An incredible story that made me wish I was doing anything but playing it.

The Last of Us is often heralded as one of the greatest games of all time, so needless to say my expectations were quite high upon starting the game. And in some aspects, these expectations were met! The story in The Last of Us is brilliantly written with incredible themes not explored enough in AAA games. However, as beautiful and deep as the story and its underlying themes are everything else surrounding the game is about as shallow as a puddle.

For a game with such a mature and thought-provoking story the puzzles and stealth in The Last of Us boil down to "find a ladder that's five feet in front of you" or "you COULD sneak past these guys it's just incredibly annoying and way less fun plus we'll still shower you with enough ammo anyway". Moments like these frankly felt insulting considering how deep the characters of Joel and Ellie are written and yet I'm never challenged to think when playing as them. It got to the point where the actual game felt like a mindless chore just to get to the cutscenes that would actively challenge my perception, and when these cutscenes ended I would always end at the same conclusion- why am I wasting my time with this game when I could just be watching the TV show?

This game feels as if it's embarrassed to be a videogame with its puzzles that never actively challenge the player or combat that plays out more like a movie. This is such a shame considering it houses such an engrossing story, I just wish everything else surrounding it was treated with that same level of thought.

Everyone knows Mario is cool as fuck. But who knows what he's thinking? Who knows why he touches flowers? And why do we think about him as fondly as we think of the mystical (nonexistent?) Dr Pepper? Perchance.

I believe it was Kant who said "Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play." Mario exhibits experience by tushing flowes all day, but he exhibits theory by stating "Lets-a go!" Keep it up, baby!

When Mario leaves his place of safety to grab a flowey, he knows that he may Die. And yet, for a man who can purchase lives with money, a life becomes a mere store of value. A tax that can be paid for, much as a rich man feels any law with a fine is a price. We think of Mario as a hero, but he is simply a one percenter of a more privileged variety. The lifekind. Perchance.

Pikmin 4 is a game which exemplifies why people tend to put a certain trust in Nintendo even when they aren’t exactly the most consumer-friendly company: you can usually bet that their mainline games are expertly crafted, tightly designed, and polished to a shine. On a technical level, Pikmin 4 shines very brightly: there are no major glitches or hiccups I ran into, the gameplay is solid and stays fun throughout its length, it introduces a few fun concepts and game modes to the series, it brings back a lot of highly requested elements from Pikmin 1 and 2, and it comes with tons of small yet warmly welcomed quality of life improvements. It is by no means a bad game. However, there is a bit of a problem that many people may have: Pikmin 4 is a game that is very clearly designed to be everybody’s first Pikmin game. In some aspects, it is desperately afraid to let go of your hand. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing somewhat depends on where you stand in terms of familiarity with the series. If you are new to Pikmin and/or have always been put off by the difficulty or overarching time limit that it’s known for, this game is a fantastic entry point for you and you will probably have a great time. If you’re more of a veteran and prefer the brutal and sometimes horrifying nature of Pikmin 1 and 2, you may find yourself disappointed. However, that does not mean Pikmin 4 is a lost cause for you. Even though this game is much easier compared to its predecessors, many of the new tools introduced in this game are optional and let you make the experience a bit more challenging. I could see a lot of cool challenges emerging from this game over time.

Pikmin 4 features an astounding array of tools, all of which are geared to making the game easier and generally user-friendly. The coolest part about them though is that most of them are optional. Newcomers can use all of these tools to ensure that their experience goes as smoothly as it can. Veterans on the other hand can choose to not use these tools at all, allowing them to make their experience a bit on the tougher side. Even when it comes to things like purchased upgrades, the player has the option to turn them off at any point. There are things like a drone that lets you scope out areas before you go ahead, a satellite that calls Pikmin to your current position, consumable items that stun enemies, and so much more. There’s even a rewind button that lets you rewind 2 minutes and even earlier so you don’t have to suffer losing tons of Pikmin in a single second, but again, it’s all completely optional. Then you have aspects like Oatchi, and while he is definitely overpowered, you still have the ability to choose when you want to use him aside from level design. If you want to send in Oatchi to clear out a room of enemies before your Pikmin enter, you’re free to do that. If you’d rather barge in and throw yourself into the chaos, you’re also free to do that. If you want to, you can use Ice Pikmin to freeze and shatter enemies, but you can also just not do that. The majority of the game is flexible and is designed to work around either play style and I think that’s pretty cool.

However, despite whatever options you choose, the overall skill ceiling has been reduced; it doesn’t quite feel like everything is conspiring to work against you like they were in Pikmin 1 and 2. Creatures in Pikmin 4 don’t really take “cheap shots” like dropping bombs from the ceiling out of no where. While there are many choices you can take advantage of, there are several core aspects that you have no control over. Many of these aspects are great for new players, but hardcore players may still find themselves a bit annoyed as a result. To list a few, the majority of the enemies in the game are from previous entries, so if you are familiar with how they act, you’ll already know how to defeat them with no issues. The Pikmin AI has been improved significantly, which means there will be far less moments where you say “what the hell are you guys DOING???” when your Pikmin start doing things you didn’t want them to. There is an auto-lock on feature which is extremely aggressive and some people find to be a bit intrusive. There’s also a throwing cap, meaning if you encounter an item that requires 10 Pikmin to carry it, you can spam the Throw button and the game will automatically stop throwing Pikmin once you reach 10. It sounds silly to point these things out as “bad” because they’re genuinely great improvements. But the people who enjoyed the original games do have a good point: the concept of attempting to control the inherent chaos of nature is a really cool idea for a game and Pikmin 4 sort of downplays this idea this time around. Personally, none of these things bothered me at all, but I can see how they could put off some people who were looking for something tougher.

Personally, my biggest problem with this game is the NPCs. There are sooo many NPCs and they constantly stop you to point out the obvious. They become so annoying that I begin to tune them out. I no longer care about what they’re saying. I'm no longer interested in learning anything about them. I no longer care about their backstories, I just want them to be quiet. I’m a big believer of “show, don’t tell,” but Pikmin 4 so, so badly wants to show AND tell you about every single little thing you encounter. Thankfully you can skip cutscenes and interactions and you will not miss a single bit of crucial information. But to have them constantly stopping you and saying “Hey did you see that Leafling? You saw him right? He challenged you do a Dandori battle and jumped down the hole! You saw that, right? You gotta jump down the hole too! Win that Dandori battle!” I know. I saw. I get it. Plus, I think having having an entire community of characters by the end of the game sort of detracts from the atmosphere Pikmin is known for. None of it feels as lonely, mysterious, or threatening when there’s a collection of NPCs are constantly telling you how you should be feeling in the moment. It’s like a big flashlight has been shined over the Pikmin series and they don’t want evoke feelings of uneasy or dread, or at least no where as much as they used to.

The remaining issues I had with this game are somewhat minor. First off, I don’t really like the 3 Pikmin type limit. It made exploring the day time levels feel shallow, especially as the game tells you exactly what Pikmin types you’ll need. It feels more appropriate to do this with caves, as they’re shorter, can serve more as puzzles or challenges, and you’re stuck with the Pikmin you bring in. I feel the daytime levels should have more opportunities to go back to your base, exchange Pikmin types, and do something else with another type, but you really never need to. All other Pikmin types can be completely ignored, since the levels are fully designed around the 3 suggested types. Another aspect I’m somewhat disappointed with is the music. Make no mistake, there was a lot of attention given to music this time around, as certain enemies get their own instruments once you get close. There’s also tons and tons of callbacks to themes from the previous games. Outside of cutscenes, I get what they were going for, keeping it peaceful and minimalist when all is fine, but getting hectic when an enemy attacks. However, I almost feel it’s too minimalist this time around, as I can barely notice the music anymore until I get into a scuffle. Additionally, designing your own captain is really cool, but they’re essentially a blank slate throughout the entire game. I would prefer playing as any of the previous protagonists. Last thing I can think of is that I don’t really care for the night missions. It’s just NPCs constantly screaming at you while you beat up enemies for 5 minutes. I personally didn’t get much out of them.

Another gripe I had with this game is that it constantly screams “Dandori” at you, but you really don’t get as many opportunities to flex your organizational skills as you do in Pikmin 3. The levels seem to be solely designed around Oatchi’s navigational abilities alone. Rather than having entire sections dedicated to your Captain or Oatchi, they’re constantly mixing obstacles that only one character can clear. For example, you want to collect a treasure, you have to hop up a step with Oatchi. You get to the top and – oh! There’s grate that only the captain can cross. It’s not like this 100% of the time, but most of the levels are designed this way. You’ll find that the game rarely wants you to separate from Oatchi. Given that the characters have slightly different abilities, you really can’t plan to have each character be on the other side of the map performing different objectives. This is because both sides of the map will have inevitably something that only the other character can do. It’s just more efficient to stick together the whole time and it feels a little disappointing in that regard when Pikmin 3 gave you so much freedom to truly practice Dandori at any moment.

Despite my complaints, I had a wonderful time with Pikmin 4 and I believe it was worth the wait. It’s a great big mix of what worked in previous games in addition to quite a few new elements. Although it introduced a lot of complications with the lore, it still manages to show they put in a lot of love and care by giving you encyclopedias full of flavor text for every single thing you collect and every creature you encounter. It’s also a bit longer than what it may look like at first glance, including a lengthy side-mission that will keep you busy for a little while longer. If you’re on the fence about getting it, I think you’ll enjoy it and I greatly recommend it if you don’t mind how easy it is. Here’s hoping we get Pikmin 5 before 2040.

"Embarrassing" is the best word for this game. Somewhat in the sense that I felt embarrassed by it's various issues while playing, but moreso in the sense that the people working away at Pokemon Scarlet and Violet must have felt embarrassed putting it out in this state. The skeleton of a much better game is here, and the potential of really good innovation for Pokemon can be seen throughout. This game wanted to and could have been so much more, but Game Freak clearly didn't have the time or know-how to follow through with any of it. It's a real shame.