Pikmin is Timeless

One year ago I covered Pikmin 4, the latest installment in one of my favorite Nintendo franchises aside from Metroid. Growing up my family mainly had Nintendo consoles, and one of the games I had was Pikmin 3 for the Wii U. Younger me absolutely adored this game enough to play it two times. I always wondered if they’d ever make Pikmin 4 considering Pikmin was a niche series. It had its audience, but compared to The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario it didn’t have mainstream appeal. Well two things have been proven wrong since then. One is that Pikmin is more beloved than I thought, and two is that Pikmin 3 was eventually made. Just ten years after the third game, and thank the lord the wait was worth it. Reminding me Nintendo still has it despite the multiple hick-ups and bad business practices they’ve done in the past. My mind’s been in a Pikmin mood as of lately, so what would be a better way to deal with this mood? By going back to the originals rather than covering the plethora of new titles and indies that have been released in 2025.

Now you probably know the origin story when it came to the creation of the original Pikmin. The folks at Nintendo received a tech demo showcasing what their next generation of hardware at the time could handle. It displayed multiple copies of Mario running around a spherical shape with gravity, and from this demo two games were born. One wouldn’t be made until the Nintendo Wii and that was the epic platformer Super Mario Galaxy, and the other they were able to make for its time being Pikmin. The original was one of the first few games to release for the GameCube in 2001. It did well enough to earn a sequel in 2004, and then the decade long waits for the third and fourth games each but let’s just focus on Pikmin 1 for the rest of this review. The game may not have sold well, but it was received well. So much so that it’s considered one of many greatest games of all time. How did Pikmin possibly achieve this? What was this family friendly take on the RTS genre doing to set itself apart from the rest of the crowd? Why is it now so well beloved, and how could a GameCube game from 2001 age still play beautifully to this day? Well we seem to doubt how games from this era age, so here we go. A retrospective of the first Pikmin in 2025, but here’s the real kicker. This isn’t the first time I’ve played the first Pikmin game.

Growing up my hometown had a Family Video. A majority of you readers know what that is, but in 2021 all of them will shut down. Video rental stores were a real special thing growing up, and I didn’t realize that until they were gone. They helped expose my family and I to different films and media easily. Without having to waste hundreds on Blu-rays. Despite being an advocate for physical media you won’t believe how much Blu-rays of new movies cost. My father would rent tons of movies, and I would occasionally rent games we weren’t able to afford. One of them was Pikmin 3, and I loved it so much that my parents eventually bought a physical copy. After that I wanted to try the older games, and our local Family Video had a copy of the original. The first is probably my most rented video game growing up. My mind was driven to finish it just like how I’d finished Pikmin 3. Unlike Pikmin 3 which was easier and more accessible, this one was just too hard for me at a young age. I wasn’t good at time management, the 30 day time limit stressed the hell out of me, and I was getting used to the limitations. Before Pikmin 3 and its sequel then introduced numerous refinements. I never beat the original Pikmin, so let’s change that.

I managed to procure a Switch copy of the first two Pikmin games for cheap recently. You could argue I should’ve bought used copies for older consoles, or emulated these games as it’s not hard and it’s cheaper. However, it was pure luck that I managed to get a copy in great condition below the fifty dollar asking price Nintendo has for two decade old games. I was excited to see if I was capable of beating a game I never managed to finish growing up. Now with years of experience, and having played the heck out of Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 4. Not only did I manage to beat Pikmin within the span of three real life days, but it’s also a lot easier than I remembered it beating. Yet, this is a good thing because at the same time it’s also proven to me how much better Pikmin was than I remembered. Pikmin is timeless, and today we’ll be talking about why this game still holds up almost twenty four years after its initial release. Let’s keep the positivity train going fellas. Chugga chugga whoo-whoo!

Story

Our journey follows Captain Olimar, loyal and trustworthy worker of Hocotate Freight. He’s one inch tall, hails from a planet full of one inch tall humanoids, has a loving wife and two kids, and enjoys life for what it is. After working for so many hours he decides to take a vacation. Sail his trusty ship, the S.S Dolphin, across the stars and appreciate the beauty. After all is said and done he flies back home, but during his trip a terrible accident occurs. His ship collides with a giant asteroid, and catches ablaze. Hurling Olimar towards a nearby planet, and scattering numerous parts across the planet’s surface. Olimar wakes up to find the Dolphin completely destroyed, and that the air on the planet he’s trapped on is extremely toxic to his species. The Dolphin only has enough breathable air and fuel for Olimar to stay on this planet for thirty, so it’s his job to fix the ship in time. However, currently he is unable to pilot the ship and has no means of bringing the parts back. Upon exploring his surroundings he finds a strange circular device in the ground.

He activates it and it instantly flies into the air. Producing a seedling that grows in seconds, and upon plucking the seedling Olimar meets his first extra-terrestrial lifeform. A living plant-based being that follows him around and does whatever he says like a child. Helping the seedling carry pellets back to the pod it was birthed from produces for seedlings, and with their help Olimar is able to locate the ship’s thrusters. He takes off to scan nearby areas for parts, and alongside him is the seedling pod. Following him wherever he goes to aid him in his duty. It’s also because the seedlings can’t fend off for themselves, and need a guardian figure to look after. Olimar names these creatures Pikmin based on a carrot from his home planet, and their birth pod the Onion due to its shape. Olimar slowly discovers new Pikmin with different physical capabilities, and with their help he may have a chance of coming home safely. Go forth, small little man and his army of angry plant children! There’s much to do and the surrounding wildlife isn’t gonna kill itself.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Pikmin is rather simple when you get the core principles down. You have thirty days to achieve your goal, each in-game day is fifteen minutes long in real time, and if you aren’t able to achieve your goal within the limit you get the bad ending. Days can end earlier if Olimiar is slain in battle, or if your entire Pikmin population dies, but I never reached that point. It’s all about time management, exploring each area, finding parts, and producing more Pikmin using the pellets lying around and enemy corpses. Commanding your Pikmin is quite easy. Just throw them at something you want them to do, and they’ll get to work right away. They can tear down walls, build bridges, open up water geysers, and carry things. Fighting enemies can be dangerous as they have the ability to kill your Pikmin easily or devour them. If an enemy is getting ready to attack it’s best to call your Pikmin and back away. Your whistle is one of your most useful tools as it allows you to call Pikmin who aren’t working back, and continue following you. Slay foes, bring their bodies back to Onions as well as pellets, and produce more Pikmin. The caveat being you can only have one hundred Pikmin out at a time including ones sprouting in the ground. The Onions won’t produce more if the maximum is reached, so it’s best to store Pikmin if you want to make more for future Pikmin. The Pikmin die very easily, so it’s good to be prepared.

Pikmin sprouts are easy to pluck from the ground, but leave them in the ground longer and their leaves will turn into buds. Those buds eventually become flowers, and Pikmin with flower heads are stronger than their leaf-headed brethren. Able to kill enemies faster and get work quicker, so there’s some benefit to not plucking them immediately. Stronger enemies produce more sprouts, or carrying the right color pellet to the right onion will net you more versus the wrong one. There are three types of Pikmin to use and they each have their own traits. Red Pikmin are immune to fire and great in combat. Yellow Pikmin can be thrown higher and are able to carry Bomb Rocks which you need to bust done stone walls. Blue Pikmin are the only type that can breathe in water. Remember that you have thirty days to collect thirty parts. The true test comes in finding these parts and figuring out how to bring them back to your ship. Carving a path back by bringing any barriers down, slaying enemies who may eat your flock, and ensuring safety. However, it may not be a good idea to do one thing at a time. Mutli-tasking is key, and with good planning and knowledge you can acquire multiple parts within a single day. Aside from that there’s not much else for me to say. Pikmin is simple, fun, and has high mastery of how it handles management. I just hope you’re able to survive the wilderness, learn to thrive and grow in this alien world. 

Thoughts

I found my revisit and proper finishing of Pikmin to be surprising. Not just because of how well the game held up, but because of how much my experience and knowledge of later games helped me to further appreciate what I wasn’t able to as a child. There’s a lot to love about Pikmin, and I understand why people keep coming back twenty four years after its initial release. Pikmin is one  of few games that I think handles time management very well. The only other games that I think do it as well are Metaphor ReFantazio, the Persona series, and The Alters. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone at 11 Bit Studios played Pikmin, because looking back now it kind of reminded me of it. The game having a thirty day time limit sounds really stressful at first, but it finds numerous ways to make things easier and forgiving. You have the ability to rewind time to earlier days. Either to undo massive mistakes you may have made, or do better now that you have further knowledge of an area. Pikmin is a lot easier for me now not just because of further experience with future games, but because I learned to manage time. A less experienced player will probably only be able to acquire one part per day, but more skilled ones will be able to get two to three per day. Be able to clear out whole areas within four to five in game days, and that is where a lot of the magic lies with Pikmin. Not only is it a game about time management, but it’s also a game about knowledge. Being rewarded for learning how to optimize, min-max, and find quick ways around problems. Preparing and maintaining your flock than sacrificng.

My strategy back then when landing for the first time in the Forest of Hope was to grow Pikmin, and then start finding parts. However, I learn to designate some to open the first barrier, and have the others help me carry back more pellets to the Red Onion. Then start killing enemies to grow more, find my first and second part, and task a bunch of Red Pikmin to carry them back. Leave a few enemies enemies, find the Yellow Onion, and start growing Yellow Pikmin quickly using the enemy bodies I left. Tear down some walls using Bomb Rocks, and manage to get a third part. All of this is achieved within the second in-game day alone. Whereas when I was younger it took me until day three or four. This is the magic I’m talking about right here. Learning to optimize, carry out a plan efficiently, and thrive with an ever growing population of Pikmin. You learn that more Pikmin can’t grow when the maximum out and about is one hundred, so sometimes you go forth with just a small handful. Knowing the risk of not running around with a full team. You’ll learn Pikmin with flower heads are stronger, but finding pollen is hard. So you may leave some in the ground with the risk that you have to wait until they fully bloom so you can use them. You learn of better ways to kill enemies without losing Pikmin, and take risks with them too.

It’s a simplistic game that always manages to keep me thinking. Coming up with new strategies, planning out what to do next, and assigning multiple tasks at a time. It’s a fast paced experience in a game that’s honestly pretty slow paced in terms of gameplay. I managed to beat the game in twenty in-game days, but I’ve seen players do it within a shorter period of time. Twelve days, ten days, and the fastest record as of right now is six days. Pikmin is highly replayable not because of how you can strategy what to do in what order, but because you’re driven to see if you can do it more efficiently. You’re driven to re-apply knowledge you’ve gained on prior sessions & runs. You’re driven to see how you can do it better. My most replayed video games are often the ones I had the most challenge playing. Hades, Bloodborne, the Dark Souls series, roguelikes, etc. I love seeing how much better I can do on future playthroughs, and the same applies with Pikmin. It is incredibly fun to play, and despite future entries refining what it set up to create better and more accessible experiences I can overlook its flaws. Anyways, it’s time to look at the flaws.

As said, Pikmin has been refined over the years and there are a lot of annoyances you are gonna have to work around to enjoy this game. The newer games have a targeting system so aiming can be easier. The original does not have that, and playing this with a controller took time. Playing it on the Wii back in the day was easier to be able to move and aim easily. Now wherever I move Olimar is where I aim. You also can’t select what Pikmin you want to throw like newer games. In the original it’s what Pikmin you were standing next to. If you want to throw a Blue Pikmin into a body of water but are standing next to a Red Pikmin you throw them instead. There’s a lot of instances where you’ll call off your Pikmin just to have an easier time selecting the ones you are gonna want to use. The following capability of your Pikmin isn’t great either. When crossing a bridge or gap some of your Pikmin have the chance to fall to the side. With larger groups seeing more fall to the side. More frustrating when you’re trying to cross a body of water, and some of your Pikmin are forced to drown. Sometimes making a sharp turn leads to Pikmin getting caught in a corner. Stray far enough from Pikmin and they just stop following and remain idle. Also I do hope you like mashing the ‘A’ button, because for Pikmin to do things you must throw. You can’t blow a whistle to make them charge, and while dismissing work sometimes they don’t do stuff.

Despite having all these flaws I still think the original Pikmin is impressive. The groundwork it set up for future entries to work off of was strong, and despite preferring Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 4 more I do kinda feel Pikmin 1 is a better gameplay-game. Probably because the story was simple and there was no personality to build off of whatsoever. A weird thing to say, because Pikmin in some way does have personality. I like how Olimar writes a log after each day. Usually talking about the things he learned, but in a funny way. He writes about his children, his wife, work, and how he sees the Pikmin as his own children. Doing everything he can to ensure their safety even though they’re just mindless beings running around. He sees them as competent life forms, and that’s something I like about his character. He’s a leader and father figure, and it’s charming. The Pikmin have some personality as they cheer whenever they succeed in a task or carry a part back safely. There’s also some humor in the monster designs. These creatures are made to be cute and cartoonish, but when you actually fight them they’re terrifying threats who eat your army. You hear their wails of pain, and crying as they pass away and turn into ghosts.

The music, while not some of the best, is elegant. Peaceful and quirky in the right ways. Visually the game still holds up. Later games have more varied environments and are more beautiful, but there’s something very dreamlike when it comes to PS2 and GameCube era games. The haze in the air, the way things are textured, and how funky the character models look. When writing the opening to this review I was gonna ask the question, “Did Pikmin age well?” I didn’t because not only did I know the answer was yes, but it was better than I hoped it would be. Excited to start up Pikmin 2 at some point, and see whether or not it improved on what the first game set. Pikmin is a timeless masterpiece and I’m happy to have finally finished it. In the end I give Pikmin a 9.5/10 for being absolutely superb.