Pikmin (Nintendo GameCube, 2001)

This game is fun and enjoyable. It has action and excitement with good challenges. The mission of the game is recover the pieces of your ship that crash landed on a distant planet(could it be earth?).
You go through 5 levels to get every ship part. When you crash land, you find a pikmin and with that one, you create an army of pikmin. In the next two levels, you find two new pikmin. Each of the three pikmin have special abilities that are determined by their colors. Red pikmin are fire resistant and have the most attack power of any pikmin. Yellow pikmin can pick up special items called bomb rocks. With those bomb rocks, they can destroy solid walls that can't be destroyed by normal pikmin attacks (the way pikmin attack is by headbutting their enemies). Blue pikmin have gills (which are not noticable)so they can get into water without drowning. The game is a little hard and somewhat stressful because you only have 30 days (each day in the pikmin world is around 15 minutes)to get 25 of your needed parts or get all 30 ship parts. Overall, this is a great and fun game, but it has a lot of flaws. I recommend looking at some gameplay videos to see how you like it.

Shigeru Miyamoto is still able to amaze gamers with his brand new game; Pikmin. Captain Olimar has been shipwrecked on a strange planet with 30 parts of his ship scattered over 5 parts of the planet, and the only glimpse of hope is to use the help of Pikmin to find all the parts. To make matters worse, the air on the planet has deadly toxins in it and Olimar only has 30 days of life support. The game is on the short side but I'd play it over and over again. The challenge mode is a game I keep on coming back to. In challenge mode your objective is to grow as many Pikmin as you can in one day. I'm barely into the game because of challenge mode, it's so fun! After I'm done writing this I will go play it for a few hours. The game is on the easier side at first but it gets harder.

Graphics 9/10
The graphics in Pikmin are excellent. They are hard to see however, because of the camera angles. You can see the graphics very well if the camera is zoomed in to its limits but, when it is zoomed you can't see too much around you. When it is zoomed out you can barely see your Pikmin but you can see a pretty good range. The graphics are smooth though.

Sound 10/10
The sound is probably the most amazing part of the game. The music is pretty good but the sound effects are impossible to beat, like when you are walking through the water with 100 blue Pikmin, You can hear each splash from each step of all 100 Pikmin following you. Not to mention pretty much everything else that makes sound has excellent sound quality.

Controls 10/10
The controls are perfect for the split second maneuvers you will need to make around the enemies. Though when you have many Pikmin following you it does get much more difficult to control when you're maneuvering through narrow paths and I find I have to back and pick up Pikmin who get confused and lost. Though it does make sense that it gets more difficult.

Overall 10/10
This is by far the best game so far for Game Cube and I would like to give a well deserved kudos to Shigeru Miyamoto for his most creative game. I recommend this game to all gamers of every genre, because I'm more of a racer and I love this strategy.

This is a fun, child-friendly game in which a stranded space traveler befriends and names strange and friendly creatures on an unknown planet. These beings help the spaceman find parts to repair his ship. Along the journey, the spaceman grows more Pikmin and he puts them to work tearing down obstacles and fighting predators.
There is a great storyline with the game. It has good music and is very clever. There are maps and the Sun moves throughout the day, so you know when it is almost time to go back to the ship.
I originaly bought this game for my oldest son, when he was around 9. It was stolen during a household move. I bought it aghain for my 6 year-old boy's birthday, last month.
I enjoy the Mario-type games that have little-to-no violence, but are fun to play with your kids. Pikmin falls into this category.
It is fun, but can be frustrating for young children. As I mentioned, the younger ones will require help, but they can work on their reading at their own speed.
Have fun!
He has some trouble reading the narrative and following the strategy, but with help, still enjoys playing.

Pikmin is one of the most innovative and original games ever made. You play as Captain Olimar who has crashed on an unknown planet must find all the parts to his crahsed spacecraft before he can leave. On the planet he discovers little creatures called pikmin which help him to find all the parts to his spacecraft. In the game you control the pikmin and assign them various task to do, from searching for items to fighting enemy creatures that try to eat them. Your objective is to find all the parts to your spacecraft and leave the planet within 30 game days. To do this you must solve many different puzzles using the pikmin. This is an easy and fun game to play so younger players will enjoy it, but at the same time, it can be very challenging to solve all the puzzles and complete the game within the 30 game days so experienced players will enjoy it as well.
Bottomline: Pikmin is a great strategy game and so unique that you'll get hooked. If you like strategy games then you'll definitely want to try Pikmin.

Pros: Very innovative, lots of fun

Cons: Challenging to beat the game in 30 game days

Pikmin is a great fun game! The game is centered around a space pilot who crash landed on a pikmin infested island and he needs to find his ship parts to make it back home. You'll want to throw around these little flower characters for hours on end!