When the original Pikmin was released, it was yet another genre-defying masterpiece from Shigeru Miyamoto, and didn't play like anything that had ever come before it. That puts Pikmin 2 at an immediate disadvantage, because that "wow!" sense of newness is already gone, which was the original's primary drawing point. It's a testament to how wonderful Pikmin 2 is that it's still such a fun and fulfilling experience, even though it's fundamentally very similar to its predecessor.

Pikmin 2 once again places gamers in the role of Captain Olimar, almost immediately after the events of the first game. In that game, you amassed an army of Pikmin to help recover the missing part of your spaceship so you could return home. In Pikmin 2, Captain Olimar and his new sidekick Louie have a slightly less noble reason to risk the lives of their tiny friends: cold hard cash. The Pikmin are used to retrieve all kinds of treasures in an effort to get Olimar's company out of debt.

Although there are plenty of additions and enhancements, Pikmin 2's fundamentals remain unchanged. Your small starting group of red Pikmin attack enemies, flowers, and whatever else they can, then carry the remains back to base. These remains create new Pikmin sprouts, until you have an army of up to 100 at your beck and call. As gamers progress, new colors of Pikmin are discovered, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. These color-based puzzles are where Pikmin 2 truly shines.

In addition to the water/fire/electricity-immune blue/red/yellow Pikmin, the sequel throws in massive purple and creepy white Pikmin into the mix. Purple Pikmin count ten-fold when carrying items, and are typically used in weight-based puzzles. White Pikmin are a bit more versatile. Besides being immune to poison (and thus being able to travel places other Pikmin can't), they can find buried treasure the other colors can't see, and actually poison enemies when eaten, resulting in a quick death.

Pikmin 2's puzzles often require gamers to keep a healthy color variety in their miniature Pikmin army, in order to progress through the worlds. Red Pikmin might be needed to eliminate flames in a corridor, which opens into a room of electric enemies only the yellow variety can damage. As the game progresses the strengths of each Pikmin are put to more and more ingenious use, and it's quite satisfying figuring out exactly how to get through a particularly sticky obstacle course.

Besides getting rid of the 30 day (each day lasting about 15 minutes) limit from the original, the developers also littered caves across the worlds that don't adhere to that 15 minute day. Time is frozen within these subterranean labyrinths, and gamers are free to take as long as they need to find their way out. In these caves you're only allowed access to the Pikmin you take with you, and no new Pikmin can be propagated. They're very dangerous places, packed with baddies and traps, and often times housing a boss on their lowest level, which can be 5 or even 10 floors deep. These caves also happen to be treasure-filled. The caves are all or nothing, and a certain point must be reached or else all treasure gained within is lost.

This is the title's only major fault, and is the only time the game's design doesn't succeed in its intent brilliantly. The game only offers a general idea of what Pikmin color will be needed before entering, and about halfway through the adventure these caves get very long and are filled with enemies that will almost inevitably nab at least a couple of your entourage. Since not making it all the way through means collecting all that treasure again, some caves will need to be braved several times, artificially (and unnecessarily) increasing the game's length. A better solution would have been to meet gamers halfway, difficulty-wise. Allow gamers to keep their treasure if they opt to exit halfway through, but require them to travel back through the newly treasure-picked floors upon reentry.

A couple other (small) gripes are also worth mentioning. Your trailing Pikmin still occasionally get stuck on corners and become unable to follow the group, although I think it happens less this time around. Lastly, the new white and purple Pikmin are too hard to come by. If you run out you can't just propagate more like the other three colors. Instead you're required to seek out special color-changing flowers, which will turn 5 of one color into either white or purple.

Although these aspects can lead to some frustration, I found that they detracted from the overall single player experience very little. They don't prevent Pikmin 2 from being an extremely enjoyable and polished title.

It seems that Nintendo went to great lengths to ensure the title would have plenty to keep gamers coming back, long after the single player had been cleared. There are 30 Challenge missions which act similar to caves, but with a time limit. Solo or working cooperatively with a second player, you work to clear the floors as quickly as possible. Pikmin fanatics will be kept busy for a long time improving their scores, and trying to clear all 30 levels without losing any Pikmin.

The multiplayer battles are another natural addition to the title, and thankfully the mode doesn't feel tacked on or gimmicky. Multiplayer supports two player split screen only, but the split screen gameplay works surprisingly well. Playing multiplayer made Pikmin 2 feel much more like the RTS titles it's a bit of a departure from. I found myself leaving contingents of Pikmin at strategic places around the levels in order to defend key points. Genuine strategy on some of the maps is more likely to lead to success than whoever has the largest swarm of Pikmin.

The bottom line is that the gameplay itself in the original title was among the best seen in a long time. The game was simply too brief, lacked replay value, and too stressful thanks to the time limit. Pikmin 2 remedies all of those concerns, and adds plenty more you didn't even know you wanted. The title isn't perfect, but no flaw glares in the face of a game that's so fun and charming. It's one of the GameCube's best.