In its statement, Nintendo said that Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Pikmin 2 were included in the “Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics” image by accident on its part. Since then, the image has been removed.

“We recently provided a retailer with an image of Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics titles that incorrectly included games that are not planned for release at this time,” said Nintendo of America. “The image has been removed, and we apologize for any confusion.”

The Nintendo GameCube Classics were introduced alongside the launch of the Switch 2, and can be accessed through a subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was noted as being an interesting potential addition to the service, since the company was rumoured to have been working on a remaster of the title since as far back as 2023. These reports started to surface just months after the release of Metroid Prime Remastered. According to Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb, Nintendo has been planning to remaster the second and third games at some point. Due to this, some believed that Nintendo hadn’t yet brought Metroid Prime 2: Echoes to its online service to sell more copies of the eventual remaster.

None of the GameCube Metroid games are currently available on the service. However, older titles like the original Metroid, Super Metroid, and even Metroid Fusion are available.

Metroid Prime fans can check out our review of the latest entry—Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The title was released just last month on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.

As for Pikmin, Nintendo had started teasing something for the franchise with an animated trailer back in October. However, few details have been revealed aside from the fact that the trailer was created completely in-house by Nintendo Pictures. The teaser was largely focused on a baby left alone in a room by its mother and being confused when its pacifier popped out. While the teaser released on YouTube at the time had invisible forces at play, another version released through the Nintendo Today smartphone app confirmed that Pikmin were the source of the baby’s adventure.

The last entry in the series was Pikmin 4, whose producer had also noted that we wouldn’t have to wait too long to see a new release. “We’ll try not to let everyone wait,” he said in a 2023 interview.

Pikmin 4 was released in 2023, and has sold more than 3 million copies. It introduced a host of new elements to the franchise, including a new space dog named Otachi.

Whether you’re revisiting the original duo in preparation of the upcoming fourth instalment’s launch, or if you’re about to jump in for the first time so you an familiarize with the franchise, these HD ports are very easy to recommend. The actual remastering job here is minimal, which is a bit disappointing, but the timeless qualities of Pikmin 1 and 2 haven’t lost any of their charm, and playing both of these games is as weirdly addictive as it has ever been.

"The actual remastering job here is minimal, which is a bit disappointing, but the timeless qualities of Pikmin 1 and 2 haven’t lost any of their charm, and playing both of these games is as weirdly addictive as it has ever been."

As Nintendo has often does over the years, it took a big, experimental swing with its first crack at the real-time strategy genre, and on top of that, did it for a console. But Pikmin is, of course, no ordinary RTS- rather than constructing buildings and building up armies to expand your empire, you pluck plants from the ground to make up an army of adorable plant-like critters, the eponymous Pikmin, and then issue them commands to gather items to bring them back to your ship. Sure, there’s a healthy dose of combat in there, but first and foremost, Pikmin is a game about exploring environments and collecting obstacles.

A core loop that sounds that mundane on paper shouldn’t work as well as it does in Pikmin games, and yet it does- for several reasons. One of them is the packaging that the games wrap this premise in. The environments you’re exploring are the colourful and vibrant remains of an Earth-like planet (which like is Earth, but that’s never officially confirmed), and the objects you’re collecting are the remnants of that planet’s inhabitants, from bottle caps and batteries to fruit and flowers. You and your army of Pikmin are all small, miniscule creatures, which means you’re vieweing these very human environments through the perspective of heroes who view them as large and sprawling.

The Pikmin games have a wonderful knack of looking at the mundane through the most curious of lenses, and everything they deliver through that lens ends up blossoming with an incredible amount of charm and child-like wonder. Seeing a rusty old tin can in the distance shouldn’t provoke excitement in you, and yet when you lay your eyes on it, you can’t wait to make your way over there and bring that worthless trinket back to your ship- because to you and your Pikmin, it’s immensely valuable. A paper bag shouldn’t be an obstacle that impedes your progress, and yet small as you are, it’s a veritable roadblock for you, one that you cannot get past unless you have the right Pikmin (and enough of them) in your small army. It’s been over two decades and three games since the inception of these ideas, but even now, they don’t feel played out in the slightest.

"Seeing a rusty old tin can in the distance shouldn’t provoke excitement in you, and yet when you lay your eyes on it, you can’t wait to make your way over there and bring that worthless trinket back to your ship- because to you and your Pikmin, it’s immensely valuable."

Pikmin 1 is, of course, the purest distillation of tha tgameplay loop. Like all other games in the series, it plays out from day to day, and with time limits in place (which – don’t worry – only sounds intimidating), tasks you, Captain Olimar, with gathering parts of your broken ship after a crash-landing from different environments. With Olimar’s life support only having 30 days of juice in it, your goal is to explore different parts of the planet, find all 30 parts of your ship, repair it in full, and rescue yourself. There’s a decent variety of environments on offer, each bringing with it new enemies to deal with, obstacles to surpass, and items to collect, while throughout your journey, you also meet and enlist the aid of three different kinds of Pikmin, each with their oqn unique abilities.

Pikmin 2 takes that formula and adds more complexity to it, as you’d expect from an ideal sequel. In addition to the returning Red, Blue, and Yellow Pikmin, the sequel also introduces White and Purple Pikmin. In addition to exploring various different environments, now, you can also explore multi-level caves to find treasures. And of course, with the central mission in Pikmin 2 being to gather enough treasures to pay off the crippling debt on your financially stricken employer, rather than a race against time in a self-rescue mission, there’s no overarching time limit. You still have until nighttime every day before having to return to your ship, but there’s no hard 30-day limit like there is in the original.

Both games stand the test of time wonderfully well. Not only is there something weirdly compelling and addictive about their core gameplay loop (more so in Pikmin 2, perhaps, thanks to its added complexity, especially with two characters now being playable rather than just one), they also control incredibly well. The New Play Controls from Pikmin 1 and 2‘s Wii ports have been used here as well, and just as it did back them, the control scheme works very well, especially given the kind of games these two are. Additionally, Nintendo has also applied controls similar to Pikmin 3 Deluxe, so even if you just want to play using sticks and buttons rather than motion controls, Pikmin 1 and 2’s controls are still incredible accessibly, intuitive, and easy to grasp.

"Pikmin 1 and 2 might be two decades old, but they’re still as fun as they were back when they first released."

If there’s one area where I’m a tad disappointed with these HD ports, it’s the actual porting quality. Both Pikmin 1 and 2 have received resolution bumps, in addition to some quality-of-life changes and polishing touches here and there, and both are now displayed in a widescreen resolution- but that’s pretty much it. If you were expecting something here on the same level as the mind-blowing Metroid Prime Remastered earlier this year (a game that released under similar circumstances), you’ll walk away disappointed with how conservative and low-effort these ports feel.

But then again, if all you want to do is play these games and enjoy their timeless charm, you can’t go wrong here. Pikmin 1 and 2 might be two decades old, but they’re still as fun as they were back when they first released. Timeless game design, intuitive controls, oodles of charm and personality, and an addictive gameplay loop come together to make for two of the weirdest and most oddly compelling real-time strategies games you’ll ever play. And with Pikmin 4 finally approaching is long-awaited launch, this is the perfect time to jump back into the series’ past and marvel at how well it holds up.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch.

The Switch versions of Pikmin 1 and 2 are based on their Wii release, which added the New Play Control updates, allowing players to use the Wii’s motion controls. On the Wii, however, neither of the two games featured updated visuals, which means fans of the franchise will be able to experience the GameCube classics with updated graphics for the first time. Of course, the mark up here isn’t on the same level as something like the gorgeous Metroid Prime Remastered, but it’s still a noticeable bump.

Meanwhile, in the press release announcing Pikmin 1+2’s launch, Nintendo also confirmed a physical release for the HD remasters. Both games are available digitally via the eShop right now, and can be purchased either individually or as a bundle. On September 22, meanwhile, a physical release featuring both games will also become available.

The series’ next mainline instalment, the long-awaited Pikmin 4, launches on July 21.

As rumoured, Nintendo has announced HD versions of Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2 for the Switch. In fact, much like it did with Metroid Prime Remastered earlier this year, Nintendo has not just announced the Pikmin titles, but shadow dropped them. Both games are available digitally via the Nintendo Switch eShop starting today itself.

Of course, Pikmin 3 Deluxe launched for the Nintendo Switch back in 2020, which means that all mainline Pikmin games are now officially available on the platform. As unlikely as it may have seemed at one point, it’s finally a good time to be a Pikmin fan again.

@Pyoro_ND – a leaker who has started becoming prominent only recently, thanks to accurate leaks for a number of titles – has been teasing out quite a few of those aforementioned rumours, having recently claimed that a new mainline 2D Mario game will be announced at the Direct. In addition to that, the leaker has seemingly dropped hints for a couple more announcements.

Courtesy of a tweet that contains a Detective Pikachu GIF, @Pyoro_ND has sparked speculation that Detective Pikachu 2 might finally get its official reveal. The game was confirmed to be in development as far back as 2019, and though there have been next to no updates on it since then, reports last year suggested that the game was “nearing release”.

Meanwhile, the leaker has dropped a separate tweet in another tweet, simply saying, “Everybody 1-2-Pikmin!” Though it might be referring to the recently-announced Everybody 1-2-Switch! and the upcoming Pikmin 4 (the latter of which is confirmed to be making an appearance at the Direct, with the former also likely to do so), it might instead be teasing a remastered launch for Pikmin 1 and 2. Pikmin 3 Deluxe is, of course, already available on the Switch.

Of course, it’s best to take this with a grain of salt for now, as is the case with any leak, especially ones that are this vague, though with the Direct coming up in just a few hours, at least we won’t be in the dark for too long.

There’s also a chance that the recently-announced Persona 3 Reload also gets confirmed for the Nintendo Switch, given the fact that Switch listings for the RPG remake have been spotted on retailer websites a few times now.

Good morning. pic.twitter.com/gAWq0zkpbI

— Pyoro (@Pyoro_X) June 20, 2023

Everybody 1-2-Pikmin!

— Pyoro (@Pyoro_X) June 20, 2023

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2

Of the many titles that convinced fans of the GameCube’s power, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2 sits near the top. Improved texture work, more detailed ships and increased draw distance all provided substantial upgrades over its predecessor. But it was the addition of bump-mapping that provided that extra bit of oomph, pushing photo-realism that much closer to the films. Even if you weren’t a Star Wars fan, Rogue Squadron 2 had to be seen to be believed.

Please note that there might be slight spoilers ahead, so stop watching if we start talking about a game you don’t want spoiled. In case you have any suggestions that we may have failed to mention, drop a comment down below.

Without further ado, let’s begin.

DEVIL’S HOUSE (METAL GEAR SOLID 5: THE PHANTOM PAIN)

Hideo Kojima and his Metal Gear games have had a long history of featuring some truly frightening sequences, and The Phantom Pain was obviously no different (in this regard, at least). One of the more disturbing scenes in the entire game comes in the location known as the Devil’s House. Seeing the dozens upon dozens of people who’re being experimented on by XOF in this dingy location can seriously give you the creeps, while the mere presence of Psycho Mantis and the Man on Fire also presents a tough challenge. Hell, there’s even a P.T. easter egg in here.

Blade Wolf – Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

IF Prototype LQ-84i, otherwise known as Blade Wolf is the first real boss that Raiden will face down in the delightfully ridiculous Metal Gear Rising, with some quick movements and lightning fast attacks to challenge the player’s understanding of the parry system. But every prototype eventually sees mass production, and versions of Blade Wolf hit the battlefield just a couple chapters after your first battle.

To the uninitiated, Pikmin 2 was originally released in 2004 on the Gamecube to huge critical acclaim and was eventually ported to the Wii in 2009 as a New Play Control! title in Japan, garnering similar success. A mere 8 years after its original release and a paltry 3 since its Wii release.

The New Play Control! release of the first Pikmin title was not as well-received in North America as its Gamecube brother, so we’re anticipating the release of the second with bated breath.

Along with Pikmin 2, the Nintendo Selects’ line-up will also be bolstered by the re-release Mario Power Tennis, also at $19.99.

Outside of the Nintendo Selects’ series, Nintendo are are also dishing out $29.99 price-drops for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Donkey Kong Country Returns, isn’t that generous of them?

Source: Kotaku