Welcome back to the Game Trade Reviews, where I post my in-depth takes on whatever random ass game my friend wanted me to play. This time around I’m taking a look at a game that got a rerelease pretty recently, Pikmin 2. I played Pikmin 3 on the Wii U almost as soon as it got released, and I adored it. For whatever reason I never went back to try the older games until this opportunity arose. I still haven’t played the first Pikmin game, and it’ll be some time before I finish Pikmin 4. As such, I won’t focus too much on comparing this game’s quality in the context of the series. Not to say I won’t bring up any comparisons at all, but I will do my best to evaluate this game on its own terms. I must also mention that this review will contain spoilers, though this is not exactly the kind of game where spoilers matter that much. With all that out of the way, let’s get into it.

First of all, you can skip to whichever section you want here. For instance if you don’t want to be spoiled about the story you can skip ahead. There isn’t much to spoil though…

1. The Story
2. The Cast
3. The Assorted Other Things I Want to Touch On Before the Gameplay Section
4. The Gameplay
5. The Area Ranking
6. The Verdict

The Story

For my last two game trade reviews the story section was easily the longest part. That’s not happening this time around. I could stretch things out with longer and even more excessive summary than usual. I could try to overanalyze every part and get to the true heart of the relations of small business owners and their employees. Even if I did all that it would probably still be shorter because there’s not that much story to begin with. Even so, not much is more than zero.

Our story begins with a brief recap of the first game’s events. Olimar got stuck on Probably Earth and eventually made it out. During the time he was busy fighting for his life the company he works for had its own struggles. When Olimar returns to his home planet his boss and some dude named Louie are right there to greet him. Boss hits him up with the obligatory “glad you’re safe” but then explains their company is going under.

Apparently Louie was supposed to transport a load of golden Pikpik carrots, but a “ravenous space bunny” attacked and ate them all. Fucking ravenous space bunnies, I hate it when they do that. I like how the boss completely uncritically conveys the story Louie gave him. He even acts out the part where the space rabbit decimates the carrots. If the boss believes it then it must be true! Running a business is hard work and only the most brilliant individuals will achieve success. Though following that line of reasoning what does the business’ current lack of success imply? Absolutely nothing of course. Even the most brilliant of minds would struggle to predict the unfortunate sudden appearance of ravenous space bunnies!

Regardless of the reason, they were supposed to ship valuable cargo but it was all eaten on their watch. Not good. Boss had to take a big loan to repay the damages. Part of it was paid off using company assets, namely Olimar’s ship. However, the company doesn’t actually have that many assets they can afford to sell in the first place. So they’re still left with massive debt. Welp.

Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be Olimar brought along something that could help with that. Olimar has a bottle cap from Probably Earth with him that he took as a souvenir. When he hears the bad news he drops the bottle cap in shock. The company’s robot, which they apparently felt was too important to sell, sucks the bottle cap up and determines its worth. 100 Pokos, which is apparently more than a year’s salary. I’m honestly not sure if that’s a testament to how valuable the bottle cap is, or how poorly this company’s employees are paid. Probably both honestly.

Boss in his infinite brilliance sees an opportunity to pay their debts back. He orders Olimar and Louie to head back to the planet to find more treasure and repay their debts. Poor Olimar, homie has only been back home for a couple minutes and he already has to get back to work. Right back to the planet he spent the whole previous game trying to escape from. No chance to see his wife and kids, he’s got a mission to fulfill. Such is life. Even on alien planets you still need to put up with bullshit to get that bread.

Olimar and Louie fly back to Probably Earth, and run into a bit of trouble immediately when they arrive. Louie fell out of the cockpit so Olimar has to work to find him. During that process he’s reunited with some red Pikmin, which seem to remember him. With the help of the Pikmin the two co-workers reunite later that day. From then on they get to work in order to save their company.

And that’s pretty much the whole story until you pay that debt off. Olimar and Louie work together to make it happen. After all, their livelihoods hinge on the company’s success as well. This game pokes fun at the employer/employee dynamic frequently, though it doesn’t exactly call for a dramatic upheaval of the system or whatever. You’re not going to find your proletariat revolution in a Nintendo game… probably. The boss is dumb, bumbling, and has some questionable expectations but he’s not treated as nefarious. In fact we learn through space email that he’s going through some struggles of his own back home.

Essentially our boss picked a bad loan company to deal with so he goes on the run and experiences his homeless arc. We get to watch as he slowly loses his grip on sanity. He lives under a bridge, befriends the animals, and somehow still has access to space email. He even gets cleared out from the bridge by government officials. Guess Hocotate treats their homeless people in a rather earthly way. Why help the homeless when you can try to make them go away?

By the way, I’m quite fond of the space emails at the end of the day in general. Shame Pikmin 3 and 4 don’t have them (idk about Pikmin 1). They’re frequently amusing and give you a good sense of the characters involved. It drives home the fact that Olimar’s really a married man with a kid, shit’s wild. He’s among a very limited pool of Nintendo characters that canonically fucks. It’s inspirational really, if Olimar gets bitches why can’t I? Getting a job would probably help… oh well, I’m working on it.

Any ways, once you find enough treasure to cover the company’s debts it’s time to return to Hocotate!

Inspirational, honestly. As the credits roll we see that Louie got left behind somehow… why? IDK, he’s doing Louie things. Homie disappeared into the brush. So Olimar just kinda goes home without him. When he gets back and talks with the boss he lets him know that there’s more treasure left on the planet. Clearly that means they have to go back immediately to get the rest. No breaks, no time to say hi to the family, back in the spaceship you go boy. However, since Louie isn’t around anymore to help out the boss comes along instead. He’s willing to put his life on the line for the bag, I respect it. I don’t respect the part where he hasn’t let Olimar go home for months as much but eh, it’s kinda funny. Anything for the bit!

At this point there’s not much story left to tell. Olimar and Boss work together to find the rest of the treasure and Louie along the way. Turns out Louie was hiding in a cave where he got stuck in a massive spider mech thing. We have to defeat the spider mech to save him, and that boss fight ain’t easy. It’s kept ambiguous whether Louie actually wanted to be saved there. Honestly, he was probably happier operating a spider mech than working with the freight company. But eh, we saved him and now he wants us to call him King of Bugs. Sure buddy.

And that’s pretty much it. Oh right. You can unlock a special cutscene by nailing challenge mode that reveals Louie’s Dark Secret. Turns out the ravenous space bunny was a LIE and Louie actually ate all the carrots himself! GASP! I suspected as much from the jump, but it’s kind of funny how much effort it takes to reveal that fact. I didn’t do that personally, but hey, that’s what the internet’s for.

With that my overly detailed summary of Pikmin 2’s story is complete. It’s not an especially deep narrative but that’s fine. It’s a story designed to fit the gameplay and it does so while being quite amusing. It’s a ridiculous situation and the game doesn’t expect you to take it seriously. Even as Louie turns out to be an antagonistic figure I can’t find it within myself to hate him. Man just wants to eat.

The Cast

Unless you count the Pikmin and enemy creatures as characters there really isn’t all that much to talk about here either. We’ve got three main characters, Olimar, Louie, and the Boss. Besides that we only have those characters’ relatives sending them emails from time to time. So what can I say about all of those?

Olimar is a largely silent protagonist who doesn’t put up much of a fight when his boss keeps sending him back to Probably Earth. You don’t learn much about him through the cut scenes because it’s mostly just the Boss talking at him and telling him what to do. However, through his notes on the treasure and creatures he encounters you can tell he’s a dilligent and thoughtful dude. I love the notes Olimar makes, some of them are pretty funny. Also you can tell he sometimes uses the notes to vent about things he can’t talk to anyone about.

Louie’s an even quieter guy than Olimar, and is pretty much an enigma. We know very little about what goes through this guy’s mind besides food. Why did he stay behind on the planet? Why did he become King of Bugs? Hard to say really. If there’s one thing Louie’s definitely good at it’s causing problems, and this can be applied to later games as well. I’m cool with him.

As for Boss he’s a pretty funny character. Sure he’s a money grubber that doesn’t seem to treat his employees particularly well. In many ways he’s a charicature of the real world small business tyrants that treat their employees like property that have to go along with their every whim. However, he’s a goofy little guy. That makes him difficult to genuinely dislike. When he uses his whistle he makes the sound of a car horn, and that’s amusing. Reading about the crazy shit he goes through while he’s still in debt was a treat. As far as comic relief characters go this guy fulfills his role well.

Oh I guess I’m leaving an important character out, the AI of the Hocotate ship itself. They’re loyal to the boss and serve as a proxy of sorts of his desires while his employees are on another planet. They would definitely sell you out to the boss if they caught you slacking off. Guess you can’t expect AI to be an ally of the working class, even on alien planets. That being said, they are pretty helpful. They help guide you through your objectives and take care of all the treasure you find. They even assess the treasure’s value and give them catchy names on the spot. Our AI’s highly capable and they definitely let it get to their head. If they even have a head in the first place…

I’d like to give a shout out to the Pikmin themselves, though it’s hard to say if they really count as characters. They don’t talk, at least, not in a language we can understand. They don’t seem especially intelligent, but they aren’t completely mindless. What I do appreciate about them is the small bits of personality that shine through. This can particularly be seen when they sing along to the soundtrack and their various cute idle animations. They’re endearing, which makes their frequent deaths all the more tragic.

As for the family sending us space emails there isn’t all that much to say. Olimar’s son seems pretty normal and kind of dumb in a way kids often are. It’s unclear if his wife actually loves him, but she definitely loves spending his bonus checks. Boss’ wife gives him shit for leaving without telling her anything, but also wants to make damn sure he returns with as much treasure as possible. Seems like they suit each other well. As for Louie’s grandmother she seems like a genuinely sweet person concerned for her grandson’s well being. For that and a general lack of better options I deem Louie’s grandma best girl of Pikmin 2.

The Assorted Other Things I Want to Touch On Before the Gameplay Section

It is not often that I pay special attention to a video game’s soundtrack. I appreciate them, but usually on a subconscious level. I’d definitely miss them if the soundtrack was absent. I’ll notice if the soundtrack is distractingly bad or particularly good. Otherwise I’m focusing more on what’s going on in-game. In this case, I rarely noticed Pikmin 2’s soundtrack much. It certainly helped set the atmosphere and immerse me into the game. When I’m immersed in the game I think less about the soundtrack and a lot more about the rolling rock that just killed half my squad.

I may not have noticed the soundtrack much while I was playing, but I listened to some of it on YouTube in preparation for this review. And uhh… hot damn this soundtrack’s a lot more impressive than I thought. I never realized while I was playing, but they mix up the soundtrack quite a bit. There’s a different version of the soundtrack depending on whether you’re playing as Olimar or Louie. Each song has different variants depending on what you’re doing. It’ll sound different if you’re just walking around vs being in the middle of a fight. It’s not like it becomes a fundamentally different song, the general melody tends to stay the same. But the tempo often changes, and they do other music stuff I don’t understand enough to describe accurately. The fact that I hardly noticed this in-game speaks to how seamless and effectively it was implemented. Good shit.

For the record the soundtrack isn’t good to me just because of the variations. It’s good music in general. Probably not the kind of thing I’d listen to casually on my own time. It’s way too long to listen to as a whole, and the songs are too short individually. Also atmospheric stuff isn’t usually my thing. That being said, it makes a damn good companion while I’m writing this blog post out. I haven’t closely listened to everything, but I can safely say “Perplexing Pool” is one of the highlights. Perplexing Pool is one of the highlights of this game in general, but I’ll get into that later.

Pikmin 2 is a Gamecube game, and as such its visuals don’t really impress compared to later titles. Even though the graphics aren’t up to par with modern standards I still appreciate the design and creativity of its areas. The environments feel natural and each have a unique identity. This is also true of many of the caves. Not to say every area and cave had a distinct and memorable design, but a lot of them do.

I can apply similar commentary to the designs of this game’s enemies. Can’t say I like the enemy designs here quite as much as in later titles, but they certainly did a good job with them overall. Pikmin in general has some of the best enemy designs of any game I’ve played. There’s so much variety, and even some of the reskin enemies feel somewhat unique. Not only are they visually distinct but they’re unique in gameplay as well. The enemies have different behaviors, attacks, strengths, and weaknesses. You have to adjust your approach substantially depending on what you are dealing with. On paper that’s what every game with more than one enemy does. However, a lot of the time you can defeat damn near everything with the same brute force strategy and it hardly matters what you’re fighting. Not Pikmin though, and I love it for that.

Before I get to the next section I must address the all important rodent quota. If you are not familiar, this is an inside joke for the game trade where we judge the game based on the presence or absence of rodents. Last time I played a game with an abundance of rodents. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same this time. Pikmin’s enemies do not strictly follow the biology of our present Earth’s creatures. Even with that in mind some enemies have clear real life inspirations. For instance the Wollyhop is highly reminiscent to a frog and there’s an abundance of insect-like creatures. Yet I’d be hard pressed to think of any that resemble a rodent. Blowhogs maybe? Not really. Breadbugs? Eh… Louie? Close but still not quite there. It brings me no pleasure to report that Pikmin 2 does not meet the rodent quota. Thankfully this error is resolved in the sequels.

I believe I covered everything I wanted to before I get to the most important part of this game, the gameplay. Time to delve deeper!

The Gameplay

Pikmin’s gameplay at its core is rather similar to the other titles. You command an army of little plant guys called Pikmin and you make them do stuff. One Pikmin can’t do all that much by themselves, but you can command up to one hundred of them at once. With many Pikmin you can carry treasures far bigger than yourself. You can defeat a massive walking loaf of bread creature. To be fair, it probably wouldn’t be that massive by human standards but still.

To command your Pikmin you need only aim your cursor at your target and throw them. When thrown the Pikmin will know what to do to take the rest from there. Throw them at an enemy and they’ll fight. Throw them at a defeated enemy and they’ll carry it back to their “onion.” An onion is essentially a Pikmin nest, which Pikmin can hide in as it flies into space somehow. When it’s given food such as a dead enemy creature it will convert it into more Pikmin. The amount of Pikmin you get is based off the size of the creature. The death of another enables the sustenance of new life. Thus the cycle continues.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Pikmin series is how it integrates its commentary on life into gameplay. Most will feel bad when your mistakes lead to your little troopers becoming colorful ghosts. Some may even lament the need to end the lives of the creatures you defeat. But in either case their sacrifices likely will not go to waste. Your lost Pikmin brought you closer to conquering your foes. Your downed foes bring forth new life. An individual’s life is fickle and easily snuffed out. Life as a whole is a lot harder to extinguish. Even if those cave wollyhops do a damn good job trying to make it happen. It’s not all happy, but it is beautiful.

I think the general gameplay loop of Pikmin games is brilliant. Pikmin 2 plays very similarly to the other entries I played. As such my baseline enjoyment of the game is pretty high by default. Pikmin is good shit. Pikmin 2 is a Pikmin game. Therefore, Pikmin 2 is good shit. QED. I could end my review right there, but it would be a shame not to examine the traits that make Pikmin 2 distinct in the franchise. Plenty of people see it as the best in the franchise. There’s a significant contingent that thinks it’s the worst. I’m not sure which of these opinions is more common, but I’m guessing it’s the former. Regardless, I feel confident saying it’s the most polarising entry in the series. So what makes it unique? What leads to those strong opinions on it? There are quite a few factors to consider.

One huge noticeable difference is Pikmin 2’s introduction of caves. Caves were not present in the first game and were entirely absent from the third as well. Even the caves of Pikmin 4, which reintroduced them, are considerably different. For better or worse these caves are the source of much of this game’s most distinct and polarising qualities.

In Pikmin 2 there are multiple caves found in each area you explore. Acessing the entrance to a cave is oftentimes a challenge in itself. Once you enter what you find inside will heavily depend on which hole you jump into. Sometimes it feels like exploring an actual underground cave. Sometimes you’re entering an area that hardly makes sense to be underground. Who the hell built six levels of wooden floors underground and left a bunch of food unattended inside them? How the hell is that food not rotten and disgusting any way? Humanity must have been wiped out long enough ago for new life to evolve, but short enough ago that all their shit is still in decent condition. If you think too hard about it there’s a lot about caves that don’t make much sense realistically. However, the bounds of realism would probably make these segments a lot less enjoyable. If time passed by normally while you were inside they’d be obnoxious to go through. If all caves had to conform to what would actually make sense as a congruent underground space a lot of the creativity of these areas would be stifled.

One thing unique to Pikmin 2 is how most of the caves’ sublevels are randomly generated. Sure they follow rules on what enemies can appear and how they’re supposed to generally look, but you will still get a somewhat unique experience every time you jump in. It’s kind of like Bloodborne’s chalice dungeons, but honestly I think they do a better job of it here. While there is usually a very noticeable difference between caves, the sublevels within often don’t feel too distinct from each other.

With random generation you lose some intentionality to the level design. What makes sublevel 1 different from 2 is harder to put a finger on when their design is randomized. Even so, each sublevel follows different rules for what you can find. The major plus side of this approach is that it always keeps you on your toes. You generally won’t know for sure what you’ll find anywhere you go even if you replay it. You have to adapt to whatever the game throws at you. The major downside is how different sublevels essentially feel like a blur after the fact. To be fair some sublevels have fixed layouts, particularly boss areas. Those more deliberately designed areas tend to be the most memorable parts.

Regardless of which cave you enter and which sublevel you’re in you can expect a lot of shit coming your way. I had little trouble completing Pikmin 3’s main story and Pikmin 4’s challenges have been quite manageable so far. Pikmin 2 on the other hand can get downright infuriating at times. I didn’t experience many game overs, but that’s mostly because I save scummed to restart sublevels when too many of my Pikmin got wiped out. There are no onions in the caves. You can’t replenish your numbers outside of some limited exceptions. So when a bomb rock drops on your head and kills 20 of your Pikmin your options are limited. You can save scum, you can leave early, or you can keep going taking on the rest of the cave with a lot less Pikmin. Therein lies much of the difficulty of the caves, it’s a major endurance test. If you reach the last stage with a battered and small crew that boss at the end can get rough.

That last sentence encapsulates much of my struggle with this game’s final boss in particular. Louie operates a spider crab mech thingamajig with multiple types of elemental weapons. Each type of Pikmin I brought with only resisted one weapon at most, and I had quite a few casualties on the road to this room. As such, one slip up could easily make me lose most if not all of one type of Pikmin, making the rest a struggle.

After retrying a bunch of times I consulted the internet for advice. Apparently starting out only using yellow Pikmin makes it easier. They’re immune to electricity, which insta-kills in this game. Every other elemental damage type gives you a window of time to whistle the Pikmin to safety before they bite it. Electricity being the only one that’s different is kinda annoying and I’m honestly glad they changed that later. Furthermore, they can be thrown farther which makes it easier to throw them at the parts. I used yellows to wipe out most of the weapons leaving only the poison one to finish it off. At this point I switched to white Pikmin, which was kind of a pain because I barely had any left. The Titan Dweevil took quite a while, but I beat it eventually. Didn’t expect to find a boss I’d need to retry as much as a Souls game boss here, but thankfully only the last one was that rough.

Overall I’d give the boss fights of this game high marks. They all provide a unique challenge, have distinct designs, and feel pretty fair to fight for the most part. They may throw some unexpected shit at you, but it’s generally manageable. Even the lasers.

It’s not only the bosses that can provide a substantial challenge. Regular sublevels can get ridiculous as well. Oftentimes even more so. How is one supposed to safely collect treasure when a big invincible rolling guy is constantly chasing your ass? How am I supposed to fight those bomb droping guys when there’s a bug in the same room trying to grab the captains and incapicate them? The challenges these caves pose can be stark indeed, especially if you want to gather all the treasure on each floor. They also get harder as you go further into the game. Some of those late game caves man… There were times I just rushed to the next sublevel and still had substantial losses along the way.

The enemies of Pikmin 2 are easily the hardest of any Pikmin game I’ve played. Even the ones you see again in later titles are often a lot tougher to beat here. For instance the hermit crawmad never struck me as particularly challenging in the other titles, but hot damn are they a pain to catch here. If they catch your Pikmin they hardly give you an opening before they return to their cave. You need some tight whistle timing and deliberate Pikmin placement for them to be vulnerable. Most of the time I give up on even trying to defeat it normally and just poison them with a white Pikmin on purpose. Sorry buddy, but your sacrifice means I lose a lot less of the rest of my team. Similar things can be said about plenty of other enemies. They’re harder to take down and can do a lot more damage in the meantime. Furthermore, these caves just love to throw you in situations where you have to deal with a lot of them at once. It gets rough, occasionally to the point of being obnoxious.

Another part of what makes the caves unique is that they’re the only places you can find the game’s new Pikmin varieties. Before I comment on those I suppose I should take the time to talk about the regular varieties first. Part of what makes the Pikmin series unique is that your army doesn’t all do the same thing. There are multiple varieties of Pikmin all with their own unique strengths and weaknesses that make them better or worse suited for different situations. Part of the challenge is properly preparing so you don’t get caught having too little of the right type. You have to figure out on the fly what’s best suited for whatever you encounter, though it’s usually pretty easy to figure out.

Red Pikmin are the first type you encounter in every game. They’re immune to fire and their pointy noses apparently make them do extra damage. Besides fiery enemies/hazards there’s not much they’re particularly important for. However, their battle prowess makes it so there’s hardly any situation where they’re not useful to have. They’re the default starter Pikmin for good reason.

Yellow Pikmin are lighter than other types and can thus be thrown farther. This is useful for grabbing certain hard to reach treasures that would otherwise be impossible to get. They’re also immune to electricity, which apparently wasn’t a thing at all in the first game. A well needed buff honestly. If you need to deal with those lightning beetles or an electrified fence they’re your guy. Otherwise, they’re just kinda average. By the way, what the hell is keeping those electrified fences still running? Hmmm…

Blue Pikmin can breathe underwater and that’s pretty much all they’re particularly useful for. Well, that and killing opponents with up throw in Smash Bros. Honestly, that water immunity’s more than enough to give them a unique identity. There are underwater areas you quite literally can’t use anything else for. This includes one of the best caves in the game. Also the way they swim around is a joy to watch. Honestly blue Pikmin are probably my favorite type in the whole series. Blue is a top tier color, and I tend to be quite fond of the parts of the game that only they can take on.

Red, yellow, and blue Pikmin have been around since the series began. The other three types this game introduces are a different story. All three of them can only be found inside caves, and they don’t have dedicated onions outside. As such, if you want more of them you have to go back inside the caves to get them. Or in the case of Bulbmin you simply can’t use them outside of caves at all. More on that later. I’m honestly not a fan of how purple and white Pikmin can’t be replenished the normal way. Retreading caves you’ve already been to just to get 10 or so white or purple Pikmin isi pretty tedious. Especially if you need a lot of them, which you are required to do for a certain late game treasure.

Speaking of inconveniences, the way this game handles switching between Pikmin is less than ideal. You have to be holding a Pikmin to switch between them, and sometimes it’s weirdly hard to get the type you want. There’s different selections for Pikmin with flowers compared to those that don’t, and the version you want won’t always show up. It’s awkward, janky, and inconsistent making it annoying to switch between them on the fly. This is another thing I’m thankful they fixed in the sequels.

Alright, back to the Pikmin types. Next up we’ve got purple Pikmin, the big chonks themselves. They’re ten times stronger than other Pikmin types so they’re good at lifting stuff. They’re also heavier, which means throwing them at enemies can do some serious damage. The biggest downside to them is that they have no immunities and they’re slower than the rest. That last part can get annoying. Sometimes they’ll be so far behind the pack that the game no longer registers them as part of the squad. Then you have to walk all the way back to get them again. Not ideal. Also the only way to get them is by throwing a different type of Pikmin into a purple flower. One purple flower can only convert five Pikmin before it wilts. Clearly, the game wants to limit how much of these guys you have available. This makes sense on some level because they’re pretty strong, but is that really the only way to handle it? Pikmin 4 proves otherwise.

White Pikmin are arguably the creepiest looking ones, but I kinda love them for that. Those buggy red eyes are a nice touch. They’re also distinct in their immunity to poison and their venomous bodies. If something eats them they’ll quickly regret it, or die before they have the chance to. That poison must be quite potent. That aside they’re also useful because they’re the only ones that can detect and dig up buried treasure. Homies are better at finding it than I am. I quite like these guys, their eerie design speaks to me. However, they’re not so useful that they *needed* to be limited the same way as purple Pikmin. Alas, they are.

Finally, we have my favorite type Pikmin 2 introduced, the Bulbmin. These guys are parasitic Pikmin that take over host bulborbs and control them. Well, they can control the smaller ones any way. Once they get bigger their predatory bulborb instincts can’t be controlled. These guys are one of the main reinforcement mechanisms the caves offer. They show up in the form of a larger Bulbmin wandering around leading a squad of smaller ones much like the captains do. When you defeat the big one the younger ones scatter. Worry not, as they’ll join your crew if you whistle. They’re kinda cute. Not the part where you have to kill the leader, but everything else about them is. Bulbmin are pretty useful too. They’re immune to elemental damage of all types, and have average specs otherwise. There’s almost zero underground situations they’re not useful for. Unfortunately, they stay behind when you leave the cave if you don’t convert them to a different type. Also they’ve never showed up again outside of Pikmin 2. Clearly that means Pikmin 2 is the best. I get why they haven’t showed up again. Pikmin 3 didn’t even have caves, and glow Pikmin filled their niche completely in Pikmin 4. Will we ever see them again? I can only hope.

Outside of the caves and new Pikmin types the most unique thing about Pikmin 2 is its objective. You have to work with Louie and then later the boss to gather treasure to pay off your debt… and then later gather even more because it’s good money. The treasures come in the form of various man-made items that we’d rarely consider treasure ourselves.

The treasure hunt is easily the funniest objective of any Pikmin game, and it’s enjoyable to play through as well. Locating and securing all of them is a significant but usually fair challenge. The names the ship’s AI comes up with for them and Olimar’s journal entries about them are lovely. It’s interesting seeing how these characters make sense of these objects without any context for how they’re used. Sometimes they pretty much nail it, and their off-base guesses can be interesting too. A rubber ducky may be a cute bath toy to us, but it’s a strange monument to them.

The last distinct trait of Pikmin 2 I’d like to cover is how it lets you switch between captains and move them independently. This is particularly useful to divide tasks during the day. If Olimar’s busy taking down a wall I can use Louie to do something else with the rest of the squad. You can save a lot of time if you’re good at optimizing this. That being said, I can’t help but feel like Pikmin 3 handled this mechanic better. To my knowledge you can’t order the other captain to move anywhere, meaning you have to move them yourself. One captain will always be completely static while the other’s moving around, which limits how useful switching between them can be. I almost never used it in the caves. Even so, I can still respect Pikmin 2 for introducing the idea and implementing it competently. Pikmin 3 wouldn’t have been able to perfect the art if Pikmin 2 didn’t get the ball rolling.

Pikmin 2’s gameplay can be frustrating at times, and lacks some QOL improvements that I grew accustomed to since I started with Pikmin 3. There’s plenty of noticeable flaws, and some of them genuinely do negatively impact my enjoyment considerably. Even so, the core gameplay is intact and it’s good as ever. I also doubt we’ll ever get a Pikmin game that reaches this level of difficulty again. Maybe in the late game or challenge modes, but probably not in the day to day activities. This is kind of a shame because I liked how this game challenged me… for the most part. I feel like the later titles overcorrected a bit too much. After playing this game it’s just as easy for me to see why someone would think it’s the best as it would be to think it’s the worst. In many respects it’s kinda both.

The Area Ranking

Before I give my final thoughts I’d like to take some time to give the four main areas you can explore in this game a closer look. I’ll discuss each one from worst to best and also touch on my thoughts on the caves they hold within. This is the area ranking. It’s something I like to do when a game’s levels are small enough in number and distinct enough in design to lend themselves to being ranked. With that established, let’s start with my pick for least favorite.

4. Awakening Wood

At the bottom of my list is the area I spent most of the early game exploring. It’s not the first area you find, but until you get them blue Pikmin it’s where you’ll have to spend most of your time. I managed to find every treasure in this area, which is not true of any other location. As such it’s safe to say I familiarized myself with this area well. Yet this area’s caves stuck with me the least. Not to say that they’re bad. But they’re mostly on the easy side and don’t have a memorable visual identity. Every final boss these caves have to offer can be found again later. Awakening Woods plants the seeds for bullshit later, but it holds back too much to be fully engaging. That’s fine for an early area, it serves its purpose well enough. However, that’s not enough for it to rank highly when everywhere else has more to offer.

Even ignoring gameplay completely I’d rank this area the lowest. Of the four areas this one has my least favorite theme song. It’s not bad or anything, but the uplifting horns aren’t my vibe. Too damn happy. Also visually it’s just kind of alright. It’s called Awakening Wood, but most of it’s just kind of grassy. There are a lot of cherry blossom petals around, which is a nice touch and improves things. Still, not enough to make me like it too much. It’s alright. The best thing about it is that it’s where you find white and blue Pikmin for the first time. For that I am thankful.

3. Wistful Wild

I had a hard time deciding which area to give this spot. It was between this one and the next one on the list, and they’re both on similar levels. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. However, I ultimately had to consider the question: which one did I have more fun playing through? As it happens, Wistful Wild doesn’t perform as well on that metric. Wistful Wild is the last area you unlock. It has the hardest caves and largely the hardest overworld as well. Honestly, I don’t mind the challenge of the overworld, I enjoyed it for the most part. However, those caves are just chock full of bullshit. They do not hold back at all. This isn’t all bad, some parts were a fun challenge and I actually sort of like Cavern of Chaos. But these caves contain sublevels that I quite simply did not want to deal with. I usually like to explore every part of the sublevel and attempt to get all the treasure. These caves drained that desire out of me real quick. The final boss was good, but the road there? Eh… Where Awakening Wood has too little batshit stuff to throw at you, Wistful Wild has too much.  

On the plus side if I were to rank these areas purely on aesthetics Wistful Wild would be higher up. Hell, I think I’d give it number one. I love Japanese maples and their leaves are constantly falling across the screen. The whole area has a pleasant reddish-brown hue reminiscent of fall. It captures the peacefulness and hint of death evoked by fall well. It certainly encapsulates fall’s charms better than Awakening Wood does spring. The theme is good too. It sets the tone well. A bit eerie but still quite pleasing to the ear. There’s a certain intensity to it befitting of a final area, but it still manages to be beautiful at the same time. It feels wrong ranking it so low, kinda wild that there are two areas I like more. So I say wistfully.

2. Valley of Repose

If I were to rank these places based on the name alone this one would take the top spot. Absolute banger name. The way my friend has been talking about this area I imagine he’s hoping I’d put it a bit higher. But nope, here’s where it stays for me. As an area to play through it has a very straightforward early part and a more difficult latter part locked behind the water. Kind of surprising those shallow pools of water haven’t freezed over tbh. I guess it’s possible the area’s temperature is a bit above freezing. It’s cool to have a starting area that still leaves plenty to explore later on. Points for that certainly. It also gets decent marks for the caves within. There’s only three, one of which is a fairly basic intro cave. Yet Subterranean Complex and Frontier Cavern are on the better end of caves in the game. I quite like Subterranean Complex’s boss, and Frontier Cavern’s ice cave is a cool vibe. All of the caves’ names are top tier too.

As for how this area’s visually and sonically designed it gets high marks as well. It’s a quiet location, not much signs of plant life as the whole area’s thoroughly snowed over. Yet there’s snow men somehow, hard to say how those got there. My friend thinks it’s reminiscent of a New England town snowed over by nuclear winter. I can kinda see it, though I must admit I would not have organically made that connection without his input. Still it’s hard to envision anything but nuclear winter allowing these roads we walk over to go unsalted! I’s worth noting Japan has suburban areas that can get snowed over as well. You don’t necessarily need a nuclear apocalypse to make this setting possible. To be fair there’s reason to believe that’s what wiped out humanity in this series. Regardless of how it came to be, I certainly appreciate the results. I also like the theme for the area. It’s softer and quieter than the rest, but it’s still pretty catchy. It would fit nicely on lo-fi Christmas beats to study/spread merriment to.

1. Perplexing Pool

This leaves us with my number one spot, Perplexing Pool. One may be perplexed why I put this area so high, so I will try my best to explain. First of all it’s the area with the most water in it, which plays into my general bias towards water levels in these games. They’re pretty to look at, have some fun enemies, and give me a reason to use blue Pikmin. Being able to casually walk around the bottom under water and look around is a seemingly impossible dream in reality but common place in Pikmin games. As an overworld area it’s well designed and fun to play through, though admittedly not dramatically different in quality from the other two ranked below it. The caves on the other hand…

The biggest factor that keeps this area far above the rest for me is actually the caves within. All of this game’s most fun, unique, and memorable caves are found right here. Citadel of Spider’s pretty average, but then you get the gauntlet of creativity with the other three. Glutton’s Kitchen is the most bizarre location in the game. Suddenly you’re exploring some dude’s pleasantly designed bunker playing tug of war over food with walking bread loafs. Strange, but also amazing. Then there’s Shower Room, which is a funny concept in its own right. You drain a bathtub then explore the tiled depths within. Gameplay wise it’s not dramatically different from other caves, but it’s certainly got a distinct aesthetic… except for the part where Wistful Wild caves use the same texture for some sublevels.

Finally, there’s Submerged Castle, the brilliantly creepy spot itself. You can only enter with blue Pikmin, and each sublevel becomes a stressful race against time before the Waterwraith rolls in. It also one of the caves that has Bulbmin in it, which automatically gives it bonus points. Exploring Perplexing Pool and its caves were a definitive high point of the game for me.

As for the aesthetics of this spot it’s pretty good. You could argue that both Wistful Wild and Valley of Repose look better, and I’d be inclined to agree. Even so, it still looks pretty good. It also has the best-looking caves easily. It also has my favorite theme of the main areas, possibly of the game overall. It’s hard to put a finger on why it appeals to me so much, but it certainly does. It’s not too soft, it’s not too upbeat, it’s not too intense. It has a good amount of mix-ups in its tune. It’s a damn good song for a damn good area.

The Verdict

Pikmin 2 is a Pikmin game, and Pikmin games are dope. Nothing this game has to offer has altered my stance on the subject. It maintains the strong core gameplay of the rest of the franchise while bringing plenty of quirks. These quirks give Pikmin 2 a distinct niche that means there will always be reason to go back to it. Even if the series continues to pump out sequels indefinitely. When I compare it to the other Pikmin games I played I have mixed feelings. I like how it challenges you more than the others, but some of those challenges are just irritating. It has a lot of humor and weird energy that draws me in. On the flip side it lacks polish that the later games certainly improve on. When I balance out those strengths and weaknesses in my mind it ends up coming out at a pretty similar level to Pikmin 3. I gave that game a 9/10, and I feel that rating is appropriate for Pikmin 2 as well.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I had a pretty good time writing this so I hope you had a good time with it as well. You can expect more content from me at an undetermined date about something unrelated to Pikmin. Stay tuned~