Having the Wii U gamepad on my lap and holding a wiimote/nunchuck for the first time in years. What a time to be alive 2013 was. The gamepad was definitely Nintendo flying a little too close to the sun with their zany ideas but dang I love this goofy thing. I actually think the controller is really comfortable and I played a ton of games remotely with it back in the day. Pikmin 3 utilizes the gamepad in a fun and compelling way. Getting little calls, reading reports, and directing your companions. It's charming as heck.
Pikmin 3 is all charm. The environments are detailed and beautiful. They are a real joy to exist in. The characters are all fun and them chatting in their fake little language interspersed with recognizable words like "PEEEKMIN" and "CAP-TEN" was really delightful. The Pikmin vibes are all intact. It strikes the balance between the fear of starvation and safety with the joys of exploration and learning. Alph and co. need to get food for their planet, which is a very serious and dangerous mission, but they cannot help but be delighted and curious about this world they are exploring and these little color coded plantmen.
Great vibes, the vibes are good but what about the gameplay. Coming off Pikmin 4 the gameplay had some stuff I liked and some stuff I didn't like. Bosses in this game are very grand. They are a big deal and it feels like a big deal when you beat one. The little halls right before a boss where the camera is fixed and angled up was very cool. I like the bosses in this game quite a lot. They make you feel very small and what I want out of my gameplay in Pikmin is to feel small and perform complex dandori.
Speaking of complexity I liked that aspect too. With the 3 captains and the ability to move them around the map using the gamepad I was able to perform some pretty efficient levels of dandori, directing captains/pikmin on opposite corners of the map. The water pikmin are introduced pretty late and I think that was smart. It made revisiting earlier maps a real fun treat because you could assign all your blue pikmin to one captain and have them explore the water and then have the other two captains clean up any other fruits you missed on your first go around. Swapping between the parties and multitasking is intuitive and feels good.
The maps themselves are varied and look really great. I think there is a lot of work that went into them and it shows but I was a bit disappointed with how many walls there are. The maps feel like a lot of hallways and bridges looping out of and back into the main base. They are not very open. Going down corridors and across bridges that are very intentionally captain/pikmin sized makes the world feel designed for me which is everything I DON'T want in a Pikmin game. Having the world feel designed for me makes Alph and co. feel "normal" sized instead of small and feeling small is kind of what it's all about.
Overall the game rules but I always feel a bit disappointed when I leave a game that has all the makings of a "most favorite special boy 5 star game" just thinking it's "really good". I look forward to revisiting this game in the future though, I think it could grow on me.
Pikmin 3 is all charm. The environments are detailed and beautiful. They are a real joy to exist in. The characters are all fun and them chatting in their fake little language interspersed with recognizable words like "PEEEKMIN" and "CAP-TEN" was really delightful. The Pikmin vibes are all intact. It strikes the balance between the fear of starvation and safety with the joys of exploration and learning. Alph and co. need to get food for their planet, which is a very serious and dangerous mission, but they cannot help but be delighted and curious about this world they are exploring and these little color coded plantmen.
Great vibes, the vibes are good but what about the gameplay. Coming off Pikmin 4 the gameplay had some stuff I liked and some stuff I didn't like. Bosses in this game are very grand. They are a big deal and it feels like a big deal when you beat one. The little halls right before a boss where the camera is fixed and angled up was very cool. I like the bosses in this game quite a lot. They make you feel very small and what I want out of my gameplay in Pikmin is to feel small and perform complex dandori.
Speaking of complexity I liked that aspect too. With the 3 captains and the ability to move them around the map using the gamepad I was able to perform some pretty efficient levels of dandori, directing captains/pikmin on opposite corners of the map. The water pikmin are introduced pretty late and I think that was smart. It made revisiting earlier maps a real fun treat because you could assign all your blue pikmin to one captain and have them explore the water and then have the other two captains clean up any other fruits you missed on your first go around. Swapping between the parties and multitasking is intuitive and feels good.
The maps themselves are varied and look really great. I think there is a lot of work that went into them and it shows but I was a bit disappointed with how many walls there are. The maps feel like a lot of hallways and bridges looping out of and back into the main base. They are not very open. Going down corridors and across bridges that are very intentionally captain/pikmin sized makes the world feel designed for me which is everything I DON'T want in a Pikmin game. Having the world feel designed for me makes Alph and co. feel "normal" sized instead of small and feeling small is kind of what it's all about.
Overall the game rules but I always feel a bit disappointed when I leave a game that has all the makings of a "most favorite special boy 5 star game" just thinking it's "really good". I look forward to revisiting this game in the future though, I think it could grow on me.
cleobirdwell
8 months ago
Also from what I've read, the second game has a bit of a cult following and a subset of the fanbase considers it the best one so it'll be fun to play it last. Although from what I know about it I have a hunch it will not be my favorite. Just a hunch.