My brother made the suggestion the other day that we sell a bunch of our old Game Cube games that we never play anymore. This would not only provide a small amount for the financing of more video games, but also clean up some shelf space in our gaming “cabinet.” So I agreed.
This meant that we had to look back on our games and find the ones that we didn’t play much. In the process we also got to see many games we once played for hours on end. Which meant we had to play some of them.
My brother started a game of Pikmin last night and after watching him play, I knew I had to, simply because I knew I could do better than he was doing. For those who aren’t familiar with Pikmin, they are small little plant-like creatures that spout from the ground, but when plucked out like carrots or oninons they they follow you around and carry things (like ants.) The premise of the game is that you are a small little “person” who’s spaceship crash-lands on a strange planet and you need the help of the Pikmin to get you ship’s parts back.
Anyway, I started up a new game last night around 7:00, thinking I would play for a short bit and then go play cards or watch a movie with my family. So I play through the first several days of the game, and then I take a look at my watch. It’s 9:50. I was utterly shocked, I had no idea that much time had just flown past. Granted, I was well into my game, but I totally lost track of time.
So I thought I would play a few more levels and be done. What seemed like a few minutes or so later my mom walks into the room and tells my brother to go to bed because it’s after 11. In fact, it’s closer to 11:30.
The last time I lost track of that much time I was asleep.
Part of the problem is that my room has no visible clock. All my clocks are found on things like my watch, my cell phone, my laptop, my stereo (if it’s in standby but then you have to press the clock button.) But I think more of the fact was simply the game I was playing.
With Pikmin, you are seriously multi-tasking. I usually had at least two groups of Pikmin doing things at any given time. One group would break down a wall and another group would carry back a part to the ship and I would have a third group fight a bunch of enemies so I could get another part. It’s really a multi-tasking game.
Right now, I’m on day 18 or so and I have all the parts but one. (For some reason [I don't remember why...] you are limited to 30 days to get all the parts. [There are 30 parts.] I got all the parts (but one) in 16 days and could have just gone to the final boss to get the last part, but I decided I would spend my remaining 13 or so days just getting as many Pikmin as I can.
I had to pry myself away from the game this morning to get some other stuff done, just hard to think how addictive that game is. Great game though, if you’ve got time to kill.
