I think it's fair to say that Nintendo, whilst being the author of an astonishing number of the worlds greatest games, has an image of being the cutesy, child-friendly developer of games. You'll not find blood in a Legend of Zelda game. Mario doesn't swear or pull Bowser's teeth out with a monkey wrench before water-boarding the reptile with gasoline. That doesn't mean that Nintendo's games aren't dark, however, but they're usually much more accessible than other 'mainstream triple-A' producers.
At least, that's how I viewed Nintendo right up until 2001, with the GameCube launch title Pikmin.
Set in an idyllic landscape inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto's back graden, Pikmin saw players take command of inch-tall space explorer Captain Olimar after he crash landed on an alien planet in order to repair his ship, with only 30 days until his air supply runs out. Enter the Pikmin. Cute little colourful flower creatures, the Pikmin are fiercely loyal to Captain Olimar, following his every command, from fighting to carrying items, regardless of the consequence.
Pikmin is a real-time-strategy (RTS) game with that delicious Nintendo twist. Gone are the aggressive war machines and grizzled veterans that usually form the mainstay of the RTS genre, replaced with cutesy flower faeries. But do not let that fool you.
The Pikmin games are tough, and Pikmin 3 is no exception. This time around, (in a not-to-subtle environmentalist nod) three separate scientists have crash-landed on the planet, on a mission to bring back food to their starving planet Koppai. They find that PNF-404, the Pikmin planet, contains an abundance of food and decide to explore it whilst retrieving the broken parts of their ship in order to leave.
Gameplay alternates between the three characters - Alph, Brittany and Charlie – commanding hordes of up to 100 Pikmin. Pikmin can be thrown and will attack enemies or bits of scenery in order to build bridges or ladders, to destroy blocking walls, or to dig tunnels. Defeated enemies or pellets can be carried back to the Onion (kind of the Pikmin mothership) in order to grow more Pikmin, and each colour of Pikmin has its own unique traits. Red Pikmin are fire resistant and great fighters; Yellow Pikmin conduct electricty, fly further when thrown, and can dig faster; Blue Pikmin can breathe underwater; and now Rock Pikmin deal damage and break things when thrown at them, and Flying Pikmin, well, fly.
At first, the gentleness of the game is alluring; it's so peaceful and relaxing that it's easy to slip comfortably into that routine of slaying a few enemies or collecting pellets to grow the Pikmin horde. A maximum of 100 Pikmin can be out of the Onion at once (in a mix of types) but you can still grow more. Rather than having the original 30 day time constraint (which many complained made the game too short) or removing it all together (as Pikmin 2 did, which created a lack of tension), Pikmin 3 meets a happy medium. Every day consumes a food cannister, so players need to be collecting replacement food as part of their daily routine in order to survive, and that food, in the form of fruits and berries, looks utterly mouth-wateringly delicious. Honestly, watching various fruits in glorious HD, liquidised into juice, was enough to finally put me on a healthy eating regime, such was the beauty of it.
I've made mention that Pikmin is not all as it seems, and that players would be wary to not let the game deceive them. As I stated, Pikmin 3 is hard, it's an RTS that demands that its players manage their time and resources wisely in order to progress. There are ship parts to find, new Pikmin and areas to unlock, and food stores to keep stocked up. Add to this the need to keep the Pikmin population at a healthy level and you begin to the nightmare of resource management begins to rear its flowery head.
Oh yes, the Pikmin can die. Before you escape planet PNF-404, they will be torched, crushed, stepped on, dropped from great heights, drowned, melted in acid, torn apart by predators, blown up by bomb-rocks, and of course, eaten. PNF-404 is a planet full of predators, and when Pikmin die, they do so with a tearful whimper and a little Pikmin spirit departs for the heavens. I challenge even the hardiest gamer to not feel utterly terrible at every avoidable Pikmin death; accidentally sending a troupe of non-blue Pikmin off a bridge to their watery graves, turning away from the screen momentarily only for your Pikmin to be ambushed whilst your attention is elsewhere, not being able to bring all of your Pikmin back to the Onion before night fall... These things will break you, and the player is left feeling genuinely guilty at every life loyally and lovingly given by the Pikmin.
Of course, the introduction of the Wii U Game Pad has made things much easier to multi-task. Now, each individual commander can be given a set of instructions, a route plotted that they'll journey on whilst the player controls another commander. Any issues such as Pikmin coming under attack flag up on the Game Pad's map-like screen for ease of location and hot-swapping to the nearest commander to counter the threat. It can feel a little confusing at first, remembering to swap between three different Pikmin troupes, but it really does help with time management. Master it, and the player is rewarded with the ability to get much more done in each day.
Of course, as is natural with the Wii U, other control options are available, including the WiiMote and Nunchuck option which feels so natural for aiming and flicking Pikmin that I almost didn't miss having a touch-screen map right in my hands. Almost.
Actually, that in itself is probably the only severe downside I could find in Pikmin 3. Whilst multiplayer options exist in the game, each is inherently and unfairly biased to whichever player has the Game Pad, and thus, the map. There's no real competition, which is a shame as, like it's predecessors, Pikmin 3 is quite a short experience. I felt that the game ended at a good point, ensuring that it didn't drag out, instead leaving a great impression, but I still came away wanting more. The challenge modes did extend the life of the game by a few hours, but my true hope lay in the multiplayer which sadly disappointed.