Pikmin 4 is the latest entry in the Pikmin franchise, a real-time strategy game that has less to do with commanding tanks or spaceships and instead uses more colorful plantlike creatures, aptly called Pikmin.
The game’s story takes place after the events of Pikmin 3. The series protagonist, Captain Olimar, crash lands on a planet and has to fix his ship. Olimar’s marooning is a great way to introduce a brand-new charming cast of characters. He sends out an SOS signal that’s captured by the Rescue Corps. However, the organization’s ship also crash-lands on the planet, and the customizable player character must enlist Pikmin and find Olimar while also discovering treasures and other survivors along the way.
Pikmin 4 is a solid game with an engaging gameplay loop, colorful graphics and lots of content. It launches on July 21 and we’ve spent three weeks with the game and saw the story to its conclusion. Here are our thoughts after playing for 30 hours.
Whether you're a longtime Pikimin fan or you're just looking for a relaxing, accessible strategy game for your Nintendo Switch, Pikmin 4 is one of the series' best entries yet.
What we liked about it
Fun gameplay loop
Pikmin 4 is separated into several distinct areas with different puzzles and treasures scattered throughout them. Players collect different kinds of Pikmin to help solve environmental puzzles and defeat enemies. There’s a large variety of different Pikmin with their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, Yellow Pikmin can be thrown farther than others and can dig through holes faster, but they aren’t very strong in combat. The newly introduced Ice Pikmin can freeze enemies but are more susceptible to fire attacks. Needing the appropriate kinds of Pikmin for various situations switches up the gameplay and prevents it from becoming overly repetitive.
At the beginning of the game, players meet Oatchi, their lovable dog companion. By collecting raw materials, players can craft upgrades such as fireproof armor for themselves and Oatchi, or other equipment such as a treasure signal to more easily search for treasure. Every time that players find another survivor or castaway, they earn Pup Drives, which are essentially skill points to upgrade Oatichi’s abilities (such as being able to swim faster). Pikmin 4’s progression system feels rewarding, and you’re incentivized to explore more.
A new game mode called Night Expeditions plays out as a sort of tower defense game. Here, players exclusively use the new Glow Pikmin to protect tall mounds of dirt for a certain period. It’s a welcome addition that helps add mission variety to ?standard daytime exploration.
Great presentation and art direction
The different areas in Pikmin 4 have plenty of beautiful vistas. The Sun-Speckled Terrace is modeled after a public park, while the Blossoming Arcadia is a playground. The Serene Shores is a gorgeous beach area with low and high tides. The fantastic art direction reflects the family-friendly nature of Pikmin 4 and makes it feel relaxing, even when you’re potentially sending Pikmin to their deaths when fighting enemies.
The user interface has a very straightforward aesthetic, similar to that of a menu on a computer screen, which lends to the sci-fi and natural setting of the game. Pikmin 4’s graphics look great ?in both docked and handheld mode on Nintendo Switch, but there aren’t any additional graphics settings.
There aren’t many noticeable frame drops or dips in performance when the action gets hectic either, which is really important when engaging with ?real-time strategy gameplay. However, loading times can be long when transitioning to different areas.
Lots of content
Pikmin 4 offers more content than expected. In addition to completing the main story, players can go back to previous areas and find all of the treasure available or rescue the rest of the survivors and castaways. It’s not required to 100% complete the map of each area before unlocking the next, but it’s worth going back every once in a while as you’ll be rewarded with raw materials.
Another big feature of Pikmin 4 is a ?co-op multiplayer, with two game modes that help extend its longevity. The Dandori Battles are competitive battles where two players face off against each other to collect as many items as possible before time runs out. Players can also team up with each other in story mode, with one player being able to distract enemies while the other goes around collecting treasures.
What we didn’t like about it
Too many tutorials
While it’s important to teach players how Pikmin 4’s gameplay mechanics function, the amount of tutorials the game has feels like it was holding my hand too much. It’d be appreciated if the game asked if you wanted to skip the tutorial or continue before starting it.
Very few accessibility options
Nintendo has been lagging behind on accessibility options with its other titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Unfortunately, Pikmin 4 follows this trend as well. In the settings menu, there are options to change camera controls and motion controls, but no such options to change font size or even remap buttons.
Bottom line
Pikmin 4 is a very polished game that doesn’t really have many blemishes. The real-time strategy genre can sometimes feel unapproachable with complex controls, but Nintendo’s family-friendly take manages to streamline the experience and make it fun.
The vibrant colors and varied environments are atmospheric as well. There’s also plenty of side content in the game. Whether you want to save it all until you complete the main story or tackle them in bits and pieces along the way to saving Captain Olimar is up to you. You can dictate the pacing of the game yourself and that’s what makes it a relaxing experience compared to other games in its genre.
While Nintendo may have blown us away in 2023 with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4 definitely also deserves to be on any list of the best Nintendo Switch games.
