As noted previously, Nintendo owns me. When it comes to the Gamecube, I accept that it doesn’t have as many games available as the Xbox or PS2, but what it lacks in 3rd party support, it more than makes up for with the quality of its 1st party releases.

Take Pikmin. For those of you not in the loop, Pikmin was created by the man behind Mario and Zelda; Shigeru Miyamoto. You control the character of Captain Olimer, a diminutive alien that gets stranded on Earth after crash-landing. 30 parts of his ship are scattered across the land, and he has just 30 days to recover them and fix his ship before the Earth atmosphere kills him. To aid him, we have the Pikmin, swarms of even smaller creatures. They are unbearably cute.

I only discovered Pikmin when it was re-released on Nintendo’s budget ‘Player’s Choice’ range of games, and even then only reluctantly and with the aid of a WH Smith’s gift voucher. It didn’t look like a good game from the box, and without knowing who was behind it, it appeared to be another of these anonymous games that turns up in bargain bins and the lowest-priced depths of eBay, again and again, to be bought only by parents to disappoint their children with.

I was hooked straight away, though. In terms of pacing and emotional involvement, Pikmin is perfectly balanced. Though set entirely within tranquil garden settings (which are beautifully realised), the time limit leaves you little chance to breathe it all in. Every day in which you fail to secure another piece of ship weighs heavily in your mind, and your character finishes each day by reminding you how close to death he is.

You also find yourself feeling genuinely bad if you lose some of your Pikmin. If any are left behind when your ship takes off for the night, then you’re treated to a shot of them running forlornly after you, as the larger nocturnal creatures hop out of the undergrowth and devour them, to the sound of squeaks of pain. A tally is kept of how many Pikmin you lost and displayed at the end of each day, so you’re always aware of the numbers. Set things up badly, and the sight of all your Pikmin being wiped out in a failed battle against a giant ladybird is up there with watching all your Lemmings walk straight off a cliff at your behest. You have to care about your Pikmin surviving, otherwise you may find yourself with too few Pikmin, and not enough time left to gain any more.

I’ve been playing Pikmin 2 for the last couple of days, and it’s interesting (to me, anyway) that what made the first game so compelling is not a factor in the sequel. The time limit is gone, which makes for a huge change in the gameplay dynamic. While you still have to make sure that all the Pikmin are gathered away safely by sunset, you know that if you don’t finish something that day, you can continue on the next, or leave it for a while as you rebuild your supply of Pikmin, or go off to explore some other area. You also have a second character to control, allowing you to carry on separate tasks at the same time instead of impatiently waiting for a bridge to be built or a wall to be pulled down. It’s a far more leisurely game.

The emphasis on lost Pikmin is also reduced, so you now have to click a button at the end of each day to see how many died. It’s a minor change with a major effect on how the game feels — it no longer seems as important to keep them all alive anymore, as you know you can spend more time replenishing your supply later on. You’re also less likely to suffer losses through leaving Pikmin behind, as you can devote more time to getting them back to base, instead of a mad rush during the closing minutes.

Despite these differences, though, the game is still excellent. It allows you to do what you wanted to do during the first game, but couldn’t; that is, wander around and smell the roses. Because of this, it often feels less like a sequel and more like a reward for those who played through the original. The frantic, pressured nature of the first game gives way to a more contemplative mood, with larger, more complex puzzles to solve, and more time to think about them.

I’m unable to say which I prefer. I liked the timed aspect and emotional appeal of the first game, and I also like the slower-paced, more expansive feel of the second game. But isn’t that a good thing? A sequel should be this way; delivering something new while remaining true to the original. Too similar to the predecessor and you risk re-hashing and diminishing what made the game work in the first place, but too different, and you risk alienating the fans of the first game while introducing new and untested elements that don’t always work.

I’m hoping that the Pikmin series takes off in the same way as the Mario and Zelda franchises did. Though I doubt I’ll see a Pikmin 3 on the Gamecube, there’s still the DS and the forthcoming next-generation ‘Revolution’ to work with…