Pikmin is certainly the most original game shown at E3. At first I, like many others, was somewhat disappointed by Miyamoto's offering. However, deeper research into this unique title shows that the game is quite intuitive and, believe it or not, fun. Miyamoto has still got it. One day, Shigeru Miyamoto, the master game designer, creator of such franchises as Mario and Zelda, was admiring his garden. It was in this garden that he got the inspiration for Pikmin. In Pikmin (which is a tentative title, and may be changed for the US release) you control a space traveler who crashed onto this garden planet which is native to these creatures who are called Pikmin. Pikmin are skinny, multicolored little guys who dwell in the ground and have flowers growing up out of their heads. I begin to wonder what Mr. Miyamoto was smoking when he dreamt up this game. Anyhow you convert the Pikmin to help you by picking them out of the ground, we've all weeded our mom's gardens before haven't we? Same thing here. After they get on your team, you use a target to send them where you want them to go. The actions they do are context sensitive, as in Conker's Bad Fur Day. For example, if you point them at a bunch of plants, and the plants are blocking your way, the Pikmin will chop the plants down. Pretty simple huh? That's the idea behind Pikmin. The game works perfectly for the controller, the A button summons the Pikmin, B sends them into action, X cancels the action, R adjusts the camera, while L swings the camera around, the C knob alters the formation of the Pikmin. 

The goal of the game is to use the Pikmin to find the lost parts of your spaceship (anyone remember Toejam and Earl? Great game, same goal) and then fly back into space. The Pikmin, obviously, work better when in groups, so you should take extra care to 'collect' as many of them as you can. There are many different types of Pikmin. Each color tells what kind they are, and by judging from the flower on their head, you can tell how mature the Pikmin are. We can imagine what different types of Pikmin there may be, but how the maturity affects the gameplay we have no idea. 

Because the gameplay is so simple, it's possible to become a decent Pikmin player in a matter of minutes. After 10 minutes, you could have been able to chop down a few sunflowers, sprout some Pikmin, and do other various activities. Similar to most overhead-view strategy games. 

The next plus of this game is the graphics. The game has a great contrast in this department. You have the cartoony, simple Pikmin characters and the also simple enemies, parading around the most beautiful garden-type scenery. Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that some of the artwork was taken from his very own garden! The garden textures are everywhere and look gorgeous, and the leaves and Pikmin flowers sway just like in real life. Many complain that the screenshots look N64 quality, but could N64 put this many detailed textures in a game, and still have the game run smoothly? I doubt it. You just have to see this game in motion to get how detailed and smooth the game runs. Now add to all this the fact that you may have hundreds of these Pikmin following you around all the time, on screen, and moving, try handing that to N64. No way. 

What I am getting at with this preview is that just because Pikmin looks really dumb, don't write it off yet, rent it at least, and if you don't rent it anymore after that-if you don't buy it-then you can insult it. Meanwhile I'll be playing what looks to be a very cool strategy game, which is somewhat similar in premise to Lemmings and Pokemon in that you catch these Pikmin and use them to your advantage. Pikmin has been announced by Nintendo as a launch game, and, as previously reported, should retail for the fair price of $49.95 (American).