As we eagerly await the Wii U release of Pikmin 3 here in the United States, Shigeru Miyamoto has given us some food for thought: like how the game was originally conceived for and tested on the 3DS.
“The truth is we were doing prototype tests of Pikmin for the DS and 3DS but it turned into unit management with only the touch pen and no matter what it just didn’t seem like Pikmin," Miyamoto recalled in an interview with 4Gamer. It seems like controls have always been an important part of the game's experience, and that Pikmin on 3DS or DS just didn't cut it.
“We concluded that Pikmin is a game that revolves around action based on its controls and the strategy sits on top that. Although there are elements that are built on the strategy, there are other overall things that have to be well considered. This complete experience is an important elements of Pikmin.
“The truth is when we made 1, we were trying to make the easiest to control 3D game around," he recounted. "The focal point was Olimar walking around on screen but the majority of the interface was those controls. They didn’t interfere with anything else. There weren’t many 3D games that were that simple to move around in since you could play without even having to control the camera.
“This game may seem difficult on first glance but once you try the controls, it’s easy. Even if you find using the pointer difficult, there is a control method using the GamePad similar to the previous GameCube titles that we’d like people to utilize," he concluded. "To that end, we hope people are able to look at this as a carefree, easy action game.”
