About
Pikmin is a game series developed by Shiguru Miyamoto of Nintendo. The series main installments are Real Time Strategy games, where the point of it all is to command 100 small creatures called Pikmin to take down enemies and collect various things.
History
The exact start of the franchise’s inception is somewhat tricky to pinpoint. There were two original ideas that are known to have eventually spawned off into what the franchise has become now. The first was a game called “Adam and Eve” where the player would watch the development of two different human beings. However, the game was too uninteractive, and was retooled.
It later made the appearance as a tech demo at Spaceworld 2000 known as Super Mario 128, showing off how many models the Gamecube could handle at the time. It also did various other things that showed up in other Nintendo games, not relating to Pikmin.
The first installment of the franchise came out in 2001, as a launch title for the Gamecube, alongside Luigi’s Mansion. The main plot was about an alien employ of a company called Hocotate Freight named Olimar getting crash landed on a strange world with a poisonous atmosphere, and having to survive by using the small creatures he finds called Pikmin to find missing ship pieces scattered across the globe within a thirty day time limit, which is when his spacesuit’s systems will fail and he will become susceptible to the harsh oxygen of the world.
About three years later, a sequel was spawned, this time the Hocotation landing back onto his homeworld just after the events of the first game. However, when he comes back, his company goes bankrupt due to the president’s loan. However, one of the souvenirs that Olimar brings back turns out to be worth quite a lot of money, and so the President orders Olimar, and new character Louie, to go back to the Pikmin planet to retrieve more treasure to pay off the loan, this time with no time limit to hassle down any exploration. Once the loan has been repayed and Olimar returns back to Hocotate, it turns out that Louie was left behind, leading Olimar and the President to have to go back and rescue him.
The in between time for Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 3 was a longer period, however this did not mean that Pikmin would go unnoticed by anyone. Olimar was a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and New Plus Control versions of the first two Pikmin games came out in 2008 and 2009, respectively. This led people to believe that a Pikmin 3 was coming around to be made for the Wii, considering how the NPC versions were deemed the definitive versions of the game, however, Pikmin 3 had to wait until the next console to see the light of day.
In 2013, Pikmin 3 finally came out, staring three new characters from the planet Koppai. Alph, Brittany, and Charlie, were three captains sent to the Pikmin planet, now dubbed PNF-404, to gather food supplies for their homeworld, which had run out of foodstuffs, due to an increasing appetite, and a basic lack of planning. However, their ship, the S.S. Drake, crash lands, with only a single important component missing leading the three to have to work together with the Pikmin to gather food, and find said missing component. As the game went on, it turned out that both Olimar and Louie had also returned to the Pikmin planet to gather treasure for unknown reasons.
In 2014, the Pikmin also received three short films that can be downloaded on Nintendo’s E-shop for a small fee. It has also been said that while there are no clear plans at the moment, this isn’t the last we’ll see of the Pikmin franchise.
Reception
The Pikmin franchise was received well upon conception, with the first installment selling more then 101,000 copies at launch, and favorable reviews all across the board for the games in the series.
Which game is considered the best, however, varies from fan to fan. The first game focuses on time management and tries to get you to use every second wisely, which is not the best for more explorative type players. The second game, however, is non-existent, and allows you to focus on exploration, but some fans felt that some of the reason to play Pikmin relies on the pressure of the time limit, even if it was a longer time limit. The third game sought out to try and rectify these both ends, by tying the two together. The more fruit you were able to collect, the longer you were able to play and this supported looking around, and exploring, while at the same time keeping the pressure of the first game as well.
Related Memes
Steve
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Steve is the name of a red leaf Pikmin in famous Let’s player Chuggaaconroy
Named in the first episode as a joke, he later appeared as a Pikmin showing extreme loyalty, trying to carry back a dead Firey Blowhog back to base all by himself. He was labeled as a trooper, and later became his own little meme, much to Chugga’s dismay. If you find a red pikmin with a sinlge leaf on his head, expect it to be named Steve by the fandom.