The Pikmin wiki
When Captain Olimar's spaceship crash-lands on a strange and distant planet, he is sent on a seemingly impossible quest through the unknown dangers of the planet's thick brush and swampy bogs to retrieve the parts needed for repairs. His quest is aided upon making the unintended discovery of an indigenous, strangely unphotosynthetic plant species plucked from the soil. Known as "Pikmin," the tiny creatures latch their dependent livelihoods onto Olimar, who uses their frail, flowery bodies as a means to his own end -- escaping the distant planet with his own life intact, no matter how many tiny Pikmin lives are destroyed in the process.
Trivia
- In the Japanese version, Olimar is called "Orima", an anagram kana spelling of "Mario".