I think this is my new favourite Pikmin game. As someone who grew up with Pikmin 2 I love that caves and treasure are a big focus. All the new additions are great from new Ice and Glow Pikmin, the Dandori battles character customization and upgrade systems. I also love how the game includes every Pikmin type introduces so far, although I’m not a fan of being limited to only having 3 types out at a time and the game does kinda force you to use specific types at certain times which while helpful did feel like it took away a bit from the freedom of earlier games. I do also kinda wish they didn’t do this weird timeline split when it came to the series continuity but the story was never the big selling point of Pikmin so it’s not a big deal. If you’ve never played Pikmin and are worried about the 4 on the title don’t be this game is very beginner friendly and I’d highly recommend it. In fact I’d recommend starting with 4 and if you like it then go back and play 1,2 and 3 deluxe which you can get all on the Nintendo Switch.

These are the kinds of games that need remakes. A game so dated that its 1994 visuals and gameplay really have dated far beyond their means.

Having never played the original, admittedly the first few hours of this were disappointing because I was expecting an immersive sim like the sequel and the spiritual successors like Bioshock and Prey. You get the full feel of exploration, progression deduction, but the complete freedom in gameplay like you see in Prey is not here. There isn't 5 different ways to gain access to a room. This is more of an open dungeon crawler crossed with boomer shooter gameplay.

Faithful in a good way for the most part; there remains a complete lack of handholding as the game expects you to use your brain and deduce where you need to go and what to do. Mildly faithful to a fault; the cyberspace 6DOF gameplay parts are utterly tedious and pointless to play, and feel like they don't belong. They could've seriously found something different to replace them with. I'm also not sure what the point in creating a relatively nuanced respawn system was - limited on each level, you keep your progress - when the game gives you a saving system that practically encourages save scumming.

The first 3/4 of the game are the most entertaining. Don't look at guides and delve deep into the mystery and confusion of how you escape this place. But the final few areas are a bit of a slog and turn into a more uninteresting linear affair of progression to the final showdown, which in itself is a massive, uneventful whimper with barely any closure or resolution.

It was a long time coming, and I'm just thoroughly impressed and satisfied with it. It's a shame the Immersive sim genre will never gain the traction it deserves, what with the disastrous route Arkane have taken. We need fresh blood in the genre, a hero development team that spearhead a rebooting of a niche, the same way Mimimi rebooted the Desperados style of games.

A lot of it is quite obscure being how faithful it is to the original and could be a bit frustrating at times, but besides for maybe the bad feeling melee combat (guns feel amazing though) I had a really enjoyable time. Loved all the little attention to detail, especially what happens after berserk stims wear off. Soundtrack is kind of non existent but I could tell this definitely went more for atmosphere rather than the original. I highly recommend having a notepad and pencil nearby while playing, and maybe don't play on "beat the game in under 10 hours" for your first ever time playing the game.. Can't wait for System Shock 2 enhanced.