Pikmin.com SpaceForce: Difference between revisions

'''''Pikmin.com SpaceForce''''' is a partially lost browser game made by Nintendo of America to promote [[Pikmin (game)|the first ''Pikmin'' game]]. Not much is known about its gameplay, and while archives of the website do exist, it's not clear if the game itself is contained within these archives. The game was developed by the Seattle-based digital media company Martini Design, using the now-discontinued {{w|Adobe Flash}} (known as Macromedia Flash at the time), and was accessed from [http://www.pikmin.com www.pikmin.com]. It was released during November 2001, and taken offline a few months into 2002.

The precise nature of the gameplay of ''Pikmin.com SpaceForce'' is unknown. However, from what remains in the archives and the few forum posts talking about it, it seems that game would have had players take the role of a Pikmin and help "a Space Explorer" escape a planet.{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20011210093747/http://www.pikmin.com/DefaultJoin.jsp|Signup page of pikmin.com, 10 December 2001|the Wayback Machine}} To start, players would have to create an account{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20011209160639/http://pikmin.com/SignUp.jsp|Source code for signup page on pikmin.com, 9 December 2001|the Wayback Machine}} and complete a personality test asking some questions that would determine the Pikmin type they would play as.{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20020215223631/http://pikmin.com/DefaultQuiz.jsp|Quiz page on pikmin.com, 15 February 2002|the Wayback Machine}} Players would group into teams, and would try to find food in the form of [[pellet]]s that would increase the team's score.{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20020205110804/http://www.pikmin.com/FoodSignin.jsp?pikminfoodcolor{{=}}yellow|Finding a yellow pellet on pikmin.com, 5 February 2002|the Wayback Machine}} This food was often found on other websites,{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20020120002444/http://ridgeracer64.com/|Ridge Racer 64 website homepage, 20 January 2002|the Wayback Machine}}{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20020204121208/http://www.pokemon.com/games/index.html|List of games on the Pokémon website, 4 February 2002|the Wayback Machine}}{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20020118045504/http://nintendopower.com/|Nintendo Power website homepage, 18 January 2002|the Wayback Machine}}{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20020127080806/http://www.yoshisstory.com/pet.html|Yoshi the Web Pet on the Yoshi's Story website, 27 January 2002|the Wayback Machine}}{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20011208211355/http://www.datadyne.com/datadyne/careers.htm|DataDyne careers page (this website was made to promote the game ''Perfect Dark''), 8 December 2001|the Wayback Machine}}{{cite web|https://www.neoseeker.com/forums/1909/t46660-someone-know-on-which-site-to-go-to-find-pikmin-food-for-pikmin-com/|Forum post from January 2002|the Neoseeker forums}} mostly ones owned by Nintendo, which featured hidden buttons that could be clicked to collect food for the game.{{cite web|https://www.reddit.com/r/lostmedia/comments/xhah42/partially_lost_pikmincom_spaceforce_a_flash_game/|Reddit post asking about the game|Reddit}} This indicates that ''Pikmin.com SpaceForce'' was part of a larger cross-promotional marketing strategy by Nintendo of America, encouraging players to explore the internet to find these pellets,{{cite web|https://web.archive.org/web/20011209105910/http://pikmin.com/DefaultCongrats.jsp|Source code for a congratulations page on pikmin.com, 9 December 2001|the Wayback Machine}} and encouraging people visiting those websites for other reasons to visit the ''Pikmin'' website. Each pellet collected would give between 1 and 20 points, with pellets of the same color as the player's Pikmin type giving more points. There was a leaderboard, which probably tracked the number of points obtained by each team of players.