Release: Pikmin Jitsuen-you Demo (DL-DOL-DPIJ-DIS)
The Nintendo-related demo dumps keep on rolling with this store demo for Pikmin. Letting you screw around in The Forest of Hope map, this disc’s contents are interesting for a few reasons. First, as a level designed to casually introduce the core RTS mechanics to Japanese players, there are no rocket ship parts to pick up nor even a rocket to visit outright, which leads to strange questions about Olimar even got here to begin with. All of the level geometry and whatnot is there, but once you bust down the barrier that keeps you confined to the initial compound with your Pikmin, you can just wander around and do whatever. If you do go exploring into areas where rocket parts normally are, though, you’ll tend to find unusual enemies that are distinctly not part of the final level, most notably the Beady Long Legs seen above in place of the Armored Cannon Beetle that’s typically there, which I’d argue is hilariously merciless to throw at a completely new player within the confines of a demo.
That being in said, keep in mind that you only have 15 minutes to wander around before being booted out to the main menu. The timer still runs even if you pause the game, so I suggest using savestates if you want to explore the level and see what it has to offer so you’re not constantly having to rebuild your Pikmin army and whatnot from scratch every time you restart.
Beyond that, there are a handful of Pikmin videos you can also choose to watch from the demo’s main menu, as well as some for Super Smash Bros. Melee. All told, I was personally expecting more unique content on the disc given what I’d read on the Japanese Internet, but it’s still neat to go back to an old level and see parts of it redone solely for the demo. Getting this disc was also something of a months-long ordeal that took a lot of detective work, so, if nothing else, it’s nice to finally have it and dump it for a little bit of weird closure, insofar as a demo disc is capable of providing such things.
Enjoy!
-Pepsi
