History YMMV / Pikmin2

** The Titan Dweevil can be absolutely punishing if you're unlucky. While the player most likely won't have to worry too much about the Shock Therapy, thanks to Yellow Pikmin, the other weapons can be a massive issue. While the player can use their Whistle when a Pikmin is hit with an element to save them before they die, if the Captain gets hit by an attack, even if they have all the suit upgrades, they can and will get knocked down, most likely preventing the player from saving a few Pikmin. The Flare Cannon and Comedy Bomb in particular can easily stunlock the player if they get hit by it since both hit multiple times, preventing the player from getting up while the Pikmin run about every which way. Also not helping the fact that each part has a lot of health, so if the player is lacking in Ultra-Spicy Sprays, it'll take quite a while to deal with each part. And there's throwing the Pikmin onto the parts to begin with, as if their aim is off, the Pikmin will either bounce off the Titan Dweevil's body or just miss the weapon entirely. And if you lose too many Pikmin (each weapon has a weight of 30), you won't be able to carry any of the weapons back to the ship. And if you leave without taking the weapons to the ship, the boss will re-attach the removed weapons when you return.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The All-Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks eventually kidnap the president and threaten his life if his debt to them is not repaid. This would've been a good way to reintroduce a day limit like in the first game. But instead, you can [[TakeYourTime take as long as possible]] and the loan sharks still won't have killed him.

* TheScrappy: The Hocotate ship is contentious with a number of players of ''Pikmin 2'', mostly because [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper it often chimes in about info the player would likely have already figured out at that point, and the cutscenes often activate at inconvenient times,]] and a few seconds into the cutscenes, the enemies can ''[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard still attack and kill your Pikmin, while you have no control!]]'' The fact that his reactions are often really overblown over stuff that would be mundane to the player don't help, either. This seems to be a fact that Creator/{{Nintendo}} caught onto, as there's a throwaway line in ''VideoGame/NintendoLand'' along the lines of "[[LampshadeHanging It would be better off without a voice chip]]", and in ''Pikmin 3'' [[spoiler:it gets knocked offline by the Mireclops]].

* HypeBacklash: Though the game was for the longest time hailed as the best game in the series, newcomers to the franchise, especially those who grew up with ''VideoGame/Pikmin3'', have criticized the game for its unbalanced difficulty and focus on randomly generated caves over the beautifully crafted outdoor sections, said caves also being criticized for [[LuckBasedMission sometimes generating unfair or unoptimal layouts]]. Some have also criticized the game for not having the same isolationist atmosphere or the life-or-death stakes or the first game. The removal of the time limit, which was unanimously seen as a major improvement upon the game's release, is seen by some as a downgrade as it removes the motivation to finish the game quickly.

* 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 access 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.

** The text and texture changes in the HD rerelease. Some find them harmless, and see them as minor changes that don't impact the game's quality. Others see them as pointless changes that make the HD version feel incomplete. While the texture changes (which removed product placement for brands such as Duracell) were understandable due to the difficulties involved in brand licensing, it was still seen as disappointing, given that the brands added to the game's charm and immersion. Some of the text, including some of the treasure names and series', were changed as well. This includes treasures such as the Gemstar Husband and Gemstar Wife[[note]]which became "Yellow Gemstar" and "Red Gemstar"[[/note]], Husband's Tears series[[note]]which became the "Expensive Sentimentals" series[[/note]], and the Priceless/Worthless statues[[note]]while their names were unchanged, the text removed all comparisons to Olimar's parents[[/note]]. Some see them as a harmless removal of gendered terms, while others point to this as needless censorship of inoffensive writing, which not only removes a bit of worldbuilding but also makes some of the treasure descriptions in the middle example make less sense[[note]]Many of the game's treasure names and descriptions reflect Olimar's emotions, and he frequently mentions buying expensive jewelry for his wife in that series' journal entries, which is where the name "Husband's Tears" comes from.[[/note]] Other controversial changes include the change of Wollywogs/Wogpoles to Wollyhops/Wolpoles[[note]]Granted, this has been a thing in the British versions of the ''Pikmin'' games since ''New Play Control! Pikmin'' due to "wog" being a slur in the UK, but the renaming was made universal in this version. It is cited as more pointless censorship, as the names are a play on the word "pollywog", and the new names are thought to sound much worse.[[/note]], and the renaming of the "Space Love series" to the "Celestial Vibes" series[[note]]which is seen as both pointless renaming and changing the name to something very needlessly "millennial" and contemporary.[[/note]]

** The Titan Dweevil can be absolutely punishing if you're unlucky. While the player most likely won't have to worry too much about the Shock Therapy, thanks to Yellow Pikmin, the other weapons can be a massive issue. While the player can use their Whistle when a Pikmin is hit with an element to save them before they die, if the Captain gets hit by an attack, they can and will get knocked down, most likely preventing the player from saving a few Pikmin. Flare Cannon can be especially bad, since it can hit multiple times, preventing the player from getting up while the Pikmin run about every which way. Also not helping the fact that each part has a lot of health, so if the player is lacking in Ultra-Spicy Sprays, it'll take quite a while to deal with each part. And there's throwing the Pikmin onto the parts to begin with, as if their aim is off, the Pikmin will either bounce off the Titan Dweevil's body or just miss the weapon entirely. And if you lose too many Pikmin (each weapon has a weight of 30), you won't be able to carry any of the weapons back to the ship. And if you leave without taking the weapons to the ship, the boss will re-attach the removed weapons when you return.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The removal of the product placement in the Switch port. While it's understandable given the licensing issues with the brands, it has led to disappointment from fans of the original, as the brands didn't detract from the experience and helped contribute to the apocalyptic worldbuilding.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://youtu.be/fL9lHzeNDgs The famously disconcerting theme for the Submerged Castle]] does an exceedingly good job at pushing an already unsettling dungeon from "ominous" to "full-on NightmareFuel".

** What exactly is the Waterwraith? Olimar's notes theorize it may just be a hallucination caused by paranoia and fear, but the ship can detect its presence and specifically states that it's in another dimension. Making matters even more confusing is the Waterwraith drops a treasure upon its defeat, which wouldn't make sense for a simple hallucination. ''Pikmin 3'' goes even further by [[spoiler: introducing the Plasm Wraith, which shares several similarities with the Waterwraith, such as the -wraith suffix, a humanoid shape, and an almost invincible form with supernatural properties]]. Olimar himself even notes the similarities between the two, but any actual connection they have or if they are meant to be the same creature has yet to be explained.
** [[spoiler: Was Louie really in control of the Titan Dweevil like Olimar and the ship theorize, or was he kidnapped by it, and the Titan Dweevil was simply attacking Olimar and the President for entering its territory?]]
*** [[spoiler: If it is indeed the former, was Louie attacking his boss and coworker in revenge for Olimar leaving him behind, or to keep them from learning the truth about the company's debt? Or was it a mixture of both?]]

** Treasures with Japanese text or that are Japanese in nature were changed slightly for international releases. The Decorative Goo, which was an ordinary tube of paint, had its Japanese text changed to a reference ''VideoGame/MarioPaint'' reference. The Cosmic Archive, a copy of ''VideoGame/TheMysteriousMurasameCastle'', was noticeably one of the few things left untouched.

** Treasures with Japanese text or that are Japanese in nature were changed slightly for international release. The Decorative Goo, which was an ordinary tube of paint, was changed to reference ''VideoGame/MarioPaint''. The Cosmic Archive, a copy of ''VideoGame/TheMysteriousMurasameCastle'', was noticeably left untouched.

** The Waterwraith's design has had many fans humorously comparing it to ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Bubble Buddy'' and its rollers to ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones the Flintstones' car''.

* 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''.

** Treasures with Japanese text or that are Japanese in nature were changed slightly for international release. The Decorative Goo was changed to reference ''VideoGame/MarioPaint''. The Cosmic Archive, a copy of ''VideoGame/TheMysteriousMurasameCastle'', was noticeably left untouched.

* DemonicSpiders: Gatling Groinks fire explosive balls, the one "element" that no Pikmin is immune to. However, sometimes the balls will just knock Pikmin back rather than killing them, but it's not reliable. In addition, they have armour on their face, meaning that you have to get behind them to attack them, not easy given that they are always alert and will often turn and drop some explosive death on your army. They are even worse on towers, when they have more HP and can only be reached using Yellow Pikmin. In the Wistful Wild, the RandomNumberGod can actually spawn one close enough to your base camp that it'll start attacking you before you can even finish picking your Pikmin for the day. The icing on the cake, however, is that this thing can bring itself back to life, just like the Spotty Bulbear.

*** 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 guaranteed to eat a few pikmin, 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 [[DemonicSpiders Gattling Groink]] that will immediately start shooting the SECOND you start, so if you didn't know it was coming up and didn't have a bitter spray saved up, you may as well restart.

** The yield sign at the landing site in the Wistful Wild is a stop sign in the Japanese version. Stop signs in Japan are triangular rather than octagonal.

** Treasures with Japanese text or that are Japanese in nature were changed slightly for international release. The Decorative Goo was changed to reference ''VideoGame/MarioPaint''. The Cosmic Archive, a copy of ''VideoGame/TheMysteriousMurasameCastle'', was noticeably untouched.

* 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 (granted, Louie himself wasn't making things easy, so it's partially understandable).

* {{Woolseyism}}: Some of the treasures had their branding changed in order to be more familiar in other territories. For example, the batteries are National Hi-Top in Japanese, but Duracell in the international versions. The Switch port removes the branding entirely, and changes the names of some of the treasure groups.

* 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. 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.

* 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.

* 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''.
%%** "Inedible. Tastes like chicken."