Been a big fan of the series since it first came out, it's where I got my name lol. I didn't have a memory card for the longest time and my dumb 8 year old brain could barely multitask so I constantly had to watch Olimar die after 30 days passed. Probably the first game I ever played with a true fail state like that.
pirated 1 and 2 when I was 9, but never played the others because I couldn't afford a newer console. Beat the first one on day 30 when I had every part except for the piggybank, when all my pikmin died to a bombrock accident while I was carrying it back at the end of the day.
I remember once getting a little overzealous with my throws and I accidentally tossed a bomb rock holding yellow Pikmin in with a group that was killing Sheargrubs. And bro decided the best action he could take in that moment was to throw the bomb back in my direction.
Submerged castle gave me anxiety as a kid, I dreaded doing it whenever I replayed it for the longest time it's one of my fav caves nowadays I also always really liked the cave with all the xmas treasures it's very cozy, I remember that in that cave one of the treasures has a log written by Olimar about how he hopes the Pikmins hands will be okay since it is so cold, it's nice that he worries about them
Puffstools are my favorite, I loved going into the perplexing pool challenge mode level in Pikmin 1 and giving the puff stool an army of Pikmin and then watching the Mushroom Pikmin and my guys beat the shit out of each other. I was a BIG fan of Pikmin 2's battle mode when the sequel came out lol
If you're in the challenge mode and you let your pikmin get turned into mushroom pikmin by the puffstool, then you can actually blow your whistle on them and get them to follow you and work for you.