Pikmin 4has finally been formally announced. Coming part-way through the September 2022 Nintendo Direct, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto revealed preview footage and screenshots for the upcoming game. Sporting a new camera angle set at the player’s back to emphasize the giant scale of thePikminplanet,Pikmin 4now has a 2023 release window. Not much is known yet, butPikminfans everywhere were overjoyed to see a true continuation of the franchise.
This has been a long time coming, withPikmin 3having been released in 2013.Pikmin 4was actually announced in 2015, but nothing came of it until now. Fans were puzzled by this premature announcement, especially because Miyamoto claimed the game was “close to completion.” It’s not clear if this was referring to the 2017 spin-offHey! Pikminon 3DS, but it is a quote that has haunted fans for many years. At long last, thePikminfranchise is moving forward, and players are eager to see what becomes of thePikminworld in its newest chapter.
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The History of Pikmin 4’s Absence
The firstPikmingame came out near the North American launch of the GameCube in late 2001, and the second arrived in 2004. The puzzle-oriented treasure hunting and real-time army management sim surprised a lot of Nintendo fans who were initially drawn in byPikmin’s beautiful world and cute characters. What little writing there was proved to be surprisingly clever and authoritative, with Olimar possessing a unique voice among Nintendo’s mascots.Pikmin 2polished a lot of systems, and introduced a second character for multitasking and multiplayer. While the series stalled as both games receivedNew Play Control!releases on the Wii, a third game was not in particularly high demand.
Pikmin 3came out nearly a decade after its predecessor, and many aspects were improved once again in the 2013 release. With three characters and a variety of upgrades, the game proved to be a worthy successor. However, this is the point wherePikminstalled out. After the Wii U release, a few short films came out in 2014, followed by the infamous Miyamoto quote in late 2015.Pikmin 4felt likeMetroid Prime 4orBayonetta 3as games that would seemingly never get updates, and the two additional years of Miyamoto insistingPikmin 4was in development didn’t help.
After an unimpressive 3DS spin-off and the recentPikmin Bloommobile title, it seemed likePikmin 4may have been quietly canceled. Some hope came with the 2020 release ofPikmin 3 Deluxe, but by that point fans were thoughtDeluxe’s success might determinePikmin 4’s fate. Thankfully, the long-awaited sequel has finally appeared and put those anxieties to rest.
Excitement is Still High for Pikmin 4
Despite not being one of Nintendo’s best-selling franchises,Pikminmade a noticeable splash in the games industry. It essentially codified a subgenre of real-time strategy games where the player could progress through action-oriented levels while commanding an army to solve puzzles. Titles likeOverlord,Little King’s Story, andKena: Bridge of Spiritsborrowed ideas from the cult classic GameCube titles, whilethe more recentTinykinalso cited direct inspiration fromPikmin.
Even as requests forPikmin 4at each Direct faded alongside growing hype forThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the KingdomandMetroid Prime 4, the fandom never forgot. Passion forPikminwas large enough that a small modding community popped up, and several game remixes have been released. There isn’t much out there which could be asuitable replacement forPikmin, as the way it asks players to use their different unit types on the fly is hard to replicate. There’s no telling whatPikmin 4will bring to this formula, but at least Nintendo fans can cross off another white whale from their waiting list.
Pikmin 4will release in 2023 for Nintendo Switch.
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