A series that never appealed to me in the past, I could not get away from the mountain of praise that podcasts were throwing at this game, and living in Japan I see ads for it all the time when catching the train to work. I decided to give it a shot, and I was immediately hooked. Pikmin 4 has such a delightful tone, and the gameplay loop of setting out to explore, fight bugs, and explore the caves really hooked me in. I was really hell bent on getting 100% completion on each area, and I typically never do that in games.

Sure, this is no XCOM, Fire Emblem, or Starcraft when it comes to strategy, but it does have just enough there that will have you spinning plates and looking for the most optimal ways to kill your enemies while rescuing fallen comrades or uncovering ancient treasures.

It took me just over 20 hours to complete, and I have 100% on every region. There is a post-credits sequence that opens up A LOT MORE PIKMIN 4, and that was really awesome. I will continue to pick at that content, but for me even those 20 hours were more than enough to leave a lasting impression.

If you have any interest in a light strategy game and want an addictive loop that really plays well into casual "just one nice session" per day game, I really recommend picking this one up, it will surely have something to delight you with!