Pikmin 2 | DJcube

Find your fortune with the help of all-new pikmin.

JP release: 28th April 2004
NA release: 30th August 2004
EU release: 8th October 2004
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
NGC Magazine: 92%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code + Texture Pack

As Olimar returns home, his ship gets repossessed as the company he works for is in a ton of debt. Hearing about the Pikmin planet, his boss sends him back with another member of staff to use the pikmin to plunder their lands for all their treasure. While you still have to gather your pikmin before the end of the day, there’s no limit to how many days you can take, which alleviates the main form of dread from the initial film. So while Pikmin 2 has tougher challenges and more dangers, it feel more relaxing overall.

Pikmin 2 also introduces two new kinds of Pikmin: white and purple. These can’t be harvested like the red, yellow and blue; so you can only generate them from finding flowers and transforming other pikmin into these colours. White pikmin are quick, immune to poison and can dig up hidden objects. Purple pikming are slow and heavy and, while they can’t bypass any environmental hazards, but they’re powerful for attacking enemies and have the strength of 10 pikmin when carrying treasures.

Another big new addition are caves. You’ll find entrances in the main levels and will have to pick your squad of pikmin before you enter – you won’t be able to replenish while you’re in there, although you can swap colours by using flowers in some floors, which is also the only way to get white and purple pikmin. These are the main challenge of the game, and are a ton of fun to complete (with the exception of devastating bombs that fall from the sky). There’s some wonderful enemies (and massive bosses) to encounter and a lot of treasure to find, and you don’t have to worry about the passage of time.

Even the treasures are lovely to get, there’s lot of neat little things to find and I quite enjoy that Nintendo got real brands to use in the game (these were removed in the Switch version). I liked reading Olimar’s snippets and when you find a complete set of a certain type, you also get to hear the ship’s sale pitch for them. It’s just some nice extra detail that makes everything so charming.

Pikmin 2 really is a bigger, better version of the first, and follows the Nintendo staple of not being difficult to reach the end of the credits (paying off the debt), but being a challenge to fully complete (finding all treasures) – there’s a very taxing cave that you need to complete with 100 purple pikmin and not losing any of them, but completing everything is a very rewarding experience. It’s a brilliant game.

Fave

As a sequel, Pikmin 2 is almost everything we could have hoped for, then. The inclusion remarkably well-considered multiplayer modes is simply the sugar-sweet icing on the cake. The co-op Challenge mode will keep you and a friend playing for days – and the battle mode is astonishingly well-executed.
Jes Bickham, NGC Magazine #95

Remake or remaster?

It had a Switch version, but it could do with a little bit more of a spruce up.

Official Ways to get the game

Pikmin 2 is available on Switch.