My Top 115 Favorite Video Games (70-66)

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70. Wario Land II (Game Boy)

The Wario Land games represent a special kind of oddness and creativity that blossomed in Nintendo’s suite of titles for their Game Boy handheld back in the 90s. Because they weren’t developing a big console game, Nintendo’s designers probably felt less pressure to deliver on certain expectations or adhere to certain conventions. This kind of freedom really shows in games like the Super Mario Land titles, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, and of course the Wario Land games. Wario Land II differs quite a bit from its predecessor: Wario is impervious to damage, for one thing, and the game has also gotten rid of the Super Mario World-style world map. Instead, a narrative plays out across a bunch of stages played immediately one after the other, but depending on what actions the player takes or what secret routes they find, their path can branch and the final outcome of the adventure can vary wildly. It’s a really interesting set-up for a platformer and one that encourages replaying levels and discovering every secret the game has to offer. Wario Land II is like a treasure trove that keeps extending deeper downwards until you discover the final, ultimate secret. Full of imaginative levels and packed with mysteries, I got completely lost in Wario Land II as a kid and it kept my face glued to my Game Boy screen until I had found and seen everything.

69. Kirby Super Star/Kirby Super Star Ultra (SNES/DS)

Like most Super Nintendo games on this list, Kirby Super Star is another game that I wanted to play for years, but was denied on account of me not having a Super Nintendo. While it eventually came to the Wii’s Virtual Console, I actually first experienced Super Star in its original form when I was in college. My roommate had somehow acquired a Super Nintendo and a box of games (something about his aunt finding it in her attic or something) and one of these was of course the elusive Super Star. I was overjoyed to finally experience the game and everything was going great until my save data somehow got corrupted when I was nearly finished with the adventure. I did restart and complete the whole game from scratch, but this nonetheless really soured my initial experience with Super Star unfortunately. All the same, from The Great Cave Offensive (my favorite) to Revenge of Meta Knight to Milky Way Wishes and more, Kirby Super Star is a greatly enjoyable time from beginning to end. While I mainly prefer the more standard Kirby adventures to Super Star’s oddball “multi-game” approach, I still appreciate the title’s uniqueness. The 2008 DS remake, Super Star Ultra, is my preferred version of the game and includes all of the original game’s modes as well as several new ones that all fit in nicely. In many ways, Super Star Ultra feels like the ultimate Kirby game, offering a robust and fulfilling Kirby experience that covers a ton of ground and contains most of the iconic characters and elements from throughout the series.

68. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

It had been a long time since a new Zelda game had given me the kind of feeling that A Link Between Worlds did. It brought back the free-form, exciting sense of exploration and discovery that the classic top-down Zeldas are known for, and it did it with several twists. The item-shop idea allowed for a wonderful sense of freedom and the extremely well-implemented wall-merging mechanic allowed for numerous angles to puzzle-solving and completely changed the way I thought about top-down Zelda. To top it all off, A Link Between Worlds also uses stereoscopic 3D to lovely effect and this is just another way this game subtly brings something new to the classic overhead Zelda design. While it’s not flawless, there’s just so much I could praise about this game: I could on and on about the wonderful soundtrack (with a surprising amount of great original compositions), fantastic dungeons, and the way that the game constantly played with my expectations and surprised me in all sorts of delightful ways. Beyond all this, ALBW also just has that special Zelda magic, as evidenced by moments like its touching ending sequence.

67. Super Paper Mario (Wii)

The first two Paper Mario games get plenty of love, and rightfully so, but Super Paper Mario seems to get a raw deal, and it pains me to see it occasionally lumped in with the likes of the soulless Paper Mario: Sticker Star as “one of the bad Paper Mario games”. While at its mechanical core, Super Paper Mario is a platformer and quite a departure from its turn-based RPG brethren, its heart and soul is completely in line with the smartly written, wildly imaginative, and subversive originals, perhaps even surpassing them to an extent in these regards. Full of memorable new characters (and new roles for existing ones) and interesting locations, Super Paper Mario is brimming with personality and creativity. Like its predecessor, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Super Paper Mario largely eschews well-worn-out Mario series tropes and instead sees Mario and his companions traveling to the pixelated palace of a nerdy chameleon who is a parody of Nintendo’s very own fanbase, a prehistoric land where overworld-dwelling rock people and underworld-dwelling flower people are at war, a convenience store in space, and even to…well, I won’t spoil that one. And even though it lacks turn-based battles, in its structure, atmosphere, ancillary mechanics, and storytelling, this adventure is every bit an RPG at heart and fits well in line with its predecessors. Speaking of storytelling, one of the aspects of Super Paper Mario that stands out the most is its narrative, which takes some surprisingly thoughtful and interesting turns for a game starring Nintendo’s mustachioed mascot, and is ultimately a uniquely touching tale for the series.

66. Pikmin 3 (Wii U)

I associate Pikmin 3 with late summer nights, peaceful and cool, crickets chirping a lullaby outside the window. Similar to Unravel (and I suppose many games on this list), Pikmin 3 is another very “me” game. Pikmin 2 is special to me and a great game, but it’s a bit bloated. Its follow-up condenses things and delivers the most refined, polished, accessible, and quite frankly enjoyable game in the series. It takes some of the great aspects of Pikmin 2 and melds them with a sense of urgency and greater narrative heft more akin to the original Pikmin and spins it all into a wonderful adventure with a potent atmosphere that feels almost profound. It’s hard to describe the kind of unique feeling that the Pikmin games have but this essence is perhaps more prominent than ever in Pikmin 3. An experience that combines my love of nature with my love of little things with my love of engrossing interactive experiences, its locales are gorgeous, its characters charming, its design satisfying, and its memorable final chapter left such an impression on me that I felt the need to dedicate a whole post to it separate from my review.

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We approach the halfway point next time with #65-61!

My Favorite Summer Games

It’s a hot, sunny day in the middle of July right now and an air conditioner is blaring in my right ear. It’s summer. I have many fond memories tied to the summer season and unsurprisingly, many of these memories involve video games. There are several video games that are intrinsically tied with summer for me and always will be, mostly because it was during summer that I played them, but also for reasons involving the content and nature of the games themselves. What initially gave me the inspiration for this post was the recent release of Splatoon. Nintendo’s kid-squid simulator is a perfect summer game that I think was ingeniously released right at the beginning of the season. Splatoon is a game about a bunch of sea creatures splatting each other with ink-filled super-soakers by day and having rad, neon-lit dance parties by night. Sounds like summer to me.

I’ve also played a few other games this summer thus far that also seem well-suited to this time of year: the Uncharted series is filled with action and adventure and is inspired by summer blockbusters, while The Secret of Monkey Island is a pirate-themed adventure through a fantastical version of the Caribbean. All of these games fit in nicely with my long history of summertime video game experiences, several of which I’d like to talk about right now. These games aren’t all necessarily among my favorite games ever (though most of them are), but these are all games that embody summer to me and it’s on these hot, air-conditioned midsummer days that I reflect on them fondly.

Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast)

Sonic was a huge part of my childhood (I played the games, read the comics, watched the shows, and turned my living room into Marble Zone one time) and I was enamored with the original Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast. It’s not shocking then that I was awaiting Sonic Adventure 2 with bated breath, and I very clearly remember finally picking it up at the start of summer vacation in June of 2001, when it was released in North America. I remember reading the back of the case and eagerly pouring through the manual, carefully studying all of the character profiles in anticipation of the game (as anyone from my generation and before it can probably relate to, this “manual ritual” was mandatory back then). I specifically remember thinking something like “this is gonna be good” in an excited, awed sort of way. I put so many hours into Sonic Adventure 2 that summer, and spent so much time just replaying the levels over and over again just for fun, even the much-maligned treasure-hunting stages (hell, especially the treasure-hunting stages, which I loved exploring). Sonic Adventure 2 hasn’t aged as gracefully as I would have liked, but my fond, happy memories of playing it that summer are eternal.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64)

Exactly one year prior to my Sonic Adventure 2 summer, I was perhaps even more giddy for the arrival of Kirby’s long-awaited 3D outing on the Nintendo 64. This list isn’t intended to be ranked or anything, but Kirby 64 embodies summer for me perhaps more than any other game on this list. While this has much to do with the time in which I played it, Kirby 64 gave me such an amount of perfect bliss and excitement back then. It’s the kind of whimsical, imaginative platformer that I purposefully played slowly, taking in every unique level and sight and sound. I remember playing Kirby on the Fourth of July and thinking about playing Kirby while swimming in a friend’s pool. I remember fighting the whale boss at a friend’s house and searching tirelessly for the last crystal shard I needed. It’s a game that in my mind followed me all through that summer vacation, and remains not only one of my favorite games of all time, but one of my favorite summer gaming memories.

JRPGs: Final Fantasy VII (PS1), Lunar Legend (GBA), and Chrono Cross (PS1)

In one way or another, Japanese RPGs have always seemed to be largely associated with summer for me (and spring actually, but maybe that’s for another time). Whether it was watching my older brother play the Final Fantasy games long ago, or flirting with Final Fantasy VII when one of my childhood best friends came over one summer day, or of course, my own experiences playing them, JRPGs with all their adventure and beautiful, mysterious worlds and stories and spiky-blue-haired characters have often been summer games for me. Three JRPGs in particular stand out in my mind as cherished summer experiences.

Final Fantasy VII

I already mentioned playing it a bit with a friend one summer, but it wasn’t until years after that I sat down one summer to really get into Final Fantasy VII myself. This was years after the game’s prime and I already knew a fair bit about it, but it still intoxicated me with its now famous brilliant opening sequence, its unforgettable world that blended machinery and magic brought to life by detailed pre-rendered backgrounds and a poignant soundtrack, and its winding and intriguing narrative. All of this makes for a game brimming with an atmosphere that I can still feel. For me, much of my experience with FFVII is wound up in summertime. I fondly remembering visiting Cosmo Canyon for the first time and hearing that music start up, a moment that perfectly embodies that kind of wonder and adventure and freedom that the summer months brought when I was younger.  

Lunar Legend

For a couple of summers in a row when I was in high school, I worked at an auto-insurance agency for a few hours three days a week. I was actually working there the summer I started playing Final Fantasy VII and I was also working there the summer I picked up Lunar Legend for the Game Boy Advance on a friend’s recommendation. I vividly remember working at Curley Insurance in the morning, being home by noon and eating a delicious roast beef sandwich for lunch, and spending the rest of the day and evening playing Lunar Legend. Lunar Legend isn’t my favorite RPG ever (and I’ve since heard it’s one of the weaker versions of the original Lunar), but it’s a colorful, magical journey and just classic JRPG goodness.

Chrono Cross

The final JRPG I want to talk about is probably the most summer-y of them all for me, and easily one of my absolute fondest summertime video game experiences. I was in my second year of college at the time and decided to replay Chrono Trigger on a whim (it’s always a good time for Chrono Trigger). I played it for a good chunk of my second semester and ended up completing it right at the start of summer, when I suddenly realized that I’d never played its often overlooked sequel, Chrono Cross. I remembered watching my brother play some of it years ago, and decided to borrow it from him and give it a go myself finally, because hey whatta ya know, it was summer vacation. Chrono Cross is one of those games that I not only associate with summer because that’s when I played it (I specifically remember trotting through an underground river in one of the game’s many enchanting locales, with my screened windows open on a pleasantly warm summer night), but because the game’s content itself is very summer-y. The experience opens in a pristine fishing village and the first real “dungeon” is a beach. You explore a bunch of islands while sailing on a small boat, and your main character trots around in shorts and a bandana (and, for the record, also has blue hair). The game’s world is brought to life through beautiful hand-painted backgrounds and everything is just so colorful and rich with detail and natural beauty. The mesmerizing soundtrack is the entrancing garnish here that ties all this together, and getting lost in the depths of this enigmatic and beautifully melancholic adventure is one of my most cherished summer gaming experiences.

BioShock (PC)

Like many in my culture, when I think of summer, I think of beaches and the ocean. Perhaps less common is how I think of a decaying art deco city at the bottom of the ocean, crawling with deranged and deformed people scavenging its leaky corridors and hulking diving suits escorting little girls with gigantic syringes that feed on the aforementioned mutated peoples’ corpses. It’s summer! Actually, it’s BioShock, a groundbreaking title that I first began one summer years ago. I recall going to the beach one day, and that night, still sandy and sunburned, exploring the haunting halls of the city of Rapture. The game’s deep ocean setting and immersive adventure captivated me that summer and I still associate BioShock with the season today. Perhaps it is no accident then that I am currently playing through BioShock Infinite for the first time.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube)

I’d be making a huge omission if I failed to mention this one. I don’t remember if it was just one summer in particular or several in a row, but back in high school my friends and I would hang out and go swimming in my friend’s pool what feels like almost every day and afterwards we’d smash and smash for hours. I have many memories of those times and many in-jokes arose, such as “NO!” and “BOP!”. Unless you are one of the four of us, you have no idea what those mean, but that’s fine; what’s important is that summer nights are all about Super Smash Bros. Melee and a duel taking place at the Fountain of Dreams as Marth, Link, Captain Falcon, and Sheik fiercely duke it out to that kickass Gourmet Race remix.

PC Games

Doom 3

This is a bit of a weird entry, but I have a lot of memories with playing and watching other people play PC games during the summer. See, I grew up playing games on consoles and handhelds and PC games have mostly throughout my life been a kind of special, exotic commodity, something I’d mostly tangentially experience through friends, but not something I got to experience myself often (listen to my podcast for more details on my PC gaming history). It just happens that a lot of those memories with PC games come from the summer months. I played the aforementioned BioShock on PC actually, but I also began one of my most beloved titles, Half-Life 2, during late summer (though Half-Life 2 is also very much tied to fall and my first semester of college). Then there are cases of memories where I was often bored at the time, such as watching my friend play the Command & Conquer games and Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast during the summer to no end (hi, Dan), but that I strangely look back on fondly now. I also played a good chunk of Doom 3 on PC with that same friend one summer. I’m sure there are other memories lost to time (here’s another one: playing around with emulators way back when during the summer), but those are a few that I have with PC games.

Pikmin 3 (Wii U)

This is a more recent memory; last summer actually. I also wrote a review of Pikmin 3 as well as a spoiler-heavy follow-up post about its finale that hopefully sum up a lot of what makes the game so special to me, so give those a look for more details. I wrote another piece about playing the original Pikmin and at least starting Pikmin 2 one summer, but Pikmin 3 is the one I really associate with summertime. See, it was late summer and I was on the verge of leaving a crappy job I had been doing for three years. I knew I only had a few weeks left there, so coming home at night to immerse myself in Pikmin 3 somehow felt all the sweeter. Pikmin 3 seemed like a game perfectly tailored for cool, late summer nights. Its lush, nature-rich setting and picturesque environments suited the season well, and when out and about during the day, even when on my break at work, I would stare at plants and small patches of flowers and vegetation and imagine little Pikmin running around and try to think of how different environments could be a level in the game. I mention it in the review, but this spark of imagination I got from Pikmin 3 is often a trait many of my favorite video games share.

Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube)

Even though Super Mario Sunshine actually released at the very tail end of summer in North America and a good chunk of my initial experience with the game came in early fall, I still remember sinking my teeth into it the last week or so of my summer vacation that year. Surfing around on bloopers, collecting coins, hovering about with my water pump jetpack…good times. Do I really need to explain this one? It’s Super Mario Sunshine; everything about the game embodies summer and it’s also one of my favorite games of all time. It was a requirement that I put this one on the list, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have fantastic memories playing it late summer.

Game Boy Games

The best Mario game you've never played

When I say “Game Boy games”, I’m mainly thinking about classic, original Game Boy games, but this category also extends to the Game Boy Advance and even the DS. I just have loads and loads of awesome memories playing Game Boy/handheld games during summer. In fact, when I was really young, my Game Boy was my game machine of choice and I’d even say most of my early gaming probably took place there. I brought Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins with me everywhere, but also when I went to Cape Cod several summers in a row. I remember playing Wario Land II on a boat trip around a Maine harbor and playing Game Boy Advance games like The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Astro Boy: Omega Factor (an underrated gem) at my grandfather’s house in Maine (to be honest, I'm not exactly sure if these three were all during the summer, but I think they all were). Waking up early one summer to play Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and finally finishing it one summer night. So many car trips and family trips over the years, of swapping carts with friends and trying random Game Boy games I’d never heard of and can’t possibly recall the names of. I also can’t neglect to give a shout-out to the Sega Game Gear, and my fond memories of playing Sonic games on it. Then there was another more recent (though still years gone now) car trip to Maine involving the original New Super Mario Bros. (yes, for all the shade I throw at that series, I do have some nostalgic memories tied with it…some) and many more memories of many more games. I could write another whole post about Game Boy memories specifically, and maybe I will, but plenty of those memories are tied with summer.

Other Miscellaneous Games and Rented Games

I’m running out of room here, but I wanted to call out a few more specific games and also all the random games I’ve rented during the summer. Summer months have always been a dry spell when it comes to game releases, and when I was younger and hadn’t built up a backlog three miles long, I would often rent games during the summer, either with friend or on my own. A few of these have become fond memories of mine, such as the summer I rented and played through the game based on the original Spider-Man movie (probably on GameCube). I later bought the Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in game and played that during the summer (also on GameCube), maybe that same summer actually, and both of these were to my recollection a surprisingly solid good time, Spider-Man 2 especially. I also have good memories of renting and soon after buying the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, and also of sneaking around in its sequel, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, both on GameCube once again and during the summer from what I remember. I think I also played Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for PS2, twice in a row (the second time being the Subsistence version), during the summer, so apparently stealth games that may or may not involve sneaking through jungles are a summer thing for me as well (and the Uncharted series adds to this tradition somewhat actually).

There are still many more games I have great memories of playing during the summer, so let’s name a few more notables here. Think of this as the “honorable mentions” list: Kingdom Hearts II (PS2), Watch Dogs (PC), Mario Kart 8 (Wii U), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii), Paper Mario (N64), The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GameCube), and still more games and memories, not even including great memories of replaying old favorites during the summer months.

Summer is a special time. It’s something that has been conditioned in me to be associated with good times throughout my life thanks to its status as a break from school and its focus on fun activities, both outdoors and indoors and of course for me with plenty of video games. These are some of my favorite summer gaming memories. What are some of yours?

Extended Thoughts on the Finale of Pikmin 3 *SPOILERS*

The strange finale of Pikmin 3 stuck with me so much that I feel the need to address it in a separate post. Pikmin 3 is not a game that ends in an epic, explosive conclusion, but a more personal and disturbing one. The game’s final stage, known as the “Formidable Oak”, is downright spooky. The area revolves around a giant gnarled tree(?) in the middle of a lonely desert wasteland. From the first steps I took in the place, I felt a sense of great apprehension. The quiet, unsettling music put me on edge and even though it seemed at first that I could choose to go in one of two directions, one of these paths was a dead end and so the only way I could go was a straightforward path that winded up the tree to some inevitable final conclusion with what was sure to be a terrifying beast. What awaited at the end of that path, however, is baffling and bizarre in all the right ways.

The final enemy the explorers face in the game is a whole new level of odd and many questions are raised about what is going on with this surreal creature. We first see it as a tiny, oddly-shaped thing that at first glance is hard to get any impression of at all, except that it is standing over Captain Olimar’s sleeping body, just staring at him; it even looks like it’s petting him. This golden entity is eerie, to say the least, but it soon becomes terrifying as its bizarre-looking head swells to enormous size and engulfs Olimar with its face-hole. Freeing Olimar is deceptively easy at first, but soon after the “mysterious lifeform” as it’s called in-game takes on a new shape as a gigantic, transparent blob with a yellow cube at its center that relentlessly chases Olimar (and your Pikmin carrying him) through a winding labyrinth with no end in sight. It’s a tense and frightful experience, especially at first when I wasn’t expecting it or prepared for it. I was running around in circles, not sure what to do or where to go. For a game that I thought I had all figured out, here at end, it completely turned everything upside down. I had hundreds and hundreds of Pikmin, I thought I’d have no problem with whatever giant monster awaited me at the end of the game, but here I was helpless and running around aimlessly as the thing slurked along, moving at a deceptive speed that contradicted its mucus-y appearance.

I soon gathered my bearings and figured out a strategy for alluding the monster by having Brittany run in a literal circle around the environment with five Pikmin and Olimar in tow, keeping the beast occupied while Alph and Charlie forged a path ahead, clearing out all obstacles ahead and looking for a way out of the cavern. As I explored, I found notes left behind by Olimar, notes detailing the chilling cycle the Hocotatian had found himself in: out of Pikmin and resources, without a ship, and all alone, he was trapped with a creature that ceaselessly chased him. Every day, no matter how hard he tried to evade it, the thing would catch him, triggering his space suit’s auto-sleep function, and drag him all the way back to the top of the oak. Olimar would then soon wake up, confused for a moment before remembering his horrific situation; he would try to escape again only to be caught, over and over again. Truly, he was doomed unless I saved him. After spending so much time and going through so many trials with Olimar in Pikmin and Pikmin 2, I felt a great empathy for my former protagonist and wanted to get him out of his predicament as quickly as I could.

But is the Plasm Wraith, which turned out to be the “mysterious lifeform’s” official title, really a monster? It wasn’t hurting Olimar, in fact it seemed to be protecting him. It even placed him on a little leaf bed at the top of its oak. Perhaps Alph, Brittany, and Charlie were seen as threats to Olimar and the creature was misguidedly trying to help him. Was it acting as a protective parent? Or perhaps it was just lonely and wanted a friend? Just what is this sad, mysterious entity? I found myself pitying it and felt guilty that, after finally finding a way out of the labyrinth and the creature, now infuriated, engulfed Olimar once more and swelled to enormous size, the game would now ask me to wear the thing down piece by piece and kill it. This wraith felt different than the other beasts on the planet. It felt intelligent.

There is a lot of subtext here, a lot more than I expected from the end of this game, and a lot it is left up to the player to decide what is going on. Is the situation here really creepy? Or really sad? Or cute in an odd way? Or all of these things? The final creature in Pikmin 3 is not so much the gigantic horrifying kind of beast that lay at end of the previous two games, but more of a puzzling, bizarre, and questionable thing. I also can’t help but be reminded of the Water Wraith from Pikmin 2, another bizarre entity that relentlessly chased Olimar and Louie throughout the entirely of one of the game’s dungeons, an experience that still chills me to think about (just listen to the music that plays in the dungeon before the Water Wraith appears; that is legitimate horror game material). Could the two wraiths be related? The same species or something more? At the very least, I’m sure the Water Wraith, which is one of the most memorable aspects of Pikmin 2 for me, served as inspiration for the Plasm Wraith.

Above: The Water Wraith. Below: The Plasm Wraith's liquid form. Any relation?

In regards to the guilt I felt about having to slay the pitiable, lonely Plasm Wraith, it turns out the game designers had this in mind as well. I felt a bit of relief after the Plasm Wraith finally toppled over and let Olimar go, not only because I’d finally bested it and finished the game, but because I watched as the Wraith’s golden gooey remains slowly slinked away in the background as Alph, Brittany and Charlie celebrated their victory. Then, as the explorers and Olimar blasted off in the S.S. Drake, the Plasm Wraith, reformed, can be seen at the top of the oak flailing about; is it waving goodbye? Or writhing in anger, shaking its “arms” in fury at the explorers that stole its precious Olimar away? It’s very telling that the final boss is actually still alive at the end of the game (I looked it up and this is true for every ending of the game, including the best one, which is what I achieved after acquiring all of the fruit in the game), which is different than the past two Pikmin titles, where the final creatures in those game fell to their death in a hail of glory. But I felt the Plasm Wraith surviving was appropriate; outright slaughtering the thing would feel wrong given all the character the designers gave it.

Beyond the final boss, Pikmin 3’s conclusion leaves of lot of unanswered questions, some of which might be setting up a sequel, but it also leaves the game with a sense of mystery. Throughout the story, Alph would ponder in his end of day logs about how he had a feeling that there was something more to the S.S. Drake’s crash landing, almost as if he had the feeling that something from the planet’s surface had reached out and pulled the Drake down. Weird, right? I thought I’d get the answer to this question at the game’s conclusion, but instead the narrator ponders what the cause of the Drake’s accident was before musing that “perhaps it wasn’t an accident after all…” Was the Drake’s rough landing the Plasm Wraith’s doing, afraid that these aliens would try to take Olimar? Or did the Wraith call Olimar and Louie’s ship down before, which lead to its wrecked state in the Garden of Hope and this is just something that it does? Is it reaching out to try to find friends, to try to cure its loneliness? Or perhaps there’s something else going on here, something even more surreal…

The Plasm Wraith says goodbye

In another log, Alph mused about how because of him and his friends, the Pikmin were thriving. The three explorers had saved their Onions from predators and harrowing circumstances, guided and led them and increased their numbers dramatically in a short time span. It of course seems as though the Pikmin are pawns being controlled by the captains, but Alph pondered whether it was the Pikmin who were really controlling the captains, before dismissing the thought as ridiculous. That idea is ridiculous…right? In the original Pikmin, Olimar thought about something similar, about how perhaps his arrival had taught the Pikmin how to fend for themselves and survive. At the end of that game, the Pikmin are seen attacking and fighting a Bulborb on their own, having learned how to defend themselves through Olimar’s guidance.

And that brings us to Pikmin 3’s final scene: after the narrator cryptically states that perhaps the Drake’s accident at the start of the game “wasn’t an accident after all”, we are treated to a beautiful and moving credits sequence showing the Pikmin going about their lives on their own before we are treated to a final shot of a group of Pikmin idling around a tree stump in a field of tall grass before a fiery meteorite comes crashing down to the planet’s surface in the distance. The Pikmin then all run towards the object, whatever it is. Is it not a coincidence then that in every Pikmin title, the captains always seem to land near Pikmin and Onions? Is it the Pikmin themselves who are responsible for the S.S. Drake’s “accident”, that they somehow call down these travelers so they can propagate their species? And that meteorite at the end: perhaps some new captains we’ll meet in Pikmin 4, when the whole ordeal repeats itself?

The cycle begins anew?

Besides the idea itself being very bizarre, there are holes in this theory of course, such as how in the first Pikmin game, Olimar crashed into an asteroid, which caused him to crash land on PNF-404. And in Pikmin 2, there was no crash landing. Also, the S.S. Drake was going to the planet’s surface anyway, so why the need to make it crash? Also, in the final scene of Pikmin 3 I just talked about, the Pikmin don’t seem to be paying much attention to the sky and only after one of them notices the burning meteorite and starts to run towards it, do all the others follow. They at least don’t appear to be consciously guiding the travelers to the planet’s surface, but perhaps it’s a subconscious thing? In any case, I think it’s a fascinating idea. The Pikmin series has always carried a lot of mystery and intrigue with it and I love that while the Koppaites’ story seemed to be nicely wrapped up in the end, there’s still a whole lot of questions that add to the mystery surrounding this young game series’ universe, and I only hope this mystery is given further layers in future games. Perhaps we’ll get some answers and many more questions to go along with them; perhaps we’ll never really know the full story, which is actually how I prefer it. Also, Louie is apparently still on PNF-404, forgotten once again, or maybe he’s doing this on purpose? I just had a horrifying thought: perhaps the Plasm Wraith snatched Louie up when the others weren’t looking and has now simply replaced one Hocotatian for another? I wish I didn’t think of that…

Pikmin 3 (Wii U) Review

Pikmin 3 is a garden of delights. It is an experience that evokes both a sense of childlike imagination and natural beauty. These are attributes which could also be applied to the previous two Pikmin games, however Pikmin 3 refines old elements and adds new ones and emerges as perhaps the best in the series. The improved processing power of the Wii U also lends to a more beautifully realized natural world than ever before. This review will focus primarily on the main story mode of Pikmin 3, so most everything I say is in regards to that aspect of the game. I did spend some time with Mission Mode and managed to earn at least a bronze medal on every course (I also got a few silvers and one platinum, if you’re curious). Mission Mode is actually quite a substantial side dish with some decent DLC (that adds several unique new environments to explore) and is overall a cool bonus for those looking for a pure, focused strategy experience. I haven’t had a chance to play the multiplayer Bingo Battle mode with friends, but I did check it out by myself just to get a feel for what it was about, and it actually seems like it’d be an intense competition and a lot of fun with some buddies around. Also, Mission Mode and Bingo Battle have some of the game’s most interesting environments (especially if you get the DLC for Mission Mode), and you’ll never see most of them if you only play the story mode.

Pikmin 3 caught me off guard when booting up the game for the first time because after the initial load-up screen, the story began immediately. There were no menus, nothing to break the immersion, just an immediate dive into the story. I was greeted with a view of outer space and a planet as a narrator began to tell me about the plight of this world, which is known as Koppai. Due to ill planning and resource management, Koppai had exhausted its food supply. After a series of probes were dispatched to find nearby potential sources of food on other planets, one scout came back with results: a mysterious, wild world dubbed PNF-404 seemed to provide a possible source of nourishment for the Koppaites, and so three explorers (or “captains” as I’ll be calling them, as they are the captains of the Pikmin)—Alph, Brittany, and Charlie (A, B, and C…get it?)—set off the explore PNF-404 and try to rescue their home planet.

The planet Koppai

However, something goes wrong upon arriving at the massive, imposing planet and the S.S. Drake (that’s the name of our protagonists’ spaceship) experiences a rough entrance into PNF-404’s atmosphere before the three explorers are ejected and crash land in different regions of the planet’s surface. The early parts of the game follow one protagonist at a time, starting with Charlie, who quickly finds himself in a terrifying situation. Next we meet up with Alph, who goes about trying to find his lost friends. These early stages and the narrative surrounding them makes this Pikmin game stand out from its predecessors both from a narrative standpoint and a gameplay one. This introduction made me feel engrossed in the Koppaites’ plight and made the progression of the game feel more natural than the traditional formulaic Pikmin approach (which the game eventually does fall into; not necessarily a bad thing, just a point to note). Thanks to Pikmin 3’s main mechanic of having to harvest giant fruit in order to make juice in order to keep surviving, I felt more directly connected with the story than ever before in the series; the game brings back the sense of urgency from the original Pikmin, but with a more forgiving twist: as long as I keep gathering fruit, I’ll be able to keep surviving, instead of there being a set number of days from the beginning.

Pikmin 3 also does a wonderful job of easing the player into its mechanics, which could potentially be overwhelming for new players (they were for me at least when I first played the original Pikmin), such as how to efficiently manage switching off between the three captains in the game in order to make the most of each day. To start, the game makes sure the player is comfortable controlling one captain, than introduces a second one, and eventually gives the player command of all three captains at once. One early level teaches the player how to effectively use two captains by tasking Alph and Brittany, separated on opposite sides of a region, to work together and use Pikmin to build a massive bridge that will allow them to reconnect with each other. This “tutorial” portion doesn’t feel overbearing or pandering, and doesn’t really feel like a tutorial at all, thanks to the pressure to continue to collect fruit and survive and the way new mechanics and Pikmin types are measuredly introduced.

I enjoyed the narrative in Pikmin 3 quite a bit. The central plight of the three captains works well enough and their personalities are fleshed out through optional interactions in the S.S. Drake in between each in-game day, coupled with charming gibberish “voice acting”. But besides this, there’s also a mystery surrounding the heroes from the earlier Pikmin games, slowly detailed through memos scattered throughout the environments that hint at the fact that another adventure is simultaneously going on with our old friends Olimar and Louie. Eventually the paths of all of these characters meet, which leads to some surprising twists and unexpected moments. All this culminates in a bizarre finale that is unique, intense and surprisingly creepy. 

You'll need to split tasks between the captains to get the most out of each day

Pikmin 3, like its predecessors, can be quite a stressful game at its core: it relies on strict time management, keen strategizing, and a quick mind in order to properly command an army of hundreds of tiny creatures against hordes of gigantic and fearsome creatures while also solving problems and adding to an ever-growing fruit supply needed for survival. There are few things in video games that I’ve found more distressing than having a situation in a Pikmin game spiral out of control, and few sounds more disheartening than the cries of tons of tiny Pikmin meeting their demise. Thankfully, most of these situations can be avoided by careful planning and strategic thinking. There are some situations in Pikmin 3, however, that I have trouble avoiding even with strategic thinking, often brought about by the annoying design decision that has persisted throughout the series to have idle Pikmin automatically perform certain actions such as carry or attack nearby objects and attack certain enemies against my will, which can lead to confusion and unexpected consequences. I’d rather have full control over everything my army of Pikmin does, so I can effectively strategize. These instances can be very annoying, but luckily, with a quick toot of the whistle to call the Pikmin back, I can usually avoid any serious damage and thus these circumstances are a nuisance, but not too detrimental to the experience. Despite this gripe, I found that by using the in-game map to plan ahead, dividing labor between captains, and trying to get the most out of each thirteen minute day, a sense of supreme satisfaction can be attained after a particularly fruitful day, the likes of which few other video games have been able to provide for me.

Pikmin 3 employs several control schemes, but the one that I would recommend is a dual scheme of using the Wii remote/nunchuck combination and the Wii U GamePad. This setup, which requires juggling two controllers, is certainly awkward and far from ideal, but I find the Wii remote pointer controls to be the best way to play Pikmin and unfortunately if I want to view the area map and a plethora of other important information, I have to use the GamePad because there is no option to display any of this information on the TV screen. This is a silly and aggravating decision on the developers’ part, and one that makes me think Nintendo simply stubbornly wanted to shoehorn GamePad functionality into the game, as they could have easily mapped the information on the GamePad’s screen to any of the numerous unused buttons on the Wii remote (in fact, they did exactly this in the Wii version of Pikmin 2). I found that by placing the GamePad on a small table to my side that I could easily glance at the map when I needed to, while using the Wii remote and nunchuck for all my main actions. This method works, but is very cumbersome, especially when I find myself frequently putting the Wii remote and nunchuck on the floor to pick up the GamePad for a few seconds to scroll through the map for a moment, before putting it back down and switching controllers again. In addition to housing a map, the GamePad mirrors a device that the three captains use in the game called a “KopPad”, a personal portable computer of sorts which stores memos, tips, and a thoughtfully written (with some hit or miss humor) fruit file detailing all the edible matter the player finds in the game. An option to use the GamePad only is also available complete with off-TV screen play, where a player has the option to use the traditional face buttons, or (thanks to an update) use the stylus and touch screen to control almost every action. Finally, the Wii U Pro Controller can also be used and at least in Mission Mode, this option also requires the use of the GamePad if I want a map (as of this writing, I am not sure if this also applies to story mode, but I’d say it’s a safe bet). These control methods all work decently, but not as well as the Wii remote and nunchuck, which allows the player to precisely and fluidly aim and throw their Pikmin. While having the GamePad serve as a hub of information is a nice idea and being able to always glance at a detailed area map is nice (if you can find something nearby to prop the GamePad on), if I want to have the optimal control experience with Pikmin 3 I unfortunately need to handle two different controllers at once. This issue doesn’t ruin the game by any means, but I would have greatly appreciated an option to be able to bring the information on the GamePad up on the TV screen with the simple press of a button. The whole point of pushing all the menus and maps and so on to the GamePad’s screen is to make things more convenient for the player (see: The Wind Waker HD), but there is little that is convenient about the way Pikmin 3 uses the GamePad if the player chooses to use a Wii remote and nunchuck to control the game.

Managing two controllers at once isn't the best thing ever

On a more positive note, the feel and atmosphere of Pikmin 3 is one of the areas where the experience truly excels. I can practically feel the textures on the lovingly detailed fruit models in the game, as well as taste the juice from newly acquired fruit when it cascades into a tiny container before being sealed in with a satisfying “Thuke!” The visuals, set pieces, sound effects, and ambient musical score create an atmosphere that is unrivaled, except for the previous Pikmin titles. Thanks to a fully realized, high definition natural world, Pikmin 3 captures the feeling of being a tiny character in a huge environment better than ever before. A new ability to use the GamePad as a camera to look at one’s surroundings and even up at the sky only adds to this feeling and puts a new perspective on the world of Pikmin, although I’m not sure how to feel about the blurry and muddy-looking flat images used for the skyline when in camera mode. But I do love taking pictures of the environments in the game and posting them on Miiverse; after The Wind Waker HD and Pikmin 3, I feel like every Wii U game should have a camera function, at least those of the adventure variety. I love chronicling my journey, especially in a game like Pikmin 3 where each region is a lovingly crafted garden that invites players to thoroughly explore it. Climbing onto overturned flower pots, investigating drainpipes jutting out of ruined brick walls, exploring caverns filled with luminous mushrooms, and travelling on a lily pad down a stream in an autumn wonderland is delightful for a nature lover such as myself, as well as for someone like me who loves appreciating the finer details in one’s surroundings that often go unnoticed. Like Pikmin 2, Pikmin 3’s regions take players through the four seasons in all their beauty, while focusing even more on organic sights this time around (although the remnants of a long extinct human civilization can still be spotted here and there, half buried in the dirt, or being embraced by vines and plants). The ambient soundtrack, just like in the previous Pikmin titles, is used in conjunction with realistic outdoor sound effects to compliment these environments perfectly and is used to great effect to evoke both a sense of peace and a sense of urgency when appropriate (and occasionally a sense of apprehension and dread, such as in the game’s eerie final level).

The Pikmin series, and thanks to its even more life-like world Pikmin 3 especially, draw up a childhood wonder in me that stems from my long fascination with and love for tiny worlds. When I was a child, I would look at something like a garden or a patch of grass and imagine it as a forest, a miniature realm, a world full of life and tiny inhabitants that most people simply walk past without ever noticing (actually, I still do this). On warm spring and summer days, I would turn on the garden hose and let it run, creating a miniature bubbling brook that cut through the grassy jungle, carving out streams in the landscape. I would use small toys as avatars and act out a journey in my head as I made them roam down long planks of wood and through the interior of my grandfather’s house, imagining these environments as levels from a video game in my head. The Pikmin series draws on this creativity of mine and delivers a real video game tailor-made for my imagination. In truth, the Pikmin games are stressful experiences for me to play and my own personal struggle with anxiety doesn’t help matters. I’ve also never been much into strategy games, but the payoff and satisfaction of having a successful day in a Pikmin game make everything worth it. Pikmin is a dual kind of experience, a contradictory experience even, because even though it is stressful, it is also peaceful, feeding both my imagination and my love of natural beauty, merging my love of nature and my love of video games with beautiful harmony. It’s a fascinating blend and makes Pikmin an experience that is very special to me.

A beautiful experience

Pikmin 3 is a beautiful video game on many levels. The game’s concept is so charming that the actual end product doesn’t even seem to matter, but it just so happens that this is also a fleshed-out experience. It is also delightful enough from an aesthetic perspective, but the fact that there is a balanced, satisfying, and engaging game here is an extra bonus. I know that throughout this review, I’ve admitted that much of what makes Pikmin 3 great was present in the previous two entries in the series, and it’s true that Pikmin 3 doesn’t necessarily evolve the franchise in a ton of significant ways, but it refines and polishes, and brings the world of Pikmin to life like never before.  In fact, thanks to a streamlined design that cuts out tedious elements from the past two Pikmin games and adds smart new features, a visual presentation that captures the vision of the Pikmin series better than ever, and a merging of ideas from the past two Pikmin games in addition to several original ones, Pikmin 3 might be the definitive Pikmin experience (although Pikmin 2 will always hold a particularly special place in my heart). I definitely think it is the most accessible Pikmin experience, and I mean that as a positive; the game isn’t dumbed down, it just feels much more intuitive and streamlined, and does a terrific job of teaching players its mechanics without being pandering (my only complaint in this regard are the boss hints that ruin the discovery of finding out a foe’s weakness for oneself, but I suppose players can choose to avoid picking up these notes if they wish, and ultimately they don’t really detract too much from the experience anyway). I recommend Pikmin 3 to both those who have enjoyed the previous games in the series and those who have never touched a Pikmin game alike. When Shigeru Miyamoto first unveiled Pikmin 3 at E3 2012, opening Nintendo’s press conference with a montage of Pikmin scampering about the real world (and even ending up in Miyamoto-san’s jacket pocket), he playfully warned that players might start seeing Pikmin all around them after experiencing the game for themselves. He was right, as I find myself looking at small gardens and patches of flowers and imagining Alph, Brittany and Charlie roaming these environments with Pikmin trailing behind them. I see an overgrown garden and think of how it could be a level in Pikmin. I also found myself with a particularly strong craving for fruit while playing Pikmin 3. This is the strength of this game’s imagery and tone. This sense of the game carrying over into the real world and captivating my imagination on a day to day basis is also something that many of my favorite gaming experiences end up doing. When I can’t stop thinking about the game, I know the experience is something truly special indeed.