Pikmin 4

Took them 10 years to make this and damn it they sure perfected the formula within that time. I have no idea what else they could do to improve this. God I love this game.

I love Pikmin. Just adore it! The gameplay is soothing but satisfying, the story is just right, and the creatures are perfect. Pikmin 2, with its caves and collection focus, is truly one of my favorite games of all time, and this entry returns to a lot of the stuff I liked from that game. Pikmin 3 was a mild disappointment, though still a solid game, so I was a little nervous about this one. Thankfully, my fears were mostly unfounded!

The caves were especially great, and I sincerely hope they keep this in any upcoming games because it’s just too good. The monsters in the caves were also perfect: almost every creature from the first two games return here (no spoilers but I genuinely gasped a few times) and the new creatures are also quite fun. The caves are a little too easy, but that’s a problem with the series in general, as Pikmin 3 was also quite forgiving. There are a few things that cap the difficulty throughout, like limiting the number and types of Pikmin you can take out, but overall it wasn’t too challenging. I often find myself wishing modern Nintendo games had difficulty options, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Speaking of difficulty, one thing that made the difficulty a little to easy is Oatchi, the dog, who, mechanically, is both a breath of fresh air and a bit of a crutch. He makes it easy to avoid backtracking, which is spectacular for a game like this! He also takes commands, like grabbing your idle Pikmin, which is just pure value. Where he makes things too easy is when you’re battling: he can charge into enemies and knock your entire army directly on a monster’s face. The charge just melts everything it touches. Pikmin also hold on to his back, making your whole army a really tiny focal point, which makes things a little too easy. I probably could have not used some of these skills, but I like using the tools I have at my disposal!

The Dandori challenges were interesting, and were honestly a great break from the rest of the game. Putting a timing puzzle in the game is a cool way to make the game something new, and for the most part they were extremely well designed. I got a little tired of them in the endgame because I cared a little more about the fighting and exploration, but at the end of each one I felt satisfied that I tried it and solved it. The Dandori battles were also pretty fun, and I think they nailed the battle idea they came up with in Pikmin 2. My only complaint is that the computer opponents seemed to rubber band like crazy, I could never nail down how they got so many points so quickly.

Night exploration was on interesting idea that didn’t quite gel for me. I’m not actually sure what would have made it work better. It felt like it wanted to be a tower defense game, but the AI isn’t smart enough to actually properly defend the towers. Maybe with a few tweaks to the mechanics it could have been more compelling. Perhaps if you could give Oatchi better orders? Or if you could build little structures? I’m not sure. I also didn’t get very far, so maybe more mechanics showed up eventually.

One thing that I wasn’t immediately sold on but quickly appreciated was the hub area. Saving the castaways and building a little village of people who give you side quests was actually a really fun and silly idea that worked for me. I didn’t try to complete all the side quests, but I was glad they were there.

This is a bit random, but the only thing I miss a bit from Pikmin 3 is the cinematic boss battles. That final level in Pikmin 3 is really complex and engaging, and there was nothing quite like that in Pikmin 4. Even the area bosses in Pikmin 3 had more grandiosity than anything here, and I missed that (despite a couple of those bosses being a little too annoying and not really matching the visual style of the first two games). I wonder if they could have done something a little more large-scale here and there in this game. I think that scale would have come at the cost of the caves, though, so perhaps I’m satisfied with the way it was made.

The last thing I’ll mention that I really enjoyed was the environments. They were great! The levels being obviously the remnants of human civilization was perfect and surreal. The house and campsite levels were especially fun, and I wish they were even a little bigger. Really fun level design in this one that made me want to live in the Pikmin world like I did when I was a kid.

I think that’s the biggest success of this game: despite a few complaints that I have at 30 years old, this game brings me the same joy I had when Pikmin 2 came out nearly 20 years ago. It feels like a nostalgic victory lap, but one that does adapt and change things for a modern audience. Overall, it was a great game, and one that I think I will happily come back to someday.