By: Nintendo

At E3 2001, Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto unveiled his latest game creation, Pikmin. Almost everyone who saw Pikmin in action was taken aback by the absolutely bizarre look of the game. However, after having played Pikmin, it is a puzzle-lover's dream come true.

In Pikmin, you control Captain Olimar, the pilot of a ship that has crashed onto a mysterious planet. With 30 parts of his ship strewn about this new world, he discovers curious creatures he calls the Pikmin. By enlisting the help of the Pikmin, you must recover the parts of your ship and blast off before your suit runs out of power (in 30 days).

As Captain Olimar, you command groups of Pikmin to perform tasks such as attacking enemies or building bridges. It's often necessary to direct groups simultaneously to save time. When you return slain enemies or colored pellets to the Pikmin bases (called onions in the game), more Pikmin sprouts are planted in the ground.

The brilliance of the gameplay comes from the mix of restrictions and tasks that you must perform to recover a ship part. For example, you are limited to 100 pikmin in the field at once. This forces you to evaluate the number of Pikmin you need to knock down fences, kill enemies, build bridges, and eventually return pieces to your base. And since there are three types of Pikmin (red, blue and yellow) each with unique abilities and weaknesses, it's obvious that you need to plan effectively. All this within the time restriction of one day (about 10-15 minutes!) makes for a very rewarding experience. Some of the puzzles are downright brilliant.

The graphics in Pikmin are cutesy, but not annoyingly so. The planet is brightly colored with some good lighting effects. All in all, the graphics are good, but nothing sensational. Controlling the Pikmin is a cinch, with the use of the dual analog setup on the GameCube controller.

There are a few issues with Pikmin that keep it from being a must buy. A minor problem involves the camera system. Manipulating the camera is unusually difficult and can be annoying at times. A major weakness in Pikmin is its length. It's way too short, especially with the game being as fun as it is. The other major weakness in Pikmin is the lack of replay value. Aside from the challenge mode (where you grow as many Pikmin as you can in one day), there's no substantial reason to play it over. A two-player co-operative mode would have been phenomenal. I'm hoping for that in the sequel...

So what do you do with Pikmin? It's a great game, but hard to justify buying with a short game life. This may seem really strange, but this game is almost a perfect rental. You should be able to complete Pikmin in 2 or 3 rentals from Blockbuster. Trust me - you'll enjoy every moment of it.

ASY
Queen