Pikmin's Worth A Try

The Banjo-Kazooie of real-time strategy is an underappreciated gem

This week, after an almost decade-long wait, Pikmin 4 finally got a release date. In a genre filled with hidden gems, Pikmin is a franchise that hides in plain sight; I’d argue it’s the best known series of RTS that most fans of the genre have never tried.

Pikmin mixes real-time strategy mainstays - real-time unit control, mechanical depth, tactical thinking and planning - with classic Nintendo flair - exploration-adventure, platforming, and a bright, colorful world. It provides a fresh look on the genre, a take that from my perspective no one has ever truly replicated (although there are some pretty fun games in the same general ballpark, like Masters of Anima). Today, I’ll walk you through some of the things I really like about this franchise.

The TL;DR, if you’re interested in getting your hands dirty, would be to borrow Pikmin 3 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch from a friend and play through the single-player campaign - I’d say it’s the most accessible entry, and also the most “mainstream” in its mechanics. If you like it, you can bounce back to Pikmin 1 and 2 afterward.

Anyway, on we go!

1. Pikmin really captures the moment-to-moment enjoyment of your workers doing stuff

One of my favorite parts of real-time strategy games, as compared to the turn-based variety, is that they feature more mechanically enjoyable macromanagement. The player gets to actively participate in each moment of base building, tasking workers to and fro, selecting and researching technologies, erecting structures, and so forth. You’re a lot more involved than in a turn-based game, and it’s delightful to watch your little starting town transform into a large empire with all your busy bees buzzing away.

Pikmin really gets this. Whether you’re rapidly flinging workers to complete a bridge, figuring out which 3 guys should pick up the nearest strawberry, or frantically fighting a Bulborb, you are there, in the action! You’re figuring out what your workers should do and watching them get to it in real-time. It’s just really, really fun! Of the three (released) Pikmin games, Pikmin 3 streamlines this the most by dramatically improving unit AI and smoothing out the mechanical controls, making it really easy to get immersed in the experience. But they’re all pretty good at this.

There’s a real satisfaction that comes from exploring the world while watching your workers, in real-time, handling various tasks for you. Not to spoil the fun but I think one of the best surprises is when you’re off figuring out how to do something, and you come across your own workers lugging something back home. It makes the world feel alive.

2. Pikmin has all the best parts of platformers like Banjo-Kazooie

I think the reason Age of Empires originally appealed to me, compared to titles like Warcraft or StarCraft, was that it featured randomly generated maps. It was an adventure; it was exciting to explore the world with my scout and see what I was dealing with. Every game felt like a new experience.

I play action-adventures and platformers for much the same reason, liking Banjo enough to do an in-depth review on it. And the great part about Pikmin is that it’s an RTS game that captures much the same spirit that first drew me to the genre.

Whereas the language of exploration in Banjo is platforming, the language of exploration in Pikmin is puzzle-solving - leveraging your Pikmin in the right way to clear obstacles, unlock shortcuts, and bring collectibles back to your spaceship. It also executes on “see-but-can’t-yet-do” just as effectively and beautifully as Banjo does. It’s funny but when you really think about it, the core gameplay loops have a lot in common.

You could think of Pikmin like a Banjo game, done in an RTS style; or, you could think of it as an RTS game, done in the style of Banjo. Either way, it’s delightful.

3. Pikmin is an RTS on console, done right

At some point in my life, I realized that I prefer to lay back on my couch and play video games. And that’s not super compatible with your average real-time strategy game.

Pikmin is a notable exception. Now, you could reasonably point out that it achieves this by eliminating the base-building and economic components of real-time strategy. Which is a fair observation! But I think this is a genre that stands to benefit from alternative takes on its fundamental gameplay loop, and Pikmin’s focus on unit management, unit control and streamlined macromanagement is a very good such take.

Pikmin 2 in particular offers a really fresh take here, leaning in hard on to unit control and macromanagement, and leveraging procedurally generated dungeons with a variety of different environmental characteristics and enemy unit types. Pikmin 4’s latest trailer hints at these dungeons making a return, which I’m super excited about.

Pikmin 3 is brilliant in its own way - on top of expanding the mechanical side of the game, it also figures out how to neatly incorporate some of the top-down management mechanics you’d normally associate with a keyboard and mouse game. You can zoom in and out from managing your commanders, swapping between them if desired, to focus your attention on where you think it’s deserved.

4. Pikmin will teach you more about why you like these games

I get that the idea of playing games in order to understand how and why they work sounds academic, but personally it allows me to appreciate them more. It also makes it easy for me, in a world where time is the largest bottleneck on anything I do, to quickly and efficiently seek out and find the sorts of games that I would like.

For example, the realization that Pikmin and Banjo share a lot in their gameplay loop was eye-opening to me, and it made me better appreciate how much I prefer randomly-generated maps to static ones, at least from a casual playthrough perspective.

Pikmin also highlights how much I enjoy finding depth in the mechanics of a game. Aiming throws correctly, microing my units back and forth to maximize damage, maneuvering around the battlefield to dodge enemy attacks - it’s all really fun when it “clicks” and you succeed at doing something in real-time.

I think the sense of being “there”, in the action, makes the mechanics feel more meaningful than in a standard top-down setup. And I like how the later Pikmin games have maintained the spirit of the puzzles of the first game, while also bringing in more mechanical components, producing a more action-packed exploration-adventure.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a fan of RTS, I think there’s something in Pikmin that you’ll like - whether it’s the puzzle solving, or the mechanics, or the exploration, or the sense of the unknown. Borrow a friend’s Nintendo Switch if you have to, and give Pikmin 3 a whirl - you won’t regret it.

Until next time!
brownbear

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