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Revision as of 13:54, 8 February 2008 by Cipher (talk | contribs) (→Pikmin 3)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Pikmin is the name of a video game series developed by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, and released exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube platform. The series features two video games; Pikmin and Pikmin 2. The first video game starred Captain Olimar solely, while the second game also incorporated Louie, a co-worker who can be used in conjunction with Captain Olimar in order to command two groups of Pikmin at once. The names "Olimar" and "Louie" are based on Mario and Luigi, which are also developed by Shigeru Miyamoto. The name "Olimar" (オリマー) is a partial anagram of "Mario" (マリオ) in both the English and Japanese language. Likewise, "Louie" is derived from "Luigi". In some translated versions of Pikmin, the name is translated into the equivalent of "Louie" in that language - for example, in the Spanish translation of Pikmin 2, he is called "Luís".
According to an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, the original plans for Pikmin were to be a game where one could watch the development of two human beings. That game's working title was "Adam and Eve". Eventually, this idea was found to be far too uninteractive and thus Pikmin were introduced as well as the other concepts found in the game, and most of the original plans were scrapped.
Game play
The games feature small, multi-colored creatures known as Pikmin. Pikmin are tiny, brightly-colored and intelligent creatures. A stalk protrudes from their head, topped by a symbol of rank: a leaf, bud, or a flower. The hero of the games, Captain Olimar, with his partner in the second game, Louie, commands the Pikmin in battle against the larger creatures of the planet. The advantage of Pikmin comes in numbers, as a single Pikmin can easily be defeated by a larger foe.
Pikmin grow, like plants, from sprouts in the ground. Before a Pikmin can grow, a seed must be first planted. Seeds usually come from the insertion of objects called pellets, into a Pikmin storage device known as an Onion. It can store an unlimited amount of Pikmin. The pellets are acquired when an enemy is successfully defeated, or obtained from flowers known as Pellet Posies. When an enemy dies, it releases the pellets which can then be carried back to the Onion by a group of Pikmin The amount of Pikmin needed to carry the pellet back depends on the size of the pellet, and this number appears on the pellet itself. The Onion then releases Pikmin seeds into the ground below, which then take about 10 seconds to mature into full-fledged Pikmin that can be picked from the ground by Captain Olimar. The carcasses of enemies can also be picked up and brought to the Onion to be turned into seeds. At night, Pikmin retreat into the Onions for safety;if they are left out at night, they are devoured by nocturnal predators.
The games take place on a planet that is not given a name, but is presumably Earth. Garbage and other human waste is strewn throughout the areas in the games, and in Pikmin 2 many of these objects are brand name products (such as Duracell batteries and old 7-Up bottlecaps) to heighten the connection. The landscapes are said to be inspired by gardens belonging to the developer of the games, Shigeru Miyamoto. Further evidence is found in the first Pikmin game in one of Olimar's Journal Entries, stating "the creatures of this planet breath a deadly poison: oxygen". Also in Pikmin 2 there are two items that resemble the north and south hemispheres of the globe. The ship states that "it resembles the surface of this planet."
Captain Olimar and Louie are both from the fictional planet Hocotate, which is named after the address of Nintendo’s Japan headquarters. They also both work for a company called The Hocotate Freight Company, which, in the second game, is in a state of bankruptcy, which is the reason Olimar and Louie are forced to return to the Pikmin planet, as they must collect objects to sell and restore their employer's financial well-being. At the end of Pikmin, continents that look like North America and Africa can be seen. At the end of Pikmin 2 when Olimar and Louie leave, it seems that Australia, Indonesia, Asia, and Japan are visible, although it is still unclear whether or not the Pikmin world is Earth.
Whether or not the alien planet Olimar initially landed on is actually Earth, it has been confirmed that the Pikmin series characters are indeed on a very tiny scale; for example, Captain Olimar is only about the size of a quarter (or in Japan, a 100 yen piece), and the Pikmin themselves are even smaller, roughly the size of a dime.
Characters
Captain Olimar
Captain Olimar is the main character in the Pikmin series, and is the only playable character in the first Pikmin game. He is joined by Louie in the second game. In the game he is identified as the top employee of Hocotate Freight Company. He has a wife and children, and communicates with them whenever he can. He manages to gain control of the Pikmin group and uses them in the first game to survive and get back his lost ship pieces so he can return to his home planet. In the second game, he returns to the planet in order to salvage seemingly worthless garbage (a bottle cap was worth 100 Pokos) to save his company from bankruptcy. He rediscovers the Pikmin (in separate locations) after landing back on the planet, who then immediately follow him around to aid his quest.
Captain Olimar is a playable character in the action/fighting game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, utilizing Pikmin for battle by plucking them out of the ground. Without the Pikmin he cannot do much, not even a Smash Attack.
Louie
Louie, introduced in the second Pikmin game, is a co-worker of Olimar. He joined Olimar in the second game to try to help collect funds for the Hocotate Freight Company on the mysterious Pikmin planet. Louie is employed at Hocotate Freight. According to the game's opening movie, the reason for Hocotate Freight's debt is due to Louie losing a shipment of carrots (called "Pikpik carrots," a favorite food on Hocotate) while transporting them.
Louie is skinnier and taller than Olimar and also wears a mostly yellow suit, except with blue gloves and boot soles. Louie has a small amount of yellow hair, as well as a silver wire coming out of his space helmet.
The President of Hocotate Freight
The President, introduced in the second game alongside Louie, runs the long-haul shipping company that employs both Olimar and Louie. He sends the two on their mission to the Pikmin planet after the Ship at Hocotate Freight discovers the value of the treasure on the planet in order to erase the company debt. While Olimar and Louie do their job, the President keeps in contact and flees debt collectors. Once the debt is paid, he takes up Louie's position and goes with Olimar to collect more treasure.
The President is larger than Olimar and wears a mostly black suit with some gold. He has one loopy black hair and a wiry mustache (which is surprisingly similar to Mario's) and a wire identical to Louie's on his helmet. He is one of the few characters whose eyes are visible most of the time. When calling Pikmin, he uses more of a horn than a whistle like Olimar and Louie. The President has a fascination with money.
He is known only by the name "The President of Hocotate Freight". When switching to him as a playable character in Pikmin 2 after collecting 10,000 Pokos, he says, "Shyacho," which means "President" in Japanese.
The Ship
In Pikmin 2, Olimar's ship, the Dolphin, is replaced by a larger, unnamed ship after the President sells the Dolphin. The Ship is notably different because it talks, has a very self-centered personality, and has two seats. The Ship can store all the treasure on the planet, calculating their value and giving them names. The nose of the Ship also disengages to fly with Olimar and Louie into the many caves to hold treasure where they can't reach the Ship- however, it can only take the treasure to the Ship by riding up one of the geysers, or else it must abandon all the treasure and escape. The Ship has many other abilities, such as detecting geographical features and bodily functions. It detests collecting dead bugs and the treasure from them. It makes a cameo in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a part of Pikmin & Olimar's Final Smash. After the debt is paid, it is painted gold.
Pikmin
Pikmin are small, brightly colored creatures who stand only an inch tall. The Pikmin games all revolve around Olimar's strategic manipulation of these creatures, who follow his or Louie's commands for reasons unknown. The Pikmin are extremely useful to Olimar and Louie — they can be used to defend their masters, or they can be used to retrieve large artifacts that could otherwise not be transported. Pikmin are generally very weak, unless they are used in teams, as the Pikmin are excellent at working together. Pikmin speak only strange, foreign squeak noises to each other. Simple commands can, however, be communicated to them by the use of a whistle or any other device capable of producing high-pitched noises. The name "Pikmin" was given by Olimar to the creatures, as they bear a striking resemblance to the "Pikpik" brand of carrots on his homeworld.
Pikmin come in several colors, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. In the original Pikmin, there are three types of Pikmin; red Pikmin, who are better in combat and can withstand extreme heat; yellow Pikmin, who can be thrown higher and can carry bomb-rocks; and blue Pikmin, which have gills and can walk in water without drowning. However, in the second game, yellow Pikmin can no longer throw bomb-rocks, as the bomb-rocks are much larger now, and can instead withstand electricity.
In the second game, two new species of Pikmin were introduced. The first are white Pikmin, who, when ingested by enemies, deliver a fatal poison to the enemy. Additionally, the white Pikmin are immune to poison, can locate buried treasure with their special eyes, and can run faster than other Pikmin. The second species introduced are the purple Pikmin, who move slower than normal Pikmin, but have ten times the strength and weight of other Pikmin, giving them the ability to pick up much heavier objects and attack and destroy obstacles and other enemies with fewer numbers. Some of the treasures in the game require some purple Pikmin to carry them. A particularly notable one is the "Doomsday Apparatus", shaped like a dumbbell. It requires 100 purple Pikmin to carry. The purple and white Pikmin are obtained only through the use of underground "Candypop Buds," special flowers which can change the color of Pikmin. Because these Pikmin are created by the buds and do not have Onions, purple and white Pikmin are stored in the spaceship at night.
Pikmin generally have an easier time taking down large enemies in the second game. For example, the Emperor Bulblax was the most difficult enemy to defeat in the first game, taking a considerable part of a day to defeat with a large group of Pikmin. Yet, in Pikmin 2, it is considerably smaller and can be taken down in under a minute with a modest group of Pikmin.
Other characters
There are several supporting characters in the Pikmin games. They include Olimar's wife, a loving, tireless mother; his son, an energetic youth with a striped blue shirt and a blue cap; and his daughter. The family owns Bulby, a 'dog' that Olimar named after the Bulborbs. Only described by Olimar in Pikmin through his Ship's Log, they communicated with Olimar via space e-mail in Pikmin 2. Also communicating via space e-mail was Louie's grandma, a caring yet senile old woman who wrote about Louie's connection with bugs, and the President's wife, an assertive old woman with a greed similar to her husband's.
Settings
Distant Planet
In the first Pikmin game, the Pikmin homeworld is presumed to be the planet Earth, and Pikmin 2 affirms this assumption; the treasures salvaged by the Pikmin through the course of the game include batteries, dentures, doll-heads and even old Nintendo console components. Familiar plants like weeds, clovers and dandelions are also observed during the course of the game. Also, when leaving the planet, the player can see the outlines of North America and Africa. Two treasures look like a half-globe of Earth, with seven continents the shape of Earth's continents. In Pikmin 2, each of the four playable areas is experiencing a different season, corresponding to the four seasons on Earth and when leaving the planet there are landmasses that match the outlines of the continents of Asia and Australasia. When the timeline of the series is actually set is unknown, though the planet appears to be set in the present day.
Hocotate
Hocotate is the home world of Olimar, Louie, and the other characters. Hocotate is essentially a world whose society and biology mirrors that of present-day Earth, albeit on a very small level. For example, animals, such as dogs and birds, plants, such as onions and carrots, and objects, such as streetlights and bridges, all exist, except are proportional to the quarter-sized humanoid inhabitants. Other charted planets exist in this society, as Olimar travels to them. While in Pikmin this background is only described by Olimar, Pikmin 2 shows Hocotate and other planets in cut-scenes. Hocotate is portrayed as a desert-like, rocky planet with two perpendicular planetary rings.
The Hocotate Freight Company is an interstellar transportation company, headquartered on Hocotate. Both Captain Olimar and Louie are employed by the Hocotate Freight Company. At the beginning of Pikmin 2, the company was over 10,000 "Pokos" (Hocotate's currency) in debt, and thus sent Captain Olimar and Louie to retrieve artifacts to sell from the distant planet in an attempt to get the company out of bankruptcy.
Pikmin 3
Nintendo has not said anything about a new Pikmin game for the Wii, however Shigeru Miyamoto has hinted about the possibilities of one in a recent IGN interview.
External links
References
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