E-Mail This Article to a Friend Working hard for the money Those industrious Pikmin are back, and as addictive as ever BY RYAN STEWART
	Pikmin 2 Published and developed by Nintendo. For the Nintendo GameCube.

Sure, they look cute all right. But make no mistake: the Pikmins are pure evil.

Pikmins, bizarre intelligent life forms that sprout from seeds, are starring in their second addictive puzzle/strategy game by Nintendo for the Game Cube. But all this only masks their malevolent master plan – if left unchecked, the little guys would happily take over your life until you've been fired from your job and your significant other breaks up with you.

For the uninitiated, here's the basic set-up: you play Captain Olimar and/or his sidekick Louie, two microscopic-sized intergalactic deliverymen working for a recently-bankrupt shipping company. When it is discovered that one of the "souvenirs" that Olimar brought back from an alien planet he crash-landed on has monetary value, Olimar and Louie are dispatched back to that planet (Earth, in case you hadn't guessed) in search of more. Olimar then finds more of the Pikmin who helped him find the parts to his previously crashed ship, and enlists them to help him in his quest for "treasure" – things like batteries and bottle caps.

Sequel-phobes need not shy away – the gameplay is simple enough that anyone can jump right in and start their work. Olimar and Louie are allowed up to 100 Pikmins at a time to to help retrieve the treasures. As expected, there are obstacles and beasts in your way, so you'll have to decide how many you'll need and how best to use each one. The puzzles are intricate, but never extremely difficult thanks mostly to the simplicity of the controls. You can assemble and dismiss the Pikmins whenever necessary. They'll generally follow you if they're assembled, but you can also control them independently of Olimar. The beauty, though, is that there's no micromanaging, no assignment menu or anything like that. If you get the Pikmins in the vicinity of a point of interest, they'll instinctively know what to do. Without pressing an additional button, they'll attack, lift, chop, dig, build, whatever – all you do is sit back and watch. Just make sure you call them back before they either get confused or start getting killed.

This is standard for those who played the first game, so what's new? Other than different levels, you'll find two new types of Pikmin. The first game only had three kinds: fireproof reds, water-resistant blues, and unshockable yellows. The sequel introduces purple Pikmin, which have the strength (and weight) of 10 normal Pikmin, and white "cave Pikmin," which are immune to poisonous areas and will poison any creature that dares eat them. It's a new layer to the strategy that makes for even more complex puzzles.

The game certainly isn't flawless, though. First, not all of the puzzles are created equally. Some won't require brain power so much as time-consuming hopping from area to area to create more of a certain kind of Pikmin. Second, while the Pikmins' AI is pretty solid and they generally cooperate, every so often there will be one or two who simply miss the memo or get stuck behind something and left behind. For instance, if you launch one that misses its target, you have to go back and get it; otherwise, you'll risk being ready to move on to a new area without having your army intact. Also, when Pikmins grab a treasure or spoil, they'll automatically bring it back to your ship so it can be processed. The only problem is that they don't move too quickly, so you might find yourself waiting around for them to finish. Third, in an odd development, there's prevalent product placement: the treasures include Dr. Pepper bottle caps, Duracell batteries, and even the directional pad from an old NES controller.

But even as you find yourself annoyed with some of the more tedious puzzles and cursing your Pikmins' minds, you'll probably keep coming back for more. Part of that is Nintendo's earnestly silly, goofy presentation. Between the creatures themselves and the cinematic cutscenes, you'll be smiling. And while games like this have limited replay value – how many times can you solve the same puzzle? – if the 30 hours of gameplay isn't enough for you, the multi-player challenge mode should keep you and a friend occupied. So you'll want to keep playing. And playing.

So hey, give it a shot. But when you've called out of work for the sixth day in a row, don't say I didn't warn you.

Score: 7.5 (out of 10)