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This is not any review, it is in fact a post filled with information about this promising title, how it did in Japan, what the American thought and to what lengths did Nintendo go to make it a success. The GameCube had only been out a month in Japan until Pikmin hit the shelves. Despite a large advertisement plan set out the game never really sold that well but considering there was only 5 Gamecube games out and under whelming sales due to September 11th it was hardly surprising. Pikmin though did pick up in Japan nearly 2 months after it came out. The TV advert for the game featured a catchy song, so catchy and popular that it was released as the Pikmin single, the song hit number one and Pikmin sales sky rocketed. The build up to the American launch also featured much Pikmin esq. material, women would give out flyers and help people wearing hilarious Pikmin costumes, one man desperate to win the Gamecube competition painted him self blue, shaved his head, stuck a leaf on it and ate “Pikmin food” of worms and maggots etc… to win a while host of prizes. Incredible stunts such as this would surly aid in Pikmin’s success and it did.
Pikmin is a real time strategy game from the gaming god Shiguru Miyamoto (designer of Mario and Zelda if you didn’t know), he thought up the game when he was digging in the garden. Dubbed as a plant game Pikmin gives you control of Captain Olimar (Remove the L and what is it an anagram of) a poor spaceman who has crashed on a mysterious planet. He needs to get his space ship parts back and in order to get them he enlists the aid of the planets inhabitants also known as Pikmin. These are plant Esq. creatures who’ll you have to meet and learn to use; it is a strategy game but nothing like Command or Conquer so don’t get put off by the genre. You have 3 days in which to rescue your parts and leave the planet. The games main flaw is the length, it is very short and although Miyamoto designed it with the hope that others will play it again and again it is still very short. It sold far better in Japan than America and Americans weren’t too impressed by the game, meanwhile in Japan the public loved it but if it wasn’t for the single would the game of sold well at all?
No, the fact is Pikmin is a great game but it isn’t as groundbreaking as Pokémon, it isn’t as big as Mario and to be honest Shigsy could have done so much more. Nevertheless Pikmin did reach a few peoples hearts, many would swear by the game, some insist it is a massive AAA release from the big N. This indifference in opinion makes the upcoming release even more intriguing. What are peoples pre-conceptions of the game? Are you getting it? If you are why? If not why not?
Here’s to Pikmin
Dringo
This is not any review, it is in fact a post filled with information about this promising title, how it did in Japan, what the American thought and to what lengths did Nintendo go to make it a success. The GameCube had only been out a month in Japan until Pikmin hit the shelves. Despite a large advertisement plan set out the game never really sold that well but considering there was only 5 Gamecube games out and under whelming sales due to September 11th it was hardly surprising. Pikmin though did pick up in Japan nearly 2 months after it came out. The TV advert for the game featured a catchy song, so catchy and popular that it was released as the Pikmin single, the song hit number one and Pikmin sales sky rocketed. The build up to the American launch also featured much Pikmin esq. material, women would give out flyers and help people wearing hilarious Pikmin costumes, one man desperate to win the Gamecube competition painted him self blue, shaved his head, stuck a leaf on it and ate “Pikmin food” of worms and maggots etc… to win a while host of prizes. Incredible stunts such as this would surly aid in Pikmin’s success and it did.
Pikmin is a real time strategy game from the gaming god Shiguru Miyamoto (designer of Mario and Zelda if you didn’t know), he thought up the game when he was digging in the garden. Dubbed as a plant game Pikmin gives you control of Captain Olimar (Remove the L and what is it an anagram of) a poor spaceman who has crashed on a mysterious planet. He needs to get his space ship parts back and in order to get them he enlists the aid of the planets inhabitants also known as Pikmin. These are plant Esq. creatures who’ll you have to meet and learn to use; it is a strategy game but nothing like Command or Conquer so don’t get put off by the genre. You have 3 days in which to rescue your parts and leave the planet. The games main flaw is the length, it is very short and although Miyamoto designed it with the hope that others will play it again and again it is still very short. It sold far better in Japan than America and Americans weren’t too impressed by the game, meanwhile in Japan the public loved it but if it wasn’t for the single would the game of sold well at all?
No, the fact is Pikmin is a great game but it isn’t as groundbreaking as Pokémon, it isn’t as big as Mario and to be honest Shigsy could have done so much more. Nevertheless Pikmin did reach a few peoples hearts, many would swear by the game, some insist it is a massive AAA release from the big N. This indifference in opinion makes the upcoming release even more intriguing. What are peoples pre-conceptions of the game? Are you getting it? If you are why? If not why not?
Here’s to Pikmin
Dringo