Pikmin 4 Review: Maxi fun, micro scale

"Blooming good fun" was too much, even for me.

It’s been a long time between drinks for Pikmin fans. While all of the previous titles have since found a new home on the Switch, it’s easy to forget it’s been a full ten years since Pikmin 3 first landed on the Wii U. After first being announced in 2015, Pikmin 4 is finally ready to take root on the Switch in 2023 – and unite first-timers and series stalwarts in celebrating the simple things in life, like battle-focused horticulture.

The long-awaited fourth entry in the series opens on the Rescue Corps setting out to save a man who surely must be a repeat customer: Captain Olimar, of the SS Dolphin. Sadly, a second freak crash happens to the Corps, meaning the duty to save everyone involved falls to their newest recruit: you. After some cute, Animal Crossing-esque character customisation, it’s up to you to save your wayward colleagues on the Earth-like planet of PNF-404, so they can, in turn, help you rescue Olimar.

Rather than tracking down lost ship parts, you’ll have two main priorities as you explore the planet. Finding the lost crewmates of the Rescue Corps team is essential, but you’ll also need to re-power their ship through sparklium, a substance that is thankfully found in great abundance on PNF-404… especially in giant treasures and collectibles scattered bountifully on every map.

After finding your way to the planet, you’ll soon establish a base camp and Pikmin reserve, following the advice of Olimar’s own logs, and set out on your daily routine: pick a location to explore, find as many resources as possible to fuel your ship and expand your Pikmin forces, and head home before dark so that everyone survives to do it again tomorrow.

Once established, Pikmin 4 is generous about doling out extra layers only as fast as you’re interested in getting to them. You’ll quickly gain access to multiple areas to explore, but there’s no problem if you want to delve deep on the first map before ever setting foot in the next. Out in the world, you’ll have an extra set of helping paws from Oatchi, a Rescue Pup used by the Corps in their duties. On top of being able to fight alongside you and carry pellets and such like your Pikmin friends, Oatchi soon gains a variety of abilities as he grows, and with the help of training from the Rescue Corps.

Oatchi’s abilities include the likes of letting you and your Pikmin horde ride on his back, and swimming across otherwise Pikmin-deadly waters make it even easier to navigate the giant world around you. His tracking skills will also alert you to nearby castaways, an event that becomes more common than you’d expect from the skeleton crew the Corps sent.

As it turns out, yours and Olimar’s aren’t the only ships to have crashed here… but as more of the crew and other castaways are rescued, your home base will expand and offer more ways to interact with the world around you. While some rescued castaways will just hang out and vibe, most will point you to one of the many things to do in the game and reward you for pursuing it. Bloomed a bunch of Pikmin, seen a bunch of enemy types, or dragged a bunch of treasure back to base? One of the castaways is excited about that thing, and they’re ready to reward you for doing it. It’s a great way to liven up home base and make returning there at the end of a day something to look forward to, while also reminding the player of all the different things you can pursue as you spend your days exploring.

It’s not just the days you’ll be exploring, this time around. As you wander the world you’ll come across many caves, some of which are inhabited by leaflings – castaways affected by some sort of condition that covers their body in leaves. The only way to cure them is using a glowing sap that can only be harvested at night. While the night-time has always been a no-go zone for the Pikmin series, the fourth entry sends you out into the dark with the new Glow Pikmin, ghost-like helpers who will happily share the glow sap with you, so long as you can protect their sandcastle-like homes from rampaging monsters.

Where daytime runs in Pikmin are about efficiency, exploration and discovery, night-time runs are instead about speed and precision. Sprinting across the map to collect resources for your Glow Pikmin team before the monsters start trudging towards their fragile home brings an entirely different energy, and it’s a great counterpoint to the more relaxed clock of the daytime. Being able to choose when to do one type or the other is also a great choice, as being forced to cycle from one to the other would soon make one or both wear out their welcome with some players.

One thing Pikmin 4 is NOT interested in is wearing out its players. The game is full of quality of life and accessibility tweaks that make it very welcoming. If the frantic pace of night-time runs doesn’t work for you, or you find a particular challenge cave a bit too much, the game is all too happy to give you a free pass. Early in, an option is added to call on help after an unsuccessful run or cave challenge and just mark it off as complete. There’s no judgement or penalty for this, as it’s more interested in letting you have fun than forcing you to beat a time trial set for you.

In much the same vein, if you lose a large chunk of your Pikmin at once or all of a certain type, you’ll be offered the option to rewind back to an earlier point in that run of your choice, allowing you to try a different path rather than starting all over. It’s a great sign that the priority of Pikmin 4 is fun, no matter how proficient you might be.

And let’s not forget: this game looks GORGEOUS. The rich detailing of Pikmin 4’s maps, from lush plant life to rusty garden tools, really sells the tiny scale of you and the Rescue Corps. Being able to swing the camera from an up-close angle on your character to a distant overhead is both fun to play around with, and functional for planning your next moves. Added touches, like the tiny voices of your Pikmin singing as they ride on Oatchi’s back, only serve to reinforce the cozy vibes of the game. Even as your Pikmin get ravaged by the latest weird monster to pop out of the ground for a plant-man snack.

As I wrapped up my time with Pikmin 4, I was surprised by how much fun I had here. The ticking clock of the original had initially put me off the series, but with that out of the mix Pikmin 4 is a relaxing time, even while you work in interplanetary emergency services. While the variety of objectives might seem overwhelming at first, it’s really just laying out that you have plenty of options; no matter what you choose to do first, you’ll be rewarded for your time. Just when you think you’ve done everything, Pikmin 4 is waiting to hand over another fun task for you to spend the next few hours enjoying, on the universe’s most crashed-on planet.

Pikmin 4 was reviewed using a promotional code on Nintendo Switch, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.

Pikmin 4 21 July 2023 Switch   Buy on the Nintendo eShop Buy on Amazon