[There’s no other Nintendo series quite like Pikmin, and this blog from Sam van der Meer illustrates that point well with an admittedly very late-game example plucked from Pikmin 3. It’s our hope that Pikmin 3 Deluxe – a seven-year-later Switch remaster of the Wii U original – can help rekindle the elusive-as-ever Pikmin 4. Other underappreciated Nintendo series were able to reach wild new heights on Switch, and Pikmin should be next in line. It’s finally time, Miyamoto. -Jordan]
Pikmin is very near and very dear to me. It was, basically, the first video game I remember getting, saddled with my Christmas Day GameCube (whose delivery was in itself a theatrical, magical, holly jolly charade pulled by my parents and our former tenants in the house). It’s a real dollop of molasses-grade nostalgia for me, and venturing forth into Pikmin 3 Deluxe, I was maybe slightly concerned that my memories of the series were what sustained its lofty prestige in my mind. I’d played about two-thirds, three-quarters of Pikmin 3 back on Wii U, but never beat the thing, and outside of my very recent Hey! Pikmin tribunal, I hadn’t played the series since.
Pikmin 3 is a masterpiece. The ways in which Nintendo prompts the player to multitask, controlling three Koppaite explorers with a particularly-relatable obsession and passion for fruit, are incredibly interesting and thoughtful, and absolutely satisfying; directing one troupe of pikmin to build a bridge and sending another to move in the direction of a sweet treat while you focus on battling some Garden of Earthly Delights-lookin’ monstrosity is an exercise in time management prompted by Pikmin 3’s ever-ticking clock.
Source: Destructoid Pikmin 3’s final boss is top-tier Nintendo game design