Pikmin is a strategy and puzzle game from Nintendo that reached the third part of it, and this version for the Nintendo Switch is the improved version of the same game that was released on the Wii U in 2013, but it includes all the additional content that was released for this part, in addition to 14 new missions that link you between events The second, third and post-third parts.
The events of this part revolve around three aliens from the dying planet Koppai due to its increased population density and poor supply of supplies, so three astronauts were sent to visit a planet called PNF 404 rich in fruits, and the mission of these astronauts is to collect the largest number of fruits to be planted in Their home planet. Once they are near to land, a technical error occurs in the ship and the three astronauts disperse, and from here your adventure in the game begins. The three pioneers are Captain Charlie, the leader of this adventure and an impatient character who is very interested in carrying out his mission and caring for his crew members and the most important member of his crew for him is his duck doll. We also have engineer Alph, who is a character who puts her interest in analyzing everything he faces and finally the botanist Britney She is one of the most important figures on this trip because of her experience with plants and their cultivation.
Of course, from the name of the game Pikmin is the most important factor in this series, and they are divided into multiple types and each specific type has its own features, the five main ones in the story are, the red Pikmin that can withstand fire and is also the best in fighting, the yellow Pikmin can resist electricity and is the only type You can throw it to high areas, the blue Pikmin is the only one who can swim, the rock Pikmin is one of the new types, the strongest in terms of affecting enemies and can smash any type of crystal and glass, and finally the flying Pikmin is the weakest of all Pikmin types, but he has the ability In avoiding all the odds that other Pikmin species fall into, they are effective at fighting flying creatures.
The game system is more like Real time strategy games but simplified and with not quite difficult puzzles, but the idea is to find out the fastest way to solve a specific puzzle, because every day you have a limited time and the duration of the day in the game is equivalent to 15 minutes of playing. During each day you will have several goals, the first and main for your survival and the continuation of the days is to collect as many fruits as possible, the second goal is to find certain devices that increase the range of the radar so that you can explore the planet PNF-404 more and visit different areas, the third goal is limited to the stage The same, it includes building towers, fighting a specific boss or finding tools that improve your skills to expand the gameplay. While exploring this planet you'll visit five different regions in the main story, each one with a different character, snowy, tropical, and river regions. Each of these areas will make you change your strategy in implementing the tasks and more than the previous parts. The division of work between the three characters will make you invest your time in the day in a wonderful and satisfying way.
With the exception of the story phase, you will find a Bingo competitive phase, which supports local players in which you and your colleague compete to collect the most points. This phase is very fun and adds a fun competitive layer to the game's style, but unfortunately the phase lacks the presence of online play, which in my opinion may be the main focus of this series if Nintendo has provided it, especially at a time when people must be keen on social distancing. As he upgrades the missions, he will open the way for you to visit different areas and cleverly designed stages that I see as the most interesting in the history of this series. Developed missions does not have the freedom that you live in the stage of the story, because it is limited to a certain time to implement one particular task, and this approach is relatively frustrating, but it made the team unleashed in designing interesting stages and using the types of Pikmin that appeared in the previous parts.
Now we come to the differences and new factors offered by this "improved" version of the game. Before we go into these changes, I would like to talk about the game’s graphics. The graphics quality did not differ for anyone who tried the original version on the Wii U, but in general it is impressive and still beautiful even after 7 years, of course there are some areas that you notice that their quality is poor compared to the rest of the game environment, but they are not so bad as to hinder my enjoyment of the game in general, let us now go back to the changes, first with the disappearance of the Wii U gamepad, the map is now on the screen, in addition to that the selection feature has become More precisely than before and interacts with the player very quickly, since we talked about control, you can choose two traditional first control methods by controlling the joystick until you move the cursor and the rest of the commands through the buttons, the game also supports motion control so that the air control hand being the right becomes the cursor and this It allows you to pinpoint some of the objects and weaknesses of the monsters more precisely. Another whistle blister that you use to attract Pikmin's attention has a wider range, and finally even if you lost a Pikmin while roaming the world, now you can go to your ship on the stage and summon all the lost Pikmin around the stage. Other new elements are that the game in all its stages supports the game cooperatively even players, finally, the last new factor other than the new content, is the return of Piklopedia, and this is a dictionary or reference for you in which all the information and opinions of characters about fruits and creatures that you collect and encounter in your adventure, the return of Piklopedia is something Welcome and I spent a lot of time reading each character's reviews of strange creatures from planet PNF 404.
The additional content that he presents with him 14 missions led by Captain Olimar and his assistant Loui was disappointing, it contains some fun cinematic scenes and a slight difference in the sound effects, while the stages that you will pass through during a game are the same stages as the basic story, but are limited so that many parts of the stage are closed And the character of these 14 missions is very similar to the missions phase available in the first version in 2013, so that each mission only forces you to collect a certain number of treasures or kill all the enemies in the stage during a specific time, which made it a repetitive thing for anyone who played the missions phase before.
The game successfully moved on the Nintendo Switch, and it provided small touches that made the game better in general to the extent that it made the game experience more smooth, reduced the hard work of the player and focused more on giving more opportunities to enjoy this distinctive experience, in addition to these elements The new thing is to make the game smoother for the experienced player, but to make it more welcoming to players who have not lived the game experience and fall in love with the creatures of Pikmin, a final point that was satisfactory is the addition of a new difficulty level that limits the number of Pikmin to 60 and increases the strength of enemies, other levels allow you Up to 100 Pikmin.