About

Pikmin is a video game series developed by Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo. The series' main installments are Real Time Strategy games, where the point of it all is to command up to 100 small creatures called Pikmin to take down enemies and collect various things.

History

Pikmin 1 and 2

The exact start of the franchise's inception is somewhat tricky to pinpoint. There were two original ideas that are known to have eventually spawned off into what the franchise has become now. The first was a game called "Adam and Eve" where the player would watch the development of two different human beings. However, the game was too uninteractive, and was retooled.

It later made the appearance as a tech demo at Spaceworld 2000 known as Super Mario 128, showing off how many models the Gamecube could handle at the time. It also did various other things that showed up in other Nintendo games, not relating to Pikmin.

The first installment of the franchise came out in 2001, as a launch title for the Gamecube, alongside Luigi's Mansion. The main plot was about an alien employ of a company called Hocotate Freight named Olimar getting crash-landed on a strange world with a poisonous atmosphere, and having to survive by using the small creatures he finds called Pikmin to find missing ship pieces scattered across the globe within a thirty day time limit, which is when his spacesuit's systems will fail and he will become susceptible to the harsh oxygen of the world.

About three years later, a sequel was spawned, this time the Hocotation landing back onto his homeworld just after the events of the first game. However, when he comes back, his company goes bankrupt due to the president's loan. However, one of the souvenirs that Olimar brings back turns out to be worth quite a lot of money, and so the President orders Olimar, and new character Louie, to go back to the Pikmin planet to retrieve more treasure to pay off the loan, this time with no time limit to hassle down any exploration. Once the loan has been repaid and Olimar returns back to Hocotate, it turns out that Louie was left behind, leading Olimar and the President to have to go back and rescue him.

The in-between time for Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 3 was a longer period, however, this did not mean that Pikmin would go unnoticed by anyone. New Play Control versions of the first two Pikmin games for the Wii came out in 2008 and 2009, respectively. This led people to believe that a Pikmin 3 was coming around to be made for the Wii, considering how the NPC versions were deemed the definitive versions of the game, however, Pikmin 3 had to wait until the next console to see the light of day.

Pikmin 3

In 2013, Pikmin 3 finally came out, staring three new characters from the planet Koppai. Alph, Brittany, and Charlie were three captains sent to the Pikmin planet, now dubbed PNF-404, to gather food supplies for their homeworld, which had run out of foodstuffs, due to increased appetite, and a basic lack of planning. However, their ship, the S.S. Drake, crash lands, with only a single important component missing leading the three to have to work together with the Pikmin to gather food, and find said missing component. As the game went on, it turned out that both Olimar and Louie had also returned to the Pikmin planet to gather treasure for unknown reasons.

In 2014, the Pikmin also received three short films that can be downloaded on Nintendo's E-shop for a small fee. It has also been said that while there are no clear plans at the moment, this isn't the last we'll see of the Pikmin franchise.

Super Smash Brothers

In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Pikmin series made its first appearance in a Super Smash Bros. game with two trophies. While the Pikmin trophy itself was obtainable through normal means, the player is required to have a save file on their memory card of the original Pikmin game to get the Captain Olimar trophy. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, Pikmin appeared as a major universe, receiving its own playable character, Captain Olimar, and it's own stage, Distant Planet. Captain Olimar returned as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS with a new stage, The Garden of Hope, on the Wii U version and Distant Planet returning on the 3DS version.

Spinoff: Hey! Pikmin

Hey! Pikmin, a spinoff title in the Pikmin franchise, was released in Japan on July 13th, 2017, and to the rest of the world on July 28th of the same year for the Nintendo 3DS. Unlike the main series' puzzle strategy gameplay elements, Hey! Pikmin is a side-scrolling action game developed by Arzest, and consists of Captain Olimar traversing linear 2D levels with his Pikmin while collecting items that contain the element "sparklium" that fuels Olimar's spaceship. The game received mixed reviews upon release, holding an aggregated score of 69 out of 100 on Metacritic.^[6] Critics criticized the game for being painstakingly slower and less exciting than its main series installments, though the amiibo functionality was met with praise.^[7][8]

Fourth Pikmin installment

On September 17th, 2015, Pikmin creator Shigeru Miyamoto discussed the development of Pikmin 4 in an interview with Eurogamer.^[9] He asserted that Pikmin 4 "was in development" and was "very close to completion." However, in a subsequent 2016 interview with GameRant, Miyamoto alluded to delays in the game's development, saying that it fell down Nintendo's list of priorities in a busy year.^[10] In a 2017 interview with Eurogamer, Miyamoto assured that the game is "progressing," and that it was "very close to completion."^[11]

On September 13th, 2022, Nintendo held a Nintendo Direct presentation announcing new games for its Nintendo Switch console. Pikmin creator Miyamoto announced the 2023 release of Pikmin 4 during the presentation, along with a 30 second release trailer that was posted to YouTube^[12] on September 13th by Nintendo's official channel. The post gathered 400,000 views in nearly two days (seen below).

Reception

The Pikmin franchise was received well upon conception, with the first installment selling more than 101,000 copies at launch and favorable reviews all across the board for the games in the series.

Which game is considered the best, however, varies from fan to fan. The first game focuses on time management and tries to get you to use every second wisely, which is not the best for more explorative type players while the second game is more focused on exploration. Some fans felt that some of the reason to play Pikmin relies on the pressure of the time limit, even if it was a longer time limit. The third game sought out to try and rectify these both ends, by tying the two together. The more fruit you were able to collect, the longer you were able to play and this supported looking around, and exploring, while at the same time keeping the pressure of the first game as well.

Online presence

There are two wikis dedicated to the Pikmin series, the Pikmin Wiki^[1] and the Pikmin Fanon Wiki^[2], which is dedicated to fan-created content. There used to be two separate wikis, Pikipedia, and the Pikmin Wiki. However, on August 22th, 2014, the two wikis announced that they would be merging with each other^[3]. On November 2, 2008, The Pikmin subreddit was created. As of 2015, the subreddit has over 2000 subscribers^[4]. A search on deviantART brings up over 27 thousand pieces of art. Pikmin also sports a TVTropes page.^[5]

Related Memes

Steve

Steve is the name of a red leaf Pikmin infamous Let's player Chuggaaconroy.

Named in the first episode as a joke, he later appeared as a Pikmin showing extreme loyalty, trying to carry back a dead Firey Blowhog back to base all by himself. He was labeled as a trooper and later became his own little meme, much to Chugga's dismay. If you find a red pikmin with a single leaf on his head, expect it to be named Steve by the fandom.

I feel just like a purple Pikmin

I feel just like a purple Pikmin is a phrase said by Reggie Fils-Amie at the announcement of Pikmin 3 at E3 2012. After the show had ended, the phase began spreading over forums and video game sites and fans began photoshopping Reggie to resemble a purple pikmin.

Search Interest

External References