Mistakes in the Pikmin series

To do: Doesn't Brittany have a line that's completely empty? Add it here, if so. Care to do so?

At times, when making a game, development members may commit a mistake. Most of the time, these errors are detected by the quality assurance team, whose job is to play-test the game in search for such mistakes, so that they can be corrected. However, it's possible for some errors to go by undetected, meaning the final game is released with them still in it. For the most part, these aren't enough to affect gameplay or the game's story. In popular culture, they are also known as goofs. In the Pikmin series, there are cases of typos, grammatical errors, glitches, and inconsistencies.

Development oversights

Glitches

Main article: Glitches.

Glitches are the result of an oversight in a gameplay element that may lead to unintended behavior. Most games feature some sort of unintentional glitches, and the Pikmin series are no exception. Normally, most of these are found via extensive play-testing before the final release, but the ones that escape into the final game can only be detected by playing the game for hours on end – something the players do.

Carrying oversights

Main article: Carrying/Oversights.

Pikmin carry objects by following pre-defined paths. For the most part, these paths are enough for the Pikmin to make it back to the landing site without problem. However, some paths may not take into account some obstacles, resulting in the Pikmin getting stuck. In addition, by forcing the Pikmin to begin carrying an object in an abnormal location – for instance, by carrying a leader who is lying down under a built bridge – the Pikmin may try to follow a completely irrelevant path. Ideally, the developer in charge of plotting the waypoints would take into consideration all locations and obstacles, so that the Pikmin could always find a way to carry objects, regardless of their position.

Minor oversights

• In Pikmin 2, when entering the first sublevel of a cave, the game will automatically switch from Louie to Olimar, and from Olimar to the President. The reason for this is unknown, but given its pointless nature, and the fact that it was removed for New Play Control! Pikmin 2, it is likely that this was not intended behavior.
• When entering a cave or sublevel in Pikmin 2, the first leader to jump will always grunt like Olimar, and the second will always grunt like Louie. This is true regardless of the leaders that are actually on the party and the order at which they jump in, but if the second leader is fallen, only the first leader's grunt will play (still with Olimar's voice).
• The entries for the Ravenous Whiskerpillar and the Volatile Dweevil on the Piklopedia point out that the creatures have an associated Poko value of 1 and 0, respectively. These values provide no useful information to the player, given that Ravenous Whiskerpillars cannot appear underground, and Volatile Dweevils cannot be retrieved to the research pod. It is possible that they could at an earlier point in development, and that this value is a remnant of that time; other moot values, such as the Poko count of a Pellet Posy are displayed as "----", further confusing matters.
• In Pikmin 2, Pikmin carrying an object while under the effects of an Ultra-Spicy Spray will keep carrying the object at the same speed if the spray's boost ends while they're still carrying it.
• In Pikmin 2, when the Justice Alloy is collected, the Hocotate ship claims that getting bitten or stepped on will produce less pain. In reality, all damage suffered is reduced, not just from those two sources.

Inconsistencies

Hocotate culture

The UV Lamp is a form of light bulb, even though Olimar claims that that technology is unknown to Hocotatians.

There are some inconsistencies regarding the kind of materials and objects Hocotatians have and do not have in their home planet. At the very least, these constitute as mysteries, given that it is not know how comparable the objects and elements in Hocotate are to their real world counterparts.

• According to Olimar's Journal for Child of the Earth, Hocotatians do not know about potatoes. However, Louie's Notes for the Emperor Bulblax suggest cooking the beast with potatoes and carrots.
• Olimar's Journal on the Lustrous Element states that gold is unknown to Hocotatians. However, it is clear that gold is quite normal to the people of Hocotate, judging from the following facts:
  • The ship appears golden after repaying the debt in Pikmin 2.
  • Golden pikpik carrots are in fact golden.
  • Olimar's Log in Pikmin 3 mentions gold several times, referring to the final boss' look.
• According to Olimar's description of the Stellar Orb , the technology used for a light bulb is "totally unknown" to the people of Hocotate. This description was exaggerated, given that Hocotatians are familiar to the likes of light bulbs, given the UV Lamp's existence.

Oxygen

Oxygen is known to be poisonous to Hocotatians . There are times, however, where Hocotatians are known to interact with oxygen gas with no adverse effects.

• On Louie's Notes, he mentions several plants and vegetables on his cooking recipes, although most of these ingredients need to be cultivated with oxygen. It could, however, be the case that Louie is referring to using the treasures obtained on PNF-404 as the ingredients.

Burrowing Snagret's body

Although several in-game sources claim the Burrowing Snagret's body is lined in scales, the enemy reel entry for the creature states that the creature is actually covered in feathers. This could be referring to the feathers on its head, if not for the fact that it addresses blue feathers specifically.

Leftovers

At points, leftovers from previous versions of a game may make their way into the final product in some form. This generates a minor inconsistency in the game mechanics, locations or objects, given that what's presented is different from what happens in the actual game.

Early enemy reel information

The Goolix on The Forest Navel.

Main article: Enemy reel#Discrepancies.

Some of the enemy reel's footage was recorded in an earlier – or at least different – version of Pikmin, and one can tell because several of the objects cannot be found in those locations in the final game. One of the most noteworthy examples would be the Goolix appearing on The Forest Navel, despite never being encountered there during gameplay. In addition, the fact that all names are sorted alphabetically, besides the Swooping Snitchbug's, gives a hint on what the creature's name was intended to be initially – possibly something beginning with "Flying".

Pellet carrying on the Pikmin instruction manual

On the Pikmin instruction manual, the page that describes the Onions and pellets contains an image of three Pikmin carrying a 1 pellet. In the actual game, this is not possible – only up to two Pikmin may carry a 1 pellet at the same time. It is, however, possible that this is the result of a reported glitch.

Written mistakes

General mistakes

To do: Check if it's even possible to slow down a Bulborb by holding onto its feet. If not, this is a new discrepancy in and of itself. Care to do so?

There are times where writers make typos or write the wrong thing, and these problems go undetected for the final release. Sometimes, they're fixed in later versions or remakes of the same game. On Pikipedia, whenever there is a transcript of text that contains written mistakes, the errors are kept, and a {{sic}} template is added. As such, for a list of articles that contain transcribed text with at least one written mistake, you can visit this page.

The following is a list of written mistakes:

• It is possible to tell that the treasures exclusive to the European version of Pikmin 2 received less quality control, as quite a few typos managed to make their way into their English descriptions. This was not intended, as proven by the fact that most of the descriptions in the New Play Control! Pikmin 2 variants have been fixed.
• The Empty space container is the only treasure in Pikmin 2 not to have its name in title case, like all other treasures.
• Page 23 of the English Pikmin instruction manual details how it is possible to slow down a Spotty Bulborb by holding onto its feet with Pikmin. "Holding" is spelled as "holdung", however; a trivial mistake to make on a QWERTY keyboard, given that the U and the I keys are quite close to one another.
• One of the advisories for 2-Player Battle says that the player can hold up to four roulette spins. This is technically correct, but misleading, as the player can actually store five powers – the four queued spins plus the current power on standby.
• Until Pikmin 3, Louie was always known by that name. In that game, he is still given the name Louie, but when under attack by an enemy in Mission Mode, he refers to himself as "Louis" . It is currently not known if Louis is his real name, and Louie is a nickname, or if this is the result of a mistranslation or typo.
• At a few times during the course of Pikmin 3, characters may say the expression "now I think of it", when referring to something they have realized. The most common expression is actually "now that I think of it", leaving the existence of this version a mystery. There is no official stance on the fact that "now I think of it" is inept for these situations, so whether this is an alternate, but valid wording, or actually a mistake is up for debate.
• One of Alph's voyage logs in the European version has him mention the Captain's sleeping nightmares. In it, he writes "the Captain cried out "Elizabeth!" several times while his was sleeping." The "his" in the sentence should be a "he".
• Andy Becraft was one of the engineers on Nintendo of America's debugging team, and is credited on Pikmin's credits sequence. In the New Play Control! version, however, his name is incorrectly written as "Beaucraft".

Blue Onion

In Pikmin, if the player opens an Onion's menu and attempts to take out more Pikmin than the amount in the Onion, a message appears. The base message ("There are no _ Pikmin to take out.") is shared among all Onions, and the word before "Pikmin" (represented by the underscore in the previous string) is replaced with the name of the Pikmin's type.

However, while the red and yellow Onions contain the correct words to fill the gap, "red" and "yellow", respectively, the blue Onion uses the word "blues", resulting in the message "There are no blues Pikmin to take out." The correct message, "There are no blue Pikmin to take out.", has been added to the New Play Control version.

Real world inconsistencies

Although the world in the Pikmin games is not the real world, quite a few rules match up to those in the real world. For instance, space travel, diverse ecosystems and basic physics – like throwing – are all identical to those seen in the real world. However, for some reasons, there are times where some of these connections are unwillingly broken.

Biological classifications

To do: Would the fact that the two members of the Chrysanthemum family have different scientific names count? Care to do so?

Biological classification in the Pikmin games matches that of the real world, with the following exceptions:

• The scientific name for the Empress Bulblax (Oculus matriarcha) and the Bulborb Larva (Oculus bambinii) have a different genus, even though the latter is offspring of the former. In the real world, this is not possible.

Infernal Vegetable

The Infernal Vegetable is a treasure in Pikmin 2, and is actually a real world bell pepper. Bell peppers are not vegetables, contrary to what is stated by both Olimar and the ship, but are in fact fruits. They can be considered vegetables for culinary purposes, but are botanically a fruit; this is actually a common misconception.

The same does not happen for the Love Nugget, a real world tomato, in which Olimar's Journal explains that it is both a fruit and a vegetable.

Non-canon mistakes

The following mistakes are directly related to the Pikmin franchise, but happen outside of the main Pikmin canon games.

Red Bulborb trophy

Trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl have a section that lists what relevant console and games the trophy's subject appears on. The trophy for the Red Bulborb omits Pikmin, hence incorrectly claiming that the creature debuted in Pikmin 2. In reality, the only part of the trophy's subject that did debut in Pikmin 2 is solely the name of the creature, "Red Bulborb"; this enemy was known as "Spotty Bulborb" in Pikmin.

Careening Dirigibug trophy

The Careening Dirigibug's trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl states that these enemies have a chance of dropping a dud bomb-rock. However, in the games, no bomb-rocks are ever dud.

See also

• Glitches
• Unused content
• Easter eggs