• Alternate controlling the main characters - Olimar and his assistant Louie - as you command your Pikmin to defeat enemies, propagate more Pikmin, collect precious doodads and solve puzzles.
  
   
• With no time limit, new white and purple Pikmin, two-player cooperative play and a new Vs. mode, Pikmin 2 improves on the original in every way.

Game Storyline: Captain Olimar has returned to the planet where the Pikmin live, but this time he didn't crash-land, and now he’s all business. The company he works for is going bankrupt, so to save it, Olimar has come to salvage the treasure strewn all over the planet. His company's debt is a whopping 10,000 pokos – the currency of his home planet, Hocotate. Luckily, his trusty assistant, Louie, has joined him this time, so if the two of them can delegate their work well, they should be able to repay the company’s debts in no time! Of course, they’ll need the help of the Pikmin to do that – these two can’t do anything by themselves.

Characters: Olimar, Louie, Pikmin of many colors.

Pikmin Personalities: Pikmin are perfectly capable and diligent creatures, but without a leader to point them toward tasks, they're easily distracted – that's why it's important for Olimar to keep a close watch over them. An unsupervised group of Pikmin will stand around stretching, reclining and generally doing nothing. Their survival instincts are still underdeveloped, as they'll occasionally wander into the water to their doom or watch a ravenous predator approach with little concern.

The lone exception is the Iridescent Flint Beetle. At the sight of this creature, Pikmin will fly into a blind rage, chasing it and trying their best to make a dent in its hard shell. Furthermore, they're obsessed with nectar grass patches – when they come upon one, they'll stop following Captain Olimar and madly pull the grass up to expose the nectar beneath. They'll then gorge themselves on it, and after growing instantly into flower Pikmin, they'll rest for a while, completely satisfied.

The flip side to this easily distracted behavior is the fact that, once assigned a task, Pikmin are so diligent that they disregard their own safety. If Pikmin are carrying a piece of treasure back to the landing site, they’ll walk past predators and try to complete their task even as their compatriots are eaten. Red and yellow Pikmin can't swim, but if a body of water stands in their route, they’ll march into the water, only to drown. They never rest until their task is done, even if the task, like hammering down a granite wall, is impossible. In battle, they fight to the last, no matter the odds. While there are variations in the abilities of the color types, most Pikmin behave similarly. As they evolve from leaf to bud to flower, their speed increases. Of course, there are always exceptions, as you invariably find a few Pikmin who are clumsier than others and trip on their faces while following Olimar.

How to progress through the game: Alternate controlling the main characters – Olimar and Louie – as you give precise orders to your Pikmin to defeat enemies, grow more Pikmin and solve puzzles. You’ll need to take advantage of new colors of Pikmin and new items as you plan strategies – with more than 60 different species of enemy characters and randomly generated dungeons that span the planet, Pikmin 2 features much more game play than the first game. And this time around, time is limitless, so players can head straight for the action or spend as much time exploring as they please.

Special powers/weapons/moves/features: Red, blue and yellow Pikmin all return, each with special abilities like invulnerability to fire, water or electricity. New Pikmin colors – powerful purple and poison-resistant white – will make their debut, and their special skills quickly will become integral as you battle your way toward the valuable doodads strewn across the planet. Playing cooperatively with a second player will also open up brand new game play possibilities, and the new Vs. mode lets you go head-to-head with a friend in a battle to be the supreme Pikmin commander.