What's astonishing about Pikmin 4 isn't just that it's probably the best one yet, but how, despite this, each prior game does something I like more. For as little as the core concept has changed, all four core Pikmin titles manage to stand out.
There's an obvious split in the types of Pikmin games, with 3 following up on the structure of 1 whilst 4 likewise builds on 2. 1 is rich in atmosphere and isolation, a fight for one person's survival. 3 is a cooperative fight for the survival of an entire planet which took a different tone, more focused on the beauty of the natural world and the wonderfully rendered fruits you collect.
2 and 4 are similarly alike in structure and unalike in tone. There's no overarching time limit in either, both make use of multifloored caves that are found in the typical Pikmin levels, and both focus on the collection of 'treasure'. Pikmin 2 used this structure to convey a darkly comedic capitalist satire and was thus appropriately brutal, unfair, and evil in some of its design. Pikmin 4 lacks this edge, and chooses instead to adapt Pikmin 2's structure to make a bonafide Pikmin bonanza.
Whatever style of game Pikmin is to you, Pikmin 4 is happy to accommodate. The core of the game is relatively stress-free, but by incorporating efficiency challenges usually reserved for separate game-modes into the main campaign, the more hardcore player will have plenty to appreciate too. But what if you prefer the macro-efficiency challenge of Pikmin 1 to these bite-sized chunks? Even that style gets its day in the sun here.
I'm not sure it's doing any one of these styles better than the games that came before. How can it, when it's got to build itself around incorporating them all into a single game, instead of letting one style inform its atmosphere? But by collating Pikmin's various gameplay styles into this one chunky game, and incorporating them into an open-ended structure where each action marks an incremental step towards some reward, it becomes the best Pikmin game through sheer flow and variety. I couldn't put this thing down!
A few minor complaints:
- The first hour iss pretty dull, with excessive interruptions and tutorials. Thankfully all dialogue sequences are skippable, and the speedrun seems to be done with this section before the 8-minute mark, so the developers at least had the good sense to not make this section a hurdle to replayability.
- While I love the new targeting system, which is so reliable and accessible, I wish there was a toggle for the old, looser aiming. I see the advantage of handing optimal play to the player for the purposes of the more difficult timed sections, but for the regular levels and caves it does detract from the challenge just a bit too much.
- I'd appreciate a hard mode, and not just for combat balance; some of the conveniences take away the edge. The feeling of going deeper into the caves doesn't evoke much dread when you can return to any sublevel from the entrance and select your Pikmin when you enter. Lost all the Pikmin you needed to get past an obstacle? No worries, just return to the surface from the menu, hop straight back in the cave, select the Pikmin you need (which just teleport to you I guess?), and return to that exact sublevel... Or just rewind time! I see the logic behind smoothing out the roughness for accessibility, but a mode which strips these conveniences would be ideal for veterans.
- The Winged Pikmin aren't quite right. No clue why they're taking the routes they're taking. Just fly over everything damn it!
Those issues are tiny in the scale of Pikmin 4's successes. It's just such a big, fun, accomplished Pikmin game, and I can't imagine a better showing for what will likely be most players' introduction to the series.
There's an obvious split in the types of Pikmin games, with 3 following up on the structure of 1 whilst 4 likewise builds on 2. 1 is rich in atmosphere and isolation, a fight for one person's survival. 3 is a cooperative fight for the survival of an entire planet which took a different tone, more focused on the beauty of the natural world and the wonderfully rendered fruits you collect.
2 and 4 are similarly alike in structure and unalike in tone. There's no overarching time limit in either, both make use of multifloored caves that are found in the typical Pikmin levels, and both focus on the collection of 'treasure'. Pikmin 2 used this structure to convey a darkly comedic capitalist satire and was thus appropriately brutal, unfair, and evil in some of its design. Pikmin 4 lacks this edge, and chooses instead to adapt Pikmin 2's structure to make a bonafide Pikmin bonanza.
Whatever style of game Pikmin is to you, Pikmin 4 is happy to accommodate. The core of the game is relatively stress-free, but by incorporating efficiency challenges usually reserved for separate game-modes into the main campaign, the more hardcore player will have plenty to appreciate too. But what if you prefer the macro-efficiency challenge of Pikmin 1 to these bite-sized chunks? Even that style gets its day in the sun here.
I'm not sure it's doing any one of these styles better than the games that came before. How can it, when it's got to build itself around incorporating them all into a single game, instead of letting one style inform its atmosphere? But by collating Pikmin's various gameplay styles into this one chunky game, and incorporating them into an open-ended structure where each action marks an incremental step towards some reward, it becomes the best Pikmin game through sheer flow and variety. I couldn't put this thing down!
A few minor complaints:
- The first hour iss pretty dull, with excessive interruptions and tutorials. Thankfully all dialogue sequences are skippable, and the speedrun seems to be done with this section before the 8-minute mark, so the developers at least had the good sense to not make this section a hurdle to replayability.
- While I love the new targeting system, which is so reliable and accessible, I wish there was a toggle for the old, looser aiming. I see the advantage of handing optimal play to the player for the purposes of the more difficult timed sections, but for the regular levels and caves it does detract from the challenge just a bit too much.
- I'd appreciate a hard mode, and not just for combat balance; some of the conveniences take away the edge. The feeling of going deeper into the caves doesn't evoke much dread when you can return to any sublevel from the entrance and select your Pikmin when you enter. Lost all the Pikmin you needed to get past an obstacle? No worries, just return to the surface from the menu, hop straight back in the cave, select the Pikmin you need (which just teleport to you I guess?), and return to that exact sublevel... Or just rewind time! I see the logic behind smoothing out the roughness for accessibility, but a mode which strips these conveniences would be ideal for veterans.
- The Winged Pikmin aren't quite right. No clue why they're taking the routes they're taking. Just fly over everything damn it!
Those issues are tiny in the scale of Pikmin 4's successes. It's just such a big, fun, accomplished Pikmin game, and I can't imagine a better showing for what will likely be most players' introduction to the series.