#03 - Pikmin (GC)
As guessed by Mr Khan.
Pikmin was one of the games I bought alongside a Gamecube, 2 controllers and a memory card when I bought my GC in 2006, for £30. It was an absolute steal. While other games that I picked up at the time got plenty of hours of play (Super Smash Melee) and others were less loved (Metroid Prime 2), none of them held a candle to Pikmin in terms of capturing my heart.
Pikmin, like I mentioned in my clue, really was like stepping into an alien world at first, in so many different ways. Why were all these everyday objects so big and frightening? What were these little creatures following me around? Why did I have to pick them out of the ground? As the game went on, obviously, the novelty of new ideas wore off, but in their place was an incredibly deep, enjoyable game. Pikmin mixed the exploration I loved from something like a JRPG with some tactical combat with elements of RTS in there, all wrapped up in the most adorable - yet somehow terrifying - little package.
Pikmin got so highly on my list purely because of fond memories and replayability. I don't mean to ruffle any feathers by saying this but people had always told me about how 'magic' Nintendo games were which - throughout the N64 era - I'd never personally really seen. Pikmin, however, showed me how inventive, sweet, addictive and fantastic Nintendo games could be and actually went a long way to selling me on the big N for life. It's also pretty much the reason I bought a Wii (in anticipation of Pikmin 3) which in turn introduced me to Mario Galaxy... circle of life or something, eh?
(Instead of a screenshot of video of the game to end my post, here instead is a demonstration of how much I love Pikmin, and the best dollars I've ever spend. From the NYC Nintendo store when I visited last year, I couldn't help but buy this little guy:)
