Go figure, the game I cover after Tears of the Kingdom is Nintendo’s next big release. I can’t help it. I’m in the bag to play the new games in both series whenever they come out. In Pikmin’s case, that’s only once about every 10 years, so it’s not that tough of a commitment. For a stretch of time, I was more excited about Pikmin 4 than Zelda. Where Zelda first took a subtle approach with its trailers, Pikmin was upfront about demonstrating new mechanics and how they would change the game. On a broad level, you’re still doing what you’ve always done: grow a small army of plant creatures and steal as many shiny things as you can before time runs out. Every new concept in 4, though, is explicitly designed to ease the process. Nintendo hopes this will finally attract new players like flies to honey. I think the path is cleared to succeed in that. Pikmin 4 is a great game and easily the entry with the most options for nervous newcomers. But as someone who’s collected every item in all 4 games, I still have to give the edge to 3. Some of the changes didn’t sit right with me, and by the time I was done, I was gorged on a series I thought I could play forever.

We open on Captain Olimar crash-landing his spaceship once again - actually, scrap that “again.” For some reason, Pikmin 4 is a story reboot. I’m not sure why they felt the need to do this, since there wasn’t exactly a sweeping narrative before, but there it is. The intergalactic Rescue Corps is dispatched to save him, only to crash themselves. It’s up to the rookie - your created character - to get everyone back safe and sound with the help of the Pikmin. The number one big new thing in 4 is the doggie companion, Oatchi. In lieu of multiple captains, he accompanies you at all times, with a swath of abilities to take advantage of. His nose can lead you to items of interest, you can assign him tasks while you do other things, and he can break certain obstacles with a charge move. Most importantly, though, you and the Pikmin can ride on his back. Old-school fans of the series often have vivid flashbacks of trying to move a large number of troops, only to have a few Pikmin get stuck behind a wall or fall off a ledge. It’s so, so, annoying. Now, that problem is gone forever. I wanted to keep the Pikmin with Oatchi as much as possible. He can also gain skill points and level up abilities, which is totally new to the series. When you invest in the right things, Oatchi becomes more powerful than God. He can carry things with the strength of up to a hundred Pikmin. He can develop immunities to environmental hazards. And his charge attack can become the single deadliest option in the game. When you charge an enemy with Pikmin on Oatchi’s back, they all jump onto the thing at once and start wailing on it. Once the tackle can stun enemies, fuhgeddaboudit. Even bosses can go down with a single impact provided you have enough Pikmin. Did it get boring to use the same strategy for 90% of enemies? I won’t deny it, but the combat in this series has never been why I like it. I’m here for the puzzles and micromanagement, which is also a large component of Pikmin 4.

The fourth entry finally gives a name to the series’ plate-juggling action: Dandori. If you missed that, they will be sure to repeat the word hundreds of times. You’re tasked with finding castaways in distress, treasures to power your ship, and onion bulbs to increase your Pikmin cap. There are also stones you can collect to use to build structures or trade as currency for items. The most useful of these tools let you direct Pikmin to your location or back to base. The single biggest improvement in Pikmin 4 is to Pikmin A.I. They will automatically move to nearby tasks when idle, and merely walking close to them will send them back to your party. When throwing a mess of Pikmin at an object, the throwing will pause after the correct number. No more counting in your head. Pikmin are also much better at pathfinding and keeping up with you. These improvements are critical because to collect the maximum amount of trash, good Dandori is the key. I was psyched that this concept was codified because rerunning the mission mode in Pikmin 3 was highly addicting to me. They integrate that concept into the story mode with Dandori challenges, rooms where you must puzzle out the optimal strategy under a time limit. Bingo Battle, Pikmin 3’s tertiary mode, is given a successor with Dandori battles. Against the computer or another player, you try to collect the most things while Mario Kartish powerups cause chaos. Both modes were more fun to me in 3 - especially the head-to-head mode, which loses something without the bingo card. It also seems totally random how well you do - I got a platinum medal on the hardest one without really paying attention. I have a friend who could never gel with Pikmin because this Dandori business stresses her out. So let me say that for all its big talk, Pikmin 4 doesn’t require you to become a multitasking master. For one thing, you have as many in-game days as you need to finish the story. If you waste your entire day and accomplish nothing, it’s no problem at all. For the first time, the series has a “rewind” feature, which takes you back to periodic checkpoints should you make too many mistakes. As far as the dedicated Dandori modes go, you only need a bronze score to progress. You can retry as often as you need until you get it. The game cries “Dandori” until its throat is sore, but it’s more accommodating than ever.

Your regiment of Pikmin itself has seen some additions and changes. Immediately, your squad is more limited than before because you start with only 20 Pikmin on screen at a time. As I alluded to, you must find items in the field to restore the traditional cap of 100. Moreover, while every Pikmin type from the series is back in 4, which is great to see, only three types can be on the field at once. I found these limitations tiresome as a longtime player. The game will always suggest the Pikmin needed for each area, smoothing out what could be a tedious process in the past. From where I’m sitting, however, the designers placed these boundaries for their own sake instead of the players’. The most prominent new Pikmin type in 4 is the Ice Pikmin. They can freeze water and allow allies to cross it unharmed. Once Oatchi can swim, though, it loses a lot of utility. When pounding on enemy creatures, ice Pikmin can freeze them in place and give your army an opening for huge damage. That can break encounters even more depending on the situation. The supposed tradeoff is that the enemy won’t leave behind a body, but that’s hardly something that made me pause before employing my charge strategy. Of course, Ice Pikmin can also demolish walls and obstacles that are icy in nature, but those were only invented to give them something else to do.

The other new type is Glow Pikmin. These are totally unbalanced. They have their own stun move which is even stronger than Oatchi’s, and they’re immune to all hazards. To make up for that, they’re only usable in certain situations, namely the night missions. I was excited about finally seeing what happens on the planet after sunset, but I didn’t love the results. The night expeditions are short tower defense sections where you have to juggle collecting more Glow Pikmin and guarding their luminescent anthill. These had the potential to be frustrating, but I never felt like I was in danger. Strong-looking enemies show up, but Glow Pikmin prove too strong for them. While the monsters may change, with the franchise’s scariest foes making appearances, there’s little to force you to find new strategies. It doesn’t quite live up to the deadly environment I was told to expect.

That mode is ultimately a distraction from the real structure of Pikmin 4 - which is essentially a remake of Pikmin 2. Sure, there are things to do in the overworld, but the majority of treasures will be found in caves underground. Pikmin 2 is a game that only gets worse the more you play it. Its caves are brutally hard by the end, and the placement of items is randomized so you can never fully get comfortable. Pikmin 4’s take on the concept reads like an apology. For one thing, floors are fixed, meaning you can put your faith in Nintendo’s level designers. The caves are (usually) on the shorter side. And thanks to the many playability improvements explained above, you are better equipped to handle tough situations. Okay, by the end of Pikmin 2, I never wanted to see another cave as long as I live. Even I have to admit that they are much more tolerable this time around. They even redid the most infamously hard cave from Pikmin 2, and it’s no big thing. But no matter how improved they are, caves are simply not what I want from my Pikmin games. The stated goal with Pikmin 4 was to unify the warring Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2 fans. In the end, they only heightened the disparity by also including a remake of Pikmin 1 in this Pikmin 2 remake. There is a side mode where you play as Olimar and, under a strict day limit, have to collect 30 ship parts in remixed areas. The game warns you that you’ll need good Dandori to succeed, and in this rare instance, that’s actually true. The ticking clock is the extra push needed to incentivize thoughtful play. I’m not so pushy as to demand that this more difficult playstyle be the only one when Nintendo is trying to grow the series. Rather, I’m just happy that it was included as an olive branch to the old-schoolers.

No matter what mode of Pikmin 4 you’re playing, time slips away. I was engrossed for hours on end, barely cognizant of how much time was passing in the real world. That’s also because I was unprepared for just how much stuff was in the game. Every time I thought I was nearing the end of it, the game would drop some new area or challenge I wasn’t prepared for. I love Pikmin, but by the time the game finally wrapped up, it was beginning to wear thin. I should have paced myself more. You don’t want to smoke the entire pack all at once, but that’s what I did. The biggest annoyance was not anything with the gameplay, but your “teammates” who are on the radio at all times. The dialogue is incessant and always telling you about something you can see right in front of you. You’re being backseat gamed by a half dozen people at once, and it’s exhausting. I don’t care that I have to fight this boss for the third time, but you don’t need to tell me where its weak point is again! Stop freaking out that I lost three Pikmin! Do you have no concept of acceptable losses? You only wrote 10 lines for the night missions, so why are you repeating them every 20 seconds?! If there’s an option to turn these idiots off, I didn’t think to look for it because Nintendo has been failing at this for decades.

Shortly before Pikmin 4’s release, Nintendo put out ports of 1 and 2 onto the Switch. Now that 4 is finally out, I can tell you to ignore those ports if you’re new to the series. Pikmin 4 is a total replacement for the GameCube games, updating the concepts from both titles for a modern audience. The improvements to Pikmin behavior will make any regression hard to swallow. You are totally in the clear to stick with 4 unless you’re a freak like me who goes out of his way to play the first Hitman from 2000. The last question to be answered is if Pikmin 4 is substantial enough to last a decade until the next release. I clearly had some quibbles with the game, but the answer is still yes. If one doesn’t condense the entire breath of the game into a few days, there is a refined offering of strategy that can carry any player for as long as they require. It’s very likely I will return to my 100% file and aim for better scores in the challenge modes. But right now, I see the game whenever I close my eyes, so I think I’m going to take a break and touch some grass in the real world.