Pikmin 3

The right place, at the wrong time: Pikmin was launched together with the GameCube, it was an experiment capable of tickling some curiosities and drawing confidence regardless, because blessed by the Shigeru Miyamoto brand. Pikmin 2 arrived in the fall of 2004, in the midst of a decidedly lucky and rich period for the Nintendo console of the time. Animal Crossing, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, WarioWare Inc. MegaParty Game $, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes had arrived on GameCube in the previous months ... Obviously, Pikmin 2 was asked less. , simply, to be a good game, like those already available or that would arrive (the following month would be the turn of Paper Mario: The Millennial Portal), certainly not to save the homeland. What, however, seems to want to weigh down the dreams of Charlie, Alph and Brittany, the three captains protagonists of this third episode. A title that comes after almost eight, inconceivable, months of total nothing, of zero releases by Nintendo dedicated to Wii U, without the forgotten Game & Wario of June.

Pikmin 3, however, never wanted (and never could have pretended to be) a heavyweight, the Zelda that upsets you, the Mario that turns everything upside down. Pikmin is a simpler and more sophisticated game at the same time, docile and cruel, delicious and acidic, soft, touching in its own way and a healthy bearer of zen bacilli, inoculated through phlegmatic visions of leaves, dew, blades of grass, tiny yet very large waterways. And insects and fantastic creatures and adventures. In tone and manner, Pikmin 3 does not betray its origins in the least, taking up the thread of the discourse left by Olimar and Louie nine, very long, years ago. A speech made of exploration and planning, of battles and conquests: this is, for those who had missed the previous episodes, what could be closest to the concept of "real-time strategy" having to do with Miyamoto and his team. But in the meantime, for the record, it is reported that the direction of the game is again in the hands of Shigefumi Hino (already responsible for Pikmin 2), this time assisted by Yuji Kando, who is also already working on both previous chapters.

The concept of the game has not been changed and so Pikmin 3 is a sequel that could not be followed more. The formula has been partially readjusted and chiseled, still modifying something, losing some of the ideas introduced in the second episode and introducing new ones. Nothing, however, that obliges fans to rethink their ways of facing the days inside Pikmin 3. It is, once again, to explore the tundras, gardens, forests, forests, springs ... or rather, almost microscopic portions of the same, because both the protagonist captains and the Pikmin that act as infantry are characterized by particularly small dimensions. Those narrated by the journey set up by Hino and Kando are gigantic leaves, monumental twigs, blades of grass as powerful as rushes and proud marshes like the Amazon River. In the middle, between the amused and the unconscious, the soldiers that Alph, Charlie and Brittany literally throw against the enemies and towards the resources to collect. The enemies: the huge and cruel ladybugs known in these parts as coleti, improbable mouflons that explode electrical discharges, visionary crossings between vultures and snakes ... Resources: lemons, oranges, kiwis, apples, pears ... everything that can be brought back to the ship of the three (which, of course, is no longer the Dolphin of Olimar and Louie) and turned into juice, necessary for survival.

Among the novelties of Pikmin 3 there is the management of time, which changes again: if in the first episode it was possible to live always and in any case only 30 virtual days (which in Pikmin 3 correspond, each one, to about 15 minutes of game scarce), in this new chapter it is sufficient to have at least one reserve of fruit juice at the end of the day, to be able to feed yourself and reach the next one. As long as there is fruit, the three can proceed with the exploration of the mysterious planet PNF-404 (Page Not Found - Error 404?).