I loved my time with Pikmin 4, and also I think it's my least favorite in the series. While each game has introduced something new, it also feels like some of the rough edges that give Pikmin its character are sanded down a little more with each successive title. Game 2 loses the timer, game 3 loses basically all difficulty (outside of challenges), and then game 4 simplifies a lot of the controls/strategy and adds on extraneous systems that don't add much.
Admittedly my views may be nostalgia clouded, but Pikmin 1 is my favorite of the bunch. It's also in many ways the least forgiving. The main thing that differentiates this game from future installments is the hard timer. It's not an impossibly difficult challenge, but it definitely expects you to focus on the goals, and if you spend too much time experimenting without making in game progress, you'll get a game over with no recourse but to restart the game from the beginning. This is also the shortest game in the series, which to me works in its favor, it feels focused, doesn't overstay its welcome, and leaves me wanting more. It also makes it easy to replay, and try to improve your time (I must have played this game through 4 or 5 times when I was a kid)
Pikmin 2 shifts the focus to gathering treasure (real-life earth objects, a Duracell battery, a Dannon yogurt wrapper, great way to add character), and gives you two captains to switch between, giving you more tools to try and manage your time as efficiently as possible. These are the best new things to me, the others I like more in theory than in practice. The caves are a good idea and are interesting for a time, but after a while they start to feel repetitive and dragged out. It's also exciting to get new pikmin types, but the purple pikmin in particular feel somewhat overpowered, for non-boss enemies the best strategy is basically always to get behind the enemy and have the purple pikmin do their stomp on them. That said, boss enemies can be fairly difficult in this one, I would say Pikmin 2 has the most difficult battles of the series. Overall, this is my third favorite in the series, mainly due to the game feeling a little repetitive, a little overlong by the end.
Pikmin 3 has you gathering fruit for food, and has a timer again for how long you can survive that will increase as you gather more fruit. Interesting idea, but it's so easy to gather more fruit that the timer might as well not exist. The fruit itself is also much less exciting/interesting when compared to the treasure from 2, or even the spaceship parts from 1. That said, I love the big new thing added here: this game gives you a third captain to swap between, and lets you give them simple commands (destinations to walk to) via the game pad. This really opens up the efficiency management opportunities of the game, it keeps you juggling tasks and swapping between captains, it's very engaging. Also caves are gone here, which I think ultimately makes the game feel more focused. Even though I like caves in some ways, after playing 2 and 4, I think I've come to the opinion that these games are stronger without them. In the end, I think if 3 were a little more difficult, it could be my favorite in the series. The challenge mode is cool and gives some good difficulty, but since it's divorced from the main campaign, it's a little less compelling.
And then there is Pikmin 4. This game removes the time limit again and brings back caves. It feels like the most content-rich of the games, giving you more levels, more variety, more pikmin types, etc. The big new thing here is your dog Oatchi. Oatchi is a great little guy, but to me he oversimplifies things. He serves as a replacement for multiple captains, you can split up like before, but ultimately I didn't want to most of the time because you can generally work more effectively together. All your Pikmin can ride on his back, making it so you're effectively controlling one entity, rather than leading a little army. This makes evading enemies simpler (don't have to worry about stragglers getting eaten when everyone is amassed together), makes attacking enemies simpler (you can charge into enemies as Oatchi, stunning them for a second, and causing all your pikmin to jump off his back onto the enemy to attack, killing most enemies before they have a chance to retaliate), and makes exploring simpler (IE: you can just swim across water with pikmin riding Oatchi, rather than requiring you to split up your blue pikmin. You still split up at times, but it's less of an issue with Oatchi). When you do split up, there is less you can do to command your separate teams than in 3, there is less focus on multitasking in that way. The "dandori challenges" are a highlight though, and do effectively have you focus on multitasking and time management. But, I prefer Pikmin 1 where the time management aspect is more seamlessly integrated into all parts of the game, as opposed to being discrete mini challenges. Beyond that, the updated controls work, but feel like they offer less control and frustrated me more than improved the experience. I did not like the cursor constantly snapping to enemies, or that the game stops me from throwing more than the minimum required number of pikmin to carry something (I want to throw extra! They carry it faster), these should be options rather than the only control scheme. I also wish switching from controlling Oatchi to my main guy was an instantaneous button press like before, rather than holding a button then selecting an option, it feels tedious. The upgrade systems felt unnecessary, felt like something there because that's something that modern games have. The night time tower defense is a fine diversion, but is not as fun as the main game and ultimately feels unnecessary as well to me.
Anyway, as I opened, overall I still loved my time with Pikmin 4, and the soul and appeal of Pikmin is still strong, but I can't help but feel that they're oversimplifying the series little by little
Admittedly my views may be nostalgia clouded, but Pikmin 1 is my favorite of the bunch. It's also in many ways the least forgiving. The main thing that differentiates this game from future installments is the hard timer. It's not an impossibly difficult challenge, but it definitely expects you to focus on the goals, and if you spend too much time experimenting without making in game progress, you'll get a game over with no recourse but to restart the game from the beginning. This is also the shortest game in the series, which to me works in its favor, it feels focused, doesn't overstay its welcome, and leaves me wanting more. It also makes it easy to replay, and try to improve your time (I must have played this game through 4 or 5 times when I was a kid)
Pikmin 2 shifts the focus to gathering treasure (real-life earth objects, a Duracell battery, a Dannon yogurt wrapper, great way to add character), and gives you two captains to switch between, giving you more tools to try and manage your time as efficiently as possible. These are the best new things to me, the others I like more in theory than in practice. The caves are a good idea and are interesting for a time, but after a while they start to feel repetitive and dragged out. It's also exciting to get new pikmin types, but the purple pikmin in particular feel somewhat overpowered, for non-boss enemies the best strategy is basically always to get behind the enemy and have the purple pikmin do their stomp on them. That said, boss enemies can be fairly difficult in this one, I would say Pikmin 2 has the most difficult battles of the series. Overall, this is my third favorite in the series, mainly due to the game feeling a little repetitive, a little overlong by the end.
Pikmin 3 has you gathering fruit for food, and has a timer again for how long you can survive that will increase as you gather more fruit. Interesting idea, but it's so easy to gather more fruit that the timer might as well not exist. The fruit itself is also much less exciting/interesting when compared to the treasure from 2, or even the spaceship parts from 1. That said, I love the big new thing added here: this game gives you a third captain to swap between, and lets you give them simple commands (destinations to walk to) via the game pad. This really opens up the efficiency management opportunities of the game, it keeps you juggling tasks and swapping between captains, it's very engaging. Also caves are gone here, which I think ultimately makes the game feel more focused. Even though I like caves in some ways, after playing 2 and 4, I think I've come to the opinion that these games are stronger without them. In the end, I think if 3 were a little more difficult, it could be my favorite in the series. The challenge mode is cool and gives some good difficulty, but since it's divorced from the main campaign, it's a little less compelling.
And then there is Pikmin 4. This game removes the time limit again and brings back caves. It feels like the most content-rich of the games, giving you more levels, more variety, more pikmin types, etc. The big new thing here is your dog Oatchi. Oatchi is a great little guy, but to me he oversimplifies things. He serves as a replacement for multiple captains, you can split up like before, but ultimately I didn't want to most of the time because you can generally work more effectively together. All your Pikmin can ride on his back, making it so you're effectively controlling one entity, rather than leading a little army. This makes evading enemies simpler (don't have to worry about stragglers getting eaten when everyone is amassed together), makes attacking enemies simpler (you can charge into enemies as Oatchi, stunning them for a second, and causing all your pikmin to jump off his back onto the enemy to attack, killing most enemies before they have a chance to retaliate), and makes exploring simpler (IE: you can just swim across water with pikmin riding Oatchi, rather than requiring you to split up your blue pikmin. You still split up at times, but it's less of an issue with Oatchi). When you do split up, there is less you can do to command your separate teams than in 3, there is less focus on multitasking in that way. The "dandori challenges" are a highlight though, and do effectively have you focus on multitasking and time management. But, I prefer Pikmin 1 where the time management aspect is more seamlessly integrated into all parts of the game, as opposed to being discrete mini challenges. Beyond that, the updated controls work, but feel like they offer less control and frustrated me more than improved the experience. I did not like the cursor constantly snapping to enemies, or that the game stops me from throwing more than the minimum required number of pikmin to carry something (I want to throw extra! They carry it faster), these should be options rather than the only control scheme. I also wish switching from controlling Oatchi to my main guy was an instantaneous button press like before, rather than holding a button then selecting an option, it feels tedious. The upgrade systems felt unnecessary, felt like something there because that's something that modern games have. The night time tower defense is a fine diversion, but is not as fun as the main game and ultimately feels unnecessary as well to me.
Anyway, as I opened, overall I still loved my time with Pikmin 4, and the soul and appeal of Pikmin is still strong, but I can't help but feel that they're oversimplifying the series little by little