This review contains spoilers
I remember getting into Pikmin the same way as many others did. I got Mario Kart 8 on Wii U and got to reap the benefits of Nintendo's own desperation, choosing Pikmin 3 as my complementary game. In another universe, I went through with getting Wii Party U like I originally planned—a much worse universe certainly. It ended up as one of my favorites games as a kid, loved enough for me to end up playing through it three seperate times. If you know me, you know how big of a deal that is!
Yet here we are now in 2023, almost a decade later. I remember a conversation with a friend in early 2018, discussing the games we expected Nintendo to release for the year. After Miyamoto said the mythical game was almost done in 2015, certainly the game had to be right around the corner! Lol. Lmao. It's a damn shame Nintendo never went that deep into the game's prolonged development in the developer interview like they did with Nintendo Switch Sports. The "what happened" is probably not all that interesting, but it'd still be nice to know!
The Pikmin 4 we did end up getting though, almost a decade in the waiting, was worth every day it took to get here. It manages to rest in an extremely niche valley otherwise only occupied by the N64 Paper Mario in my head, games that are incredibly flat quality wise, but that line of quality is propped incredibly high. From beginning to end, essentially every single area and cave and mission feels incredibly well-crafted and is a joy to go through. There's not much in terms of setpiece moments or surprises, which you would expect to make the game feel fairly monotonous across its 30 hour(!!!) runtime, but the challenges faced are kept so diverse and, again, well-crafted it's barely even an issue.
Dandori is the main focus of the game, pushed at every moment. Of course, the previous games mandated the same type of strategy (the word Dandori was also used heavily internally during the development of Pikmin 3), but the way this game constantly keeps it in your mind really helped me encapsulate an efficient mindset. The game never really puts that much pressure on your strategy. The main campaign lacks any day limit stressors, caves make per-day time run so slowly they might as well freeze time as 2 did, there's a spoil of options to let you manage idle Pikmin without having to go out and get them yourself, and it's all wrapped in the rewind option making the per-action risk end up fairly small. Yet, the game realizes the core of the game: being efficient with your Pikmin is just inherently cathartic. There are few pleasures better than watching your Pikmin carry a bunch of items back to base from various points on the map like a fine clockwork as you revel in how much of a Dandori expert you really are.
The Dandori Challenges are the pinnacle of focusing on Dandori and ended up being the highlight of the whole experience. Sure, completing a challenge with a bronze medal is fairly simple, but the platinum medals are the one area of the game that give a big extrinsic reward for Dandori-ing well, and they're incredibly satisfying to get. The Trials of the Leaf Sage, while I didn't go back to platinum them, mandate good routing for those fast completion times and feel like they'd be especially fun go for. I would love the game to get some DLC packs with extra Dandori Challenges, just like how 3 did.
Another really impressive thing the game deals with is its handling of the series' legacy. The game revels in using elements from the previous games, yet it never feels like nostalgia baiting. Everything feels like it's done with a knowing smile, playing off a previous knowledge of the series. The most obvious example is with the Water Wraith, of course. I knew it was in the game ahead of time, but little did I know going into the Engulfed Castle how early in the game it appeared. Then after that appearance, the game continues to use the creature as a tool for its "level design", culminating in it being a little bitch pain in the ass owned by Purple Pikmin in the very last challenge. It was really cathartic in a sense. Another great experience was the one-two-three punch of seeing the treasure mandating 100 Purple Pikmin to move, getting the mission to getting a 7th colored onion after I already got the Red/Yellow/Blue/Ice/Rock/Winged core, and seeing the Purple and White Onions fly off when I first hit the game's ending. They know how world-rocking a Purple Onion is, and even after getting it and growing my centennial army of purple dudes, it still feels kinda sacrilegious.
The only really weak part of the game is the boss design. Oatchi is a wonderful tool in the game and built really well into its design, even if it does make most combat a breeze. However, when bosses are focused specifically on combat, and many are taken from previous games without much change to the core boss design, they end up feeling rather samey. Just ram into them, watch your guys bop bop bop away at the boss, then whistle them back before the boss tries to shake them off. The game's lack of per-action risk also comes most at fault here, and ultimately most bosses just end up feeling like slightly beefer versions of normal enemies. None of them are bad, and the final boss is actually really good, but it still feels like a big step back from the really great roster of setpiece bosses Pikmin 3 had.
Have I mentioned the game is ridiculously cute? The series has always been extremely charming, but all the touches here just make it all the better. The jingle as you exit the ship in the morning as Oatchi comes up to you in excitement filled me with joy every time it happened. And Oatchi himself, oh my god. He was tailor made to be the most loveable, precious thing of all time ever—and hey, they succeeded. I need a plush of him right now. Moss too, I love her dearly.
I could go on and on gushing about this game, about all these certain moments and challenges and interactions, about how funny Louie's treasure and Piklopedia descriptions are ("No one and nothing tells me what I am supposed to eat."). It's a beautiful, lovingly-crafted game in every single way, easily my GotY so far. And with how well it's done, I rest easy knowing Pikmin has a blazingly bright future ahead of it. I love Pikmin.
Yet here we are now in 2023, almost a decade later. I remember a conversation with a friend in early 2018, discussing the games we expected Nintendo to release for the year. After Miyamoto said the mythical game was almost done in 2015, certainly the game had to be right around the corner! Lol. Lmao. It's a damn shame Nintendo never went that deep into the game's prolonged development in the developer interview like they did with Nintendo Switch Sports. The "what happened" is probably not all that interesting, but it'd still be nice to know!
The Pikmin 4 we did end up getting though, almost a decade in the waiting, was worth every day it took to get here. It manages to rest in an extremely niche valley otherwise only occupied by the N64 Paper Mario in my head, games that are incredibly flat quality wise, but that line of quality is propped incredibly high. From beginning to end, essentially every single area and cave and mission feels incredibly well-crafted and is a joy to go through. There's not much in terms of setpiece moments or surprises, which you would expect to make the game feel fairly monotonous across its 30 hour(!!!) runtime, but the challenges faced are kept so diverse and, again, well-crafted it's barely even an issue.
Dandori is the main focus of the game, pushed at every moment. Of course, the previous games mandated the same type of strategy (the word Dandori was also used heavily internally during the development of Pikmin 3), but the way this game constantly keeps it in your mind really helped me encapsulate an efficient mindset. The game never really puts that much pressure on your strategy. The main campaign lacks any day limit stressors, caves make per-day time run so slowly they might as well freeze time as 2 did, there's a spoil of options to let you manage idle Pikmin without having to go out and get them yourself, and it's all wrapped in the rewind option making the per-action risk end up fairly small. Yet, the game realizes the core of the game: being efficient with your Pikmin is just inherently cathartic. There are few pleasures better than watching your Pikmin carry a bunch of items back to base from various points on the map like a fine clockwork as you revel in how much of a Dandori expert you really are.
The Dandori Challenges are the pinnacle of focusing on Dandori and ended up being the highlight of the whole experience. Sure, completing a challenge with a bronze medal is fairly simple, but the platinum medals are the one area of the game that give a big extrinsic reward for Dandori-ing well, and they're incredibly satisfying to get. The Trials of the Leaf Sage, while I didn't go back to platinum them, mandate good routing for those fast completion times and feel like they'd be especially fun go for. I would love the game to get some DLC packs with extra Dandori Challenges, just like how 3 did.
Another really impressive thing the game deals with is its handling of the series' legacy. The game revels in using elements from the previous games, yet it never feels like nostalgia baiting. Everything feels like it's done with a knowing smile, playing off a previous knowledge of the series. The most obvious example is with the Water Wraith, of course. I knew it was in the game ahead of time, but little did I know going into the Engulfed Castle how early in the game it appeared. Then after that appearance, the game continues to use the creature as a tool for its "level design", culminating in it being a little bitch pain in the ass owned by Purple Pikmin in the very last challenge. It was really cathartic in a sense. Another great experience was the one-two-three punch of seeing the treasure mandating 100 Purple Pikmin to move, getting the mission to getting a 7th colored onion after I already got the Red/Yellow/Blue/Ice/Rock/Winged core, and seeing the Purple and White Onions fly off when I first hit the game's ending. They know how world-rocking a Purple Onion is, and even after getting it and growing my centennial army of purple dudes, it still feels kinda sacrilegious.
The only really weak part of the game is the boss design. Oatchi is a wonderful tool in the game and built really well into its design, even if it does make most combat a breeze. However, when bosses are focused specifically on combat, and many are taken from previous games without much change to the core boss design, they end up feeling rather samey. Just ram into them, watch your guys bop bop bop away at the boss, then whistle them back before the boss tries to shake them off. The game's lack of per-action risk also comes most at fault here, and ultimately most bosses just end up feeling like slightly beefer versions of normal enemies. None of them are bad, and the final boss is actually really good, but it still feels like a big step back from the really great roster of setpiece bosses Pikmin 3 had.
Have I mentioned the game is ridiculously cute? The series has always been extremely charming, but all the touches here just make it all the better. The jingle as you exit the ship in the morning as Oatchi comes up to you in excitement filled me with joy every time it happened. And Oatchi himself, oh my god. He was tailor made to be the most loveable, precious thing of all time ever—and hey, they succeeded. I need a plush of him right now. Moss too, I love her dearly.
I could go on and on gushing about this game, about all these certain moments and challenges and interactions, about how funny Louie's treasure and Piklopedia descriptions are ("No one and nothing tells me what I am supposed to eat."). It's a beautiful, lovingly-crafted game in every single way, easily my GotY so far. And with how well it's done, I rest easy knowing Pikmin has a blazingly bright future ahead of it. I love Pikmin.
Planetaire
8 months ago