This has been a long time coming, with Pikmin 3 having been released in 2013. Pikmin 4 was 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-off Hey! Pikmin on 3DS, but it is a quote that has haunted fans for many years. At long last, the Pikmin franchise is moving forward, and players are eager to see what becomes of the Pikmin world in its newest chapter.
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The History of Pikmin 4’s Absence
The first Pikmin game 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 by Pikmin’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 2 polished a lot of systems, and introduced a second character for multitasking and multiplayer. While the series stalled as both games received New Play Control! releases on the Wii, a third game was not in particularly high demand.
Pikmin 3 came 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 where Pikmin stalled out. After the Wii U release, a few short films came out in 2014, followed by the infamous Miyamoto quote in late 2015. Pikmin 4 felt like Metroid Prime 4 or Bayonetta 3 as games that would seemingly never get updates, and the two additional years of Miyamoto insisting Pikmin 4 was in development didn’t help.
After an unimpressive 3DS spin-off and the recent Pikmin Bloom mobile title, it seemed like Pikmin 4 may have been quietly canceled. Some hope came with the 2020 release of Pikmin 3 Deluxe, but by that point fans were thought Deluxe’s success might determine Pikmin 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, Pikmin made 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 like Overlord, Little King’s Story, and Kena: Bridge of Spirits borrowed ideas from the cult classic GameCube titles, while the more recent Tinykin also cited direct inspiration from Pikmin.
Even as requests for Pikmin 4 at each Direct faded alongside growing hype for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Metroid Prime 4, the fandom never forgot. Passion for Pikmin was 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 a suitable replacement for Pikmin, as the way it asks players to use their different unit types on the fly is hard to replicate. There’s no telling what Pikmin 4 will bring to this formula, but at least Nintendo fans can cross off another white whale from their waiting list.
Pikmin 4 will release in 2023 for Nintendo Switch.
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