Pikmin 2

Pikmin 2 is a real-time strategy game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo. The game was the second installment in the series and introduces multi-player. Pikmin 2 was re-released as apart of the New Play Control! series of Wii games, but only was released in Japan, Europe, and Australia. A New Play Control! release for North America was announced for June 2012.
== Plot ==
=== Types of Pikmin ===
*Red Pikmin - Red Pikmin are the "starter Pikmin" and are stronger than all Pikmin except Purple Pikmin. They are invulnerable to fire from fire-breathing enemies and obstacles. Red Pikmin's distinctive feature, beside their color, is their pointy nose. They are the most common type of Pikmin.
*Yellow Pikmin - Yellow Pikmin are electricity-proof and can be thrown higher than other Pikmin. They have lost their ability, from the first game, to carry Bomb Rocks. They have ears in addition to their yellow color.
*Blue Pikmin - Blue Pikmin are able to survive underwater and are resistant to water-based attacks and obstacles. They also act as lifeguards and can save drowning Pikmin and throw them to shore.
*Purple Pikmin - Purple Pikmin's strength is equal to that of 10 Pikmin. When thrown these Pikmin can stun nearby enemies with their ground pound. It can crush small creatures, like Dwarf Bulborbs. Instead of finding a purple Onion which sprouts them, they are a conversion of regular Pikmin that are tossed into Violet Candypop Buds which can only be found in some caves. A distinct feature of these are their enormous weight.
*White Pikmin - White Pikmin are smaller than normal Pikmin and sport red eyes. Their red eyes can be used to locate treasure. They can also walk 1.5 faster than other Pikmin when carrying items and are immune to poison. They can poison enemies that consume them.
*Bulbmin - Bulbmin are mixture of Pikmin and the Bulborb species. They are juvenile Bulborbs that are infected with a parasitic type of Pikmin. They are immune to fire, water, electricity and poison due to the fact that they are protected by the Bulborb's body. They only appear in caves and cannot be taken out, although they can be taken out with cheat devices. If the player has than a 100 Pikmin then Bulbmin will appear. In order to obtain, a mature Bulbmin must be defeated. They resemble juvenile Bulborbs with a stem coming out of its back.
== Gameplay ==
Gameplay in Pikmin 2 revolves around using different combination of Pikmin to retrieve various 'treasures' from the planet's surface. These treasures range from a Duracell battery to a Dannon yogurt lid. Several of the treasures found on the planet are items from previous Nintendo ventures. Different obstacles and enemies make the retrieval of each treasure unique. The player must take into consideration the strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and numbers of each type of Pikmin when carrying out the challenges needed to retrieve these treasures. This is compounded in difficulty by the fact that no more than 100 Pikmin may be in play at any given time. The player is given one day at a time to play, with each day equaling about 13 minutes in real-time. Typical tasks involved in collecting treasures include defeating enemies, building bridges, destroying walls, or moving obstacles.
In addition to above-ground areas, caves can be found throughout the landscape. Caves contain multiple treasures and enemies spread across multiple sub-levels. Special rules apply to exploring caves. When the player is exploring a cave, time does not pass above ground due to a strong magnetic field. The main restriction regarding cave exploration is that there is no access to the Pikmin Onions (the creatures' mother ships). This means that once players enter a cave, they can only use the Pikmin that they brought with them (see Bulbmin for the exception). There are a total of 105 sublevels divided into 14 caves in the game.
In Pikmin 2, a player may continue to search for treasure for as many days as they wish. The game contains 201 collectible treasure pieces, as opposed to the 30 ship parts of the original Pikmin. Another addition to the formula is a mode for two captains to be in the play area simultaneously, making multi-tasking easier. In Pikmin, there was only one captain directing multiple groups of Pikmin. In both Pikmin games, commands cannot be issued from a distance, meaning that a one-captain system caused a lot of running between groups. The addition of sprays is another new feature in Pikmin 2. Sprays are obtained by collecting 10 berries of the corresponding color, but can occasionally be found in egg-like vessels when smashed, instead of the usual yellow nectar. The red spray energizes Pikmin to increase both speed and attack strength. The purple spray turns enemies caught in the blast radius to stone, the downside of this being that if an enemy is killed while frozen, their body will shatter and not leave behind a corpse.
A screenshot of a round of the two-player mode
The yellow Pikmin have changed abilities between games. In Pikmin, the yellow Pikmin have the ability to pick up bomb rocks and throw them, in order to break walls of dirt and stone or severely damage enemies. In Pikmin 2, the bomb rocks available are too large for a yellow Pikmin to carry or throw, but the yellow Pikmin have gained the ability to withstand electricity.
Two new kinds of Pikmin were added, the white Pikmin and the purple Pikmin. These Pikmin do not have Onions, but rather are created by tossing other Pikmin into violet and ivory Candypop buds (which are only found underground in caves). They live within the spaceship at night. Purple Pikmin have superior carrying ability, a stunning attack, and cannot be blown away, while white Pikmin are poisonous when consumed by enemies, can detect buried treasures, and move (and carry objects) faster than the other colors.
The controls are also improved over the previous game and Pikmin can be thrown slightly faster.
== e-Reader ==
In Japan, after the release of Pikmin 2, Nintendo released Nintendo e-Reader cards that contained minigames. Some of these minigames required the player to pluck all the Pikmin in an area in a set amount of steps, or to try to get Pikmin from one point to another. These cards were not released outside of Japan, as the e-Reader was not released in Europe, and had been discontinued in North America at the time. The cards contain region-specific encoding which blocks their use with North American e-Readers.
Category:Games released in 2004
Category:Games released on the Nintendo GameCube
Category:Games released on the Wii
Category:Games that are rated E