While travelling through space on his way home from a freight job, Captain Olimar's ship collides with a wayward meteor, causing him to crash land on an unknown planet. With his ship's pieces scattered across the land, he's at a loss for what to do until he meets the Pikmin.

Pikmin are friendly half-plant alien creatures - as he observes them, he realizes they are quite strong in numbers and like to carry items. He helps them repopulate their species by helping them collect flower pellets and other organic material in their own ship, and once their numbers are up they are able to help him find and carry his own ship parts back to his ship.

Olimar has 30 days left on his life-support system, and the air of this planet is toxic to his species. It's a bit of a race against time and nature as he and the Pikmin work together to get his ship rebuilt. There are 30 missing pieces to find and collect with many obstacles in his path... Things look a bit hopeless, but the Pikmin are there by his side no matter what. (Or maybe they just like to follow the light on top of his helmet.)

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Parts to be collected: