Nate Robinson returns
After losing defensive-minded Tony Allen to the Memphis Grizzlies, the Celtics renewed their focus on bringing back point guard Nate Robinson to Boston. Robinson was brought to Boston in a trade with the Knicks that sent fan favorite Eddie House packing, but thanks to a solid run in the playoffs, Nate has become a presence in town himself.
Robinson played often for Boston at first, but things changed fast and he found himself on the court less and less often down the stretch, which ended up costing him a $1 million bonus and made it look as though he wouldn’t be returning to the Celtics for the next season. That was before he came out of nowhere off of the bench to help lift the Celtics to victory over the Magic in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals though, filling in for Rajon Rondo, who had seemingly had the wind knocked out of him on a fall in the first half. Thanks to a smart shot selection that ended with 13 points in the midst of a 29-9 Celtics run, and what appeared to be actual effort on defense, Robinson worked himself back into the rotation and earned the continued interest of the Boston front office with his performance.
Robinson had 7.0 WARP for the Knicks in 2008-2009, though he did so in twice as many minutes as he picked up this previous year, where he earned 2.6 WARP. His True Shooting Percentage (TS%) dropped from 55 percent to 52 percent, but a significant chunk of that was from his free throw shooting–his eFG% (which encompasses two and three point attempts, while adjusting three pointers for their difficulty) climbed while his free throw success tumbled. The problem is that, when you look at his other seasons for free throw success, 2008-2009 sticks out like the exception to the rule, but last year was the worst of his career in that regard (especially with Boston, where he posted a 62 percent FT%). He may still bounce back a bit and bring his TS% back up somewhat, but it’s possible those 2008 levels are asking a bit much.
Robinson stopped attempting as many inside shots during the regular season with Boston, but he increased his attempts from 16-23 feet out and from three point range, according to Hoopdata. It’s hard to argue with 3.8 makes per 9.1 attempts (both per 40 minutes) from downtown though, and given his shot selection in the playoffs, that seems to be the area coach Doc Rivers is comfortable having him shoot from.
If a win is around the $2 million mark, according to Tom Haberstroh’s research on the free agent market, the Celtics did well to get Robinson for $4M a year for two years–even if he just hits last year’s value, the C’s will have made a surplus of about $2M in value on the deal. Considering he should pick up more minutes at the one as long as he plays defense, that’s a conservative estimate. There are incentives built into the deal as well, but if he’s hitting those thresholds then chances are good he’s been playing well enough to earn them.
O’Neal in Green for just a little green
As I’ve mentioned previously, the Celtics were in the market for a big man to play center this offseason. Kendrick Perkins is in need of surgery on his ACL, and they will be checking the extent of the damage on his PCL and MCL while they’re in there, but either way he’s out until December. With Rasheed Wallace retiring as well, the need for some extra size was there even if Perkins was healthy, meaning whoever they signed had to be someone they could use in the second half as well.
While the name of Brad Miller was the most prominent when the free agency period began, word of Jermaine O’Neal to the C’s picked up steam recently, and ended up being the path they chose. O’Neal signed a two-year deal and will make just over $5.7 million in 2010-2011. The 31-year old doesn’t make the team any younger, but he does fit in as a starter before Perkins comes back, and should be part of a powerful duo of centers once Perk returns and is mobile again.
O’Neal was worth 5.3 WARP last year while Perkins earned 5.2–while Perkins had a better True Shooting Percentage (TS%), O’Neal had a higher offensive rating, and averaged more points per 40 minutes. Perkins makes up for that by being a better rebounder, but their overall value (besides the relative youth advantage and potential for improvement you get from Perkins) is similar.
The Celtics aren’t done looking at free agents yet, but their early start has been promising in terms of making another run for the upcoming season, despite the worry that they would run into issues with the salary cap and have to rely heavily on the mid-level exception to bring in talent. Today Tom Haberstroh happened to look at the current value of a win on the free agent market, using WARP and the contracts signed thus far. His findings: the current cost of a win was $2.23 million, meaning, in the example Haberstroh gave, a four WARP player would be worth $9 million in this market. O’Neal was worth just over five wins in 2009-2010, and 3.9 wins in 2008-2009–even if he dips to the latter level, he’s a bargain. Haberstroh cautions the $740,000 premium for a win relative to last year will go down as more contracts are signed, but any way you slice it, O’Neal is a worthwhile addition.
Ray Allen (also) remains a Celtic
A few weeks ago Boston and its fans were worried they were going to be without the services of coach Doc Rivers, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, due to retirement and the lure of free agency. One after the other the three returned though, with Allen the latest to agree to come back for one more go in the green.
The main concern with Allen, even after Rivers and Pierce came back, was that he would be lured away by the prospect of playing alongside someone like Dwayne Wade or LeBron James. Allen can still shoot even after all of this time in the league, and having both him and either of those two on the court at the same would make the offense productive–Pierce is still a great contributor, but he’s no Wade and LeBron, and having that pair of shooters in Boston has worked out pretty well.
With Wade and Chris Bosh headed to Miami though, and LeBron headed who-knows-where until his announcement later tonight, Allen chose to come back to Boston to keep the idea of the Big Three alive that much longer (though you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t think this is now Rajon Rondo’s team).This is a move that should help keep the C’s competitive near the top of the East as others in the conference begin to reload.
Kevin Pelton felt Allen still had some use on the court in his preview of free agent shooting guards. He ranked Allen as an “Aging Veteran Who Can Still Play”, which is exactly what C’s fans want to hear when they see that Allen was signed for two years. Allen struggled in the first half, but had an excellent second half that helped his overall numbers rebound. His True Shooting Percentage dropped from 62.4 to 60.1 overall, and his Offensive Rating dropped as well. The next drop could be severe or could spell the end for Allen as a threat with the ball, so the fact the contract is just for two seasons means it will be easier to hide him if things go south before it runs its course.
Allen’s wins above replacement (WARP) dropped from 7.0 to 3.1 from 2008-2009 to 2009-2010, but he’s still an effective scorer. He was a hair above average on three-pointers as far as percentage goes, and he actually brought up his shooting percentage on two-pointers for the year–most of the drop in his TS% came from a dip in his free throw shooting, which still came in at a stunning 92 percent. Per game, via Hoopdata, he had more attempts (and makes) at the rim, took more shots from less than 10 feet away (though not with as much success) and while dropping his attempts from 10-15 feet, he increased his make percentage by nearly 11 percentage points. He’s still generally tossing it up from beyond the arc or shooting for a deep two, but inched his way towards the rim at times in 2009-2010.
As he showed in the playoffs, he’s still able to hit threes or at least draw defenders to keep him from doing so, which opens things up underneath for the other C’s on the floor. As long as he’s able to keep doing those things for the Celtics, and doesn’t hurt them on D, they will be glad to have him back for two years.
War for Cybertron is Transformers done right
Michael Bay sucks. This is a director whose career has been built off of putting as many explosions as he can into movies that double as commercials for various products. You would think that it would be impossible for him to screw up the Transformers franchise because of this–the cartoon, as entertaining as it was (especially with our rose-colored nostalgia lenses on) was basically an advertisement for a line of toys, and this ad had explosions.
What Bay did though, was, in many ways, ruin the core of Transformers, at least as how fans remember it. Now, now, I’m sure some of you are thinking this is some fanboyish nerd rant meant to rail against Bay and the movies, but there’s a legitimate point tucked away inside this complaint. Somewhere along the line–let’s say it was when Shia Lebeouf’s character became more of a central figure than Optimus Prime a solid 20 minutes into the movies–the films stopped being about Transformers, and started being about people. There was a large battle scene tucked into the end of the first Transformers movie, and though there were battles in the second film, there was a solid two-and-a-half hours of garbage flanking them.
This is a franchise with loads of source material to pull from. There are stories set on Earth (the G1 cartoons), stories set on prehistoric Earth (though those lack the characters you think of when Transformers are mentioned) and, my personal favorite, the ones set on Cybertron, the Transformers home world. Developer High Moon Studios went with the latter of those for their original (read: not a movie tie-in) Transformers game, and the results are excellent.
The gameplay is important of course, but it’s not the reason this was a worthwhile experience. It’s not exactly a meat-and-potatoes shooter, as it borrows elements from some quality franchises like Gears of War and Red Faction in both its campaign and multiplayer offerings, but the heart of this Transformers game is the fact that it’s about the Transformers.
This is a sharp-looking game, as well as a fun one
There are Decepticon and Autobot campaigns, both five chapters long. You can start with either or, though it makes much more sense to begin with Megatron and his cronies. Three Transformers are in each chapter at a time-the game can be played with three players online cooperatively, a nifty touch–and they ramp up in difficulty as you go. There’s almost constant chatter amongst the Transformers on your team, which in some games can be annoying, but in this game fit perfectly. Megatron, Soundwave, Optimus, Bumblebee, Warpath–they all sound like you would imagine them to if this were a G1 episode or the original animated movie. Their personalities are intact, something that was often missing in the movies.
If you’re into Transformers, you’ll enjoy the story, as it respects the source material and crafts a tale of the fall of Cybertron and the final battles on the planet, prior to the mass exodus of the majority of the Transformers. Most importantly, the game makes you feel like you’re using one of these excellent characters. While playing the multiplayer, I was floating around using the jet boosters on my character’s feet. An opposing Transformer was underneath me and started to fire, so I pressed the left stick down (this is how you enable a transformation into and out of vehicle form) and became a tank–as I fell through the air, I blasted this Autobot with the tank’s cannon, and nailed him with a headshot before my treads ever hit the ground. Another press of the left stick and I was back in robot form looking for the next Autobot to take down. It was an excellent feeling, and gave you the sense that you were in control of a Transformer, and that this feeling differentiated this from other shooters on the market.
Soundwave's voice gets loads of screentime in War for Cybertron
I’ll admit, it takes a lot for me to play a shooter online more than once or twice. Battlefield: 1942, Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, and Red Faction: Guerilla are the only ones from this generation I have stuck with consistently, and it’s because each one offered something that other games did not. War for Cybertron lets you wreak havoc as a robot capable of turning into a tank, or a jet, or a car–this is clearly not something you find much of on the market, which is what I look for in my multiplayer.
That doesn’t mean War for Cybertron missed out on including “Me too!” moments in multiplayer, but they chose some goodies. Escalation is like Horde mode from Gears of War 2–you fight wave after wave of enemies, with difficulty increasing (or “escalating”–I guess that’s probably the word I should be using here). You can play in teams of four online, and you earn points from your kills that can be saved or spent on items, ammo, and health. The others are standard shooter fare, but still appreciated–a king of the hill style game, a capture the flag type, etc. Fun, but Escalation is where it’s at, as well as Team Deathmatch.
I was skeptical of War for Cybertron when I first popped it into my 360–I’m still feeling the sting of both the movies and the games they inspired–but this was more than a product of low expectations. War for Cybertron is a worthwhile title for any Transformers fan out there, new or old-school, and the perfect game to tide you over in a slow summer release schedule.
Best Week Ever: Bullet Hell Edition
One of my favorite genres going in video games is that of the shoot em’ up. It’s an oft-neglected genre due to its niche nature, but chances are good all of you have played at least one at one time or another. They were very popular in arcades, and you can still find a machine hanging around in your local bowling alley or pizza place that has some game or another with an overpowered ship/jet sporting laser beams that has to dodge bullets while taking out entire armies on their own.
Part of the reason the genre fell apart is due to the pricing of games–it was hard to convince people to pay $40-60 for a game that took a few hours to beat (but forever to master) when they could spend the same on something bigger, longer, etc. They were niche to begin with, and trying to compete with full-length experiences that were more realistic, more fleshed out, etc. was difficult to do given the direction the industry and its fans were going. This generation has seen a bit of a renaissance for the genre for a few reasons though: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was a massive hit on the Xbox 360, opening up what was possible on the XBox Live Arcade service while also reminding people that sometimes simple reigns supreme over epic. The rise of the Virtual Console service on the Nintendo Wii also paved the way, as there is no shortage of classic shooters there–Gradius, R-Type, and a wave of TurboGrafx classics from various franchise are just a few of the offerings.
Downloadable games on the Playstation Network , WiiWare and the aforementioned XBLA have helped this revival of the genre, but last week at retail we were treated to two very special shoot em’ up titles that are in a place even more niche than your traditional shooter: Sin & Punishment: Star Successor and DeathSmiles, developed by famed shooter houses Treasure and Cave respectively, are extreme shoot em’ ups–what many people call “bullet hell” games.
The publishers for both of these games, Nintendo for S&P 2 (they co-own the IP, along with developer Treasure) and Aksys for DeathSmiles, have to know that sales are not going to look good, at least relative to install base. But the original Sin & Punishment was considered one of the best Nintendo 64 games ever, and never made it outside of Japan in any shape other than as an import, while fans of the genre have been clamoring for a Cave shooter to make it stateside for what seems like forever–both games have audiences, even if they are small. Nintendo wanted a sequel to Sin & Punishment because sales of the Virtual Console edition of the original were strong, and Treasure wanted to develop a game using the Wii Remote, which they felt was designed with a game like Sin & Punishment in mind. Aksys is known to publish niche titles, and went so far as to release a limited edition version of DeathSmiles, complete with (an excellent) soundtrack and a faceplate for your 360.
The important thing for both the genre is that people are taking chances with titles that you would not have seen as recently as a few years ago. Nintendo didn’t bring the original Sin & Punishment to North America despite the game having an English voice track and subtitles in the Japanese version–it was essentially localized and never released where that would have been put to use. While we have seen many 3D shoot em’ ups at retail, it’s not often you see a side-scrolling or vertical scrolling shooter these days–one of Treasure’s other properties, Ikaruga, is the last major one to come to mind, and that just received a download-only sprucing up on XBLA–and if you poke around message boards and comment sections, many people are amazed that DeathSmiles is not an XBLA release, and instead is a full-retail game with 1000 points for your gamerscore, just like any other retail title. In fact, the game has multiple versions of DeathSmiles with varying difficulty, so those who are not familiar with the genre can glean enjoyment from it, while the true masochists who revel in the brutality of bullet hell can get their money’s worth too.
I have played through both of these games–Sin & Punishment 2 will be re-played by me very soon (once I finish a game I’m supposed to review) while DeathSmiles has already seen multiple playthroughs–and recommend them to anyone interested in challenging themselves. Finishing these games, even on the easier difficulties, is a satisfying experience, given the level of effort and concentration you need to put into it. You get back more than you give though, as you’ll see if you give them a shot. Both titles are more than worth the price to acquire them, even as retail releases–between that and being fun (something both games have plenty of) there’s not much more you can ask for in exchange for your money.
Celtics may swap ‘Sheed’s contract
Rasheed Wallace announced his retirement from the NBA shortly after the conclusion of the 2009-2010 Finals. While it’s sad to see ‘Sheed leave the game after an impressive run through the playoffs, he had a rough regular season, and getting the next few years of his deal off of the books could help the Celtics in the long run as they attempt to build around Rondo and the aging Big Three for another shot at the postseason.
For one, the Celtics could take advantage of the money that comes off of the books via ‘Sheed’s retirement, or they could trade his contract to another team searching for cap relief. The team who receives Wallace’s contract gets to (1) lose roughly $6.3 million from their 2010-2011 payroll and (2) also loses the salary of whoever it is they deal.
This is an intriguing prospect for a few teams, most notably the Phoenix Suns and the Portland Trailblazers, as the Boston Herald notes. The Suns recently lost Amar’e Stoudemire to the Knicks (though contracts are still just commitments at this point) and need to spend some money in order to bring in additional talent. On the table from Phoenix is Leandro Barbosa, who is set to make $7.1 million in 2010-2011 and has a player option for $7.6 million in 2011-2012.
Barbosa was a replacement level player for the Suns last year, which kind of limits his appeal to me. He was worth 4.8 WARP in 2008-2009 though, but did so by being a much more effective scorer than in his most recent campaign. His effective field goal percentage (eFG%) was .542 in 2008-2009 and dropped to .485 last year (eFG% is a more effective stat than regular field goal percentage, as it accounts for the higher difficulty associated with three-point shots). He had drops in points, rebounds and assists per 40 minutes–it would be good if the Celtics were able to trade for the 2008-2009 version of Barbosa, but paying $14 million plus over two years for a replacement level talent isn’t appealing.
On the other hand, the Blazers could part with Rudy Fernandez, another shooting guard who has a few inches of height on Barbosa (6-6 rather than 6-3) and, while less of a scorer, may offer more on the rebounding side of things, and will cost far less over the course of his deal (though to be fair, his eFG% was actually ahead of Barbosa’s). He’s making $1.2 million this upcoming season, and the option for 2011-2012 is a team rather than player option, and comes in at just under $2.2 million. Fernandez also has a qualifying offer of $3.1 million for the season after that could make him a restricted free agent.
Fernandez was worth just 1.4 WARP with the Blazers, but getting additional production at a lower cost could be big for the Celtics, especially as they consider adding additional talent via the free agent market. They still need a big man to play in place of center Kendrick Perkins until he returns from injury, and relying on their summer league team to provide that isn’t the best idea, even if they have some intriguing options on the roster.
Pierce to return to Boston
Earlier this week Paul Pierce made some waves when he opted out of the last year of his contract with the Celtics. When Doc Rivers announced that he would be returning to the C’s to coach again though, it was assumed that Pierce would be on his way back as well–the chances of Rivers choosing to helm a rebuilding project (which is what a Pierce-less Celtics squad may resemble) were minimal.
Pierce opted out in order to renegotiate with Boston, and word is that a four-year, $61 million deal has been worked out between the two parties. This is a deal that benefits both sides–Pierce could have taken more money to play for another team, but he has said time and again that he wants to retire in a Boston uniform, the only one he has known in the NBA. Look no further than what the Memphis Grizzlies just gave another small forward in order to stay–Rudy Gay received a four-year, $80 million contract, and while he’s young, he’s also no Paul Pierce. According to Basketball Prospectus, Gay was worth 3.6 wins above replacement (WARP) while the elder Pierce put up a 6.9 WARP. Gay isn’t a horrible player by any means, but there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about him either despite his age and potential that may or may not be realized, while Pierce is an established talent and a future Hall of Famer who, even at this stage in his career, is able to produce. Someone would have paid for his services at a higher price than Boston.
Supposedly the first year of the contract also comes in at fewer dollars than later years, which gives Boston some more flexibility with signing players to help them shoot for another championship in 2010-2011, after just missing out on banner 18 in a game seven loss to the rival Los Angeles Lakers a few weeks back. Considering the free agents the Celtics have been looking at in order to shore up their roster (and also to replace Kendrick Perkins, who had his season end with a triangle tear in his knee)–Brad Miller, David Lee, Brendan Haywood, Anthony Morrow–extra money to work with is a plus.
Pierce is a personal favorite of mine, given I have been a Celtics fan since I started paying attention to basketball, and he’s been the player at the forefront of most of their successful teams (though nowadays, Rajon Rondo is indisputably the most productive player on the roster) as well as their awful ones. He was the driving force behind their playoff teams from the earlier years in the decade, when it was basically Pierce and Antoine Walker running the entire offense while Rodney Rogers came in to shoot threes from the corner. He was there in the in-between years as well, when players like Al Jefferson and Delonte West were considered the future for the club, and he’s been there when they finally got back to the finals and won after a significant title drought. I’m happy to see him positioned to retire as a Celtic, as I would have understood if he left to make more money, but that’s never been his stance with the club–he’s been vocal about his desire to remain here, and passing up a potential $30+ million with another team willing to give him a max offer is a pretty good way of showing it.
Sean Gallagher DFA
With Tim Stauffer coming back from his rehab assignment, the Padres needed to make room on the 40-man roster. Sean Gallagher, who has been unquestionably the least productive pitcher on the staff, was designated for assignment, giving the Padres 10 days to trade him, seven days to place him on waivers, or the ability to outright release him.
Gallagher is the kind of project that a team that is not in contention can test out, as he can be given time to work out of the bullpen or maybe even made a starter again as he works out his glaring command issues. Given the Padres are in first place, and own the far-and-away best bullpen in the majors, they can’t afford to hand innings to Gallagher at present. Gallagher ranked last on the staff in WXRL and was essentially the definition of replacement level.
In his 23 1/3 innings pitched, Gallagher struck out 8.1 hitters per nine (good) but walked 7.3 (horrific)–in his last 43 innings pitched (the past two seasons) Gallagher has walked 6.5 batters per nine and posted a K/BB ratio of 1.1. For perspective, Daniel Cabrera–who is the automatic go-to candidate for jokes about walking lots of hitters–matched or exceeded that ratio in four of his six seasons in the major leagues. Adding to Gallagher’s troubles this year was the long ball, as he gave up five bombs, or 1.9 per nine innings pitched. He somehow stranded over 80 percent of his baserunners, which just goes to show you how many runners he was letting on, considering his ERA was 5.40.
This all seems very negative–and it is, there’s nothing positive to be said about Gallagher’s time with the Padres–but he should get another chance to work things out. He’s 24 years old, there is nothing physically wrong with him, and he averages between 91-92 mph on his fastball. He doesn’t have a true out pitch, but when his control isn’t making each at-bat a chore for him, he’s capable of holding his own. He didn’t have very many moments where the control wasn’t his downfall while in San Diego, but a team who needs an arm and can afford to let Gallagher take his lumps would be well-advised to give him a shot.
The downside is that he needs to take up a space on the 40-man roster, but someone may go for it anyways. That team may need to be desperate though, as Gallagher showed little upside, if any, pitching in an ideal park in front of an ideal defense, and in the league where success would be easier to attain as well.
There’s no formal word yet on what the Padres plans are, whether they plan to trade Gallagher or outright release him, but if he manages to clear waivers then at least he can work things out in an environment where the outcome of the games won’t matter as much as they do for the surprise contenders in the National League West.
Games of the Decade: Pikmin 2
Pikmin 2 released on the Nintendo GameCube back in 2004. This was the sequel to a promising (but short) title, Pikmin, which was a brand new IP for Nintendo and another creation of that company’s greatest treasure, Shigeru Miyamoto.
If you’re forced to slap a genre on Pikmin and its sequel, you would call them real-time strategy games, as the emphasis was on maintaining what was essentially an army of little creatures called Pikmin and ordering them around a map to perform a variety of tasks, from clearing up debris to opening doors to defeating enemies, or simply to collect items.
Pikmin is a difficult game to explain, which is probably part of the reason that, despite solid sales, it is not considered one of Nintendo’s key franchises–it’s more second-tier, though it is beloved by those who have experienced it, which is a point in the series’ favor. Captain Olimar, the main character, is what we would consider to be a very tiny person. The games take place on Earth (though these characters don’t know it’s Earth, given they are aliens who landed there) and Olimar walks around amongst blades of grass that tower over him–what is considered a puddle to us is a lake to Olimar and the Pikmin. In this sequel, Olimar is joined by a second character, Louie, and the goal is to collect items that would be considered rare and valuable oddities for their home planet–things like bottle caps or batteries, things that are trash or just trinkets in their normal state, but are considered treasures to the visiting aliens.
To reach these “treasures”, Olimar and Louie direct the plant-like Pikmin to and fro, sending them to defeat native wild life–brilliantly designed, in the Nintendo and Miyamoto style, with lush colors and exaggerated features, of course–to open doorways, and to collect items to be brought back to the “onions” the Pikmin live in, in order to breed new Pikmin. While this seems simplistic, in action, it’s exciting and fun, and a game worthy of being called adorable simply from the creatures living within it.
Each Pikmin type had a power--red were immune to fire
There were three varieties of Pikmin in the first game–red, which were immune to fire, yellow, which could be thrown higher in the air by Olimar for those hard-to-reach places, and blue, which were able to breathe underwater. Listening to the sound of a red or yellow Pikmin drowning is one of the saddest things you will ever hear in a video game, especially because you realize it’s your fault for guiding them to their death. This made blue Pikmin that much more essential for aquatic sections, because your conscience just couldn’t handle the sounds of tens of Pikmin drowning in unison.
In Pikmin 2, two additional types were introduced. The purple Pikmin was a massive (well, for a Pikmin, anyways) creature that had the strength of multiple Pikmin, which made the defeating of some enemies and the lifting of certain objects a faster process. Then there were the white Pikmin, which were like the Cindy Lou Who of Pikmin in that they were tinier and even more adorable than the others, but with one major distinction: they were poison, and you were supposed to feed them to enemies so they would choke and die on them. On occasion, this also ranks with one of the saddest things you will experience in a video game, but at least their demise is for a worthy cause and comes without the depressing sound effect.
To you, that's simply a D battery, but to Olimar, it's a mortgage payment
There are a few things that separate this sequel from the original, and make it stand out as one of the most memorable titles of the past 10 years. For one, it continued and expanded upon the wonderful level design of the first. You would begin each area in a small, confining space, and would have to search with a team of Pikmin in order to uncover the secrets closest to you. As you progressed, more regions would open up to you, revealing an ever-deeper experience, until you realized it was worth your time to explore every single inch of every level–something worthwhile could be hidden there, and you would hate to overlook it. The game also eliminated the timed-level mechanic of the first, which allowed levels to be longer and have more depth to them as well, without rushing the player to pass through them–given how the levels slowly reveal themselves to you via exploration, this is a vital difference for your enjoyment.
One other major change was the addition of the Piklopedia–every item, every enemy, every oddity encountered on your return trip to this strange planet we know as Earth was documented by Olimar in what is essentially the Pikmin Encyclopedia. It’s informative, it’s funny, and it’s a time sink in the same way a real encyclopedia is. Ever start in one place on Wikipedia and wake up an hour later, drooling out of the corner of your mouth with no memory of what you had been doing? That’s what happens when you glue your eyes to the pages of the Piklopedia, as even reading about the inner details of an imaginary worlds and its creatures is enthralling in encyclopedia form. An example, from Louie’s notes on the Empress Bulblax:
“For a sophisticated delicacy, make a pate de foie gras from this massively obese creature’s liver and spread it over a sesame cracker.“
Pikmin 2 was important for a few reasons–it was one of the more successful new IP that Nintendo introduced in the past decade, enough so that Captain Olimar and the Pikmin made an appearances as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Nintendo Wii, and it also turned out to be one of the very few real-time strategy games that worked on a home console. Granted, the New Play Control! version of Pikmin worked better on a console thanks to the use of the IR pointer on the Wii remote, but there was nothing wrong with the setup at the time–it was done very intuitively with two analog sticks on the GameCube controller, something that only a small number of RTS games in history can point to.
The series has been amongst the missing for six years now, but Miyamoto is hounded in every public appearance in interview as to when the third game, which is in development, is coming. Given my fond memories of Pikmin 2, any answer besides “tomorrow” isn’t soon enough.
Last Minute Change to Games of the Decade
Instead of going from 2001-2010, I’m going to stick with my original thought of 2000-2009–judging the historical importance of something that released within the past six months (or has not even been released yet!) seems like a silly plan. This still mostly deals with the past two hardware generations, but now involves some Dreamcast releases as well as late-life Nintendo 64 games, and another year of PC titles. The first actual post in this series will come later on today.