Yeah, Pikmin owns. Especially the sequel, which somehow managed to seem every bit as innovative as the original. It's great to know some people are still getting into it-we need that support for a Revolution sequel!
I've got a trick, and an easter egg for you. The trick is that you shouldn't forget about Olimar's ability to attack-he's great when you're low on troops, and I even beat that giant mushroom guy from Pikmin 1 with him alone (that way there was no risk of it turning my pikmin against me).
The easter egg is in Pikmin 2, if you have 20 of each Pikmin type in your group, they'll begin to hum the popular song that played in the japanese commercial for the original Pikmin.