Pikmin 4 is a triumphant comeback for the series and a completionist’s dream

“Now I’m a fan of Pikmin. And I wish I was a fan sooner.”

I’m not a Pikmin fan.

I never played the first Pikmin (though I hear it’s insanely difficult). Pikmin 2 is sitting on my shelf downstairs, untouched and covered in dust. I played the first half of Pikmin 3, but hit a wall when my interest in the game faded. And no one even remembers Hey, Pikmin! (if you’re saying “what’s Hey, Pikmin!” right now, well…exactly).

So, yeah. I’m not a Pikmin fan. And I’m willing to bet you aren’t either.

That’s not a knock against the franchise in any way. It’s just, well, up until last year, it seemed like Nintendo wasn’t a Pikmin fan. They hadn’t released a notable entry in the series since 2013’s Pikmin 3, and that was on the Wii U–so no one played it. They’d ported that over to the Switch to recoup some sales, but with little to no marketing. So, it seemed, Pikmin was destined to join F-Zero, Star Fox, and even Chibi-Robo (remember him?) in the halls of forgotten Nintendo franchises.

Then they released Pikmin 4.

Now I’m a fan of Pikmin. And I wish I was a fan sooner.

To understand how Pikmin came to be, you must understand the system it first appeared on: the Nintendo GameCube.

The GameCube was the wild card of Nintendo consoles. There wasn’t anything inherently new with the hardware; it was the 3D of the Nintendo 64, just better. So, to compensate for the lack of innovation, Nintendo started to experiment. This experimentation brought us twists on classic series like Super Mario Sunshine or Kirby Air Ride. It birthed weird and useless peripherals (the GameCube Microphone for one). And, it allowed Nintendo to create wholly new series like Animal Crossing and, you guessed it, Pikmin.

Pikmin always follows the same plot: you are an explorer/treasure hunter/average Joe. Your spaceship has crash-landed on an alien planet, and for one reason or another, you’re stranded. Your only hope? Find a way off this strange new world with help from the denizens themselves: adorable plant creatures called “Pikmin.”

“There’s only a handful of areas in the game, but each one is jam-packed with hidden goodies and secrets to uncover.”

The gameplay is where things get weird. You go around the level finding treasures (scattered relics of an ancient world like Oranges or a Box of Crayons) and send your Pikmin to retrieve them. However, you’ve only got the daylight to do so, before night falls and you must flee, or the aggressive nightlife will tear your plant buddies to shreds. This puts every level on a totally-not-stress-inducing timer that slowly winds down at the top left of the screen. Your progress is saved at the end of the day, so you don’t have to do it all in one go, but if you get caught separated from your squad of Pikmin–well, it’s not pretty.

Pikmin 4 plays out in a similar manner to the previous games in the series. You enter a level and have the day to explore, retrieve treasures, and fend off the local flora and fauna. There’s only a handful of areas in the game, but each one is jam-packed with hidden goodies and secrets to uncover. You’ve got a variety of Pikmin to aid you in collecting treasures, including the usual Red, Yellow, and Blue Pikmin and the new Ice and Rock varieties. Each Pikmin has special abilities denoted by its color. For example, Yellow Pikmin can be thrown higher, while Ice Pikmin can freeze large bodies of water. Choosing which Pikmin to bring out for the day (and how many) is often the key to success.

Each treasure also has a certain weight to it, meaning a measly three Pikmin may not cut it. This creates a steady progression scale that spaces out collection throughout the game. Sure, you can’t pick up that watermelon just yet, but if you come back with 50 more Pikmin, the odds are in your favor.

This is the draw of the game: exploration and expansion. It’s how Pikmin has always been and how it always should be.

“Pikmin 4 structures little bursts of dopamine around this feeling.”

There’s something immensely satisfying about seeing a massive baseball atop a far-off cliff with no way to reach it, only to return two hours later and finally obtain it—and Pikmin knows it. Pikmin 4 structures little bursts of dopamine around this feeling. You enter a large area, often some sort of backyard filled with human treasure. And slowly but surely, you conquer it. As you get more Pikmin and abilities, you lay claim to more and more goodies, and each time it feels like a small triumph. And the cherries on top are the scientific names your intrepid explorers give to simple household items—or, to them, priceless alien artifacts. My favorites include the Orb of Destruction (the aforementioned baseball) and the Stately Rubber Cutie (or the humble rubber duckie.)

And these collectibles aren’t just for fun, either. The main objective of the game is to collect objects laced with “sparklium” and use them to enhance your ships radar, unlocking new areas and saving more castaways.

As I grew my collection of treasures (there are a whopping 239) and gleefully sent my Pikmin back to base again and again, I realized why I was enjoying Pikmin 4 so much: it’s not structured like the previous games in the series. This sounds like a diss, but it’s not. It’s a fact.

The previous Pikmin games put you as the player on a timer in and out of levels. In each area, you had a set amount of time before the day ended, then you had to put your operations on hold. And on top of that, you also had a set number of days before you simply lost the game. Either your explorer ran out of oxygen, as in the original game (which is cutthroat for a children’s game-imagine a five-year-old seeing “YOU ASPHYXIATED” in big letters on their screen!), or you ran out of food, like in Pikmin 3.

Pikmin 4 does away with any limits, relieving large amounts of stress from the experience. This places an emphasis not on survival, but collection. Suddenly, the game feels less like a harrowing real-time strategy game and more like a collect-a-thon in the same family as Banjo-Kazooie or the recent Super Mario Odyssey. And it’s fabulous, built for the completionist in all of us.

New to the Pikmin experience are nighttime expeditions and Dandori battles. Nighttime expeditions are structured as simple-but-fun tower defense minigames. Players are introduced to Glow Pikmin, the luminescent nighttime variety of Pikmin, who produce a special sap. This sap can cure various castaways of plant-like afflictions but can only be collected if the Glow Pikmin’s home – the “Lumiknoll” – is protected throughout the night. Thus, you must fend off vicious creatures and run down the clock until dawn breaks.

The nighttime expeditions are mostly optional, but they’re a fun distraction from the main game if you ever get bored with the usual areas (though I never did). At worst, they’re a needless accessory for a stellar game; at best, they’re a nice bonus to the core gameplay.

“Pikmin 4 wants you to relax, explore, find everything, and fall in love with it.”

Dandori battles are, in essence, PVP Pikmin. Players are challenged to collect more treasures and creatures than their opponent, and are set loose in a battle arena. This was one of the most marketed pieces of the game, but I found myself breezing through them. They’d be much better against a real human, as trouncing computer-controlled players doesn’t feel as good the eighth time around. This doesn’t make them bad, just…forgettable. Not much more needs to be said about them.

Lastly, Pikmin 4 introduces the faithful canine companion Oatchi to your group of castaways. There’s not much to say about Oatchi, except that he’s absolutely adorable and that dogs are literally always a good addition to any video game. That’s all.

The game isn’t terribly hard, but that’s not a bad thing. Rarely did I find myself frustrated or at a loss for what to do next, meaning I never felt the need to take a break. Pikmin wants you to relax, explore, find everything, and fall in love with it.

That’s not to say there aren’t small issues with the game. Sometimes, the AI can fall a touch short of what’s desired, leading countless Pikmin off a cliff, or into the waiting mouth of an enemy. The times this happened to me were few and far between, but when it did happen it stung. The difficulty also spikes slightly halfway through the game. I had lost at most ten Pikmin before I stumbled into the Engulfed Castle and lost 90 Blue Pikmin in the Massacre of 2023 (R.I.P.) It wasn’t enough to make me mad, but I did take a grayscale In Memoriam-style picture of the loss to send to my friends.

“Fly high, Blue Pikmin. Fly high.”

The art style is par for the course for Pikmin—cute and colorful. I rarely stopped smiling through my experience with Pikmin 4, and the attention paid to the atmosphere is largely to blame. Every sound the Pikmin make is wonderful, and every throw is punctuated with a triumphant battle cry of “wheeee!” Designs are simple but endearing. The music is understated but does lots to enhance the natural, whimsical energy of the game. This soft cuteness also means that when a scary enemy does show up, it’s ten times worse. For instance, the unkillable Waterwraith and culprit of the Massacre of 2023. You will be remembered fondly, Blue Pikmin #37-107.

Charming is the best word to describe Pikmin 4. From the dopey, colorful cast of characters to the vast gardens to explore to the determined, tiny Pikmin themselves. Hearing the victory theme at sunset as I bundled myself, my dog, and my plant friends into my rocket ship gave me a permanent smile. And that smile only grew as I continued to play the game; the first Pikmin game in ten years, one of the highest rated games of the year (with a wonderful 88 on Metacritic), and a hidden gem among Nintendo’s other more recognizable IP.

Pikmin has long deserved its turn in the limelight, and that’s what has been achieved with Pikmin 4.

Now I’m going to play the other Pikmin games.And I’m willing to bet that if you played Pikmin 4, you are too.

SCORE: 8.5/10

A fantastic continuation of the Pikmin franchise, and one that’s sure to delight casual gamers everywhere. Just be careful with your Pikmin (rest in peace, little guys).