It's Critter Time!

A couple weeks ago I started playing Pikmin 1 for the first time, thinking it would be a great fit on my new Steam Deck. I've been doing 1 day per IRL day, and it's been a fun little routine.

I'm 15 days in, and... man this game is starting to kick my ass?? Is it supposed to be this hard? I just got to the Distant Spring and I'm feeling a little intimidated. Everything is so spread out and there's water everywhere and creatures that just love knocking my pikmin into the water and I'm now at the lowest pikmin population I've had since day 2. Currently two ship parts behind and an over 80% mortality rate. I feel like tomorrow I should just go back to the impact site and spend the whole day increasing my numbers, but the idea of being 3 ship parts behind feels a little stressful. Maybe being 3 ship parts behind isn't even that bad, I've just only had two days where I managed to get 2 parts at once and it felt a little bit like I got lucky there.

oh yeah, that sounds like the typical Pikmin experience. those games can get really difficult (especially 2 in particular, from what I've seen), but it also kinda feels like one of those series where you continually improve over multiple playthroughs. so if you decide on replaying Pikmin 1 later on, you may do things a bit more efficiently!

I remember playing through Pikmin 1 on the Switch for the first time, and one of my yellow Pikmin trying to throw a bomb at a honey whisp flying above Olimar and my group of Pikmin, but instead hitting all the other Pikmin standing behind me and just wiping out the majority of them. Needless to say, I reset that day, because that just seemed mean of the game :V

I still haven't played Pikmin 2, because the idea of the randomized caves taking up the majority of the playtime (and them also getting really mean later on) just seemed very unappealing to me.

I did play through Pikmin 3 Deluxe on the Switch, and I liked that one a lot! the thing with getting three captains to swap between, and being able to split up your Pikmins between each of them to get more stuff done was really cool, imo!

I did get Pikmin 4, but I never finished it, because it did the thing where it included the caves from Pikmin 2 (I don't remember if they are randomized in this game, though), and to me it felt like they made it too easy with Oatchie. What I played of it was fun, but I dunno, it didn't really keep me engaged for too long.

Yeah Pikmin 3 IMO is the best of the series still, though I did enjoy 4.

A lot of The Experience™ of Pikmin is you basically blindly head forward and get your ass kicked and then learn to not do that again and change your strats

Except that one cave in Pikmin 2 oh god *sobbing*

the first game is easily my favorite, and failing to get all of the parts is definitely part of the first run. the game is short and replayable unlike the sequels, so I like to encourage folks to give it two runs, even if it means restarting the first one early.

you'll be surprised how efficient you become on the early levels, sometimes getting up to three parts a day. pikmin triggers my efficiency brain in such a pleasing way. it is evil though, there are a lot of tricks to managing the pikmin so they don't just die but it's inevitable to lose some in stupid ways. and the bomb rocks....

anyway the game is beautiful imo and I'm always glad to know new folks are trying it! I also recently replayed it on my steam deck, it really is perfect for it.

At this point I have 7 days left and am several parts behind, but I'm getting better! I got two parts yesterday and nearly got two today, but unfortunately they were both surrounded by enemies where I really had to keep an eye on my pikmin, including the beady longlegs which took a while to kill. Tomorrow I'm gonna go for the last part in the Forest Navel, and then hopefully I can get a lot of parts in the Distant Spring? At this point I'm not expecting to get everything I need. But... I learned a lot that should make it easier next time.