review
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POSTED 12/8/13


PIKMIN 3

Nintendo



It’s a lot (it’s a lot) it’s a lot (it’s a lot) it’s a lot (it’s a lot) it’s a lot like life...

With its abundant greenery, ample curious creatures, babble language and more colour than Pantone have made swatches for, first encountering Pikmin 3 could leave you convinced that you’ve stumbled onto the set of In the Night Garden. But actually, as many will know, it’s another bountiful brain blurt from Nintendo’s saviour, Mr Miyamoto.

You eventually control three space explorers, looking for somewhere to plunder grub from after their race ate their home to deathliness. A substantial oops involves a crash on a planet that they, boring fucking science types that they are, name ‘PNF-404’. It ends up a serendipitous place to have a space stack though, as it’s riddled with enormously proportioned fruits, which they christen much more funly, like ‘face wrinkler’ and ‘astringent clump’.

They also discover Pikmin – brightly-coloured wee seedling peoples who live to serve. They all have various skills, like fire resistance, electrical capacitance, not drowning when wet and sheer rock hardness. Our three intrepid but klutzy explorers realise they can use these submissive little cuties to harvest fruit and banish baddies – just fling them at a target and revel in their industriousness. First you get the fruit, then you get the juice, then you get the not-dying-and-seeing-a-game-over-screen...

As you explore, harvesting seeds to re-greenerise the world you messed up the first time, you’ll juggle puzzles and tasks for all three explorers simultaneously – although you’re not penalised for a lack of multitasking nous, it’ll just take longer. Don’t tuck your Pikmin comfily home in their onion by nightfall though and carnage ensues – truly, heartbreakingly so as they’re gobbled by nocturnal predators. Sad face.

Pikmin 3 is easily the prettiest, most accessible turn-based strategy game we’ve encountered, and is brilliant on TV or gamepad screen. Let’s play master and servant...

take me back to the start...

 



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ALL WRITTEN CONTENT COPYRIGHT © AMY FLOWER 2008-2018. GAME IMAGES COURTESY OF RESPECTIVE GAMES COMPANIES.