Pikmin has never shone with the stunning quality of its scenarios, and Hey! Pikmin is no exception to the rule. Like the first episode, Captain Olimar is stranded on an unknown planet after his ship has been damaged by an asteroid. Forced to collect 30 lumium seeds to repair the device, he will have to team up with the Pikmin whose characteristics differ from one color to another. Thus, the Red Pikmin are not afraid of fire and are quite good at fighting, while the Blue Pikmin are excellent swimmers and love to splash around in water. Yellow Pikmin, on the other hand, are not afraid of electricity, and their featherweight allows them to reach high places. There are also the Pikmin Roc which appeared for the first time in Pikmin 000 and which we will use to inflict great damage or break crystal blocks. Finally, there are the Winged Pikmin which, in addition to lifting all kinds of obstacles, can help Olimar to fly over certain dangerous passages. With five types of Pikmin in their hands, it was thought that the developers of Arzest would have shown some ingenuity. Actually no. It's ultra basic and you hardly rack your brains to progress through the different levels. Just open your eyes to find the supposedly hidden objects, knowing that each sector contains three of them. The interest of collecting everything? To be able to access secondary courses and fill their pockets with even more lumium seeds. It's true that the transition to 3D does not make things easier in terms of level design, but when you remember Kirby Triple Deluxe for example, you realize that there was much better to do.
When we had a lot of fun with Pikmin on home consoles, Hey! Pikmin looks like a bad joke.
And then, the fact that the day/night cycle has been left aside definitely kills the interest of the game, whereas it is precisely the fear of not returning in time that punctuated the discovery of the surroundings. There, we just go from point A to point B, trying not to fall asleep along the way. What saves Hey! Pikmin du naufrage is its immediate and comfortable handling, whether you are left-handed or right-handed. Indeed, the control of the character is done as well with the left analog stick as with Y and A. Good point. We also appreciate the good-natured atmosphere in which the license has always been bathed, and which gives a particular flavor to the odds and ends picked up here and there. If you no longer freak out about returning to the Onion out of time, recovering as many Pikmin as possible can speed up the work started in the Pikmin Park, where lumium seeds are scattered everywhere. Anecdotal, let's be clear. We are also close to disaster with the bosses who drop their pants as soon as Olimar frowns. Just swing two-three Pikmin for them to beg him to stop torturing them. Well, we exaggerate a bit, but all that to say that there is no respondent opposite. Even graphically, Hey! Pikmin does not dream. The textures are unremarkable, the animations are barely smiling, and the few slowdowns seen in the last levels scared us. Move of mercy.
