Pikmin 4 is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch family of systems on Friday, and there’s a playable demo available right now on the Nintendo eShop if you want a taste of what’s to come. Today, the reviews are out online, and the latest Pikmin adventure has achieved very respectable ratings 88/100 on Metacritic with 65 reviews published (by 15:26 UK time) Unfortunately we missed the code review deadline, so expect our review to be available after launch. Anyway, without further ado, here’s a handpicked selection of Pikmin 4 reviews:
“Pikmin games are typically hit-or-miss for me. I enjoy them and admire how they work, but the anxiety and stress associated with their guidelines often left me stressed after every game. Pikmin 4 is different. It’s an entry full of quality-of-life changes, excellent setups, and an incredible amount of gameplay. It’s the kind of game where just when you think it might be over, it surprises you with more to do.”
“Pikmin 4 is an extraordinary experience. It’s the most comfortable installment in the series, especially since some of the new features eliminate the deadline pressure and other stressors of past installments. It’s still a thought-provoking entry though, and will require you to think about continuing through the areas and choosing the appropriate Pikmin to solve the problem. It’s a beautiful game about thinking things through and strategically managing resources, and the addition of Oatchi helps the player enjoy everything instead of burdening himself with so many tasks.”
“However, the star of the show is Oatchi. It doesn’t look much like a dog, but it acts like a dog, excitedly greeting you every morning for your daily adventure, defending you from danger, and helping your Pikmin carry items they can’t handle on their own. In a game about managing a large group of useful creatures, Oatchi is your fantastic assistant manager who does all the heavy lifting. Its greatest strength, however, is carrying you and all your Pikmin at the push of a button. As visually interesting as it’s always been to catch dozens of Pikmin and throw them at your problems, it always leads to annoying problems with them falling off bridges or getting stuck on corners. Gathering all your Pikmin on Oatchi’s back eliminates this problem and makes everything much more manageable, allowing you to focus on having fun.”
“When it comes to reiterating the standard Pikmin gameplay established by the first edition, Pikmin 4 is the smoothest version, with the best controls and best looking, and all the additions are worthwhile and fun to play. The variety of tasks, which you can tackle in the order of your choice, keeps you from doing the same thing for too long, and I enjoyed rescuing other survivors and expanding my home base roster. Pikmin may never rise to the top of the Nintendo heap, and it’s probably unfair to expect it ever will, but the latest Pikmin is the best attempt yet.”
“The game is easy, but it’s also charming and fascinating, with a rare example of Nintendo’s attempts at photorealistic graphics. They also look very nice, especially one map where the tide comes in mid-day. And while indie title Tinykin surpassed it, this is the first Pikmin game to feature a house interior that you explore from your Smurf-sized perspective.”
“The only aspect of the game that doesn’t work as well with the new, softer attitude are the caves, reintroduced from Pikmin 2. They’re multi-level dungeons where you can’t breed new Pikmin. But they are so easy, with no real time limit, that they really seem pointlessly trivial.”
“We’re not sure how many die-hard Pikmin fans there are in the world, but some people will certainly complain that the series is dumbed down. But it doesn’t look like that. You could say it’s been relocated instead, and since the original formula treaded water for so long, a more diverse and accessible sequel is entirely welcome. We doubt it will suddenly catapult the franchise into bestseller territory, but it’s still unlike any other video game, and all the changes and improvements to Pikmin 4 are sure to expand its audience far beyond the original games.”
“One of the most prominent apps on my phone is a simple to-do list app. Every month or year I have a handful of recurring tasks, along with anything I jot down as a reminder. It took me over 20 hours with Pikmin 4 before I discovered that the feeling it evoked was the same as when I completed my to-do list. Pikmin 4 is a game, sure, but it’s also the kind of low-impact activity that gives you the same satisfaction of ticking off a list of small, relatively simple tasks. This makes it enjoyable to play, but that quality also makes it feel incongruous when it briefly adds elements that provide a slight but noticeable degree of pressure – elements that make it more traditional “game-like”. Overall, I think I prefer the Pikmin activity to the Pikmin game.”
“For those times when you absolutely cannot avoid losing Pikmin, there is now a new Rewind Time feature. Previous Pikmin games offered a change at the end of the day, but Pikmin 4 expands on the concept with regular saves. You can’t manually save during the day, and it’s easy to see how that would be too exploitative, but the autosave usually happens every 2-5 minutes, so you never lose too much progress. For those who are very protective of their Pikmin, it’s a great convenience to just rewind a few minutes and try the encounter again if you’ve run into problems in the meantime.”
“That story, like most of Pikmin 4, is gentle and unobtrusive. Everything is just very pleasant and sweet, and there’s a certain satisfaction that comes from directing your little army of plant-people to collect treasures like fruit and Game Boy Advance cartridges. The more Pikmin 4 leans towards a more traditional game design, with competition and fail states, the more it tends to get in its own way. Sometimes just having a relaxing activity is enough.”
