Thanks for all the additional comments, everyone. I haven't been back on here in about a week and a half. It seems like one person has said that it's absolutely critical that I play Pikmin (1) first, where as pretty much everyone else has said it's not that important. I'm a little confused, but I still haven't picked up either game yet, so I may still end up finding and playing the original first. I don't know, though... I'm working on a huge backlog right now. We'll see.

You'll be missing the better game, imho.

(Seriously ship...SHUT UP AND LET ME LEARN THINGS ON MY OWN.)

This comes from a huge fan:

Story-wise, no. The first was very light on story and the entire thing is summarized in the opening of Pikmin 2. Gameplay, you miss a great game, although in my opinion the first is much harder due to the 30 day limit. It wouldn't make much difference if you played them out of order (or never even played the first), but I do recommend playing the first at some point, it's much shorter but it's incredibly fun.

Master, I predict there's a 85% chance anyone who makes a text heavy tutorial should be fired.

What about BomberMan: Act Zero, Duke Nukem Forever, Zelda II: WTF This Isnt Link, DOA: Xtreme, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2006?

Being the huge Pikmin crazed fan that I am, I suggest playing the first one. If for nothing else do it for chronological's sake. While like Mario it doesn't have much story, there is still something about playing a series in the correct sequence. If you play 2 now, you'll not be used to not having all the extra features when you play 1. In fact you may not even want to play though 1 since it's so downgraded compared to 2. Trust me, play 1 first if possible.