Pikmin 4 (2023)

After looking over my review from earlier a few times it felt kinda shitty and had too much ranting so I decided to delete and rewrite it.

Pikmin 4 is a joy to play. It not only is a worthy successor to the games which came prior but also a strong candidate for the best in the series if you ask me. There is a level of polish here beyond what Pikmin 3 offered as well as significantly more content to dig into. However, along the way I felt that the game lost some of the charm that made the previous entries so magnetic. Some of the newly introduced quality of life features and mechanics also feel like they water down the strategy-oriented gameplay that drew me to the series initially.

Right off the bat it's obvious that the game nails the visual presentation side of things. Environments are gorgeous and as vibrant as ever. While Pikmin 4 rarely treads new ground with the variety of environments it has you explore in both the overworld and caves during the main story, they remain as fun to dig through for treasure as always. Caves feel more fleshed out here than they did in Pikmin 2, though I still have a strong preference for the overworld zones. I also personally feel there may be too much treasure, as by the end of the game you do start to see a good amount of repeats, which is a bit of a letdown for someone like me who always enjoys seeing the silly names the space guys come up with to describe the various odd bits and bobs you collect.

The gameplay remains tight and fun, just as in the last game, though I did sometimes find myself a bit annoyed with the auto lock-on system. At times you'll end up locking onto something you don't want to and when it happens in the middle of combat it can really screw shit up fast. The auto lock also trivializes some enemies that return from past entries where you were forced to manually aim and throw pikmin, which is a bit of a shame. Unfortunately it can't be turned off, so that's the way you're gonna play, regardless of how you feel about it.

Pikmin 4's biggest gameplay addition is a new partner in the form of Oatchi, a big ol' yellow space dog. He's cute enough, but not so much that it felt like they were trying too hard to sell me plushies or anything, which is good. Throughout the game, Oatchi gains a wide array of handy abilities to help you and your pikmin battle the local wildlife and collect treasure. Said abilities are often very powerful. So powerful, in fact, that by the end of the game I couldn't help but feel like Oatchi had become both a jack of all trades and a master of every one at once. He becomes capable of essentially everything each of the individual pikmin types can do, and usually does them better, making him the best choice in way too many situations. Not only does he fill the role of almost any pikmin, but he also mitigates many of the weaknesses the actual pikmin have built in for them by allowing them to gather up on his back for combat and land/water traversal. And you can't really just choose to not use him during your playthrough because puzzles often require his abilities. All in all, I enjoyed his role in the story, but from a mechanical standpoint his presence files down the fun sharp edges of the strategic gameplay too much.

For me, most of the above points are nitpicks that don't really dampen my enjoyment of the game too much. What does dampen my enjoyment though, and what I believe to be Pikmin 4's greatest sin, is the handling of the NPC characters. There are far too many of these guys, they talk too much, and god damn they are dumb as bricks.

Some tutorial-style NPC dialogue can be fine in a game's early hours if it's well implemented, but the issue here is the game never learns when to stop throwing it at you, even if you've seen the exact line of dialogue half a dozen times before. The rescue crew you work with often will chime in with situational alerts and tips. These pop up right in the middle of the screen and are most often blatantly obvious or totally useless bits of info. It's like having a "backseat gamer" who assumes you have no idea what you're doing even 20+ hours into the game. Similar to Pokemon Sun and Moon, I could see this forcing me to think twice about ever replaying the game in spite of how much fun it is.

As you progress in the game, the main hub will fill with a ton of NPCs (over 30 of them) who basically only exist to hand you rewards when you complete small mini quests they give you. The quests are always things you were going to do anyway, so it's nice to be rewarded for doing basically nothing special, but the initially cute little hub loses some of its appeal when it gets crowded with so many people. If you played Elden Ring, imagine the opposite of what happens at the Roundtable Hold except just as disappointing.

I mentioned that the NPCs are very stupid. I feel like I could go off on a whole rant about just how stupid they are. In fact, I did exactly that in the original version of this review. I'll try to keep it more succinct here. The game sets up a sort of twist with the identity of the mysterious leaf-covered man you meet many times through your journey, except it doesn't actually because it throws massive obvious clues at you revealing his identity before you ever even meet him. But that doesn't stop the rescue crew from attempting (and failing) to rub together their collective two brain cells to try and figure it out. You basically get to sit and watch them make zero progress on this mystery for nearly the entirety of the main plotline. I really can't tell if it was intentional, overlooked, or just some kind of odd satire.

As a final discussion point, it's very weird how they sort of soft-retconned the events of the original Pikmin game. You get access to all these logs apparently written by Olimar during his exploration of the planet, but they often rewrite or outright tack on details in order to make them work as small tutorials and hints for the player. There has to have been a way to do this that didn't feel so ignorant of the actual events of the first game. Not a huge deal, but it's disappointing regardless.

Beneath the slew of repetitive chatter, Pikmin 4 has a lot to love. It marks a solid iteration on the mechanics introduced in previous Pikmin games while throwing in some new twists of its own. I have yet to fully explore the postgame content, but I intend to because I'm still having a really great time as I near the 25 hour mark. I do think though that the game makes some frustrating missteps, and once I finish up with it I might revisit the first game to see if my memory of it is clouded by nostalgia or it really did have a much more satisfying slower pace to it. I could have sworn that none of the other entries in this series beat me over the head with the word "dandori" the way this one did either...

My endgame stats are below, if you're interested. Spoilers for the names of some endgame areas and total treasure count, but that's it.

A few weeks back, I decided to play through the entire Pikmin franchise. I did this because I wanted to try Pikmin 4, and thought playing the previous games beforehand sounded fun. And after finishing the three original games and finally getting the chance to play Pikmin 4, I can safely say

This is one of the best games I've played on the Switch.

Pikmin 4 takes a different approach to the story, and instead of continuing the story like the previous entries did, 4 is actually a reboot of the entire franchise, where almost everything plays exactly the same, but there's two key differences: Olimar actually sends an SOS signal while stranded on Earth, and there's big ol' dogs now.

The story's quite simple. You play as a rookie who recently joined the Rescue Corps. Upon hearing the SOS signal sent by Olimar, your entire team leaves in order to rescue him, and you follow closely behind. Turns out a bunch of random people also heard Olimar's signal, and since everybody in the Pikmin universe is a terrible driver, they all crash-land on Earth. It's now your job to find your own team, rescue Olimar, and all of the other castaways.

Many people don't really like the fact that this is a reboot, and while I do agree that seeing a direct sequel would've been nice, I don't think this approach is bad either. It allows the game to introduce both new and returning features to the franchise, and while the worldbuilding does take a big hit, I still think the writers did a good job with this game.

Let's talk about the gameplay! Pikmin 4 uses the same base gameplay as the previous games, where you'll have to use your little plant fellows to kill enemies, carry stuff around, and bring treasure home; and simply expands on it. The game focuses more on exploration than it does on speed, so while the amount of days you spend are still being counted and you're allowed to optimize your gameplay, you don't have a strict time limit like you had in Pikmin 1.

Aside from treasure, you'll also be looking for castaways. These people have hidden inside the caves scattered throughout the map, which are smaller areas divided in many floors, and usually featuring a gimmick. Inside these caves, time advances slower, so feel free to explore to your heart's content and grab as much treasure as you can before leaving.

While you do have a strict objective while you play (rescuing the missing Captain), you'll mostly be spending your time exploring the world and jumping into caves for some treasure. There's even a little counter on top of your screen to show how much value the items you've collected have and...

god dammit is this pikmin 2 again?

Turns out that yeah, this is Pikmin 2 again, except that Nintendo actually tried this time around. Not only are all the main features from the second game back, but even the overall structure of Pikmin 4 is most similar to Pikmin 2.

The difference this game has with Pikmin 2, however, is that there was some thought put into the way these features were added to the game. For example, Caves. They are now shorter, have a defined layout, and there's way more variety between them. Instead of being 90% of the game, the game now revolves around exploring and finding treasures in the overworld, and Caves feel more like little rewards and changes of pace you earn while exploring the main map, rather than being the main map. This is an incredible change, and what they should've been from the start.

There's three different types of caves, and aside from the regular ones, you'll also find Dandori Battles and Dandori Challenges. Challenges are easily my favorite part in the entire game, literally being the special maps from Pikmin 3 but added to the main game, which is an amazing idea. Battles are essentially the PvP gamemode, but against a computer opponent. They're still fun, just not the best. Still, the amount of variety caves have is incredible, especially when they all blended together in the original game.

For most of the game, you'll only have access to three onions, and will instead have to find all special pikmin inside caves. Once again, just like Pikmin 2! Except that this time around you'll just find them living in the underground and can take them home with you. This is a much better solution than having to spend your own pikmin transforming them in candypops. And the best part? The game barely asks you to use special pikmin to progress, so farming them isn't necessary like it was in 2. And once you reach the endgame? You get access to all 8 color onions, and no longer have to look for them in caves! This is great!!!

I really, really didn't like Pikmin 2, but seeing Nintendo trying out all of these ideas one last time, and actually nailing them makes me really happy. This is how it should've always been.

But enough about that, let's actually talk about Pikmin 4 now.

The game drastically changes how pikmin themselves function, by limiting the player on the amount they can't take out. At the start of the game, you can't bring out more than 20 pikmin, and will have to find pieces of Garlic throughout the map in order to increase your limit. I guess this is done to ease new players into the game by making everything easier to understand, and while I get where they're coming from, it's also a bit annoying for veterans of the series.

There's also another limit, as you can only have 3 different types of pikmin out at the same time (with some exceptions for wild pikmin). I do think the 3-type limit is necessary by this point, as having 9 different types of pikmin at the same time would be a bit overkill. However, showing the player the recommended types of pikmin before starting any level is actually a terrible idea and just limits the player's agency.

Pikmin 4 also introduces night expeditions, which are essentially little horde defense minigames. I think these are very fun, although a bit too simple at times. You only get access to one type of pikmin while playing (green), and while the enemy variety is fun, and some of the boss fights for the later levels can get pretty hard, I always wish there was a little bit more to do in these levels.

And finally, there's the biggest and most controversial change this game makes.

OATCHI

Oatchi is your companion, a yellow little space dog that helps you carry all the pikmin around. And while I love this little guy to death, I do admit that basically every single flaw with this game stems from his inclusion.

Essentially, Oatchi is your mount! You can ride him to get to higher places, he'll carry your pikmin across water, and he'll even help you find stuff hidden in the overworld. But also, he's a super pikmin! He can carry stuff around with the strength of 100 pikmin, he can fight enemies, and you can direct him to defend certain locations. But also, he's your second captain! You can control him and give him commands, you can ask him to gather up your pikmin, and you can split your tasks with him! He does everthing!

Oatchi is a free win button that you not only have access to, but are encouraged to use, at all points of the game.

His inclusion to the game actively harms the level design and the difficulty, as every part of the game now has to revolve around the silly overpowered dog in the game. It feels like the solution to every obstacle is to either use Oatchi, or use your pikmin to solve a puzzle and allow Oatchi into the next area. It's all Oatchi, and it's annoying.

And yet... I just can't bring myself to hate him. Because yes, you have to use Oatchi for everything, but using him is fun! Charging into enemies and killing them in a second is fun. Carrying 100 non-blue pikmin across a lake to different areas is fun. Sending Oatchi to carry a watermelon all on his own is fun. And even when the game's too easy, and when all agency has been taken away from me because of this stupid yellow dog... something about him is still fun, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is.

Finally, I'd like to talk about its presentation. I adore it. It's a bit more cartoony, and not as realistic as Pikmin 3, however the stilized look of Pikmin 4 looks a little better in my opinion, and it really is a beautiful game in certain areas. And just like the game before it, Treasures are where it shines the most, and all the 3D models for the household items you find around the world are simply beautiful. The music is great too! Not my favorite in the series, but with lots of cool and memorable tracks.

IN CONCLUSION: I love Pikmin 4. It's an incredible experience that takes all the ideas from previous games in the franchise, and creates something beautiful from them. All the great parts from the first 3 are here, just like you remember them, and all the bad parts have been reworked to be better. Sure, it did introduce a few new flaws along the way, but it still never stopped being fun for a single second. This is the culmination of the Pikmin franchise, and I really love this game. 9/10.

The only way it'd be a 10 is if it was more like Pikmin 1.

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It got me through my second semester of grad school. It was relaxing and infuriating, beautiful and broken. It does not take much to earn a five from me. If I actively anticipate and feel excited to start the game up, and if the thought of playing more of it alleviates the stresses of my daily life, then chances are I'll forgive what I perceive to be its shortcomings. That said, why the fuck did it hold off on giving me the white and purple onions until I had absolutely no use of them?

I think even complaints like this show that the game was firing amazingly well; it's rare for me to look at a successful game mechanic and not demand an unreasonable amount of MORE. If a game is mediocre or I'm not enjoying it, I make less demands as I play it, having accepted its limitations without any sort of yearning. Games like Pikmin 4 that remind me how fun grinding can be when it's done well. Even though I didn't get the rewards I thought I wanted, the hundreds of little processes I naturally commanded were joyous enough to make this one of the best Switch experiences I've had.

This was my first ever Pikmin game. I spent a lot of 2023 playing series I never played as a child and I was hesitant at first about Pikmin. RTS games are stressful for me but Pikmin has such a vibrant and playful world that I felt like a kid again. The concept of Dandori was so fun to me. I am even thinking of going back to see if I can be even more efficient. The music was splendid and dynamic. The plot, while very simple, was engaging and had just enough mystery to keep me on my toes. My only complaint would be the repetitive and sometimes disruptive dialogue in the postgame.

I bought this game in September, dabbled in it, and then picked it back up again while I was on vacation. If I wasn't spending time with loved ones I was playing Pikmin 4. That is how entranced I was by it. When the credits rolled and the Pikmin waved goodbye, I stepped away with that melancholic feeling you only get after finishing an impactful story. It has to be my favorite experience of 2023.

Pikmin 4, the long awaited new entry in Miyamoto's beloved plant-based strategy puzzler, is a new high point in the series. It melds elements from every Pikmin game, (Even nodding to the sometimes maligned Hey! Pikmin) into one incredibly good mega-Pikmin title, enhanced by twists all of its own.

This time around, you play as a custom member of the Rescue Corps who sets off on a mission to rescue a large number of castaways on the famous planet PNF-404. After you inevitably become stranded yourself, you employ the services of the planet's titular inhabitants. This time around, they are helping you not only to rescue these castaways, but to also collect "Sparklium," a fuel that can be extracted from the planet's treasures, and which you will need for your eventual departure.

Much like Pikmin 3 felt like an evolution of Pikmin 1's focus on time management, Pikmin 4 feels like a new iteration of Pikmin 2's exploration and collectible lean. There is no time limit of any kind, which has the same pros and cons as in Pikmin 2. While Pikmin 4 barely feels like a strategy game anymore, it does play as one hell of a good adventure game, and I love it.

I'm glad that I played the Pikmin 1+2 collection beforehand, because it really gives me an appreciation for all of the smart quality of life tweaks Nintendo has incorporated. The new over-the-shoulder camera angle works great considering the new gameplay focus, and it really lets you appreciate the beautiful environments. A new auto lock-on mechanic makes throwing Pikmin feel very quick and snappy, and it works well enough that I can forgive the lack of pointer controls, though there were times where I really missed the precise aiming that the previous games required. It helps that fighting with the Pikmin's AI is mostly a thing of the past, and the controls feel extremely polished and intuitive. I even really appreciated the ability to rewind time, which saved me the trouble of restarting the game whenever a catastrophe took out a large portion of my little army.

Pikmin 4's biggest contribution to the series is Oatchi, your adorable doggy companion who wears many hats: co-captain, mount, battering ram, and more. Oatchi drastically changes the gameplay--When you ride him (As you will want to do), Pikmin safely cling to him, easily staying protected from enemies and hazards. Oatchi also allows you do many things you couldn't do before in Pikmin, like jump over small ledges or swim over water with non-water resistant Pikmin variants. You can also split up from Oatchi and control him in much the same way that you would control Louie in Pikmin 2, although much like in that game, I almost never saw a reason to do this due the game's lack of urgency.

Days play out much like they do in past games. You can explore a series of levels, discovering treasure that you can haul back to your ship. Returning from Pikmin 2 are the dungeon-like caves, gauntlets that you have to complete without the ability to create new Pikmin. They rarely get as arduous as in Pikmin 2 due to the more forgiving mechanics, but there were a few at the end of the game that tested my patience nevertheless. Still, the game gives you all of the tools you need to 100% a cave on first visit, as long as you have the correct recommended Pikmin types before delving into them.

Pikmin 4 also adds two new Pikmin types, the first of which are Ice Pikmin. These versatile Pikmin have the ability to freeze things, whether it be bodies of water to allow other Pikmin to safely carry objects to the other side, or enemies to defeat them more easily. They are a great addition, and feel right at home with the the other Pikmin types that return in Pikmin 4. Then there's the ghostly Glow Pikmin, which are a little more unique. They are connected to Night Expeditions, one of the game's several side-modes.

Night Expeditions play out like a tower defense mini-game, where you have to protect a "Lumiknoll" from a marching horde of enemies. These anthill-like structures are what produce Glow Pikmin, unlike other types which come from the familiar Onions. Glow Pikmin are a bit more agile, being able to warp directly to you after completing their deliveries to the Lumiknoll, and as a bonus, they are immune to the elemental hazards that affect other Pikmin. However, you cannot bring out Glow Pikmin during normal gameplay, with one small exception which I never took advantage of. Night Expeditions are a fine diversion, though in my quest to 100% the game, I grew exhausted of them.

Pikmin 4 is quite a generous game, so we're not even done yet! While Pikmin 4 lacks the time management mechanics that made the first Pikmin interesting, it does inject them into other modes. Dandori Challenges feel similar to some of the challenge modes that were available in past games, although they are now integrated into the main story. You access them through holes in the world, similarly to caves, and require you to collect a certain amount of treasure within an allotted time limit, forcing you to divide work in a way that allows you to accomplish the task. There are some really devilish ones you can access by the end of the game, and these challenges are not only a ton of fun, but they are very replayable too! There are also Dandori Battles, which work similarly, but pit you against an opponent.

Next, I really have to mention something that I will have to spoiler out, because it was such a nice surprise, but I can't not mention it: Once you rescue Olimar, you get access to Olimar's Shipwreck Story, which basically acts as a remixed version of the game. You play as Olimar in slightly different versions of the game's levels, and it plays out like the first Pikmin game! You need to find and collect Olimar's 30 ship parts, and you are limited to only the original three Pikmin types. The main twist here is that the original game's 30-day time limit has been halved to 15 days, turning this mode into an total scramble to be as efficient as possible with each day. I loved, LOVED this mode, and appreciate so much that they took the time to throw a bone to someone like me who really loved the time pressure of the first Pikmin game.

So, with all of this considered, Pikmin 4 is undeniably the beefiest, most content-packed and intuitive Pikmin game. But it also doesn't quite push this series into Nintendo's big leagues for me, either. So much is streamlined and simplified that I think it robs Pikmin 4 of some of the strategic feel of past games. Things like how you cannot free-aim, how you can only take out three Pikmin types simultaneously, or how the overall amount of Pikmin you can bring out is gated behind a collectible, all feel like pointless guardrails that feel limiting instead of helpful.

Then there's the "vibes" for lack of a better term. Pikmin and Pikmin 2 really succeeded at this charming sense of loneliness, but the amount of castaways that you will rescue (And then hang out with at your base) is stupidly large. The huge amount of dialogue in general is the worst thing about PIkmin 4 to me. It's not just the early tutorializing that beats you over the head with the already super simple mechanics--The dialogue continues throughout the game, and a lot of it, while attempting to add character and charm to your companions, just feels inane, and is nowhere near as effective as the quiet solitude of the original duology.

Pikmin 4's general wealth of content more than makes up for it, though. Fans of the previous games will love all of the callbacks to past games, and new players will find this to be the most welcoming title in the series thus far. I'm not quite sure where Pikmin goes from here, but I think Pikmin 4 will serve as the high water mark that future games will be compared to.

A well made and enjoyable experience!

The lock on for throwing Pikmin is a little good but mostly bad unfortunately. It sticks to wrong things in dangerous situations. Should've had much more control over it in the options.

This game also stops you from throwing more Pikmin onto something than necessary for a few good seconds, which sucks when you want to throw more so it can be carried faster..

There is nothing inherently wrong with any part of Pikmin 4, but I just feel like they filled the game with too much padding. My favorite part of pikmin is to find a way to manage the short time given with my differently featured pikmin on different tasks, trying not to let them throw themselves at danger like they somehow love to do.

In Pikmin 4, the maps are amazing, pretty and varied, but the things you have in your arsenal far outweight any situation or challenge you encounter. They went overboard adding items, gear, upgrade trees, and a dog, with its own upgrade trees, that works like a super-olimar.

I'm sorry, the dog is bad. I love Oatchi and it's really cute, but it breaks the game into a shitty third person action game where you don't really need to manage much of anything, because Oatchi can carry 100 weight, solo kill almost any monster, destroy most barriers really fast, ignore all status effects and elements...

It's not that it's easy (that too), it's that it's not interesting or fun to use. There is a bit in the game where you can play a little alternative mode where, for a little bit, you have no dog and no skills/gear, and I had a blast with that while it lasted.

This is subjective, but I also dislike the caves, both here and in Pikmin 2. I find that gauntlets of just puzzles and game mechanics break the fun I have going through an actual, realized world I exist in, replacing it with nebulous challenges lacking in personality, even if some of them can be fun to figure out.

In other extras, dandori battles were fun because there are very few of them, but dandori challenges and (specially) night excursions get annoying real fast. Spend all franchise hyping up how scary the night is and blow it up using it as set up for a super shitty uninteresting and underwhelming tower defense mode.

So all in all, better than 2, a bit too bloated to beat 3, and my favorite is, and I'm starting to think will always be, Pikmin 1. There really is a genuine survival design measured to perfection in that one that we don't get with the more structured, padded out sequels.

PS: God, they give you a base to grow which could be a good idea, and they just make it the dullest, most boring place on earth, with NPCs I don't give a fart about. I with I could send them to die instead of the pikmin.