REVIEW: Pikmin 4 brings unique and varied gameplay

It's a fait accompli that Nintendo likes to bet big on its franchises when they're stagnating, and Pikmin is no exception. Years without a continuation, the series finally gets its fourth game, Pikmin 4, a game that brings huge maps to explore, a wide variety of challenges and game modes for all kinds of players to enjoy.

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A new adventure in a very familiar place

Em Pikmin 4, the mission becomes a rescue, as Captain Olimar finds himself lost on Earth again. You, now in the role of recruiting a rescue team, in addition to looking for the protagonist of the previous games, will have to find your colleagues, who are also missing. 

In the first game of the series, our clumsy little friend was stranded on this planet and had to repair his ship alone, while in Pikmin 2, he returned here to gather treasures to pay his boss's debt, already in the last game of the series before the current one, Olimar gave his place to a trio of heroes, who also ended up coming here.

As familiar as the new game's premise may sound, there's a lot that's new in Pikmin 4, making it by far the title with the most varied content in the entire franchise. Pikmin games combine exploration with real-time strategy mechanics, a mixture that results in extremely cute and charismatic games, as well as many of the releases produced by Nintendo.

The challenge long before the game leaves the paper

In one interview recent to the Eurogamer portal, Shigeru Miyamoto, veteran creator of several Big N game series, including this one, said that Pikmin series games suffer from low sales due to the difficulty that many players find when entering the macroscopic world of Olimar's adventures, and that the inherent depth of the series intimidates them. 

For him, it was essential to maintain a balance of these elements in Pikmin 4, since there is an audience that likes that aspect of the series, and with the new game, Nintendo sought to please both sides, making it a kind of new beginning for Pikmin. In fact, they've made this a game that anyone can play, regardless of their experience with any of the previous chapters.

Lots of heavy news

The best way in which Pikmin 4 this is delivered by the game progression, which gradually introduces new features, many of them new to the series, as in the case of Otchin, his canine partner in adventures, and the night excursion mode by bringing a new species of pikmin. 

But what are pikmin in the first place? The little beings that give the game its name are extremely friendly little creatures that make up your character's growing army and help you collect valuable items, fight many dangers and overcome obstacles during your journey. They are weak by themselves, but they become giants in a group, and it is this growth that makes Pikmin 4 such a captivating game. 

Unlike other Nintendo franchises, the focus of the Pikmin games is on the development and evolution of not only your character's capabilities, which now, in Pikmin 4, is fully customizable, but also from your ever-growing pool of different species of pikmin to help you gather purplish, your ship's valuable fuel, which is sucked out of all the trinkets... I mean, treasures you find. Oh, and as for our many little friends, the game has a lot of new features.

Otchin the little dog is a tremendous help. He acts as his partner at all times, and also as a mount. There are many skills that can be taught to your amicão: just spend the pet's animation "points" after meeting the captain of the rescue team, which happens shortly after the start of the adventure. With the canine friend, it is also possible to delegate functions by splitting the gameplay between two paths whenever necessary, which comes in very handy especially in the underground tunnels found in the game, which bring with them many of the biggest challenges of Pikmin 4.  

Easy to learn, yet complex

There is a certain degree of complexity that we always expect to see in real-time strategy games, and with Pikmin 4, despite its cute aesthetic, is no different. As well as a traditional RTS, each unit in the game has its specific role, such as the blue pikmins, who are adept at water, the only ones capable of recovering any type of relic in the depths, or the yellow ones, who are immune to electricity, and who are perfect at long distance.

For every type of situation, there is a little one, and Pikmin 4 adds to the list of possibilities by introducing cold and light types to the game equation. The ice creams are not only able to clear a path when an obstacle requires pikmins with the ability to withstand low temperatures, but also freeze enemies, leaving them vulnerable both to attacks from their group and also to Otchin.

The big news ends up being the luminous pikmins, as they are special because they are the only ones capable of acting at night. Every game day lasts about twenty minutes in the real world, and after that, you're required to get all your friends back to base; anyone left behind is lost. With the luminous ones, the missions take place in the dead of night, and are unique in that they bring a new way to play.

On night outings, the goal becomes protecting your base from animal attacks, which for some reason become more aggressive and intense when the sun goes down. This is exactly what you imagined: Pikmin 4 becomes a true tower defense under the moonlight, and it's really exciting to battle that way. This new way of playing takes a little while to be enabled, but it's nothing that bothers you, because until the time comes, there's a lot to enjoy in the game.

Beautiful to look at and play 

It's no surprise thate Pikmin 4 is the most beautiful so far of the franchise, since the last game, Pikmin 3, came out more than ten years ago, in the previous generation; what's really surprising is that it's one of the most beautiful and best-performing games in the entire Nintendo Switch library. The level of detail given to every corner of the vast maps of the new adventure is incredible, with a subtle depth of field effect that contributes to the enormity of the world and your small size within it. And all this without any interruptions in the game.

Beauty is such and has a function that is not only aesthetic. As the hours of the day go by in the game, the environments undergo certain changes, not only in the position of light and shadows, but also in their elements. This is the case, for example, of the beach you explore during the story, whose tide recedes throughout the day, revealing previously impassable paths.

The first Pikmin, released in 2001, served as a showcase of the GameCube's capabilities in generating numerous simultaneous characters on screen, and for the time it was an impressive achievement. Now, 22 years later, Pikmin 4 it blows the mouth of the balloon by not only bringing huge environments full of creatures to meet, but also a multitude of little friends, all with unique behaviors that give it great personality.

There will be many times when you come and go through the game's levels and you'll hear your pikmin humming while holding onto Otchin's fur, or even when they're working, carrying things to the base, with their little noises and voices talking to each other. The charm of these little guys is so much that yes, it hurts when some of them end up dying during the game; luckily they are quick to recover.

Music, then, is a special case in which Pikmin 4: of a simple simplicity, it brings a pleasant background to the whole laborious adventure with mastery. The theme song, which plays in the game's initial menu, is one of the best, so much so that many times we put the controller on our lap and simply let it play.

Bring a little one to enjoy along

The only point of Pikmin 4 What might leave a little to be desired is its multiplayer mode during the story. On the contrary Pikmin 2, where the entire game could be completed cooperatively with one other person, Pikmin 4 chooses to give the second control the shooting function, in which he participates in the game by throwing pebbles at enemies, very similar to what was done in Super Mario Galaxy, Wii. 

This participation in the game will please mothers and fathers with their own little ones at home, since there are not many complications in this modality; Slightly older players, however, might be disappointed by this limitation. In contrast, there is a Pikmin 4 dedicated to more than one player, which is the mode dondori. 

In the Pikmin universe, the term “dondori” is given to the efficient and organized practice of activities, much preached by the rescue team characters during the game. In this game mode that also appears during the story, two teams compete to see who can gather the most resources until time runs out, and can be played both alone, against the computer, and against another person, and it's a lot of fun. 

This is not a solution that will please those who are looking for cooperation, but it is still something to enjoy with friends or other family members. Pikmin 4 it's easily the most feature-packed game in the franchise yet, which makes the lack of anything more substantial in terms of co-op obvious, especially since it's been a part of some of the previous games.  

And everything in our language

One of Nintendo's greatest strengths in bringing Pikmin 4 for Brazil it is its localization to our language. The game can be played completely in Brazilian Portuguese, and the quality of the adaptation of the text of the speeches is exquisite. 

After the many criticisms regarding their latest smash release, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and the lack of translation into the language here, Casa do Cogumelo delivers a gem like this one, fully localized.

And by all appearances, Pikmin 4 it won't be the last game published this year to include subtitles in PT-BR: super mario wonder, the new Mario epic on Nintendo Switch to be released on October 20th, will also have this treatment, and we hope it will not be the last game to have this special treatment for the Brazilian public. 

Conclusion

Pikmin 4 it's a great opportunity for a whole new group of gamers to experience what is one of the loveliest and most diverse series of games on Nintendo's hybrid console. 

Thanks to its many new features, fans of the franchise have a lot to enjoy in the game as well. There are plenty of cool incentives to explore every nook and cranny of its huge levels, through numerous side quests, bringing plenty of rewards for your effort.

Even with its limitation regarding the cooperative gameplay present in the previous games, what is to be played between friends and relatives in Dondori battles works as an alternative almost as good.

Pikmin 4 it's gorgeous, a sweet treat to play, and we can easily recommend it to all kinds of gamers looking for something new to enjoy on their Nintendo Switch. It's your turn to embark on this vast adventure, full of fun challenges and adorable friends to conquer!

Ah, for those who still haven't decided on the purchase, there is an extensive demo for download on the eShop. All progress made on it can be carried over to the full version of Pikmin 4.    

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Text proofread by: Pedro Bomfim (24/07/23)