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The system that I'm quite certain at this point has in some way dissolved the partial front left hand side of my brain via the moment I hit the on switch. The parts of me that still function all agree it was the right choice. itwassssssssnjkbnjkbasbjndskatheright ch oice\n\nAnd unlike it's successor with a starting lineup which made me cry in a different way, The Gamecube had Luigi's Mansion, Smash Bros Melee, Super Monkey Ball and even Rouge Squadron 2. Hey I'm not that much of a Star Wars fan game wise but damn. Damn. Not too long after the gaming spree that was the sexcube because let's face it, it was the closest thing to sex for our age, Pikmin hit the scene like a quiet yet powerful bomb. Now here was a game I had been waiting for. every thing about this title just screamed yes to my eyes. \n\nSo of course when it released I had to snatch it up too. I didn't know it then but when I finally got past the wrap on the game box I was only inching closer to yet another game that would change the way I viewed things. Not just my play style but also my own decisions and Life. I'd seen some things in that game that somehow turned me from the kid who couldn't take being attacked by ghosts in Luigi's Mansion, to the war veteran who'd seen too much shit to even care anymore.\n\nWHAT PIKMIN 1 AND 2 TAUGHT ME\n----------------------------------\n\n- You cannot Lead if you Cannot Handle The Responsibility of Casualties -\n\nNow a quick start-up to gain those of you not up to speed about Pikmin. You play as Captain Olimar, an alien from a vastly different and far off world who just so happens to be struck by an asteroid nearest to the Planet Earth. What he was doing out there is beyond anyone's wildest and most pornographic guess. Crash landing onto the planet with a ship stripped bare by the fall, Only 30 days of Oxygen were on hand before Death.\n\nNow of course my initial reaction was post traumatic Majora syndrome because once you've been touched by the cruel hand of Nintendo they'll find some way to make you show off the scars and do a lap dance while you're at it. I'm going to admit it, I may have gotten comfortable with the whole Time limit thing but I never accepted it. Where Majora's Mask left me was this pseudo realm of purgatory. A place where it had been Long enough a wait to soften up but not long enough to forget the horror of the countdowns. OH THE COUNTDOWNS!!!! \n\nEven with 30 Days in-game that was divided by 15 Minutes per in-game day level. Once night fall hit the planet was just too active with the deadly life which all happened to be nocturnal or something like that. To me the extension of days were only more stressful given the truth no kid wants to be told.\n\nThere is no going back. If you fail it's over. Everything you worked for is riding on this. That's like the video gaming equivalent of being told you have a tumor that is not getting better. It's only getting worse. Then you sit with that knowledge knowing each and every moment it's creeping on you like some..some giant grinning moon or something. I've really been digressing here though. The point was the Pikmin.\n\nYou see there were far worse things I came to find that made the concept of Time seem irrelevant compared to the sounds of distant bewildered screaming only my nightmares can recollect now. You're not alone on this planet in many ways. There are monster but there are also the Pikmin and unlike said monsters the Pikmin are there to help and they will. When you face the dangers they face it before you.\n\nAt the starting area it's all one simple area to gather yourself and learn the ways of the play. Understanding your allies no matter how limited in diversity or indifferent they may seem. It becomes a quick key and asset of the game. At first it just seems all too easy when you collect the first part of your ship. Only 29 Left to go and you're off the world. These little guys seems so damn adorable you'll probably take them with you, deadly oxygen breathing lifestyles complications aside.\n\nI grew rather attached to my Red Pikmin. I mean they were the starting color and in some way it just personalizes that connection more and more. Things were just going so well as I grew my little adorable and probably soon to be deadly army. All so...perfect. Then came the Forest Of Hope. Does that sound like a bad place to you? \" Well Gee I sure am going to enjoy it in there! \" I said all too gleefully as I continued to crochet a Pikmin <3 forever scarf.\n\nAnd you know what happened on that day? I got to watch my little red friends scream in agony as they were chomped to death in the mouth of a Giant Red Bulborb. For those of you not familiar, imagine a red strawberry with snail eyes, bat fangs and a need to ruin friendships. I remember just how badly I felt watching them be eating, beating at the legs of the beast to no avail. They weren't just chewed to pieces either. I'm almost 100% positive bulborbs hardly have teeth so they were like..mushed into death. I watched as the most sickening sight lay before me no child should have had to witness.\n\nThe blue floating souls of my comrades whose deaths were on my hands. Their faces so filled with sadness as their essence floated into the beyond with their hopes and dreams. Then came the drownings. How could I have known they couldn't swim?! NO ONE TOLD ME THEY COULDN'T SWIM. OH GOD I CAN HEAR THEM SWALLOWING THE WATER! NO! OH GOD THEIR LIFELESS BODIES ARE JUST FLOATING FACE DOWN IN THE MURKY WATER! WHAT SICK SATANIC BEING MADE ME WANT THIS GAME?! \n\nDay 3 had come and I didn't want to collect anything. I was too busy trying to replace the numbers I'd lost, some how clinging to the fact everyone I killed didn't even have a name. This was some heavy shit for me and it is bloody damn hilarious to me now but back then...Well it's like losing a digital Puppy you can't get back. Only you're the reason it got lost and somehow you believe it has actual feelings and you damned it to digital space puppy hell. That should be the name of my future Rock Band.\n\nPikmin just had so many ways to make things go fowl it wasn't even funny. It really wasn't. From fiery charred deaths to explosive demises, even being zombified by a sentient mushroom. I swear to the heavens this game was made to help kids accept death. Not theirs but the death they would so wrongfully bring to whoever the hell chose to follow them, the poor bastards. By day 6 I think I had become mentally closed off from their cries. When one died, well, it was just a number anyway.\n\nThat disconnection wasn't me being cold. It was me trying to reconcile numbers and strategy. Eventually I'd even learned to get annoyed when one of them, bless their probably ill-equipped poor nutritioned bodies for tripping every few feet to meet a horrible fate that was their death. You cannot be a good leader unless you have balance whole fully or you're tipping the scale in some way that mentally turns you into the next Stalin. Just like my introduction into the Dark Side that was to become Elder Scrolls Oblivion, I began to objectify my numbers, parts collected per day and who was worthy to die by my hands. I'm a sick man.\n \nI promise you I'd made my way off that planet with all 30 parts but I wasn't the same kid who fell onto it. Those Pikmin stared into the sky as I traveled,\ntilting their heads so curiously, waving their little adorable hands as if they knew this was goodbye. It was touching. Too bad I was too busy giving a double dosing of the middle finger from inside the Ship's cockpit window. Somehow I'd gotten to the point where I had blamed them for taking away that innocence from me. The part of me that believed cute things never died and the world was still a happy place all the more because of it. Then the game ended and so it fell into obscurity for me.\n\nThen came Pikmin 2 that came back for revenge. I wasn't about to take that shit again, that punishment...but I did. Thank god they took away the day limit. That made the deaths easier to cope with. Let me tell you though, they found even more creative and colorful ways to murder your precious followers. Boy...did they ever. I'd like to think some good came out of it though. When you're taking charge of a situation you cannot be blinded, you cannot be biased.\n\n When it came to Pikmin I had to distance myself from the thoughts that distracted me. It's hard when you have ADD and ADHD and so many things cannot shut down for it. It's the kind of decision that also applies to a relationship or even an argument with family and friends. Distancing yourself from the crazy and hectic emotions you may have at the time but brutally shoving them into your brain to the point you may develop that tumor we were talking about earlier. That on it's own teaches restraint, focus and patience. Something you actually also happen to need a lot of in Pikmin and the real world. \n\n- I Am Not So Special After all -\n\n Being trapped on the planet Earth for 30 days doing your best to be the leader you can only be. That leaves a lot of room and time to consider Olimar as a dedicated Character and you as an equally impressive leader yourself. The stuff we had to go through was aggravating but great. So when we finally got back to Olimar's Home world by the start of Pikmin 2 it was just so damn shocking watching the introductory video. I'd lost the ship I spent so much hardship putting back together. What took 30 days vanished within less than 3 seconds. It's powerful and devastating.\n\nTurns out the company Olimar had been working for had fallen into some hardships of their own while he'd been out trying not to die in the vast array of horrific ways you can imagine. Just like that the real danger had presented itself. One closer to reality that to this day still rings true to me. Olimar had brought a souvenir along with him, a bottle cap which dropped to his side like his silent way of saying \" Ahhh my life. It's over. \" only to have it stolen by his own company's computer that assessed it's worth. He wasn't even asked- I wasn't even asked.\n\n Then next thing you know Me and Olimar are being sent back to the same planet Earth. You know, the place he had escaped from barely with his life for like....LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES!!!! He couldn't even see his wife or kid. It was just settled before he could say shit and believe me I would have had some shit to say. Or would I? Just like to my own future boss? In a way where the first Pikmin taught me about a single Alien so far away from home, he felt like a lone scholar. Someone who felt important because really there were no comparisons. It feels that way in a lot of games for a lot of gamers.\n\nWe're really all just alien explorers into these worlds feeling just about the same amount of alone. In a way that same line of thought is what also gives us strength to imagine the greatness of our uniqueness. To fill in the blanks of our silent protagonists and make greater things when the answers are not there to begin with. The truth was that Olimar was no greater or special than the guy coming along with him for the second ride. The ship didn't matter, Olimar's Health didn't matter, he didn't matter. Just a cog in the system who was around to get the job done.\n\nPikmin 2 made me realize many things. How beautiful the small things can truly be. What one man's trash can really be called another's treasure...how much of Nintendo's history I didn't need to know and how boring it really was. What really stuck through though was just how cold cut it was being the quiet employee who just followed his boss's wishes because without a job he had no work, no work then no money. No money then you get the idea. Real world problems, things I'd seen before but they always felt distant. \n\nPikmin back hand slapped me with it and the sting was real.\nI didn't mind that thought though. In fact I found it rather uniquely encouraging in a bizarre sense. I remember how all through school I'd see kids given awards for trying, being patted on the back for failure and just being brought up on this idea that somehow they themselves were Jesus Christ in the second coming. In many ways we are all special but I'm going to level. We are not equal. Eventually reality drifts by and one day we find out we're not getting that pat on the back at our job because we're really not that great at all. It doesn't mean we don't have value but we're not all destined to be billionaire playboys.\n\nThe whole drive and theme of Pikmin 2 wasn't even really about survival nor exploration. Sure they both held merit in there but the true runner of it all was theme of consumerism and profiteering. Exploiting other worlds, other lands and those that were bound by it because what else could they do? Suddenly Pikmin 2 was creepily hitting close to exporting practices and sweatshop performance. You know to all hell that the Pikmin weren't being paid. Who cares, not like we really see their faces on planet not-slave-labor. \n\nIt's a curious thing being a child slave driver. No I mean that at the time I was the kid and- okay stop looking at me like that.It's true though! If I grabbed a bunch of you sorry saps and starting whistling for you to go die and lift things for me just to stuff you into...giant fruit, I think it's a giant fruit...Then you'd be calling the FBI on my ass! Getting back on the subject, it's a curious thing. It may sound weird but knowing the fact everything I did, all the items I collected, all the lives I sacrificed without so much more than a whistle...I felt like I was no bigger than the Pikmin myself.\n\n Not in a physical sense. They're pretty much the same height in comparison. I mean in the way that it wasn't really me commanding them.\nI wasn't back on that planet because of an accident, I wasn't there because I wanted to be even if it was another Pikmin title and where the hell else are you going to go? I'd been there because one guy who held the key to me keeping my job was demanding I go there on behalf of him. The treasure wasn't mine, it was his.\n\n Victory felt hollow even when the giant and flashy text popped up on the screen to remind me how much of the companies debt I had paid off. That was like showering a comatose patient in the E.R with confetti. Sure you can try to be excited but ultimately it's all too brief and you're just left with silence.\n\nIt makes me wonder if somehow that was Nintendo's intent all a long. A brainwashing game cleverly disguised as a Pikmin sequel to dance on whatever remained psyche their fan base had. I've been harsh about it this whole write up but I would be giving a lie if I said I couldn't respect any lesson that taught me what to expect out of life ahead of my time. Maybe I looked into it far more deeply and wrong than I should have like Where's Waldo only no one wins and you just start to cry. Honestly though I've always enjoyed darker and more cut throat lessons than..well... Pat on the back ones. Maybe that's why I still to this day dabble with Pikmin 2 every now and then.\n\n- Commitment Is Everything -\n\nFrom everything I've been telling you so far you would probably be going against this exact line of thought that I was in. In fact I'd go so far as to say you would probably either be drinking heavily ( and illegally ) or just plain not seeing any of the things I apparently have the dark and unnatural gift of seeing. Jokes on you though, I did pull this thought from the ash my fried brain had left. In the first Pikmin we had no choice as players to assist and become Olimar on the dangerous world we were unfamiliar to. An adventure where we were free to be creatively challenged but also to be challenged bottom line. Failure meant death and we were the ones in control of our life.\n\n 30 days, 30 parts. Taking on the responsibility of not only claiming those parts but leading a fluid and diverse army...it takes commitment. Now some of you of course scoff at the words \" Game \" and \" Commitment \" in the same sentence but there was a time before you had to work in order to...you know...not un-live. Some of you I know had a few titles you just learned the ins and outs of. Pikmin for me was one of those titles. No I cannot say I have replayed that first game since I beat it. Majora Syndrome got replaced with Pikmin syndrome. However it did teach me that with limited resources and limited time I was set for a no bullshitting game throw down. \n\nEverything about it was deceptive down from the harmlessly cute looking creatures to the calming and alluring scenery. Make no mistake that I didn't see past that. As a kid I may have hesitated but as a gamer I turned my blinders on and set on a rampage that makes rampage...not look like rampage. Okay I didn't know a good analogy this time. I'd developed systems for particular pikmin numbers based on the area. I'd plotted out map courses and where time was best spent, which parts and their proximity best served my time. You may not have gotten that same urgency in Pikmin 2 but I can say with almost absolute certainty that you felt the pressures of the Caves.\n\nThat was the second game's way of making you pucker still. In ways your butt just could not handle. Diamonds. D-diamonds coming out from- it was just- I couldn't react so...AND THE BOMBS. Caves in Pikmin 2 were unforgiving as they were intimidating. The worst of it was being teased with the idea you could leave whenever you wanted but guess what? Your heavy ass just weighs down the whole team so either you ride out the terror or you drop everything and take out. Serious planning and commitment were needed more than ever especially with the introduction of 2 new Pikmin types who were more necessary and limited than you could imagine. If you lost even five of either it was too much of a loss.\n\nThey knew how to play dirty in some of those caves too. Once I'd dropped into a level just to instantly be met with a bulborb not even four steps away from me. Yep. I lost pikmin. I lost more when bombs dropped all over another level. I'd thought it best to leave my pikmin behind while I scouted but turns out a bomb can land anywhere. Even where you started. There are a variety of traps and things to consider when Playing Pikmin.\n\n You will be caught off guard but reaction and control is key to cutting your losses. Losing One pikmin just sucks the life out of you, imagine losing more. That's the commitment in gaming I'm talking about. Applying the passion for the best scenario for the worst.\n\nImagine applying that same passion to anything else. It's funny how a video game can have quite a diverse impact of emotion and thought even when you're not sure what you're really seeing in it. At the time I'd been suffering heavily in Algebra class. I hated math and though I tried to grasp it I just wasn't trying hard enough. I wasn't truly interested and to this day I still have yet to meet anything outside my 3'rd grade math courses that taught me anything harder. Still, I had a problem because I was sinking in that hot water and just tipping off the scale into failure.\n\n That's when I started to consider how much commitment I'd brought into my game. Why I could do that with something I just about felt the same form of intimidation from and perhaps more. The reality was that I wasn't trying because I didn't really care. Not enough to try harder. So I sat myself back to trying to understand, applying the passion to something I felt passionless about and finding the humiliation of constant failure.\n\n Eventually there was improvement though. No I cannot say I grew to love the subject anymore or conclude that I went from a D to an A. What I can say though is that I tipped the scale again and it tipped to the point I exceeded Algebra 2 and eventually graduated with less sweat on my forehead than I thought I would. That's the commitment I'm talking about.\nIt's so curious and odd to find that in all the places you poke your head into it happens to be an outlet of leisure and a video game of all things just to open your eyes to committing yourself to the things that matter more, that are more important.\n\n It never comes with a small price and the learning curve comes with many hard ships but no greater feelings comes than arising over the things you thought least of but posed just as much the threat. Math was a hated subject for me as are some other things in my life. Things I live with and live against. I know though that with enough commitment, patience and planning though that eventually I'll get passed it as well. \n\nPikmin, you took away most of my innocence and probably ate away a good chunk of my childhood but you were kind enough to leave a couple of hard and maybe a bit helpful truths too. Can't say I'll be a slave driver any time soon but I will do the best that I can with other things in my life. \n", "description_bbcode_parsed": "
Once upon a time Nintendo Revealed a console known as The Gamecube. The system that I'm quite certain at this point has in some way dissolved the partial front left hand side of my brain via the moment I hit the on switch. The parts of me that still function all agree it was the right choice. itwassssssssnjkbnjkbasbjndskatheright ch oice

And unlike it's successor with a starting lineup which made me cry in a different way, The Gamecube had Luigi's Mansion, Smash Bros Melee, Super Monkey Ball and even Rouge Squadron 2. Hey I'm not that much of a Star Wars fan game wise but damn. Damn. Not too long after the gaming spree that was the sexcube because let's face it, it was the closest thing to sex for our age, Pikmin hit the scene like a quiet yet powerful bomb. Now here was a game I had been waiting for. every thing about this title just screamed yes to my eyes.

So of course when it released I had to snatch it up too. I didn't know it then but when I finally got past the wrap on the game box I was only inching closer to yet another game that would change the way I viewed things. Not just my play style but also my own decisions and Life. I'd seen some things in that game that somehow turned me from the kid who couldn't take being attacked by ghosts in Luigi's Mansion, to the war veteran who'd seen too much shit to even care anymore.

WHAT PIKMIN 1 AND 2 TAUGHT ME
----------------------------------

- You cannot Lead if you Cannot Handle The Responsibility of Casualties -

Now a quick start-up to gain those of you not up to speed about Pikmin. You play as Captain Olimar, an alien from a vastly different and far off world who just so happens to be struck by an asteroid nearest to the Planet Earth. What he was doing out there is beyond anyone's wildest and most pornographic guess. Crash landing onto the planet with a ship stripped bare by the fall, Only 30 days of Oxygen were on hand before Death.

Now of course my initial reaction was post traumatic Majora syndrome because once you've been touched by the cruel hand of Nintendo they'll find some way to make you show off the scars and do a lap dance while you're at it. I'm going to admit it, I may have gotten comfortable with the whole Time limit thing but I never accepted it. Where Majora's Mask left me was this pseudo realm of purgatory. A place where it had been Long enough a wait to soften up but not long enough to forget the horror of the countdowns. OH THE COUNTDOWNS!!!!

Even with 30 Days in-game that was divided by 15 Minutes per in-game day level. Once night fall hit the planet was just too active with the deadly life which all happened to be nocturnal or something like that. To me the extension of days were only more stressful given the truth no kid wants to be told.

There is no going back. If you fail it's over. Everything you worked for is riding on this. That's like the video gaming equivalent of being told you have a tumor that is not getting better. It's only getting worse. Then you sit with that knowledge knowing each and every moment it's creeping on you like some..some giant grinning moon or something. I've really been digressing here though. The point was the Pikmin.

You see there were far worse things I came to find that made the concept of Time seem irrelevant compared to the sounds of distant bewildered screaming only my nightmares can recollect now. You're not alone on this planet in many ways. There are monster but there are also the Pikmin and unlike said monsters the Pikmin are there to help and they will. When you face the dangers they face it before you.

At the starting area it's all one simple area to gather yourself and learn the ways of the play. Understanding your allies no matter how limited in diversity or indifferent they may seem.  It becomes a quick key and asset of the game. At first it just seems all too easy when you collect the first part of your ship. Only 29 Left to go and you're off the world. These little guys seems so damn adorable you'll probably take them with you, deadly oxygen breathing lifestyles complications aside.

I grew rather attached to my Red Pikmin. I mean they were the starting color and in some way it just personalizes that connection more and more. Things were just going so well as I grew my little adorable and probably soon to be deadly army. All so...perfect. Then came the Forest Of Hope. Does that sound like a bad place to you? " Well Gee I sure am going to enjoy it in there! " I said all too gleefully as I continued to crochet a Pikmin <3 forever scarf.

And you know what happened on that day? I got to watch my little red friends scream in agony as they were chomped to death in the mouth of a Giant Red Bulborb. For those of you not familiar, imagine a red strawberry with snail eyes, bat fangs and a need to ruin friendships. I remember just how badly I felt watching them be eating, beating at the legs of the beast to no avail. They weren't just chewed to pieces either. I'm almost 100% positive bulborbs hardly have teeth so they were like..mushed into death. I watched as the most sickening sight lay before me no child should have had to witness.

The blue floating souls of my comrades whose deaths were on my hands. Their faces so filled with sadness as their essence floated into the beyond with their hopes and dreams. Then came the drownings. How could I have known they couldn't swim?! NO ONE TOLD ME THEY COULDN'T SWIM. OH GOD I CAN HEAR THEM SWALLOWING THE WATER! NO! OH GOD THEIR LIFELESS BODIES ARE JUST FLOATING FACE DOWN IN THE MURKY WATER! WHAT SICK SATANIC BEING MADE ME WANT THIS GAME?!

Day 3 had come and I didn't want to collect anything. I was too busy trying to replace the numbers I'd lost, some how clinging to the fact everyone I killed didn't even have a name. This was some heavy shit for me and it is bloody damn hilarious to me now but back then...Well it's like losing a digital Puppy you can't get back. Only you're the reason it got lost and somehow you believe it has actual feelings and you damned it to digital space puppy hell. That should be the name of my future Rock Band.

Pikmin just had so many ways to make things go fowl it wasn't even funny. It really wasn't. From fiery charred deaths to explosive demises, even being zombified by a sentient mushroom. I swear to the heavens this game was made to help kids accept death. Not theirs but the death they would so wrongfully bring to whoever the hell chose to follow them, the poor bastards. By day 6 I think I had become mentally closed off from their cries. When one died, well, it was just a number anyway.

That disconnection wasn't me being cold. It was me trying to reconcile numbers and strategy. Eventually I'd even learned to get annoyed when one of them, bless their probably ill-equipped poor nutritioned bodies for tripping every few feet to meet a horrible fate that was their death. You cannot be a good leader unless you have balance whole fully or you're tipping the scale in some way that mentally turns you into the next Stalin. Just like my introduction into the Dark Side that was to become Elder Scrolls Oblivion, I began to objectify my numbers, parts collected per day and who was worthy to die by my hands. I'm a sick man.
 
I promise you I'd made my way off that planet with all 30 parts but I wasn't the same kid who fell onto it. Those Pikmin stared into the sky as I traveled,
tilting their heads so curiously, waving their little adorable hands as if they knew this was goodbye. It was touching. Too bad I was too busy giving a double dosing of the middle finger from inside the Ship's cockpit window. Somehow I'd gotten to the point where I had blamed them for taking away that innocence from me. The part of me that believed cute things never died and the world was still a happy place all the more because of it. Then the game ended and so it fell into obscurity for me.

Then came Pikmin 2 that came back for revenge. I wasn't about to take that shit again, that punishment...but I did. Thank god they took away the day limit. That made the deaths easier to cope with. Let me tell you though, they found even more creative and colorful ways to murder your precious followers. Boy...did they ever. I'd like to think some good came out of it though. When you're taking charge of a situation you cannot be blinded, you cannot be biased.

 When it came to Pikmin I had to distance myself from the thoughts that distracted me. It's hard when you have ADD and ADHD and so many things cannot shut down for it. It's the kind of decision that also applies to a relationship or even an argument with family and friends. Distancing yourself from the crazy and hectic emotions you may have at the time but brutally shoving them into your brain to the point you may develop that tumor we were talking about earlier. That on it's own teaches restraint, focus and patience. Something you actually also happen to need a lot of in Pikmin and the real world.  

- I Am Not So Special After all -

 Being trapped on the planet Earth for 30 days doing your best to be the leader you can only be. That leaves a lot of room and time to consider Olimar as a dedicated Character and you as an equally impressive leader yourself. The stuff we had to go through was aggravating but great. So when we finally got back to Olimar's Home world by the start of Pikmin 2 it was just so damn shocking watching the introductory video. I'd lost the ship I spent so much hardship putting back together. What took 30 days vanished within less than 3 seconds. It's powerful and devastating.

Turns out the company Olimar had been working for had fallen into some hardships of their own while he'd been out trying not to die in the vast array of horrific ways you can imagine. Just like that the real danger had presented itself. One closer to reality that to this day still rings true to me. Olimar had brought a souvenir along with him, a bottle cap which dropped to his side like his silent way of saying " Ahhh my life. It's over. " only to have it stolen by his own company's computer that assessed it's worth. He wasn't even asked- I wasn't even asked.

 Then next thing you know Me and Olimar are being sent back to the same planet Earth. You know, the place he had escaped from barely with his life for like....LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES!!!! He couldn't even see his wife or kid. It was just settled before he could say shit and believe me I would have had some shit to say. Or would I? Just like to my own future boss? In a way where the first Pikmin taught me about a single Alien so far away from home, he felt like a lone scholar. Someone who felt important because really there were no comparisons. It feels that way in a lot of games for a lot of gamers.

We're really all just alien explorers into these worlds feeling just about the same amount of alone. In a way that same line of thought is what also gives us strength to imagine the greatness of our uniqueness. To fill in the blanks of our silent protagonists and make greater things when the answers are not there to begin with. The truth was that Olimar was no greater or special than the guy coming along with him for the second ride. The ship didn't matter, Olimar's Health didn't matter, he didn't matter. Just a cog in the system who was around to get the job done.

Pikmin 2 made me realize many things. How beautiful the small things can truly be. What one man's trash can really be called another's treasure...how much of Nintendo's history I didn't need to know and how boring it really was. What really stuck through though was just how cold cut it was being the quiet employee who just followed his boss's wishes because without a job he had no work, no work then no money. No money then you get the idea. Real world problems, things I'd seen before but they always felt distant.

Pikmin back hand slapped me with it and the sting was real.
I didn't mind that thought though. In fact I found it rather uniquely encouraging in a bizarre sense. I remember how all through school I'd see kids given awards for trying, being patted on the back for failure and just being brought up on this idea that somehow they themselves were Jesus Christ in the second coming. In many ways we are all special but I'm going to level. We are not equal. Eventually reality drifts by and one day we find out we're not getting that pat on the back at our job because we're really not that great at all. It doesn't mean we don't have value but we're not all destined to be billionaire playboys.

The whole drive and theme of Pikmin 2 wasn't even really about survival nor exploration. Sure they both held merit in there but the true runner of it all was theme of consumerism and profiteering. Exploiting other worlds, other lands and those that were bound by it because what else could they do? Suddenly Pikmin 2 was creepily hitting close to exporting practices and sweatshop performance. You know to all hell that the Pikmin weren't being paid. Who cares, not like we really see their faces on planet not-slave-labor.

It's a curious thing being a child slave driver. No I mean that at the time I was the kid and- okay stop looking at me like that.It's true though! If I grabbed a bunch of you sorry saps and starting whistling for you to go die and lift things for me just to stuff you into...giant fruit, I think it's a giant fruit...Then you'd be calling the FBI on my ass! Getting back on the subject, it's a curious thing. It may sound weird but knowing the fact everything I did, all the items I collected, all the lives I sacrificed without so much more than a whistle...I felt like I was no bigger than the Pikmin myself.

  Not in a physical sense. They're pretty much the same height in comparison. I mean in the way that it wasn't really me commanding them.
I wasn't back on that planet because of an accident, I wasn't there because I wanted to be even if it was another Pikmin title and where the hell else are you going to go? I'd been there because one guy who held the key to me keeping my job was demanding I go there on behalf of him. The treasure wasn't mine, it was his.

 Victory felt hollow even when the giant and flashy text popped up on the screen to remind me how much of the companies debt I had paid off. That was like showering a comatose patient in the E.R with confetti. Sure you can try to be excited but ultimately it's all too brief and you're just left with silence.

It makes me wonder if somehow that was Nintendo's intent all a long. A brainwashing game cleverly disguised as a Pikmin sequel to dance on whatever remained psyche their fan base had. I've been harsh about it this whole write up but I would be giving a lie if I said I couldn't respect any lesson that taught me what to expect out of life ahead of my time. Maybe I looked into it far more deeply and wrong than I should have like Where's Waldo only no one wins and you just start to cry. Honestly though I've always enjoyed darker and more cut throat lessons than..well... Pat on the back ones. Maybe that's why I still to this day dabble with Pikmin 2 every now and then.

- Commitment Is Everything -

From everything I've been telling you so far you would probably be going against this exact line of thought that I was in. In fact I'd go so far as to say you would probably either be drinking heavily ( and illegally ) or just plain not seeing any of the things I apparently have the dark and unnatural gift of seeing. Jokes on you though, I did pull this thought from the ash my fried brain had left. In the first Pikmin we had no choice as players to assist and become Olimar on the dangerous world we were unfamiliar to. An adventure where we were free to be creatively challenged but also to be challenged bottom line. Failure meant death and we were the ones in control of our life.

 30 days, 30 parts. Taking on the responsibility of not only claiming those parts but leading a fluid and diverse army...it takes commitment. Now some of you of course scoff at the words " Game " and " Commitment " in the same sentence but there was a time before you had to work in order to...you know...not un-live. Some of you I know had a few titles you just learned the ins and outs of. Pikmin for me was one of those titles. No I cannot say I have replayed that first game since I beat it. Majora Syndrome got replaced with Pikmin syndrome. However it did teach me that with limited resources and limited time I was set for a no bullshitting game throw down.

Everything about it was deceptive down from the harmlessly cute looking creatures to the calming and alluring scenery. Make no mistake that I didn't see past that. As a kid I may have hesitated but as a gamer I turned my blinders on and set on a rampage that makes rampage...not look like rampage. Okay I didn't know a good analogy this time. I'd developed systems for particular pikmin numbers based on the area. I'd plotted out map courses and where time was best spent, which parts and their proximity best served my time. You may not have gotten that same urgency in Pikmin 2 but I can say with almost absolute certainty that you felt the pressures of the Caves.

That was the second game's way of making you pucker still. In ways your butt just could not handle. Diamonds. D-diamonds coming out from- it was just- I couldn't react so...AND THE BOMBS. Caves in Pikmin 2 were unforgiving as they were intimidating. The worst of it was being teased with the idea you could leave whenever you wanted but guess what? Your heavy ass just weighs down the whole team so either you ride out the terror or you drop everything and take out. Serious planning and commitment were needed more than ever especially with the introduction of 2 new Pikmin types who were more necessary and limited than you could imagine. If you lost even five of either it was too much of a loss.

They knew how to play dirty in some of those caves too. Once I'd dropped into a level just to instantly be met with a bulborb not even four steps away from me. Yep. I lost pikmin. I lost more when bombs dropped all over another level. I'd thought it best to leave my pikmin behind while I scouted but turns out a bomb can land anywhere. Even where you started. There are a variety of traps and things to consider when Playing Pikmin.

 You will be caught off guard but reaction and control is key to cutting your losses. Losing One pikmin just sucks the life out of you, imagine losing more. That's the commitment in gaming I'm talking about. Applying the passion for the best scenario for the worst.

Imagine applying that same passion to anything else. It's funny how a video game can have quite a diverse impact of emotion and thought even when you're not sure what you're really seeing in it. At the time I'd been suffering heavily in Algebra class. I hated math and though I tried to grasp it I just wasn't trying hard enough. I wasn't truly interested and to this day I still have yet to meet anything outside my 3'rd grade math courses that taught me anything harder. Still, I had a problem because I was sinking in that hot water and just tipping off the scale into failure.

 That's when I started to consider how much commitment I'd brought into my game. Why I could do that with something I just about felt the same form of intimidation from and perhaps more. The reality was that I wasn't trying because I didn't really care. Not enough to try harder. So I sat myself back to trying to understand, applying the passion to something I felt passionless about and finding the humiliation of constant failure.

  Eventually there was improvement though. No I cannot say I grew to love the subject anymore or conclude that I went from a D to an A. What I can say though is that I tipped the scale again and it tipped to the point I exceeded Algebra 2 and eventually graduated with less sweat on my forehead than I thought I would. That's the commitment I'm talking about.
It's so curious and odd to find that in all the places you poke your head into it happens to be an outlet of leisure and a video game of all things just to open your eyes to committing yourself to the things that matter more, that are more important.

 It never comes with a small price and the learning curve comes with many hard ships but no greater feelings comes than arising over the things you thought least of but posed just as much the threat. Math was a hated subject for me as are some other things in my life. Things I live with and live against. I know though that with enough commitment, patience and planning though that eventually I'll get passed it as well.

Pikmin, you took away most of my innocence and probably ate away a good chunk of my childhood but you were kind enough to leave a couple of hard and maybe a bit helpful truths too. Can't say I'll be a slave driver any time soon but I will do the best that I can with other things in my life.      
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