The latest entry in the Pikmin series is finally here with Pikmin 4. If you need to get more familiar with the Pikmin franchise, it is a real-time strategy game developed and published by Nintendo.

This iteration’s basic story is that Captain Olimar crash-landed on a planet and sent out a distress call. A rescue team was dispatched to save him, but their ship malfunctioned on the same world, leaving them stranded. The only one left who could help was a rookie, so he set off for this planet. This is where you come in. You team up with a dog named Oatchi and befriend different types of Pikmin.

There are nine different types of Pikmin that you will encounter throughout the story. Each one has a unique ability or skill set that you will need to use at times, so picking the right kind for the mission that you are on is crucial. For example, the red Pikmin can withstand fire. So if you are in a cave with fire enemies, you will want to use them. There are also rock Pikmin. Due to their weight and the fact that they are rocks, they can help you efficiently dispatch an enemy and break down some walls that the other Pikmin can not. There is also an ice Pikmin, an electric Pikmin, a water Pikmin so you can carry items across the water and, well, you get the point. I enjoyed the level of strategy that you are forced to employ there, and there were a few times when I decided to restart a mission because I wasn’t happy with my initial Pikmin loadout.  

Pikmin 4 Requires Strategy To Complete Your Objective

Controlling your Pikmin friends is incredibly easy. Most of the time, I was on Oatchi’s back, riding him, and from there, I was issuing orders. If there were a bunch of stones to collect, I would send off a bunch of Pikmin to do that and bring them back to base. If I was battling an enemy, I would pick the appropriate “class” and then fire away, trying to overwhelm him quickly. You can’t just button mash here, especially toward the game’s later stages. That is when you see enemies that might have a shell around most of their body, so you have to attack them from behind, for example. Another one hid in this ball of goo. I could only get at him by having fifteen Pikmin pull at his tail until we pulled him out of his protective cover to launch an effective attack. If you need to regroup everyone quickly, you can blow your whistle. If they are close enough, they will come running back to you.

There is also inventory management here, though not nearly as deep as some other strategy games. There are bones to give your pal Oatchi, carrots that you can use as a decoy if certain animals are coming after you, emergency kits that can be used to recover your health, and more. There is also The Lab that you can visit between missions to upgrade your gear. One handy item was the headlamp that allowed me to see better in dark caves. Another one was “Tuff Stuff,” which gave my dog Oatchi more health so he could be more effective in battle. What you select will be dependent on your play style. I enjoy this level of freedom and being able to determine how my character would progress.

There are six areas you will get to explore in the game. You will start in Sun-Speckled Terrace, which is a public park. The next one is Blossoming Arcadia which is a playground for children. The other locations are Serene Shoes, Hero’s Hideaway, Giant’s Hearth, and Primordial Thicket. Each biome is different and offers you new challenges to conquer. While the basics remain the same, you must be careful how many Pikmin you use and what color. If you are somewhere that might have electric gates to take down, you should make sure you have a lot of Yellow Pikmin for that area.

Nighttime Maps Offer a Great Change of Pace

A new addition to the Pikmin franchise is the nighttime maps. Pikmin 4 has a day and night cycle where you can search around and try to achieve your objective in the daytime, but once evening hits, you need to head back to camp to rest for the next day. Eventually, you reach a point where nighttime maps become available. The objective at night is like a tower defense game where you must protect your base from an onslaught of enemies until the sun rises. I won’t give the storyline reason for this, as it would be a spoiler. Still, I found this change of pace refreshing, and I appreciated the extra layer to this already fun game.

You will be given many side missions as you rescue castaways on the planet. These can range from getting a 100% completion rate in an area to finding a certain amount of treasure or growing your Pikmin army to a certain number. The treasure in this game is plentiful, and your canine companion does a great job of helping you track it down. Long-time gamers will appreciate some of the easter eggs in this game, such as one of the treasures you find early on in the game being a Game Boy and another being an NES controller later on. Nintendo has a rich history, so doing small things like that in their games always puts a massive smile on my face.

Pikmin 4 is a joy to play, but I would love to see improvements in a future patch. For starters, I would love to be able to skip conversations. I am going to read it and pay attention the first time. Still, I would like the option to skip it altogether if I am going through a mission again or choose to restart because I chose the wrong loadout or whatever. Initially, I also wished the Pikmin were a little more automatic. What I mean by that is I could send a group of ten Pikmin to collect ten piled stones. Once they complete that task, they wait back at base. I would have loved it if I could have set it up where they would automatically return to me instead of running back to base to collect them. The game is exceptional, and I have very few complaints, but these are just a few minor things that could improve it even more.

You can play Pikmin 4 solo or in co-op with a friend. This is a buddy system of sorts, similar to what we have seen in some previous Mario games. The first player controls the Pikmin, while the second player can fire objects at enemy monsters. Obviously, the first player is doing the bulk of the work in that scenario, but this could be a great mode if you have kids and they want to play the game with you.

You will also come across Dandori challenges in your playthrough. It is explained that “Dandori” is a concept that revolves around you working efficiently and, basically, working smarter and not harder. You will participate in different battles here, often head to head with a character to see who can get the high score. There is a storyline reason for this, but I don’t want to spoil anything, as I enjoyed a nice twist.

Wrapping Up

Pikmin 4 is a lot of fun to play. If you don’t have any experience with the franchise before, this is a great place to start. A demo is also available on the Nintendo eShop if you want to try it before buying. The first three Pikmin games are available on the Nintendo Switch as well. I didn’t spend much time with them in the past, but after I enjoyed Pikmin 4, I will definitely go back and spend more time with those earlier titles. Even if you aren’t usually a real-time strategy type of gamer, you must try out Nintendo’s take on the genre.

Score: 9/10

Originally posted on Wealth of Geeks