#17: Pikmin

Platform: Nintendo GameCube
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Release: 03/12/2001

When the GameCube was first getting off the ground in the early years of the new millennium, one of the key things we were promised was a world of imagination. To my mind, certainly, the console delivered. From the quirky Animal Crossing to the charming Wind Waker, the GameCube tried to define itself as being unique, rather than simply assimilate into the new world of high definition graphics and mature storylines. Put simply, with the GameCube, Nintendo tried to give gaming a soul.

Unfortunately, on a sales standpoint, the system failed. In my eyes however, it was a glorious little piece of magic, and it wasn't Nintendo's fault that gaming has become saturated with first person shooters and moronic gamers. I'm glad that the GameCube happened. Perhaps most of all, because the GameCube introduced us to the Pikmin.

The first thing I wondered when I heard about Pikmin was... why does the title sound like Pokemon? Is it an offshoot? I still may not have quite deciphered that eerie similarity, but Pikmin is a unique world all of its own. Your hero, one Captain Olimar, has crash landed on an alien planet (Earth), and must collect all of the pieces of his spaceship to escape.

Unfortunately, the gaffer is pretty useless on his own, and he's about the size of a nickel. So he enlists the services of the titular Pikmin, and the fun begins. Though they each have one of three unique sets of abilities based on their colour, and you must use them correctly in order to solve your goals, one of the fun things about Pikmin is that you have the freedom to control your troops as you see fit.


Will you hover over all 100 out on the field at all times, to oversee their actions? Or will you delegate them to tasks before moving on elsewhere, returning later to find your Pikmin had fallen victim to a hungry monster? Will you utilise an even mix of all three? Or will you load up on your favourite colour? Will you very carefully and tactfully battle ravenous enemies? Or will you simply fling Pikmin haphazardly into the fray? It's up to you.

Shigeru Miyamoto once made the iconic character of Link based on his own adventurous childhood. He decided the lead animal in Star Fox while visiting Fushimi Inari-taisha, the head shrine of Inari. And he envisaged the Pikmin world while watching the actions of ants in his garden. The way the man takes in the world around him is truly special, and Pikmin feels vibrant and alive as a result.

The number of levels is limited, but each feels completely different, and you won't know what to expect next. Each new discovery... each new challenge... The scope of the world feels grand and daunting, and you'd have to be a pretty bland person not to at least appreciate the game's ambitious nature.

The second Pikmin game introduced two new species of Pikmin, a second playable character, and 'dungeons', multi-leveled subworlds full of treasure for you to explore. And though it is indeed a fine game; fuller and more robust than the original, with an increase in difficulty that is simply enormous, the first title still holds my heart.

Primarily, it's because I prefer the level design in Pikmin 1. But also, it's because we got the chance to try out this new experience for the first time. From when we first yanked Pikmin #1 from the dirt, and got that little red sucker to do our bidding, we were ushered into a fresh universe.

I've been waiting far too long for Pikmin 3 to come out. What new imaginative experiences will it offer?

#18: WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth

Platform: Sony PlayStation 2
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Yuke's Media Creations
Release: 13/11/2002

As you might have fathomed from the first two entries, I've been a Nintendo fanboy for about twenty years now. So when I started to get into pro wrestling in the late 90s, my first exposure was through the WCW vs. nWo and WWF No Mercy games on the Nintendo 64.

When the next generation of consoles came out, something went sour with Nintendo and rasslin'. Wrestlemania X8 was a disappointing premiere, and furthermore, it was released half a year after the PS2 had already got its own inaugural WWF title; the third edition in the SmackDown! series.

On that note, Just Bring It was a disappointment in its own right: as soon as it hit shelves, it was dated. It lacked any presence of the WCW/ECW 'Invaders', an angle that had begun roughly nine months before the game's release.

Couple that with ugly graphics and dreadful commentary, and JBI was a gruesome beast. But hey, I enjoyed it at the time (the omission of the Invasion angle being my biggest disappointment), and when the next title, Shut Your Mouth, surfaced, it was, in my mind, the biggest advance in the series, and a complete wrestling experience.

The WWE games generally don't seem to offer a whole lot of advances from title to title (a streamlined story mode and retooling of the counter system the highlights of the next title, Here comes the Pain), so in all likelihood, the fact that SYM was just so much better than JBI might glorify it in my mind.

The story mode was given a complete rehaul, and it remains the only prolonged wrestling story mode that I've played all the way through. The graphics were, for their time, magnificent. This was especially evident in the character model for one of the game's most significant inclusions; one Hollywood Hulk Hogan.


On that note, this was the game's major selling point for me: its roster. It was released during the ill-fated nWo angle, which meant that long-absent classics like Hogan, Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash made an appearance, plus all of the WCW/ECW guys missing from the last game; primarily, my boy Lance Storm. Oh hell yeah.

The formula may have been done a little bit better with each title that came, but the pinnacle for me was easily SYM. The intense multiplayer skirmishes friends and I engaged in remain fresh in my mind, our once-laughable created wrestlers now looked respectable, and we didn't face the same disappointment after sifting through the available characters.

Furthermore, the real superstars were given the highest stat total. Guys like The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. They were the best of the best, just like they should be, and not the later whelps like Brock Lesnar, John Cena or the horribly disappointing Goldberg.

SYM was WWE done right. And as it was released during what was possibly the height of my passion for wrestling, it maintains a glorious sheen no wrestling game will likely ever recapture in my eyes.