Pikmin 4 is on the way, and for fans of the series, the anticipation of its impending arrival is driving us wild with excitement. Sure, this franchise is niche, but the fans are louder than ever and refuse to be ignored. We don't know much about the game yet, especially since we’re only going off of a 30-second teaser and a single screenshot, but there’s still quite a bit to talk about.
Without further ado, here’s everything we know about Pikmin 4 thus far, including details on its release date, trailer, gameplay, story and more.
Pikmin 4 release date
Pikmin 4 is currently set to launch July 21, 2023. This was revealed during Nintendo's February 2023 Direct, offering us a first look at gameplay alongside a release date. Delays are certainly still possible, but we're hoping the date sticks and we'll finally get the latest title in the series.
Pikmin 4 gameplay trailer
During the February 2023 Nintendo Direct, we got our first Pikmin 4 gameplay trailer. The trailer opens with a ship landing onto Earth before being graced with shots of the same garden we saw in the initial trailer. Now it's more detailed with new types of creatures present, before we see the aforementioned spaceship place the new main character.
This main characters runs around the environment, pulling a red Pikmin out of the ground and destroying walls with it. We're also shown the Yellow Pikmin and Ice Pikmin, with the latter able to freeze water and turn enemies to ice. There's also a dog-like companion in this game that can break through huge objects and move larger things, also allowing it to doggy paddle in water and act as a boat. His name is Oatchi.
Pikmin 4 trailer
The main bit of information we have on Pikmin 4 is the announcement trailer provided during Nintendo’s September Direct. It featured 30 seconds of footage, and offered an immensely brief tease at what to expect.
We were shown snippets of different sections of a garden environment. It’s clear that the player will explore these sections with their Pikmin, specifically focused on a little path beneath a bench and a Bulborb sleeping next to a clock. That’s pretty much all we were shown; the content was too sparse to make any other assumptions beyond that..
Pikmin 4 gameplay
Official gameplay footage for Pikmin 4 has yet to be revealed. We do know that the game will take place at the ground-level and will feature adorable miniature Pikmin. Almost like something out of Toy Story, the player will get to explore a normal world at a tiny size, shifting it into one of enormous scale.
In the image above, the main character is followed by a series of yellow, red and blue Pikmin. We’re clearly in the middle of a modern garden with gorgeous yellow flowers, foliage, gardening equipment and ornaments strewn about. We also see a Bulborb in front of the group, which is one of the most frequent enemies in the Pikmin franchise.
Players often have to swarm these creatures with dozens upon dozens of Pikmin at once to defeat them, preferably using more Red Pikmin as they often possess the highest damage output of the basic types. In general, Pikmin has always been about utilizing different species of Pikmin to create varying effects.
Some can deal extra damage, others can go over water, and sometimes they’re lighter, which allows them to get thrown further distances. It’s essentially a puzzler mixed with real-time strategy where the player needs to balance exploration, quick thinking and overcoming obstacles.
Pikmin 4 story
We know nothing about Pikmin 4’s story, but the only in-game screenshot we’ve been given shows that players will probably be seeing through the eyes of a new character. Pikmin 1 and 2 featured Olimar as the protagonist, whereas Pikmin 3 had Alph, Brittany and Charlie.
Pikmin 4’s playable character has pink hair similar toBrittany, but the hue and style is slightly different. We imagine Pikmin 4 will feature an entirely new character, but who knows, maybe that is her.
Pikmin 4’s could come with a new Nintendo Switch
If you’ve seen Pikmin 4’s brief trailer, you might’ve noticed something: It looks surprisingly good! At first glance, it seems like the most graphically advanced Nintendo Switch game thus far. The environments are incredibly detailed, and there’s a crisp realism to each blade of grass and flower petal that makes it seem far beyond the console’s best looking games. Unless what we’ve seen so far is pre-rendered, it seems that what we’re being shown is running on something stronger than a Nintendo Switch.
This is extreme speculation, but maybe Pikmin 4 will be one of the first upcoming launches accompanying a new Nintendo Switch, one that features far stronger hardware. After all, I’m having trouble seeing Pikmin 4 running on a base Nintendo Switch if it ends up looking anywhere near as good as the teaser trailer suggests.
