Control:  
The control for Pikmin is pretty spot-on, with only a few minor gripes to be had.

In case you've been living under a rock, Olimar has crash landed on some planet and his ship went kablooey. Before his 30 day supply of air runs out, he most grow and enslave these Pikmin creatures to find his ship's parts by any means necessary.

Luckily, the controls are Olimar's friend when it comes to this. Players can pull Pikmin from the ground as they're growing and they will follow Olimar en masse.

Fine control can be accomplished by moving the Pikmin with the C-stick. Throw them to the desired location with A.

From there, everything is context-sensitive. (The five or six of us who played Conker's Bad Fur Day probably get a kick out of hearing that again, huh?)

Put Pikmin near a wall and they'll start tearing it down. Throw them on the back of an enemy and they'll attack. Swarm them to a ship part and they'll carry it to back to the base.

The controls are simple and allow perfectly for the free exploration that makes this game so enjoyable.

The only gripe to be found is in separating the Pikmin. There are three different colors of Pikmin, each with unique abilities (strength/agility, fire-proof, and water-proof) that become integral to finding difficult-to-reach pieces.

The problem comes when reaching, say, a lake that only the blue Pikmin can cross. At the touch of a button the Pikmin divide. No problem.

But to get all the blue ones Olimar must look at them and blow his whistle. The whistle has a visible range that draws in the Pikmin who are within it. The problem is, there's almost always a yellow or red Pikmin who wonders into the group.

It can get more frustrating from there since Olimar must divide the Pikmin again.

More often than not, you'll probably end up taking the yellow bugger to his watery grave. He deserved it, afterall, for not following orders.

Gameplay:  
Pikmin offers gameplay like no other. Olimar has 30 days to work, resting at nighttime because it's considered too dangerous to explore at night.

Within those 30 days he must explore a handful of regions to discover his 30 ship parts.

And from there the growing, evolving, organizing, exploring, battling, and recovering come together beautifully.

To give a hint at the depth of the gameplay, here's a look at how one might go about getting one of the hidden space ship parts.

Spoiler Alert
Olimar first gathers up a bunch of each kind of Pikmin and heads to the piece. Along the way he must rid the land of those Pikmin-eating enemies and build a bridge to get to where he needs to go.

Once there he throws the agile yellow Pikmin onto a ledge the others couldn't reach. The water-proof Pikmin then uncover an "air geyser" that Olimar can use to meet up with the yellows. He takes them and chucks them even higher to the spaceship piece where, with enough of them, they gather the part and come crashing down with it.

From there Olimar gives the piece over to the fire-proof Pikmin who then instinctively take it to base, past the "fire geysers" that would make the path much more difficult for the other Pikmin.
End Spoiler Alert

Wooo!

Sound:
The sound in Pikmin is pretty catchy, too. Don't be surprised to find yourself humming the theme song after some intense action, for instance.

The effects are pretty interesting, with the screaming of a drowning yellow Pikmin probably taking the cake.

Multiplayer:
It's not all good though. You see, Pikmin is a one-player game only. There is a bit of an upside, however. You see, Pikmin has three save-slots, so you could theoretically get a couple of people in on the action.

OVERALL:
Overall, Pikmin is a very engaging game, and don't be surprised if you want to jump back in even after beating it.

When it's all said and done, you'll always look back fondly on the time you spent with Pikmin. It's that good.

 

The Lowdown on  Pikmin Aesthetics: Very Good Control: Very Good Gameplay: Awesome Multiplayer: Sound: Very Good Innovation: 6/6 Lasting Appeal: 4/6 Overall: Awesome! "Top of the Genre"