When you think of flagship sequels to major Nintendo franchises, your mind doesn’t automatically jump to iterations. Typically, Nintendo wants to do something crazy and new with each new entry in its core series–and that’s what has historically held back games like Star Fox and F-Zero from being successful. regular sequel. But Pikmin 4 is a shining example of how the company’s talented developers can take a step back and simply analyze and improve what’s already there.
That’s ultimately what Pikmin 4 is about. Nintendo took pains to promote the game’s promotional cycle as an ideal entry point for newcomers to the series. Usually, developers pray behind their backs when they say this – but for Pikmin 4, it’s true. This has everything you’d want from an earlier game, presented from a slightly tweaked perspective, making the whole package more accessible and approachable for a whole new audience.
Ease of use is probably the most important aspect of Pikmin 4, which is quite different from the first three entries in the series. Certain traditions have been abolished entirely, such as overall time limits. Players can now rewind progress and undo the disastrous Pikmin massacre. The controls have been tweaked slightly, and the overall feel of the game is… more relaxed. At least, in the main storyline.
The content that many hardcore Pikmin fans are used to is still there – although in many cases, you’ll need to play through the first fifteen hours or so to unlock the actual content of the pack.
However, even for those with only a smattering of knowledge about the series, the core of the game will feel familiar. You’ll guide your little adventurer (this time player-created) through familiar real-world environments. Pikmin 4 even gave us a glimpse of Pikmin inside a human dwelling. Day after day, you must gather your Pikmin to gather resources and forge new paths through the world.
Nintendo has made it clear that they don’t want us to spoil any surprises, but that’s pretty much what you’d expect. Pikmin 4 gently eases new and old players into its experience…and then, after an initial story that actually forms an extended but also very satisfying tutorial, the gauntlet falls off. And, in a way, the knuckle covers were also put on.
The first half of Pikmin 4 feels like a full game – a relaxing, comfortable, endearing experience that you can sit back and enjoy with relatively little stress. When it’s over, you’ll be satisfied, and the end credits will roll. But there’s more. The second half also feels like a stand-alone game in its own right–except that it’s the hardcore sequel that the most devoted fans of the first three games wanted. In this sense, it is indeed a “game of two halves”.
Of course, that’s not to say the game will get any more complicated. Mechanics are layered over time – upgrades, new abilities, and of course new versions of Pikmin to unlock. Complexity is spread out, and mechanics are introduced in a way that is the very definition of a smooth, well-crafted difficulty curve. The curve isn’t always flat–it can start out flat and then increase in intensity, like a roller coaster that builds in to larger loops–and Pikmin 4 achieves this, saving the strongest wrinkles for later in the game.
There have been a few changes since the beginning, most notably the Oatchi – a new canine companion. Oatchi basically acts as a second in command to your custom protagonist. He can interact with the environment directly on command like a Pikmin, but can also command a group of individual Pikmin and travel to other areas of the map individually, either under your direct control or managed by an AI.
Exactly how to use Oatchi is very much up to the player, and the quest design is structured so that any of the above methods can be applied to any given quest or quest – which itself feels like a good example of the different ways Pikmin 1- recognition. Played 3 of each. All three play styles (single player, split protagonist, and RTS-style micromanagement) work here – or, more likely, new combinations of all three.
Oatchi is the poster child for a game full of smart additions and changes. The same is true for me of rewinding – a mechanic I would scoff at on paper (I protest that it’s cheating), but in practice find it very useful and fun. As the difficulty of the game increases, rewinding becomes even more important than I thought it would be–because it allows you to try out the most nefarious challenges without having to do the heart-rending grind to get more Pikmin. In fact, much of the game has this feeling that real-world additions are better than paper additions — like Ice Pikmin, which sounds like a relatively boring elemental addition until you Experience the use case of turning liquids into solids in this small but big game. world.
Honestly, this is a program that is hard to criticize too strongly. For example, I found the nighttime levels to be relatively bland–but they only made up a small part of the overall scheme. Some may miss some past multiplayer options – but many won’t at all. The tame early game and slow pace of introducing reusable enemies and mechanics from past games will undoubtedly be frustrating for some fans. In fact, I feel this too – but I also understand, as I go deeper, that this rhythm is crucial to the mood and atmosphere that Pikmin 4 is going for.
That vibe combined established ideas with new ones to create Pikmin, which I think is definitely the most well-rounded game in the series. It takes a series of second and third entries that I appreciate but don’t like – and brings back that cult. It’s a rejuvenating sequel — though exactly that kind of inscrutable entry.