Pikmin 4 is finally here. If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent the past few days exploring what the miniaturized world filled with treasure and funky creatures has to offer. And if you haven’t been, then let this be my chance to convince you why Pikmin 4 is entirely worth all of the hype.
Pikmin 4 offers something for everyone
Pikmin is finally making its grand debut on the Switch. Sure, we technically received a port of last-generation’s title with all of the polish that Nintendo’s Deluxe editions typically do. But now coming on a decade since Pikmin 3 was first released, it has been a long time coming for a new installment in the franchise. But with so much time between releases, Pikmin 4 has a lot riding on it.
The folks at Nintendo themselves are well aware of the pressure, too. If you missed my coverage from back in June, the company invited me to come play Pikmin 4 before its release this past week, giving me some first impressions on the gameplay itself alongside context for just what it is hoping to deliver for the fourth installment in the series. Pikmin has never been the breakout success that other Nintendo titles are. Mario, Zelda, hell even Metroid are all household names amongst gamers, but Pikmin just isn’t quite as popular.
Even so, it still is just as beloved by players as anything else in Nintendo’s first-party catalog, not to mention the people behind the scenes from the company, too. And the latter really is clear from the time I’ve spent with the game so far.
Being the franchise’s first new title on the Switch, Pikmin 4 makes fantastic use of the hardware to bring some improvements to the visuals and gameplay alike. Starting with the former, one of the things that immediately caught my eye and has continued to captivate me has been just how crisp everything looks. This isn’t going to win any awards compared to 4K PS5 games or any other hyper realistic titles out there, but I do really appreciate how the company has managed to stay consistent with the titles’ original design cues while modernizing everything to take advantage of the new hardware.
It’s also a similar story for the lighting, which really shines in the game’s numerous cave dungeons. These missions have always been a part of the series, but now look better than before with better illumination tech that makes the levels feel particularly fun and scary compared to the more bright and colorful world up on the surface.
Gameplay on the other hand is receiving so much love. The core mission of Pikmin remains the same for the new title – commanding an army of little plant creatures around a shrunken down world in order to collect treasure and defeat foes. Expect this time Nintendo is really leaning heavily on the story elements by actually delivering more of a narrative than we’ve seen from past iterations. The game largely focuses on seeking out past explorers who have been stranded in this miniature world, slowly expanding a team in order to level up your treasure collecting capabilities.
It’s a fun twist on the game that adds so many new layers to the experience. There are now skill trees for adding extra power ups onto your character, as well as items to build that offer greater control over your Pikmin and more. Speaking of the little plant guys, there are also several new types of the Pikmin that offer added variety in the puzzles you’ll need to overcome. The new additions also complement the new enemies, too.
In my time with Nintendo, the company really drove home how it was trying to reposition Pikmin 4 as a cozy title you could curl up on the couch with. If you’re a veteran player like myself, you’ll know that this game can sometimes be anything but cozy, delivering one of the most intense experiences out there. There is truly nothing more agonizing in the world of gaming than confidently charging into battle with your squad of Pikmin, only to witness a multicolored massacre as your team is eaten alive by a Burrowing Snagret.
So in order to make those moments a little less heartbreaking, there’s a new Rewind feature to help undo any mistakes or miscalculations. And let me tell you, it’s such an amazing addition to the game. One of the main reasons I love Pikmin is the whole experience of commanding the delightful little plant boys, and having the option to undo my children being decimated on the battlefield makes the game that much more enjoyable.
On the flip side, the fun times that you spend marching around the different levels with your cohort of walking sprouts can be better spent, too. Nintendo is also really, and I mean really leaning into the concept of Dandori this time. It’s a word that can simply be translated to the synergy that comes from planning, deploying, and commanding your Pikmin, and you’ll have so many more tools at your disposal to do it.
I love the newfound commands you can issue to your infantry that let you quickly round up idle Pikmin, even outside of your proximity, amongst all of the other ways to can put them to work. That same mindset carries over to one of the game’s characters, Otachi, who on top of tagging along by your side can also be commanded to do different things. The dog can fittingly sniff out treasure and other secrets on the map, which has really made Pikmin a game you can pick up for 15 minutes and then put down. Previous installments felt like I had to end my sessions after I had complemented longer gameplay sessions, and now even if I haven’t touched my Switch for a bit, I can easily pick up right where I left off. Or at least, ask Otachi to quickly find me something to do and get my head back in the game.
9to5Toys’ Take
Pikmin 4 is not going to be for everyone, but Nintendo has done everything it can to make sure that the game is going to be enjoyed by as many gamers as possible. Normally that means diluting the experience down, but in this case it really just means we’re getting the best Pikmin game yet.
It’s more accessible than ever, while still delivering on all of the core experiences that you’d expect from the series. There are so many quality of life changes that make gameplay far less tedious than previous releases, but also leans into all of the reasons why fans like myself have loved the first three installments.
Nintendo has boiled down the Pikmin experience to deliver extremely fun core gameplay that’s as perfected as we’ve seen, but then also expanded gameplay to include plenty of firsts for the series. Exploring at night has been a taboo that no other Pikmin game has dared touch, and now the fourth game has decided to turn those into fun little tower defense missions.
If there’s really one message that I want to walk away with from my time playing Pikmin 4 so far, it’s that you should give the game a shot. There’s no other game like it, and all of the improvements make sure that this is a game that’s just as much for veteran fans like myself as it is for first-timers entirely new to the world of Pikmin.
Buy Pikmin 4 now for Nintendo Switch
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