pikmin has always been something special, man. like i don't even need to explain the appeal - you collect your little funky dudes and use them to carry shit and traverse levels, hell yeah. and while pikmin 4 makes a bunch of weirdo changes to those rules - now you can land your base in different spots and there isn't a predetermined progression/pikmin path - it's still just as good. this ain't your momma's pikmin - i love how much they can play with the formula these games have and still manage to make it work.

not everything works out, imo - the explicit focus on dandori always seemed a little weird, and i never really liked how collection challenges are such an integral part of the game. additionally, night runs are lame as hell, and feel like the most boring padding in the world - i don't want to admit how many leaflings i just left to die cause i never gave a shit about doing night levels.

past those hiccups, however, HOOOOOOOO WHEE this game owns. how much fucking content is in this shit, anyway? i made it to the credits and apparently i've barely even scratched the surface, should i even be marking this as completed? i can't tell you how much i adore finding treasures and making my way through all the different dungeons this game has to offer, and finding stuff like a new pikmin type or a new onion is hype as hell. and knowing that there's tons more to do in this game only makes me more excited.

sure, there's hardly any story, it makes some weird retcons, but fuck all that shit!! at its core, pikmin is the same as its always been, but now with more detail, more levels, more dungeons, and more stuff to do. this game rules, bro