Pikmin 3 - My Thoughts and Ideas For Improving the Sequel

If you’ve ever read my blog, you know I don’t review games. My blog is about dissecting games and trying to analyze specifically what the problems are and how to fix them. Also, I like to give my creative ideas and constructive feedback, in hopes that I can contribute to the conversation for how games can be better.

Thorn Pikmin

This is not a review of Pikmin 3. If it were, I would say how much I loved the use of the tablet for a map, the art and sound design, the music, the characters, the puzzles. I would say how much I think Pink Pikmin were ingenious, especially when used alongside Blue Pikmin. The Bee-Queen boss battle was furiously fun. I absolutely enjoyed my time with Pikmin 3 for Wii U, which is awesome because I got it for free. When I purchased Mario Kart 8, it came with a download for P3, and to be honest, I’ve loved P3 even more than MK8.

But this isn’t a review. I want to talk about the issues I’ve had with the game and the creative ideas I have for (hopefully) the sequel (please, please make one!).

Rock and Purple

Black Pikmin

First, I just want to say this: Rock Pikmin are just a rehashed Purple Pikmin. I feel like Purple Pikmin could have been used to break glass as easily as rock ones. I feel like making a new “weighty” Pikmin showed a lack of creativity. Why do the same idea twice? It would have been just as easy to bring back purple as use rock, since they’re so similar.

Now, I want to say that Winged Pikmin are the BEST. I love them. The new abilities of Yellow Pikmin with that electricity chain thing is AWESOME. Good work! I wish there had been more of this… for example, Red Pikmin could get a fire burning on their leaves if they pass through flame, which would allow them to set fires to piles of brush or monsters. Blue Pikmin could absorb water and shoot it at enemies or move it to make ponds elsewhere… I wanted more of this kind of thing, however Yellow Pikmin were the only one of the old Pikmin to get new abilities. Also, I wish I could have gotten to play with White, Purple, and Bulborb Pikmin just for posterity's sake. Maybe they could have just been a cave-specific thing.

Missed opportunities for Rock Pikmin:

I had a bunch of cool ideas for how Rock Pikmin could have been differentiated from Purple Pikmin, and here they are:

I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag

And I’m loving it very much.

I played the very first Assassin’s Creed on PS3, and I enjoyed it well enough. I did, however, get bored at a certain point, and I found the missions to become the same thing over and over.

Lately, however, I’ve been needing some pirate in my life, and so I made the purchase of Black Flag on that whim. Let me tell you, the game never gets boring. Ever. 

overloaded

This is some of the most varied gameplay I’ve ever experienced in a single game. Every time I began to feel like I was hitting that “peak” moment where I’ve experienced everything, they threw something new at me. Other than the basic Assassin’s Creed stuff, you can hunt whales/sharks, dive into sunken ships, go hunting for jaguars/monkeys/wild pigs, purchase art for your home, craft health upgrades/clothing/gun hostlers, capture rival ships, build a fleet and send them around the world to trade, capture naval fortresses, have bar fights, sail around with pirates singing sailing songs you can collect, explore smuggler’s dens, pet cats, feed chickens, rescue pirates and add them to your crew, use blowdarts to put guards to sleep, and upgrade your hideout cove by purchasing shops, brothels, and guest houses...

I honestly couldn't imagine a better pirate game, and just when I think I've seen everything, they throw out new gameplay that I wasn't expecting, like finding Mayan ruins, obtaining Templar keys, or hacking computers. And, of course, there’s also multiplayer on top of all of that. I’m overwhelmed by how great this game is. It’s LOADED with content, and I give it my full recommendation for anyone who wants an amazing collect-a-thon to play in a pirate setting. 

The gripes I had

 ...were very, very few. One was that there’s no way to run without accidentally clinging onto stuff you didn’t mean to. Another is that, when standing on a “sync” tower with the hawk circling around, they decided to use the same button for descending that they do for syncing, so I inevitably sync several times in a row if I want to climb down without jumping into a haystack.

The last thing I think is a shame is the lack of ship battles in multiplayer. The best part of the game, for me, was battling ships on the seas. I really wish that they had made naval combat the focus of the online multiplayer, rather than the hide-and-seek gameplay that is. The multiplayer can be fun, but I probably wouldn’t play it as much if I didn’t want the platinum trophy. If it were ship battles, you’d bet I’d be playing it all the time.

That’s all! Buy Black Flag! It’s amazing!