“The first two classic expeditions are now available on the Nintendo Switch™ system! Reintroduce yourself to the plantlike Pikmin™ and strategic gameplay that this charming series is known for“

Pikmin is a series I’ve always been a casual fan of. We had Pikmin 1 and 2 on the Gamecube, and I had 3 on Wii U. My memory of the first game is nonexistent, meaning I definitely sold it early on (stupid younger me). I always had fun with 2, but I never beat it. 3 was a good time, and it’s crazy to think it’s been almost 10 years since I’ve played it, and on top of that 20 years since the ones on the Gamecube. Yikes.

Anyhow, the announcement of Pikmin 1+2 coming to Switch was exciting to me. I fully support the HD treatments for old Gamecube games and would much rather have ports as opposed to being available on NSO. The visual upgrades this time around are minimal, with the game now having widescreen 1080p resolution and maybe some textures cleaned up. You can argue that more could’ve been done, but since it’s Pikmin it didn’t bother me.

Pikmin 1 has the basic trio of red, yellow, and blue Pikmin. Red being immune to fire, yellow to electricity, and blue can go underwater. Captian Olimar crash lands on an alien planet and has only 30 days to recover his ship parts before running out of oxygen. With the help of the Pikmin, you must find all the missing pieces and bring them back to the ship while battling all sorts of enemies along the way. If you are good with multitasking, the game isn’t too bad. It wasn’t until day 28 where I didn’t have enough Pikmin to carry the final piece where I started to stress.

Pikmin 2 does things a bit differently. It introduces 2 new Pikmin types. Purple that are heavy and can lift the weight of 10 Pikmin, and white that are immune to poision and can also deal poison damage to enemies if swallowed. The 30 day cycle is gone – instead you need to find treasure that pays off Olimar’s company’s debt in the amount of $10,000. This is all fine and dandy, except a majority of the game’s treasure is found in puzzle based caverns with multiple levels. I don’t mind the addition of the caverns, but I find discovering things on the main overworld much more enjoyable.

(Fun Fact: The supposed Super Mario 128 demo from Space World 2000 is what eventually became Pikmin 1)

If you are looking to replay these older games, I recommend picking up Pikmin 1+2. If you’re new to the series, I may suggest 3 first but then definitely come back to play these after. I still need to get Pikmin 3 Deluxe and 4 on Switch.