Alex:As many of you noticed, i’ve been inactive. That’s because in any of my free time i’ve been off playing this gem of a game.

So, in the first game, Captain Olimar, the spaceman the size of a small coin, crash lands his rocket on a planet that’s heavily implied to be Earth in the future. He had 30 days to repair his heavily damaged spacecraft, otherwise he would perish a sad and lonely death. With the help of the adorable Pikmin, he managed to collect all 30 ship parts and return home.

However, upon arrival at his home planet, his boss lumps an inexperienced co-worker with him, and tells him to go back there and gather “treasure” to pay off the huge debt the company worked up. Without even saying “Hi” to his family, Captain Olimar returns to the planet of the Pikmin, accompanied by the bug-eyed Louie. Their goal? Gather treasures (Objects left behind by the human race) to pay off the debt.

Upon meeting the Pikmin, be it your first time or your second time, the first thing you notice is how adorable they are. The little noises they make, down to the way they rely on you for everything, it’s just…downright adorable.

Cute, Adorable, and Tasty.

Essentially, you’re free to do whatever you want in this game. Whilst the first game gave you a rather restrictive time limit which works out to around 6 and a half hours, give or take, the second game lets you do whatever you want. Wonder around, explore the magical enviroments which somebody at Nintendo has lovingly crafted, hunt down treasure, or simply play with the Pikmin…the possibilities for how you can spend your time on the planet are nearly endless.

But, how do you control these creatures? For people who are having their first go at the world of Pikmin, don’t be intimidated by the huge number of characters on the screen. Pikmin handle amazingly easy, following you around, being thrown, called back, dismissed or made to march in a line, it’s something which you can pick up in less than an hour, and from there you can slowly develop a flair for it, allowing you to come out of confrontations with the planets local wilderness unharmed.

Yes, the planet has local wilderness. Considering that it’s heavily implied the “Pikmin Planet” is Planet Earth after mankind has died out, this means that wilderness roams free. You fight all sorts of mutations of our common animals, be it spiders, caterpillars, giant grub-dogs who want to eat you… heck, there’s even some creatures who’ve mutated with machinery that the dead human race left behind. There’s no shortage of hostile creatures who want nothing more than to kill you and your Pikmin.

Your Pikmin will follow you to their deaths.

With the grand total of items you need to collect clocking at 201, you can put all your worries about a short game aside.

But, I think i’ve missed one key point. What the game does have is charm by the bucket-full.It can come in the form of sales pitches, which help you find out more about the world, to notes on how to cook and eat the hostile wilderness. The 201 treasures ending scene is actually known to reduce people to to tears, bringing back all those feelings that Disney managed to create decades ago. Nintendo’s finally done it, and created a world thats packed full of “magic”. Be you a casual gamer or a dedicated gamer, you have no excuse not to have played this game, one of Nintendo’s finest games. Pick up the old Gamecube version, or get the version which uses Wii controls. They’re both magical.

Alex: One day, Nintendo’s most famous man got inspired by gardening, and created this. Part dark, tragic struggle for survival, and part “Disney” magic, the original Pikmin is a brilliant game let down by how long it is.

On a space vacation, Captain Olimar runs into a meteorite and crashes into an uncharted planet. There, he learns that in 30 days, his life support system will fail him, and he’ll die a cold, lonely death on some uncharted rock, unable to leave a message for his family, and only able to write in his journal in the hope that someone will discover him. And then…he meets the Pikmin.

He originally refers to them as being similar to a native brand of carrots, and to his surprise, the alien creature follows him, and helps him in his quest. Pikmin reproduce. Pikmin fight. Pikmin move hazards. Pikmin carry corpses of the native wildlife and parts of Olimar’s ship. Suddenly; things are looking up.

Your then treated to a wonderful 7ish hours slowly trying to repair Olimar’s ruined spaceship with the help of these creatures. It’s magical, its wonderful, at times it can be dark and gritty, but there’s one thing that lets it down. At most, your main game will last 7 hours, before your time runs out and Olimar has no choice but to try to fly his spaceship. Sadly…that’s not enough time to truely take in how wonderous this game is. It’s one of those “before you realize it, it’s gone” experiences. And that’s a crying shame, because a lot of thought has gone into the game. From Olimar’s journal to his witty comments about every ship-part, the game is stuffed with charm. The landscapes are vast, creative and all different, and they all look like a feast on the eyes.There’s even a lot of thought gone into the hazards and the local wilder-beasts who’d like nothing more than to kill all your Pikmin.But…it’s so DAMN short. You don’t get to really appreciate it until you’ve been back once or twice.

That isn’t to say that it’s a bad experience, but it’s a really good experience. One of the best franchises to come out of Nintendo, it’s got almost everything you’d want from a Nintendo game and then more. It’s just…since it’s so damn short, it’s hard to write about it or explain anything about it.