GENERAL GAMEPLAY:
- Although the camera is free form, I'd say it was arguably one of the worst cameras in all the games.
- The auto lock-on is a terrible feature. If it was a toggleable option it'd be OK, but having it forced upon you is a bad idea. Pikmin 3 deluxe's system was much better and easier to use. Auto lock-on can make it irritating to target certain things, especially in scenarios where there are many small corpses/nectar on the ground while you fight something.
- The game has a built-in mechanic to prevent you from overfilling objects with pikmin. This isn't that bad, but again is a "QOL" feature that is forced upon everyone and would be better as a setting. It can be really difficult to put more than the required pikmin on an object when you want to rush it to base.
- Starting with only 20 is an interesting decision, but overall I don't like it. Especially since there is too much flarlic and every subsequent one you get after 100 does nothing
- I don't like the 3 type limit for the overworld. It needlessly leads to really oversimplified areas, since at most they'll only have the hazards listed in the recommended section. There was 0 reason to add this, and it removes the little song you used to get for having an even squad.
- the recommendations for areas/caves are honestly worthless, because the dog/glow pikmin deal with every single elemental hazard with ease. You can honestly solo every cave with just Oatchi, Purples, and Ice. I personally did follow the recommendations when I played, but I know for a fact you don't really need to (aside from the grill puzzle and some water hazards).
- I don’t like that upgrades are purchased with the same material you make bridges with. Its stupid.
- I don’t like that upgrades are purchased at all, that guy should’ve only been an item shop. Upgrades being overworld collectables was a much more satisfying system. The dog skill upgrades were handled well though.
- Overall collecting treasures is less satisfying than in any previous game. Pikmin 1 and 2 could be annoying with their cutscenes for collection, but 3 handled it well.
- I like the customizable shortcut buttons, but it should’ve been handled better and had better default shortcuts.
- The swarm mechanic is unlocked way too late. Why is this shit post-postgame and needlessly complicated to use? They should’ve had you start with this and made the charge unlockable. Could’ve just kept in on right stick too instead of putting the shitty camera controls there (1 through 3 functions just fine without it since you primarily use ZR anyway)
- I don’t mind the rewind feature, since for caves its just a faster way to reset a floor (which everyone does in pikmin 2). I do think having it on the overworld and offering it if you even lose a single pikmin to sunset is lame as hell though.
- Difficulty in pikmin games is hard to interpret. Is losing any pikmin what makes it difficult? Is just beating enemies the challenge? Hard to tell. Either way though, this is the first pikmin game since 1 and 2 where I feel its really easy to randomly lose a pikmin (though it might partially be due to how new it is). It’s much better than 3 in that regard, although I don’t like how the shitty new characters still act like its the worst thing ever when you lose a single pikmin. If it’s going to be easy to lose them again, they shouldn't say shit like in Pikmin 1/2 (especially during combat)
PIKMIN:
- Elemental pikmin are overall way way worse in this game, easily the worst they've ever been. Elemental hazards are almost completely ignoreable due to the dog and glow pikmin.
- Red pikmin are arguably the worst they've ever been. There's barely any fire hazards and they're only recommended for like 1 overworld and a handful of caves. Completely worthless in combat now that purples are fully back + replenishable easily. All fire hazards are easily done by the dog, but they at least have the grill puzzle that forces you to use them. Still the worst they've been since 2.
- Yellows struggle to be useful, since the puzzles that utilized electricity from 3 are gone. They don't even get thrown as far as they do in 3. Similarly have few recommendations and aren't good against many enemies/bosses. Many of the vertical treasures that seem to be made for them are actually meant to be knocked down by the dog charging a wall instead. Easily the worst they've been since 1.
- Blues still aren't good and yet their value is artificially inflated by being recommended for like half the overworlds and caves. Even then, these recommendations are basically fake since the dog can float literally every pikmin type over water and deal with all water hazards easily. Only actually utilized for basically 1 area with a ton of underwater objects. They take shortcuts through water now which is alright i guess.
- Purples are back in full force, the only thing they lack from 2 is the stun (which the dog now has instead). Insanely overpowered and now it's easy to get a shit ton of them since there's an onion. Their main drawback was shit speed, and now its gone because they’re able to move as fast as the dog at all times.
- Whites are again really useless, since you don't even need them to find underground treasures. The lategame forces a bunch of poison enemies on you to try to make them seem useful, but the dog does it easily anyway. Their speed isn't good since pinks still do their job better.
- Rocks are arguably the new pikmin 3 purples/whites, in that they were so needlessly nerfed to a point of uselessness. They already weren't that good due to needing to micro them for combat, now their damage is worse and theyre not even fully immune to crushing. Bomb rocks are purchasable so you don't even need them to take out glass walls. Easily the worst pikmin in the game, zero utility.
- Pinks are much worse than 3 since you get them super late and the game's lock-on makes it much harder to cheese objects with them. Theyre still shit at combat too, so their main advantages are gone without much to make up for it. Still the best carriers though
- Ice pikmin are stupidly overpowered, just around 30 of them is enough to insta freeze any enemy after a charge. They instakill all flying enemies and give free nectar/spray for kills. The freezing water mechanic isn't actually that useful though since the numbers are usually too high to actually utilize. You can easily combine them with purples and spicy spray to make any enemy or even boss completely worthless.
- Glow pikmin are fun to use in the night expeditions, but stupidly overpowered in caves. They're 100 times better bulbmin, immune to all hazards but also have an insanely op charged stun mechanic + auto teleport instead of ever being idle. The real reason I hate them is because they're the reason that bulbmin aren't in the game.
- Easily the best pikmin AI in the series, kind of to a fault. The pikmin move absurdly fast at times to keep up with you. I think 3 had the best balance of the pikmin being reasonably retarded but still competent. You'll never really notice how crazy the ai is though because of this next issue.

DOG:
- The dog is incredibly overpowered and a big factor in why the game is easy. Even just at the very start, the ride ability allows you to compress all pikmin into the dog's hurtbox. A huge part of previous pikmin games' challenge was having to deal with an unwieldy squad of 100, which added risk vs reward for having a larger squad. Now everyone is easily compressed into a small, agile hurtbox that removes most of the challenge from the game. This is really noticeable for returning Pikmin 2 enemies like the man at legs, whose bullets you can literally just outrun.
- With upgrades this dude becomes retarded. By the endgame, he’s a bulbmin who does insane damage, is fully automated, basically unkillable, fast at moving/digging, and can even carry 100 weight objects. Insane shit. He’s the main reason people will think the game is easy.
- If you did a 0 upgrade run, or even just a 0 dog upgrade challenge, then this would easily be the hardest pikmin game and it wouldn’t be close. Especially if you went further and refused to utilize the ride mechanic.

BASEGAME:
- Easily the worst introduction to any pikmin game. The forced zoomed-in camera, low pikmin cap, lack of charge, and bad characters leave the worst impression possible for the first day. I initially really didn’t like the game because of it.
- The characters are really bad. Collin is the only one who ever grew on me, everyone else is just worse Brittany.
- They removed the forced cutscene for collecting treasures, but decided to keep it in for castaways. Really stupid that they do this shit for leaflings too which has the same cutscene every time.
- Characters never stop talking. Its made much more annoying since none of these dudes are ever on the field. 3 is the game where characters talk the most, and it's nothing compared to 4.
- I don’t like that you play as a shitty pikminsona OC. Its really stupid and takes a lot of the charm out of playing with captains. The NPC text just has everyone jerking you off too, and since its meant to be a self insert it just feels cheesy and forced. The short moments when you play as Olimar make it obvious how much worse of an idea it is.
- The piklopedia and treasure have their descriptions written by randos who suck and aren’t charming in the slightest. Insane downgrade. They give you Olimar’s notes for beating the base game and Louie’s notes for beating the post. Clearly done for good reason.
- I don’t like how this game (and 3 to an extent) depicts Olimar as incompetent and someone who needs to be saved constantly. He’s better as the playable character and is easily one of the most charming people in the series.
- I don’t like how there’s just a perfectly pristine and intact house, its easily the worst addition to the setting. The previous games had a lot of mystery and unknown to them since it was meant to be post-apocalyptic. If you’re instead prancing around on a sink or couch then it just makes you feel like a whimsical garden gnome instead of being stranded on a planet.
- I’ve got no clue where this is supposed to take place on the timeline. 1 through 3 were pretty clearly chronological, while 4 seems to be a soft reboot in some areas while continuous in others.
- Probably the most mid Pikmin OST ever, but that kinda slots in with 1 and 2 who’s OSTs were unimpressive as well. Only the house’s area theme was good, and the boss music sucks now compared to 3. Don’t know who thought that was a good idea. The remade songs from 2 are awesome though, and the unique songs aside from the new boss theme are pretty good. Area themes are still incredibly underwhelming though compared to 3
- I don’t like how there is no second captain. The dog is overpowered as previously stated, and its honestly way more annoying to switch between yourself and the dog than it ever was for captains. Makes task division harder than it was in 3, even though it shouldn’t be. Task division in this game just ends up being: Send Oatchi to this area, he kills every enemy in 2 seconds, rinse and repeat
- The areas are fun. A lot of the caves are pikmin 2 references, which is awesome (although also makes you realize how shit 2’s controls are).
- Being able to see pikmin 2 enemies again is awesome since 3 lacked them.
- Overall I like how onion collection was handled, though I still don’t like the limited pikmin capacity and needing to upgrade it. If they were going to do that, you should’ve started with a higher count and not included extra flarlic.
- Caves are much better than in 2. Insanely quicker overall and thus feel a lot better to go through. No bullshit falling bombrocks every 5 steps, although some people may consider that a downgrade.
- Dandori battles are fun and a nice way to change the gameplay loop
- Night expeditions are also really fun and good to break the loop. Don’t just play them whenever you get a leafling though, I recommend just completing them in batches for each area. If you do one after each leafling it can feel a lot more interrupting.
- I think overworld areas are a little too big, but being able to move your base is cool to make up for it.
- I hate how enemies never respawn at all, it makes areas feel dead once you complete them. It’s nice to not need to retreat ground to clear out areas again, but they could’ve just made the respawn time 5 days instead of 3 if they wanted to accomplish that.
- There is 0 backtracking in this game. 1 through 3 typically had you return to earlier areas with a new type, but this game has none of that. It’s not really a positive or a negative, but I like the variety that backtracking brought in 1-3. Its much more conducive to just power through everything in an area in 4 and then move onto the next.
- The UI in this game feels soulless, which is a problem with many first party switch games. It feels the same as Odyssey or BOTW’s User interfaces, and theres just something intensely unsatisfying about them.
- The pikmin withdrawal menu is honestly really sluggish and unsatisfying, which is weird since 3 did it so well.
- Treasures can feel really underwhelming to collect due to the lack of fanfare. It’s not as bad as something like Mario Odyssey, but it can contribute to areas feeling a little less satisfying to complete. Pikmin 3 had the best balance of satisfying collection and gameplay imo by giving you a cutscene for the collectibles at the end of each day. Although 2 could get annoying with the treasure cutscenes, there was something really charming about it that gets lost in 4.

POSTGAME:
- Although the characters added in 4 are shit, the writing for Olimar and Louie is the best its ever been. Louie’s exploration logs are the most entertaining content about him ever. I wish the president could actually come back, but at least he’s actually mentioned now.
- The fact that you unlock Pikmin 1 Lite with Olimar’s shipwreck tale is awesome. Easily was one of my favorite parts of the game. It really shows how much better it is to play as an actual captain with a personality instead of a weird OC. My only complaint is that a lot of the parts have samey designs. It's probably super fun to optimize this.
- Overall has a good amount of areas for how fast paced the game is. 6 was the perfect number they could have gone for.
- This game makes louie insane but its not really out of character.
- There should’ve been actual references to pikmin 3’s captains instead of having random lookalike Koppaites who are vaguely related to them.
- I love how the most notable caves/enemies/bosses from pikmins 1 and 2 return. Seeing the smoky progg’s egg again was one of my best experiences with the game. Just awesome stuff.
- The sage leaf challenge is very interesting and has some of the most challenging basegame pikmin content ever (still relatively easy aside from a couple floors)
- The final dungeon is a little strange and acts as a pseudo bossrush. Pretty fun floors though. Having a floor just be an empress bulblax with an inaccessible face is the funniest thing ever.
- The final boss is really weird and acts like a set piece battle, including phases and everything. It’s very strange and feels like it belongs in a mario game or something more than pikmin. I don’t think its necessarily bad, but I like 1 through 3’s final bosses much better.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
- Overall it probably has some of the best gameplay in the series. I think 3 might be slightly better just because it was more satisfying to collect things.
- Despite the fantastic gameplay, it honestly feels like one of the worst to control. This is all because of the forced lock-on system and the pause when you try to overload an object, as well as the camera.
- Maneuvering is too easy because of the dog and is the main reason people will think this game is easy. 3 struck the best balance with this again.
- The dog is overpowered but fun to use. I still would’ve rather had another captain instead though.

Overall its like an 8 or 9 out of 10, in spite of all its flaws. Probably my second favorite pikmin game (I’d rank them 3>4>2>1). However I think if Pikmin 1 and 2 were remade with 3’s mechanics, then this would probably be the worst one due to a lack of charm (and the new order would probably be 2>1>3>4). I think this game would be significantly better without the dog and forced QOL changes that weren’t good (the lock-on and pikmin throw limiters). I also still dislike the 3 type limit, initial limited capacity, and purchasable (instead of discoverable) upgrades. I’d prefer if subsequent entries didn’t continue these trends.
This game is destined to be the best selling pikmin game, and I’m fine with that. 4 could have been way worse. I’d prefer if the next game went back to actual characters you play as though. I’d love to actually have Olimar and Louie (and even the president) as the main characters again, but the cast of 3 is still charming and proves that you could do new captains perfectly well. Hopefully the next game