Reviewing Monsters - Pikmin 2: Bulbs and Bugs

PIKMIN 2

Hey it's Pikmin again! I did the monsters and bosses of the first Pikmin game a while back, and I intended to do Pikmin 2 a month later. And... one thing led to another, and I kept putting this away for quite a while. Oops! Better late than never, though! 

Again, there is going to be a disclaimer here. I have never played a Pikmin game, at least not quite enough for me to really be talking about these monsters in the way that I do many of my other 'Reviewing Monsters' segment. The original Pikmin review was more of a test run on whether I'm able to actually talk about the bestiary of a game that I've never actually played before, and it was a very fun exercise! Again, I'm still pretty clueless about the actual game itself other than the bare-bones concept of the story -- you play an astronaut that have crash-landed on a planet, and you end up controlling a bunch of these Pikmin; plant-based humanoids with cute googly eyes to scavenge parts to return back to your home planet while surviving the attack of the strange, strange monsters. It's best described as a combination of a resource management/farming (you literally farm the Pikmin friends) and puzzle game. 

In the story of Pikmin 2, the protagonist of the first game, Olimar, successfully returns to his homeworld of Hocotate. However, due to a massive debt caued by the inexperienced Louie, the company Olimar works on is in serious trouble, and Olimar's ship ends up being sold to repay some of the debt. Realizing that the little souvenirs that Olimar has scavenged from planet PNF-404 are worth a lot, Olimar and Louie ends up borrowing a ship to head off to PNF-404... where they predictably crash-land and reunite with the Pikmin to gather treasure.

Interestingly, Pikmin 2 actually features their own version of a Pokedex, the Piklopedia! And we're going to cover the monsters based on the Piklopedia's numbering system. the Piklopedia basically has comments from both Olimar and Louie... and in perhaps one of my favourite aspects of this particular game bestiary, while Olimar's notes are descriptive and more helpful for both players of the game and from an in-universe perspective, literally all of Louie's notes are talking about how to cook and eat these monsters. Which is morbid but hilarious at the same time; because, well, after all, we humans do eat every living thing we come across, right? It's just finding the right way of preparing them. 

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This review will cover the first half of the Piklopedia, reaching around the 30's or 40's of the index. Piklopedia also features a lot of plants (which we won't be talking about) and a bunch of returning monsters from the first game -- which I won't be repeating myself for, since I have talked about them before and this 'review' was always more from a design standpoint than about anything particularly related to the game. As a quick note, the following monsters make a return in Pikmin 2: Red Bulborb; Dwarf Red Bulborb; Spotty Bulbear; Dwarf Bulbear; Water Dumple; Fiery Blowhog; Puffy Blowhog; Iridiscent Flint Beetle; Female & Male Shearbugs; Shearwing; Swooping Snitchbug. 

Hairy Bulborb (Oculus kageyamii folliculus)

The Bulborbs are the main 'mascot' enemies of the first game, and the second one certainly adds far more additions to these strange 'grub dog' animals of indeterminate nature. The original Pikmin had five variants (and two of those are the same model, just resized) and this game added a bunch more! As usual, I absolutely love the fact that these fictional monsters have faux-latin names similar to the binominal nomenclature of real-life organisms. As the Hairy Bulborb's name tells us, it's a subspecies of the iconic Spotted or Red Bulborb, whose scientific name is Oculus kageyamii russus. 

There's really not a whole ton for me to say here, they look neat, I guess. They live in colder environments and are white. They have a big mass of hair or fur on their butt, and apparently the amount of hair on the body reflects the health of the creature. I'm not going to commentate on every single one of Louie's super-hungry commentary, but just as a note as to what we're dealing with, let me quote his remarks on the Hairy Bulborb verbatim: “Remove all of the bulborb's hair, wrap the beast in foil along with a halved lemon, and place it directly on the grill. The foil should protect the carcass from scorching, and the lemon will give the meat an elegant hint of citrus.” Yes, imagine you catching this bizarre frog-dog-worm creature and cooking it with lemon! They never try to make you think of doing something like this to a Pokemon!!

Snow Bulborb (Oculus kageyamii frosticus)

Hmmm, interesting. The Snow Bulborbs are noted to be a 'subspecies of Dwarf Bulborb', but we know that Dwarf Bulborbs aren't actually Bulborbs of the Oculus genus, but rather a mimic species (as we'll detail a bit more below). But apparently these Snow Bulborbs are all part of the huge Oculus kageyamii species? Okay, then. they're tiny Hairy Bulborbs without the hair, exposing their polka-dotted bums. It's noted that they can't ever grow the hair of the Hairy Bulborbs, but otherwise mimic their larger cousins in what they do. 

Orange Bulborb (Oculus kageyamii orangium) & Dwarf Orange Bulborb (Pansarus pseudooculii orangium)

The Orange Bulborb is basically, well, the same creature as the default Red Bulborb, but it's a bit less friendly looking. It's basically the colours that someone who adapts Pikmin for a 'realistic' live-action adaptation or whatever would choose, with more 'realistic' shades of dull brown and orange, and meaner looking beady eyes. Not the biggest fan of the colours, especially next to all the other Bulborb variants... but the froggy eyes I absolutely love. Apparently its eyes are meant to be 'bloodshot', showing what a light sleeper and what an easily-disturbed monster this Bulborb is. 

Just like the Dwarf Red Bulborb, the Dwarf Orange Bulborb isn't actually a proper Bulborb, or related to the Orange Bulborb in any way. It's part of the Pansarus genus, and it's noted to be a 'pseudooculii' -- it's a mimic species noted in-game to be actually a creature more similar to a Breadbug. It's still such a very cool idea that these 'dwarf' species aren't even the same genus, but just a completely different creature that mimics the bigger ones. Visually and mechanically they're not all that different, but as a bit of a biology geek I absolutely love this bit of world-building. 

Bulborb Larvae (Oculus bambinii)

All these palette swaps are getting boring, so let's talk about something else.... the Bulborb Larave! Are they juvenile versions of just the Bulborbs? Or do the Bulbears have similar larvae? Do all the different sub-species of Bulborbs lay the same larvae? They end up looking like a weird fat slug with two huge googly eyes, and while the model isn't super-detailed like the others, it's pretty neat to have these guys around! Finally, we know what Bulborbs look like when they are young, and it sure isn't just the same thing but smaller. They're instead little Pac-Man slugs that are apparently very lethal and dangerous towards Pikmin.

Interestingly, they are also seen being laid by the gigantic Bulborb Empress (more on her later), even though they have a different species name. Which is interesting... is the Bulborb Empress able to lay eggs that will hatch to Bulborb Larvae, which will differentiate to whichever sub-species of the Bulborbs they grow up to? Weird!

Fiery Bulblax (Oculus vulcanus)

Oh, what? Look at this poor thing! It's the obligatory "variant of a creature, but on fire", but the Fiery Bulblax is straight-up melting! Look at that face, he looks like he's suffering! Even the anatomy isn't quite right for a Bulborb, it's got weird bug-like scuttling legs below that body. The Piklopedia notes that apparently the Fiery Bulblax has bodily excretions that are flammable and waxy, and they interact with the skin of the creature to cause a chemical reaction that sets it on fire... and the skin, despite looking like it's melting, can diffuse the heat and keep it on the surface to protect the inner organs. Sounds kinda all well and good, but man, the poor frog-dog creature's skin is still melting! A pretty unexpected variant, I wouldn't think that Pikmin would go the Zelda/Pokemon route of introducing just straight-up variants of a creature but with a specific 'element' associated with it. 

Bulbmin (Parasiticus pikminicus)

Oookay, this one is different. The Bulbmin looks like the default Red/Spotted Bulborb, but with a little Pikmin leaf jutting out of its back. And its scientific genus? "Parasiticus"? Apparently, the Bulbmin are actually parasitic Pikmin! Yes, the cute little plant fairy creatures that are all adorable, friendly and scream in panic as they get chased around by Bulborbs... a variant of them employ the 'zombie ant fungus' (or 'Parasect', for the less-biologically-inclined and more video-game-monster-inclined readers) style of mind-controlling a prey. They apparently walk around and behave similarly to regular Red Bulborbs, but are actually Pikmin by nature and you can even recruit them! As long as you defeat the larger 'alpha' of the Bulbmin swarm or something. I don't know about the actual game mechanics, but that is actually kind of interesting. 

Also, considering that the Pikmin have all been shown to have a fairy-like humanoid body with a leaf or flower on top, it's interesting to think if the actual Bulbmin body that parasitizes the Bulbmin actually looks humanoid... or if it's just a mass of hyphae like the actual fungus it's based on. The Piklopedia makes it really apparent that, yeah, this is a Pikmin parasite that has infected a Bulborb, and is able to control all of its host body's actions via hormones secreted by the 'root system'. Pretty cool! About time the Pikmin fought back against the creatures around it! 

New Pikmins - Purple & White

I suppose we have to briefly cover the two new Pikmin variants here (we've got three this game, in addition to the Bulbmin), since they technically also count as weirdo monsters in this world. There really isn't much I can find to say about them without delving into the specific mechanics, though. The Purple one is a bit fatter, and has got a bunch of extra little hair-tendrils or whatever. It's bigger and stronger than all the other Pikmins you have. The White one has a very cool creepy-alien red eyes that look like jelly, and are apparently first found underground. Are they like, albino, troglodyte versions of regular Pikmin? How does that even work with flower-people? 

Watery Blowhog (Sus loogiens)

Huh! It's basically a version of the "Fiery Blowhog" from the first game, literally identical, but instead it breathes sticky fluid instead of fire. I still find it weird that this is still considered a 'pig' by the Pikmin world and not... something else, but at the same time it's not like I can think up of a better description for this creature other than 'vague, plastic-looking four legged creature'. So yeah, why not. Apparently the Watery Blowhog 'lacks the dominant genes' for fire-breathing, and the 'loogiens' is actually the non-functioning liquid that otherwise would've been flammable. Interesting, and it's noted to apparently be a newly evolved sub-species whose population exploded because... it's extremely hardy? I'm not sure how it's hardier than its cousins that breathe fire, but okay. 

Withering Blowhog (Sus decrepita)

We've got two Blowhogs in the original game -- the Fiery Blowhog (which basically looks near-identical to Watery Blowhog above) and the tropical-fish-based Puffy Blowhog. And despite the 'hog' moniker, we get to see yet another member of the Sus genus, the Withering Blowhog, clearly based on some sort of pufferfish or blowfish. It's a pretty fun take on a pufferfish monster, with the Withering Blowhog also borrowing some octopus-style 'mouth' as Japanese media often depicts it. Really reminds me of those Octoroks from the 2D Zelda games that can inflate their heads and float around! Like the Puffy Blowhog (which is noted to be its relative), the Withering Blowhog's main attack is to breathe on the Pikmin, and apparently its breath is so toxic to plant-based creatures that your poor Pikmin buddies' leaves will wilt. While Olimar is interested in the biotechnological applications of the Withering Blowhog's petal-wilting toxins, Louie is more happy that it's apparently a delightful substitute to cayenne. Okay, Louie. 

Armored Cannon Larva (Granitus chukkulinae) & Decorated Cannon Beetle (Granitus decorum)

These guys are actually the larval stage of the Armored Cannon Beetle boss from the first Pikmin game, which is, incidentally, one of the first game's bosses that don't make a reappearance in this game. Visually I felt like it resembles a caterpillar more than a beetle grub (minus the obvious 'cannon' part of this fictional species) but it is a burrowing creature, so behaviorally it certainly fits that of the beetle. It's kind of interesting just how organic this larval stage looks (again, cannon-mouth notwithstanding) considering how its adult self resembles something more akin to something like a bio-engineered animal tank or something. Anyway, they're cute little underground grubs that shoot rocks at you. I absolutely love the stubby, pudgy little legs that dangle off its body. Those can't really be practical for digging underground tunnels, but maybe the Armored Cannon Larva just burrows through soil by eating the soil in its way, like earthworms? And, unlike earthworms, turn the soil and rock and dirt it eats into projectiles? 

The 'Decorated Cannon Beetle' has a texture that looks far more like the fleshy parts of a beetle grub, and unlike their green counterparts they don't rely on ambush tactics and just prowl around the topsoil hunting Pikmin and shooting their rocks at them. The Decorated Cannon Beetle is part of a species that prefers eating stones with a high iron content, which causes the rocks it spits to be magnetically attracted to the spacesuits that Olimar wears. 

Again, I absolutely love the amount of detail they put into making sure this design gelled with an earlier monster design. The Armored Cannon Larva has the same blowhole on top of its hump that its adult counterpart would have. It's also missing some 'meta-bacteria' that would allow it to, I think, charge the rocks its adult counterparts shoots with fire, and would only develop it as it matures and gains the bacteria needed within it. A great, great little attention to detail that, while clearly not something that would happen in real life, sounds believably scientific!

Gatling Groink (Megaplod calibersi)

Okay, this is a weirdo. The Gatling Groink ("Ball Child Goldfish" in the original Japanese) is... what is it? It's a sphere with two tiny eyes, a helmet of some sort in front of its body, two noodle-legs and two exhaust vents on its top? The Wiki describes this thing as a 'biomechatronical' creature, so is it a cyborg? That face-shield can open to reveal the 'gatling' part of its name, because it's a robo-goldfish with legs that has a cannon in its mouth. I don't think we ever get any real explanation as to why some of the creatures on Planet 404 are part-cyborg, and that's okay. I do absolutely love the game's descriptions of how the cybernetic enhancements have a practical function and are totally not there to make the Groink look like a walking goldfish. No, really, that 'tail' is there for a counterweight and as an ammunition cylinder!

Iridescent Glint Beetle (Pilli auricus) & Doodlebug (Pilli flatularum)

The Iridescent Glint Beetle is the cousin to the Iridescent Flint Beetle of the first game, this one is the same cute jewel-beetle design, but being solid gold instead of coloured like a watermelon. They're basically the expensive money-dropping rare enemy in the game, and is noted to live in subterranean locations which is why it feeds on more precious minerals, and thanks to the way that the metal is broken down in the body, the precious minerals end up being deposited in the carapace. Neat!

The other member of genus Pilli, the Doodlebug, has nothing to do with the Antlion larvae it shares its name with, but is rather yet another version of the Flint-Glint beetles. These ones are called "Fart Bug" in Japanese, and are basically there to fool you since the Doodlebug is actually worthless, attracting flies around it and when you get close it will spray "ultra-bitter spray" at you. Like a Bombardier Beetle! Olimar's notes is entirely about how this isn't like a regular animal that sprays a special fluid, like skunks or bombardier beetles or whatever, but that the Doodlebug straight-up weaponizes its 'decaying food in its gut', i.e. its farts. Okay!

Cloaking Burrow-Nit (Trilobitins reclusiva)
The Cloaking Burrow-Nit is... huh, what is it? It reminds me of a bunch of Zelda enemies, like the Bombchu or the Hiploop from Majora's Mask. It's some form of beetle or insect with a proboscis, with a huge mask-like shell as the rear part of its body. That shell (or perhaps the thick outer wings, like on a beetle?) has huge eyeball patterns.... but that shell is a fake head, and the real body of the insect is the somewhat maggot or beetle-grub-like body jutting out of its 'behind', which is its true face. 

It reminds me of creatures like certain species of flower mantises or butterflies which have giant warning symbols that are supposed to evoke the eyes of a snake or an owl. This Burrow-Nit hides underground, before bursting out, stabbing an unfortunate Pikmin with the proboscis on its real face, and swallowing it whole. Apparently, the shell-face also stores all the muscles that allows the Burrow-Nit's proboscis to be so powerful.

Ravenous Whiskerpillar (Lepidoptera pluckieus)

Called the "Nose-Hair Caterpillar" in Japanese and having the specific order name for butterflies and moths, the Ravenous Whiskerpillar actually resembles more of a beetle grub or a maggot, albeit with the aforementioned exaggerated whiskers or 'nose hair' that looks more like a pincushion. Real beetles and maggots do have a noticeably darker head with mandibles and whatnot, and I feel like this design is inspired by that. The Whiskerpillars do behave like real caterpillars, though, actually chewing through the valuable plants that Olimar, Louie and their Pikmin allies need. 

Interestingly, while the Piklopedia noets that the Whiskerpillar is a juvenile form of some larger creature, it also notes that no adult form of the Whiskerpillar has ever been sighted... not even in sequel games! Olimar even apparently tries to observe them and none of them underwent molting or metamorphosis yet. Interesting, and could it be that Olimar's just mistaken, and these guys are not the larval stage of any insect and just remain grubby caterpillars their whole life? It's not any more ridiculous than humanoid plant-gremlins. 

Anode Beetle (Scarabum electrodea)

The Anode Beetle, member of the Scarabum genus, resembles ladybugs more than actual scarabs. Not too much to really say here, they're cute with their black and yellow colour scheme, and as their name would clue you in, they are electricity-generating bugs! Almost uniquely in these sort of enemies, however, you need two Anode Beetles to stand side by side to actually generate a current, which is a very, very cool little in-game factor that I have never seen any electric-based monsters do. Cool! Interestingly, instead of being a creature like an electric eel that generates electricity for self-defense, apparently the Anode Beetle 'uses electricity in addition to glycogen for its energy'. Okay?

Mitite (Mitivius infiltratus)

Okay, judging by the name, these are based on parasitic mites, although they certainly don't resemble any mite I've ever seen. Granted, there are a lot of mites out there and I'm no entomologist so I might just have missed the one that's the specific basis for this one. If anything, this design reminds me of the Pokemon Shelmet, only instead of a snail body, it's a buggy creature with a bunch of insectoid legs. Mitites apparently swarm around and parasitize eggs specifically, and when they appear they scare the shit out of your Pikmin and cause them to run around in panic. 

When the Mitites mature, they 'excrete a special pheromone that attracts females of a particular species, enticing them to swallow the mitites whole', which in turn allows the mitite to lay its own eggs in the host's eggs. The bit where a parasite entices its host to swallow it seems to be somewhat based on the infamous Leucochloridium snail-eyestalk parasite, but the bit about it parasitizing its host's eggs seems to be based on the urban legend of 'parasitic worms in my egg!' where a chicken roundworm accidentally finds its way not in the digestive tract but the reproductive tract of its chicken host, and ends up in an egg. A very interesting parasitic adaptation, although we never quite learn just how the Mitite life cycle ends up being. 

Hermit Crawmad (Camabarus rustica)

Hee hee, a crawmad. Oh, Nintendo and your puns. This creature is sort of a fusion between a hermit crab or a crawdad, though, because its Japanese name tells us what its other inspiration is -- it's the "Pseudo Mantis Shrimp". Olimar even notes that it's often compared to the 'squilla', which is the real-life genus name for the mantis shrimp. The Hermit Crawmad is more hermit crab than squilla, though, albeit it's resorted to using earth burrows in lieu of shell homes. They're basically like a shrimp-version of a trapdoor spider, bursting out of their underground lairs to grab prey and drag them under. Not my favourite enemy here, if we're being honest, I feel like they could've done a bit more with this one. 

Bumbling Snitchbug (Scarpanica doofenia)

The Swooping Snitchbug makes a return in Pikmin 2, but it's brought its, well, bumbling cousin. Look at its scientific name, it's literally called a 'doofus'! Poor thing. I do love how it looks so different from the far cooler Swooping Snitchbug, yet still manages to have the same basic silhouette. It's an interesting look, too... unlike the obvious bug-head of its actually threatening relative, it's just a huge fat body and two arms, and... are those red spots sad eyes? Or are those cartoonish eye-like things at the end of its antennae the real eyes? Unlike the Swooping Snitchbug, the Bumbling Snitchbug is so careless that it always goes for the 'leader'. Olimar's Piklopedia notes is basically him ranting for a whole paragraph how only total idiots and nincompoops will ever fall to the Bumbling Snitchbug. 

Antenna Beetle (Mesmeri raiocontra)

The Antenna Beetle, or as they are known in the original Japanese, the 'Cave Cricket', is... huh, they are weird, huh? They sort of have a similar body layout to the Swooping Snitchbug, but they are ground-bound, have gangly legs that reach the ground instead of arms, and a very nasty-looking, elongated bug head that ends in a trumpet-like orifice. It's really kind of weird, and even knowing that it's based on a cave cricket and its notably long rear legs. 

Looking at them from the side, you could actually see that the combination of the rear legs and antennae could very much look like a distorted view of a real-life cave cricket's silhouette. Like real crickets, the Antenna Beetle makes a lot of noise, which will disturb your Pikmin and cause them to run to the beetle. Olimar notes that this isn't even a predatory effort, but rather just the Antenna Beetle's defensive methods that just has the unintended side-effect of disturbing Pikmin. It's kind of interesting just how different they make the different Snitchbug 'reskins' into, huh?

Careening Dirigibug (Flotillium circusmaximus)

Good lord, that species name. Circusmaximus! I'm not sure if this is based on any real insect, but it's okay. Not all Pikmin enemies must have a direct real-life counterpart, I am fine with this just being a vague blob-with-eyes-and-arms enemy like so many Zelda or Mario enemies out there. It's got balloons on its back that allows it to fly... or, sorry, 'colourful, balloon-like air sacs'. It attacks by creating bomb rocks and dropping them on you from the air. Interestingly, even Olimar finds this creature so utterly strange, and it's one of the few in the Piklopedia to have its entry be Olimar talking about how it's potentially a creature from an 'alien environment'. Not even the cyborgs got Olimar talking like that. Maybe this one wandered in from Hyrule, perhaps? 

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That's all we're covering today, which is slightly before the halfway mark of the Piklopedia for Pikmin 2. The second half has a huge chunk that's just non-hostile plants or plant hazards, which I won't be talking about here... so we'll be back soon with the rest of the enemies in Pikmin 2!