This is the first game in the Pikmin series. For other games in the series see the Pikmin category.

Pikmin | |
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Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Year released | 2001 |
System(s) | Nintendo GameCube, Wii |
Followed by | Pikmin 2 |
Series | Pikmin, New Play Control! |
Genre(s) | RTS |
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Modes | Single player |
Rating(s) |
Pikmin | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Year released | 2023 |
System(s) | Nintendo Switch |
Rating(s) |
Pikmin is a real-time strategy game developed by Nintendo EAD that was released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan and North America in late 2001 and worldwide in mid-2002. It is one of the first launch games for the system.
The game was first conceived as a god simulator titled Adam and Eve by Shigeru Miyamoto, who was inspired by a pantheon of ants carrying food in his garden. The game eventually evolved into its current form with three main concepts behind it; the pikmin (or the "people"), the bulborbs, and the concept of raising, taking care of, and growing the army of people. The concept of 100 Pikmin occupying the screen at one time was heavily inspired by the GameCube tech demo Super Mario 128, which boasted the GameCube's technical capabilities by showing more than 100 Marios simultaneously on the screen. Releasing to positive reception, the game has since gone on to be rereleased for the Wii in Japan in late 2008 and in early 2009 elsewhere under the New Play Control! line in the form of New Play Control! Pikmin, which itself was rereleased for the Wii U Virtual Console in September of 2016 in Europe and America and in Japan in June of 2017. Pikmin was also given an HD remake as part of the Pikmin 1+2, which released in June/September of 2023.
It is of note that the events of the game appear to be retconned in Pikmin 4, as the Olimar's Shipwreck Tale mode in the game is somewhat of a retelling of the story in the GameCube original.
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The title screen
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The Japanese box art
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The New Play Control! version's box art
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The Japanese New Play Control! version's box art
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The North American flyer for Pikmin
Story[edit | edit source]
The game follows Captain Olimar, a family-man spaceman from the planet Hocotate who crashes onto an unknown world and meets the Pikmin, a humanoid-vegetable species that can assist Olimar in retrieving all 30 of his ship pieces before he succumbs the the poisonous oxygen on the planet.
From the manual:

The journey began well. With no set destination in mind, I simply allowed the sleek Dolphin to make its own efficient way through the vast reaches of space. A strange feeling came over me... I then felt a premonition that my short trip would soon be<sic> become an epic adventure. I dismissed the thought as foolishness from my overactive brain, then switched the Dolphin to autopilot and stood up from the central seat to make a hot cup of tea. Just then, a massive jolt shook the Dolphin! For a brief moment, my mind reeled with the possibilities of what might have happened, but I had little time to react. I was thrown against the control panel, and I blacked out.
When I came to, I found that the Dolphin had crashed on a strange planet, in a place whose name and location I could not guess. I thanked the laws of chaos that I was at least, for the time being, safe. After some inspection, I noticed that the Dolphin was so shaken during reentry that several of her pieces had been jarred loose, probably scattered around the planet. To make matters worse, my space suit's sensors indicated that the planet's atmosphere contained oxygen, an element incredibly deadly to my people. Fortunately, the life-support system built into my suit seemed unharmed, but I knew that it had only enough remaining battery power to function for another 30 days. If only I could find the engine, then at least I could fly within this planet's atmosphere to search for the other parts... Will I be able to find the missing parts from my spaceship? Will I be able to return safely to my home and family? I must steel myself against fear and loneliness if I am ever to see them again.

Table of Contents
- The Impact Site (0 parts needed)
- The Forest of Hope (1 part needed)
- The Forest Navel (5 parts needed)
- The Impact Site revisited (Blues required)
- The Forest of Hope revisited (Blues required)
- The Forest Navel revisited (Blues required)
- The Distant Spring (12 parts needed)
- The Distant Spring revisited
- The Final Trial (29 parts needed)
- Endings