difficulty modes are kind of redundant, normal is just easy mode and hardmode is basically the same as the Wii U version. Ultra spicy isn't actually hard, it just needlessly reduces your pikmin cap to make it artificially tougher. In reality its just less satisfying to play with a lower cap since it reduces how much you can multitask.
Obviously since its still pikmin 3 it's already an easy game as is, so Ultra spicy being lackluster as an additional challenge is the most disappointing part of this game. If the mode just increased pikmin kill caps + removed how easily you could stunlock enemies, it'd would've been much better. That's the optimal way to improve 3's difficulty imo.
The multiplayer story mode is the most fun I've ever had in pikmin. If you have a friend who is similarly into the series, it's a great experience. Extremely fun to see how well you can optimize days with 2 people working in tandem, and having a 3rd captain lets either of you switch it up for the sections where you wait.
The added content for Olimar and Louie is short but fun.
The added difficulty modes are kind of redundant, normal is just easy mode and hardmode is basically the same as the Wii U version. Ultra spicy isn't actually hard, it just needlessly reduces your pikmin cap to make it artificially tougher. In reality its just less satisfying to play with a lower cap since it reduces how much you can multitask.
Obviously since its still pikmin 3 it's already an easy game as is, so Ultra spicy being lackluster as an additional challenge is the most disappointing part of this game. If the mode just increased pikmin kill caps + removed how easily you could stunlock enemies, it'd would've been much better. That's the optimal way to improve 3's difficulty imo.