Topic: Pikmin 3 - OT

Yeah, that can be annoying sometimes. When I am able, I direct one captain with no Pikmin to stand right at the edge of the pedestal below the Gatling Groink and position him just so that it's cannon blasts hit the wall of the pedestal and don't hurt the captain. Then I would direct the other captain with a Pikmin squad to attack it from behind, and recall the Pikmin before it shakes them off. as long as I keep my captain with Pikmin farther away than the distracting captain with no Pikmin, the Gatling Groink will never shoot at my Pikmin. They only fire at the Captain nearest to them. Sometimes when the Gatling Groink shakes, it moves a little and it's shots begin hitting my distraction captain. I then have to reposition my distracting captain into a new safe position.

I partially agree. I DO hope the groinks make a return in Pikmin 3, or some other enemy that shoots mortars at you. I do like the fact that it regenerates health, as it adds to the challenge of the game and often makes the player nervous to dispose of the corpse by any means necessary! However, I DO hope sprays return. They did seem very cheap in Pikmin 2, but if they are in Pikmin 3, I'm hoping that they will be much harder to collect. No spray nectar, for example. The players should only be able to get sprays with berries. The berries should also be in a location where it is difficult or dangerous to collect them. That way, sprays will still be available, but the user would have to conserve them much more than they would have to in Pikmin 3.

You know what would be neat? If Pikmin 3 had a Boss Battle mode. There sort of was in 2 with the Hole of Heros and certain Challenge Mode levels, but I want a proper feature where you can battle the bosses Kirby/Smash Bros. style, only instead of health or damage, it's the number of Pikmin in your squad, and like in the caves, you can't get more. And in-between battles you can use Candypop buds to change the colors to your liking.

That would be very cool. And, since it's a Pikmin game, I don't think they'd tell you outright what the next boss would be. There should be like a tablet wall that has an sketch of the next boss and potential hazards that give you hints as to what the next boss is. Perhaps not, but of course, it's just an idea.

@MasterWario, Maybe this would work or there could be a mini level between each level with symbols hidden around the place that would tell you what pikmin would be useful or essential to complete the battle.
As for Cheaptrick stating that the Wii U had a vastly underpowered CPU, wasn't this cleared up a couple of weeks ago. I mean that it was a misunderstanding? I seem to remember that the people who originally talked about the Wii U being underpowered only had the beta and were wrong when the actual product was launched, who was this company? It was Activision.

Anyone think Louie was evil?

Honestly, it could have been anything. We don't know much about his past and he's quite a quiet fellow, but I don't think he was legitimately "evil". We know that he likes bugs and cooking, that his parents don't message him but rather his grandfather (or uncle, can't remember), and if you've watched Louie's Dark Secret, you have some more information there. Louie could have been angry at Olimar for leaving him behind, perhaps he was just exhausted and wasn't sure much what he was doing, he could have had a traumatizing incident as a kid, or as Louie's Dark Secret suggests, perhaps he just isn't that great at controlling his inclinations. It could also be a combination of these things, or none of them at all. Perhaps Nintendo doesn't even know themselves!

@MasterWario It was his grandmother who messages him. She would often mention how much Louie enjoyed eating bugs as a child.

I didn't think so at first, but now I do in fact believe that Louie might be more antagonistic then he lets on. It's the quiet ones you've got to look out for after all. But like @MasterWario said, the Titan Dweevil incident could've been caused by any number of factors. Nonetheless I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Louie, and/or whoever the mysterious character D is (he certainly looks like he could be related to Louie), might be the secret villain in 3. Okay maybe not full on villain, but a rouge or something along that line.

Louie looks totally bad*** in that picture btw.

That actually seems quite plausible, as captain D doesn't appear in any of the videos/picture so far.

Yeah, I don't see Louie being a straight up, malicious villain (although he could), but definitely along the lines of having some antagonistic qualities.

P.S. lol @WingedFish sig; are you going to change those every week?

I was hoping for some kind of endless survival mode where you have to stay in a room where enemies continually come in. I doubt it will happen, but it would be so much fun!

@MasterWario I'll try to remember.

That sort of thing doesn't really seem to fit Pikmin. With enough skill a player could essentially go on forever unless the mode was designed to overwhelm you with so many enemies it would be impossible not to lose eventually. Either way, endless modes don't really seem to fit Pikmin in my opinion.
Boss rush mode does seem like it could be possible though!

I was one of those who didn't notice the flying Pikmin at the end of the trailer. I thought it was just a Pikmin using a leaf to glide towards the ground from a high area. Because Pikmin are not heavy they could probably use a leaf in many ways. I guess thats the Japanese way of showing me how white I am! Lol! But now knowing this is this a sign they could be getting ready for Pikmin trading cards for the new Pikmin types?

Here's hoping well get info on the story, characters, and other as of yet unknown stuff tomorrow. /crosses fingers

With E3 just around the corner I really wouldn't expect much in tomorrow's Nintendo Direct
They might just show some more gameplay, maybe a boss or a new area, but I don't think they'll reveal too much about the story. MAYBE we'll see what happened to the fourth character? Can't say for sure though, hopefully they'll reveal more!

I'm thinking Nintendo will reveal more then usual for it tomorrow honestly. Because when E3 rolls around people are going to be expecting new stuff, so when Pikmin 3 comes up then they'll be like, "oh look, more of that..." Not to mention it comes out in a few months so it wouldn't hurt.

July release is nice and unexpected. Very much looking forward to this!

Okay, let's recap, but first, the footage.

Several familiar enemies, such as a Burrowing Snagret and an Armored Cannon Beetle larva have been shown. Rock Pikmin are immune to being crushed and instead just get pushed into the ground, and seemingly have their own Onion.

There is now weather, at least in the form of rain. Different seasonal areas are shown, like in Pikmin 2. And there are ice slides. Geysers make a return and function hybridly like the ones in 1 and 2.

The ship has an entirely different design, and looks similar to the lunar lander that got mankind on the moon. It also might be able to speak, though the Captain known as Brittany seems to have taken over that role.

But where is Olimar and co.? Perhaps they bump into him sometime later? We shall see.

I undoubtedly missed some stuff, but did the best I could. Now, let the discussion begin!

Did no one else notice? It appears as if all the pikmin share a single onion. In the scenes where the player has only red pikmin the onion appears red, but in the scenes where the player has red and rock pikmin the onion swirls with red and grey. There is another scene where the player has red and yellow pikmin and the onion appears mostly yellow with a bit of red at the top. There is another clip in which the red pikmin with their red pellet and the rock pikmin with their grey pellet were both moving towards towards the onion and there was only one onion. There also dosen't appear to be enough room at the landing site for a total of five onions. That would be quite cramped in a space that small. It appears there is a single onion that stores and produces all pikmin types. That should simplify pikmin management, especially with two additional pikmin types. Having to go back and forth among five or more onions just to bring out or put away the pikmin we need would be a bit much.

Also, the body of the onion (as I predicted based on the winged pikmin footage) seems to vary in size as there are some scenes in which the body of the onion appears noticeably larger than in other scenes. I assume the size reflects the amount of pikmin stored inside.

I'm curious about the world structure. I wonder if the different landing sites are actually physically connected, either by the levels themselves or by caves (which aren't yet confirmed to return in the same way they appear in Pikmin 2). That would add an interesting dynamic of discovery and potentially even strategy if we have to find and make our way to new areas ourselves within the limited time of a day.

I'm still curious about the color change in the 3 of the Pikmin 3 logo from purple flowers to an orange-ish color. None of the known Pikmin have flowers of that color. If there is another pikmin type (or even more than one), the one color I think we can rule out is cyan (or any "sea blue" type color). The cursor's neutral color is that color, so I doubt there are any light blueish pikmin in the game. The open colors are orange, green, black, brown, or some odd off color. It is possible there is some so far unknown mechanic that explains the orange flowers, but I am doubtful of that possibility at this point. So far, the only reason we've ever witnessed a flower color change is in the introduction of a new pikmin type.