Pikmin 3 Deluxe might be the best introduction to the Pikmin series. It never felt like it was holding my hand and the normal difficulty was just difficult enough to not feel overly punishing for newcomers.

I like the fruit system, but maybe it's a little too forgiving. I was able to get a juice buffer going pretty easily even though I was mostly focusing on the story. There was only one time when I feared I would run out of juice and that was when all of my juice was stolen by Louie.

I thought that the story was just OK. Alph, Britanny, and Charlie are serviceable protagonists, but they don't really have any depth or charm. It felt like the story only existed to set up the gameplay sequences.

I've never really liked escort missions so I ended up kinda disliking the Formidable Oak. This part made me super anxious. Fun fact: this escort mission took longer for me to finish than the final boss.

Speaking of bosses, I guess it's time I talk about the excellent roster of bosses in Pikmin 3. They all feel appropriately large in scope and are satisfying to defeat. Though none of them felt like a real challenge, even the Quaggled Mireclops and the Plasm Wraith aren't all that difficult if you use the right type of Pikmin. I don't mind the easy difficulty though considering I'm a newcomer to the franchise. I'm afraid that Pikmin 2 is gonna kick my ass when I get to it.💀

Anyways, I'm excited to play Pikmin 4 and I plan on reviewing that so stay tuned!