Hello and welcome to part 2 of my Pikmin retrospective! In this segment I will dive into the second game in the series: Pikmin 2. While the first game wasn't a massive sales hit like Mario or Pokemon, it was still an overall success, such that development on a sequel was quick and welcome. Three years after the first game captivated many players, Pikmin 2 was released on the Nintendo Gamecube in 2004. It established the series as one of Nintendo's main franchises, and the two games would go on to be some of the most beloved on the system.
So how was Pikmin 2? How did it improve on the mechanics of the first game, if at all? How did it change what the first game was known for? Well, let's dive in.
During my Pikmin 1 write up I started with a memory of the game. I would like to continue that tradition and share a memory of Pikmin 2. When I completed the first Pikmin, I was satisfied, but wasn't in love with the game. I had a great time with it, but it didn't stick in my mind for long.
Pikmin 2 was different. Something about it grabbed me when I first saw previews of it in the Nintendo Power magazine series. I remember shortly before I received the game, my parents bought me the strategy guide. I decided to take a peak, and before I knew it I was mesmerized, reading every word of every page over and over. There was just so much to see. Unlike the first game, which only had 30 treasures, Pikmin 2 had over 100 to find, some part of their own set, with fun descriptions for each item. The enemies too! Sure Pikmin 1 had many unique enemies and bosses. But Pikmin 2 absolutely dwarfed them, there were at least double the amount of bosses, so many enemies I couldn't comprehend them, and the world was so much bigger, so much more beautiful, and so much more exciting to understand.
In hindsight I regret doing this, as I spoiled much of the game before I even played it. But I was a stupid kid, and that's what kids do when they don't have anything to do and their parents won't let them play video games.
Nonetheless, this reveals much of what separates Pikmin 2 from its predecessor. Remember in my write up for Pikmin 1, where I argued that the Pikmin gameplay mixes both strategy and exploration elements? This naturally leads to a mixture of feelings, the tension and pressure of strategy games, mixed with the feelings of awe and satisfaction of exploring a beautiful world at your own pace. Pikmin 2 chooses to go straight in one direction, that of exploration, and creates a world that is tantalizing to explore and waste hours on.
The reasons for this are simple. While it was overall well received, the main critiques Pikmin 1 received were that it was too short, and that the 30 day time limit was too stressful. Not everyone wanted to replay the game, and many did not like the timer constantly adding stress to the game, even if it was intentional. This is confirmed in a recent interview, in which the developers said that the team wanted to create a different type of Pikmin game with 2, one which focused more on exploration than strategy to not alienate players with a time limit (https://www.nintendo.com/en-ca/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-10-pikmin-4-part-1/).
This change in focus is seen everywhere in Pikmin 2. The game begins with Captain Olimar returning to his home planet (Hocotate) after his dangerous trip in Pikmin 1. However, he finds the company he works for on the verge of bankruptcy. Luckily for him, it turns out items on the planet Olimar crashed on are worth a lot on Hocotate. Thus, Olimar returns to the mysterious planet with his co worker Louie, with the job of collecting enough treasure to pay off the company debt. Unlike the first game, Olimar has an unlimited amount of days to complete this.
This sets the stage for what Pikmin 2 is all about: exploring and collecting. Treasure is the name of the game, and there is a lot of them, 201 to be exact. You begin in the first area, the Valley of Repose. This snowy land houses the first treasures, Red Pikmin, bulborb enemies, and a new Pikmin type: Purple. Purple Pikmin are stronger than any other Pikmin type, with the caveat that they cannot be gained by carrying enemies and pellets back to the onion base. Instead, they can only be gained by finding candypop flower buds, of which you can throw five Pikmin into the flower, and it will shoot out five Pikmin of the flower's color, and then wilt away. This adds a new element of strategy, since Purple Pikmin are stronger than the other types, but you will only have a small amount of them, meaning you have to be careful with them.
Candypop flower buds can only be found in caves, of which you will discover the first in the Valley of Repose. These are new parts of the world to explore in small segments, known as sublevels. Each cave has a set number of sublevels, and you must progress through them all before returning to the surface. In these caves, you cannot grow and grab more Pikmin, as the onion bases cannot go underground. On the flip side, time stops in caves, so you can take your time as you search them. That's right, as if giving the player infinite in game days wasn't enough to create a slower paced experience, there are now areas in which time does not matter at all.
After exploring the first cave and its two sublevels, you will gain access to the second area: The Awakening Wood. Here, players will discover Red Spray, a new power up that temporarily enhances your Pikmin's power and speed, underground enemies, fire enemies, and more caves. Exploring these will lead to discovering the treasure gauge, which will ring to alert players when they are near treasure, White Pikmin, which are the fastest and deadliest Pikmin when eaten, but function similar to Purple (in that you can only gain them through flowers), and a treasure which will grant Olimar and Louie a new ability.
Utilizing White Pikmin and their resistance to poison, players will discover a treasure which unlocks the third area: the Perplexing Pool. Here, you will be introduced to Yellow Pikmin, who can no longer carry bomb rocks, but instead are resistant to electricity. You will also discover flying and electrical enemies, Purple Spray, another power up which temporarily freezes enemies (though you can also find it in the Awakening Wood), and the Key, an item which will unlock Challenge Mode! Returning from the first game, Challenge Mode has been beefed up into a more substantial mode, with 30 levels of mini caves to explore and collect treasure.
Players can then use Yellow Pikmin to return to the Awakening Wood and unlock Blue Pikmin. At this point, you now have access to every cave and treasure in the first three areas, and it is up to you to choose where to go and what treasure to chase.
The overall format of introducing players to its mechanics and world follows that of Pikmin 1, with a fairly linear path until gaining Blue Pikmin. However, Pikmin 2 does a great job at not feeling linear due to the sheer amount of power ups, pikmin, and treasure you will discover, and treasure is a lot more interesting this time around.
In Pikmin 1, there was only one ship part which granted the player any sort of new ability: the Radar. In Pikmin 2, treasures can grant you all sorts of power ups. There is one ability granting treasure at the bottom of each cave, encouraging you to explore each one you find. In this way, you're doing more than simply collecting items like in Pikmin 1. You're gaining new abilities, new power ups, and unlocking new areas and modes
If this sounds like a lot to find and understand, that's because it is! Pikmin 2 doesn't just give you more items to find, but more tools to use. With an additional two Pikmin types, spray power ups, and new abilities to collect, the game expands on Pikmin 1's gameplay dramatically, encouraging you to experiment and understand all the enemies and bosses you will encounter.
And boy are there a lot of enemies. Each cave houses unique enemies and new variants of familiar foes, and each cave features a boss on its final floor. Bulborbs now have many variants compared to the two in Pikmin 1, and with more differentiating them. Some wake up easier, some don't even sleep, some are on fire, and some have hair! There's a new dweevil enemy, which comes in many different variations. Some shoot fire, others water, electricity, some even carry bomb rocks and chase you as they count down to explosion! There are now fiery and watery blowhogs, the flying snitchbug now has a variant that does not grab your Pikmin but instead grabs your captains, and now puffy blowhogs come in big and small variants! There are jellyfish eneimes, enemies that shoot rocks, some of which even follow you! There are even enemies that shoot balls of energy at you, like mini bullets. In short....there's a lot.
As if that wasn't enough, there's also the bosses. Many of Pikmin 1's bosses return, but are joined with new ones. Emperor Bulblax, the final boss from Pikmin 1, is back, but so is Empress Bulblax. You fight her multiple times, with changes each time. The first is a straight battle, the next she can make boulders fall from the ceiling, and the next she can give birth to an army of baby bulborbs, which will see you fighting more enemies than you can count! The Burrowing Snagret returns, but now has a variant that can leap out of the ground and jump at you. There is a boss that can sense and hone in on your location, while another can turn into a ball to quickly charge you.
Then there are the dweevil bosses. Beady Long Legs returns, but now has multiple variations: one that is much bigger, while another has a gun that it can use to shoot you!
There are so many enemies and bosses to tackle in the many many caves featured throughout Pikmin 2 that it quickly becomes clear this is a much bigger game than the first one. Caves have so many sublevels that when combined, you could argue they have nearly as much content as a single area in Pikmin 1. With over 10 caves in Pikmin 2, it isn't just bigger than the first game, but twice as big, arguably even more! Pikmin 2 is so big and full of secrets that it makes the first game almost feel like a tech demo. The amount of content to get lost in is staggering.
As if that wasn't enough, players can further immerse themselves in the brand new Piklopedia mode. This lets players view every enemy and treasure in the game. They can throw pikpik carrots at enemies to see how they react, and read descriptions regarding each enemy and item. Olimar explores the biology of each creature, wondering how they connect and evolved, trying to understand the life of this planet from a scientific perspective. For the treasures, he theorizes what might be the history behind them, and often uses them to think of his own history, life, and family back on Hocotate. He also shares his reasoning for the names given to the treasures, caves, and areas of the game. There's a reason behind all of them if you're willing to dig around the Piklopedia!
One often forgotten aspect of Pikmin 2 that it adds to the series is lore. Pikmin 1 had a story, but there wasn't much to it. It was very simple, Olimar is on a mysterious planet and must get off, but that's it. Nothing is concluded about what significance the planet holds, or who Olimar is. He references his family, but reveals little about them.
Pikmin 2 in turn reveals so much about our protagonist and its world that the mind cannot help but wander. We learn more about Olimar's relationship with his wife, son, and daughter. Louie has a grandmother that reveals a bit about him, and most importantly of all, Pikmin 2 drops the biggest of lore bombs: that the mysterious planet Olimar first crashed on is in fact planet Earth. It is not played as some big reveal, the game is so obvious about it you cannot miss it, with much of the treasures being toys or items from our modern society. The Pikmin games as it turns out, take place on Earth.
This revelation cannot help but beg tons of questions. Why are there no humans? What happened to them? In the first game Olimar only had 30 days because the atmosphere was full of poison. Why is Earth full of poison gas? The animal life must be descendants of animals we know, so what connects to what? Olimar explores these questions through some of the Piklopedia entries, and reading them, your mind cannot help but ponder such questions. Pikmin 2 takes the world of Pikmin and suddenly makes it one worth discussing and thinking about outside of the game. No longer is it a mysterious unknown planet with little to read into, now it is earth, and much social commentary can be found regarding why humans went extinct and what their downfall was.
This...this is why I love Pikmin 2 so so much, as do many. Before Pikmin 2, Pikmin was a fun series, a nice small game to think about, but nothing more. It wasn't a series with tons of enemies and characters, lore to discuss, and multiple substantial entries like the big guns of Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon. Pikmin 2 was a moment in which the series expanded, becoming one of Nintendo's well known series, ensuring it would remain a part of the Nintendo fandom and its many discussions. It showed that Pikmin doesn't have to be a fun weird experiment. It can be a great grand adventure just like Nintendo's other big series, and is worthy of gaining a character in Super Smash Bros, as it would after Pikmin 2!
When Pikmin 2 released, it was a smash hit. From my memories, everyone I spoke with agreed it was a massive improvement over the first game, and not only that, but one of the best games on the Nintendo Gamecube. General reception was nothing but positive, and the excitement for a sequel was incredibly high. Pikmin 2 was simply a magical game, and it remained one of my favorite games for a long long time......
But...
It's been nearly 20 years since Pikmin 2 released. That is a long time, and in that time we've gotten two new Pikmin games (3 if you count Hey Pikmin). A lot has changed. I've changed. The Pikmin fandom has grown a lot. Over the years, the endless praise for Pikmin 2 has soured. Even I, once an avid lover of Pikmin 2, can not help but acknowledge there were some issues with the game that could turn players off.
If Pikmin 1's controversial system is its 30 day timer, than Pikmin 2's is caves. Caves are what gives Pikmin 2 so much content. However, you may have noticed that most of the game's significant content is in caves. All the bosses are in caves, it is where you find flower buds for White and Purple Pikmin, it is where all the ability granting treasures are. In fact, there is so much treasure to find in caves that you can ignore the treasures above ground and pay off the company debt with ease. You can even get sprays underground rather than above ground, and in an easier manner. Caves in a sense, are Pikmin 2. So let's talk about them.
Playing inside caves is interesting, because it's both Pikmin at its most relaxing and frustrating. Because time freezes in Pikmin 2, you can take your time and not worry about anything but exploring. You can be slow with each enemy to minimize your Pikmin loss, and most of all, you can reset if things go wrong. The game will save every time you go from one sublevel to another, and they only take around ten minutes to get through, so you can easily abuse the system by resetting if you lose Pikmin, minimizing the issue of not being able to farm Pikmin underground.
This is likely the case because caves in Pikmin 2 are do not have a set design. A couple of the sublevels do, but most of them are randomly generated, so returning to a cave or redoing a sublevel will lead to a different layout and placement of enemies and treasure. I suspect this was the only way the developers could create caves with so much content (usually they have 5 or more sublevels). I believe it was how the developers made Pikmin 2 such a massive game.
This random generation however, means two things. First, it can lead to some frustrating sublevels in which enemies or treasure spawn in an awkward location, and you can easily lose a lot of Pikmin in a silly yet frustrating way. Second, and far more important, is that most of the sublevels of caves have fairly simple designs. This makes them easy to traverse and understand. But it also means that the complex environmental puzzles of Pikmin 1 are barely present here. The overworld areas have a few. However, none get as complex as those found in the final three areas of Pikmin 1. The overall gameplay of Pikmin 2 focuses more on navigating bite sized sublevels of caves, rather than a large connected world. This means the need to multitask and strategize is all but gone, creating a different experience from Pikmin 1, one that left some fans disappointed.
You could continue this line of thinking and make the argument that Pikmin 2 chased quantity at the detriment of quality. If you compare the overworld areas only, it is easy to find the environments of Pikmin 1 more interesting to navigate and explore. This is especially evident in the caves. The caves feature more content than Pikmin 1's campaign. Yet because each features simple randomized sublevels, after a while they start to feel similar, with few having a unique identity. They all feature sublevels with enemies and treasure, all end with a boss and special treasure, and that's it. Sure some have unique melodies or different types of enemies, but you're navigating them all the same way, and it's easy to understand why some would find the caves in Pikmin 2 a step down from Pikmin 1's environments.
.....except for one, the Submerged Castle. In the Submerged Castle, you do not take your time navigating each sublevel, defeating enemies and collecting treasure along the way. After a set amount of time, the boss will appear on each sublevel, proceeding to chase you and try and kill your Pikmin. The boss is invincible, so all you can do is run. This makes the cave tense and scary, unlike every other cave. As if that wasn't bad enough, the cave exists in a body of water, meaning you can only take Blue Pikmin into the cave. This adds another layer of difficulty because the cave features hazards you would typically use other Pikmin colors for, so fire, electricity, and poison.
These two elements give the Submerged Castle a distinct identity and challenge. Simple puzzles become a lot harder when you aren't allowed the Pikmin color that would normally be impervious to it, and the anxiety of knowing the boss is coming creates a tense experience.
This is without a doubt the best cave in the game. It offers the perfect opportunity for satisfying Pikmin 1 fans that desire a more strategic and stressful experience, while not totally alienating those that disliked those aspects of Pikmin 1, since players can ignore caves and explore elsewhere
It is then a shame that this is the only cave in Pikmin 2 to have such a unique identity. The longer it's been since Pikmin 2, the more I lament the lack of cave variety and cannot help but think of what could have been. Imagine a cave in which you fight the same boss multiple times on multiple sublevels, with it getting harder each time. Or more caves in which you can only take one type of Pikmin. Or a cave which is only one sublevel, but is a massive maze like sublevel. There is so much you can do with the cave system, and I cannot help but wish more was done.
Pikmin 2 also could have done more to balance its new systems. Purple and White Pikmin are great additions, and the new strategy they add is nice. However, they are so powerful that it can almost feel cheap to use them. Purple Pikmin for example can stun enemies when thrown on them, just as long as a Purple Spary would! The Purple Spary itself is another issue, you can easily farm a large amount of them and use it to destroy any enemy in the game with ease. Whenever I replay the game, I force myself to not use spray, and will even limit my Purple Pikmin usage, because they can take the fun out from how easy they make things.
Then again...that's kind of the point of Pikmin isn't it? Being able to go back and replay it, and give yourself new limits or goals, like beating it within a certain amount of days, or only using a certain number of Pikmin, that's the fun of replaying Pikmin. And because Pikmin 2 has a lot more treasure to find, you can play it in all sorts of different ways or routes depending on your preference. This is why I have gone back and replayed it so much over the years.
It is easy to get bogged down in the negative comments regarding Pikmin 2 when looking at them at a macro level. Yet despite my critiques, when I went back to replayed the game for this retrospective, I was shocked at how much fun I had with it, how much I loved the more relaxed playstyle compared to Pikmin 1, and just how damn fun it is. That's because at the micro level, the caves have an incredible amount of content to get through and explore, that you can't help but enjoy it.
Remember the Submerged Castle I mentioned, the game's best cave? Well, not only is it the most unique cave, but it also contains Pikmin 2's coolest secrets. After getting to the second sublevel, you will encounter Bulbmin. These are Bulborbs that, according to Olimar's speculation in the Piklopedia, were infected with Pikmin DNA in a way that caused the Bulborb to develop Pikmin characteristics. After you defeat the mother Bulbmin, you can whistle all its children to you, and have a new type of Pikmin for the rest of the cave! The first time I discovered Bulbmin, my mind was blown, and I still love running into and using the little guys all these years later.
Even cooler however, is the treasure. After you brave the cave, the special treasure the boss gives you allows Olimar and Louie to pluck Pikmin from the ground by whistling. Gone are the days in which you have to pluck new Pikmin one by one, now you can simply whistle in one go to pluck as many as you want out of the ground! It is an incredible tool that makes the game that much easier to play, and is always a pleasure to get on replays.
Most astounding of all, Bulbmin have yet to return in a future Pikmin game, and the whistle pluck remains a rare but precious treasure throughout the series. These are examples of the sort of cool secrets you will discover if you take the time to explore the beautiful and vast world of Pikmin 2, and why it stuck with so many players.
Let me end this by going over the rest of the game. After Olimar successfully collects enough treasure to pay off the company debt, he and Louie return to Hocotate, job well done. Unfortunately, Louie accidentally stays behind, opening up the door to the final area. Upon returning home, the president of Olimar's shipping company agrees to take Louie's place, both in order to find Louie, and to collect every piece of treasure.
The final area, the Wistful Wild, is the ultimate test of all the tools you've gained thus far. It only features 3 caves, but they are easily the hardest caves in the game. They all go over 10 sublevels, with some having multiple bosses and difficult enemies packed together. It makes for a fitting conclusion.
At the bottom of the final cave, the Dream Den, Olimar and the president encounter Louie, alongside some of the most valuable treasure. Unfortunately when getting close, four huge legs appear, holding Louie and the treasure up, and the final battle against the Titan Dweevil begins. This epic clash sees the Dweevil able to use the treasures to unleash elemental attacks. You will need every Pikmin type to avoid its blasts and win.
The battle itself is a nice metaphor for how Pikmin 2 compares to Pikmin 1. The final battle of Pikmin 1 is difficult, long, tense, and arguably harder due to the timer pressuring you to defeat it in one in game day. This is not the case in Pikmin 2, since you battle the final boss inside a cave, with no time limit. Despite the arguably easier difficulty, the boss makes up for it through its presentation. The song that plays during the fight is epic and dynamic. Every time the Titan Dweevil is about to attack, the music will change and play a different tune based on which attack it is using. This adds flair to the flight, making each attack hit with a special punch. After you've successfully removed the four treasures from the Titan Dweevil, the music will change as you enter the final phase, defeating it once and for all and saving Louie.
You could argue the battle isn't as well designed as Emperor Bulblax. You can cheese the Titan Dweevil because only one of its four attacks extends outside the arena you fight it in. So you can simply run out of the arena whenever it is about to attack to easily avoid casualties. This is also true of Emperor Bulblax, but the timer makes it less viable.
Despite all this, I prefer the Titan Dweevil to Emperor Bulblax. Having no timer minimized the strategy required to defeat the boss, but it also meant the battle could be much longer. This plus the presentation made the overall fight more epic and more satisfying to get through, elevating it to something special, as I feel with Pikmin 2 as a whole. Once you save Louie and collect every treasure in the game, you will be shown one of the most beautiful ending cutscenes I've had the pleasure of watching in a video game. 20 years later it still resonates with me, and it's not hard to see why:
To conclude, if you really want, you can find ways to nitpick Pikmin 2, argue that its differences from Pikmin 1 make it less interesting. But when the game first released, it was hard to have any complaints because the moment to moment gameplay of exploring and learning about this cool new world and its creatures was just so dang fun. The way Pikmin 2 expands on the lore and mechanics of the first game so much was simply an incredible experience to have. All the cool new abilities you gain, the new and improved Challenge Mode (and there's a two player battle mode!), all the new enemies and bosses, the piklopedia and all its lore, it was an incredible package of a game that, coming from its predecessor, is still a monumental achievement.
This is why for many, myself included, Pikmin 2 remains not just one of the best Gamecube games, but Nintendo games in general. It was amazing to see the world and gameplay of Pikmin brought to life and expanded like never before. It felt like the series Pikmin had finally established itself as one of Nintendo's core franchises, featuring a world so big you could get lost in it like never before. It was an incredible experience, and one I will cherish forever.
Thank you so much for reading this! I'll see you in the next one for Pikmin 3.
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