Pikmin 3 Deluxe: Announcement Discussion
What Does a Pikmin 3 Port Mean for Nintendo?
8/7/20
DISCLAIMER: This essay was written on August 5th right after my viewing of the “Pikmin 3 Deluxe” trailer. These were my raw, early thoughts on the game. If these change drastically, or more important news comes out about the game, I’ll post a redux discussion. The “August 7th” in the title is technically just the publishing date, but it’s usually the writing and editing day as well. Also, these are my thoughts, but out of boredom I’ve edited this essay a lot more extensively than I normally would. I would do this for every essay if I gave myself more time to put quality over quantity, but that’s a discussion for another day.
So, it appears that Nintendo’s holiday title this year will be a port. Perhaps not “Pikmin 3 Deluxe”, but if they had any true new video games ready for us, they would already have been announced. “Paper Mario: The Origami King” seems to have set a COVID standard of around two months between reveal and release, with pre-orders going up immediately for anyone to purchase at any time. It’s not as smart as their usual marketing strategies with the Switch, but in these times, I agree that it’s the best Nintendo can do. Today, on August 5th, Nintendo announced “Pikmin 3 Deluxe” for the Switch, and set a release date of October 30th. Technically anything in Q4 is a holiday title, though with something this early in the holiday, you would usually have something else to publish along with it. For example, “Super Mario Odyssey” was released at around this time in Q4 of 2017. Of course, this would be that holiday’s biggest system-seller, but in terms of first party titles, they also had “Xenoblade Chronicles 2” come out on December 1st. Obviously it’s dumb to expect anything else, but it is not dumb to hope. After all, this is just a port. With this new information, the question of the day is: “what does a Pikmin 3 port mean?”
First, let’s discuss what the launch trailer never did; the abundance of extra content. “Pikmin 3 Deluxe” offers six different major new things, some that seem to be staples for these Wii U ports, but some not. The first three things here are pretty common in these ports: all DLC included, multiple difficulty modes, and improved controls. The original “Pikmin 3” came with three DLC packs released throughout Q4 of 2013, all for a value price of nine dollars. Nothing bad, but nothing extreme. It’s unclear how many difficulty modes will be featured, but many will be satisfied with an easier and harder mode. In terms of controls, the game is slightly brushed up in various very minor areas. The big deal, here, is the lock-on targeting system, akin to the ZL button in Breath of the Wild. Outside of precedents, the game features two-player co-op through the game’s entire story mode. It’s unclear whether this feature is available in other gameplay modes, but it most likely will be. Next, we have the long-awaited return of the “Piklopedia” from the first two “Pikmin” games. This got many older fans excited, which is always a good thing. Finally, and what is arguably the most important thing here, is the brand new prologue and epilogue. It’s not apparent how long these are or how much they will feature, but many fans were ecstatic about this as well. Whether this came with all of this new added content or not, fans would certainly pay the retail price of sixty dollars for any true handheld “Pikmin” game. Aside from the rightfully hated and forgotten “Hey! Pikmin” spinoff on the Nintendo 3DS, this will be that long-awaited first handheld entry in the series.
It’s very clear that “Pikmin 3 Deluxe” launched at the perfect time. Perhaps not as perfect as Animal Crossing, but it’s still a family game with the optional two-player co-op in the vast desert of first-party emptiness. This may not make it a glorious river amongst said desert, but it at least makes it a large puddle. Speaking of timing, this certainly means news for Nintendo. Not good news in terms of those 3D Mario Remasters, but good and bad news for the inevitable “Pikmin 4”. “Pikmin 4” had been heavily rumored to be a 2021 title; probably summer like “Pikmin 3” on the Wii U. In the past, to avoid competing with each other, Wii U ports and new games in those franchises never came close to being a mere nine months apart. “Bayonetta 2”, for example, was ported to the Nintendo Switch in February of 2018 to keep hype up ever since its sequel was announced in December. Bayonetta 3 still carries a decent amount of hype, but if the coronavirus didn’t delay it, the game would be launched in 2020. This would have been, at absolute least, two years after the game was announced. According to this logic, “Pikmin 4” would be launched at some point in late 2022 or 2023.
In conclusion, “Pikmin 3 Deluxe” doesn’t really mean anything for Nintendo, which is precisely the problem. If anything, it means that our Nintendo holiday title will probably be this or something far smaller than a new game. The only true hope for this year that remains after this announcement is that Nintendo is random, especially at this time. While things like this port and the July 20th Nintendo Direct, even though it turned out to be a fake, were heavily rumored, things like the new “Paper Mario” game were not. “Paper Mario: The Origami King” came straight out of the blue and was released two months later. Anything can come, we just have to find it in ourselves to wait for the little joyful announcements like this one, rumored or not.
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