Hey! Pikmin (3DS) Review

SuperPhillip Central heads towards the end of June with a cavalcade of new reviews! This next one is from a Nintendo 3DS game that released last fall. It's Hey! Pikmin, and hey! It's time for SuperPhillip Central's review!

Little Pikmin, Big Adventure

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto is one of the most celebrated creators in the video game industry, and it's for good reason--he continually makes amazing games out of simple concepts that most often than not turn into long, thriving franchises. One such franchise is Pikmin, which debuted in 2001 on the Nintendo GameCube, thanks to Miyamoto's own interest in gardening. Since then, three main installments have been released on home consoles, and a fourth game, a bit of a spin-off, is on the Nintendo 3DS as of last fall, Hey! Pikmin. With a developer in Arzest that doesn't have the best reputation with many Nintendo fans, can Hey! Pikmin break new ground, grow, and prosper? Well, in a word, yes!

Hey! Pikmin once again sees Captain Olimar's ship, the Dolphin, crash landing on a planet that is mysteriously reminiscent of a certain planet we all live on. (Hint, hint.) With the help of his longtime friends, the Pikmin, Olimar must journey through dangerous plains, caves, mountains, and more to uncover a whole assortment of objects from the wild. These objects are then converted into energy for the Dolphin, in order for it to repair itself and leave the planet with Olimar in one piece. While the way the game sets itself up will be familiar to any Pikmin series player, instead of exploring a three-dimensional environment like in the console titles, Hey! Pikmin plays out completely in 2D through side-scrolling, relatively linear levels.

The game uses both of the Nintendo 3DS's screens to display each level. You utilize the Circle Pad (or face buttons for left-handed players) to move Olimar around, and use the stylus to toss Pikmin. Where you tap on the screen determines the place a given Pikmin is thrown. Pikmin can be chucked at various enemies, objects, and obstacles in order to proceed through levels, and this feels very nice and natural. The precision granted by the stylus/touch controls is great for picking off even the smallest of enemies with little margin of error. Of course, enemies don't just stand still, waiting to have Pikmin manhandle them. Timing is key to tap the screen at the right time and the right spot to successfully throw Pikmin at moving targets, or else they might be over or under-thrown, perhaps resulting in some grisly Pikmin deaths.

The enemies of Hey! Pikmin feature some well known buggers for fans of the franchise, but there are also plenty of new, exclusive creatures to contend with. Starting out, enemies are easy to dispatch and take care of, but as you progress through the game, they become more dangerous, offering greater offense and resistance. From oval-shaped birds that aim at your Pikmin pals to an overgrown bug that marches back and forth, intent on devouring any and all potential meals that are foolish enough to stick around in front of it, Hey! Pikmin's world definitely isn't too friendly to Olimar and his squad of helpers.

Thankfully, Captain Olimar and the Pikmin are more than capable of fending off any foe or challenge that rests on this perilous planet. Olimar himself has a helpful jet pack that he can use to hover for short distances. This acts as an admittedly clunky way of adding platforming to the game, but the mostly slow and relaxed pace of Hey! Pikmin makes it so the clunky jet pack doesn't ruin the experience.

Like the main Pikmin games, each variety of Pikmin has their own usefulness and abilities. For instance, Red Pikmin are the most common and can walk through fire and flames without being incinerated. Meanwhile, Yellow Pikmin are the lightest of the bunch, able to both be thrown higher than other Pikmin types, and can also defy the dangers of electricity. Blue Pikmin won't drown in water like other Pikmin, swimming and moving freely in the water. Then, there are the strong, crystal-crushing Rock Pikmin and the flying Winged Pikmin to help out as well. Each type is gradually introduced throughout the adventure, and the game teaches the abilities of the varieties of Pikmin in a steady manner as well through showing rather than telling. This is done through cute, animated scenes when Olimar comes across a batch of Pikmin in levels. Not only entertaining and adding personality to Hey! Pikmin, but also a great tutorial as well. Fortunately, not all of the Pikmin's abilities are revealed through these scenes. Some things you stumble upon yourself--particular uses of the Pikmin--and these moments really shine brightly in the game.

Hey! Pikmin isn't too difficult of a game in general, especially if your goal is to just go from the start of levels to their end. However, if you're exploring levels for objects to collect, there's more of a challenge to be found. This challenge is even greater if you want to collect all 20 Pikmin in a level without having any of them perish. Some levels are quite tricky to accomplish this task, and it can get very annoying proceeding through a level only to have a Pikmin get gobbled up or otherwise die at the final enemy or obstacle before the goal. The reward for completing all levels in the game this way is minimal at best, but it's an extra way to challenge yourself and add even more replay value to this 9+ hour game. If that doesn't do it for you, then each level's hidden areas and secret exits leading to unlockable levels can extend the fun of Hey! Pikmin, as well.

Hey! Pikmin's eight major sectors of 5-6 levels each (including a generally pleasing and interesting boss battle at the end of each sector) feature some smart level and puzzle design. Yes, I just said "smart level and puzzle design" when it comes to a game developed by Arzest. Hell hath frozen over. Regardless, levels where you explore a flooded cave that requires emptying its water for your Pikmin to be able to pass through, descend downward through a cavern where your Winged Pikmin carry you as you control your descent, avoiding enemies and hazards on your way down, and speed down a snowy series of slopes on top of a bottle cap as you fling Pikmin at enemies and deadly rolling snowballs alike, all offer excitement and nice variety.

Many of the passages, pathways, and areas leading to treasure have some nicely designed puzzle sequence to solve as well. One had me throwing Pikmin onto a sardine can in order to weigh it down and lift up the platform Olimar was standing on. Then, I could move Olimar over to where the treasure was located after figuring out how to raise up a second sardine can by correctly positioning his Pikmin squad in place. Many times I would be playing Hey! Pikmin and get a revelation as to how to interact with an obstacle in the game, or even realize that I could use this Pikmin in this particular way.

Another reason that avoiding treasure (which amounts to just ordinary everyday objects to people like us) is a negative is that you'll miss out on reading all of the incredibly clever descriptions of objects that Captain Olimar stumbles upon and makes note of in his journal. For example, a combination lock for a locker is described by Olimar as an ominous vault of sorts, complete with foreboding countdown. These entries of both objects and enemies are fun reads, and they add even more welcomed personality to Hey! Pikmin.

What isn't so welcomed is Pikmin Park, which seems like a throwaway mode in the main story of the game. Here, you send Pikmin off to various locations in the park to dig up Sparkium, the energy Olimar's rocket requires to escape the planet. However, the process is so slow and the rewards are so small in comparison to simply going through levels and collecting treasure, that it really feels somewhat worthless in the grand scheme of things.

Eschewing the more photo-realistic take on the visuals as seen in the home console, mainline entries of Pikmin, this 3DS spin-off has a more watercolor look, sort of similar to Yoshi's New Island. However, here it's more impressive with more appealing colors and lighting. With the use of both screens as the playing area, the stereoscopic 3D isn't available in Hey! Pikmin. Furthermore, even when the action isn't intense, some frame-rate issues occur. This is nothing that spoils the game by any means, but it's important to mention. Meanwhile, the sound side of Hey! Pikmin sports a soundtrack that is probably my favorite out of all the Pikmin games, I found myself humming and bobbing my head a lot to the music in the game, and the familiar sound effects of the Pikmin hustling and bustling brought a smile to my face.

In a time where the Nintendo 3DS is winding down, Hey! Pikmin stands as a successful experiment for the Pikmin formula. Controlling Captain Olimar with the 3DS's Circle Pad while commanding his Pikmin with the stylus and touch screen is absolutely stellar. Hey! Pikmin is a terrific conversion of the series's gameplay from 3D to 2D, offering an entry that keeps the franchise feeling fresh. It might not be the Pikmin 4 that many of us have been waiting for, but Hey! Pikmin succeeds at being a great addition to Shigeru Miyamoto's anything-but-garden-variety brain child.

[SPC Says: B]

Yoshi's New Island (3DS) Review

Easter is coming up next month, and Yoshi is out to celebrate the holiday early with his latest platforming romp Yoshi's New Island. This Nintendo 3DS game is one Nintendo hopes will tide 3DS platforming fans over until Kirby Triple Deluxe comes out on May 2. Here is our review.

A Good Egg

Yoshi has sort of been like the black sheep-- er, dinosaur-- of Nintendo's 2D platformer line. He started out in his solo career with the marvelous Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island on the Super Nintendo. Since then, he's dabbled in Yoshi's Story, a passable platformer for the Nintendo 64, he's been a part of a failed tilting experiment in Yoshi's Topsy Turvy for the Game Boy Advance, and he's tried to regain his SNES fame with Yoshi's Island DS. All of these titles hold no candle to Yoshi's first solo outing. Arzest is attempting to try again, this time with a game that more closely follows the foundation that the original Yoshi's Island laid, like Yoshi would an egg. The end result is Yoshi's New Island for the Nintendo 3DS. It all sounds eggs-citing, but does Yoshi's New Island live up to its SNES pred-egg-scessor?

In a move that totally retcons the original Yoshi's Island, it seems that the house that the stork dropped Baby Mario and Baby Luigi off at was the wrong one. In a frantic attempt to salvage this disaster, the stork swiftly flies into the sky, furiously searching for the right home. However, Kamek comes into the picture, has a tussle with the stork, and escapes with Baby Luigi in his clutches. Meanwhile, Baby Mario falls into a circle of Yoshis who decide to help the soon-to-be hero search and find his once again missing brother.

Baby Mario drops in on a Yoshi gathering.

The "new" in Yoshi's New Island really doesn't refer to changes in the gameplay or structure of the game. It's more to do with the new locale the game presents players. I mean, you're still one of eight differently colored Yoshis, you're still jumping, flutter-jumping to score extra distance, lashing out Yoshi's tongue to eat and create eggs, tossing said eggs at set angles determined by well executed timing, and running through six worlds of eight levels each.

Eggs can also nab collectibles.

The only really new elements that Yoshi's New Island brings to the table are two different eggs types. The Eggdozer is a gigantic egg that can crash through usually indestructible objects and walls, while the Metal Eggdozers allow Yoshi to sink down into watery depths, where normal Yoshis only dream about going. (They can only float on the surface of the water usually.) This opens up some neat puzzles and gives Yoshi a unique feel. However, these two new egg offerings seem too safe of additions to the series, and they come across more like something to add bullet points to the game.

I knew Yoshi wasn't into soft rock;
he prefers heavy metal!

If your only goal in Yoshi's New Island is to rush through the levels and reach the ending of the game, you'll burn through this 3DS installment within 3-4 hours. That is, you'll pretty much find the game over-easy (*cough*). You'll also be missing the important factor that makes Yoshi's New Island and the Yoshi's Island series in general challenging. Each level has three collectibles to nab: twenty red coins, five red flowers, and thirty stars.

This Yoshi has an eggs-quisite arsenal.

The stars are the most necessary to collect. Each time Yoshi is damaged, Baby Mario gets separated from him, slowly rising and falling inside a bubble. A counter slowly ticks down, each representing a star you have collected in the level, up to thirty. If the countdown reaches zero, Baby Mario is grabbed by Kamek's henchmen and you lose a life.

What challenge there is in Yoshi's New Island comes from getting 100% completion on each and every level. This means getting all of the red coins, flowers, and stars. The latter essentially requires you to remain untouched in the whole level. No damage and no deaths, as unlike past Yoshi's Island games, when you restart from a checkpoint you do not have the same tally of stars you died with. Instead, you get dropped down to the standard ten stars.

Yoshi's looking to replace this foe's filling.

Also unlike past Yoshi's Island games, you get a bit of a reprieve with going for 100% complete in each level. In Super Mario World 2 and Yoshi's Island DS, you had to acquire all of the three collectibles in one run. In Yoshi's New Island, you can collect all of one collectible, and then try the stage again, this time aiming to get all of another type of collectible. While this makes the game sound easy-peasy, it's a welcome feature, especially for the unlockable bonus stages, earned by getting 100% completion in all of a given world's levels. These bonus stages have nothing in the way of checkpoints, and they are some of the most difficult levels seen in a Yoshi-related game.

The SNES Yoshi's Island might have said
"Poochy Ain't Stupid", but 4-S disagrees.

The new rules of how 100% completion works also helps because there are multiple areas to each level, many of which you are unable to return to once you pass through them. This makes it so if you accidentally or unbeknownst to you forgot to collect a red coin but have all five flowers and all thirty stars, you need not collect the flowers and stars again. Instead, you can just focus on collecting the red coins. With my save file I managed to finally get 100% completion on every level in the game in about twenty hours give or take an hour. Unfortunately, there's no reward for doing so other than personal satisfaction (and to rub it to other players on Miiverse).

It's probably a wise decision
not to touch those scalding Chomps.

Like Super Mario World 2, Yoshi's New Island consists of six worlds, each with nine levels apiece-- one of which is unlockable. The level design itself walks a fine line between interesting and pedestrian, sometimes offering clever platform and enemy placement, as well as smart level gimmicks.

Yoshi's the eggs-ecutive of the
Yoshi Egg Company.

One of my biggest issues with the level design, however, is in the way an alarming amount of secrets are hidden. They are oftentimes placed in invisible clouds that only appear if Yoshi or an egg passes through them. When these clouds are burst open by an egg, they can reveal a series of coins, some of which are of the red variety, that a player could easily miss out on. There's also certain platform combinations that secret goodies hide in as well. Leaping from one platform to another reveals a reward. While it doesn't seem random at all, it makes exploring the levels a little arduous and exhausting sometimes as you scour every nook and cranny for invisible bounties.

Hmm... I really hope there's not
a giant waiting at the top...

Yoshi's New Island also contains vehicle segments. However, these are self-contained areas that must be entered through a special door in the levels they appear in. Yoshi can transform into a mine cart, a bobsleigh, a jackhammer, a helicopter, a submarine, and a hot air balloon. Unfortunately, the developers decided to use the gyro sensor of the Nintendo 3DS hardware to shoehorn in very much unneeded tilt controls for all of these transformations. Most work okay, but transformations like the submarine and helicopter are a bit unwieldy. These required me to tilt the 3DS at crazy angles, and I'd still have problems. That said, even if you fail to reach the exit of each vehicle section (you're timed), you get put back at the door that is the entrance to the vehicle segment. You can simply try and try again until you complete it.

The jackhammer is but one of many
transformations Yoshi can shift to.

Each fourth and eighth level of each world features a boss battle at its conclusion. For the fourth level, Kamek is always Yoshi's opponent, using different means to damage him and Kamek using different means to take out Yoshi. The eighth level bosses have more character, using Kamek's tried and true method of enlarging an ordinary enemy to gigantic proportions. Some of these battles are better than others, and some are just boring and bland.

Despite its best intentions, this
boss won't drive Yoshi batty.

What certainly isn't boring and bland are the visuals. Screens and videos on YouTube really don't do Yoshi's New Island's look any justice. You truly have to see the game on the 3DS or 3DS XL's screen to fully appreciate it. The most incredible part of the art design is the beautiful animated backgrounds. It feels like you're playing inside a children's picture book. The depth portrayed by the stereoscopic 3D effect makes the game pop out look marvelous. Unfortunately, the sound design doesn't come out as well. I hope you like the main theme of Yoshi's New Island, because you're going to hear about 40 remixes of it. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's what it felt like. There's a jazz version, there's a jungle version, there's an electronic version, and there's even a kazoo version that the sound team must have been drunk when they said such a version was acceptable. It's sensationally grating to the ears.

Your head might be in the clouds, Yoshi,
but keep your wits about you!

It's hard to say that it's bad that Yoshi's New Island doesn't do much that could realistic be called new, because we've only had three games like this since 1995. The formula really hasn't yet overstayed its welcome yet. I'm perfectly okay with this 3DS entry staying relatively true to the Super Nintendo original because of this. However, I'd love to see Nintendo take over the reins of this franchise, as its homegrown developers could give Yoshi an unforgettable Yoshi's Island game that the current developer Arzest cannot. Still, if you're looking for a tried, true, and safe addition to the Yoshi's Island name, Yoshi's New Island might not be eggs-traordinary, but it is rather eggs-cellent.

...

...I'm very sorry for the forced eggs puns.

[SPC Says: 8.0/10]