The fantasy of having loads of adorable little aliens following you and obeying your every order, all staged in an environment that’s essentially just a large backyard, is perhaps one of the most specific fetishes expressed by gamers. Nintendo, being the listening, supportive parent of a company they are, heard that people really liked doing all of the above, prompting the creation of Pikmin. While never really being one of Nintendo’s main flagship titles like Mario or The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin has always held its own, with the best game in the series, Pikmin 3, dropping back in 2015 on the Wii U…where no one cared about it. I can only imagine that hurt Nintendo’s feelings, hence this re-release of the third game bundled with some new, exclusive features.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe is essentially an expanded version of the original game that features an extra set of missions featuring Olimar and Louie, protagonist of the series and his trusty acquaintance. These extra missions will apparently bookend the game, functioning as a new prologue and epilogue that wasn’t included in the original. There’re plenty of other new additions, including some quality-of-life tweaks (such as AI balancing and lock-on targeting), two player local co-op and the return of the Pilkopedia, a cute device that lets you track all your discovered Pikmin.
While it’s not Pikmin 4, a game that is apparently still in development according to an interview conducted in 2017. it is a nice excuse to give Pikmin 3 a try given that plenty of folks probably skipped over it due to it being a Wii U exclusive. If Nintendo could stop dicking around and just release Wind Waker HD onto the Switch, the Wii U could finally be left in peace to die gracefully.
Last Updated: August 6, 2020
