Pikmin 4 for Nintendo Switch - My Review

First let me say that the release of Pikmin 4 was marked on my calendar over a month ahead of time. It was also in my personal planner because I was so excited for this game to release. Why? Because my daughter and I had so much fun playing Pikmin 3 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch. We played the main game about two and a half times through and then we played the side games way more hours than the main game after that. It’s still fun and we still want to play it sometimes, but we were craving a new Pikmin and so I preordered Pikmin 4 as soon as it became available on cartridge.

Big disappointment. I’m sorry to say I’m very unhappy with Pikmin 4. This is my honest review so don’t hate me for it. I wanted to love it, I really did, but I had no idea that it wouldn’t be a proper co-op game. We bought it thinking it would be great for two players to have a lot of fun with, probably because it’s listed as a co-op game. The main story isn’t. Player one does everything and player two is some weird bean flipper on the screen. You’re not even a character, just some weird thing in the middle of the screen that shoots beans from out of nowhere. If you do a good job you get a carrot that you can feed to Oatchi. When you save the game and come back you have to re-earn all your items because once you close the co-op your inventory is gone. No matter, though, because it’s really not fun anyway!

I understand that the game makers were trying to get away from the split-screen like what was in Pikmin 3 Deluxe but if they couldn’t have done a better job than that they shouldn’t have bothered. It feels like they put it in there for your annoying little brother so he can feel like he’s playing too, without ruining the real game. I guess that’s fine for a four year old but I’m a grown woman and I don’t appreciate it. So, the main game, as cute as it is, isn’t for me. My daughter can finish it if she wants and I’ll happily watch her play but we miss going on the adventure together.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe was an excellent game for us because it forced us to work together. It wasn’t like Mario Kart where you’re just running circles on a track. We had to plan and strategize and sometimes that made us butt heads, but in the end our relationship was better for it. It helped me teach her that people have different strengths and weaknesses and how that can be an advantage when you work in a team. (This is a child who’s never played team sports because she’s homeschooled.) I let her plan the day and do most of the navigating and I was always in charge of re-populating the pikmin and destroying the enemies that might be in the path to get the fruit back to the ship. Now I shoot beans at a screen I have no control over. Do you know how hard it is to aim when the other player is moving the screen? It’s maddening.

I hope we can give Pikmin 4 another chance, at least long enough to play the side games because that’s probably where this game will shine on the co-op side. Right now I’m so disappointed I can’t even play it. I immediately went looking for more co-op games and purchased a few on sale. One of them was Yooka-Laylee and it’s the same way. Laylee is the bean flipper this time, only we can’t even figure out how to shoot the beans. I did find one good co-op game out of the deal and I’ll review it in another post.