This game is a 4 stars if you stop playing after rescuing Olimar and doing his section. It's a solid 3.5 if you stop playing after rescuing Louie. I suspect that it's a 2.5 if you really try to go for Platinums on everything, which I did not do. I did everything except for that.
Mechanically, this game stretches the Pikmin formula to the absolute breaking point, which explains why they're so generous with helpful tools. The game would be almost unplayable without Oatchi and the ability to quickly rewind at a certain point.
The biggest criticism I've had about Pikmin after the first one is that there's no pressure to complete the game quickly. Without that pressure, this essentially becomes a "cleaning your room" simulator. Except whenever you go to pick up that dirty pair of underwear, a small dog gently bites you on the wrist for no reason, which starts out kinda cute and ends up being extremely irritating after 40+ hours.
Later levels in this require a degree of precision that the game does not provide. The lock-on system is incredibly helpful for the first half (while unfortunately removing the tension of missed throws) but ends up being a hindrance for many of the tougher challenges. It feels really really bad when all I want to do is target one enemy, but my reticle is stuck on a different one and there's no quick way to switch. It's like gears grinding in my skull.
They must have known it was bad because one of the hardest challenges in the game is killing 99 enemies in 2 minutes, and its mostly difficult because of the targeting. With the old system of a free-range cursor, it would have been almost trivial.
The late game swings wildly from "untenably difficult" to "trivial and boring." This is why I think that the game has really stretched the limits of what Pikmin could possibly be — it's hitting every note, including really weird and irritating ones.
The best mechanical part of the game is the night challenges, which end up being much closer to the game's Real Time Strategy roots than the rest of it. The later challenges require tactically switching between two commanders at just the right time to either defend or proactively attack, and it's magnificent. They never rise to an incredible level of difficulty, but they certainly aren't easy either. I would play a whole game like this.
Atmosphere-wise, this game will not shut the fuck up for one second. There's no more than 3 minutes of down time between some dipshit telling me something I already know for the nineteenth time and it's incredible. It doesn't even feel like hand-holding; it feels like someone shouting into a bullhorn about how important having my hand held is without actually doing it. I never learned a single useful thing from the near constant interjections of my crewmates which happen in the middle of the god-damned screen all the fucking time.
This makes the game about as atmospheric as a Red Robin. Every time I feel like I would like to focus on the gorgeous atmosphere or bizarre enemies, some ding-dong interrupts to say "Getting the lay of the land is important. Use the survey drone to see where you need to go!", a thing I've been told at least fifteen times prior. Just constant interruptions by a crowd of people who I have absolutely no interest in.
Anyway, all this to say that the first Pikmin still remains the best one in my mind. Pikmin 4 certainly brought me more enjoyment than 2 (oh god that game is evil) and 3 lost my interest pretty quickly. It's not a terrible game by any means. But if Pikmin 1 is a garden (that wants to kill you), Pikmin 4 is a checklist (that wants to tell you about how to use pens to check things off of your list).
Mechanically, this game stretches the Pikmin formula to the absolute breaking point, which explains why they're so generous with helpful tools. The game would be almost unplayable without Oatchi and the ability to quickly rewind at a certain point.
The biggest criticism I've had about Pikmin after the first one is that there's no pressure to complete the game quickly. Without that pressure, this essentially becomes a "cleaning your room" simulator. Except whenever you go to pick up that dirty pair of underwear, a small dog gently bites you on the wrist for no reason, which starts out kinda cute and ends up being extremely irritating after 40+ hours.
Later levels in this require a degree of precision that the game does not provide. The lock-on system is incredibly helpful for the first half (while unfortunately removing the tension of missed throws) but ends up being a hindrance for many of the tougher challenges. It feels really really bad when all I want to do is target one enemy, but my reticle is stuck on a different one and there's no quick way to switch. It's like gears grinding in my skull.
They must have known it was bad because one of the hardest challenges in the game is killing 99 enemies in 2 minutes, and its mostly difficult because of the targeting. With the old system of a free-range cursor, it would have been almost trivial.
The late game swings wildly from "untenably difficult" to "trivial and boring." This is why I think that the game has really stretched the limits of what Pikmin could possibly be — it's hitting every note, including really weird and irritating ones.
The best mechanical part of the game is the night challenges, which end up being much closer to the game's Real Time Strategy roots than the rest of it. The later challenges require tactically switching between two commanders at just the right time to either defend or proactively attack, and it's magnificent. They never rise to an incredible level of difficulty, but they certainly aren't easy either. I would play a whole game like this.
Atmosphere-wise, this game will not shut the fuck up for one second. There's no more than 3 minutes of down time between some dipshit telling me something I already know for the nineteenth time and it's incredible. It doesn't even feel like hand-holding; it feels like someone shouting into a bullhorn about how important having my hand held is without actually doing it. I never learned a single useful thing from the near constant interjections of my crewmates which happen in the middle of the god-damned screen all the fucking time.
This makes the game about as atmospheric as a Red Robin. Every time I feel like I would like to focus on the gorgeous atmosphere or bizarre enemies, some ding-dong interrupts to say "Getting the lay of the land is important. Use the survey drone to see where you need to go!", a thing I've been told at least fifteen times prior. Just constant interruptions by a crowd of people who I have absolutely no interest in.
Anyway, all this to say that the first Pikmin still remains the best one in my mind. Pikmin 4 certainly brought me more enjoyment than 2 (oh god that game is evil) and 3 lost my interest pretty quickly. It's not a terrible game by any means. But if Pikmin 1 is a garden (that wants to kill you), Pikmin 4 is a checklist (that wants to tell you about how to use pens to check things off of your list).