What are you playing?

[BogusMeatFactory]

I started Pikmin on the Nintendo GameCube this evening.

I am not a big fan of RTS games, though I did play the hell out of the original Warcraft back in the day.

But, hot dang, Pikmin was some fun stuff. I only did the tutorial level, so I am assuming it gets much harder later on, but I was really enjoying myself. The Pikmin are adorable. Captain Olimar is fantastic and it felt very easy to get into.

I'm scared about the persistent time limit throughout the game, but I've also heard it is not that big of a deal. I mean, as long as you can keep track and get one part per day, then you should be fine.

It's felt like forever since I've played a really good game. I really hope Pikmin is that for me.

I can not get into RTS games at all, but for some reason pikmin kept me engaged all the way through. I think the smaller scale and intimate scenarios kept me in check. No need to do intense multitasking.

[alienjesus]

I started Pikmin on the Nintendo GameCube this evening.

I am not a big fan of RTS games, though I did play the hell out of the original Warcraft back in the day.

But, hot dang, Pikmin was some fun stuff. I only did the tutorial level, so I am assuming it gets much harder later on, but I was really enjoying myself. The Pikmin are adorable. Captain Olimar is fantastic and it felt very easy to get into.

I'm scared about the persistent time limit throughout the game, but I've also heard it is not that big of a deal. I mean, as long as you can keep track and get one part per day, then you should be fine.

It's felt like forever since I've played a really good game. I really hope Pikmin is that for me.

The 30 day limit isn't too threatening. Unless you lose all of your pikmin on literally any enemy you encounter, it should give you more than enough time to explore all the areas, find all the ship parts, and raise a bunch of pikmin along the way. I'd say try and aim to be 1 or 2 ship parts ahead of the game before going to the final level (eg. Try and have 29 ship parts by the end day 27). The final ship part is obtainable in a day, but having 2 or 3 will probably make things a bit easier for you to manage.

The whole game can be beaten in 6 in-game days, although you'd have to be crazy good to do so. It used to be that 9 was considered the best possible, which I was going to make an attempt at some day. I'm not sure I'm good enough to pull off 6 days though! My current best I've managed is 13, although I wasn't attempting to do it especially fast, I just knew where I was going

Played a bit more DK64 again this morning. Maybe just becuase it's something to do, but it's grown on me a bit, and I think I'll keep on it for now. Granted, my original goal in picking it back up was to finally 100% it. While I
almost certainly won't do that madness, I'm still enjoying myself so far

Let me tell you about my white whale. Back in the day, I loved DK64, and I played it to death. I was going for 101% completion (yup, it doesn't stop at 100%, just like the previous games). I had all the banana medals, all the fairies, all the myriad of other collectables in the game, and I had 200/201 golden bananas.

The 1 golden banana I needed was one of Diddy's bananas in Gloomy Galleon. You go inside a giant mechanic fish and have to shoot out lights on it's heart whilst a fan propellor blocks your shots. It stops every so often, revealing either both of the top lights, or the lone bottom light, and you need to shoot all 3 two or three times (I forget which) to defeat them.

For the life of me, I could not understand how this was possible. You could only hit 1 shot before the fan spun again, and the amount of time the fan spun for was too long for you to get in all 6 shots in the 90 second time limit. It was very literally impossible to do. It was the one banana I couldn't get for about a decade. All the guides I saw online just said 'shoot when it stops' and had none of the issues I had.

Years later, I try again. And again. And again. However, now Youtube exists, and I look up footage online. WTF?! The fan only spins for about 3/4 as long on the videos as on my screen. After extensive research, I discover the truth - a glitch exists, only in the PAL version, which makes the fan spin for too long if you have over a certain amount of golden bananas when you try this challenge. But there is a (bizarre) workaround. It only spins for too long...if you look at it.

And so I spent a fun 30 mins trying the mission over and over, relying on my own sense of timing and some pretty pinpoint accuracy to guess when the fan has stopped, turn around and make a very quick shot at the heart before facing way again. And I finally bloody did it too

[PartridgeSenpai]

What a mental glitch! That's SO crazy specific, I can't believe people actually figured it out

Played a little more this morning though and just got to Tiny's first Beetle race, and FUUUUUUCK that guyyyyy. Those races are EXACTLY as impossible as I remember them being Xp

I know intimately understand exactly why my brother will still cuss out that beetle whenever I bring up DK64 all these years later (he also 101%'d it back in the day).

[Sarge]

I spent way more time on DK64 than I should have back in the day. I think I'd have been okay if the bananas weren't color-coded.

[Markies]

I can not get into RTS games at all, but for some reason pikmin kept me engaged all the way through. I think the smaller scale and intimate scenarios kept me in check. No need to do intense multitasking.

The Micro-Managining of RTS games really causes my brain to just melt. It's hard to keep track of so many things and then fight a war on top of it. I like in Pikmin, I don't have to harvest gold, chop wood, build buildings and then fight enemies all at the same time. I just have to collect my Pikmin and then move on.

The 30 day limit isn't too threatening. Unless you lose all of your pikmin on literally any enemy you encounter, it should give you more than enough time to explore all the areas, find all the ship parts, and raise a bunch of pikmin along the way. I'd say try and aim to be 1 or 2 ship parts ahead of the game before going to the final level (eg. Try and have 29 ship parts by the end day 27). The final ship part is obtainable in a day, but having 2 or 3 will probably make things a bit easier for you to manage.

The whole game can be beaten in 6 in-game days, although you'd have to be crazy good to do so. It used to be that 9 was considered the best possible, which I was going to make an attempt at some day. I'm not sure I'm good enough to pull off 6 days though! My current best I've managed is 13, although I wasn't attempting to do it especially fast, I just knew where I was going

Most FAQ's I found were suggesting something along the lines of 16-19 days on average, so I didn't think it would be that difficult. However, hearing about doing it in 6 or 9 days is absolutely insane. I wonder what the speed run record is...

I expect the last one to be the most difficult, so as long as I build up some extra days until then, I think I should be fine. I usually don't like games with a consistent timer, but I think there is enough buffer that it shouldn't matter too much.

[Xeogred]

It blows me away DK64 is sitting at 30+ hours on HLTB. For a 3D platformer, that's absolutely bonkers.

[Damm64]

It blows me away DK64 is sitting at 30+ hours on HLTB. For a 3D platformer, that's absolutely bonkers.

A lot of that time is going back to the barrel to switch between the kongs.

[Sarge]

That's about right, too. My save was around that time.

[Xeogred]

It honestly feels like it crosses over 100. I don't think I ever fully beat it back in the day, but I did a lot for sure.

Never beat Banzo Taooie either, which is also a huge one. Rare got a little DKC3 crazy with these.

[PartridgeSenpai]

It blows me away DK64 is sitting at 30+ hours on HLTB. For a 3D platformer, that's absolutely bonkers.

I believe it. I'm on world 3 right now, a little under halfway through it, and have 100%'d the first two worlds (sans the beetle race in world 2). I'm about 5 and a half or 6 hours in.

It honestly feels like it crosses over 100. I don't think I ever fully beat it back in the day, but I did a lot for sure.

Never beat Banzo Taooie either, which is also a huge one. Rare got a little DKC3 crazy with these.

I disagree with you on Banjo Tooie. On a scale of style to substance for N64 3D platformers where Mario 64 is substance (mostly fluid mechanics and bare bones story) and Conker's Bad Fur Day is substance (entertaining/zany story/presentation but inconsistant/not so fun gameplay), Banjo Tooie is like dead center perfect for me. I'd say Banjo-Kazooie doesn't quite have the strength in substance like Tooie does, and DK64 by contrast just has some basic design problems that make it objectively less fun than Mario 64 or the Banjo games.

Having gone back to it, I can definitely admit now that they REALLY place a lot of the collectibles in places specifically to make you go back with several Kongs to get the stuff. Granted, that's only if you're 100%-ing things. From another point of view, it could be seen as a consolation prize for if you explore an area with the wrong Kong, you didn't totally waste your time going there.

I'm willing to admit that I do mostly enjoy it as much as I do for nastolgia reasons, and that there are definitely better N64 3D Platformers to play, BUT I will not say it is a bad game. It is an okay game. It's probably the best okay 3D Platformer on the console (better than Rocket ).