The successful launch of Pokemon GO in summer 2016 primed Niantic for five years of steady updates. To this day the mobile app is continuing its journey across the Pokemon world, adding the nearly 1,000 monsters from all eight generations of mainline games alongside regional variants, shinies, and limited-time cosmetics. Between Community Days and Pokemon GO's seasons with themed events, the game is never hurting for content. Niantic's other Nintendo-based game Pikmin Bloom is a different story.
Pikmin Bloom released in October 2021 and hasn't changed much since. Community Day events in the Pikmin game have become more involved, even offering real-world prizes for those who reach their step goals, and there have been backend additions like privacy zones. Yet its core gameplay has stayed the same over the last six months. If the popular mobile developer hopes to introduce bigger content updates soon, it can expand with the Pikmin series' stable of enemies.
Pikmin's Enemy Creatures Add Character
At their core, Pikmin games are about interplanetary explorers coming to an Earth devoid of humans but full of the titular, sentient plant-like beings. The three core Pikmin titles are real-time strategy games where each day is spent proliferating various colors of Pikmin in order to move through environmental hazards and collect treasures or fruit. However, it's never that easy; the world is full of comparatively massive bugs or other chimera-like creatures that stand in the player's way and sometimes ingest the treasures being sought.
Bulborb are the most common enemy on PNF-404, being odd bipedal creatures with stalk eyes and bulbous backsides. The most recognizable of these are red with white spots, reminiscent of the same amanita muscaria toadstools that inspired Super Mario's mushroom power-up, yet the Bulborb family comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Though the red Bulborb is an icon of the franchise, with representation in Super Smash Bros. and variations including Emperor and Empress bosses, they are not the only enemies that explorers like Olimar have encountered.
Other common enemies include the near-invincible Breadbugs, element-spewing Blowhogs, and renditions of real-world creatures like tadpoles, butterflies, and beetles. There are also plenty more boss-tier enemies beyond Emperor and Empress Bulborb, from the snake-bodied and bird-headed Burrowing Snagret to Pikmin 3's almost alien Plasm Wraith. Even more unique enemies appear in the puzzle platformer spin-off Hey! Pikmin on 3DS.
How Enemies Could Bring Pikmin Bloom New Content
Pikmin Bloom is a casual experience compared to Pokemon GO, and certain moreso than its source material. It's an exercise tool that has users grow Pikmin and find items like Seedlings by going on walks. There's also an aesthetic undercurrent encouraging people to "beautify the world" by planting flowers on the AR map along their walking path.
Challenges are the one place where Pikmin Bloom keeps its source material's focus on Pikmin as beings capable of combat under the right leadership. These see players send their army to destroy mushroom outcroppings set atop real-world landmarks; no living creatures are involved. Yet the potential for typical Pikmin enemies to appear as larger, more involved Challenges is clear. Much like Pokemon GO cycles through Raids that include Legendary Pokemon, a similar "Raid" in Pikmin Bloom could ask all players to contribute their forces toward battling a wayward Bulborb, Snagret, or more unique bosses like Pikmin 2's infamous Waterwraith.
Any Pikmin eaten or crushed by an enemy in traditional games are permanently lost, and it's unlikely Pikmin Bloom will follow that idea given its "endgame" is collecting units with rare decor. But Pikmin Bloom could adapt the strengths and weaknesses, like blue Pikmin being better against the Watery Blowhog or white Pikmin applying poison to hungry Sheargrubs. Niantic could also extend rewards beyond flower nectar, offering players another way to accumulate its in-game currency of Coins or even additions like Bulbmin Seedlings.
Regardless how the developer would implement Pikmin enemies, the game would be stronger with them — both because it represents more of the source material, and because it would add new content to a game in desperate need of activities. With Niantic reportedly working on a new game named "Campfire," it shouldn't leave its Pikmin game in the dust.
Pikmin Bloom is available now on Android and iOS.