The predecessor Pikmin became popular a couple years beforehand - mainly helped by the prominent persona of Shigeru Miyamoto behind its development. Pikmin 2 is a fine example of what an odd idea can look like in a video game format - but that's what games are for, right? Breaking boundaries? Sometimes it's a bit hit or miss, but the majority of them seem to work.

That is taking bizarre concepts and turn them into palatable video games. There's one thing you can always count upon Japanese developers to do.