If you came upon one of two holes placed in the level, a new gameplay mechanic presented itself. Traveling through a hole takes you to a randomly generated underground dungeon, filled to the brim with valuable doodads. Time stops while underground, so you have much time as you want to wander around. However, things dont work exactly the same as they do while on the surface. Most notably, you cant breed any Pikmin while underground. If you kill an enemy and carry it back to your spawn point, its transformed into Poko (money), not more Pikmin. You have to be very careful not to lose too many Pikmin, since your only option when they run out is to leave the dungeon. This proves quite troublesome as you progress, since the dungeons span for multiple floors. In order to get from floor to floor, you need to find a key that will open a hole to the next level. This isnt always the easiest of things, though, since many times an enemy will be in possession of the key - or the key itself will have legs. One of the most reliable ways to get a key away from an enemy was to freeze the enemy with the purple spray, causing it to drop the key where it was frozen.
I still havent touched on one of the most notable new gameplay mechanics, though. You now have two spacemen at your disposal, both of which can be controlled independently of each other. There are several group formations at your disposal. The standard formation is to have everyone and everything being controlled by one spaceman. If youre controlling Olimar, for example, you can call both your Pikmin and the other spaceman with B and have them all follow you. The other spaceman doesnt do anything special, he just follows you around. While in this formation, pressing Y will switch control of the group between the two spacemen. Since only two directions on the d-pad are used for mapping different sprays, this could serve as a way to hold and use 4 different types of sprays, with each spaceman being in charge of 2 of them.
If you dismiss all of your Pikmin with X, the spacemen then become independent of each other. Pressing Y will switch back and forth between the two, and they can each control their own group of Pikmin and perform different operations at the same time. You could have Olimar and his group breaking down a wall somewhere, while the other spaceman commands a group of Pikmin into battle. There were no puzzles in the demo that could only be solved by using two different groups in this fashion, but there are sure to be many in the final build of the game.
There are also a couple of tiny improvements over the standard game mechanics from the original Pikmin, both of which could easily go overlooked, but which make previously frustrating parts of the first game much more tolerable. One enhancement is the display that appears over an item being carried by Pikmin. The bottom number is still the number needed to carry it, and the top number is still the number that are currently holding it. However, once an items being successfully carried, the numbers change color to reflect the color of the dominant species of Pikmin hauling it around. This eliminates any confusion regarding which onion a defeated enemy is being taken to when being carried by a variety of different Pikmin species.
The other improvement makes selecting different colors of Pikmin to throw much easier. If you grab any Pikmin behind you with A, you can press left and right on the D-Pad to rotate between the differently colored Pikmin currently in your party. Accidentally grabbing the wrong Pikmin was a common mistake in the first game, and this goes a long way to remedying the issue.
Finally nearing the end here, Ill talk a bit about the co-op mode featured in the demo. Youre started in one of the games underground dungeons, and charged with the task of collecting as much money as you can before either player dies. Each player controls one of the spacemen, and you have to share the Pikmin between the two of you. This can be frustrating if youre playing with someone oblivious, since one player can take control of ALL of the Pikmin, and leave you totally out of the loop until you can steal some idle ones back after (or during) a battle. You basically just keep going through the dungeon level by level, until youre forced to exit because one of you died. Whether or not this is the only type of co-op mode included in the game isnt known at the moment, but I can say Id be a bit disappointed if there wasnt a way to go through the main quest of the game with 2 players. What was featured in the E3 demo was similar to the challenge mode in the original Pikmin. The main goal was to try and beat your best score.
Lastly, Ill touch on the graphics. While certainly not a revolution over the first Pikmin in any respects, the world definitely seems livelier in the sequel. The textures seem a bit more detailed, and more things are happening at once. In the initial flyby cinema where the onions land on the planet, you can see tree branches above you as you land, and pink petals fall on the stage the whole time you play. The original Pikmin was a very pretty game, and this one just seems to enhance upon the original in every respect.
Pikmin 2 isnt due to come out until October of this year in America, so theres still plenty of time to sit around and work on your high scores from the first game. Rest assured, though, if you had fun with the first game, youll definitely love what theyve done with the second.