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From IGN's review:
One of the most immediately noticeable differences between Pikmin 4 and its predecessors is that here there’s no limit to the number of days you have to finish the story like in the original, nor is there any threat of running out of supplies like in Pikmin 3, making it more of a casual rescue mission than a race against the clock.
YES
"Casual rescue mission" is a fun phrase. It fits, though. The first bloke I "rescued" in the demo was snoozing like Gulliver when I found him.
I loved this line from the IGN review (9/10):
but when I played Pikmin 4, my heart grew two sizes that day.
Can’t wait to play this one!
I felt drawn to collect all the treasure in Pikmin 4 not just because I wanted to fill out one of my many checklists, but because I wanted to see the game’s reinterpretations of human objects, a catalog full of jokes but also deep appreciation. And in this way, Pikmin 4 accomplishes maybe the best thing a piece of media can do — it makes the real world seem more wondrous than it did before.
Added Polygon to the list though, but they don't score the reviews, right? Cause I couldn't find it. Still added the link though.
No, they don't score. I just like their content in general, usually the first site I go for reviews.
Oh okay. Thanks for the info.
Would you recommend playing the first three Pikmin games first (now that they are available on the Switch) before diving into Pikmin 4?
Is there an overarching story between all the Pikmin games that I would miss by jumping straight into Pikmin 4?
The only real story continuation is characters. And there is about 0 character growth in the games so it doesn't really matter. The story for all of them is, "land and or crash on weird earth, look pikmin, let's use pikmin to carry stuff to the ship. Yay, we can leave now." Play the demo and see if you need any more context.
There's a light overarching story, but you don't really need to play all 3 previous Pikmin games. I also think that only Pikmin 3 is available on Switch, not 1 & 2.
You can look up a brief synopsis of the storylines in the previous games, but the story is pretty simple in all of them.
A package of 1 and 2 released on the eShop.
For story, I don't think you need to play any of the previous game, but if you like the series and want to experience it from the beginning, you can play all of them. In either case, I don't think your enjoyment of Pikmin 4 will be effected by playing or not playing the older games.
Personally, I don't think I would enjoy the older games after playing Pikmin 4 and I want to play all of them, so will start from the first one.
I'd recommend starting with 4. It'll be the most feature rich and have the most quality of life features to make the game easier. Then if you like it you can go back and play the others. It seems like this will be the best of the series. (At least most highly rated)
If you don't play them all you'll miss critical details like Omar's preference in foodstuff!
They are all really charming games. If you're into cute things and some excellent humor, definitely play all of them. The first one is pretty grim actually and you need to move fast to finish the game without dying. The second one has some really tough caves, the third is just cute and has these great side missions that are worth the time. What I've been reading about the fourth episode it looks like it's going to be the best of the bunch. They've been making the games better iteratively, and the idea is quite novel it's worth to play them all if you like one of them.
I wish Miyamoto gets his success finally with the fourth episode, they are so adorable.
Not needed. I would recommend the 3 to test the old Pikmin vibe, but you can do it later.
FWIW, I'm about five hours in now. It seems to continue on from a different Pikmin 1 ending than the other two games, and as such there isn't any required games for context. Tbh I'm significantly more confused by the plot because I've played the others.
Other reviews/videos that could be good:
Added Nintendo Life and Game Informer.
As for KindaFunny, Not going to parse whole videos for the review, but would happily add it to the list if someone else provides the time stamped video. 😀
Thanks for the recommendations!
E haven't played any Pikmin so far, but always wanted. I was waiting for P4 for a while, and now I try to decide if I will buy it or start from the first 3...
Good luck! You can't go wrong with either choice.
Ok, but how unskippable is the tutorial?
Just tried the demo yesterday. The tutorial's integrated into the gameplay in a way that didn't feel obstructive to me. It's less like an old-school sandbox tutorial and more that the game makes it obvious what you have to do for the first mission. And it seems to focus on the new mechanics since the basic stuff is already made obvious by overlays showing the controls.
There will be people who have no capacity for nuance and see this as a boolean thing, and for them: the tutorial's not skippable, no. But for most people, it shouldn't be an issue.