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Pikmin Remake: Too Soon?

Posted by Bob Mackey

The Pikmin series is one of Nintendo's most recent franchises, and seemingly, its most overlooked--but Nintendo itself is seeking to remedy this with a new, improved Wii-make (I shudder at the terminology) of their cartoony take on the RTS. As a big fan of Pikmin, it's nice to see some attention given to a series that's really deserved more; and even hardcore Nintendo fans can admit that the GameCube was by no means a popular enough system to make Pikmin the hit it should have been. But if this new Pikmin is more of a remake than the Wii's Resident Evil 4, wouldn't Nintendo's time be better spent on making a new game? Note: I realize they don't normally solicit advice from gaming blogs.

Of course, we don't know if the "new" Pikmin Miyamoto casually mentioned at E3 is this remake--so things are still up in the air at this point. But if the only new Pikmin we see this gen is a slightly revamped version of a seven year-old game, you'll be able to taste the disappointment in the air.

I can definitely see why Nintendo's trying to remind the world of Pikmin; it's a Miyamoto franchise, and the GameCube controller practically felt like it was designed for the first game. However, both games in the series are compatible with the Wii(as are all GameCube games), and also cost much, much less than the price of a new game. As a consumer who can get a copy of the first Pikmin for 10-12 bucks--and let's not forget the kind folks at GameStop will no doubt recognize an opportunity to push a used game over a new one--Nintendo's going to have to do a lot to get me interested in this; and I assume others in my position feel the same way. The thing is, I don't necessarily want Nintendo to put a lot of resources into a remake; and that's kind of the entire point of this post. Maybe a re-release of the game in new, Wii-branded packaging would be nice (and I guess some hacked-in Wii-Mote support), but I'd still rather see Pikmin 3, or however else Nintendo decides to re-launch the series on its newest system. The funny thing is, I don't feel the same way about the Klonoa remake; and that's a series where I'd absolutely love to see a new game. The difference here is that the first Klonoa is so technologically distant and incredibly obscure that its Wii-make seems far more justified.

One thing to be happy about is that at least Nintendo isn't trying to pass off the Pikmin remake as an entirely new game--not yet, anyway. The new Animal Crossing represents how shameful and rehash-y the company can be; City Folk isn't even superficially different from the N64 game that started the series. Hopefully, Pikmin will be able to keep its dignity intact.

Related Links

Are You Buying Final Fantasy IV DS? Huh? Huh? Huh??
Would You Play a Final Fantasy VII Remake? Hmmm?
Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return


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Comments

Roto13 said:

The Pikmin announced at TGS is a port of Pikmin (or Pikmin 2? Or both? I dunno) with a few bells and whistles, no a complete remake. The Wii isn't all that different from the Game Cube, as far as I know, so I can't imagine this taking a lot of time and manpower to do.

Also, the Wii Pikmin that Miyamoto mentioned at E3 is something different:

www.thetanooki.com/.../calm-down-pikmin-wii-still-a-go

^ (that's me. xP)

October 3, 2008 12:20 PM

Roto13 said:

au.wii.ign.com/.../915529p1.html

Looks like it's both versions of Pikmin.

October 3, 2008 12:38 PM

Bob Mackey said:

Neat.  Initially, there was some question as to how much work was going into these ports; glad to see they're not pulling an Animal Crossing.

October 3, 2008 2:49 PM

Roto13 said:

Yeah, the Animal Crossing thing kinda sucks. I played the first one and liked it for a while, so I bought the DS version when it came out and realized it's pretty much exactly the same. City Folk doesn't look much different, either. I won't be making that mistake again. It sucks to be tired of a game by the time you begin playing it.

October 3, 2008 4:00 PM

Bob Mackey said:

I know old Nintendo games are now a valuable commodity for Nintendo, but they completely missed the point by taking them out of Wild World (and they definitely won't be in City Folk).  They were something to really work for in the game.

October 3, 2008 5:20 PM

Roto13 said:

I'd like to see console items in City Folk that play the Virtual Console games you have stored on your Wii. People visiting your town online could play them. That would be neat.

October 3, 2008 10:48 PM

LBD "Nytetrayn" said:

I don't think so; Jungle Beat looks the same as the Cube version, except for the Wii control stuff (hope that works well).  I think it's more RE4/Zelda: Twilight Princess stuff.  And I'm cool with that, especially for Metroid Prime.  I never really played the original much, but the Wii version has my attention.

Now, I just want to hear that these games are coming here.

October 4, 2008 1:50 AM

Bob Mackey said:

"People visiting your town online could play them. That would be neat."

Sounds great, but Nintendo would never allow people access to this kind of content for free.  Remember, they were the company who re-released NES games for the GBA at $20 a pop--and the graphics of these ports were uglified after being squished into the GBA's aspect ratio.

October 4, 2008 10:50 AM

Demaar said:

I haven't played the original, so I'm eager for this.

October 4, 2008 12:30 PM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

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