Aric Leighton Needs You To Know Just How Good Pikmin 4 Was | Winter Spectacular 2023
We all have a series or two that we’ve overlooked, misjudged or just forgot about. Or in a year like 2023 - maybe we just don’t have the time to check out everything. With games like Baldur’s Gate 3 sweeping Game of the Year awards all over the place (a 100+ hour RPG) sometimes a person needs to make the executive decision to let a game or ten fall to the wayside. In 2020, a remastered game released in a series I had ignored for years. It took me until late 2021 to actually dive in, when I found the rare Nintendo game on sale. I popped it into my Switch and played it for the whole day. I instantly fell in love with Pikmin 3 Deluxe. That brings us to 2023 and Pikmin 4.
Pikmin 4 was technically announced all the way back in 2015 and was stated as “very close to completion.” Fans of the series were understandably upset when there was virtually no news for 7 years, and as a recent Pikmin convert, I finally understood why. The fourth game was finally unveiled in 2022 and released in 2023 - straight into one of the most packed years gaming has seen. But for me, it was still the standout.
Pikmin is a very unique combination of real-time strategy and puzzle solving - there really is nothing else like it. There’s something oddly satisfying about those little freaks flying through the air and making their “wooo” sounds as you toss them at their target. The gameplay loop was so addicting I’d stay up too late and have my partner tell me “the Pikmin noises are keeping me awake.”
There are a few questions I always get when I recommend the Pikmin series to people - “Doesn’t the time limit get frustrating?” and “aren’t those games really short?” - and the answer to both is no. Pikmin 4 all but does away with the time limit. They add a day-night cycle, but there’s no limit on the amount of days you spend in-game like previous titles. However, if you liked the added pressure of the day limit, there’s what essentially amounts to Pikmin 1 part II inside of this game. This starts to answer the second question already, the first two Pikmin games were fairly short, but the newest entries have been substantial.
The amount of content in Pikmin 4 is pretty incredible. It took me about 45 hours to finish everything it had to offer. There are quests, a whole side campaign, a local versus mode, new nighttime explorations, just packed with content. One of the best (and worst) parts was that I still wanted more when I finished everything up - the content never got stale. I’m already asking for a Pikmin 5 as soon as possible.
We all know Nintendo doesn’t need a win, and in a year with some of the biggest and best-selling games ever, it was also a year full of turmoil and layoffs. The games industry as a career is really looking worse than ever. While I would be remiss to not mention this, Pikmin 4 was still the most fun I’ve had playing a video game in 2023. The satisfying combination of real-time strategy and puzzle solving is a unique gameplay loop that stands alone, and it’s the best the formula has ever been. Do yourself a favour and finally check out my game of the year, Pikmin 4, you won’t be disappointed.
