Pikmin 2 is Stellar: Variety In Tension

Pikmin 2 is easily my favorite of the (currently available) Pikmin games– the question is, why?

For me, it comes down to the placement of tension in relation to Pikmin 1. Though many often say that Pikmin 2 isn't quite a sequel to Pikmin 1's time management gameplay, I would argue that the aspect of the series that is being sequel-sized is its exploration.

Pikmin 1's core gameplay gets summed up by most players as a time management game centered on getting a list of tasks done; what gets missed in this conversation, though, is the other parts of the loop that provide the inherent tension that makes the game engaging.

If you knew EXACTLY where every part was when entering an area, the game would really just be a sequence of locks and Pikmin-shaped keys. Seeing how fast you can complete the game is certainly fun, but you can't really get that experience until you've explored the world and remembered where each piece is for followup playthroughs. The loop here ends up being:

1. Explore the map in search of parts
2. Identify where each part is in a timely manner
3. Plan around the obstacles in the path of the world you've just explored
4. Execute before the day ends

The pressure of the timer provided a relevant challenge when facing puzzles that, for the most part, are fairly easy to complete otherwise. You don't simply bring Pikmin to fill Pikmin-Shaped locks– you pour over every part of the landscape, identify where the locks are, and then find the keys you need after familiarizing yourself with the world. As much as Pikmin is about delegation, it is about exploration.

This is part of what doesn't hook me in Pikmin 3: really fun in bursts, but since objectives and fruits are all but marked off on the map, the time limit doesn't feel that threatening. There is no intrigue to me– the 40 juices I've collected don't feel limiting because I know I can probably carve my way to the big blinking objective marker in under a day. The tension of Pikmin 1 came from the relative position of insecurity Olimar is in, knowing the general area of the parts but not the exact positions.

Pikmin 2 follows up on this feeling of insecurity, not really forcing you to forge into areas but not allowing you to finish the game without a willingness to put yourself into risky situations.

The replacement for the time limit in Pikmin 2 is the limited Pikmin within the caves, allowing greater flexibility in actual planning but much less flexibility in the resources at your disposal. In Pikmin 1, you could always farm Pikmin if you lost too many in the pursuit of ship parts, but Pikmin 2 forces you to really refine your approach to its myriad of challenges or risk losing every treasure you hope to collect.

This is why you can only leave with your treasures if you find a geyser– if you could leave at any time, it really would be a Pikmin without tension. Instead, Olimar is destined to stay on PNF-404 for life unless he ventures underground and risks his life to collect more treasures. You could spend 10 floors chipping away at the challenges of the Dream Den, just to go through a Pikmin extinction and lose every single treasure you collected along the way. Though you can always reset liberally to perfect your run, you must balance the amount of time you're willing to spend with the actual value of completing the challenge.

Pikmin 2 doesn't REQUIRE anything of you. You can spend 100 days on PNF-404, doing absolutely nothing and standing in place. But if you (and Olimar) want to see your way off of PNF-404, you have to be better at commanding Pikmin than ever before.

The nature of exploration remains despite the presence of a sensor, as the sensor only serves to nudge you towards each treasure– you still need to be bold and survey the landscape before each floor of the dungeons. Planning simply takes a greater role over time management, but a resource is still being managed at the end of the day. It's all up to what you like.

But there is still tension, even if it's not one as universal as "desperate survival".

Pikmin 1 + 2 is the GOAT nuff said.