So Earlier this week, I visited Nintendo's Bay Area headquarters for a chance to play
Pikmin 3's story mode from the very start of the game for 90-minutes.
So I thought I'd put together a quick preview talking about my impressions of the game thus
far.
But before we start, please keep in mind that I don't have video and screenshots of everything
I saw, so the footage may not always match up perfect.
So Pikmin 3 begins with a fully-narrated opening that explains that the Planet of Koppai is
running dangerously low on food.
But fortunately, one of the probes that they the planet's inhabitants sent out, called
SPAROs, discovered a distant plant that proved to be quite...fruitful.
Literally.
The game then picks up following a small crew consisting of Alph, Brittany, and Charilie,
who've been sent to that same planet to retrieve fruit seeds and bring them back home to to
grow food.
But of course, something goes horribly wrong, and the spaceship crash lands, ejecting its
three occupants, with each one landing in entirely different areas of this mysterious
planet--a planet, that's of course, filled with Pikmin..
And those Pikmin are of course the key to playing the game, as you probably very well
know.
Like in past games, you can still control up to 100 of them at a time, and you'll use
them for almost everything, whether it's battling enemies or retrieving the fruit your home
planet so desperately needs.
But that fruit serves a more immediate need too, as your team actually uses it for food
too at the end of each day.
Which means that there is an overall time-limit like Pikmin 1, except this time, you can keep
adding to it by finding more fruit.
It seems to be a pretty clever mechanic that'll force you to budget your time accordingly,
without being quite as stress-inducing as the strickt 30-day time limit in the first
Pikmin game.
Though if you mess up, you can simply retry from any day that you've already played
And speaking of days, the first one acts as a tutorial of sorts to get you used to the
gameplay.
And you'll actually first take control of the crew's Captain Charilie, who's crash-landed
in an area laced with snow.
But you only control him for a brief segment until he stumbles across some Yellow Pikmin
who help him reach a nearby cave for shelter.
At which point, the game switches focus to Alph, which is where the game really begins.
Now he's landed in a decidedly more pleasant area, known as Tropical Wilds.
And it's not long before he stumbles across the Red Pikmin, their Onion home, as well
as a handy iPad-like device known as the Koppad, which is accessed via the GamePad.
Okay, so that's a lot to take in, but the game actually does a great job easing you
into it.
And part of that is thanks to the new data entries you find scattered around the environment
that were left behind by none other than Captain Olimer from the previous games, who's apparently
been around these parts before.
Now these data entries are basically tips or short tutorials that are automatically
downloaded to your Koppad, where they can be easily perused at any time by using the
GamePad.
In fact, the Koppad plays a pretty big role in the game, providing quick access to all
kinds of useful information, such as a map that displays the location of all of your
Pikmin that you can scroll with your finger, or various information sub-screens such as
one that gives the status of your Pikmin, such as how many are actively working versus
sitting there doing nothing, as well as information on all the fruit you've found so far and how
much food each one provides
One of its cooler abilities is to being able to tap a location on the map and send any
of your characters and their Pikmin to that spot automatically--yep, they'll just straight
up walk their themselves, allowing you to use the other characters for more important
matters in the meantime.
Now even though Pikmin 3 isn't the first game in the series to allow access to multiple
playable characters, it is the first to really make use of it.
For instance, once we regrouped with Brittany on Day 2 in another region called Garden of
Hope, we immediately had to throw her up to a ledge, along with some Pikmin, so she could
then toss those Pikmin to a higher ledge to grab a lemon located above.
And it seems situations like this will pop up throughout the game, such as when we had
to throw a small crew across a river to create a bridge that the rest of our group could
use to cross.
Now that bridge actually lead us to the boss fight with a giant centipede.
But he's protected by a hard shell--and this is where the new Rock Pikmin come into play.
Their rough exteriors are the only things able to break through the shell, exposing
its soft-interior, which you'll then want to throw Red Pikmin at since their attaks
are stronger.
Now managing your Pikmin types could be a little tricky in past games, but it's been
vastly improved in Pikmin 3.
Like before, you can still switch between Pikmin types with a press of a button, but
mercifully, that type will stay selected, even if you touch a Pikmin of a different
color, unlike past games.
Which is a huge improvement, especially during hectic boss battles
Even the act of pulling your Pikmin from their Onion home has been simplified.
You see, Instead of there being an onion for each Pikmi-type, you now pull them all fromt
he same onion, which simplifies things greatly
And what's really cool about this is that, by holding the "Z button" on the nunchuck,
you can actually pull out equal numbers of each Pikmin-type without having to do manually
it one-by-one.
It's a great addition that really streamlines things.
The controls, too, have seen some similarly smart additions--especially when using the
Wii Remote and Nunchuck, which allows you to move around and aim Pikmin independently
of one another using the pointer.
It feels faster and tighter than past Pikmin games, while also greatly expanding the range
of your whstle to summon Pikmin back.
more easily
In addition, you can quickly dispatch an entire group of Pikmin to an objective by locking
onto the desired target and shaking the Nunchuck, causing them all to move there at once.
Now you can play using just the Gamepad too, but it handles more like the GameCube ones,
locking your movement to the cursor.
While it might be a little easier to handle for newcomers, it also means you can't aim
fast or with as much dexterity--for instance, it's impossible to run away from an enemy
while throwing Pikmin at them.
But on the upside, it does give you full camera control with the right-control stick, which
is missing if using just the Wii Remote and Nunchuck.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, the GamePad's motion-controls from last year's E3 that did
allow you to move the cursor independently of your character are completely gone--but
honestly, it's not a big loss
Although you can still move the Gamepad around to aim in the game's new first-person camera
mode, that allows you to snap pictures at any time and share them to Miiverse.
It seems like this has the potential to be a really cool feature, especially since you
can snap some really beautiful shots.
And let me tell you, this is a really great looking game.
From how the water reactions while walking through it to the eerily-realistic sheen on
a Bulborbs eyes, the game is simply beautiful.
Really, there's not a single moment of my 90-minutes with game that I didn't enjoy.
Nearly every aspect has been improved in some way--the controls feel great, the Pikmin are
smarter in that they no longer get hung up on objects when following you around, and
the controls work magnificently so far.
In short, I'm more stoked than ever to play more.
And luckily we won't have long to wait as it comes out in the US on Aug 4th.
Thanks for watching and make sure to keep an eye on GameXplain.com for more on Pikmin
3 and other things gaming too