http://i.ur.com/RTaYh5z.png Spoilerfree review Review in brief: Pikmin Short Movies will be familiar to anyone who has played the Pikmin series of games especially Pikmin 2 but nonfans wont get the full experience. Id only consider watching it if youre a fan of the series already and even then its not really recommendable. It isnt bad but it cant be said to be as clever or whimsical as the games themselves. Review in full: This is a collection of 3 plotindependent stories involving the titular Pikmin and to a lesser extent Captain Olimar. Its suggested that this takes place sometime during the events of Pikmin 2 given the types of Pikmin featured and the presence of the research pod from that game. Apparently Shigeru Miyamoto came up with the idea to make these shorts to explore the games characters in ways that would be difficult in an actual game. Despite this Olimar isnt given any character outside of being the guy directing the Pikmin sometimes. Aside from a couple of enemies and the research pod who also dont do anything besides the basic role they have in the game the only characters were left with are the Pikmin themselves. So the exploration is with the Pikmin right? You could say that and the shorts definitely focus on them but there isnt a whole lot of character exploration with them either. After watching youd be able to make a few bullet points regarding the base characteristics of the Pikmin as a whole but hardly anything could be said about the individual types. Their basic abilities are shown and the white Pikmin can spit corrosive acid for some reason but there isnt any character behind it. A blue Pikmin could wake up as a yellow Pikmin one day and it wouldnt act any different than it had before the change or at least wed be led to believe that after watching this. If building characters beyond the games was the purpose of this then it didnt achieve its goal in the slightest. 500http://i.ur.com/fiWRXQo.png Nintendo did of course take the time to explore Mario references. That being said the plots of the episodes themselves while not amazing are still enjoyable at a base level. The humor is usually decent and the stories themselves generally make sense though its not exactly like the games. Theres even a few things that may catch you off guard. Its still nothing worth coming back to though. It also makes references to specifically Pikmin 2. If you havent played that game then these shorts will not resonate fully with you. The animation and art quality is pretty good. Its what youd expect from something Nintendo was involved with and theres some nice touches of detail like individual Pikmin reactions if you look hard enough. The music is whimsical but isnt recognizable from the games which is a shame since they have nice music. The sound consists of a lot of clips straight out of the games which sometimes fits and sometimes feels lowquality compared to the rest of the presentation. Verdict: Its a standard series of computerized shorts containing some of the quirks from the games and some oddities of its own. Nostalgia aside it isnt really special and fails to be anything other than simple humor. As a fan of Pikmin I could enjoy it somewhat but I dont see a nonfan easily getting as much or more pessimistically as little out of it as I did.