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Hello Smashers! Today we’ll talk about the outerspace Captain, carrier of pikmins, Captain Olimar. We’ll mainly talk about the pikmin franchise.
Pikmin is the name of a video game series developed by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, and released exclusively for the Nintendo Gamecube platform. The series features two video games; Pikmin and Pikmin 2. The first video game starred Captain Olimar solely, while the second game also incorporated Louie, a co-worker who can be used in conjunction with Captain Olimar in order to command two groups of Pikmin at once. The names “Olimar” and “Louie” are based on Mario and Luigi. The name “Olimar” is a partial anagram of “Mario”. Likewise, “Louie” is derived from “Luigi”.
The games feature small, multi-colored creatures known as Pikmin. Pikmin are tiny, brightly-colored and intelligent creatures. A stalk protrudes from their head, topped by a symbol of rank: a leaf, bud, or a flower. The hero of the games, Captain Olimar, with his partner in the second game, Louie, commands the Pikmin in battle against the larger creatures of the planet. The advantage of Pikmin comes in numbers, as a single Pikmin can easily be defeated by a larger foe.
Man look at all those pikmins, I wouldn’t like it if they teamed on me
At night, Pikmin retreat into Onions for safety; if they are left out at night, they are devoured by nocturnal predators. Onions are round, bulbous, onion-like spaceships in which the Pikmin live and travel. Each Onion is color coded to the type of Pikmin that inhabits it. The Onions play a vital role in the Pikmin’s reproduction. Pikmin grow, like plants, from seeds planted in the ground. Seeds are most often planted by the Onion, which converts defeated enemies or objects known as pellets into Pikmin. These seeds grow into sprouts after about two seconds of being in the ground, but slowly mature over time from leaf to bud to flower. A sprout can then be plucked by Olimar or Louie to produce an adult Pikmin; the state in which the sprout is picked in determine the state of the Pikmin (a flower sprout will become a flower Pikmin when plucked from the ground). In other cases, Pikmin are found planted in the ground naturally, and Pikmin seeds can sometimes be found in the place where a flower Pikmin has died.
Everyone run to the Onion!
The adventures of the games take place on a planet that is not given a name, but is presumably Earth. Garbage and other human waste is strewn throughout the areas in the games, and in Pikmin 2 many of these objects are brand name products (such as Duracell batteries and old 7-Up bottlecaps) to heighten the connection. The landscapes are said to be inspired by gardens belonging to the developer of the games, Shigeru Miyamoto. Further evidence is found in the first Pikmin game in one of Olimar’s Journal Entries, stating “the creatures of this planet breathe a deadly poison: oxygen”.
Captain Olimar and Louie are both from the fictional planet Hocotate, which is named after the address of Nintendo’s Japan headquarters. They also both work for a company called The Hocotate Freight Company, which, in the second game, is in a state of bankruptcy; in Pikmin 2, Olimar and Louie are forced to return to the planet to collect objects to sell and restore their employer’s financial well-being. Characters in the Pikmin series are on a small scale; for example, Captain Olimar is only about the size of a quarter, and the Pikmin themselves are even smaller, roughly the size of a dime.
We need everlasting energy!
The “Distant Planet” acts as the setting for both games, it is rumored to be Earth in the future, seeing as there are soda cans and such. It is the home world of the Pikmin and various other hostile creatures. During the day, the creatures are fairly tame, but during the night, they hunt, making it unsafe for the Pikmin and Olimar to stay on the surface of the planet. The planet has oxygen, which raises more questions about the Pikmin planet being Earth, The people of Hocotate cannot breathe oxygen, for they live off of Carbon Dioxide. The planet contains various “treasures” that are valuable to the residents of Hocotate, which include batteries, dentures, doll-heads, and even old Nintendo console components such as an old NES controller cover and a head of the famous ROB. There is further evidence for the planet being Earth in the cutscenes in Pikmin 2. In the intro Olimar and Louie fly towards a continent that looks like Africa, and in the ending cutscene after collecting all the items available, various countries like Australia and Japan are visible as the ship leaves.
The other world featured is Hocotate, the home world of Olimar, Louie, and the other characters. Hocotate is portrayed as a desert-like, rocky planet with two perpendicular planetary rings. Located on the planet is the Hocotate Freight Company, an interstellar transportation company.
Does this seem like the Earth?
The main character of the series is Captain Olimar, an employee of Hocotate Freight Company, that flies a ship known as the S.S. Dolphin. He has a wife, son, and daughter that he communicates with after every game day. Pikmin 2 introduces Louie, a co-worker of Olimar, who places the Hocotate Freight Company in debt after losing a shipment of gold pikpik carrots to a “ravenous space bunny” (who doesn’t exist; Louie ate the shipment when he got hungry), and the President of Hocotate Freight, a large man that runs the company and keeps debt collectors away. The president is forced to sell the Dolphin, and it is replaced by an unnamed ship that is able to speak, name and value the treasure on the planet.
After becoming stranded on the “Distant Planet” in the first game, Olimar becomes acquainted with the species of plant-like beings that he names “Pikmin” because they resemble the “Pikpik” brand of carrots on his homeworld. They are small, brightly colored creatures who stand only an inch tall. They follow any command from attacking and defending Olimar to retrieving large artifacts. Pikmin are generally very weak, unless they are used in teams, as the Pikmin are excellent at working together. Pikmin speak only strange, foreign squeak noises to each other. Simple commands can, however, be communicated to them by the use of a whistle or any other device capable of producing high-pitched noises.
Ugh! Watch out he seems hungry!
Pikmin come in several colors, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. In the original Pikmin, there are three types of Pikmin; red Pikmin, who are better in combat and can withstand extreme heat; yellow Pikmin, who can be thrown higher and can carry bomb-rocks; and blue Pikmin, which have gills and can walk in water without drowning. However, in the second game, yellow Pikmin can no longer throw bomb-rocks, as the bomb-rocks are much larger now, instead gaining the ability to withstand electricity. In the second game, three new species of Pikmin were introduced. The first are white Pikmin, who, when ingested by enemies, deliver a fatal poison to the enemy. Additionally, the white Pikmin are immune to poison, can locate buried treasure with their special eyes, and can run faster than other Pikmin. The second species introduced are the purple Pikmin, who move slower than normal Pikmin, but have ten times the strength and weight of other Pikmin, giving them the ability to pick up much heavier objects and attack and destroy obstacles and other enemies with fewer numbers. Also introduced is a kind of parasitic Pikmin/Bulborb hybrid called Bulbmin, Bulborbs that have been infected by Pikmin, that follow Olimar after their leader is killed. They are immune to everything, and will not leave the caves with Olimar, the only way to take them is if they are transformed into other Pikmin species with Candypop buds.
The whole crew is here
Well that’s all for now, stay tuned for more news and updates!
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