In a world where chimeras and spotted bug thingies roam gardens and stumps. And days last thirteen minuets. One man will stand alone...with a legion of vegetable thingies, and fight the vicious wildlife, fix a cool rocket ship, and send that man home!

OVERALL: 8.5
I'm not gonna lie, this was a weird game. But the main thing was, overall everything was just okay. Nothing was horrible, but it wasn't that great either. And the Pikmin AI...*facepalm* I've thrown my controller, and reset plenty of times thanks to my...Not that bright vegetable friends. But this was actually good at what it was trying to accomplish. It was a great Real-Time strategy game that made use of the Gamecube's internal clock, which was used for the 30 day time limit you have. Each day lasts 13 real world minuets. So you better make the most of each of them! Plus it had a bunch of player controlled characters that could all do individual tasks (I.E The Pikmin), making it what had become of the rumored "Super Mario 128" project. The Pikmin are plant-animal hybrids. They come in three colors in this game. Red, blue, and yellow. Reds are the strongest, and fireproof, but the slowest moving. Blues can survive in water, and are the fastest, but are also the weakest. And yellows can be thrown higher than the other kinds, and can pick up bomb rocks they're at a medium in attack power and speed.

GRAPHICS: 7
The graphics were impressive at times. The water looked realistic, the landscapes were nice for the most part. And the glowing lights in The Forest Navel were a nice touch. But at a few times, it didn't look so great. You could tell when they just reused textures. And the enemies , ship parts, and Olimar just stuck out from everything. Which I guess can be both an easy way not to get lost, but also an eyesore at some angles. But most of that is excusable since it's an older game. And by no means a deal breaker. It actually might be a stroke of genius, seeing as how you can easily find you, your objective, and any threats.

SOUND: 8
This game sounds amazing! The background music, the sound effects, all of it. I still have some of the music from the levels playing in my head. It's probably one of the best parts of the game. And the adorable little squees that the Pikmin make when you pluck them out is adorable. And the death cries of the bosses, or even just a large enemy, can make you sigh with relief. And the mournful cries the Pikmin let off when they die can make you feel bad, and the countdown of the last seconds of the day can cause panic.

ADDICTIVENESS: 6
This game is kind of fun. But it can be tedious at times. The only reason to really replay it for the multiple endings. All to really say outside of the story section is there's 3 different possible endings. And if you want to see them for yourself, that's three different playthroughs.

STORY: 8
The story is actually pretty good. And all the endings depend on how many ship parts you got by day 30. If it was less than 25 you'd get the bad ending, 25-29 is the neutral ending, and 30 gets you the good ending. Out story starts with Olimar, captain of the S.S Dolphin. He's from the planet Hocotate. And an employee of Hocotate freight, an intergalactic shipping company. While coming home to his home to his  wife and kids from his vacation from said job, a meteor hits his ship, causing his ship to fall apart as it lands on a planet close by. Olimar wakes up to see that both himself, and the ship, are pretty banged up. His ship is now a barely functioning empty metal shell, and Olimar's life-support has been damaged, and only has 30 days until his emergency life support fails. And to make matters worse, Olimar can't carry all of the heavy pieces of his ship back. And the planet if full of Oxygen, a gas deadly to Hocatations like him. Sounds pretty grim right? Well, there's a small light of hope. Olimar comes across an object he calls an onion, because it looked like one to him. And it sprouted a plant-animal creature from it. Which he names "Pikmin" as it reminds him of the Pik-Pik brand carrots. He soon gets a bunch of them, and they help him find his engine, and they seem to want to help him find his other ship pieces. And so, the adventure begins.

DEPTH: 8
The levels to explore, while small, can take quite awhile to fully go through. But opening up shortcuts can be a life saver (literally) while making the levels seem much more smaller. And almost all of the ship parts are hidden, so finding them requires a lot of searching every corner and crevasse. Along with fighting huge, particularly ruthless boss enemies.

DIFFICULTY: 8
Oh boy, this one is the hardest one in the series by far. The time limit, keeping your pikmin in check, finding everything, and getting time consuming tasks done. It really takes a lot of careful planning. Thankfully the controls are easy and smooth. But the diabolical and cunning of enemies, and the less than smart pikmin can make things a lot harder than they need to be at times. But it makes everything seem so much more rewarding too.

All in all, it's a pretty solid game. Great story, you slowly get attached to Olimar and the Pikmin, it's an interesting concept, the graphics and music are pretty good. It's not the greatest Gamecube title out there, but it's nothing to shy away from.