Pikmin (2001)

Pikmin holds the dubious honor of being the most recent Nintendo first party title that I've really been able to go nuts over. Over the last decade plus, I've been apathetic or worse about the vast majority of Nintendo's releases (with some rare exceptions), but Pikmin was the last one I could really sink my teeth into all the way to completion. It's a conceptually simple game: you control Olimar, an intrepid spaceman who crash lands on Earth and must recover the components of his ship to escape before his life support runs out. Unfortunately, Olimar is a fairly harmless individual; even if he had the skill needed to get past Earth's natural predators and reach the components, he's nowhere near strong enough to haul them back to base camp. Therefore, you must direct a hive mind of predatory carrots known as Pikmin to tear apart, bridge, or demolish every obstacle between you and your ticket back home. Although it's fairly easy to breed new ones, they're extremely fragile and you should take care not to send them to their dooms. With a high score chart of best wins and plenty of additional material for those who want to collect every last piece of Olimar's ship, Pikmin is engaging, replayable fun for all ages.

The most impressive aspect of the game, however, is the presentation and world design. The game ostensibly takes place on Earth, but the minuscule scale of the action and the delightfully weird ecology makes everything simultaneously familiar and completely alien. Color use, character design, music score, and sound effects are all very carefully selected, and when coupled with the risk that accompanies any day's exploration you wind up with an authentic sense of adventure as you explore each of the gradually-more-hazardous regions.

Pikmin may be more than a decade old, but it holds up admirably. If you missed it, you're missing out, and it thankfully received a decent rerelease for the Wii. This is a game that I can strongly recommend to all but the most cynical gorefest enthusiast, and even they should get a laugh out of drowning or roasting their minions by the dozen.