Pikmin 2

[Adam Stone]

Ah blooming hell. It hasn?t come!

Ive been up since 4:30 due to being far too excited! Typical. And it?s a bank holiday on Monday? means I have to wait until Tuesday now dammit!

*Keeps his cool - counts to 3?*

Anyone else left painfully waiting?

[Geoff D]

Sorry Adam - mine's just turned up...

I'll settle down with it this afternoon I think.

[bowser123]

Don't give up Adam!
My post was unusually early, it normally arrives closer to 12 than the 8:30 that it arrived today. From what I have heard on this site and elsewhere everybody else has a similar late delivery, so give it until 12 at least mate.
The other thing might be that your posties being considerate and won't deliver until later, so the bulky package can be collected by you at your doorstep without having to wake you up on this supposed day off (I'm in work in an hour )

[Adam Stone]

Sadly, the postman has been and gone...

No worries though. Gotta keep smiling *Though im going to have to kill lots of Pikmin in Pikmin1 to do so *

Glad you're enjoying it Mr Bowser Sir and im sure your love it Mr charlie angel. Please keep us updated with impressions

[bowser123]

*Though im going to have to kill lots of Pikmin in Pikmin1 to do so *

But what about what I said earlier?

I still have an big attachment to the little guys too.
In the 1st game I'd get upset when they were killed and cheered them on when they were fighting , found myself already doing this in 2.

Put it this way Adam.
If I hear one cry from a Pikmin I'll be Down Sarfffff after you with my army of Pikmin

[Fuddle]

well i'm still waiting too adam, so theres a few of us.
the postman parked right outside my house today which i thought was a good sign....but no.

[doodledude]

Mine hasn't come either ft:

To make it worse I ordered Wario Ware and a 251 card on Monday from them and that came this morning even though it was posted 2/3 days after Pikmin 2...bugger!

[Adam Stone]

Heh. Sorry Mr Bowser. Don?t worry ? I love the little critters really. I wouldn?t let any harm come to them intentionally. Its kinda funny actually ? I feel a real sense of responsibly towards them, and even feel guilt when any misfortunes occur.

Out of interest? reading that the Pikmin now make more noises and express a greater sense of character, is there any additions to their death animations? Is the little spirit the same as Pikmin 1 or slightly modified?

Mr doodledude and Fuddle, sorry to hear ? though have to admit im a little relieved that not everyone has received theirs (sorry, that is really quite selfish of me to think that ). But it means that it is just a matter of delay, not anything more worrying like being lost in post etc.

[dr_manhattan]

Received my copy yesterday too but only had a chance to play the first section so far....bloody uni/girlfriend

[bowser123]

Out of interest? reading that the Pikmin now make more noises and express a greater sense of character, is there any additions to their death animations? Is the little spirit the same as Pikmin 1 or slightly modified?

Their death animation is very similar to what it was in the 1st one.
However, they are more alive and bubbly now. Get a big group of them together and they're practically the 7 Dwarves from Snow White with the amount of whistling and humming they do. Some people may find it annoying, I personally love it. Makes me want to look after them even more, it seems like the Pikmin army have great comradery and spirit.

Some observations about new features/ideas:
-Pikmin themselves:

They have a new ability accessed by the D-Pad on the controller. I only have the ability of the red Pikmin at the moment, but by pressing the D-Pad the little flower/leaf on their head glows and it makes them much stronger, like super Pikmin. This ability is limited to about 2 minutes and the amount of times it can be used is also limited. I presume that different directions on the D-Pad will make each colour Pikmin access their own ability.

-Levels:

On some levels you can go underground. Accessed by entering a burst of water you can go deeper and deeper underground, the most I've seen is 3 levels under. There isn't the sun light limit when underground either so you can spend as long as you want in here, however the underground areas are much smaller than those above.

-Items To Collect:

There seems to be far more items to collect than ever before. Whilst I'm not certain of the storyline, it isn't like the 1st game where collecting ship parts to get home is the key motivation. In the new game there are all kinds of everyday items that are collected for money and only after you complete a level does the map say you have 3/5 items etc to find. This will give a much bigger scope for replay in that it will be easy to miss items on 1st play and the lack of the 30 Day timespan means you can replay each level as often as you wish without being hindered by time.

-Tactics:

Lots of tactics from the 1st game still apply. Sneak up on the enemy from behind, send out a lone Olimar to draw the enemy into the trap of 95 Pikmin all still work well. You still upgrade your Pikmin by collecting the yellow amber stuff too. So far I've only used Olimar's bro as sort of a nanny relay system. What I mean is that I leave him at base to pick the new Pikmin whilst Olimar gets on with doing the level. When the Pikmin take a item or dead creature back to base I then wait until there's a fair few Pikmin at base and use Olimar's bro to round up any stragglers and return them all to Olimars position later in the level. This ensures no Pikmin get lost and only minimal time is spent backtracking to round up Pikmin that have left the group to return an item.

-End Of The Day:

One other thing that's just happened to me, that I'm sure is different from the 1st game, is the end of the day. I just had a situation where I thought I'd lose every Pikmin I have. It was the end of the day and the time counter ran out before I got my Pikmin in the spaceship. I thought I'd lose them all, but, because they were all under my control at the time there was an animation of Olimar and all my Pikmin running for the spaceship and getting away safely before nightfall.
I didn't lose a single Pikmin despite not getting home in time.
Is this scenario new to the 2nd game?

The game is fairly similar to the 1st but I'm loving it so far.
Lovely, lovely game.

[Adam Stone]

The End Of Day scenario you described Mr Boswer is the same as in Pikmin 1. A handy little factor that.

Hopefully should get this tomorrow, though sadly wont be able to play until Wednesday. Have you been able to try out the multiplayer yet by any chance?

Im looking forward to seeing the new selections of enemies and items. You said previously a menu can be selected which describes them, very nice?

The extra level of personality added to the Pikmin (humming etc) sounds excellent. Have you noticed any slight alterations to the enemies that we encounter in Pikmin 1?

Glad your enjoying it. Not long left to wait

[bowser123]

No multi player for me yet. I've had a quick mess around trying to control both characters myself in 2 player (how sads that ) and it all seems smooth, but no proper 2 player game yet.

As for the menu screen that I touched on before, not only does it show a little scene of how different creatures/plants react to your Pikmin with a description but it also gives a breakdown of how many of the things you've killed/collected. It also, heartbrakingly, tells you how many Pikmin each individual creature has killed

As for new creatures well...

I'm only early in and a few favourites have reappeared, but I have spotted a few new ones. I won't mention them all, but lets say one was huge, about twice the size of your largest creature in Pikmin 1. He was asleep and I didn't need to kill him to progress so I **** it and left him alone. However, he is more than likely holding an item so when I have some different kinds of Pikmin I'll be back in there to kill the beast
Another favourite was a plant in disguise. It sat in a plant pot and when you get too close it shoots out of the plant pot to reveal its true form...

My mac is next to my Panasonic Q so I keep on writing new bits on the computer about the game, it's fairly frequent I type as the game has really impressed me.

[Mayhem]

Anyone tried this with Freeloader yet? Friend of mine says the game doesn't seem to like the memory card a la Donkey Konga using v1.06b here...

[pledge]

I have just tried my pikmin e-reader cards and get a "region error". I thought e-readers were region free, it says this on the play-asia site. I have a US e-reader. Has anyone had any look getting the cards to work?

[dr_manhattan]

I don't have an e card reader but they seem really cheap on play asia, are they worth getting? Where can I get Pikmin cards from and what effect do they have on the game?