I did not expect to love Pikmin 4 as much as I do.
I have not played any Pikmin or RTS prior to playing Pikmin 4, and it was a bit of a slow burn for me. Given that this game is meant for a family audience, the tutorials are slow and detailed, cluttering up the opening couple hours of the game. I ended my first play session thinking "that was alright." The next day I played for three straight hours.
The delicate music and gorgeous environments of the opening areas invited me into the world of Pikmin. The strategizing of careful use of my little guys and my big puppy kept me longing to just play one more day or one more sublevel of a cave. I appreciated the variety between caves, traditional areas, dandori challenges, dandori battles, and night expeditions, though I do think that night expeditions are the weakest element, gameplay-wise, too short and too easy, on the whole. I hope that Nintendo iterates on the night expeditions in future Pikmin games!
I docked half a star because the writing is, well, serviceable, if occasionally scenes go on too long, but I wasn't really there for the narrative. I was there to painstakingly plot out my routes through a level to achieve the greatest possible amount of dandori.
Truly, I think this is a great place to start with the Pikmin series, just skip cutscenes if you're bored and know that the tutorials stop around day 9. I can't wait to play the rest of the series!
I have not played any Pikmin or RTS prior to playing Pikmin 4, and it was a bit of a slow burn for me. Given that this game is meant for a family audience, the tutorials are slow and detailed, cluttering up the opening couple hours of the game. I ended my first play session thinking "that was alright." The next day I played for three straight hours.
The delicate music and gorgeous environments of the opening areas invited me into the world of Pikmin. The strategizing of careful use of my little guys and my big puppy kept me longing to just play one more day or one more sublevel of a cave. I appreciated the variety between caves, traditional areas, dandori challenges, dandori battles, and night expeditions, though I do think that night expeditions are the weakest element, gameplay-wise, too short and too easy, on the whole. I hope that Nintendo iterates on the night expeditions in future Pikmin games!
I docked half a star because the writing is, well, serviceable, if occasionally scenes go on too long, but I wasn't really there for the narrative. I was there to painstakingly plot out my routes through a level to achieve the greatest possible amount of dandori.
Truly, I think this is a great place to start with the Pikmin series, just skip cutscenes if you're bored and know that the tutorials stop around day 9. I can't wait to play the rest of the series!