Musings of a Sidekick

Artwork of Louie from Musings of a Sidekick.

On June 18^th, 2009, Nintendo of Europe released an article titled "Louie's Notes: Musings of a Sidekick" at its website. It is essentially a humorous commentary written from the point of view of Louie, comparing himself and Olimar to other famous Nintendo duos (Mario and Luigi, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, Link and Navi, Pikachu and Pokémon Trainer), as an attempt to promote the New Play Control! edition of Pikmin 2. The website can be found here.

Notes

Introduction

“Sometimes I wonder what it's all good for. I mean, Olimar is a nice enough fellow and all, but he just loves being in charge. I take this in my stride since our mission on the planet of the Pikmin is introducing me to so many wondrous creatures, from the super scary to the downright yummy! There is no way that Olimar could handle the job by himself and I reckon we actually make a pretty good team. Let's face it, there's no such thing as a proper partnership, I've done a bit of research into them lately, so I should know.”

Mario & Luigi

“Take Mario and Luigi, chances are you've heard of them, the Italian expats in the Mushroom Kingdom? Luigi's never had a chance really. He's lanky and clumsy and his rotund brother always gets the spotlight, just because he was around sooner.

In the good old days Luigi was happy to try anything (as long as Mario did it first); nowadays he gets overlooked, never gets the girl and is always compared to his brother's success - even though he can jump higher! Maybe it's because he constantly manages to get himself into trouble, but just think, it must be hard to be the gormless, elongated one who always needs saving. Or gets left behind.

Seriously, those brothers and their moustaches are so famous they even have Evil Twins. Maybe that's their secret - they get a massive 'stache bonus! Olimar and I should consider getting matching facial hair, it could catapult us to the kind of fame worthy of spinoffs!”

Donkey Kong & Diddy Kong

“Then there's Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong: these guys aren't killer gorillas, they're amiable apes who take it in turn to save each others' behinds all the time. Once Olimar and I have more adventures under our belts I figure he'll need saving sometimes too.

Diddy Kong started out as just a sidekick who idolised Donkey Kong for being a big, strong hero, but now he's a hero himself with a branded hat - you know what they say, never work with children or animals, and Diddy Kong is both. I'll be keeping an eye open for any sign of Olimar getting kidnapped – it could be my chance to shine! (Note to self: learn from Diddy, acquire a more fetching hat, preferably with some product placement logo on it.”

Pikachu & Pokemon Trainer

“Some people search forever to find their partner, others find them in tall grass, but even though Pikachu is the Pokemon Trainer's best friend in a world they must defend, it's still not equal! The trainer calls the shots, nurtures his little yellow buddy, decides whether he'll stay astonishingly cute and helps him forget traumatically useless moves - and no one even remembers the trainer's name, these days Pikachu's the famous one! He has a knack for self promotion, he's danger in a small package and looks like he'd be delicious with a piquant dipping sauce... perhaps I should consider repeating my name more?”

Link & Navi

“But, when it comes to iconic partnerships, the story of Link and Navi's epic adventure with the Ocarina of Time even made headlines on Hocotate! This duo prove that how big you are has nothing to do with how noisy you can be! He's a big green monosyllabic lug; she's tiny but probably the noisiest sidekick ever! She's all 'LISTEN! Here's some really useful information on your enemy!' or 'LISTEN! Did you notice that thing you blatantly didn't notice yet?'.

You have to hand it to her though, she's brilliant help when it comes to targeting and always knows what to do next – you know what they say 'behind every good man is a greater (tiny, flying,) woman'. How does she know that stuff anyway? Fairy magic? Maybe I should consider getting a fairy of my own. Or perhaps dressing like one might make some magic rub off on me; then again, there's a guy who does that already and I'm not convinced it's been much help to him.”

Conclusion

“Thinking about it, what Olimar and I are really missing is a nemesis! Link and Navi have Ganondorf, Mario and Luigi have Bowser, King K. Rool hounds Donkey and Diddy Kong and Pikachu and That Other Guy always have some Team on their tails! On the other hand, I don't fancy making any enemies, some might say I'm my own worst enemy!

Olimar and me, we're just good looking rebels thrown together to save the world... from a crippling debt brought about entirely by factors beyond my control. But, we've already got the thing that makes all of these duos special: we're great friends, and Olimar at least understands what's going on when he's told to 'press A', whatever that is.

Maybe I'll ask Olimar about getting matching facial hair though.”

See also

• Piklopedia (Pikmin 2)