I'm not sure I understand your response... Of course they're a business. According to Nintendo, they are in the business of selling great games, with hardware merely being a facilitator. But going by how they support some of their systems, it sometimes feels like they expect to 'hook' you into buying the hardware by promising great games, but then the moment you buy the hardware they move on to something else. To me that sounds more like software being a facilitator, not the other way around.

It's the kind of mentality that makes a company awesome in the eyes of its shareholders, yet annoying in the eyes of its actual customers, is all I'm saying.
If tomorrow for some reason there was an explosion in the dessert market and Nintendo decided to move on to making pancakes instead of games, would you still support them because it's a good business move?

As a customer who relies on them to fill a need, you probably would not.

What makes matters more complicated is that they aren't actually selling something as easy to evaluate as pancakes. In terms of home consoles, you only really know what you paid for five years down the line.

Any company selling that kind of product has to account for the consumer's trust, and gaining that trust must be a part of their business model.

That reminds me: I want some actual environment puzzles, like how do I get there with my Pikmin. 1 and 2 weren't that great in that regard.

Also, I completely forgot that the caves were randomly generated, which didn't add a lot to replay value.

Pikmin is really fresh in my mind right now, having played it again yesterday for only the second time in my life so far... ( I know I'm a newb )

I remember people saying the time limit was annoying at first, but I honestly think it's necessary. If there's no time limit then the challenge is pretty much eliminated and the game is reduced to tediousness, trying over and over, getting your Pikmin killed and making more ad nauseam... Kind of like an MMO

Another thing I was thinking about while playing the game is that I wouldn't mind a little bit more automation in terms of the Pikmin's behavior, such as returning to base by themselves if they get stuck or lost, or maybe harvesting nearby pellet posies on their own when left idle. That, in addition to the Pikmin having slightly better group AI could free up the player to deal with some more complex management tasks, like puzzle solving or defending the base at night or something else..

Is any of the above done in Pikmin 2 already?

Another question I wanted to ask veteran players of the series is if you ever get to a level of skill where you know how to deal with each enemy type quickly and with minimal damage? I am by no means suggesting the game should be easier, it's just that there's something very rewarding about having your ass kicked by enemies and later on handing it back to them when you've mastered their behavioral patterns... That's one of the things I love about classic Nintendo games.

P.S. I only mentioned this in a PM to morenoingrato, so I should mention in the thread I think my original ideas were crap

This was the point i was alluding too, Ninty talks a good game sometimes but IMHO there actions dont match what they are saying. And they are not the only ones. Believe half of what you see, NONE of what you hear

Flying Pikmin!

What I would like is more color pikmin like green, black, brown with their own ability of coarse. I would also like more than 100 pikmin to accommodate the extra colors.

One large world that you explore bit by bit, all of it inter-linked so you can gradually explore it on foot with your Pikmin, with you able to find different sites for your rocket/Pikmin onions the more you explore. Kind of like a Pikmin-ised version of Tallon IV, if you get my meaning. I'd like to see more ambitious landscapes available--with the massive jump in capability from GC to Wii U, I hope they really do push the scope and depth of the environments you can explore. Perhaps you start off in your typical forest area, with little rivers and twee environments, but as you progress more and more, and build more routes through the world with your Pikmin, you move onto lakes, deserts, swamps, rocky mountain like areas. Caves not as seperate, randomly generated dungeons, but areas you enter seamlessly from the rest of the world.

Also, make it look like this: http://www.4colorrebellion.com/media/pics/jan/pikmin2_02.jpg