Nintendo’s quiet yet consistent series, Pikmin, is returning to Switch for the second time roughly 3 years after 2020’s Pikmin 3 Deluxe; an updated version of the 2013 Wii U title, Pikmin 3. Given the 10 year wait between mainline numbered titles, it’s fair to say that Pikmin fans are among Nintendo’s most patient (not including the F-Zero community, of course!). Thankfully, that patience has been rewarded in Pikmin 4, as this entry provides the series most elaborate, wide-ranging, yet accessible game to date.
Pikmin 4 starts the player out in a flashback segment playing as the iconic Captain Olimar, the primary protagonist of the series. During this section the basic controls are established and the plot’s backstory is set. This opening portion is brief, however, and you’re taken away from playing as Olimar, (I have a strange suspicion this won’t be the last we see of him),transported to the present day, and given the role as a member of a crew of space explorers whose ship has broken down on our suspiciously earth-like planet. From here the main goals of gathering collectables, saving other crew members, and discovering the world around you are established. That’s as far as I’ll go elucidating on the plot, and while I’ll say that it serves its purpose in that it smoothly vehicles the player into the core real-time strategy (RTS)/puzzle gameplay loop of the Pikmin series, it doesn’t really do much beyond that. To be fair, it doesn’t really need to, and no other plot seen thus far in the series has either, but your mileage may vary if you’re a newcomer who wants a more narratively substantial motivation for your nature-focused, resource management-based games.
We’re quickly introduced to Oatchi, our protagonist’s canine (?) companion and this entry’s most obvious addition to the core Pikmin-gameplay formula. He’s much faster than the protagonist and is capable of carrying our character and entire party of Pikmin on his back, so needless to say he became my primary source of transport around Pikmin 4’s large, expansive worlds. In addition to this, he quickly gains the abilities to swim, sniff-out treasure, defeat enemies, and serve as a secondary captain commanding his own squad of Pikmin. Oatchi’s abilities can also be upgraded as the game progresses; making this little guy all the more useful, and in some cases, necessary to properly and fully explore our photo-realistic worlds. At the beginning of my playthrough, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the newcomer, but quickly it became clear that Oatchi serves to streamline many of the time-consuming, laborious tasks present in the prior games. One could argue that he eventually becomes overpowered, but I never felt this way during my playthrough. Rather, I found that he simply added to my metaphorical toolbox and provided me with an expanded set of options to utilize when exploring Pikmin 4’s sprawling environments.
The game isn’t called “Oatchi” however, it’s called Pikmin, and they’re back and ready as ever. As a longtime fan of the series, let me tell you, working and exploring with these little dudes has never felt so good! Slight tweaks to their physics and AI have made the Pikmin easier to wield and direct. Also, gone are the days of heartbreaking guilt after accidentally losing a chunk of your Pikmin squad (RIP to the fallen), as a rewind feature has been added in the gameplay menu that allows the player to go back up to several minutes before the current moment and replay a section of their day again. Not only does this addition accomplish the aforementioned alleviation of guilt, but it also minimizes the fear of losing Pikmin and ruining the days progress, therefore encouraging experimentation from the player in how they choose to take on baddies or prioritize the days’ tasks.
All of the varieties of Pikmin featured in the series’ prior entries make a return here with the addition of the fluorescent green Glow Pikmin, which serve a somewhat similar role to your basic red companions except that they can form a gelatinous mass together and defeat rather nasty enemies incredibly quickly. The newcomers are primarily featured in Pikmin 4’s new night-exploration mode, which consist of a series of brief tower-defense challenges that begin appearing roughly halfway through the game. Herein lies one of my larger qualms with the title, however. These short, combat-intensive sections felt shoehorned in and underdeveloped in my opinion. Sure, they add decent enough difficulty in their final levels to what is an otherwise pretty breezy game, but only a few challenges are actually required in order to advance the plot. For me, it just seems like an under elaborated game mode that doesn’t gel well with the core exploration and RTS experience of the Pikmin series.
A more positive addition, or should I say reintroduction from Pikmin 2, are the dungeons featured in each of the games overworld segments. These are smaller, more focused sections that center around puzzle solving and combat. The levels on-tap here are impeccably designed and gave me some of my most engaging experiences from Pikmin 4. They were so varied and meticulously built that each dungeon I played through felt robust and completely unique, and I sincerely hope they become a mainstay in the series going forward!
In addition to standard dungeons, this game features new Dandori modes (the term “Dandori” is explained as the ability to organize, plan, and execute strategically and efficiently). These are short, time-sensitive gameplay sessions that either have the player try and collect a certain amount of treasure or compete against an NPC to gather the most treasure before time runs out. These sections are thrilling, tense, and provide some good challenge as the game progresses; however, I found it frustrating that the Dandori competitions are in split-screen even when playing against the CPU. It’s easy to understand why this was done, as seeing the field from your opponent’s perspective can prove helpful in competition, but in my experience, it simply made it harder to see clearly where obstacles and treasures were located and where I needed to go. I wish there had been an option to turn the split screen off, but alas there was not.
As the game progresses and new areas are unlocked, we’re eventually taken out from Pikmin 4’s beautiful, photo-realistic outdoor landscapes to the inside of what looks to be a suburban family’s open-concept living room/kitchen (this house would be worth roughly $900k in today’s market). This was yet another highlight of the game for me. I’ve always loved Pikmin’s realistic depiction of the natural world from what is essentially an insect’s perspective, and I’m shocked at how well the developers recreated this sense of openness and realism in an indoor, “unnatural” environment. Going forward, I hope to see future entries continue to expand on this blending of natural, man-made, outdoor, and indoor settings to explore.
Pikmin 4 also features a co-op mode, which I did not play and therefore will not be covering in this review. However, many fans are noting the co-op campaign gameplay to be markedly limited and more of an “assist” mode, rather than a true co-op experience. On the positive side, the two-player dandori battles, which seem to naturally lend themselves much more to cooperative play, are garnering a more enthusiastic response (again, I did not touch any of the co-op features or modes; I’m simply relaying what the “gamers” are saying).
I took my time with Pikmin 4, and as a result it took me nearly 25 hours to play through it before rolling the credits. These credits, however, are shockingly far from being the end of what this game has to offer, as I’d estimate roughly 40% of all Pikmin 4’s content only becomes available after the credits roll with much of that being additional story material. This felt a bit strange to me, to be honest. This game seems to have had more story-based, post-credits content than any other Nintendo title I’ve played, and I felt as if some of the post-game would have fit more neatly and sequentially in the main campaign and should have been placed there. This is a very minor gripe, however, especially when the post-game campaign is as fun as Pikmin 4’s! I’m going to keep spoilers light in this review, but if you’re a veteran of the series and found Pikmin 4 a little too easy, or if you’re a newcomer who can’t get enough of the Pikmin formula and are curious as to how the older titles felt, then this mass of post-game material will be right up your alley!
Final thoughts: Pikmin 4 is the best game in this slept-on franchise, and that’s saying something after Pikmin 3 Deluxe was my favorite game of 2020! Though the latter remains my personal favorite of the series, likely due to the context of my life circumstances when I played it, Pikmin 4 is an incredible entry and is, in many ways, objectively a better game. The title manages to condense and refine the core Pikmin RTS gameplay down to it’s purest essence by streamlining the experience so well through the addition of Oatchi, a rewind feature, the dungeon segments, and a slew of other fine touches. Could the Night Expedition modes have been more consequential and fleshed out? Sure. Would some of the amazing postgame content been more neatly placed in the primary campaign? Perhaps. Neither of these minor nitpicks, however, significantly dimmish my thoughts on what is, at its root, a beautiful, intriguing, and must-play game!