8. Pikmin 2 – GCN

Does anyone in the video game industry have a better track record than Shigeru Miyamoto? From Donkey Kong to Nintendogs and everything inbetween he’s had a hand in, it’s difficult to imagine Nintendo even existing today without the contribution of his astounding imagination. Not content with simply churning out new iterations of his beloved Mario and Zelda franchises, with the Gamecube Miyamoto launched one of the most innovative new series of the generation – Pikmin. A combination puzzle and real-time strategy games, Pikmin is without imitators and one of the most original games to ever come along. As good as the first game in the series was, Pikmin 2 outmatched its predecessor in just about every way. More than a sequel, Pikmin 2 feels like the first fully fleshed out realization of Miyamoto’s grand ideas.

The title of the series refers to a species of creatures who you control in the world of the game. In the roll of a spaceman, Olimar (and it isn’t a coincidence that his name is a near anagram of another Miyamoto creation), players must give orders to fleets of these Pikmin in order to recover random items strewn about the world. With direct control of Olimar, you are able to give RTS like commands to your “army” of Pikmin, directing them to attack, go around hazards, splitting them into teams to solve a particular puzzle, etc. Pikmin can be used to recover items that make additional Pikmin, which is handy when you’re playing in a world also populated by creatures who love nothing more than to feast on your little friends. It’s a pretty simple concept that works shockingly well, thanks to the fact that the oddly-shaped Gamecube controller almost seemed designed with this game in mind.

What makes this game special is how deep the actual gameplay is. Each mission requires a lot of thought and strategy, constantly keeping players actively engaged. Pikmin can be of five distinct types, with various strengths and weaknesses (Yellow Pikmin are weak but can be propelled much higher than other Pikmin, for example), and a very strict 15 minute time limit per outing makes effective use of time as important a factor as keeping your Pikmin alive. Perhaps most impressive is that the game is deep and complex in a very organic way – complexity isn’t gained simply by having use of a large number of units to pick from, for example. Consequently the game remains accessible to a large audience without ever feeling dumbed down.

Pikmin was a stellar game, but it’s short length and small scope almost make it seem like a tech demo when compared to the huge game that is Pikmin 2. Pikmin 2 added new kinds of Pikmin, more than doubled the amount of playable areas, added two new playable characters, all of which added significantly to the game without abandoning the core concept. Pikmin is probably the most unique game to come to the Gamecube, and Pikmin 2 is easily one of the best games to grace the system.