How Pikmin 4’s wild Pikmin could have made the game so much better (and how they fumbled the bag)
Wild pikmin were a very interesting concept. Being able to earn ANY type of Pikmin mid-cave was super fun and worked to combat a lot of the issues a casual player had with the caves in Pikmin 2. Before, if a type of Pikmin died, you wouldn’t be able to complete the caves in. If there was buried treasure and you ran out of whites, those pokos would be lost media. But wild Pikmin worked against this. It was never a substitute for essential types of Pikmin, but it was usually enough to just scrape by.
But I think this mechanic had a lot more that it could have done, the game just chose not to use it in a meaningful way. In Pikmin 4, wild Pikmin were usually what was directly required for cave completion. The root of the problem is that there was a severe overrepresentation of a small amount of hazards, and Pikmin that didnt directly counter a hazard would never be picked for wild Pikmin.
Think about it, Pikmin 4’s most used hazards are Ice, water, and Fire. Because wild Pikmin usually only match the required hazards, you’ll primarily get Ice, Blues, and Reds. Especially ice Pikmin. You’ll usually have almost 200 ice Pikmin before you even get their onion because shiggy miggy saw ice Pikmin and said “I can make a boatload of cash in plushie sales from this. Let’s plant this industry!”
And that’s the issue, ice Pikmin specifically are extremely common in these caves. Theyre found in 9 caves over the course of the game, usually in numbers higher than 15 in a single game. And I know some of you might be thinking “it’s not a big deal, if you don’t like it go back to playing Pikmin bloom.” This is a problem because 8 of these 9 caves are in the hero’s hideaway or earlier, meaning in the vast majority of caves before you get the ice onion you’ll be getting an ice onions worth of Pikmin income. Pik-cum if you will.
By contrast, winged Pikmin and rock Pikmin combined only appear in 8 caves in the entire game, usually in numbers equal to or less than 10, meaning you will have 40 or less of these Pikmin before you get their onions. As a reminder, you’ll easily have a hundred ice Pikmin by the third area. If you’re not gonna give us the Pikmin then don’t even include them, why are they here.
You get a grand total of 10 winged Pikmin in the below grade discotheque and don’t see them again until the ultimate testing range, where you get another 10. In the time between those two appearances you probably got another 40 ice Pikmin. I know I’m bitching about ice a lot but they really are America’s most wanted, but the core issue that ruined this mechanic that had a lot of potential is that the distribution of wild Pikmin is so heavily in favor of the original 3 types plus ice and the other 4 are left with the scraps.
Another one is rocks. Theyre first seen in the kingdom of beasts, and it makes sense for them to be here. There’s a lot of crystals and it’s a more combat based cave. I can’t wait to see these fun and unique Pikmin again soon!
You do not see a significant amount of rock Pikmin until the frozen inferno and plunder palace, where you get 10 and 5 rock Pikmin respectively.
I could keep going for purples and whites but you get the point. A big problem with Pikmin 4 is Pikmin bloat, you have all these great types but none of them get to breathe because you’re drip fed them among getting a garden hose of ice Pikmin blasted straight down your throat. Wild Pikmin could have been the solution to this, the game had every opportunity to chuck in some wild whites or a few candypop buds into some caves, but they didn’t and that’s a shame.
If you get to the final area and didnt get the white onion, you’ll have max 40 whites to use in an area that recommends them and has a billion poison hazards. This could have been easily avoided if you just threw them into a few more caves or just increased the number of these more niche Pikmin types, because unless you have an elemental immunity that’s not poison you aren’t seeing much playtime