u/SkullServants

I knew I had to attempt this set once it dropped. The Wii port was always my favorite way to play as a kid, and that still holds true today. Just being able to swap Pikmin types on the fly with a click of a button makes this version THE definitive version to me.

The only real downside is that this version of Pikmin suffers from the worst iteration of the infamous "crushing glitch." I lost 10+ Pikmin multiple times from...successfully bum rushing and defeating Bulborbs...

Anyway, if you can look past a few...unfortunate deaths here and there, this is a great way to experience Pikmin. As for the set, it's real nice, and covers some content that the GC version misses. (and doesn't require a good ending + best ending) You will need to be able to beat the game in 12 days or less though, which will definitely take some practice for newer players.

The Challenge mode is also much easier for me, since, as stated, YOU CAN SWAP PIKMIN TYPES INSTANTLY. I can not understate how much of a QOL buff that is. Still took a few tries for some of the maps, which sucks because each attempt is roughly 13 minutes, but The Distant Spring was nerfed from requiring 450 to just 400 which I'm very happy about.

I give the set an 8/10. As Foolacetic's first major game, I think he did a fantastic job with this set. Pikmin's not an especially long game, so there isn't THAT much a dev could do to add achievements, but what exists here is everything a Pikmin fan could reasonably ask for outside of challenges fit for subsets.

26/50 Wii points

This game is such a weird experience, and quite enjoyable in that regard. It is very simple to play, with the player only able to move, jump, and shoot, but the gameplay is second fiddle to the comedy. For a small Wiiware title they really jam packed as many gags as they feasibly could without it becoming draining, and it made for an unforgettably bizarre memory.

The game is easy enough for 90% of the experience, with a couple troublesome bosses towards the last few stages. That ninja dog goes crazy and will be a good chunk of the set for a lot of people, potentially even a wall to mastery for some, but it's not insanely difficult, just a little rough. (took me about 20 minutes)

I think the set is a little confusing for me, personally, because for a game revolving around the gags, (going so far as to have a menu for you to see which gags you're missing) there are plenty of gags that don't get achievements, while others do, and the selection process seems arbitrary. I guess the idea was to give cheevos for the most interesting ones, but I still feel like they missed a couple banger gags that were quite funny. The set is about 80% progression, 10% easily missable gags, and 10% challenges. You can always restart worlds, so none of them are actually missable or hard to find really, which makes this set pretty accessible I feel.

7/10 if only because it feels incomplete in terms of the gags it chooses not to give cheevos for. Still a fun little gem for the wii though, and now I'm rocking 24/50.

God. What a journey. The gap between my 5th SMS mastery and this one is...large.

There was a time when I looked at the absurd difficulty of those four 100 pointers (and some nasty 50 pointers) and I genuinely didn't think I'd be on the other side of this set. Let alone during the Wii event where these hours could've been spent gaining Wii points, but I needed a Wii break and here we are. Never, ever give up on what you set out to accomplish gamers.

SMS is one of my all-time favorite games, but even I can't recommend anyone tackle this set unless you genuinely just deeply love it. The only satisfaction (besides popping the ridiculous cheevos and learning the tech that comes with it) that you will get from this set has to come from within. If the love isn't there you will not put up with Barrel Stacking. That cheevo took me like 30 hours alone, and is my greatest feat. in gaming, period. No other achievement in any other game I've ever played (RA or not) even comes remotely close. If there was a 200 point cheevo category I'd nominate that one to be on the list.

That being said, I don't even really know what to say about the set. Most of it was done about a year ago. There are some very, very easy achievements in this set, and some...not so easy achievements. There are a couple that don't feel like they belong in a subset. ie: talking to the pianta in Sirena hotel airducts. It's just talking to a normal NPC under normal gameplay circumstances. Besides a couple weird ones, most of these do belong, and you will discover most of the secrets and glitches present within SMS's incredible physics system. You will teleport, load OOB items and locations, clip into just about everything, and break the game wide open to say the least. From Kinikicks to GWK's to Honey Skip, all your favorite speedrunner tricks are here, and they're damn fun to learn. (if a teensy bit frustrating)

I feel like my knowledge of this game I already knew inside and out has improved tenfold, especially my movement, so I want to rate it a perfect 10. The mind-numbingly painful double frame-perfect inputs and insanely precise positioning of barrel stacking will knock that down to a 9/10 though.

Finally, after nearly two years I hit the big 50 masteries, so I posted my wall.

Decided to combine these into one post for the obvious reason that it's basically one set, especially if you meter out the endgame like I did to pop both masteries at the same time. Never played this game as a kid, but saw some friends playing it and found it to be a chill game to just grind with music/videos playing.

Despite this game just being the "press 2" game AND despite the fact that you run it at 2x speed, there was a surprising amount of fun to be had searching for/breeding specific mons and especially running into shinies. There are also certain Pokemon which are really rare, and thus, make the set slightly frustrating depending on how bad your luck is. Going over 40 minutes without finding a single Vaporeon was...cool.

Putting that aside though, this should be a relatively fun/chill set of masteries if you like Pokemon, and potentially much more boring if you don't. The final achievement of defeating the EX4 arena is actually really difficult though. Like, very surprisingly difficult to the point that I'm genuinely wondering if any kids ever beat it. I had to resort to making 3 Gengars with Protect and Night Shade. For a set where my heart rate rested pretty low for 99% of it except for finding a shiny/rare spawn, I could actually feel my heart thumping when I landed the final blow on Mewtwo.

The POC challenge has exclusively POC related cheevos, and I've always wondered whether restricted sets like this should get a 10/10 for accomplishing their simple goal, or a 1/10 for adding nothing outside the base idea for achievements. Rating a set like this is really hard for that very reason, but I guess we'll lean towards 10/10 because it does what you want/expect it to do. Idk, these ratings are always arbitrary anyway, don't put too much stock into them lol.

The base set is pretty good overall, not an incredible amount of achievements, but the challenges that are there like the Expert battle ones are well thought out and not too rough. 8/10.

Not the most fun time ever, but it had highs for sure. Glad to have a couple Giratinas on the wall at least. Gonna have to get some more Pokemon masteries once the Wii event ends.