Looking back on Pikmin’s growing pains.
Pikmin 2 is like the black sheep in the Pikmin series. This exists in Nintendo’s transition from hardcore gamer to more casual user in his mid-2000s, and these he feels like an odd middle ground between the two extremes. I’m not sure if this dichotomy is the result of a deliberate design decision on Nintendo’s part, but as a result, I can’t deny the feeling that games struggle to decide what exactly they want. Sometimes it’s too easy, lacking some of the challenges that made the original Pikmin so convincing, and other times it’s brutally punished in ways only the most skilled players can endure. While the game seems to have a small audience, the series’ most dedicated fans may enjoy the truly unique experience this game brings.
Pikmin 2 begins with Captain Olimar and his new partner Louie returning to the Pikmin homeworld in search of treasure to pay off their boss’s massive debt. The two captains, with the help of native Pikmin, bring various delicacies, tools, and tools onto their ships to sell for cold cash. A big twist introduced to this game is the presence of underground caverns teeming with treasure and monsters alike. Pikmin 1’s traditional Overworld still exists (literally, remixing his version of the original map to visit), but much of the game’s runtime is spent in caves, descending deep into the Earth with no foreshadowing of what lies ahead.
The cave itself is sadly very boring, consisting of lightly randomized copy-and-paste assets. Enemies and treasures are fixed in each cave, but their exact locations change each time you enter. The basement layouts are mostly flat and simple with very little visual theme, and I swear I’ve seen a few layouts many times (although I can’t be sure given how basic and featureless each one is). Also, the randomness makes the gameplay feel directionless. While the treasure was spread across the fields, I often knocked down walls and obstacles that lead nowhere. The bespoke puzzles and challenges in the Overworld are just as good as the original Pikmin, but they’re few and far between, as time in caves can easily dwarf your time on the ground.
In terms of difficulty, “Pikmin 2” is very uneven. The core challenge of the first game, the limited number of days to game over, has been completely removed, making the day/night cycle feel like a boring leftover. With no hard time limits, you’re free to explore at your own pace, taking as long as you need to replenish your Pikmin army with no consequences, leaving no incentive to optimize your in-game routes. Every few minutes when the sun sets, you’re forced to do the hard work of collecting your Pikmin, returning to your ship, and coming back the next day to do exactly the same task as where you left off. As a result, the end of the day feels like an especially long loading screen, even though it has little purpose, especially since time stops completely when you’re underground.
On the flip side of the coin is the intense challenge found in Underground, which features some of the most punishing failures I’ve seen in this series. The caves are densely populated with powerful enemies that can easily be caught off guard and wipe out an entire Pikmin army in an instant. In fact, multitasking underground is highly discouraged. Because there could be an unexpected enemy lurking around the corner. The game frequently throws what can only be described as a prank, as explosives literally fall from the ceiling without warning. Monsters become more powerful and destructive as the game progresses. I had to make frequent use of the autosaves the game does on each floor of the cave to get past the unfair and unexpected curveballs thrown at me.
Ironically, you might find this punitive difficulty appealing, especially to die-hard fans of the series. Combat in Pikmin is often simple because you don’t engage enemies directly, and the intense difficulty in caves is exactly what I’ve seen many hardcore fans say they love about Pikmin 2. The tedious repetition of each cave’s randomized features took away a lot of the appeal for me, but there’s no question that the game’s intensity of needing to master the nuances of commanding Pikmin sets it apart from other games in the series.
Specifically when it comes to the Switch version, the update for the HD version of Pikmin 2 is almost identical to the Pikmin 1 update we covered in last month’s mini-review. The main changes unique to Pikmin 2 are the removal of the placement of real-world goods inside the game’s treasure, and the joke spam emails (yes, it’s true) from online dating sites being rewritten to be more family-friendly. In both games, what I didn’t realize until I played Pikmin 2 is that Gyro can move the cursor with his control stick even while using the controls. The Wii versions of Pikmin 1 and 2 allowed you to aim freely independently of your character’s movement, but you had to actively deal with the cursor drifting away when positioned around enemies.
Pikmin 2 is a tough game to recommend, especially since it features the latest Pikmin 4 with a more successful version of its main feature, Caverns. Overcoming the high difficulty levels requires significant investment from the player, but the lack of bespoke design in the underground makes the journey overcoming these obstacles too tedious and unrewarding. Avid fans who want to learn the intricacies of how Pikmin works will find something special in this unique challenge. But pretty much everything else about Pikmin 2 is done much better in another game in the series.
