Imagine that you and your colleagues live on a distant planet with a population that is growing fast – too fast. The planet can't support your species any longer, so it's up to you to find a new food source to keep the ecosystem from falling apart. Luckily, a nearby planet seems to hold the key, with abundant natural resources just waiting to be plundered.
It's not hard to imagine the scenario because, in all likelihood, you've played a video game or two. In any other game, though, you'd expect to see this storyline as the backbone of some dark, dark commentary on environmental exploitation.
Instead, Nintendo is turning it into Pikmin 3 Deluxe, a charming mix of Louis Carroll fantasy and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, with, of course, a dollop of heartbreak to boot.
It's one of the most powerful and focused strategy games on the Nintendo Switch and a must-have for those who haven't experienced it before, but it's a little harder to sell if you've played the original Wii U.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe review: A pint of power
Pikmin 3 starts with a crash. Koppai explorers Alph, Brittany, and Charlie suffer a ship malfunction and find themselves scattered across planet PNF 404. Your main task in Pikmin 3 is to find enough fruit to survive — and maybe even take home — and figure out how to restore your stranded ship's missing abilities.
That means a lot of exploration, and PNF 404 is a joy to investigate. It has the same juxtaposition of the everyday and the fantastical of the first two Pikmin, where tin cans are mountains and giant flip-style cell phones power the communication features of spaceships.
What's even more impressive than the stunning HD graphics (even in docked mode) is how the formula still conjures up a sense of magic and wonder despite three games and a re-release already being old.
And amidst the admiration of the scenery, the wide-eyed mushroom monster swarms and eats your Pikmin, the electrified sheep fry them, the hovering frog flattens them, and/or the poor little creatures drown...
There are probably a thousand ways for your Pikmin to die, and you'll probably subject your Pikmin to all of them, assuming they don't themselves. Pikmin are mostly intelligent creatures, but they tend to be a bit dense at times.
The Pikmin give as well as they get and show no mercy to their would-be assassins. It's all very National Geographic in a way we don't often see in video games.
If it wasn't already obvious, the threat of the natural world and its voracious inhabitants is a powerful incentive to plan well. Losing a single Pikmin to a strategy gone wrong or, horror of horrors, because you left behind a small platoon of them is a pretty big punch. You are supposed to protect your children from smol plants!
Pikmin 3 takes it a step further by making you worry about your factory mates than usual. Pikmin, as a series, always teeters a bit on the edge of environmental exploitation, especially Pikmin 2 and its “cash in the planet” theme.
Granted, you still use Pikmin to get what you want in Pikmin 3. But the trio show more concern for the Pikmin's well-being, even going out of their way to save a trapped onion just because they can't stand to see the Pikmin get eaten. This ultimately makes Pikmin 3 feel more like a partnership between humans and their plant minions, rather than an interstellar pirate raid on a vulnerable culture.
Luckily, Pikmin 3 also gives you even more options to integrate your strategies and prevent the smaller ones from getting in the way. Rock and Flying Pikmin, the two new types of Pikmin(ish) titles, offer their special strengths to vary how you approach certain obstacles.
Rock Pikmin, for example, can survive being crushed by heavy objects, while Flying Pikmin can avoid certain enemy attacks more easily.
Pikmin 3 has plenty of unique enemies and puzzles that only these newcomers can solve, like crystal-crusted enemies that only Rock Pikmin can break through, or doors that Flying Pikmin must lift in order for you to progress.
Speaking of progression, you could describe Pikmin 3 as a kind of Metroidvania. Even at the initial crash site, you'll get a tantalizing glimpse of areas just out of reach - well, until you at least have the right Pikmin and the right team. This feeling of not quite being done helps break up the linearity of exploration and make the game's five stages feel a lot more involved than their number suggests.
In most cases, you'll need more than the correct Pikmin to get the goods. You will also need your fellow Koppaites.
Your first task, aside from finding enough fruit to stave off starvation, is actually to reunite your crew, and it's a handy way to showcase one of Pikmin 3's best features.
Pikmin 3 expects you to put your crew to good use once they're all assembled. Each map requires an intelligent division of labor between the three protagonists. As simple as it sounds on the surface, it adds a remarkable extra layer of strategy to each day and how you split Pikmin.
As always, you can only have 100 Pikmin in the field (less than that until you find Charlie). Most of the puzzles that have you splitting your team involve specific hazards as well as obstacles that only the good Pikmin can get through.
Getting the right mix where both or all three teams come out unscathed sometimes takes a bit of trial and error, and that doubles if you're playing Ultra Spicy mode and its tighter limit on Pikmin numbers.
It's never too much, though. The game does a stellar job with its difficulty balancing, as puzzles and enemies exist in the Goldilocks area.
They're just hard enough where you feel smart to figure them out, even if it took a few days of rebooting to get there, but not too hard to put a dent in the fun. If you get stuck, Pikmin 3 Deluxe even adds some handy tips to point you in the right direction.
Pikmin 3's battery life also sits comfortably in the Goldilocks zone, lasting between eight and 12 hours depending on how you play. There's enough creativity and fun here where a longer game would be nice, but it also ends before any of its components start to feel stale.
If that seems too short, Pikmin 3 Deluxe adds some nice bonuses to complement the main gameplay. The original's mission mode has been replaced by Side Stories. Here are some additional stages after Olimar's run in PNF 404 that you'll unlock as you progress through the main story.
In side stories, you'll try to collect each fruit on a condensed version of one of the main maps. Time is running out and you need to make the most of your limited Pikmin squads to get the job done. They are short, even if you replay for a higher score. But it's a fun way to shake up the gameplay nonetheless.
There's a brief new epilogue after the main story (where else?) that shakes things up even more. And finally – finally! – Pikmin 3 Deluxe adds cooperative gameplay for the main story. It's a great inclusion that makes perfect sense given the structure of the game, and it's a surprising story that cooperative multiplayer wasn't a thing before now.
That's about it when it comes to new content. It might be nice, but it might not be enough to warrant second aid for long-time fans, especially for the price. Anyone who missed it on the Wii U should definitely give it a try.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe Review - The Bottom Line
Benefits
- Excellent level design
- Smart Strategy Gameplay
- Unique blend of whimsical and brutal
- Side stories provide a fun diversion from the main story
- It has a cooperative story mode!
The inconvenients
- Not too new to be luxury
- AI is sometimes dense as a brick
Pikmin is one of Nintendo's most inventive franchises, and Pikmin 3 Deluxe is the best of the bunch. There might not be many other additions to the Switch version, but what there is makes it one of the most enjoyable experiences on the system.
(Note: Nintendo of America provided the copy of Pikmin 3 Deluxe used for this review.)
