Pikmin 2 (GameCube) Preview

The basic concept of Pikmin is a strange one. You are a spaceman, called Captain Olimar, you are given various missions and to help you there are various different coloured Pikmin ready to obey. The fact is this sounds pretty dull, and with little room for scope and creativity, but this is Nintendo we are talking about here. The first title was full of colour, vibrancy, clever little ideas and that word of all words; fun.

To make the game a tad harder to complete the environments have been vastly enlarged. More than sixty different types of enemy await, with each one requiring you to use a different strategy to defeat them.

The three main types of Pikmin you control remain from the first game, with the illusive and new purple plant man still very much unexplained. Controlling the blue Pikmin allows you to cross water, with red not bein harmed by fire and the yellow type being able to carry bombs for you. This time round you will have to exploit the individual abilities of each of the Pikmin in order to help you much more. There will be more moments when you have to stop and think about what you're doing in order to avoid being harmed and thankfully you will have the time as the time you spend playing the game is limitless for this version.

The final new additions to the title can be found in the more than welcome form of a multiplayer cooperative mode. Perhaps the most exciting of ideas out of the lot this will no doubt widen the appeal of the game.