THE Pikmin series hasn’t innovated too much over the course of the three previous games.
It’s stayed mostly the same: you land on an alien planet, meet the strange Pikmin creatures, and then propagate and command them in order to fight alien beasties and procure some precious treasures and valuable parts for your spaceship.
Other than a few key adjustments game-to-game, you know what to expect.
Pikmin 2 added another playable character, and two more Pikmin, and Pikmin 3 added a third playable character, along with two new kinds of Pikmin.
There are other changes, of course, but these are the big box quotes, the key features that are supposed to sell you on each game.
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They’re all great in their own ways, but innovative? Not really.
Pikmin 4 feels like a distinct shift.
The game engine is new – using the reliable Unreal Engine – the perspective has shifted, and even some of the basic game mechanics have been tweaked and streamlined.
But nothing is more emblematic of this change than Oatchi, the adorable rescue pup that will accompany you on all of your missions.
Oatchi can act as a mount, allowing you to ride atop him – with all of your Pikmin clinging onto the back – swimming over water, hopping up steps, and more.
Oatchi can even be trained, increasing their abilities, such as battle strength, HP, elemental resistances, speed, and even the ability to drag incredibly large objects without the help of any other Pikmin.
On top of all of that, Oatchi can act as a playable character too, able to access tight paths and tunnels that your created character simply can’t.
But the best feature might be the simple Rush.
This is a charge forward that Oatchi can perform to break pots, but it’ll also deal damage to smaller enemies by trampling them, and when Oatchi crashes into a bigger foe, all of the Pikmin get launched onto it.
This’ll take out most enemies quickly, as long as you have a big enough army to deal damage.
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Oatchi could’ve been a humble secondary playable character that you could upgrade to automate certain actions.
That would’ve been a solid implementation of your rescue pup comrade.
But instead, the development team has gone above and beyond.
Oatchi is an essential part of the game, and will drastically change how you approach each obstacle and challenge in Pikmin 4 when it releases on July 21, 2023.
Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.