Posted 15 March 2013 - 09:00 AM
Its an RTS/action game hybrid.
Pikmin are basically ants. You control an army of ants and use them to take down large predators and find treasure.
Its heavily streamlined rts gameplay, to the extent that its super gamey, arcade style gameplay. You really cant play it lioe an rts, rts is detached, like you are an invisible overlord calling the shots, pikmin is hands on, you are down there with them.
The l button blows a whistle, that brings all pikmin nearby to you, the left analog stick controls your character, and the formation generally follows behind.
The right analog stick controls the formation/selected pikmin seperately from your main character. Using this you have precision control pathfinding ai cant manage.
You can use it to swarm over enemies (as opposed to throwing one at a time), turn your formation into a single file line to cross narrow openings, cross narrow paths to treasure you cant reach, avoid enemy attacks on your swarm.
Despite being an rts, the game controls like an action game, and the action happens much much faster than an rts.
You dont send your pikmin out and sit back until the job is done, you have to actively have them attack, call them back, dodge, and then attack a weak spot and repeat, or you will quickly find your pikmin army eaten.
There is also tons of exploring, with returning to earlier levels with new pikmin powers to open new areas, and miyamoto style puzzles to solve.
Its pretty dang good, and oozes charm.