Return of the Plant People!

[Zeta]

http://gonintendo.com/?p=81234

Considering that last November they were discussing that Pikmin was what they were focusing on, and Nintendo telling retailers one of their main franchises will be out for Holiday 09, it looks like that along with this preview indicate that Pikmin 3 is on the way.

For the record, I loved Pikmin 1 but hated the timer. I loved the lack of a timer in Pikmin 2 but hated the dungeons and thus never finished it because I thought dungeon-crawling was horribly out of place for the franchise.

[Kogen]

I was always curious about this franchise, so I suppose this is a good idea if they are quality titles. Hopefully no timers or dungeons, from what you said.

And from what I know of the game, Wii and DS seem like perfect controls for this genre. I am surprised there are not titles out already.

[Zeta]

They remade Pikmin 1 with Wii controls. If you're curious, I recommend checking it out.

Pikmin 1 was a fantastic game, but a little short and bare. It was very rewarding and addictive, however the fact that you had a limited amount of time to play through the whole thing made exploration less fun.

Pikmin 2 was larger, and included some really entertaining writing in the form of three diaries for the three main characters (Olimar, Louie, and Ship). The timer was gone, but to artificially extend gameplay, dungeons were added. The dungeons were mostly ugly, boring, and hard crawls through un-decorated and boring brown hallways filled with random enemies. They really sucked out any of the joy in the game, and once you get to a point where completing them is mandatory for progress, it kind of killed the game. Thus, I never finished it to rescue Louie and get the best ending. I might go back one day, though.

[Kogen]

I am aware of the Wii enhancement, although I am glad it did not suffer like Mario Tennis. People tell me Nintendo ruined that game with motion and disabled controller support. Personally I think both control options should remain, even more-so for multiplayer when people lack enough Wii-motes but have GC controllers/other.

I will likely get Pikmin if my waiting for a price cut every has any results. Surely most people who wanted a Wii have one by now (at least they do in Japan).

[Dr. BUGMAN]

I thought the first was okay, but it's hell on people with OCD. Never bothered with the second due to overt product placements. Had it been released with a 40/30 price tag instead of the usual 50, I might've looked into it. Nintendo surely racked in some cash from it, and should've passed on some of the savings to justify the tackiness.

[G.Silver]

I think the trick to the timer in the first game was that you just had to be willing to exploit it. Sure, it breaks the atmosphere a little if you save and reload over and over, but that's what I did and I had an absolute blast with it. Heading into new areas tentatively and then later, with a better awareness of where everything was, trying again and getting it all as fast as I could, was really thrilling.

The second one definitely drags in that it is overly long and repetitive, but I found myself totally compelled to pick up every piece of "treasure," so while I am aware of the problems the game has, I was never particularly bothered by them. I think Pikmin 1 remains the definitive experience (although 2 does feel more refined), and 2 is simply a lot more of it, and if you don't try to get every item it will go a lot faster. I do wish it had a bigger overworld, but considering how much of it was semi-recycled from the first game, I think that wish would probably backfire and end up with a huge boring overworld that no one enjoys.

[Zeta]

The second one definitely drags in that it is overly long and repetitive, but I found myself totally compelled to pick up every piece of "treasure," so while I am aware of the problems the game has, I was never particularly bothered by them. I think Pikmin 1 remains the definitive experience (although 2 does feel more refined), and 2 is simply a lot more of it, and if you don't try to get every item it will go a lot faster. I do wish it had a bigger overworld, but considering how much of it was semi-recycled from the first game, I think that wish would probably backfire and end up with a huge boring overworld that no one enjoys.

I think the best thing to do for the third game would be slightly smaller but more varied and plentiful overworlds and no dungeons. Taking the game indoors for a few levels, such as into an abandoned house, would also be an interesting development, but I'm not sure how it would pan out. I'm thinking something like ChibiRobo + Pikmin would be a nice break-up of the first two's constant deciduous forest setting, though.

[gr4yJ4Y]

I think the similar looking environments in the second game could be the reason I never picked it up. I liked the first one, but never got around to the second. I'll probably end up passing up on the third too.

[Arcade]

The timer was a good idea, cause it made the game harder, but not boring, most people ends enjoying doing "time atacks" (doing something in the lest posible time in a videogame), the Dungeons was a HUGE mistake, like humans in warwind 2.

Pickmin 3 should have a timer for "normal mode" and no timer for "easy mode". but you need to beat the normal mode to get the real ending. A hard mode would be cool too...

And they shouldn't have dungeons at all, and if they fell force to use dungeons, they should be less than six, and only avaliable in the hard mode.

Hard mode should have an special ending, plus some unlockables...