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  • So Earlier this week, I visited Nintendo's Bay Area headquarters for a chance to play

  • Pikmin 3's story mode from the very start of the game for 90-minutes.

  • So I thought I'd put together a quick preview talking about my impressions of the game thus

  • far.

  • But before we start, please keep in mind that I don't have video and screenshots of everything

  • I saw, so the footage may not always match up perfect.

  • So Pikmin 3 begins with a fully-narrated opening that explains that the Planet of Koppai is

  • running dangerously low on food. But fortunately, one of the probes that they the planet's inhabitants

  • sent out, called SPAROs, discovered a distant plant that proved to be quite...fruitful.

  • Literally.

  • The game then picks up following a small crew consisting of Alph, Brittany, and Charilie,

  • who've been sent to that same planet to retrieve fruit seeds and bring them back home to to

  • grow food.

  • But of course, something goes horribly wrong, and the spaceship crash lands, ejecting its

  • three occupants, with each one landing in entirely different areas of this mysterious

  • planet--a planet, that's of course, filled with Pikmin..

  • And those Pikmin are of course the key to playing the game, as you probably very well

  • know. Like in past games, you can still control up to 100 of them at a time, and you'll use

  • them for almost everything, whether it's battling enemies or retrieving the fruit your home

  • planet so desperately needs.

  • But that fruit serves a more immediate need too, as your team actually uses it for food

  • too at the end of each day. Which means that there is an overall time-limit like Pikmin

  • 1, except this time, you can keep adding to it by finding more fruit.

  • It seems to be a pretty clever mechanic that'll force you to budget your time accordingly,

  • without being quite as stress-inducing as the strickt 30-day time limit in the first

  • Pikmin game.

  • Though if you mess up, you can simply retry from any day that you've already played

  • And speaking of days, the first one acts as a tutorial of sorts to get you used to the

  • gameplay. And you'll actually first take control of the crew's Captain Charilie, who's crash-landed

  • in an area laced with snow.

  • But you only control him for a brief segment until he stumbles across some Yellow Pikmin

  • who help him reach a nearby cave for shelter.

  • At which point, the game switches focus to Alph, which is where the game really begins.

  • Now he's landed in a decidedly more pleasant area, known as Tropical Wilds. And it's not

  • long before he stumbles across the Red Pikmin, their Onion home, as well as a handy iPad-like

  • device known as the Koppad, which is accessed via the GamePad.

  • Okay, so that's a lot to take in, but the game actually does a great job easing you

  • into it.

  • And part of that is thanks to the new data entries you find scattered around the environment

  • that were left behind by none other than Captain Olimer from the previous games, who's apparently

  • been around these parts before.

  • Now these data entries are basically tips or short tutorials that are automatically

  • downloaded to your Koppad, where they can be easily perused at any time by using the

  • GamePad.

  • In fact, the Koppad plays a pretty big role in the game, providing quick access to all

  • kinds of useful information, such as a map that displays the location of all of your

  • Pikmin that you can scroll with your finger, or various information sub-screens such as

  • one that gives the status of your Pikmin, such as how many are actively working versus

  • sitting there doing nothing, as well as information on all the fruit you've found so far and how

  • much food each one provides

  • One of its cooler abilities is to being able to tap a location on the map and send any

  • of your characters and their Pikmin to that spot automatically--yep, they'll just straight

  • up walk their themselves, allowing you to use the other characters for more important

  • matters in the meantime.

  • Now even though Pikmin 3 isn't the first game in the series to allow access to multiple

  • playable characters, it is the first to really make use of it. For instance, once we regrouped

  • with Brittany on Day 2 in another region called Garden of Hope, we immediately had to throw

  • her up to a ledge, along with some Pikmin, so she could then toss those Pikmin to a higher

  • ledge to grab a lemon located above.

  • And it seems situations like this will pop up throughout the game, such as when we had

  • to throw a small crew across a river to create a bridge that the rest of our group could

  • use to cross.

  • Now that bridge actually lead us to the boss fight with a giant centipede. But he's protected

  • by a hard shell--and this is where the new Rock Pikmin come into play. Their rough exteriors

  • are the only things able to break through the shell, exposing its soft-interior, which

  • you'll then want to throw Red Pikmin at since their attaks are stronger.

  • Now managing your Pikmin types could be a little tricky in past games, but it's been

  • vastly improved in Pikmin 3. Like before, you can still switch between Pikmin types

  • with a press of a button, but mercifully, that type will stay selected, even if you

  • touch a Pikmin of a different color, unlike past games.

  • Which is a huge improvement, especially during hectic boss battles

  • Even the act of pulling your Pikmin from their Onion home has been simplified. You see, Instead

  • of there being an onion for each Pikmi-type, you now pull them all fromt he same onion,

  • which simplifies things greatly

  • And what's really cool about this is that, by holding the "Z button" on the nunchuck,

  • you can actually pull out equal numbers of each Pikmin-type without having to do manually

  • it one-by-one. It's a great addition that really streamlines things.

  • The controls, too, have seen some similarly smart additions--especially when using the

  • Wii Remote and Nunchuck, which allows you to move around and aim Pikmin independently

  • of one another using the pointer. It feels faster and tighter than past Pikmin games,

  • while also greatly expanding the range of your whstle to summon Pikmin back. more easily

  • In addition, you can quickly dispatch an entire group of Pikmin to an objective by locking

  • onto the desired target and shaking the Nunchuck, causing them all to move there at once.

  • Now you can play using just the Gamepad too, but it handles more like the GameCube ones,

  • locking your movement to the cursor. While it might be a little easier to handle for

  • newcomers, it also means you can't aim fast or with as much dexterity--for instance, it's

  • impossible to run away from an enemy while throwing Pikmin at them.

  • But on the upside, it does give you full camera control with the right-control stick, which

  • is missing if using just the Wii Remote and Nunchuck.

  • Oh, and in case you're wondering, the GamePad's motion-controls from last year's E3 that did

  • allow you to move the cursor independently of your character are completely gone--but

  • honestly, it's not a big loss

  • Although you can still move the Gamepad around to aim in the game's new first-person camera

  • mode, that allows you to snap pictures at any time and share them to Miiverse.

  • It seems like this has the potential to be a really cool feature, especially since you

  • can snap some really beautiful shots.

  • And let me tell you, this is a really great looking game. From how the water reactions

  • while walking through it to the eerily-realistic sheen on a Bulborbs eyes, the game is simply

  • beautiful.

  • Really, there's not a single moment of my 90-minutes with game that I didn't enjoy.

  • Nearly every aspect has been improved in some way--the controls feel great, the Pikmin are

  • smarter in that they no longer get hung up on objects when following you around, and

  • the controls work magnificently so far.

  • In short, I'm more stoked than ever to play more. And luckily we won't have long to wait

  • as it comes out in the US on Aug 4th.

  • Thanks for watching and make sure to keep an eye on GameXplain.com for more on Pikmin

  • 3 and other things gaming too

So Earlier this week, I visited Nintendo's Bay Area headquarters for a chance to play

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