The last few years haven’t been kind to Pikmin fans, and the ever-so-elusive Pikmin 4 has been hugely responsible for that. It was first confirmed to be in development all the way back in 2015, and at the time, it was assumed that it’d be releasing very soon, what with Shigeru Miyamoto saying outright that its development was very close to completion. And then we waited, and waited, and waited, and though at one point most had grudgingly accepted that it was probably vaporware, Pikmin 4 is now finally almost upon us. Ahead of is long-anticipated launch not long from now, here, we’re going to take a look at all the key details that you should know about the game.
PREMISE
The Pikmin fanbase absolutely adores the series, but all things considered, it’s still a pretty niche franchise- which means there’s a good chance that many who’ll be jumping into it for the first time in Pikmin 4. If you’re in that group and wondering what Pikmin is at its core, in a nutshell, it’s the weirdest real-time strategy game you’ll ever play. You pluck the eponymous plant-like Pikmin from the ground to build up a small army of the critters, coming in different shapes, colours, and sizes, and boasting unique abilities. Using their unique abilities, on top of ensuring their survival, you tackle challenges and puzzles in the environments, take on enemies, and collect certain items and fruits and what have you, with your ultimate goal being to bring those back to your ship. Oh, and you’re doing all of this on a mysterious planet that’s most likely a post-apocalyptic Earth.
STORY DETAILS
Pikmin games tend to always follow a general structure where their narrative setups are concerned, involving crash-landings of some sort, and ensuing attempts at rescue. Pikmin 4 will follow that same basic premise. Funnily enough, however, this time, there are two crash-landings at play. First, it’s series protagonist Captain Olimar who crash-lands on the mysterious planet, after which a Rescue Corp is deployed, who crash-land as well. It then falls to you, the Rescue Corp’s newest recruit, to head to the planet, find Olimar and the missing Corp members, and bring them back home.
CHARACTER CREATION
Over the course of three Pikmin games, we’ve played as a number of different protagonists, or Leader characters, as the series calls them. In a first for the franchise, however, Pikmin 4 won’t have a specific, named protagonist, and will instead allow players to create and customize their own character. How extensive these customization options will be remains to be seen, but a fair few options have been confirmed, including face shape, hair, eyes, skin colour, and more.
NEW CAMERA PERSPECTIVE
Being real-time strategy games, the Pikmin titles have adopted an isometric top-down view for gameplay, though with Pikmin 4, the series is changing things up. The camera now is placed much closer to you and your army of Pikmin, and it seems like you’re going to get free control as well. Of course, the controls in Pikmin games up this point have been very specifically designed around its isometric viewpoint, so it should be interesting to see what changes Pikmin 4 makes in that area.
LOCATIONS
The environments that you get to explore and navigate are always a highlight in the Pikmin games, and it seems like the upcoming sequel will very much follow that trend. Obviously, there’s a whole lot that we haven’t seen yet, but Nintendo has already shown off some locations that have that classic Pikmin look, including lawns and gardens, playgrounds, deserts, caves, grassy areas, and more. It even looks like we’ll be exploring the interiors of a regular house in this game, which should be interesting.
OATCHI
The big new gameplay mechanic in Pikmin 4 is Oatchi, a lovable canine companion who’ll be helping you out on your adventure in a variety of ways. Oatchi can lend a paw in pretty much every single thing that you command your Pikmin army to do. He can help destroy obstacles in the environment, he can fight against enemies, and he can help carry objects back to your ship. On top of that, you and a bunch of your Pikmin can also climb on his back and ride him around, and since he can swim, you can also do that to get across water bodies.
ICE PIKMIN
The titular Pikmin themselves are, of course, going to be the primary focus in gameplay, and as is always the case with a new instalment, Pikmin 4 will be introducing some new Pikmin types as well. One such newcomer will be Ice Pikmin, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like- a Pikmin with ice properties. Using Ice Pikmin, you can freeze enemies, though it’s worth keeping in mind that defeating frozen enemies shatters their bodies, which means there’s no corpse left behind that you can take back to your ship. Additionally, Ice Pikmin can also freeze bodies of water, enabling you to walk across.
NIGHT EXPEDITIONS
Not being able to explore environments at nighttime has always been a hard and fast rule in Pikmin games, and has generally been at the center of how they place time limits on players. Pikmin 4 is changing up the rulebook though, because for the first time in the series, at the end of a day, you’ll be given the option of exploring at nighttime if you want to. This will come with its own unique mechanics and gameplay- and, of course, its own unique Pikmin.
GLOW PIKMIN
Another new type of Pikmin that Pikmin 4 is introducing is the Glow Pikmin. These little critters, which only be used during night expeditions, have glowing wisp-like bodies that light up the environments around you when you’re exploring in the dark. They also have some pretty unique combat mechanics, in that you can charge them up to converge into a single glowing ball and then hurl that at enemies to temporarily incapacitate them.
MOUNDS AND LUMINOLS
During night excursions, the gameplay will largely revolve around the loop of protecting mounds known as Luminols in tower defense-like gameplay sections. Tall, glowing structures made of dirt, Luminols contain glow sap, which is described as a valuable resource that you collect using your Glow Pikmin. Luminols will be routinely attacked by enemies, and during nighttime, enemies will also be in a frenzied state, doubling the threat that you’ll be dealing with.
UNDERGROUND AREAS
Exploring underground environments has always been a big part of Pikmin games, and that will be the case in Pikmin 4 as well. In addition to exploring on the surface, you’ll also have plenty of opportunities to dive into underground locations. Here, the environments you find will be completely different and come with their own unique items to collect and obstacles to navigate.
DANDORI BATTLES
Pikmin 4 is introducing a new feature called Dandori Battles. In the campaign, players will face off against a mysterious character resembling Captain Olimar in Dandori Battles, which will see you and your Pikmin competing against your opponent to collect treasure. The more of it you collect, the more points you have, and whoever has the most points when the timer runs out wins. Dandori Battles will also be a separate 2v2 multiplayer mode for those who want to experience it outside the story mode.
BASE CAMP
After completing every mission, whether its at day or night, you’ll return to your base camp, which is much more expanded in Pikmin 4, in that it’s a physical space where you can walk around and find activities to engage in. That includes talking to other characters, training Oatchi to teach him new skills, and visiting the lab to build new equipment and items to help out when you’re out on expeditions- like Rush Boots, which increase your movement speed.
DEMO
If you have a hankering for Pikmin 4 that just can’t wait until it launches, or if you’re looking to dip your toes in the water before you decide if you want to buy the game, there’s good news for you. Nintendo has confirmed that a Pikmin 4 demo will be available for free on the Switch eShop on June 28. While we don’t yet know what its scope will be, it has been confirmed that players will be allowed to carry over demo save data into the full game.
BUILT ON UNREAL ENGINE
In an unusual move for not only Pikmin, but Nintendo as a whole, Pikmin 4 is built using Unreal Engine. Nintendo’s games have almost always historically been developed using in-house engines, with very rare exceptions over the years. For instance, 2019’s Yoshi’s Crafted World was also built on Unreal Engine- but that was developed by a third party studio in Good-Feel, whereas Pikmin 4 is, of course, an internally developed game.