It’s been a while since I was actually sad to end my time with a game. Pikmin only comes around once in a blue moon, and while I think ten years between games is kind of excessive, I think I genuinely prefer for these games to take their sweet time. I pretty much drowned myself in this game and I have no regrets. Pikmin remains a brilliantly designed series, even with some concessions made.
Looking at those concessions, the old debate over what the appropriate level of difficulty for this series is exactly has reared its head again. Pikmin 4 may give Pikmin 3 a run for its money in the ease with which it can be completed. Not only are you given accessibility options like being able to simply rewind a few minutes at a time rather than an entire day, you also have Oatchi. This dog not only acts as your second captain for this game, but can be upgraded to act like a large group of multifaceted Pikmin all by himself. He also lets you ride around with Pikmin on his back, greatly reducing the risk of strays in the back taking hits. If you were to compare the games side by side, I would say Pikmin 4 ends easier than 3 by the time you’re fully upgraded and have things figured out, but Pikmin 3 put me at risk on account of my ignorance on far fewer occasions. This may just come down to Emperor and Empress Bulblax being back, but the long and short of it is that I used the rewind feature several times in 4 whereas the only time I’d need to redo a day in 3 was due to not amassing as much fruit as I would have liked.
What’s most interesting is that Oatchi actually keeps the game pretty fun in his own way, rather than just dumbing things down with the safety nets he provides. Oatchi acting as a one-man army lends itself to more interesting decision-making than just having two captains. You are now objectively weaker when separated from him, but you can still be much more efficient. Oatchi having his own progression system that allows you to take on tougher challenges is also satisfying to watch unfold. One of the game’s final challenges basically demands a fully upgraded Oatchi in order to earn a platinum medal (dandori issue, I know). A rare instance of a legitimate escort mission with the yellow thing dragging your object of desire away from a pair of thick, wet men. While I think the challenges posed in a game with just another normal captain would be more rewarding to overcome, Oatchi offers unique and fun utility in and of himself. Oatchi fundamentally changes how Pikmin are managed because of his ability to consolidate the space they take up, but he thankfully does not deprive the player of fun new ways to play the game. I would say working towards those platinum medals in 4 is actually quite a bit harder than anything in Pikmin 1, but admittedly completing the base game was still very easy. Pikmin 1 also did not have the luxury of twenty years of perspective to design itself around all its greatest gameplay strengths.
“Dandori” is the word of the day with Pikmin 4. Some esoteric foreigner shit about time management. Pikmin 3’s challenge rooms are now the entire ethos behind Pikmin 4. Unlike both Pikmin 1 and 3 though, 4 has no fail state waiting for you if you want to take your time, outside of a side mode where you play as Olimar. 3’s time limit was basically irrelevant, but I thought 1’s added a great bit of flavor that too many people decry. The lack of a macro time limit doesn’t really harm Pikmin 4, in fact I think the spirit of 1’s emphasis on time management is captured wonderfully here. That repeated shouting of “dandori” ended up being a great incentive to prove I was not a dumb baby and could platinum this baby game. There were seriously a couple of times I walked into a fight with the confidence of Russia throwing down with Japan and I experienced similar results to that endeavor.
4 takes a couple more interesting cues from prior entries to inject some of Pikmin’s old soul back into the mix. In 3, areas were more linear escalations towards boss encounters. These fights were given a ton of fanfare, I definitely enjoyed them. However, simply stumbling upon a boss in its den has its own appeal. This is especially true when the boss is actually more bizarre and unnatural, not less. Walking in on a disco spider just vibing there in its arena raises so many questions, but the humor speaks for itself. On the other side of things, knowing emperor bulblax is just chilling underground in a standard area, waiting for you to throw one Pikmin to start the fight, makes it feel like a more organic part of its environment. The Piklopedia has also made a triumphant return. With it you will have three characters giving their thoughts. You have the more surface level analysis, Olimar giving more thoughtful or speculative journals, and Louie saying things like “Six million Pikmin? In four games? I don’t know about that…” There is one boss that feels more like something out of Pikmin 3, and it makes me wish there were a few more like that. Pikmin 4 has already gone to insane lengths to appeal to virtually all Pikmin fans though, so there really isn’t much more I could reasonably ask for.
Unlike the first game, 4 struggles a bit getting on its feet. This is, without a doubt, the longest game in the series, and the introduction is unlike anything that came before. Lots of dialogue. Lots of new mechanics. Old mechanics get more time allotted to explaining them than before. That last one is particularly bad, because referencing Pikmin 1 shows just how little we really needed some of the newer material explained to us. However, as previously stated, Pikmin 4 is substantially longer than its predecessors. Once the game gets going, you really can move at a breakneck pace to 100% it. For the most part. More impressive than the density of content is how well tuned everything is.
Pikmin 2 struggled to justify Reds when Purples existed. Pikmin 3 set Purples and Whites in a side mode and significantly nerfed their utility, while also making Blues very situational compared to Winged Pikmin. Pikmin 4 has NINE Pikmin types at your disposal in the main game. Balance issues still exist, but it’s astounding I got as much mileage out of each type as I did. Purples are nearly back to their dominant state, but until I had a huge number of them, Reds remained helpful. Red are also capable of carrying fiery pinecones that let you open up barriers, keeping them relevant for longer. Whites have several instances where their fast walk speed is critical to earning platinum medals, but their poison immunity is rendered fairly obsolete by Oatchi. I heard many people lamenting the lack of use for Rock Pikmin in this game, only to find they had quite a few caves, challenges, and even a full area in which they were quite handy. Blue Pikmin got the best deal they’ve had since the first game. Two huge areas and a handful of caves demand underwater utility. Yellow Pikmin still do that thing where they need to be thrown high sometimes. Wow. Good for them. Good for those guys.
New to the series are Ice and Glow Pikmin. Ice is one of those things that threatens to trivialize the entire game. You receive them quite early and a handful of them make fighting most enemies a breeze. They DO require you to have some other types on hand if you want to maximize efficiency though, as their damage output is peanuts compared to the other types. You will also lose out on any opportunity to farm more Pikmin from corpses of enemies who are defeated while frozen, as they leave nothing to harvest after shattering. I would say it was a solid effort in trying to balance something so strong. Most interestingly, it feels like the Pikmin type limit, forcing you to only have three types out at once, and the recommended Pikmin usage screen, were made to push the player into situations where they would not have Ice Pikmin around. It’s a bit artificial, I’m pretty sure you can get faster results by relying on Ice more. At the very least, while maximum efficiency might demand carrying some Ice Pikmin at all times, they are still not the be all, end all to your time management.
Glow Pikmin are an interesting resource. They are primarily available in night missions, a side mode focused on tower defense. As such they are designed around accommodating your needs in this mode. You fight against hordes of advancing enemies, so the glowies are given the ability to teleport to you as soon as they are idle for a moment, as well as a powerful stun attack that extends its duration the more glowies you have. This makes them a powerful resource, but one that can only be summoned in caves outside of their dedicated missions. You must expend a resource in order to make use of them, so most players will be keeping themselves in check here, even if you do amass plenty of glow seeds. I actually don’t find these units as strong as Purples, who remain king. But if you’re willing to forgive the glowies’ repeated demands that their “fellow Red Pikmin” stage public terror attacks on Bulborb HQ then you will find a very fun new addition to these games.
Winged Pikmin sadly drew the short straw for this game. I can admire that they went out of their way to actually include them for certain caves and challenges, but their pathing in this game leaves them feeling significantly less impactful. White Pikmin and Oatchi will generally get you better dandori. Worse is that Winged Pikmin still have the same 0.5x modifier to their attack that White Pikmin and Ice Pikmin have, but the tradeoff just isn’t worth it. There aren’t even any enemies where you really see the benefit in using the winged Pikmin, as ultra spicy spray on stronger Pikmin expedites the need to reach elevated enemies faster. However, there are a few instances where Winged Pikmin help in perfecting a puzzle, like the white onion challenge.
Structurally, Pikmin 4 is broken up between large areas, caves, and various dandori challenges. Different areas favor different Pikmin, but you can generally play with other types if that’s just how you prefer to do things. You will be given suggested party setups for each area, and are limited to three Pikmin types, a first for the series. I feel this limitation needlessly restrains expressiveness, but it is admittedly rare where it feels like I would appreciate having more than three types of Pikmin. The levels are larger than ever, so you’re given many opportunities to move your base around should you need to swap things around. This is most common in Serene Shores, where the water level will change midday. As I alluded to before, Blue Pikmin get to shine in this game in a way that they haven’t since the first. Not only do these larger areas give them plenty of opportunities to prove their worth, there are also several caves that favor them as well. These more open areas, compounded by the revolutionary ability to jump in a Pikmin game, lend themselves to a greater sense of verticality than we have had in this series before. Some might feel that this leads to a lack of density in the main levels compared to say, Pikmin 3, where every corner is basically a new slice of dandori. However, 4 does a lot to compensate for this through caves and challenges, on top of this design decision giving you a greater sense of scope for your adventure in general.
Oddly enough, the game has one of the most pointless fakeout credits sequences I’ve ever seen. Leading off of Hero’s Hideaway, a fantastic area in which you have to occasionally deal with an unkillable enemy that steals your troops away, you are treated to a hint at Louie’s whereabouts. This leads into not one but two entirely new areas, and not just small areas that ostensibly act as boss arenas like Pikmin 3’s Formidable Oak. They are fully expanded upon areas, just as robust as what preceded them. Really, really do not get what they were going for here, but both levels prove more than worth your time.
Caves will often restrict what Pikmin you are even allowed to bring. Not only because the environment favors them, but in some situations you’re forced to use these Pikmin precisely because the challenge is actually more difficult for this specific type. I actually wish there was more like this in the game. What’s more, if a cave allowed me to change a Pikmin’s type along the way, then it shouldn’t allow me to enter with that changed type to begin with. I would’ve found that much more interesting. You generally won’t be grinding for units without their corresponding onion though, so these limited challenges generally work as intended. Of particular note is that Pikmin 2’s Water Wraith cave is more or less completely remade in Pikmin 4. Should this be criticized as rehashed content? It’s been nearly twenty years since that game was released. I guess time makes that less objectionable.
Dandori challenges make up some of the best content in the game. You can pass any of these with a mere bronze medal, if you’re a huge fucking loser. Very few games manage to provide that last second desperation as I worked to complete a challenge, and Pikmin 4 pulled it off multiple times. I am talking the literal last second, a big fat “1…0” displayed on my screen telling me how close I was to failure, just before I scored a Platinum Medal. More than once. Dandori issue, yes, but one I’m thankful for. Granted, a few of these were done without full upgrades, like a captain with a pluckaphone or a 100 strength Oatchi, but being capable of scoring high marks on these challenges without those things is a testament to just how well designed the game is. To add to this, I was not actively trying to hinder myself, this all happened quite naturally, and I wasn’t even aware of the pluckaphone until later. I recall one particular challenge where the solution seemed to be using purple pikmin in a way that felt wrong, with them carrying relatively light loads, but it worked. This could have been an inefficient solution, but realizing that it was a solution at all was fun. This is the kind of content that begs for some additions down the line, crafted with pure malicious glee by developers.
Not all of Pikmin 4’s content is a home run. Night missions end up a bit too simplistic, albeit fun for what they are. They only make you sweat a bit towards the end, where you may find yourself frantically running back and forth between bases to make sure a tennis ball spider does not trample your bipedal canine while a ball of amphibious miasma encroaches on you. I will say that I’m glad these missions still account for some interesting routing, with some of them being beatable before any enemies of note even become aggressive. There’s also a series of dandori battles, distinct from dandori challenges. These are a way of integrating the multiplayer feature into the main game. The random and chaotic nature of these leave them feeling much less geared towards the appeal of the standard challenges, so I felt a greatly diminished incentive to perfect them. Still, this mode does seem like it would be a blast to play with friends, but sadly my friend swore off these games after a failed attempt at Pikmin 3 multiplayer years ago, where he was left stuck behind a gate for several minutes as I jacked off in a corner somewhere.
It’s pretty amazing that even Pikmin 4’s weakest content still ends up being pretty good. From top to bottom, there was never anything in this game that I actively disliked doing. There are only a few things that actually bring the game’s score down from 5/5 for me. Granted, I gave Bloodborne a perfect score, and that game is far from perfect, it’s just that the flaws never outweighed how I reflected on the experience as a whole. Maybe time will change that for Pikmin 4 as well (it did for Pikmin 1 pretty much immediately upon my second playthrough), but a few changes leave me scratching my head. Why is lock-on not on a toggle? This feature has virtually removed the need for aiming, and you do have the ability to switch targets, but it’s often a bit overeager to send my Pikmin where I do not need them. A flick of the wrist should have been enough for micro adjustments, but lock-on is just too sticky. “It works most of the time” is simply not enough when this is my primary interaction with the world around me. If I were to screw up throwing things on gyro, then at least I know that’s on me. Lock-on screw ups feel more vexing to deal with. True, they’re just a momentary vexation, but those moments are too common for me to give this a pass. Why are certain features like swarming, something that used to be a default ability, locked behind endgame progression? Maybe charging is just better, but there was no reason to throw this ability into the corner like this. These kinds of things, compounded by the extreme increase in dialogue fluff, make me view the game less favorably than a literal five star experience. They are pervasive enough issues that I cannot ignore how they impacted my experience, even if I think the game is stellar overall.
A testament to just how densely packed the content is in this game, I nearly forgot to talk a bit more about the side mode featuring Olimar as the main playable character. This mode is thrown in here for seemingly no reason other than to find yet more ways for any kind of fan to enjoy Pikmin 4. It reintroduces the macro time limit of Pikmin 1, but it’s even stricter. This was likely done because the player is already familiar with the areas Olimar is exploring. Despite this being well-trodden territory by this point, the time limit and new treasures to collect make this mode feel fresh enough to be worth exploring. Olimar and Moss also become more powerful as the days go by, rather than this being tied to player choice. An interesting decision that turns the time management in this mode into a race against your own space-time obliterating power. It also opens up the Sage Trials for you, which I will once again say is my favorite content in the game.
When I was done with everything, all I could think about was either replaying this game or another Pikmin game. It’s such an oddball franchise that has always had difficulty finding a wider audience thanks to its surface level cuteness being mixed with a healthy dose of moroseness. Something it does without veering into glib territory to reassure the self-conscious adults that it’s in on the joke. The game goes above and beyond in adding little bits of goofy character. I’m happy to see that, with Pikmin 4, this franchise may have finally found that larger pool of fans, and years from now I can say I liked Pikmin before it was cool.
Looking at those concessions, the old debate over what the appropriate level of difficulty for this series is exactly has reared its head again. Pikmin 4 may give Pikmin 3 a run for its money in the ease with which it can be completed. Not only are you given accessibility options like being able to simply rewind a few minutes at a time rather than an entire day, you also have Oatchi. This dog not only acts as your second captain for this game, but can be upgraded to act like a large group of multifaceted Pikmin all by himself. He also lets you ride around with Pikmin on his back, greatly reducing the risk of strays in the back taking hits. If you were to compare the games side by side, I would say Pikmin 4 ends easier than 3 by the time you’re fully upgraded and have things figured out, but Pikmin 3 put me at risk on account of my ignorance on far fewer occasions. This may just come down to Emperor and Empress Bulblax being back, but the long and short of it is that I used the rewind feature several times in 4 whereas the only time I’d need to redo a day in 3 was due to not amassing as much fruit as I would have liked.
What’s most interesting is that Oatchi actually keeps the game pretty fun in his own way, rather than just dumbing things down with the safety nets he provides. Oatchi acting as a one-man army lends itself to more interesting decision-making than just having two captains. You are now objectively weaker when separated from him, but you can still be much more efficient. Oatchi having his own progression system that allows you to take on tougher challenges is also satisfying to watch unfold. One of the game’s final challenges basically demands a fully upgraded Oatchi in order to earn a platinum medal (dandori issue, I know). A rare instance of a legitimate escort mission with the yellow thing dragging your object of desire away from a pair of thick, wet men. While I think the challenges posed in a game with just another normal captain would be more rewarding to overcome, Oatchi offers unique and fun utility in and of himself. Oatchi fundamentally changes how Pikmin are managed because of his ability to consolidate the space they take up, but he thankfully does not deprive the player of fun new ways to play the game. I would say working towards those platinum medals in 4 is actually quite a bit harder than anything in Pikmin 1, but admittedly completing the base game was still very easy. Pikmin 1 also did not have the luxury of twenty years of perspective to design itself around all its greatest gameplay strengths.
“Dandori” is the word of the day with Pikmin 4. Some esoteric foreigner shit about time management. Pikmin 3’s challenge rooms are now the entire ethos behind Pikmin 4. Unlike both Pikmin 1 and 3 though, 4 has no fail state waiting for you if you want to take your time, outside of a side mode where you play as Olimar. 3’s time limit was basically irrelevant, but I thought 1’s added a great bit of flavor that too many people decry. The lack of a macro time limit doesn’t really harm Pikmin 4, in fact I think the spirit of 1’s emphasis on time management is captured wonderfully here. That repeated shouting of “dandori” ended up being a great incentive to prove I was not a dumb baby and could platinum this baby game. There were seriously a couple of times I walked into a fight with the confidence of Russia throwing down with Japan and I experienced similar results to that endeavor.
4 takes a couple more interesting cues from prior entries to inject some of Pikmin’s old soul back into the mix. In 3, areas were more linear escalations towards boss encounters. These fights were given a ton of fanfare, I definitely enjoyed them. However, simply stumbling upon a boss in its den has its own appeal. This is especially true when the boss is actually more bizarre and unnatural, not less. Walking in on a disco spider just vibing there in its arena raises so many questions, but the humor speaks for itself. On the other side of things, knowing emperor bulblax is just chilling underground in a standard area, waiting for you to throw one Pikmin to start the fight, makes it feel like a more organic part of its environment. The Piklopedia has also made a triumphant return. With it you will have three characters giving their thoughts. You have the more surface level analysis, Olimar giving more thoughtful or speculative journals, and Louie saying things like “Six million Pikmin? In four games? I don’t know about that…” There is one boss that feels more like something out of Pikmin 3, and it makes me wish there were a few more like that. Pikmin 4 has already gone to insane lengths to appeal to virtually all Pikmin fans though, so there really isn’t much more I could reasonably ask for.
Unlike the first game, 4 struggles a bit getting on its feet. This is, without a doubt, the longest game in the series, and the introduction is unlike anything that came before. Lots of dialogue. Lots of new mechanics. Old mechanics get more time allotted to explaining them than before. That last one is particularly bad, because referencing Pikmin 1 shows just how little we really needed some of the newer material explained to us. However, as previously stated, Pikmin 4 is substantially longer than its predecessors. Once the game gets going, you really can move at a breakneck pace to 100% it. For the most part. More impressive than the density of content is how well tuned everything is.
Pikmin 2 struggled to justify Reds when Purples existed. Pikmin 3 set Purples and Whites in a side mode and significantly nerfed their utility, while also making Blues very situational compared to Winged Pikmin. Pikmin 4 has NINE Pikmin types at your disposal in the main game. Balance issues still exist, but it’s astounding I got as much mileage out of each type as I did. Purples are nearly back to their dominant state, but until I had a huge number of them, Reds remained helpful. Red are also capable of carrying fiery pinecones that let you open up barriers, keeping them relevant for longer. Whites have several instances where their fast walk speed is critical to earning platinum medals, but their poison immunity is rendered fairly obsolete by Oatchi. I heard many people lamenting the lack of use for Rock Pikmin in this game, only to find they had quite a few caves, challenges, and even a full area in which they were quite handy. Blue Pikmin got the best deal they’ve had since the first game. Two huge areas and a handful of caves demand underwater utility. Yellow Pikmin still do that thing where they need to be thrown high sometimes. Wow. Good for them. Good for those guys.
New to the series are Ice and Glow Pikmin. Ice is one of those things that threatens to trivialize the entire game. You receive them quite early and a handful of them make fighting most enemies a breeze. They DO require you to have some other types on hand if you want to maximize efficiency though, as their damage output is peanuts compared to the other types. You will also lose out on any opportunity to farm more Pikmin from corpses of enemies who are defeated while frozen, as they leave nothing to harvest after shattering. I would say it was a solid effort in trying to balance something so strong. Most interestingly, it feels like the Pikmin type limit, forcing you to only have three types out at once, and the recommended Pikmin usage screen, were made to push the player into situations where they would not have Ice Pikmin around. It’s a bit artificial, I’m pretty sure you can get faster results by relying on Ice more. At the very least, while maximum efficiency might demand carrying some Ice Pikmin at all times, they are still not the be all, end all to your time management.
Glow Pikmin are an interesting resource. They are primarily available in night missions, a side mode focused on tower defense. As such they are designed around accommodating your needs in this mode. You fight against hordes of advancing enemies, so the glowies are given the ability to teleport to you as soon as they are idle for a moment, as well as a powerful stun attack that extends its duration the more glowies you have. This makes them a powerful resource, but one that can only be summoned in caves outside of their dedicated missions. You must expend a resource in order to make use of them, so most players will be keeping themselves in check here, even if you do amass plenty of glow seeds. I actually don’t find these units as strong as Purples, who remain king. But if you’re willing to forgive the glowies’ repeated demands that their “fellow Red Pikmin” stage public terror attacks on Bulborb HQ then you will find a very fun new addition to these games.
Winged Pikmin sadly drew the short straw for this game. I can admire that they went out of their way to actually include them for certain caves and challenges, but their pathing in this game leaves them feeling significantly less impactful. White Pikmin and Oatchi will generally get you better dandori. Worse is that Winged Pikmin still have the same 0.5x modifier to their attack that White Pikmin and Ice Pikmin have, but the tradeoff just isn’t worth it. There aren’t even any enemies where you really see the benefit in using the winged Pikmin, as ultra spicy spray on stronger Pikmin expedites the need to reach elevated enemies faster. However, there are a few instances where Winged Pikmin help in perfecting a puzzle, like the white onion challenge.
Structurally, Pikmin 4 is broken up between large areas, caves, and various dandori challenges. Different areas favor different Pikmin, but you can generally play with other types if that’s just how you prefer to do things. You will be given suggested party setups for each area, and are limited to three Pikmin types, a first for the series. I feel this limitation needlessly restrains expressiveness, but it is admittedly rare where it feels like I would appreciate having more than three types of Pikmin. The levels are larger than ever, so you’re given many opportunities to move your base around should you need to swap things around. This is most common in Serene Shores, where the water level will change midday. As I alluded to before, Blue Pikmin get to shine in this game in a way that they haven’t since the first. Not only do these larger areas give them plenty of opportunities to prove their worth, there are also several caves that favor them as well. These more open areas, compounded by the revolutionary ability to jump in a Pikmin game, lend themselves to a greater sense of verticality than we have had in this series before. Some might feel that this leads to a lack of density in the main levels compared to say, Pikmin 3, where every corner is basically a new slice of dandori. However, 4 does a lot to compensate for this through caves and challenges, on top of this design decision giving you a greater sense of scope for your adventure in general.
Oddly enough, the game has one of the most pointless fakeout credits sequences I’ve ever seen. Leading off of Hero’s Hideaway, a fantastic area in which you have to occasionally deal with an unkillable enemy that steals your troops away, you are treated to a hint at Louie’s whereabouts. This leads into not one but two entirely new areas, and not just small areas that ostensibly act as boss arenas like Pikmin 3’s Formidable Oak. They are fully expanded upon areas, just as robust as what preceded them. Really, really do not get what they were going for here, but both levels prove more than worth your time.
Caves will often restrict what Pikmin you are even allowed to bring. Not only because the environment favors them, but in some situations you’re forced to use these Pikmin precisely because the challenge is actually more difficult for this specific type. I actually wish there was more like this in the game. What’s more, if a cave allowed me to change a Pikmin’s type along the way, then it shouldn’t allow me to enter with that changed type to begin with. I would’ve found that much more interesting. You generally won’t be grinding for units without their corresponding onion though, so these limited challenges generally work as intended. Of particular note is that Pikmin 2’s Water Wraith cave is more or less completely remade in Pikmin 4. Should this be criticized as rehashed content? It’s been nearly twenty years since that game was released. I guess time makes that less objectionable.
Dandori challenges make up some of the best content in the game. You can pass any of these with a mere bronze medal, if you’re a huge fucking loser. Very few games manage to provide that last second desperation as I worked to complete a challenge, and Pikmin 4 pulled it off multiple times. I am talking the literal last second, a big fat “1…0” displayed on my screen telling me how close I was to failure, just before I scored a Platinum Medal. More than once. Dandori issue, yes, but one I’m thankful for. Granted, a few of these were done without full upgrades, like a captain with a pluckaphone or a 100 strength Oatchi, but being capable of scoring high marks on these challenges without those things is a testament to just how well designed the game is. To add to this, I was not actively trying to hinder myself, this all happened quite naturally, and I wasn’t even aware of the pluckaphone until later. I recall one particular challenge where the solution seemed to be using purple pikmin in a way that felt wrong, with them carrying relatively light loads, but it worked. This could have been an inefficient solution, but realizing that it was a solution at all was fun. This is the kind of content that begs for some additions down the line, crafted with pure malicious glee by developers.
Not all of Pikmin 4’s content is a home run. Night missions end up a bit too simplistic, albeit fun for what they are. They only make you sweat a bit towards the end, where you may find yourself frantically running back and forth between bases to make sure a tennis ball spider does not trample your bipedal canine while a ball of amphibious miasma encroaches on you. I will say that I’m glad these missions still account for some interesting routing, with some of them being beatable before any enemies of note even become aggressive. There’s also a series of dandori battles, distinct from dandori challenges. These are a way of integrating the multiplayer feature into the main game. The random and chaotic nature of these leave them feeling much less geared towards the appeal of the standard challenges, so I felt a greatly diminished incentive to perfect them. Still, this mode does seem like it would be a blast to play with friends, but sadly my friend swore off these games after a failed attempt at Pikmin 3 multiplayer years ago, where he was left stuck behind a gate for several minutes as I jacked off in a corner somewhere.
It’s pretty amazing that even Pikmin 4’s weakest content still ends up being pretty good. From top to bottom, there was never anything in this game that I actively disliked doing. There are only a few things that actually bring the game’s score down from 5/5 for me. Granted, I gave Bloodborne a perfect score, and that game is far from perfect, it’s just that the flaws never outweighed how I reflected on the experience as a whole. Maybe time will change that for Pikmin 4 as well (it did for Pikmin 1 pretty much immediately upon my second playthrough), but a few changes leave me scratching my head. Why is lock-on not on a toggle? This feature has virtually removed the need for aiming, and you do have the ability to switch targets, but it’s often a bit overeager to send my Pikmin where I do not need them. A flick of the wrist should have been enough for micro adjustments, but lock-on is just too sticky. “It works most of the time” is simply not enough when this is my primary interaction with the world around me. If I were to screw up throwing things on gyro, then at least I know that’s on me. Lock-on screw ups feel more vexing to deal with. True, they’re just a momentary vexation, but those moments are too common for me to give this a pass. Why are certain features like swarming, something that used to be a default ability, locked behind endgame progression? Maybe charging is just better, but there was no reason to throw this ability into the corner like this. These kinds of things, compounded by the extreme increase in dialogue fluff, make me view the game less favorably than a literal five star experience. They are pervasive enough issues that I cannot ignore how they impacted my experience, even if I think the game is stellar overall.
A testament to just how densely packed the content is in this game, I nearly forgot to talk a bit more about the side mode featuring Olimar as the main playable character. This mode is thrown in here for seemingly no reason other than to find yet more ways for any kind of fan to enjoy Pikmin 4. It reintroduces the macro time limit of Pikmin 1, but it’s even stricter. This was likely done because the player is already familiar with the areas Olimar is exploring. Despite this being well-trodden territory by this point, the time limit and new treasures to collect make this mode feel fresh enough to be worth exploring. Olimar and Moss also become more powerful as the days go by, rather than this being tied to player choice. An interesting decision that turns the time management in this mode into a race against your own space-time obliterating power. It also opens up the Sage Trials for you, which I will once again say is my favorite content in the game.
When I was done with everything, all I could think about was either replaying this game or another Pikmin game. It’s such an oddball franchise that has always had difficulty finding a wider audience thanks to its surface level cuteness being mixed with a healthy dose of moroseness. Something it does without veering into glib territory to reassure the self-conscious adults that it’s in on the joke. The game goes above and beyond in adding little bits of goofy character. I’m happy to see that, with Pikmin 4, this franchise may have finally found that larger pool of fans, and years from now I can say I liked Pikmin before it was cool.