Monday 16 February 2015

Pikmin Shorts: A day in the life of something smaller then an ant


There are a lot of franchises made by Nintendo that don't get a lot of the spotlight. F-Zero, Kid Icarus, Metroid, and one of the more recent franchises: Pikmin (though not as bad as some of the above). Three games have been made for the series... and at time of writing I have not played any of them. I'm curious about the series and I intend to play the newest one, Pikmin 3. Recently however, three short films have been posted to the WiiU and 3DS eshops. So, for the last post before the start of the marathon, time to take a look at the life of the Pikmin.


The three shorts are The Night Juicer, Treasure in a Bottle and Occupational Hazards, each one longer then the last one. With the plots as follows
  • The Night Juicer: Captain Olimar is brewing a favorite juice of his and three Pikmin look at the remains.
  • Treasure in a bottle: A Red Pikmin is trapped in a glass bottle as a result of trying to retrieve a glass marble that was used to seal the bottle. The rest of the short is trying to get this Pikmin out of the bottle.
  • Occupational Hazard: Captain Olimar, with his Pikmin, are trying to collect parts off a run down excavator, but as a result, disturb two Pikmin predators.
"Not what I'm looking for"
 These are short films, its fine not to have detailed plots, especially when no one in these can speak. However, the emotions of Olimar and the Pikmin are conveyed perfectly. The body language and the thought bubbles are very comedic and helps convey the charming nature of the shorts.

I'm on their side, this is hilarious
The animation, while simplistic in comparison, is really well done. The amount of detail in the shorts is quite surprising for how small they are... the shorts, not the Pikmin. From what I've herd from fans, the soundtrack comes mainly from the Pikmin games (except for one I know of). However because I don't have any experience with the soundtrack aside from the Smash Bros. series, I'm not going to cover the soundtrack due to lack of knowledge.

Dinner time
A big problem with the shorts is the price. For $5, you can purchase all three films in either 1080p HD for the Wii U (which I recommend as it shows off the detail) or in 3D for the 3DS versions. In comparison to other services, where you can pay less for more, it may not seem worth it to most. If you're looking for something charming, then I think they're worth the price, but it depends on what you're willing to pay for. Next week, time to start the Digimon Marathon with Digimon Adventure.
Now this is a rave party (Sorry for the yellow flashes)

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