Sep. 9, 2023
Even if I have a laundry list of nitpicks, time always flies whenever I play a Pikmin game.
I’m grateful that Nintendo still gives love and care to this franchise despite how niche it is. Pikmin has always been about quality over quantity. While I wouldn’t say 4 is the best in the series, it’s still great.
While load times are a bit long (at least off the cartridge), it’s worth it for the lovely scenery. The camera can now sit behind the player, granting them a new way to envelop themselves in the scale of the world. Such aesthetics are important in Pikmin games, so I appreciate this change.
As per the usual, Pikmin 4 bounces between a casual experience and a chaotic one. For this time around, I found it easier to clear most caves and overworld maps, but I’m not sure how much of that has to do with my age, or the fact a lock-on feature exists. After replaying Pikmin 2 recently, I’m sure most of the difficulty in that game stemmed from being forced to free aim.
Bigger challenges can be found in Pikmin 4 through “Dandori” missions. The ones marked with more fire icons don’t mess around. Achieving the highest rank in them requires an intense amount of micromanaging. They’re highly satisfying to tackle, and I’d love to see what the modding scene could do for “Kaizo” maps (if it’s possible to do).
A new feature that sounded bad at first, but turned out perfectly fine, is rewinding time in the game. If things aren’t panning out how you want, you can skip backwards in varied increments (e.g. 1, 3, or 5 minutes), the whole dungeon level, or even the whole day. Naturally, you have redo whatever you skipped back to.
These are simply options for soft resetting the game. The per-minute ones are cheesy, sure, but whole-floor resets are something that I do in Pikmin 2 to this day. Plus, it helps the game reload faster than if I quit to the Switch dashboard.
Another concern I initially had was in regards to Oatchi. He can become immune to all obstacles as if he’s a permanent Bulbmin. However, he’s still only one unit (even if a cheesy one), so the emphasis on teamwork isn’t lost.
Besides, it’s possible to toggle off equipment that feels too cheesy. However, “Pup Drive” upgrades are irreversible, so they need to be allocated wisely to fit a player’s ideal experience.
Another great feature with Oatchi is how he assists in controlling the swarm. The dodge roll in Pikmin 3 always felt clunky to me, and while you can unlock a marching trumpet in 4 like in previous games, its implementation this time around is horrible.
Oatchi instead causes Pikmin to hop onto his back (which is overwhelmingly adorable). It condenses the squad into a smaller area for quick escapes and for locating a better foothold.
Ice Pikmin are also new to 4, but I found them to be underwhelming additions. I would prefer that Blue Pikmin got new tools, instead of a whole separate species existing. I’ll go into more detail in the Nitpicks section.
Glow Pikmin also aren’t implemented as strongly as they could have. They’re featured in tower defense missions during nighttime hours. While Dandori maps are easy to pick up but hard to master, night missions are either curb stomped, or so absurdly difficult that the use of items (e.g. bomb rocks) are essential. There’s a solid proof of concept here that doesn’t reach its full potential.
Thankfully, night missions don’t negatively impact the main game much, if at all. It's all short-burst side content that's forgettable at worst.
As mentioned at the beginning, I have a lot of nitpicks with Pikmin 4. It’s just shy of being a perfect game. It might not be the “best” Pikmin, but it’s one of those Nintendo games that are simply fun to play.
Nitpick(min)s
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Camera
I like the “immersive” angle in this Pikmin game, but it does slightly annoy me. Moving the Y-axis up or down is floaty and not as responsive as I'd like. Pikmin 2’s camera options were static but snappy, like a refined version of Mario 64’s. In tense situations, 2’s approach is superior.
Marching Horn
While I like commanding the Pikmin squad to charge with the X button, I miss the simple brilliance of swarming with the C stick in Pikmin 1 and 2.
Technically, this feature was reinstated in 4 as an upgrade, but it’s painfully awful. Since camera movement is bound to the right stick, you have to hold ZL to “overwrite” the action for moving the squad.
There’s one small and yet huge problem: ZL is also used to nudge the camera, specifically to snap it behind the player character. This forces a static tunnel vision onto the player, which makes tracking an enemy’s position a nightmare.
Since older Pikmin games used the triggers and Z button for camera manipulation, there were no overlaps on the controller layout. Despite Switch controllers having trigger and shoulder buttons, they’re already bound to different actions.
There are simply too many button presses needed to get the Marching Horn to function at all. It’s no wonder that Nintendo made it a throwaway late-game upgrade.
3-of-a-kind Pikmin limitation
I get it, Pikmin has a power creep issue. Purple, Rock, and now Ice Pikmin make encounters a bit silly with how you can wipe the floor. But being limited to 3 types of Pikmin on any given map is dumb.
More Pikmin types means it’s harder to divide the squad. It requires even more strategy compared to the days of 1 or 2.
I feel that had this limitation not existed, the overworld and dungeon maps might not have been designed for 3 Pikmin to dominate them. In one zone, I swapped to Winged Pikmin to efficiently grab a few treasures, but then Red, Blue, and Ice Pikmin cleaned out the rest.
Besides, a few of the game’s dungeons have Candypop Buds that let you temporarily break the 3-of-a-kind rule anyways. Why was this needed, again?
Upgrading the squad to 100
Just… why?
At the start of the game, you can’t have 100 Pikmin on the field; I presume it’s for “difficulty” reasons for the starting areas. It’s completely arbitrary.
After collecting enough Flarlic bulbs to reach the cap, any others sent to the Onion give the “exciting” reward of… nectar and spicy sprays, two easily farmed materials.
Throwing inputs getting ignored
Another pointless feature in Pikmin 4 is how your character won’t toss Pikmin for about a second or two after an item’s minimum weight is met. So if an item weighs 5 Pikmin, locking onto it and throwing 5 Pikmin triggers this “cooldown.”
This is a horrible design choice when trying to clear space in the middle of combat. If I miscount and throw more Pikmin than “needed,” that’s my fault. I can always call them back and start over.
Onions I was late to unlock
This nitpick is technically my fault, but I want to talk about it anyway.
I should have prioritized scouring the overworld maps for all Onions/Flarlic. I didn’t obtain the Ice and Rock Onions until I was nearly done with the game.
Thankfully, there’s an alternative to fall back on. It’s easy to repeatedly run through dungeons and use Candypop buds, which respawn for every delve. At worst, it’s mildly inconvenient because of the long loading times.
I also delayed Olimar’s side story until I was close to the final boss of the regular game. I deeply regretted this, because Olimar unlocks bonus Dandori maps for the ultimate upgrades: Purple and White Onions.
Nintendo answered the fandom’s prayers for them, and I basically missed out. I advise making a beeline for Olimar’s story as soon as it unlocks.
Ice Pikmin further hurt Blues
Blue Pikmin keep getting the short straw with every sequel. All these decades later, and their only defining trait is breathing underwater. Since 3, they can swim fairly quick towards enemies, but it’s not that impressive. They’re literally the only ones that can fight in the water to begin with.
Meanwhile, Ice Pikmin are capable of freezing entire lakes. It’s perfect for traversal while also trivializing enemies that are touching the surface.
Why can’t Blue Pikmin achieve this? Imagine that they evolved to withstand frigid temperatures, and can temporarily transform into Ice Pikmin when interacting with frozen objects. The tradeoff is that they float to the surface, and will revert back to their default forms after something is frozen.
Red Pikmin get to toss around pinecones in 4, why can’t Blues also get a new tool?
Overworld enemies don’t respawn
I guess this is "good" for pushing through the game's content with minimal grinding (it was never was a problem in the first place). But it removes all risks during exploration, and the environment feels hollow with corpses littered everywhere.
If you think about it too deeply, it’s depressing to know that the Rescue Corps committed mass genocide to multiple ecosystems.
Over-reliance on old monsters
To be fair, Pikmin monsters are perfectly tailored to throw a variety of threats at the player’s squad. There’s no need to reinvent the Bulborb or Burrow-knit, or else they’d wind up similar to Zebstrika, the “Electric Rapidash” according to the Pokémon Meta.
At the same time, I can’t help but yearn for more than a handful of new creatures. This is doubly so with bosses; almost all of them are recycled from previous entries, with no significant remix done to shake up the formula.
Speaking of which…
My boi Waterwraith got nerfed
Waterwraith is an awesome minimalist blob creature design. Rolling on two concrete cylinders is charming and silly, until it injects survival horror into the game with its immortal bulldozer of death. The music backing its dreaded arrival is eerie, and its otherworldly mumblings and grunts are unsettling. It’s basically a kid-friendly Eldritch abomination!
Submerged Castle in Pikmin 2 is 5 levels of pure Hell and a great skill check for the player. It makes the player feel helpless for most of its runtime. The twist with Purple Pikmin makes defeating the Wraith cathartic.
Waterwraith makes a return to Pikmin 4, but loses everything that made it so amazing. I promise this isn’t because of rose-tinted glasses.
Wraith’s noises are completely nerfed and drowned out by literally every other noise in the game. Even when you can hear it, it’s a feeble wheeze. Waterwraith does not in fact “go brrr” as I describe it in Pikmin 2.
Its animations are also stiffer. Wraith isn’t as springy as before, which takes away from its uncanny presence. It feels like an actor begrudgingly clocking into work and going through the motions. Technically, the movements are the same, but the impact isn’t.
The dungeon for this version of Waterwraith is also much easier than in 2. I was greatly disappointed to have completed it practically on autopilot. Then again, I get the feeling that Pikmin 4 was built for kids even younger than I was when I played 2 (about 11 years old).
The plot reboot was pointless
Pikmin’s story isn’t so deep that it warrants a reset for a newer generation of players.
Olimar’s biography is basically “a kind guy with a family, a dog, and bad luck.” Louie is a hungry fat jerk. One planet loves money, the other loves food. That’s about it. There’s always more lore behind the monsters than the characters.
Almost all of the Pikmin franchise is available on Switch (the exception being a minor 3DS spinoff). It’s no longer a mirror to the old days of following Kingom Hearts across multiple consoles.
Too many overpowered items
Most of the consumable items introduced in Pikmin 4 are designed to stunlock enemies. Apparently, it wasn't enough to achieve that with 3 species of Pikmin.
In a vacuum, there’s nothing wrong with giving players more options. After all, I hated Callisto Protocol because it lacked said options.
But as I mentioned in my review, my issue is that a part of the game can’t be feasibly completed without them. Night missions felt like a mobile game when you apply game-breaking powerups. Due to this, Glow Pikmin and the tower defense idea aren’t as cool as they could have been. Options are good; being railroaded often isn’t.