There are a few things I'm honestly not crazy about in Pikmin 4, yet these are all null under the Scrummy Bone Clause™. Oatchi and Moss are in this game and it gets 5 stars. Jokes aside, this game absolutely rocks on so many fronts— I just wish it was maybe a little bit harder, or at least less forgiving anyway (guess I must be a pikmin-racist). As nice as it is to rewind time immediately after your squad gets wiped by John Sheargrub, I kinda wish there was at least a difficulty option to turn that off since it really does remove the heart attack-inducing tension the series is known for. While I appreciate how cozy this entry can be, stakes are good for contextualizing your victories, particularly in a world as oppressive as Pikmin's. On that note, I'm also not the biggest fan of the busted-ass charge moves, overabundance of spicy spray, 3 pikmin type limit, Armored Core VI unbreakable lock-on, lackluster multiplayer mode, or glow pikmin segments (but to be honest, I won't get into those here— at the end of the day, this game was impossible for me to put down and I really don't care to shit on it more than I have).

As for what I do love about Pikmin 4, basically everything else! To no one's surprise, it is yet another stunningly beautiful Pikmin game, full to the brim with yet another massive cast of adorably terrifying little beasts. This goes for the whole series, but there's just something so healing about Pikmin's charm; all the cute little environmental details, the phenomenal sound design, the goofy idle animations the pikmin do when they aren't directly facing the horrors of war. All of it warms my cold, jaded heart. It is also by FAR the most expansive Pikmin title, there were like 4 separate occasions where I was sure it was over and the game just KEPT going. There's a huge variety of giant levels, refreshingly distinctive both in their visuals and gameplay. Within these are all manner of caves to explore, each offering a unique microcosm of what the game has to offer. On top of that, there's even an entire optional bonus campaign that I'm SO glad greedy Nintendo completely reasonably could have but didn't sell as a $20 DLC. It all closely held my interest for the 40-some hours I took to 100% it too.

I think out of everything (besides my good boy Oatch' of course), my favorite parts of Pikmin 4 were the extremely tightly designed timed challenge stages— quick excursions from the core loop where you have to do all of X before the evil moon crashes into PNF-404. Going for the platinum medals in these is REALLY fun, particularly in the harder ones. They really scratch the micromanaging itch that I've come to love in Pikmin, and I'm honestly not upset the rest of the game was more relaxed given their existence. And say what you want about my productivity irl, because I'm basically the Dandori King 😎. Anyhoo, play this OR ELSE.