North America Finally Getting Play Control! Version of PIKMIN 2 This June

After three years of being envious of Europe, Australia, and Japan for having this before us, Nintendo of America is finally bestowing upon us a "Play Control!" version of Pikmin 2 for Wii. The official release date isn't known yet but the Nintendo Power magazine from where this info was taken from lists June as its launch month.

Think of this as Nintendo's way of both mocking us and yet teasing us for caring about Pikmin for so long, and right off the heels of they announcing officially that we will finally be seeing Pikmin 3's emergence at this year's E3 in Los Angeles!

Now I've been a long time fan of the series ever since it was first announced in an issue of Nintendo Power but y'know, I just wasn't thrilled when they took away the daily countdown in the Pikmin sequel.

But anyway, for any one you who were wondering just why Pikmin is so awesome here's a little history lesson. At the time there truly hadn't been that many innovations in the Gamecube age, let alone any new intellectual properties coming from camp Nintendo. So to rememdy this, Pikmin was apparently spawned from Miyamoto's then-current obsession of gardening. From there it became the latest IP in Nintendo's arsenal, soon followed up by NintenDogs and WiiFit, which those two were also modeled after Miyamoto's off-the-clock habits and hobbies. Fascinating, I know.

Pikmin 2 was originally released for Gamecube in 2004, and then released under the new Play Control! scheme for Wii for the rest of the world (besides us in Canada, Mexico, and the United States) in 2009. So after 8 years since its original release, and 3 years of delay for the Wii version, we're finally getting a chance to relive the world of Pikmin once more. Took them long enough, I tell you.

Do you think Nintendo purposefully delayed Pikmin 2's Wii version for North America to coincide with the announcement of Pikmin 3?