The year was 2014 and Nintendo was in some of the worst financial trouble the company had ever seen thanks to poor sales of the Wii U. You might think it’s not a time to be happy, but this is Nintendo we’re talking about, and Miyamoto had other ideas.
Taking his favorite child, Pikmin, the legendary game designer announced that he is working on a series of short films to help promote the third entry in the series, Pikmin 3, which was released the year before. It was a move that wouldn’t have made it onto the Nintendo fan bingo card, but the results were, to put it simply, beautiful.
The three shorts premiered at the 2014 Tokyo International Film Festival, before becoming available to download on the Wii U and 3DS eShops for $4.99/£4.49/$4.99. Before the service could close, the shorts were moved to official Nintendo of America’s YouTube channel 2020, where they have remained available for free viewing ever since.
‘Night Juicer’, the first and shortest of the trio, features a group of Pikmin confused by Olimar’s nocturnal juicing habits; ‘Treasure in a Bottle’ features one red Pikmin doing everything he can to get his hands on a shiny marble, while ‘Occupational Hazards’ is all about Olimar’s attempt to clear a construction site. Each takes place without dialogue and is packed with enough slapstick comedy to entertain audiences of any age.
With Pikmin 4 coming out next week, we thought this was the perfect time to revisit the short films for the final episode of Pikmin Prep, and we’ve included each of them below for your viewing pleasure.
Popcorn ready? Let’s dive into…
