Pikmin Treasure Hunt

The main page of the site.

To do: Add citations. Care to do so?

Pikmin Treasure Hunt is a lost Pikmin browser advergame created to promote Pikmin 2. It was released on October 13^th, 2004 and seemingly run by Nintendo of America employee "NOA_MATT" from the official NSider forums. Gameplay primarily consisted of recovering treasures by visiting various websites. Players would receive hints from their own ship's computer, and even one hint from the president of Hocotate Freight himself. These clues and hints would let the player learn which treasures were on which website.

When the game released there was a competition exclusive to American and Canadian players. The first 100 players who completed the game would get free Pikmin plushies, but the rest would receive a free wallpaper. The sprites used for Pikmin Treasure Hunt are the same as the ones used on the European Pikmin 2 website, which hosted Pikmin 2 Virtual World, another lost Pikmin game. Treasure Hunt was accessed from www.pikmin.com.

Gameplay

Pikmin Treasure Hunt was never archived and so its gameplay cannot be documented in detail. However it played much like Pikmin.com SpaceForce in that it required visiting other websites owned by Nintendo in order to collect treasure. Players started off at the main Pikmin website with an interactive landing site made in Adobe Flash (known as Macromedia Flash at the time) with no Pikmin and just an Onion. Hints would be provided to determine which website needed to be visited for each collection mission. Browser cookies in conjunction with Flash were used to determine if the player was successful, in which returning to the Pikmin website would show an animation of Pikmin bringing the respective treasure to the landing site. As more treasures were collected, a squad of Pikmin would build up at the Onion. Currently, it is unknown how exactly Pikmin were controlled. However, users of the official NSider forums discussed how they would use Pikmin to snatch up treasures and that more Pikmin could be made using the Onion. The Pikmin were often buggy, as forum posts also discussed how Pikmin would get "stuck". Many players also struggled with certain browsers not properly registering when a correct website was visited, as well as slow internet connections at the time not being able to fully load the necessary Flash assets.

Treasures

Confirmed

• Rubber Ugly
• Dream Architect
• Stone of Glory
• Petrified Heart
• Gyroid Bust
• Insect Condo

Possible

• Unspeakable Wonder
• Sweet Dreamer
• Seed of Greed
• Innocence Lost

Clues

Gyroid Bust

"Captain, my data has discovered ancient text, a joke, that I shall read: "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side." My CPU does not get it. Where would this chicken cross the road? The BEAST-TRAIL?"

"The chicken joke still bothers my circuits. What purpose would a chicken have to use the CREATURE-PATH when it could use wings and flap over the road?"

"So many clues and you still can't get the Gyroid Bust? Very well, if my scans read correctly, I believe you'll find the treasure at an ANIMAL CROSSING."

Stone of Glory

Ship

"In some civilizations, my research shows, bravery is rewarded with a ROCK OF HONOR. Sometimes it's mounted to a ribbon and placed around the brave one's neck."

"In other civilizations, greatness is rewarded with a GEM OF GLORY. But instead of giving it to the person, the person just gets to look at until someone else does something great. Then they get to look at the stone."

"Captain, my sensors are recording... music. How odd. And yet...satisfying. Hmmm... the name of their next album is STONE OF GLORY. Ah! The treasure!"

President

"So the Hunt Begins

Work! Work! Work!

Some have you have completed the hunt, others not.

Hmmmmmm.... those blasted ship computers are a bit twitchy with their big words and their silly riddles. Pooha!

Stuck? Here's a hint.

A Stone of Glory is neither stone nor is it glorious. It just is. What would happen if you compressed the stone? Hmmm... made it more form fitting? Squished the words together?"

Gallery

• 

  Nintendo Power issue 183 (September 2004) mentioning Pikmin Treasure Hunt.

• 

  Nintendo Power issue 184 (October 2004) mentioning Pikmin Treasure Hunt.

• 

  The president's blog post.

• 

  NOA_Matt discussing the site.

• 

  A player telling others to turn off adblocker for 2 of the treasures.

• 

  Matt telling players about the wallpapers earned after the contest is over.

• 

  Matt telling players not to make guides on how to collect items.

• 

  Matt explaining the president's blog and mentioning the game.

• 

  Forum posts.

• 

  Forum posts.

• 

  Forum posts.

• 

  Pikipedia users discuss the game in 2007, apparently by this time it was defunct.

• 

  Pikmin in action, carrying a Dream Architect and opening a defunct page.

• 

  Threads created regarding the game; most are unarchived.

• 

  Ditto.

• 

  NeoGAF users discuss the game, one posts clues related to two of the ten treasures.

See also

• Pikmin.com SpaceForce
• Musings of a Sidekick