Legend has it that Shigeru Miyamoto came up with the idea for Pikmin while resting in his garden. Apparently, this video game designer – the father of Super Mario and Princess Zelda, no less – saw a line of ants passing by his feet and carrying a small leaf towards their nest. That vision ended up becoming the origin of one of Nintendo’s most particular works, but also a myth that years later is still remembered every time a new installment of the series goes on sale.
Pikmin 4 arrived in stores yesterday and its team responsible has not only recalled Miyamoto’s eureka moment, but other sources of inspiration hitherto unknown, from the cult film The Savage Planet (René Laloux, 1973) to the essay The Selfish Gene (1976) by science popularizer Richard Dawkins. Now, if there is a key concept in this game, it is that of dandori, a Japanese word that can be translated as the process of planning tasks in advance in order to carry them out efficiently.
As was the case in previous installments, Pikmin 4 is a strategy and management title that puts the player’s organizational capacity to the test. The tiny beings that give the game its name, and whose actions the user must guide at the blow of a whistle, are once again the protagonists, but the big difference this time is the fact that they offer a greater quantity and variety of content.
New creatures are added –such as the icy or luminous pikmin–, the scenarios to be explored multiply, the caves from the second part are recovered and challenges such as the so-called “dori battles” are introduced. However, the big news is Ochin, the adorable rescue dog that accompanies the protagonist and gives him powerful new abilities.
In the fourth installment of Pikmin there is a lot to do, but also for this reason it is a more scattered and less focused game. Luckily, this is the only weak point in one of the most original experiences that the interactive medium has given, a minor detail that does not prevent you from enjoying a fabulous management game for children from 7 to 77 years old.
