At some point in the near future, Pikmin 4 is finally coming out. Having been announced by series creator Shigeru Miyamoto all the way back in 2015, this game has been at the top of some wish lists for over 5 years. While its development history has been unclear, the game was teased up until 2017, when it suddenly stopped getting updates. The September 2022 Nintendo Direct is the first time fans have actually seen Pikmin 4, but at least it finally has some substantial news.
Of course, several months will have to pass before anything more about this new game comes to light. Apart from a new camera perspective that is lower to the ground than the defaults used by past entries, it's not clear what Pikmin 4 is bringing to the table. A clock was prominently shown in the trailer in a strange outdoor location, but it's not clear if this is a hint as to the daily timer changing or just set dressing. Pikmin 4 could be an open world game, for all fans know. At any rate, the game should at least strive to bring forward the best features from its predecessors, and one of those traits can be found in the Switch release of Pikmin 3 Deluxe.
Co-op Was a Game-Changer in Pikmin 3 Deluxe
Fans initially felt bittersweet toward Pikmin 3 Deluxe due to such a long time spent waiting for more news on the series continuation. However, the features that it introduced easily made it the definitive version of the game, and it produced some of the highest sales in the series. Among other things, locking-on and charging were reworked, Pikmin 2’s Piklopedia bestiary was implemented, and a Side Story mode showing what the old protagonists were doing was added. However, one of the more subdued yet game altering additions was campaign co-op.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe marks the first time a Pikmin game allowed for cooperative multiplayer during its story. This will come as a surprise to some, as the emphasis on multiple playable characters working together has been around since Pikmin 2 on the GameCube. That installment did introduce multiplayer, but it was only in the additional 2-Player Battle and Challenge modes. These were kept for the Wii U's Pikmin 3, and the Challenge dungeons could feel like tackling a mission-based campaign with a friend, but it wasn't the same as total story co-op. It took until Pikmin 3 Deluxe for a second one of the three playable pilots to be fully controlled simultaneously in story mode and the Side Stories.
Pikmin 4 Should Keep Local Story Co-op
It's unknown how many captains the Pikmin 4 will feature, but following the franchise's pattern, it could introduce a crew of up to four. If it's more reserved than that, it's still easy to justify having splitscreen multiplayer during the campaign, even if it means making a double of the main character. Pikmin 4’s world promises more human environmental objects than before alongside a low camera angle emphasizing the size of it all, and exploring that with a friend would make it all the more memorable.
And that's not even getting into how useful a second player is. Pikmin is a series about optimizing resources and planning around obstacles, and having a second field commander can make a Pikmin army even more efficient. Seeing multiple treasures or resources reach the player's base at the same time will always feel satisfying, and multiplayer is the quickest route to making that happen. Plus, now that the feature has been implemented into the series, it would be rather disappointing to see it disappear after the re-release of just one entry. Pikmin 4 already looks promising, and hopefully good features like story co-op will make the newest installment of the Pikmin franchise worth the wait.
Pikmin 4 will be released in 2023 for the Nintendo Switch.