Learning to Love "Pikmin 3 Deluxe" in About the Shortest Time Imaginable
How I Fell in Love with "Pikmin" in the Span of a Day
10/9/20
DISCLAIMER: This essay is gonna be way more personalized than most of my essays (basically I'll be saying "I" and "me" a lot and stuff).
If you're a decently engaged Nintendo fan, you were probably informed of the Treehouse gameplay showcase on Wednesday. Most people were far more excited to see gameplay for "Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity", because "Pikmin 3" had already come out, and there wasn't a whole lot more they had to showcase. Naturally, I watched it all, because I love Nintendo, and I was blown away at how fun "Pikmin 3 Deluxe" actually looked. I had seen gameplay before this, but for some reason, it never really struck me how fun this game actually looked. Nonetheless, my memory is already somewhat blurred. The one thing I do remember was one of the game's players saying "look out for a demo on the eShop". Of course, I was very excited to actually try out this fun-looking game for myself. So I headed over to the Nintendo of America Twitter account and low and behold; a tweet that announced a demo dropping "this evening". I paced, stalled, and waited, and by the time 8:45pm had come around, I thought it must have been a lie. Then I realized it was the Nintendo of America headquarters is in Washington which is 3 hours behind the Eastern Standard Time. So I kept waiting, and I downloaded the demo when it went live at 9pm that night. I only had time to play it the next day, but when I picked it up for the first time, I was more than floored. This is the very personal story of how I feel in love with "Pikmin 3 Deluxe".
"Pikmin 3" is a survival horror game developed by Nintendo in 2013 that was falsely listed as a kid-friendly action/adventure puzzle game on the Nintendo Switch eShop. Technically, there aren't very many horror elements to the gameplay, but the deafening cry of the death of a Pikmin is truly heart-wrenching. Every time you witness the poor thing's passing a little part of you dies as well. I heard it was bad, but one could never know until they experience that connection and attachment stripped away by water or an enemy. Besides this, though, the game is a nearly perfect experience. The story is simple enough; it involves a team of three astronauts, Charlie (the captain), Brittany (a botanist), and Alph (an engineer). The team crash-lands on a planet known as PNF-404 and is separated in the process. The demo begins in Charlie's perspective and gives you a pretty quick tutorial on how to operate these new creatures he finds later named Pikmin. The story quickly switches to Alph's perspective, and, in an effort not to spoil the demo, he goes on a fun little adventure trying to uncover what happened and where things are.
It was very difficult to pinpoint any place where "Pikmin 3" shined or made it so fun, but then I realized that it was everything. Every single aspect of this game is immersive, creative, and unique, but most importantly fun as shit. Surprisingly, it doesn't feel like most Nintendo games. When thinking of Nintendo this past generation, family-friendly open exploration comes to mind. This probably stems from games like "Super Mario Odyssey", "Breath of the Wild", "Paper Mario: The Origami King", "Xenoblade Chronicles", etc. This game does encourage exploration to an extent, and it is sometimes fun when traversing a new area, but the game makes you believe that exploration is not really the goal. Your tasks are to micro-manage your Pikmin, find food and complete whatever recent task you have, and get it all done quickly before the sun goes down. It displays this best in the "Go Here" feature on the map; at any point, you can select a certain area that you have previously traversed, and the game will walk you and your Pikmin there as quickly as possible. The best part here is the fascinating way that the game not only tells you that this is what you have to do, but rather that it's what you want to do.
Personally, I'm huge on exploration in video games, and while I didn't think "Pikmin" looked very open or explorative, I still thought it would be at least somewhat fun. Though, when I kept getting quickly sucked into the amazing gameplay mere seconds after I booted up the game, I found myself micro-managing and planning when I didn't even realize it. I would always have to pause the game and take a step back to realize what I was just doing and how fun it all was. I can understand how this series might not be "your thing", but while this demo lasts I think everyone should give it a try. It's strangely hard for me to find a definitive answer to the title of this essay. I guess I fell in love with too much about "Pikmin" to pinpoint or call out a single aspect of what makes the whole experience so great. In conclusion, there are games that are a whole lot of sheer fun for the player. These games don't aim to provide a very interesting or unique storyline, for example, but are rather just fun to be fun, like the "Super Mario Maker" games or the "Toy Hawk Pro Skater" games. On the other hand, there are games that try to be the best experience, such as "ABZÜ" or "The Last Guardian". While both of these styles are fun or amazing on their own, there are certain games that make the best of both worlds and transcend any lines between. Games that show the true power of what playing a simple game could be. You probably know this category the best because these games are the most memorable and immersive, so I won't even list any examples. After only one day of experience with the demo for "Pikmin 3 Deluxe", I can confidently put it in this category, and classify it as truly the cream of the crop.
Image sources (in order):
Comments
Post a Comment