Review: With ‘Pikmin 4’, Nintendo strikes a perfect balance between freedom and flexibility

Pikmin 4 is — at least to me — that warm, fuzzy sweater that you pull out from the back of the closet every holiday season. While Nintendo is more than capable of reinventing its franchises with each new entry, Pikmin has stayed fairly consistent throughout its 20+ year lifespan; it’s the reliable and dependable tool in the company’s arsenal.

And to be clear, that shouldn’t be interpreted as a criticism. In fact, it’s a testament to how solid of a foundation the series has been built up from. With each new iteration, Nintendo continues to polish and tweak their real-time strat/puzzler/platforming Frankenstein, and Pikmin 4 is arguably the most refined game to date.

Admittedly, I haven’t played much of Pikmin 3, so for all of about 0.2 microseconds, I was worried as to whether I’d be able to follow along with Pikmin 4‘s story. And then I realized how ridiculous that sounds. Following in the well-worn path forged by its predecessors, this entry recycles the same basic premise — Captain Olimar has crash landed, yet again, on the Earth-like planet dubbed PNF-404, and this time around, the Rescue Corps that went to retrieve him also screwed the pooch. This is where you come in — after customizing your basic look, you head out on what can only be described as the world’s tiniest spacecraft to track down your crew.

It doesn’t take too long to track down a couple of members of the Rescue Corps, and this is where Pikmin 4 pulls back the curtain a bit, introducing a hub area that serves as your HQ. Before you venture out into the wilderness each day, you’ll start off here, giving you a chance to upgrade equipment, talk to other Rescue Corps members, and plan out your day.

The word ‘plan’ might sound like a bit of a wild concept for longtime fans; I barely remember doing any planning when I played the original Pikmin all those years ago. What I do remember is having a lot of freedom to tackle the game as I saw fit, which also meant having the freedom to completely ruin your chances of beating the game and having to restart from Day 1.

Pikmin 4 charts a slightly different course, offering a great amount of leeway to tackle areas as you see fit, with a heavy dose of flexibility to adapt to your playstyle. Need some additional tools to have more options during combat? Invest in a charging horn that lets you command your Pikmin to rush an enemy. Are you the cautious type, weary of what’s lurking around the next corner? Trade in resources to get a remote drone that lets you see what’s ahead and around you. If you or your trusty Grub-dog Oatchi are prone to nearly running out of HP, buy some healing items.

Oh, that’s right, did I not mention it? Pikmin 4 has a dog. An adorable, loyal, two-legged dog-hybrid named Oatchi. A good boi. Nay, the best boi. Admittedly, I wrote off this lovable canine as a bit of a gimmick, but it doesn’t take long for him to prove his worth. The training wheels come off after the first day, letting you ride him around wherever you want — and all your Pikmin will hang onto him too, which means you can efficiently move your troops around. Oatchi also knows a few tricks; he can jump (allowing you to traverse small ledges), bash into enemies and walls, sniff out nearby items and stranded crew members — the list goes on and on. His moves can also be upgraded over time, letting you tailor his skillset to your needs. As an impatient player who wants to bum-rush every enemy, I naturally focused my efforts on leveling up his charge and attack moves.

This added level of flexibility even extends to the numerous quality-of-life features. To put on my game dev hat for a minute, it’s clear that Pikmin 4 has been playtested to hell and back in an effort to remove the little annoyances that have persisted for decades. For starters, you can now rewind time, letting you choose from a couple of auto-saves (they seem to range from 2 to 10 minutes earlier). Admittedly, aside from the first Pikmin, you’re never put into a situation where losing your army might necessitate a restart, but the rewind feature is a godsend for the occasional misclick or enemy that you didn’t see coming.

You also have access to a Rescue Corps tablet, which lets you look at available missions, logs, and journals, a map of your current location, and a few other useful tidbits. While this is standard fare for most modern games, Nintendo (who traditionally likes to provide little in the way of accessibility options) has included the ability to map shortcuts and actions to the D-Pad. It’s a small step forward, sure, but one that reinforces the newfound sense of flexibility.

I’ve spent little time focusing on the minute-to-minute gameplay but with good reason. In many ways, Pikmin 4‘s core foundation is very similar to its predecessors. You’ll spend each day exploring one of several areas, which are unlocked as you collect more sparklium — yes, the main resource and fuel source takes the form of sparkly items, referred to as “treasures.” Along the way, you’ll expand your army of Pikmin: adorable, tiny creatures that run behind you, waiting for an order to either attack enemies, clear environmental obstacles, or carry treasures back to your ship. Pikmin come in many different forms — Red Pikmin, for instance, are immune to fire and excel in combat, while Ice Pikmin have the ability to freeze enemies and pools of water, allowing you to traverse ponds and puddles without risking the lives of your tiny troops. As you might have guessed, Blue Pikmin are the only type that can breathe underwater.

Glow Pikmin make their first appearance in Pikmin 4 and tie directly into the newly-added Night Time Expeditions. In previous entries, you needed to round up all your Pikmin and head back to base before nightfall, which is when the deadliest enemies are active. That’s still true in Pikmin 4, but you can actually go explore and find rare resources at night, as long as you have some Glow Pikmin in tow to light up the way. There’s already an additional layer of tension that goes hand-in-hand with these nighttime sections, and to top it all off, you must also balance exploration with defending any Glow Pikmin nests, which are always being targeted by hungry creatures looking for a snack.

There’s so much more that I can discuss here, but Pikmin 4 is best experienced with as many surprises intact — hopefully, you managed to steer clear of the gameplay and boss spoilers floating around. What I can say is, if you’re remotely interested in the world’s most adorable, charming real-time strategy game, Pikmin 4 is a must-play. And for you longtime Pikmin fans, I doubt I even need to convince you, seeing as how you probably already have the first three games installed on your Switch.

This review is based on the Nintendo Switch version of the game. A copy was provided to us by Nintendo.