If you have a passing interest in gaming outside of Nintendo, you'll likely have experienced the work of Mark Cerny. He was the Lead Architect of the PlayStation Vita, PS4, and PS5 — you might remember him from the PS5 Pro reveal — and he appears on the most recent episode of Simon Parkin's My Perfect Console podcast where guests pick five games to immortalise on their very own fictional console.
As you might expect, there's plenty of Sony chat in there, but that didn't stop a little slice of unexpected Nintendo discussion slipping in there, too. As it turns out, Cerny is a bit of a Pikmin fan at heart, and if that isn't something all of us capital-G Gamers can agree on, then we don't know what is.
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Olimar's escapades cropped up as Cerny described playing the first game as a "transformative" experience. "That first Pikmin, yeah, that's one I just treasure," Cerny told Parkin, remembering the game's "emotionally involving story" of Olimar's attempts to return home.
Here's the full quote, so you can read his thoughts for yourself:
"I had this thing where I tended to play smaller, lighter games for about 10 years, so I don't know, Portal or Plants vs Zombies or Flower or Katamari Damacy. Pikmin I just pick out of that list because I thought it was such an emotionally involving story. Poor Captain Olimar, he crash lands and he's got 30 days to reassemble his ship or he'll run out of oxygen and die and he's sending letters home every day.
"And for me that was just transformative. I mean, I guess I'm a sucker when it comes to story, right? But then for Pikmin 2, it's totally different. So they're on Earth, they're running around picking up trash on Earth. That's the storyline, if you recall. Literally, you're running around somebody's bathroom floor in Pikmin 2. And in one of those, you're running from debt collectors, if I have that right.
"But that first Pikmin, yeah, that's one I just treasure."
Cerny has had strong connections with various studios throughout his career (he designed Marble Madness at Atari and worked on Sonic 2 after helping to establish Sega Technical Institute). The games we associate with this industry figure would likely have more of a PlayStation flavour these days, though, so it's nice to see Pikmin sneaking into his top five. Those delightful little sprouts are the ultimate gaming unifier, eh?
You'll have to listen to the full podcast episode (now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all the usual places) to hear Cerny's complete 'Perfect Console' picks, and hey, that's not a bad way to spend an evening.
What five games would make your 'Perfect Console'? Would Pikmin take up a spot? Let us know in the comments.