One of the reasons I have a lot of love for Nintendo is that although they’re not an underdog indy and they have their big franchises they make many sequels for, Nintendo historically seem to like to do their own take on genres and give us something quite unique as players.
Some of these adaptations of genres work for me and not for others or vice-versa, for example I hope Nintendo go back to ARMS, it’s a hugely different take on fighting games that I thoroughly enjoyed where as the much more popular Smash Brothers, still a very different game when you compare it to Street Fighter and its ilk doesn’t do half as much to keep me entertained.
Splatoon is one of my favourite shooters, Mario Kart created its own sub-genre of racing and all these, typically, “family fun” variations lead me here to Pikmin.
Pikmin is to Strategy what Splatoon is to Shooting. It’s very hard to put it alongside something like Total War and say “that’s the same genre” but the ideas are there, it leads more into the management side but the shared DNA is there and whether or not it’s a better or worse take the important thing for me is that it’s interesting.
Once you get to the fourth entry in a series however, interesting is not quite enough.
So, as always the question is: is it good?
The answer is, Pikmin has always been good but I believe Pikmin 4 is great.
Pikmin 4 does what any strong sequel should, it takes the best elements from the previous entries, adjusts some of the less-liked ones and builds upon it all with some new ideas.
The standard Pikmin game is there, you will pluck and grow legions of these little plant pals to help you in a giant world (from the protagonist’s perspective) carry treasures to help fix up your ship and continue your search for even more treasures and other survivors.
After a brief tutorial introduction as Olimar, who has once again crashed his ship, you take control of a character of your own design who is part of the Rescue Corps.
The character creation is rather limited but every little hero you make looks cute and funny.
Unlike previous Pikmin there isn’t so much of a survival element, be it time like Olimar so desperately needs or even juice to live like the crew of Pikmin 3.
The world feels more open and free to explore and a lot less stressful than previous titles.
In one sense this could be seen as a loss for the series, the heartache of hearing a Pikmin cry is still there but they’re survival isn’t so strictly connected to yours meaning that, as selfish as it may sound, you have less reason to care.
Even with Pikmin 4’s very generous rewinds you’ll eventually find yourself thinking “just one death to that big monster is fine”... so who is the monster really?
Day cycles still exist however and the game does promote the idea of efficient work ethics in the form of “Dandori”.
Dandori however is not only a suggestion but is a way for several game modes to be added and give anyone who still wants that challenge of desperation, survival and machine-like efficiency to still get their kick.
Two main flavours of Dandori see you either trying to collect treasures in a certain amount of time with the high score chasing reward of medals to prove to yourself you’re the best, or battle against another aiming to sweep up more goodies than you, with the added fun of pulling against each other, sabotage and more.
Whilst the bulk of Pikmin’s levels are nice open spaces that now give you all the time in the world to explore these Dandori adventures can be found to mix things up alongside the returning underground dungeons of Pikmin 2, giving you less restrictions in time but more in resources and figuring how best to use a typically smaller group of flowery friends.
To top it all off, and really the previously mentioned modes of variety is enough, Pikmin 4 also gives you a chance to go out at night.
In the night missions it’s more of a case of tower defense, the usual Pikmin are asleep and the Glow Pikmin come out to play.
Whilst I really like the Glow Pikmin design and abilities I found this to be the most lacking of all modes in the game which is a shame because it felt like this had the opportunity to be the biggest addition to the game.
Overall even with some neat ideas and great enemy designs I found all the night missions felt too similar.
One feature I’ve failed to mention is the game’s new friend and companion Oatchi.
This dog like buddy gives Pikmin 4 a new element whilst also giving a light feel of the previous title.
At first Oatchi just feels like a big Pikmin you permanently have with you, he can dig, collect items and so on.
Later you realise that he can’t dive like a Blue Pikmin but when he grows can carry you and your squad across water.
As the game progresses Oatchi becomes trained to gain new skills, carry more, attack creatures and even be controlled as a separate character to split tasks much like the trio of protagonists in 3.
Oatchi like many of the newer elements Pikmin 4 brings adds what at first feels like something that just makes life easier to a puzzle tool to eventually an important piece in your efficiency.
Although not all modes are equally as good, Pikmin 4 proves itself to be a wonderfully generous package. Many games can claim this too but in my experience a lot of content can typically mean a lot of padding.
Pikmin 4, even with feeling longer than the other titles, doesn’t suffer from this. Without going into spoiler territory the game gives you many jumping off points, in discussions with friends during my time playing it the first comparison that came to mind is the structure of most modern 3D Mario games - there’s always things to improve on, if you want, more things to find, if you want and more game to play past the credits and beyond, again, if you want.
To put this into numbers so it may be more easily understood, I had finished the game at a leisurely pace trying to get 100% of the treasures in around 21 hours.
I am now at over 42 with digging into each mini game and unlockable adventure the game has given me and if I were to feel I still wasn’t quite done with it, there’s still some Platinum medals to earn.
If you like Pikmin chances are you’ve already got this. If you’ve not touched the series before the previous three are now all available on Switch but do not be afraid to start here, why not just download the demo (which is the start of the game and transferable)?
Worst case for this game you’ll get to witness some little guys carrying around a Gameboy Advance SP like some sort of giant structure and we should all be able to enjoy that.
Some of these adaptations of genres work for me and not for others or vice-versa, for example I hope Nintendo go back to ARMS, it’s a hugely different take on fighting games that I thoroughly enjoyed where as the much more popular Smash Brothers, still a very different game when you compare it to Street Fighter and its ilk doesn’t do half as much to keep me entertained.
Splatoon is one of my favourite shooters, Mario Kart created its own sub-genre of racing and all these, typically, “family fun” variations lead me here to Pikmin.
Pikmin is to Strategy what Splatoon is to Shooting. It’s very hard to put it alongside something like Total War and say “that’s the same genre” but the ideas are there, it leads more into the management side but the shared DNA is there and whether or not it’s a better or worse take the important thing for me is that it’s interesting.
Once you get to the fourth entry in a series however, interesting is not quite enough.
So, as always the question is: is it good?
The answer is, Pikmin has always been good but I believe Pikmin 4 is great.
Pikmin 4 does what any strong sequel should, it takes the best elements from the previous entries, adjusts some of the less-liked ones and builds upon it all with some new ideas.
The standard Pikmin game is there, you will pluck and grow legions of these little plant pals to help you in a giant world (from the protagonist’s perspective) carry treasures to help fix up your ship and continue your search for even more treasures and other survivors.
After a brief tutorial introduction as Olimar, who has once again crashed his ship, you take control of a character of your own design who is part of the Rescue Corps.
The character creation is rather limited but every little hero you make looks cute and funny.
Unlike previous Pikmin there isn’t so much of a survival element, be it time like Olimar so desperately needs or even juice to live like the crew of Pikmin 3.
The world feels more open and free to explore and a lot less stressful than previous titles.
In one sense this could be seen as a loss for the series, the heartache of hearing a Pikmin cry is still there but they’re survival isn’t so strictly connected to yours meaning that, as selfish as it may sound, you have less reason to care.
Even with Pikmin 4’s very generous rewinds you’ll eventually find yourself thinking “just one death to that big monster is fine”... so who is the monster really?
Day cycles still exist however and the game does promote the idea of efficient work ethics in the form of “Dandori”.
Dandori however is not only a suggestion but is a way for several game modes to be added and give anyone who still wants that challenge of desperation, survival and machine-like efficiency to still get their kick.
Two main flavours of Dandori see you either trying to collect treasures in a certain amount of time with the high score chasing reward of medals to prove to yourself you’re the best, or battle against another aiming to sweep up more goodies than you, with the added fun of pulling against each other, sabotage and more.
Whilst the bulk of Pikmin’s levels are nice open spaces that now give you all the time in the world to explore these Dandori adventures can be found to mix things up alongside the returning underground dungeons of Pikmin 2, giving you less restrictions in time but more in resources and figuring how best to use a typically smaller group of flowery friends.
To top it all off, and really the previously mentioned modes of variety is enough, Pikmin 4 also gives you a chance to go out at night.
In the night missions it’s more of a case of tower defense, the usual Pikmin are asleep and the Glow Pikmin come out to play.
Whilst I really like the Glow Pikmin design and abilities I found this to be the most lacking of all modes in the game which is a shame because it felt like this had the opportunity to be the biggest addition to the game.
Overall even with some neat ideas and great enemy designs I found all the night missions felt too similar.
One feature I’ve failed to mention is the game’s new friend and companion Oatchi.
This dog like buddy gives Pikmin 4 a new element whilst also giving a light feel of the previous title.
At first Oatchi just feels like a big Pikmin you permanently have with you, he can dig, collect items and so on.
Later you realise that he can’t dive like a Blue Pikmin but when he grows can carry you and your squad across water.
As the game progresses Oatchi becomes trained to gain new skills, carry more, attack creatures and even be controlled as a separate character to split tasks much like the trio of protagonists in 3.
Oatchi like many of the newer elements Pikmin 4 brings adds what at first feels like something that just makes life easier to a puzzle tool to eventually an important piece in your efficiency.
Although not all modes are equally as good, Pikmin 4 proves itself to be a wonderfully generous package. Many games can claim this too but in my experience a lot of content can typically mean a lot of padding.
Pikmin 4, even with feeling longer than the other titles, doesn’t suffer from this. Without going into spoiler territory the game gives you many jumping off points, in discussions with friends during my time playing it the first comparison that came to mind is the structure of most modern 3D Mario games - there’s always things to improve on, if you want, more things to find, if you want and more game to play past the credits and beyond, again, if you want.
To put this into numbers so it may be more easily understood, I had finished the game at a leisurely pace trying to get 100% of the treasures in around 21 hours.
I am now at over 42 with digging into each mini game and unlockable adventure the game has given me and if I were to feel I still wasn’t quite done with it, there’s still some Platinum medals to earn.
If you like Pikmin chances are you’ve already got this. If you’ve not touched the series before the previous three are now all available on Switch but do not be afraid to start here, why not just download the demo (which is the start of the game and transferable)?
Worst case for this game you’ll get to witness some little guys carrying around a Gameboy Advance SP like some sort of giant structure and we should all be able to enjoy that.
Angry_Kurt
9 months ago