The Lamer Gamer

I’m not going to address the general makeup of Pikmin New Play Control, as it’s the same game as the original Pikmin.  So if you liked or disliked that, your opinion probably won’t change.  Mostly, I focused on the new interface.

It would be a bit of an exaggeration to say that Pikmin 2 was such a great improvement upon plain old Pikmin that it renders the original unplayable.  I am, however, forced to compare my copy of Pikmin 2 to Pikmin NPC in some ways because I don’t have a copy of the original any more.  There really wasn’t a point in having both once 2 was out.

While Pikmin 2 added a lot of gameplay elements (Louie, caves, purple and white pikmin), Pikmin itself remains a solid game.  Ultimately the gameplay really isn’t that different in 1 vs 2, but I find using the Gamecube Controller to be much more desirable.  Trouble is NPC (which is a poor reuse of an acronym to begin with) doesn’t really add a lot to Pikmin.  Throwing Pikmin feels much slower, probably because I can’t move my thumb as quickly when holding the Wiimote as I could with the Gamecube Controller, I suppose because the grip is odd.  The cursor looks/behaves in a way that I find harder to aim than it used to be.  By separating the directional and cursor controls, NCP adds some flexibility, but it takes right back in requiring the player to actually be more flexible to work other controls.  Not just the camera, but anything on the WiiMote D-pad.  It just feels awkward to use the down side of the D-pad (so as to mass direct all the Pikmin en mass), which like the camera controls I use quite frequently.

Oh, and let’s see how I stacked up guessing the control structure for Pikmin NPC

The original Pikmin controls and how I’d like to see them remapped (and actually were):

I believe that’s a failing grade for my psychic skillz.  I should have seen it coming but they really stuck with the same buttons.  This is probably a much broader design decision with the Wiimote/Nunchuck for overall compatibility, but specifically I don’t like how this works with Pikmin.  Maybe it was too much to hope about the whole shaking the Wiimote to throw the little suckers, but I’m bummed about that.

Pikmin NPC is a 2 out of 5,  especially at $30.  I already paid you $10-20 more than that for it the first time around, and it is in essence the exact same 8 year old game aside from the change to widescreen.

Gamespot posted something of a first look at the “New Play Control” element of the upcoming Pikmin re-hash.  The post is kinda lacking as it doesn’t really describe much about the controls, and after reading it a few times I’m fairly certain the author is mixing up the Control-stick and the C-stick on the GameCube Controller.  

“…your onscreen cursor, which has been mapped to the Wii Remote and lets you move around by pointing at the screen instead of twisting the C-stick on the GameCube controller.” - Shaun McInnis

I’m assuming that he means the pointer replaces the Control-stick, which I partially expected.  My hope was that they would decouple the pointer from Olimar’s movement, pointing with the pointer and moving the the Nunchuck Control-stick.  This leaves the C-stick function of directing Pikmin relative to Olimar still needing a home.

The original Pikmin controls and how I’d like to see them remapped:

I’m having trouble figuring on how exactly the camera controls would work. I’m not a fan of the 1 and 2 buttons on the Wiimote, they’re hard to reach, but I’m running out of buttons.

One other interesting note.  McInnis made a simple observation that had escaped me for a long time; Pikmin is an RTS, on a console, and it succeeded.  I had never really thought about that.  It’s vastly simplified, there’s no free camera and your building is limited to building more Pikmin, but the controls really worked, and that’s something I haven’t otherwise seen.

So where the hell is Pikmin 3?  I’ve been waiting for this since the Wii debuted.  Nintendo announced a few weeks back that they’d be re-releasing Pikmin for the Wii in March 09, but I have to ask, who gives a crap.  So instead of mashing the A button, I’ll be shaking the WiiMote to fling the little critters wherever they need to go, which I’ve actually been looking forward to.  But I’ve played it before, thoroughly.  After four or five replays trying to get your total days to completion down, it gets old.  I suppose the graphics will be updated, and hopefully they’ll release Pikmin II with it as well (ala Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga).

I’ve heard some rumors of a level editor, which would be a boon to the replay value of the game.  Online multiplayer would be a great addition too.  Combine the two and let me download maps somehow, and compete on downloaded maps, and now we’re talking.

I’m a little dissapointed in the lack of quality releases for the Wii at this point.  I still play Wii Sports, and I loved Zelda, Metroid 3 was passable, but there are a number of greater number of duds than winners.  Raving Rabbids is crap, really there are just way to many mini-game laden titles.