It's a thrilling ride. You go for one short game and wake up after five hours, only to return to playing immediately because you've figured out how to beat your opponent. The graphics may be simple, but they make up for it with the colour and thoughtfulness of the environments, and one genuinely enjoys exploring every nook and cranny. This is really worth it. [Issue#329]
Pikmin 4 marks the return of one of Nintendo's most beloved series, and this return could not have happened in a better way. Thanks to its exquisite audiovisual world, slick gameplay mechanics, an enveloping strategic component, and the adorable relationship between the player and the little alien creatures, Pikmin 4 is nothing short of a jewel on the crown of the Nintendo Switch.
Loved it. 48+ hours of main story. Worth the money for sure. It has many side quest like night missions, to mix things up. Collecting diamonds to purchase power ups for you and your pup. A+++
From the very beginning until reaching the postgame, I never had anything less than a blast with Pikmin 4. While we may have waited a long time for the latest installment in this wonderful series, the wait was worth it. With several cool new types of Pikmin, an excellent new canine companion, and more variety than ever, this is easily the best installment in the series. It won’t necessarily change the minds of anyone who has bounced off past games in the series, but if you’ve remotely enjoyed any of the games or are new to Pikmin you should absolutely give Pikmin 4 a try.
Nintendo's Pikmin 4 beautifully builds upon the franchise’s quirky strategy formula to deliver new mechanics and dense locales that make you feel even more like an interplanetary explorer.
The point is that those Dandori Battles really elevate the Pikmin 4 experience. Without them, what you’re looking at is a perfectly pleasant but too-iterative addition to the Pikmin series. However, with them, Pikmin 4 becomes the finest execution of the Pikmin philosophy to date. With any luck, Nintendo will see this as an opportunity for a dedicated spinoff, and continue to build on the excellent foundations it has established here.
That story, like most of Pikmin 4, is gentle and unobtrusive. It's all just very agreeable and sweet, and there's a certain gratification that comes from directing your little army of plant-people to gather treasures like fruits and Game Boy Advance cartridges. The more Pikmin 4 leans into fashioning itself after a more traditional game, with competition and fail-states, the more prone it is to getting in its own way. Sometimes, it's enough to simply have a relaxing activity.
Pikmin 4 is a game that never expect to be this enjoyable, relaxing yet challenging at the same time. Pikmin 4 is truly a masterpiece from Nintendo in 2023. This is truly Nintendo takes on RTS genre which to me feels phenomenal.
The game rely on day mechanic where you have to collect treasure and save castaway within the time limit that you have in 1 day but the game never force you or set the maximum day you have to finish all of that. Because of that, the game is challenging yet relaxing at the same time.
The game also perfect for completionist where you can aim for platinum badge in every dandori challenge and battle. On the other hand, you can play Olimar adventure where the game gets challenging in my opinion if you didn't set your time properly.
Overall, Pikmin 4 is a fun ride and I truly enjoy it from start to finish. Looking forward for the next Pikmin game and what's new can Nintendo bring to the table
Pikmin 4 is very good. Very addictive.
But it's not a masterpiece by any standards. The environments are very beautiful and the pikmins are still very cute...
...but it is very repetitive and the new pikmins and ability don't really do much to break the monotony.
Also it's very annoying to get back to the hub at the end of every days to upgrade (with loading times that are much too long)
Lastly the controls are pretty annoying (especially with the dog) and I found myself sacrificing pikmins way too often because the wrong type was auto selected or some automatic order was triggered
So... it's a fun game... it's rather well **** it's definitely not a 90% game it's a very solid 70% game. Well polished but lacking
I'm a huge Pikman fan. I played 1 and 2 on the Gamecube, 1 and 2 on the Wii, Pikmin 3 on the Wii U, and Pikmin 3 Deluxe on the Switch. This is easily the worst Pikmin game out of the series.
1. The controls are overcomplicated and poorly implemented
This game has a lot of buttons that you can press. I found myself fumbling the controls 10 hours into the game still. There's just too many buttons to remember, all of which are extremely contextual. The game stops you from throwing more than the minimum Pikmin required onto objects.
2. The dog takes too much focus away
There's a progression tree for the dog, and the dog can pretty much do everything the Pikmin can do. Pikmin latch onto the dog, which takes away the feeling of having a mass army trailing you. Some tasks REQUIRE the dog too.
3. There is a really bad auto-lock on in this game. You can't turn it off.
There's an auto-lock feature that causes your cursor to snap onto enemies and objects. It's really sticky and I couldn't get used to it. Some may find this helpful if they have trouble aiming in games, but it can be really hard to target the enemy you want with the auto-lock. The manual lock-on isn't great as it randomly decides to disengage.
4. The game constantly backseats you
The characters in this game never shut up. They will constantly backseat you. If you leave a Pikmin unplucked, they will remind you to pluck it every few minutes. If a single Pikmin catches fire, they will tell you to whistle it back. They state the obvious no matter how many hours you've been playing for.
5. The tutorials drag out for forever
Pikmin 1, 2, and 3 gave you access to Pikmin and the core "Pikmin" experience of growing your army fairly quickly after a minimum of 2 minutes. In this game, it takes about 30 minutes (if you don't skip the dialogue, about 10 minutes if you do) in order for you to get access to an Onion and grow your Pikmin. Even after this, the game constantly interrupts you for another hour with cutscenes telling you what each and everything does.
6. The game tells you what Pikmin to use
The game recommends what type of Pikmin you should bring. Every area in this game can be completed with the three recommended Pikmin. The dungeons in this game also tell you what Pikmin you should bring, and automatically sets your squad of Pikmin to those types. You can change it after the fact, but there's hardly any ever reason to change your Pikmin up. On top of this, there is a 3 Pikmin type limit that stops you from mixing up your squad in unique ways. There is no strategy or thought to what Pikmin you want to bring out.
7. The writing in this game is atrocious, and the story is convoluted.
All of the dialogue in this game is completely flat. It's not even memorable or laughable bad. It's just garbage text with no meaning constantly being spewed at the screen. All of the characters are one note. The story retcons the events of Pikmin 1 and so it desperately tries to make the stories of 2 and 3 make sense, but it fails to do that.
8. The game is too long and has no replayability
The entire game is progression based. Once I put this game down I got sick to my stomach at the thought of having to play the game again and do the progression mechanics all over again. The length of the game actively harms the good of it. To 100% the game's campaign, it takes about 20 hours. Speaking of which...
9. There is no mission mode
The campaign in this game is more or less the only way to play. You can play the Dandori Battles mode against your friend or against a CPU, but you have to unlock all the maps through the story. Get bent if you want to download this game and play against a friend. Gotta unlock it all first.
10. The co-op in this game is not true co-op
Player 2 is forced to throw pebbles and items. They don't get to play as a captain.
11. Too many puzzles
Half the caves in this game are puzzles. Not a whole lot of strategy, just puzzling. Some may enjoy this more, but I didn't.
12. The music in this game is generic and forgettable
The music in this game is... can I say this? Can I just say it's flat out garbage? Not a single one of the songs stuck with me. Almost all of it is generically whimsical. Any returning tracks are butchered beyond belief and don't fit in the game.
13. You don't blast off into lower orbit
This is a "returning fans" opinion, but one of the most memorable things about Pikmin was flat-out removed. You instead go off and land somewhere else on the planet. Doesn't ruin the game, but it's still worthwhile to mention, I think.
Character limit stops me from talking about the positives, but the negatives end up outweighing the positives in the end. Pikmin 4 feels less like a strategy game and more like a puzzle adventure game. It feels like it wanted to be mainstream and streamlined too much and so all in all it was a fairly forgettable experience compared to the original trilogy.
SummaryChart a mysterious planet with curious plantlike Pikmin that come in different types in Pikmin 4 - like the brand-new Ice Pikmin! The capable canine, Oatchi, will also help to overcome big challenges.