And you call yourselves Nintendo fans... *tsk tsk tsk*

[OB1]

Pikmin 2 is out and there's not a single mention of it on these boards! Have you all turned into awesome-game-hating ABFs?? :p

I can't get it until this friday, so I'll post impressions over the weekend or something.

[OB1]

[A Black Falcon]

Hating? Oh come on...

[OB1]

:D

[A Black Falcon]

It's just lower on my list than some other games. But I'm sure its good. And as far as Pikmin 2, getting rid of the time limit is I'm sure a massive improvement...

[Great Rumbler]

I may be able to convince my brother to go halves with me on it when I have some money. Actually, I have money right now, but sadly it's already been ear-marked for other things.

[big guy]

i love them little pikmins...

but i can't be spending my money all willy nilly until i get a job.

then i'll get it.

but right now i'm saving my money.

sort of.

[Great Rumbler]

I've have to save my money for Star Ocean 3 before I can spend anything on Pikmin 2 or any other upcoming games.

[OB1]

Pikmin 2 is better than Star Ocean 3...

[A Black Falcon]

I actually have money too, but don't really want to spend it now... and anyway, I have gotten so many new games in the past few months I have no need for any more soon. :)

[OB1]

Pfft.

[Dark Jaguar]

I need to play a Star Ocean game myself. Pikmin is great and all but, if Till The End of Time is as good as I hear, and the series is as good as I hear, I think I'd prefer to get that...

I'll save Pikmin 2 for... um.... *thinks*.... actually, it's so low on my list of must haves that I'll be getting it after the N5 comes out and it's being sold for $10 in bargain bins. BUT, I WILL get it!

[OB1]

:shake: For shame, DJ. For shame.

[Great Rumbler]

I'll probably get it before the end of the month. Right now though I'm retro gaming; been playing Xenogears and Chrono Cross a lot.

[OB1]

That sure is retro...


:p

[Great Rumbler]

You...You...You MAIL-BOX HEAD!!!

Xenogears is six years old, that's retro in the videogame world.

[EdenMaster]

Ugh, you people and your bitching about the time limit :). It wasn't that bad, it added challenge to the game. Without the time limit, what would be the point? Thatw as the whole point of the game, was that you were racing against time to fix your ship and get out of that planet. I though playing the game in somewhat real-time added a great element to an already superb game. I won't miss the time limit, but I certainly won't celebrate it's removal either.

As for getting it, money runs short for me lately. Girlfriends tend to do that to you...fortunately I picked up some extra hours and I'll have the game next week. I can't wait!

[OB1]

Obviously the game is better without the time limit, judging by the great reviews.

[Great Rumbler]

The thirty day thing just limited how long the game could be, without it you can play for hours and not worry about not having enough time.

[EdenMaster]

Obviously the game is better without the time limit, judging by the great reviews.

That would be a valid argument, had the original not already gotten great reviews.

Being able ot play for hours defeats the purpose. If you had all the time in the world to gather your ship parts, the game would be not at all fun, especially since there is an almost unlimited amount of Pikmin you can simply recreate.

I'm not saying the game will be any better or worse, but under the circumstances and the goal of the first game was, essentially, a race against time. Having all the time in the world would make the game lose much of it's challenge and purpose.

[OB1]

All of the reviews have stated that the omission of the time limit makes for a much, much better game. It's true that the first game worked because of the time limit, but thankfully Nintendo found a way to make it work even better without a time limit. If Majora's Mask had been the first Zelda game you would think it'd be impossible to make a sequel without the three-day limit. Pikmin was made around the time limit, not the other way around. Take away the time limit and you can make a different kind of game. Like Majora's Mask versus Ocarina of Time.

[Private Hudson]

Don't bother EM, I got into a massive arugement last time round about the time limit..

..I think it ended with mutual disagreement and ways to make everyone happy by excluding the timelimit, but finding other ways to implement ideas that made the time-limit necessary.

Anyways, the game no out in Australia, but it's high on my priority list. :) Make sure you give me your impressions OB1. :)

[OB1]

I just don't understand how narrow-minded a person can be, especially when the new game is already out and works better without the time limit! It's just being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn.

I'll be sure to let you know how extremely awesome it is. :)

[A Black Falcon]

I don't see how people could prefer the time limit...

[OB1]

Yeah I can't wait to take my time and explore stuff in Pikmin 2. I'm getting it tonight!

[A Black Falcon]

Especially given how they kept the day timer, which means that you've still definitely got a sense of urgency. Just not one where you must not waste a day or the whole game is doomed.

[OB1]

Yeah.

[Great Rumbler]

Throwing Pikmin to their doom was kind of fun...in a sadistic sort of way... *has deeply repressed feelings* Haha, actually I don't really. Don't mind that strange device I attached to your chair, it's only a...fun machine. Yeah. A fun machine. That makes people happy.

[big guy]

i like throwing midgets to their doom. that's why i like that pikmin 2 commercial with the pikmins and the hotdog and the midgets. heh. takes me away ever time.

[Private Hudson]

Especially given how they kept the day timer, which means that you've still definitely got a sense of urgency. Just not one where you must not waste a day or the whole game is doomed.

A day and the game is doomed? Perhaps the problem was that you felt like that. But all it means is that you have to plan ahead with what you were going to do on each day. When I first finished the game, I had all 30 parts and it was only 24 days (IIRC, may have been slightly less days), and some of those days were certainly wasted exploring, and growing pikmin, and figuring out what I would do the next. Hell, before I went for the final piece (which had the hardest boss in the game) I spent a whole day growing and upgrading Pikmin so I could use as many as I damn will please against the boss!

Perhaps the reason that you did feel like that restricted your levels of enjoyment. But even if you didn't get all 30 pieces you would still finish the game with a good ending. And even if you were a complete loser and didn't get the absolute bare minimum required to complete the game with a good ending, you would simply get a bad ending. Besides that, the game isn't so horribly long, and the gameplay isn't so horrendously boring that playing through the game a second time would completely ruin your entire life.

[OB1]

I got Pikmin 2! The game is wonderful, a lot like the first game but also very different in terms of pacing, exploration, etc. The removal of the 30 day limit really, really makes for a better game. I'll post more imporessions after I've played some more.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm gonna take some stuff up to Gamestop in a week or two and, using my Gamestop Valuecard, see if I can get enough in credit to get Pikmin 2. And then I'll play Pikmin 2. Long into the night.

[EdenMaster]

I don't see how people could prefer the time limit...

I don't "prefer" the time limit. I just fail to see why everyone else hates it so much.

I finished the game with all 30 parts in 27 game days. One missed day will not destroy your game. Besides, some levels (such as the Forest of Hope) had many parts in it close to one another. If you rationed your Pikmin well, you could get two or even 3 parts back to the ship in a singe day, thus giving you breathing room and time to explore.

[A Black Falcon]

If you're complaining about them removing it, or saying that people who are happy it is gone are wrong, aren't you saying that you think it's better?

[Dark Lord Neo]

I want Pikmin 2, but I think I want Star Ocean more, but I don't know if I'll get it, since the last game I actually finished was KOTOR last October. Come to think of it I've only bought a few games since then.

[A Black Falcon]

I'm playing Quest for Glory III, Fire Emblem and BGII:ToB/Icewind Dale II/KotOR mostly right now... I don't need something else as well. Maybe at christmastime?

[OB1]

I've been playing Pikmin for hours upon hours and I cannot get enough of this game! It's sooo much better than the first game it's not even funny. And I can't get the game out of my head! When I eat I imagine little Pikmin running around, grabbing things off the table. When I close my eyes I see myself gathering them around for an attack. I swear I even saw a red Pikmin on my stereo late last night. It had to be one! It was just staring at me, glowing and AWESOME. It's been a while since a game has gotten under my skin like this. It really has. Now I must return to a dungeon to try and kick those fucking bastard bugs' asses. They just killed like 70 of my Pikmin!!

[Private Hudson]

lol

[EdenMaster]

I'm not able to say yet whether the game will be better without the time limit. All I'm saying is that I loved the first Pikmin without ever giving a second thought to the time limit, and I find it strange that it annoys you people so much.

I'll be getting Pikmin 2 on Friday, once I play it a bit I'll be able to tell whether it's better off with or without it. You could be right, the removal of the time limit could make the game more fun. I'm just dumbfounded about how it ruined your experience of the first game.

The fact remains: the time limit in Pikmin, because of the particular storyline, worked. It added a sense of urgency while still leaving margin for error and extra time for resourceful players. The first game would have been incredibly easy (i.e. boring) without it's time limit.

That's all I'm saying,

[OB1]

Yes it worked, but because of that there was no time for exploration and an already-short game was forced to be even shorter.

[EdenMaster]

Short game = Replay Value

[Private Hudson]

No time for exploration? I think I covered every square inch of every map in the game before I finished it. What the hell are you talking about? :)

[Great Rumbler]

With the 30 day time limit you can't really have a lot of huge worlds, otherwise you'd spend most of your time getting from one end to another. Also, in Pikmin 2 there's a bunch of large underground areas for you to explore.

[EdenMaster]

Changing gears a little bit, but I must know...

Are there really Duracell Batteries in the game? I saw a screenshot of the game with a Duracell in it, and laughed my ass off.

[OB1]

Short game = Replay Value

Come on, how many times did you beat Pikmin? Pikmin 2 is around 30 hours long, not including the hours you'll spend in the challenge modes and two-player mode.

No time for exploration? I think I covered every square inch of every map in the game before I finished it. What the hell are you talking about?

Well to better phrase myself, there's not much to explore in Pikmin and the little that there is there's not much time to see everything.

Changing gears a little bit, but I must know...

Are there really Duracell Batteries in the game? I saw a screenshot of the game with a Duracell in it, and laughed my ass off.

Duracell batteries, sprite bottle caps, and tons of other products. Pikmin 2 has more product placement than any game I've ever seen before, but it makes sense. :)

[A Black Falcon]

Nothing wrong with some product placement... look at racing games with liscenced cars (Need for Speed or Gran Turismo anyone?) or liscenced parts (for the ones like NFSU), sports (or racing -- see Rush 2049! Ads for Slim Jim and Dickies are everywhere!) games with liscenced ads all over the place, older liscenced platformers like the 7up dot one and Chester the Cheetah, not to mention stuff like the Playmobil fantasy adventure game or Darkened Skye (with Skittles as its magic system), or the upcoming Lego Star Wars game... nothing wrong with it if it's done well, I think.

In the case of sports games, I think it'd be great if the stadiums had accurate advertising in them.

[OB1]

WTF, Darkened Skye did not use product placement well. You collect skittles fer cryin out loud!

[A Black Falcon]

They are the magic system. And I thought it was clever... unless you forget those fantasy Skittles ads in the year or two prior to the release of that game? Fantasy Skittles ad campain (those were some pretty cool ads too...), fantasy Skittles game... why not?

[OB1]

...

I think you're the only person in the entire world who thinks that Darkened Skye thing wasn't the most pathetic and nonsensical use of product placement ever.

[A Black Falcon]

The problem with that game is that it's a mediocre Tomb Raider clone, not the Skittles. I didn't say that it was a good game, I don't think it is, but I said that the Skittles placement wasn't that bad. I mean, it wasn't as obtrusive as all those billboards in Rush 2049, I'd say... now THAT went a bit over the top. At least they could have had more variety! :)