There’s never been a better time to get into the Pikmin series. Pikmin 4 of course has just hit shelves – but for those keen to explore the origins of the series, Nintendo has you covered with the release of Pikmin 1 and 2 on Switch. It’s not described as a remaster and it’s certainly not a remake, merely an ‘HD version’ and understanding this is key to measuring our expectations going in. This package of Pikmin games does more or less exactly what it says on the tin. You get both GameCube classics, presented at a higher resolution, with a few extra tweaks to sweeten the deal – such as upgraded cut-scenes. So how does Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2 on Switch ultimately stack up to the 2001 and 2004 GameCube originals? And how does performance hold up – bearing in mind this appears to partly run through emulation on Switch?
The tech behind Pikmin’s rendering of so many individual units on-screen was, of course, originally made famous with the Super Mario 128 demo – a tech showcase for the Nintendo Gamecube as seen at the Spaceworld 2000 event. Seeing 128 iterations of Mario running around was a great visual example of the Gamecube’s processing power, but it wasn’t a fully-formed game by any means. However, the use of object physics, the ability to calculate more actions on-screen and the higher polygon count possible on then next-gen hardware was remarkable to behold at the time. The idea of so many characters manipulated by the GameCube’s analogue sticks didn’t explicitly find its way into any actual Mario-branded game. The seed of this idea clearly translated well to a potential RTS-style project, and sure enough, Miyamoto has since confirmed that those wanting to play the Mario 128 demo – with all these units on-screen – had already essentially played it, in the form of Pikmin 2.
Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by the Pikmin series is just explaining what the game actually is. At its core, Pikmin is a real time strategy game, mixed with puzzle-solving elements. You take charge of Captain Olimar, whose plane crash lands on a mysterious planet. The mission? To collect all the missing parts of his ship by commanding up to a hundred tiny ant-like creatures. You direct a growing army towards resources: fruit, scrap salvage, or even larger insects to attack. Dragging each object back to the base produces even more Pikmin via seeds, which in turn, means you’re able to attack, and collect even bigger things. The more Pikmin you have, the better. The peril is in finding these spaceship parts within a time limit of 30 days, with each day cycle passing by at the top of the screen. On top of that, Pikmin are vulnerable to the creatures roaming the world, and some – barring the blue Pikmin – also drown in water.
