Pikmin 3: Why Miyamoto's glorious HD threequel is Wii U's most unmissable game

September 23rd, 2012, 22:39 Posted By: wraggster

There was something wonderfully perverse about Nintendo opening their E3 conference with Pikmin 3. At an event where increasingly disturbing violence was starting to make even hardened critics uneasy, the appearance of these little carrot dudes carrying fruit around felt like a riposte to all the gore. Why should HD be all about rendering realistic flesh wounds, when you can use that extra processing power for authentically textured satsuma skins?
If Pikmin 3 felt out of step with much of E3, it almost felt like an interloper in Nintendo's own conference, as the rest of the first-party showings proved to be less core-centric than we'd hoped. But perhaps that's why it felt so important: as Miyamoto, via regular event translator Bill Trinen, would point out, it's a game being developed "with the intention of helping people understand the kind of fun deeper games can offer."
Yet while it's undoubtedly a key game for Wii U, it's not necessarily the one to best communicate its differences. This is a game, remember, that was originally planned for Wii, and it shows in the default control scheme of nunchuk and Wii RemotePlus. It's a responsive setup that allows for pinpoint Pikmin-lobbing, even letting you to target individual body parts of enemies.Hit the eyes of a Bulborb and you'll temporarily blind it, giving you time to nip around the back and finish it off. With no second analogue stick, swarming is out, but you can shake the nunchuk to charge forward in a group. There's even a new dodge move, handled by jabbing the d-pad on the remote.
However, this time it's not Olimar doing the plucking and chucking. Miyamoto says his fate is "a secret", but we'd bet 100 Hocotate Pokos that the four playable characters are relatives or friends of the diminutive spaceman, on amission to rescue him. Yes, while in Pikmin 2 you could switch between Olimar and Louie for a bit of multitasking fun, here you have a quartet of heroes under your command. And here's where the GamePad comes in. You'll be able to check the status of all four leaders at one glance, and switch between them by touching the screen.
Or you can use the GamePad as an alternative control scheme, with the right analogue stick controlling the camera and the in-built gyro sensor used for aiming. It may sound unwieldy, but it's a surprisingly accurate setup, particularly with the camera positioned directly above the action rather than the more traditional perspective.

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