Pikmin has always been a bit of dark horse series. It got it's start as a (not-quite) launch title for the Gamecube in North America (adjacent to Smash Bros Melee which would pretty much define Gamecube). This was a quite a landmark because it was the first original game produced by Shigeru Miyamoto in a very long time. It was also quite strange. Even the name "Pikmin" doesn't really mean anything at least to those without game context (it's an in game brand of carrots) but to the ears of 2001 gamers it sounded a little like "Pokemon" and maybe that meant that it was trying to get some buzz via name. It seems ridiculous now. Technically, it was based off a Gamecube tech demo called "100 Mario" meant to show off the number of characters that the machine was capable of though recent interviews have shown the concept goes back even further. The game itself was also very hard to describe, it may have been said that it was Nintendo's take on real-time strategy. That's true in a very broad sense but doesn't really do justice to it as a bit of an action game.
The basic setup is that you play a cute little spaceman that crash lands on a planet that resembles Earth but is about the size of a bug. Apparently the inspiration for Miyamoto came from his hobby of gardening. You need to explore several levels from an overhead view to find parts to fix your ship. To do this you encounter the titular Pikmin which are small flower creatures that behave a bit like ants. By splitting them into groups to accomplish tasks like carry treasures or fight enemies you could optimize such that you'd be able to accomplish your tasks within the time limit. The main pressure was that you had 30 days to finish the whole thing. It was well receive and got a sequel which removed the time limit in favor of adding "caves." These were a series of miniture levels that usually involved battling creatures, slowly attrit your squad until a boss at the end. It was also well received but only a mild seller. It would be nearly 10 years before it would see a sequel in Pikmin 3. In the same tradition is as critically acclaimed but not a blockbuster.
Pikmin 4 feels like a turning point. Similar to how Fire Emblem really hit it's mark with Awakening which tried to channel all of the mechanics of previous games into a cohesive game Pikmin tries to hit every note of every past game. The core game most closely resembles Pikmin 2. There is no over-arching pressure of a time limit and instead the difficultly comes for completing caves. However, it layers upgrade systems over it to give those slight RPG mechanics of choosing your progression and making you a little bit stronger. There are also new night missions, a previously untapped part of the Pokemon mythos where you have to survive an onslaught of frenzied enemies. These include one of new Pikmin types, "glow", which are extremely powerful Pikmin strong against all elements and can formed into a "spirit-bomb" attack for large enemies and will automatically teleport back your squad when they finish a task. The last is your partner dog Oatchi which doubles as a super Pikmin, a mount and a second character.
Oatchi is probably the biggest overall change to the gameplay flow. As a mount he's useful for traversing water with Pikmin that can't normally swim and for his ability to jump up small ledges and charge to break clay pots. In this way you need Oatchi to be free in order to traverse these obstacles. For the most part this works well strategically except the water traversal gets weird when using blue Pikmin. Since Oatchi floats at the top you cannot access either him or Pikmin riding him when underwater but you still auto switch to them. This means in critical moments you might wind up trying to throw blue Pikmin and just do nothing as you need to switch to them. Given the optimizations in other place you'd think it would just not give you that option. Oatchi can dive to pick things up with the right upgrades but even then it can be made an option as long as he is not carrying Pikmin. The charge bit also works as a sort of attach that boths stuns enemies and sticks all your Pikmin to them. This turned out to be a little too powerful as a single charge with enough Pikmin can one-shot almost anything. When you aren't using Oatchi as a mount you can use him like a Pikmin. This can also be powerful as upgraded Oatchi can carry 100 Pikmin (or nearly any treasure) by himself. The game tries to prevent too much abuse by blocking him out of certain areas but it's still powerful in the main game. He can also become a very powerful attacker and with upgrades gain immunity to most elements. This too can be abused to take out certain bosses without hidden weak spots easily as he may take little to no damage and dish out a ton with the only drawback being his inability to be thrown. I don't think he was balanced quite right for but of the game. However, some late game challenges require that you know how to utilize him and are built around it which opens up a lot of puzzle solving opportunity. Finally Oatchi can be used as a player controlled character allowing you to split your squads like Pikmin 2 and 3. The main difference is that he cannot use the charge horn to direct separate Pikmin colors and must either rush with all Pikmin or throw throw them manually. It's this latter usage that gets a bit odd. There's not even an easy button to switch, you need hold Y and then use the menu. As a result you just generally don't do this unless forced to because it doesn't feel as seamless as other Pikmin games.
Both yourself and Oatchi can be upgraded and the upgrade mechanics were a good addition that helps you feel a bit of character progression. In previous games there was a slight amount of upgrades acquired by getting certain parts or treasures. Here you can steer a bit by knowing what you are getting and planning your days accordingly. The biggest upgrades make you immune to elemental damage thus making some caves that would be very difficult much easier but others like increased health don't really matter because damage to your character is rare. There are also useful abilities like being able to call all Pikmin home or to your location which are absolutely essential for getting high scores on the dandori missions. To pay for upgrades you need to collect raw materials. These are often found around levels but you also get them from side-quests.
Night missions are also great. These reuse stages and turn the game into a psuedo-tower-defense. In these case you only get glow pikmin and you increase them with starbits that you find around the level. You need balance increasing your numbers with defending your Luminknolls (basically your base) from creatures who are drawn to it. In the harder levels you need balance defending multiple lumiknolls. I loved the concept but these missions were mostly too easy for me. Except for the final one which had a huge difficulty spike and was significantly more fun to plan and play. It took me maybe 10 tries to find the right strategy and I wish there was more of that sort of content.
Aside from these main changes it also utilizes the challenges and multiplayer modes from Pikmin 3 and brings them into the single player. The former are easily one of the best parts as they are specifically designed levels with a chosen set of Pikmin. Getting high scores and finding optimal strategies can be engrossing. Less so were the dandori battles. These are basically a multiplayer match against the computer and they aren't particularly difficult or compelling. Other changes include ice Pikmin which have a few interesting uses. Their main use is to freeze thing and that can include enemies giving you extra time to land hits but also to break certain obstacles as well as freezing water. The later has a lot of interesting uses and works on every body of water so long as you have up to 100 Pikmin to do it. Since ice Pikmin also float they allow some variety to levels with water in that they don't drown but you can't use them as you would a blue Pikmin.
The main drive of the game is still collecting treasure but also rescue crash landed space people which are functionally treasure but will also give "side-quests" when returned to camp. I use the term loosely because while the game really presses on this idea they aren't really side-quests as much as they are achievements for tasks you do anyway. Bloom Pikmin, collect treasure, fight enemies etc. The rewards are also just raw material you can exchange in the lab for items and upgrades. This part I think really falls flat because it's not fleshed out or interesting. It also highlights the slow text speed as you really just want to rush through the dialog as it's all just fluff.
Overall the main campaign is just too easy. Without global time limits you are not really constrained on the surface in any way, free to take as long as you want thus negating the point of time progression at all. Pikmin 2 also has this problem. Also because you can take as long as you want you can more or less grow as many Pikmin as you want. In order to prevent this from being too abusable creatures don't regenerate which itself just turns levels completely barren. Unlike Pikmin 2 which spawned enemies in 3 days to at least keep things a little lively. That was a better choice because there's no reason to limit the number of Pikmin when it's so easy you have 100s in reserve for the main colors anyway. It's also just not properly setup for players who wish to 100% areas first. If you do this you wind up not having enemies left to fill out Pikmin from onions acquired in the late game. It also means that upgrade acquired from late game are effectively useless since you've already cleared most of the game. In particular is the lineup ability which allows you to maneuver the Pikmin squad with the control stick. In previous Pikmin games this was a basic ability but acquired by finding treasure in Pikmin 4. However, because the last treasure of that set is in the final cave you will not get this until after you've beaten the game and if you've been 100%ing areas you've 100%ed the game by the time you get it. At least Oatchi can somewhat replace the functionality of moving Pikmin more precisely. Caves themselves are usually not too challenging and certainly not nearly as mean as the ones in Pikmin 2 which had a habit of dropping bomb rocks right on top of you. The game also gives you abilities to rewind time if you really screw up. Despite this, the content and adventure of the games is still compelling. It would have been better if they leaned more on exploration. The content that really shines is all in the late game. The last few unlockable dandori missions and the final night stage require a lot of strategy especially if you want harder metals and you likely won't succeed the first few times. This is where the game shines and where I wish there was just more. These are compelling puzzles that have you thinking about them outside the game. The game also has a special Olimar mode that mimics the original game (except with only 15 days) by remixing the levels. This gives some nice content for those who want a more classic and challenging experience. With all the additions this makes Pikmin 4 the meatiest Pikmin by a huge margin.
I came away very happy even if the difficulty felt off. It's Pikmin at it's finest and it tries to please players of all types. But it also really make me think about where it could go. I think at this point I'd like to see a shake-up since adding new Pikmin colors just isn't going to keep working. I think I'd really like to seem them lean into the exploration aspect maybe as more of an open world game where you seamlessly transition and move your base around a large map. At least this could make the game more compelling in the surface parts. The caves are still very fun but they need to strike a balance with some longer and harder ones as well. With initial sales being very good I'm very hopeful they'll be able to take another crack at it and hopefully get it the popularity it deserves.
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