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Pikmin 3 Deluxe: I found an avocado

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I foresaw one plot twist – that who the crew believed to be Olimar was in fact Louie – but did not foresee the other one, with Louie scarpering as soon as he could, taking our food supply with him. Suddenly there was a fresh urgency about finding fruit, and with the game urging me to chase Louie but me being aware that I was one tropical smoothie away from starvation, I found myself pulled in two directions. Not only that, but shortly after I landed in the Garden of Hope I was introduced to the blue Pikmin, and so I had a third objective – build up the blue population.

I decided to forget about Louie for now, get a number of blues ready, and collect some of the underwater fruit that I’d noticed on the map. Blue harvesting initially went a little wrong, when I was attacked by a frog who killed off five of my then-population of 10, but I got back into it with a vengeance when I remembered that flying pikmin could provide important backup while I walked around the riverbed. Within a couple of game-hours (the notches across the top of the screen) I was up to an army of 50, and went off in search of fruit. An underwater strawberry and orange, building a bridge using submerged pieces, and a wayward plum later, I felt ready to look for the wrongun.

Over the two next days I found more fruit and enemies, building more bridges and pillars, and having to carefully manouvre rock pikmin around to break crystals. And then I found a new boss, bigger than anything so far, who tried to stamp on my pikmin and drown them in the mud. It had no luck, however, because my reds held on tight to its legs before I jumped on its back and threw rocks and yellows at it. Goodbye big planty thing, and hello again Louie – and the captain’s rubber duck.

What looks to be the final area has opened up now, with no fruit to collect; with the juice returned from Louie I now have a buffer of about 45 days but I am minded to collect all the remaining fruit before going on to find Olimar. I mean, he’s been held for a while already, what harm are a couple of extra days going to do?

Pikmin 3 Deluxe: I found a pear

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I have a tendency to come to the Pikmin games late.

I completed the first game on the GameCube, over two years after it released, due to people on uk.games.video.misc enthusing about it. I previously on this blog said that I played it twice, the second time in order to come in under the 30-day limit, but I think I was mistaken on that point; my first playthrough on the GameCube came in at 29 days, and my second playthrough was on the Wii version a while after that came out. I bought the second game relatively soon after release, I recall, because there was a sale in Woolworths. I put it into my GameCube in 2005, but never actually played it until I got the Wii version many years later, and finally completed it in 2014, after Pikmin 3 came out, spurring me onto playing it. I bought Pikmin 3 for the Wii U in 2015, but never played it past the first half hour; and then I bought Pikmin 3 Deluxe in 2021, intending to play it and then … not. When Pikmin 4 came out on the Switch, I added it to my wishlist, and then received it for my birthday this year. Which is a longwinded way of saying that it’s finally time to play Pikmin 3.

I found the first game very stressful due to the 30-day time limit; I was always aware that I had to cram as much into each game day as possible, and since I didn’t know what was needed in future days, I had a tendency to panic. The second game, where there was no time limit inside the caves, was less stressful, but this meant that there was less compelling me to the end. The third game strikes a good balance; there is a daily time limit, but as long as you recover at least one jar’s worth of fruit each day (since your crew drinks one a day) you know you can continue going for some time. While there is a theoretical time limit overall, governed by the number of fruits scattered around the levels, it’s so long that I doubt anyone would have run up against it. For the first few days you are led to fruits quite directly, while searching for your missing crewmates, and so it’s not until you’re well established that the time constraints start to take hold.

The game is beautiful to look at, with varied backdrops being present and useful for recognition. There isn’t much of a gameplay difference between snowy and rainy levels – pikmin seemingly just walk on the snow as if it’s solid ground – but it helps to remind you of your location. The map areas are relatively small, but then again so are pikmin, and it can take a little while to explore everywhere.

By Day 8 I had discovered three types of pikmin – red, yellow and rock – and there were some areas in which I could see fruit but not reach it since none of my companions could swim. I had worked through the storyline a bit, rescuing the second crewmate of the Drake, and building up pikmin populations. I was busy trying to reach Captain Charlie, but that took a couple of days before I could finally rescue him – by which point I had some significant juice reserves built up.

Now that the three-strong crew is back together, it’s time to follow the rest of the story. The objective of the mission is to steal Earth’s fruit – or, at least, the seeds of them – to overcome a famine back home. However, the ship crashed during landing, and there’s a vital component – some sort of drive key – that’s gone missing. We found some notes saying that Captain Olimar had found the key, so we’re in hunt of him – but we keep going to the wrong places, where old phones are broadcasting interference. Luckily we can use those to extend our listening capabilities. We’re also getting hold of some new fruit as well, particularly through murdering the local animal population.

And then finally we found Olimar, who was being held by a big conical wasp thing. That was one of the harder boss battles so far, requiring flying pikmin to attack small swarming bugs, and then sending the other pikmin in for the main boss when the swarm had disappeared. Eventually it fell, with Olimar lying on the ground.

But wait, I hear you say; you said we are in hunt of Olimar, not we were. Well, yes. Because while the crew of the Drake think we have rescued Olimar, and are just waiting for him to wake up, the character lying on the ground was actually Louie – Olimar’s brother from Pikmin 2. Oh, what a lovely plot twist.

And I ran out of daytime to bring him back to the ship, so the next time I play there’s an important first job to do.

At least I have about 35 days of juice left to try to find Olimar for real.

Portal: completed again, and the boss battle

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I have now lost count of the number of times I’ve played through Portal. The last time I posted about it, back in 2010, I said I’d completed it on four platforms; by now I must have completed it multiple times on each of those, and additional platforms since. This latest completion is due to the Portal collection (both games) being cheap on Switch, and the desire to try playing through Portal 2 on a convenient platform. But I couldn’t let the first game just sit there.

I actually played through the game twice, the second time listening to the developer commentary – I meant to only do this for the first couple of levels, but each time a new level started I could see the speech bubbles hanging temptingly close. It is still magnificent, with its short length adding to its genius. But I’ve said all that before.

What I found interesting this time, following so close to my completion of Metroid Prime Remastered, and also various other games over the past couple of years, is how the boss battle in Portal was so clearly signposted. As you enter, one of GlaDOS’s orbs falls to the ground and before you are in any danger you have to incinerate it. Once that’s done, you know that you will have to do that again, and you can see where the orbs are, and it’s very soon after that you realise how to get them after some of GlaDOS’s commentary hints at the rockets. Even with the one-hit-kill nature of Portal’s gameplay, it’s easy to both understand what to do, and also to do it.

This is in contrast to some of the bosses in Metroid Prime, for example. The last boss, in particular, had no signposting on how to damage it, until I accidentally stood on some of the deposited goo and realised that the HUD now read “hypermode” (or similar). The Omega Pirate killed me many times until I realised that missiles dealt huge amounts of damage. Thinking back to Sonic on the Mega Drive, bosses often required a little trial and error before you worked out how to hit them consistently.

As I’ve grown older I think that the signposting is appreciated – but the challenge of Metroid Prime came as a welcome surprise, and the bosses in the Zelda games are an appropriate crescendo – plus the minor bosses across the worlds of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, optional as they are, are a great focal point for adventure.

Portal 2 (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Having completed Portal 2 in co-op, I thought I should really play the single player too. I’d remembered the overarching plot from my first playthrough, and the end boss fight (including how to beat it), but almost none of the puzzles and areas were familiar. Or rather, were but in a fuzzy sort of “this looks like something I have a very vague recollection of” in terms of graphics more than anything.

So as with Portal, it was a nearly new experience and it still holds up well today. The new additions over the first game such as the bouncy gel and slidey gel are fun, but I seem to remember that those bits of the game, specifically in the Cave Johnson areas, made up a much larger proportion of the game than it turns out they do. As in, I was sure they took up at least 90% rather than the 20%-ish they actually do. Memory, eh? It isn’t how it used to be.

Cave Johnson is great, by the way. His audio recordings and descent into old man lunacy as they progress are hilarious. As is the rest of the dialogue, actually, with Wheatley being excellent and Potato-GLaDOS an excellent alternative to the unhinged normal-GLaDOS.

Portal 2 may not be as fondly remembered as Portal but it is still fantastic. If only Valve knew how to count to 3, eh?

Metroid Prime Remastered: completed!

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The very first time I ever posted to this blog, back in 2005, was to talk about Metroid Prime.  Reading back, my writing skills were a little lacking, with the post being almost entirely descriptive.  It appears that that was my second time of playing the game; the first time I'd got to a "plant boss" which I couldn't defeat, whereas the second time I progressed past this for a couple of hours.  Assuming that the plant boss was Flaahgra, that means that I'd hardly touched the game either time; I'd have managed to explore most of the Chozo Ruins, maybe, but probably barely got to Magmoor Caverns. It's all speculation; I can't remember 19 years ago. It's all academic now in any case.  About a year ago, Nintendo released an updated version of Metroid Prime for the Switch, and I've been playing through it over the last month.  The game structure itself is identical, but it's had a major graphical revamp and (more importantly) controls have been adjusted.  One thing I did recall about the Gamecube game was the difficulty I had in controlling Samus, not so much in terms of movement but in terms of looking around and finding enemies or points of interest.  The new game allows you to use classic controls, but having tried these against the standard dual stick controls, there's a night and day difference.  I was able to get Samus to do what I wanted, and also look around to see what to do next. And it was certainly worth looking around.  The original game was known as being good looking on the Gamecube, but this remaster has had a huge amount of effort poured into it which makes the world look astounding.  There's so much detail to see and interact with; at times it seems a shame that the visor obscures your view a little so you lose some of the magnificence.
All the areas you explore are made of small rooms; there are no expansive vistas here.  This is fortunate, given that you need to retrace your steps many times over as you unlock new doors and abilities; somehow they have made the world seem small yet simultaneously very expansive.  This is helped by the variety in the levels - what my son would refer to as biomes - with snow and lava settings giving a diversity to the visuals.
 
What was interesting was seeing this very modern game with a slightly anachronistic structure.  Defined save points, signposted boss battles, secret pickups and upgrades - after the freedom afforded in Breath of the Wild and other open world games, this seemed quite old fashioned ... yet this was at times to its benefit, with genuine tension arising from exploring the world and trying to find the next save room. Everything was cleverly designed.  Enemies are varied and require different techniques to defeat (or, as you progress through the game, avoid and run past).  Platforming and traversal, particularly in the morph ball, had a lot of thought put into it, especially the mazes on magnetic rails.  When fighting a boss, I knew there was a way of avoiding attacks - even if I couldn't actually do it consistently. There are endless clever touches and one-off events.  I particularly liked the room which held a hologram of the solar system.
Looking at this was pretty tense, because each time I scanned something new I thought enemies were about to attack.  Tension was quite thick throughout the game, partially caused by the save system, but also because the enemies - particularly metroids - were generally quite unpredictable.  I'm not a huge fan of scary games, but this just landed on the right side for me. The scanning mechanic was a bit tiresome.  Having to make sure you scan everything in order to get 100% completion, quickly became unrealistic after I forgot to scan one of the earlier bosses.  That's probably a good thing, as otherwise I imagine I would have become quite obsessed, and a final number of 99% is probably worse than the 91% I ended up with.  I also didn't find all the upgrades.  Going by the HUD at the end, I estimate that there was one energy pack I didn't find, and there must have been quite a few missile and power bomb expansions left unfound.  I am also assuming [and I don't want to know otherwise] that there weren't map stations (to reveal unexplored rooms) in every region, since I only found them in three.
It's taken me 20 years or 19 years or four weeks, depending on your starting point, but I have completed the game.  I didn't have much of an issue with any of the normal enemies, and faltered at only a couple of the bosses.  The omega pirate took a few attempts before I realised that he was recharging his health from time to time.  Meta Ridley just took far too long to kill.  The first time I got to the core of Metroid Prime I had a single energy tank remaining, and died before I worked out how to do any damage.  Otherwise, the difficulty was pitched exactly right to make it challenging but not disheartening. Now to wait for the remaster of the second game.