Holy shit


After the nightmare of the caves in Pikmin 2, Pikmin 3 is such a breath of fresh air, it took nine years for this game to come out and man it shows.
Pikmin 3 basically improves on almost everything from the previous 2 games, ok yeah some small things the first two games did better, like the story and the characters I liked better in first two……….that’s about it.
Can I just say, the new Pikmin they added are excellent, I didn’t much care for the white and purple Pikmin in Pikmin 2, but I adore the rock and flying Pikmin in this game, they feel much more well rounded and are used more throughout the game, in fact unlike Pikmin 2 where a lot of things could be made obsolete by the purple Pikmin, in this game everything is balanced, rock Pikmin are powerful but they can’t latch onto things, and flying Pikmin can more easily traverse areas but are weak in combat, the balance here is wonderful.
Speaking of combat, it’s been greatly improved here, the lock on is nice and in general you have more control over your Pikmin, there’s a few new enemies to face off against, but what I really want to talk about are the bosses, holy fuck.
These bosses are great, the sheer scale and size of all of them makes the battles feel far more impactful, the first fight with the armored worm thing is so nice, the bat thing in the cave is admittedly pretty easy but also fun, the sandworm thing is a great use of area effects with the constantly changing terrain and it’s satisfying to see this thing launch out of the ground after hitting it enough, the flying bug thing is neat, the fucking plant rock boss in the mud is just gargantuan, like holy shit, I was taken aback by it, and then there’s the plasm wraith, I’ll get to this boss in a bit though.
Oh my god, can I just please talk about the graphics man, they’re fucking beautiful, the first two games look good but oh my goodness, this is next level shit, the way everything looks just immerses you more into the world, which just makes it even better.
I also did both of Olimar’s side adventures, these were pretty neat, Olimar’s assignment was a nice short and simple way of showing us how Olimar explored the planet and ended up getting captured by the Plasm Wraith, and Olimar’s comeback is a nice epilogue to close out the game on.
Before I move on to the final part, let me address my two problems with this game, 1. It’s a little too easy, I mean I know I complained about 2 being hard as shit, but like that was just bullshit difficulty with all the bombs and rocks falling from the ceiling, here though, man it’s just way too easy, even the bosses go down quick (plasm wraith being an exception of course), and this leads to my other problem, 2. The game is very short, it took me like maybe 4-5 hours to beat the main stuff, maybe an extra hour or two for the missing fruit I collected and the Olimar stuff, but it’s just short man, though I guess I prefer the short and sweet route compared to the overstays its welcome route (looking at you Pikmin 2).

Now, the final level, the formidable oak, easily the best part of the game and maybe the whole series, it blends everything we love about Pikmin perfectly together, it takes some of the good elements of the caves in Pikmin 2 like the multiple layers, but adds a lot more atmosphere here, the plasm wraith feels like an excellent upgrade from the water wraith, the puzzles are more complex than some of the ones seen before, it utilizes the three captains really well, it’s long enough to be challenging but doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it all caps off with a fantastic final boss, much like the titan dweevil, it uses all elements to combat you, but adds a twist with the whole bringing down the wraith into pieces and destroying the individual pieces, also electricity doesn’t insta kill every non yellow Pikmin in the game, so that’s a plus, made the titan dweevil fight very annoying.
After all that, you get a nice ending cutscene with Olimar thanking you for rescuing him, you leave as the plasm wraith screams at your ship, and that ends Pikmin 3………(also earlier there’s an extremely funny cutscene where Louie jumps out of your ship, steals all your food supply, runs offscreen, and fucking explodes, it’s so funny man).


So yeah, that’s Pikmin 3, an excellent adventure that just improves on everything the series has done, and it’s easily one of Nintendo’s best games, if Pikmin 4 can top this game, then holy fuck we’re in for something truly special.
Now one last thing before I finish this review off, I played this game once back in 2020 when it first came out on switch, and it’s weird cause I did not remember a fucking thing about the game when I replayed it this time, it’s kinda weird honestly, and since this basically a first playthrough for my brain, I’m just gonna put it on the 2023 list.


Now, we wait for Pikmin 4, just one more week and maybe the Pikmin subreddit will finally be normal again…………oh who am I kidding that place r/BatmanArkham on steroids.

Reviewed on Jul 14, 2023


1 Comment


and then this is my least favorite one lol