Remembering Pikmin

As December has now arrived, we're finally coming to the end of a jam-packed anniversary year. Nintendo's many products and properties seem to have hit more milestones through 2011 than in any previous year, with franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Metroid turning 25 while the SNES, N64 and GameCube consoles hit 20, 15 and 10 years of age respectively.

And yet, after all that, at least one more milestone remains that demands recognition. This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of Pikmin.

Shipped alongside Super Smash Bros. Melee as a second wave of launch window games for Nintendo's GameCube back in 2001, Pikmin was the most unique and original first-party game among that system's starting set of software. This was no jetski sequel or fighting franchise follow-up, it was an altogether new idea and intellectual property for Nintendo. And it was, even more surprisingly, a RTS.

Shigeru Miyamoto's vision of a real-time strategy title, actually, as the famed designer was reportedly inspired by working in his garden to create this new small-scaled world where blades of grass are as tall as buildings and cast-off pieces of garbage are priceless collectible treasures. In this alien landscape (which is really just Earth, from a bug's point of view), an actual alien arrives -- Captain Olimar, a shrimpy extraterrestrial whose spaceship crashes somewhere on our humble planet. In Mr. Miyamoto's own garden, perhaps.

Captain Olimar's ship is shattered by its impact with Earth's surface, and he's only got 30 days' worth of breathable air inside his spacesuit - so his is a life-and-death quest to find the scattered parts of his vessel, reassemble them and blast off back to his home planet of Hocotate. Luckily for him, he finds help. Friendly, miniature plant soldiers called the Pikmin.

The Pikmin are some of the most playful and memorable characters Nintendo's ever crafted, and discovering them for the first time 10 years ago was a joy. You controlled Captain Olimar has he came across simple sprouts sticking out of the ground, then you plucked the plants up from the dirt to reveal their full bodies - small, flower-headed soldiers instantly ready to follow your commands. You could recruit up to 100 of these fighting flower children at one time, and they came in three different colors too.

Red Pikmin were the toughest fighters, equipped with long, pointy noses and a resistance to fire. Yellow Pikmin were the lightest and easiest to toss to high places, while they also had an affinity for carrying and placing explosive bomb rocks. Blue Pikmin rounded out the bunch, with unique gills that let them survive in bodies of water - Reds and Yellow would simply drown and die if dunked in the drink, which quickly became one of the saddest and most horrible moments to witness in Nintendo's history.

The reason it was so sad, I think, was that Nintendo somehow managed to tap into a truly magical sense of friendship and camaraderie with these creatures. Even though there were dozens of individual Pikmin on the screen at any given time, you still somehow felt connected to each one - and if leading them around the world, or tossing them through the air, or whistling at them to pull them back to your side ended up causing any of them to die, a little part of you died along with them.

At least those emotional blows were lessened by the liberal use of funny-looking Pikmin ghost graphics.


Today, 10 years later, Pikmin has become a series for Nintendo. Well, sort of. It's only had one official sequel so far, and another one's been in development for several years now (and is now known to be heading to Nintendo's next console, Wii U).

Pikmin 2 launched on the GameCube in 2004, and it enhanced the experience of the original in several key ways. Nintendo eliminated the time constraints from Pikmin 1, so you were no longer forced to run and hide back inside your spaceship when darkness fell, and you could take longer than 30 days to finish your entire mission. Two more Pikmin colors debuted, including the poisonous Whites and super-strong Purples. And a second playable character, Louie, was also added - giving you the option to split your party of Pikmin into two separate groups to divide and conquer more territory more quickly.

Then, two years ago, Nintendo updated the original Pikmin for the Wii. Widescreen visuals and IR pointer controls were added to the design, and the result was a better and more natural experience than before. New Play Control! Pikmin must not have sold too well in America, though, because the planned New Play Control! Pikmin 2 was scrapped in our region and only released elsewhere around the world.

Here's hoping that lack of success with the brand doesn't hinder Pikmin 3 in any way, as it's primed to become the best Pikmin yet. If it can capitalize on the momentum of Pikmin 2's great design revisions and implement the improved controls of the New Play Control re-releases while also pioneering new ways to interact with the miniaturized world through the Wii U controller, Captain Olimar's adventures could be more compelling than ever before - and hopefully catch the attention of a larger audience.

Because if any lower-tier Nintendo franchise deserves more notice and appreciation, it's the heartwarming, wholly original little Pikmin series.

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