Pikmin 3 Deluxe

[Ike]

I did pick it up, but want to play through the demo first to unlock the higher difficulty but also not sure when I'll get round to playing it.

[Ike]

£24.99 at Amazon and Smyths.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pikmin-3-Deluxe-Nintendo-Switch/dp/B08FCXFHV3/

https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/video-games-and-tablets/top-selling-video-games/pikmin-3-deluxe-nintendo-switch/p/192423

[Hero-of-Time]

Thanks for the heads up, @Ike. I was actually hovering over the buy button during the week when I see it was £32. I’m glad I held out! I let one of my mates know about it as well and he’s also picked it up. It’s nice to see Nintendo games go on sale like this. 

[Hero-of-Time]

I’ve been playing this over the past week or so and it’s been an absolutely joy to revisit the game. It’s nuts to think that the game is nearly 8 years old! 

I was a big fan of the game on the Wii U but I’ve enjoyed this version much more purely because Nintendo decided to add achievements into the game. With the game being pretty short, these extra tasks really gave the game some legs. I had to finish the game on Hard difficulty and then again on the Ultra Spicy difficulty. It still wasn’t too taxing but having less time and only being allowed 60 Pikmin out at the same time added a little bit more strategy to the game. 

On the Wii U release I never bothered with the mission mode or the side stories. There were lots of achievements tied to both of these modes and so I finally played through them. The various missions on offer were great fun and when going for the platinum rank, which is needed for an achievement, it gave me the challenge I was looking for. I imagine most of these can be done much more easily in co-op mode but when playing on your own you really have to manage your resources and time well.

I finally nabbed my last badge/achievement this evening.

I’m very happy to have picked this up again. It’s such a well crafted game, with gorgeous environments, imaginative bosses and charming characters. I certainly got my money’s worth out of it. Thanks again to Ike for the heads up on the price drop.

[darksnowman]

Pikmin, eh? I continually count these games out... until I get around to playing one that is, then I realise how much care goes into them. Note to self: don't be lackadaisical about Pikmin 4. These games don't deserve to be put on the to-buy-when-on-sale list.

Of the Wii U ports I've bothered with so far (Mario 3D World, TMS #FE), it looks like Pikmin 3 is the best of the bunch. Well, okay, MK 8 DX is probably up there with it too, I'll give you that one.

It's early days for me on PNF-404. Reunited with Brittany. Got red, rock and yellow Pikmin at my disposal. Getting in the odd bit of fruit. Looking for the captain. There've been some funny bits of dialogue like when they talk about how people from Hocotate (like Olimar and Louis) survive on vegetables and they, who are from Koppai, are fruit eaters. 

All colours of Pikmin are stored in a single Onion now. My personal preference has me wanting an Onion per colour purely because it gives more of an impression that I'm building a base of operations. It's handy to just need to go to the one Onion, though.

Something I assume is a holdover from the Wii U is d-pad for swapping between characters? When you want to swap, a d-pad plus appears on screen and due to that visual cue, I keep thumbing it on the controller before remembering the joystick does the job. The first time I tried to do this I was pretty confused for a minute or two as to why my d-pad inputs were not being recognised.

Other than that, so far so great. The last thing I did was lose two red Pikmin to the darkling cave creatures. The reds were building a bridge and I watched on from my vantage point, wondering if they'd be preyed upon without me there to launch them into combat first. Now I know. Still, it's not like the first Pikmin where every loss was dearly felt  -- I'll have some more sprouted in a jiffy.

...listening to their speech, Professor E Gadd is a giant Koppaite...? He has the look, too.

[darksnowman]

I'm not going to blog everything that happens, however... there was a code red situation.

The goal for the day was to bring down the Vehement Phosbat. I'd softened it up the day before and hoping the damage might carry over, I did a bit of investigating (got a few pieces of fruit and discovered the spicy berries) before heading back around to the caves. I'd burned up most of the day getting sidetracked but was able to quickly finish the creature off thanks to it not having recovered its health from our initial encounter.

All good, then. A productive day in the tundra. I sent some Pikmin off with the carcass and a piece of fruit then pulled up the map to auto-send one of the characters to the ship. As time was ticking, I wanted someone to be in position to ring the bell to call everyone in for the night.

With two seconds left I got the notification that they'd arrived at their destination so I flicked control over... to discover I'd sent them not to the ship but a plantpot!! There was no time to rectify. About ~14 Pikmin made it safely into orbit.  

[Hero-of-Time]

I've got images of a bunch of Pikmin just standing on top of a plant pot, watching the sun slowly go down and wondering why on earth they were ordered to stand there all this time. 

[darksnowman]

All signs seemed to be pointing to the fourth Pikmin colour being blue. 

Just got it and it's something different... a gamechanger! 

[Hero-of-Time]

 

[darksnowman]

Blue (All Rise) Pikmin saved from the brink of possible extinction and the others have enjoyed a few days of me going relatively easy on them--some drowned just now, but that aside we've managed to get through a couple of days without me leaving them for the overnight predators... or incorrectly predicting what the lock-on would catch and throwing them to their doom... or just not getting a lock-on and dropping an explosive rock slapbang the middle of the entire group (RIP x98)... or mistiming a throw and launching them straight down the gaping gullet of an enemy... or... yeah you get the idea.  

In the spirit of balance and equality, it's not exactly looking good for the Koppaite trio either. Just the one ration of juice remaining.

[viceview51]

I have a hard time losing pikmin and have a tendency to reset the game and go for a no death pikmin run.

[darksnowman]

Just wrapped up the main game. Didn't see that coming as I felt the game was still in the process of ramping up. What turned out to be the final area was a good test and the only place I ended up using the restart option, as the knowledge I gathered with each attempt helped me get a bit further next time with some fewer losses. Basically, with everyone getting divided up, this kind of end-of-day outcome was going to be unsustainable before long:

No chief, I failed them. In this quest to retrieve the Cosmic Key Drive, I'm really not sure the ends justified the means. Final stats screen showed 427 losses over the course of the game.  I can only hope they honour our fallen Pikmin comrades by cultivating the seeds from the fruit I sent back to put an end to their food shortages forever.

Don't check this if you're feeling weak of stomach, @viceview51! 

Spoiler

The plan was to lure it up there, jump off the bridge and do another loop to the other pile of bridge pieces, then cross the completed bridge with the blob nowhere to be seen. Plan failed at jump off the bridge. The game didn't allow it so we were boxed in.  Tried to fight our way out of that corner but the losses were too heavy.

No way was Olimar worth this.

Lovely credits sequence to top off an excellent game. Those that survived will do a fine job of fending for themselves. 

There's some more things to go back and finish off like the 10-min levels and some fruit pieces left to grab so I reckon I'll still be on it for those--it's too soon to put this one to bed yet.