Pikmin 2

[Adam Stone]

Never used the e-reader myself so cant offer any advice sadly. But I too would be interested in getting one if the benefits are worthy. Also would be good for Super Mario Bros 3? What does it add to Pikmin 2?

Anyhoo? It finally came today. Been playing for around 3 hours or so and am really enjoying every single moment. Many things are welcomingly familiar yet with an extra level of polish and depth? Everything has been enhanced somehow: the menus, cut scenes, graphics, sounds, items, enemies, everything?

The menu screens seem to provide a great deal of useful information - admittedly I?ll have to wait for the US version to get the full benefits, yet it is definitely clear that a lot of time, effort and attention has been paid to make Pikmin 2 fill ?complete? whereas Pikmin 1 felt it was only the introduction of something far more greater?

Im having a lot of fun viewing the item and enemy logs at the moment. Also am quite amazed by how beautiful it looks during these sections. Even though the emphasis is on the enemy, how they attack etc, the entire screen is still filled to the brim with scenery. Trees tower elegantly in the distance while water flows in the foreground. Also the lighting is surprisingly good? reflecting and interacting with the enemies. Lovely stuff. Being able to rotate and zoom in/out with the camera is pretty nifty and also how the environments change from sunny or snowy and night and day.

There seems to be loads of upgrades to obtain. One of the pause menus suggests there are upgrades for gloves, the whistle, clothing and boots? should be interesting... anyone know any more details about these?

Right... back to Pikmin 2 I think.

[bigbadwolf]

Well, what a brilliant sequel - pretty much twice the game the original was (by doing all the dungeon stuff).

Took longer to complete, and a few harder bits than the first.

Suffice it to say getting the 10,000 coin target is about halfway through. Oh, and save your purple pikmin for the last item...

--
bbw

[Papercut]

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?

As I understand it, the e-reader itself is region encoded to US or Jpn cards (are Australian cards the US versions?).

I need to dig out my US e-reader to double check.

The e-reader cards seem to be for unlocking gba downloadable mini games.

[dr_manhattan]

Sounds interesting - reminds me of powerstone on the Dreamcast VMU

[Fuddle]

only done the first three or four days so far, but i'm so impressed.
i was watching the title screen for ages seeing the pikmin run around.
and the part where your assistant meets his first pikmin is class

[Adam Stone]

Yeh, that part made me chuckle

In fact, I haven?t stopped smiling since I put the disk into my beloved Cube. I?m in that very rare state of mind when you experience and witness something that surpasses your initial expectations. It happens very rarely? but when it does? it?s such a welcome feeling.

I?ve played for around 7 hours (I haven?t been able to put it down today. Heh ) and it keeps getting better and more impressive round every turn. I loved Pikmin 1, but this is how Pikmin was supposed to be imo. This truly is something else.

Im loving the music at the moment too?

Out of interest... who is writing the review?

[Earl]

I haven't been able to put it down either. I've been playing on and off all day since it arrived this afternoon, I'm just after knocking it off for the night on Day 13.

Have gotten all my little fellows now so tommorrow should be fun. So far I've seen 3 levels and all are pretty huge, didn't think the first map was, but after returning to it with my little blue guys it just opened up hugely. So many little additions to enjoy, the singing, the enemy database, the falling petals, the whole game just oozes charm. Can't wait to see what awaits me tommorrow and I didn't even mention the dungeons. Great stuff.

[Papercut]

Took longer to complete, and a few harder bits than the first.

about 50% longer would you say, with the underground areas? It depends how you approach the game, I was just wondering how you found it.

[Earl]

Oh mother of god no. After something like 45 minutes of playing in the underground, after collecting every treasure including a fighting upgrade, I lost all 67 remaining Pikmin on the final boss.

I had one little guy remaining and the boss was down to a spec of energy, do I run or fight? The little ghost that floated away tells the story of a lone, courages Pikmin that doesn't know the meaning of the word defeat. Of course I didn't know that you loose all your treasure if all your pikmin die, so it was all in vain. Poor little guy. I'm a broken man.

[SharkAttack]

That is class! 1 Pikmin versus the big bad boss. They should release a game where you play as the lone surviving pikmin in a ravaged pikmin-less world.

[EvilBoris]

yay I got mine today, its lovely!

really been enjoying it so far, gave 2 player a go aswell, its good fun.

and that blossom level is gorgeous

[Adam Stone]

Well, what a brilliant sequel - pretty much twice the game the original was (by doing all the dungeon stuff).

Took longer to complete, and a few harder bits than the first.

Suffice it to say getting the 10,000 coin target is about halfway through. Oh, and save your purple pikmin for the last item...

--
bbw

Good day Mr Bigbadwolf, i was wondering how long you've been playing it aprox? Also... are the items in the start menu screen (where it shows how much 'special' syrup has been obtained) upgrades or something else?

A general question I was wondering. I played Pikmin 1 quite extensively and became fairly familiar with the level designs for each of the stages. In Pikmin 2 water and blossom stages resemble two of those from Pikmin 1 to an uncanny degree. Now, is this a deliberate move? My personal perspective is that it is and it creates the impression you've returned back to the same locations of the first, just many years after (Space travel is a time consuming thing after all). Anyone else wondered about this?

Im on day 16 now. Collected aprox quite a bit over half of my expense. just going to focus on collecting pikmin now for a while

[bowser123]

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?

As I understand it, the e-reader itself is region encoded to US or Jpn cards (are Australian cards the US versions?).

I need to dig out my US e-reader to double check.

The e-reader cards seem to be for unlocking gba downloadable mini games.

The e-reader itself is region free in the sense that you can use a Japanese one on a British machine, a US one on a PAL etc. However, the cards themselves aren't region free. I assume it's a language issue similar to memory cards, in that when you start up the reader it's in English and then trying to swipe a Japanese card it gets confused about the language and won't work.

[Commander Marklar]

So an English reader won't read Japanese cards... Region encoded, yes?

The game works with freeloader too, saves to English formatted memory cards fine.

Top game though, I love it when the Pikmin sing stuff

[Papercut]

The e-reader itself is region free in the sense that you can use a Japanese one on a British machine, a US one on a PAL etc. However, the cards themselves aren't region free.

Thats what I said, the e-reader is region encoded to the cards.

So the US e-reader expects US cards, and the JPN e-reader expects JPN cards.

I'll be able to confirm this soon, I'll give the Pikmin cards a go with the US e-reader.