Pikmin 4 has been a long time coming, but it’s finally almost here now, and ahead of its launch less than a month from now, Nintendo is continuing to ramp up the marketing around it. We recently got a new gameplay trailer for the real-time strategy title at last week’s Nintendo Direct presentation, and the company has now released an overview trailer to offer a primer on the game.
The overview trailer mostly serves as a summarization of details that have been previously revealed, and after offering the basic details on Pikmin 4’s story setup and gameplay fundamentals, it moves on to talk about some of its new features and mechanics.
For starters, there’s Oatchi the rescue pup, who will accompany you on your journey and help out in various ways, including fighting against enemies, leading you to items and treasures, helping your Pikmin carry items, and serving as a mount on land and water.
Other new features include Dandori Battles, where you’ll compete against an opponent to collect the most items within a time limit in order to rescue castaways, or the Base Camp, where you can accept side missions, speak with NPCs, or upgrade Oatchi’s abilities. For the first time ever in a Pikmin game, there are also Night Expeditions to embark on, where you’ll fight frenzies foes, collect Luminals, and enlist the aid of the newly introduced Glow Pikmin.
Elements from past games that series fans will find familiar also make a return, like the underground cave sections introduced in Pikmin 2, or finding parts of the Rescue Corp’s ship to repair it in order to unlock new areas, which was central to the structure of the original Pikmin.
Check out the trailer below for more details.
Meanwhile, a free demo of Pikmin 4 is also now available on the Switch eShop. It will include the game’s first area, and allow save data transfers to the full game upon release.
Pikmin 4 launches on July 21 for the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo recently also released HD ports of Pikmin 1 and 2 for the platform.