If you ask anyone to name a first-party Nintendo game, chances are very high that the game will be from one of the numerous long-running series Nintendo started around NES times, such as Mario or Zelda. While I do almost always enjoy these games, it can seem like Nintendo hasn’t started a new franchise in quite a while. However, there have been a fair few games over the last couple console generations where the Big N started a new series, such as the case with Pikmin. Pikmin was a rather unique game where you, as the stranded Captain Olimar, directed the titular creatures in order to recover the lost parts of your spaceship so you can go back to your home planet before the life support systems failed in 30 days. Across the five areas you explore, you have to, using the Pikmin, balance finding your ship parts, building the Pikmin population, and opening the multiple paths in every location while constantly making sure you will have enough time to accomplish your goals. While the low number of areas made each of them memorable in their own ways, The Forest of Hope always stood out to me as the best.

The place is so named because Olimar sees it as the place he is hoping to find more parts to his spaceship and get ever closer to his home planet, and his hopes are definitely fulfilled here. In my experience, each area in the game has one main feeling associated with it and I find that the one at play here is “completeness.” While the Impact Site may be the technical first area, it is merely a short introduction that leads in to the main parts of the game which are best demonstrated in this forest. Nearly every gameplay mechanic that plays a major role in the game is shown in some form and, although the trials aren’t the hardest as this is only the first true level, you are tested on each mechanic in some capacity here. I always like when a level has the capability to show off the essence of what a game is about and how it plays because it becomes very easy to get a good sense of a game when a level is designed that way. The Forest of Hope is a prime example of that design philosophy.

When you first come to The Forest of Hope, you will only have found one of the three types of Pikmin available in the game, the fire-resistant red Pikmin. However, with just them, a majority of the area is blocked off in some capacity, either by currently unbreakable stone walls or large pools of water. Going through the paths available to you, you will come across the bomb-throwing, high-jumping yellow Pikmin, who are able to get through the aforementioned stone walls and can get to higher platforms than the others. It’s very likely that there will not be much time left on the day when you come across these new Pikmin, so the game doesn’t have much time to introduce their capabilities to you. However, it is handled very well, as the area around the location of their ship allows you to test both of their unique capabilities.

Those rocks look completely legit. … Completely

There are bombs nearby that the yellow Pikmin will take when you walk past with a wall very close to said bombs, making it abundantly clear that you can now break down those walls. Also close by is a ship part that is rather high up, showing how their high toss height can come in handy. This game is all about dealing with new things quickly and the level design throughout the game has to be spot on so the player won’t waste any time being confused by these new things. The area around the yellow Pikmin shows how this game is very good at getting across a lot of the new gameplay mechanics quickly and completely, the forest simply being one of the best in that regard.

With the yellow Pikmin in tow, you can blast open the gates blocking most of the level and get all but three of the ship parts in the area. Again, the game is taking the opportunity to place ship parts in areas that require the yellow Pikmin in order to teach you their uses without outright spelling it out for you, which I like to see in any kind of tutorial. It’s always good to make the player feel as though they are still playing the game and not just being held by the hand. In that vein, none of these parts are particularly difficult to get and, in addition to yellow Pikmin practice, are more teaching you how to manage different groups of Pikmin doing different things at the same time, a skill that is absolutely required if you want to complete this game in time. While later levels definitely put this skill to the test, The Forest of Hope lays down a solid foundation for the skill that you can build on with more experience in the more difficult Forest Navel and Distant Spring areas.

However, while the initial run-through is comparatively simple to the rest of the game, the return trip to get the three parts you couldn’t get before tones up the difficulty fairly. You will return to the forest sometime after finding the water-breathing blue Pikmin in the Forest Navel area, as water was blocking the previously unattainable ship parts. While one of these pieces just requires a quick trip through a small pond as the water itself was the only obstacle, the others are guarded by the tougher “boss” enemies for the level. Every area in Pikmin features some particularly tough enemies that require special strategies to fight and normally give up a ship part upon defeat and this hopeful place is no different.