History YMMV / Pikmin2

* BrokenBase: The game's difficulty splits the fan base on whether or not it's fair or if it's a case of FakeDifficulty. On one hand, the player has accesses to a lot of [[GameBreaker overpowered options]] such as Purple Pikmin and Bitter Spray, with the infinite day count letting the player endlessly farm them. On the other hand, a lot of enemies in game are [[DemonicSpiders incredibly lethal]], with the amount of instant death enemies the game can throw at you at once becoming absurd, which is not helped by [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels the randomly generated caves]], which can throw large groups of them together in the same space. This is on top of the number of 'gotcha' traps of bomb rocks/enemies falling from the sky in caves, which can get downright obnoxious in the late game levels. You're very unlikely to find fans who see eye to eye on the game's difficulty.

* BreatherLevel: The "rest levels" featured in certain caves, which have little to no harmful enemies, resources to regroup such as nectar, sprays, and Queen Candypop Buds (and Bulbmin in one case) to make up for Pikmin losses, and geysers to escape back to the surface if you feel unprepared to tackle the rest of the cave on that trip.

* ContestedSequel: Fans either like this game for its longer length, creative puzzles, and addition of a second partner; or find it weaker than the first due to finding the caves tedious and repetitive {{Padding}} and the lack of tension. This notion only grew when Schafrilas Productions posted a video explaining how he thought that 2 was the weakest entry in the franchise. As a result, those who shared his opinion became more vocal, to the point where series newcomers are often told to, and even sometimes do, skip 2 altogether. Approaches to storytelling also differ. Some prefer Olimar's end of day monologues in 1 as a storytelling medium over the less plot-focused 2, while others prefer 2's introduction of new characters and worldbuilding for both Hocotate and PNF-404, along with the loads of new Olimar writing the Treasure Journals and Piklopedia provide.

** "Inedible. Tastes like chicken."

* MemeticMutation: The Waterwraith dropping out of the sky on steamroller wheels inevitably drew some comparisons to the famous "ROAD ROLLER DA!" scene from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders''.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: Bulbmin are loved for their adorable design and high usefulness, thanks to being immune to all four elemental hazards. Their status as GuestStarPartyMembers make it even more of a treat when you get to use them. Many fans have been looking forward to seeing them return in future games.

*** Concrete Maze, as its name implies, is a large maze only providing you with a measly two white pikmin. Not only are the sublevels randomly generated like every other cave in the game, the key and and exit are as well, and you aren't provided much time at all to look around on top of it. It's all too common to find the key and bring it back to the ship, then not have enough time left to locate the exit. Sublevel 2 is even worse, as it's even bigger and constantly drops bomb-rocks and volatile dweevils everywhere, forcing you to waste precious time fleeing from them. Sublevel 3 is thankfully much more straightforward, but it's still tedious due to the low amount of pikmin you have. This leaves you with a level that is almost completely luck-based, and will definitely try your patience.

*** The Collector's Room when going for a pink flower. You are provided with 50 white pikmin and a few sprays, and each floor has a large bulborb that must be fought for the key. Problem is, you don't have enough sprays to use on every floor and the bulborbs are very inconsistent in their behavior (sometimes they bite, which is a guaranteed restart, other times they shake, which gives you time to finish them off), meaning it mostly comes down to luck if you lose a pikmin or not. If that wasn't enough, the final floor has a Gatling Groink that will immediately start shooting you the SECOND you start, so if you didn't know it was coming up and didn't save a bitter spray for it, you may as well restart.

** The Secret Testing Range. Thought fighting Man-at-Legs was bad enough? Now not only are you on a timer, but if you want 100% completion, you have to do it without losing a ''single Pikmin''. Not helping matters is that it's not just a fight with the aforementioned Man-at-Legs either -- before that, you need to complete a floor with ''two'' [[DemonicSpiders Gattling Groinks]] on it. Dealing with them isn't particularly tough since they're on the first floor and it won't take much time to restart if they do kill a Pikmin, but having to go through them each and every time you slip up against the Man-at-Legs is a massive pain.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
** The Treasures only cover objects that existed by the games release year 2004, so anything created afterwards (I.E. Modern technology such as smart phones, packaging redesigns on Products ect.) would be absent from the game and is made more noticable as it takes place AfterTheEnd.

** The Treasures only cover objects that existed by the games release year 2004, so anything created afterwards (I.E. Modern Technology such as Smartphones, Packaging redesigns on Products ect.) would be abscent from the game and is made more noticable as it takes place AfterTheEnd.

* ContestedSequel: Fans either like this game for its longer length, creative puzzles, and addition of a second partner; or find it weaker than the first due to finding the caves tedious and repetitive {{Padding}} and the lack of tension. This notion only grew when Schafrilas Productions posted a video explaining how he thought that 2 was the weakest entry in the franchise. As a result, those who shared his opinion became more vocal, to the point where series newcomers are often told to, and even sometimes do, skip 2 altogether.
** Approaches to storytelling also differ. Some prefer Olimar's end of day monologues in 1 as a storytelling medium over the less plot-focused 2, while others prefer 2's introduction of new characters and worldbuilding for both Hocotate and PNF-404, along with the loads of new Olimar writing the Treasure Journals and Piklopedia provide.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Olimar is frequently told off by the ship for not giving Louie proper instructions on how to navigate the planet. Disregarding the fact that it's used as a method to explain controls to the player, one can only wonder if Olimar, who is otherwise so on top of things, privately believes that [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Louie]] will slow him down. This becomes more obvious in the third game, where Olimar's data files and video logs are very dismissive towards Louie.

* ContestedSequel: Fans either like this game for its longer length, creative puzzles, and addition of a second partner; or find it weaker than the first due to finding the caves tedious and repetitive {{Padding}} and the lack of tension.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
** What if the Waterwraith is just a lonely [[TheWoobie woobie]] who wants to play?
** Olimar is frequently told off by the ship for not giving Louie proper instructions on how to navigate the planet. Disregarding the fact that it's used as a method to explain controls to the player, one can only wonder if Olimar, who is otherwise so on top of things, privately believes that [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Louie]] will slow him down. This becomes more obvious in the third game, where Olimar's data files and video logs are very dismissive towards Louie.

* EvilIsCool: The Man-at-Legs. It's a {{Cyborg}} arachnid that has an [[MoreDakka autocannon]] with a LaserSight as its main attack method, and can fire at up to 400 rounds per minute, which will kill any Pikmin at close-range and blast all others very far. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids This is a Nintendo game, right?]]

* EvenBetterSequel: The first game was critically acclaimed for its concept and approach, but criticized for its short length and the opinion that the time limit could be a bit suffocating. ''Pikmin 2'' adds far more depth to the gameplay and replaces the scramble to collect all the ship parts with a long adventure to find all the artifacts you can that's much better suited to the gameplay and overall mood of the game; it also has a much bigger selection of Challenge Mode stages, and introduces multiplayer.

** The Submerged Castle, with the Waterwraith dropping in if you linger on a floor for too long. There's also the fact that you can only take Blue Pikmin in when the dungeon has all hazards — including [[ShockAndAwe the one that instantly kills Pikmin]]. Luckily, you get Bulbmin to alleviate the problem.
** The Wistful Wild dungeons, particularly the Hole of Heroes. It is filled with bosses, and one sublevel is filled with every kind of the most dangerous Bulborbs.

* ContestedSequel: Fans either like this game for it’s longer length, creative puzzles, and addition of a second partner or find it weaker than the first due to finding the caves tedious and repetitive {{Padding}} and the lack of tension.

* GameBreaker: Each game so far has had one type that contends for this.