Pikmin (GameCube)

Pikmin is the story of Captain Olimar, an explorer who crash lands on an unknown planet that totally doesn't resemble Earth in any way. There, he finds some indigenous creatures that are eager to help him recover his ship parts. However, these cute animal-plant hybrids are on the bottom of the food chain, and there are larger creatures waiting to eat them. The Pikmin will have to work as a team with Olimar to take down these (comparatively) gigantic beasts!

Can Olimar recover at least 25 required ship parts in just 30 days? Canonically, yes... until a reboot happened.

Since its original release, the game has been re-released on Wii as New Play Control! Pikmin and also on Switch bundled with its sequel.

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Prototype Info Prerelease Info Notes Windows ExecutableA debugging executable for Windows. It's like I'm actually working at Nintendo! Debug Content Unused AreasUnexplored territories that Olimar never got the chance to traverse. Unused ModelsOh my god, Super Mario? What are you doing here? Unused EnemiesRock...generator. Development TextBecause not everything has to do with story. Unused Textures Unused TextI am so very tired... Unused Screens Off-Camera Content

Unused Early Demo Movie#

Watch on YouTube

The Japanese release has an early demo movie in dataDir/SndData of all places. It has several small differences from the final demo movie.

Unused Music#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

There are some unused files in the SndData folder named after some of the unused levels.

A jingle located in piki.stx. This likely was the original jingle for meeting up with the Pikmin.

Unused 2-Player Mode#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

On many level's configurations, there is a "2player" configuration.

Unused Quit Message#

In the function sysBootup::main after the game program's main loop in the function System::run, there is an os::OSPanic call with the message "End of demo" as one of its parameters. This call is not reachable by normal means in the final game.

The following message and OSPanic call are located at the following virtual addresses:

Leftover build.map File#

This file contains information about the build process, including function names, source code files, and more.

Download build.map Linker Address Map File: Pikmin-BuildMap.zip (754kb) (info)

Leftover Night Clock#

It appears the player was originally intended to be able to explore the planet's surface at night. You can modify parameter t01 of gamePrms.bin (the hour in which the day ends) to be an hour that can't normally be reached, like 25. This allows the clock to roll over into the night.
(Please note that you cannot use the 'Go to Sunset' option in the menu, as it is hardcoded to end the day normally.) Once the timer hits 0, the sun icon on the clock will turn into a moon and it will start moving back toward the left side of the screen. The day counter also automatically increments.

Miscellaneous#

• There are 2 test .blo files, test.blo and test2.blo.
• When you hold a Pikmin before throwing, it makes a noise. The moment you start, the Pikmin's throw height gets set, but the longer you hold it for the higher the height value gets, stopping more or less when the Pikmin noise does. The problem is that the starting height and ending height use the same value in the game's files, so this feature has no impact on gameplay. Pikmin 2 also has these parameters, but the logic to change the throw height is missing.
• An unused parameter in aiconst.bin, when set to 1, allows the player to pluck Pikmin by whistling at them, just like the Pluckaphone in Pikmin 2. The Pikmin use a unique sound effect and animation for this. This feature was actually enabled in the 2001 prototype trailer. A video of the feature in action in the final game can be found right here: Watch on YouTube

and the trailer can be seen here.

Unseen Enemy Properties#

While not easily seen during normal gameplay, it's possible to crush Dwarf Bulborbs, Dwarf Bulbears, and Water Dumples, and their body will be visually squished to boot. This is done by either hitting them with the rocks fired by the Armored Cannon Beetle or by crushing them using Wollywogs.

Additionally, while most enemies in the game are not affected by being in the water, the Sheargrubs and Shearwigs are. When submerged they will lose health rapidly as if drowning. These aforementioned enemy properties were likely intended to be applied to other enemies in the game, but weren't either for time restrictions or gameplay restrictions, as there would be no point during normal gameplay where these properties would be seen. This mechanic would be seen properly in Pikmin 2, but the squash animation seen here is unique to Pikmin 1.

Regional Differences#

To do: European version apparently has longer days, seemingly because the game logic wasn't properly adjusted for the lower framerate.

Title Screen#

Japan	US	PAL

The Japanese title has Flower Pikmin spelling out the title in Japanese while Leaf Pikmin form the title in English. Only Flower Pikmin outside of the Japanese version. The copyright has also been raised slightly for the international versions.

Other Differences#

• In the Japanese and US versions, you cannot skip the ~20-second-long sunset cutscenes, but you can in the European/Australian version.
• In the Japanese version, there is an option with the values "I am an adult" and "I am a child". This mode changes the game's text for kids to make it easier to read, replacing all kanji with hiragana/katakana, introducing additional spacing and changing word highlighting. No similar option was provided in the international versions.
• In the Japanese version, the final ship part, the Secret Safe, requires 85 Pikmin to carry it, and only 40 Pikmin in the other two versions.
• In the Japanese 1.01 version, you can pause the game and choose to go to sunset, and then mash Start. There is a one-frame window where you can pause the game before the cutscene starts (as proven by the pause sound effect), and when the cutscene begins, it will be stuck in the starting state, unable to proceed.
• In the European/Australian version, most of the game's cutscene music was extended to account for the lower framerate of PAL:

Note: the below song titles are from Nintendo Music

Revisional Differences#

To do: Sound issues Switch version

There are at least two Japanese versions of the game: v1.01 and v1.02. The following differences between them are known:

• v1.02 fixes the sunset softlock glitch described above.
• v1.02 lets players go up the rim of the tree trunk in The Impact Site by walking onto it from the cardboard box; v1.01 doesn't, as seen here.
• v1.02 has the number on the in-group Pikmin counter jump from the old number to the final one instantly, when the player whistles a group of Pikmin. Revision 1.01 and all other versions after 1.02 make the number run up gradually.

References#

External Links#

• Pikipedia
• Pikmin {GC - Beta / Unused Stuff / Debug} on Unseen64