The Pikmin franchise, first started by Nintendo in 2001, follows a group of intrepid adventurers from the planets Hocotate and Koppai, journeying in the hopes of finding not just treasure, but food for their dying planets. These travelers find a strange planet known as PNF-404, which bears a heavy resemblance to Earth and reveals a myriad of unique flora and fauna. The most spectacular among these, both flora and fauna, are the Pikmin, small flower-like creatures that are plucked from the ground and used to progress throughout the games. Despite the game itself being small, relative to some of Nintendo’s other smash-hits like Zelda and Mario, the Pikmin series has quite a large following, bringing in fans from across the globe to adore not only these lovely little creatures but the amazing environments and stories which surround them. As of February 8th, 2023, the trailer for the most recent installment in the franchise – Pikmin 4 – was released, revealing an entirely new realm of Pikmin to explore, along with returning favorites. This game looks absolutely amazing, bringing fans old and new back again into the folds of this amazing world; although the trailer is short, and leaks are few and far between, the changes made seem amazing, and I for one can’t wait to dig into ‘em.
The first and most obvious thing to focus on is the Pikmin. In every game prior, a minimum of two Pikmin have been added in each game, ranging from the cute, deadly White Pikmin to the chunky, sturdy Rock Pikmin. With Pikmin 4, however, only one new type has been introduced (so far) – the Ice Pikmin. These Pikmin can be thrown at bodies of water to turn them into solid and walkable ice, so that your Pikmin don’t drown, as well as being able to freeze enemies after enough contact. The addition of only one new type of Pikmin left fans puzzled – why would Nintendo do this? Could they really break the tradition they’d held since 2001? Where’s our other Pikmin? Well, there are a few theories out there, some of the most popular centering around an art book for Pikmin 3 which was featured at an expo in 2014. In the art book, several of the pages contained detailed doodles and sketches of Pikmin, which were noted as potential ideas for (already released) Pikmin 3. These included a wide array, such as Beanstalk Pikmin, Fuzz Pikmin, and “blank” Pikmin, however, the most stand out among these was the “Cyclops” Pikmin. This Pikmin is orange in color, with one large, red-pupiled eye. It floats above the ground, without the use of wings, almost like a ghost. In the hidden ending to Pikmin 3, the player can see dozens of “Onions” – essentially the flying mobile homes of Pikmin – fly up into the air, following the player’s departing spaceship. These Onions correspond to a Pikmin’s color in the game, Red Pikmin coming from Red Onions, Blue Pikmin from Blue Onions, and so on. In this final cutscene, several unseen-Pikmin-colored Onions (as in, Onions whose colors had not yet been attributed to a revealed Pikmin) were seen, one of these being orange, the same color as the Cyclops Pikmin. Given that another one of these Onions, the Cyan Onion, was recently validated as an official Pikmin (in the form of the Ice Pikmin) fans consider these theories not to be too far off. The existence of the Cyclops Pikmin is doubtful though. For starters, the niche is already filled – Winged Pikmin, who are much smaller and weaker than their other Pikmin brethren, with compound eyes and small insect-like wings that fly (or, in the Cyclops Pikmin’s case, float) just fine. They are used to solve a variety of floating puzzles ranging from aerial combat to root pulling. Every Pikmin has had its own niche or purpose, whether it’s living through fire, breathing underwater, or conducting electricity, and for a Pikmin to have a repeat function such as this is unprecedented. Cyclops Pikmin would either need some ghoulish powers relating to their phantom-like bottoms, such as levitation or passing through walls, or they would need to be scrapped entirely. On top of this, with the box art for the game already out, there is no additional Cyclops Pikmin on there, meaning Nintendo would need to suddenly and abruptly rework the box art before the game came out, which is an unlikely occurrence. We can only hope that Nintendo does release another Pikmin type, and if so, that it can only meet our high expectations, doing all that we wanted of it and more.
In that same art book which debuted in 2014, a Pikmin called the “Blob” Pikmin can be found, Cyan in appearance, seemingly looking like a puddle of goop. Being the same color as Ice Pikmin however, it was extremely doubtful that this Pikmin would see the light of day, as two same-colored Pikmin would cause too much confusion. However, some fans had other ideas. What if Pikmin 4 was given some kind of upgrade/downgrade system? When one thinks of Ice, melting ice immediately comes to mind, and the train of thought for Ice Pikmin was no different. What if, upon being exposed to fire, the Ice Pikmin melted into Blob Pikmin? Theoretically, they could later be reformed/refrozen, after contact with the ice walls seen in the trailer. This would be a big leap for Nintendo to take, but the alternate states for Pikmin actually seem quite clear. Red (Fire) Pikmin could downgrade to ash and upgrade to magma. Yellow (Electric) Pikmin could downgrade to “Out of Battery” and upgrade to “Overcharged.” I would personally love to see this system executed, and it would add a whole new layer of possibilities when it comes to puzzle-solving and boss-battling.
At the end of the day, however, these are just some fan theories. Plausible? Sure. Whether or not they’ll actually happen is yet to be known. What we do know, however, is the addition of one final detail in the trailer. This detail is so magnificent, so grand, and so massive, that it left fans shocked, stunned by the exciting new world of this detail that awaited them. This detail is, of course – the dog. Oatchi is a small dog (-like creature) who follows you and your squad of Pikmin around, smashing vases and helping out. When commanded, all your Pikmin will hop on Oatchi, and he can be used to charge into battle or to carry them across the water. Although PNF-404 is seemingly full of only predators and monsters, Oatchi serves as a nice reminder that not everything here besides the Pikmin is bad. There is beauty amidst the destruction.
With that final point, that’s really all we know about Pikmin 4. Even looking back on this article, most of this is just speculation and theories – musings as to what we hope will happen. I’m hoping Pikmin 4 will have as hyped of a release as its predecessors did, and am personally ready to see whatever this game has to offer. The Pikmin look just as cute as ever, the graphics look great, and the game looks like it’ll be a smash hit. However, only time will tell whether this installment will go up into the Hall Of Fame with its brethren, or whether it will sink into obscurity and neglect (looking at you “Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity”…).
