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Preview  Pikmin
- By Joe Ridino

During the Nintendo Press Conference today, Shigeru Miyamoto unveiled one of his most secret projects. The name of this very unique game is called Pikmin, a strategy-adventure game of sorts.

The main character is a very small spaceman who has crash-landed on an unfamiliar planet. To get back to his homeland, the spaceman must collect the parts to his spacecraft. This is where Pikmin differentiates itself from all the other strategy games on the market. On this planet, there are tiny sprout creatures that you can control to help you out on the main quest. As many as 100 sprouts can be on screen at once, all without any slowdown or hesitation.

The main programmer of the game was playing Pikmin. While he was testing the game, Miyamoto was making comments about what the player can do. These Pikmin creatures can help you by: carrying things back to base, building bridges, knocking down walls, defeating and running from scary garden bugs, and defending Pikmin nests.

Mr. Miyamoto has created a new genre of videogames that will lead to more successful games in the future. Here’s a quote from the master himself:

“Thinking about what would be fun is our fundamental aim, and with the very imaginative Pikmin adventure, we have created a new genre of gameplay unlike anything players have seen before.“

Miyamoto-san announced that he had moved into a new house just recently. He said that Pikmin was created in his mind while he was working in his new garden. All of the bugs and tiny creatures gave him an idea to start this new genre of gameplay and way of thinking. The overworld environment is a very gorgeous area, filled with bushes, plants, bugs, and obstacles.

Pikmin allows the player to learn management skills and how to be kind and gentle to the sprouts. Long-term planning seems to be another aspect of Pikmin.

While the programmer was playing, he changed the perspective and rotated the camera a full 360 degrees. While he did this, the game still ran an amazing 60 FPS. You can apparently zoom extremely close in, or zoom way out to a birds-eye view.

The game is set to launch in December of 2001. On the show floor tomorrow I will experience this intriguing game. Check back for a full update.

- 5.16.2001