There’s little doubt that the Pikmin franchise is going through a kind of boom right now. The mobile game is still popular with those who play it, and it’s possibly even more popular now, thanks to the release of Pikmin 4. The game for the Switch has been a long time coming, and the results, though incomplete, have shown that gamers are really digging what Nintendo did with the fourth entry. However, if you thought Nintendo would stop there, you are mistaken, for they secretly launched a browser called Pikmin Finder, where you can continue searching for more flowery friends.
So what does the game do? Well, as it notes in the title, it helps you find Pikmin! All you have to do is access the game from Nintendo’s site and then play it on your phone by scanning a bar code, and you’re in! Once you’re in, your phone’s camera will put AR versions of the Pikmin throughout your world so you can look for them and find them wherever they are. The game was released during the Nintendo Live event, and no doubt many at the show took part in looking for the Pikmin, taking pictures with them, etc.
This isn’t the first time that Nintendo has dabbled in AR. They’ve done some stuff with it recently, and then during the early days of the Nintendo 3DS, they attempted to use AR cards and cards to help bring a new level of interconnectivity between players and the world around them. It didn’t work out for multiple reasons, but the attempt showed how Nintendo always looks for a new way to engage their gamers. Pikmin Finder is merely the latest extension of that.
Plus, as you’ll see if you dive in, the Pikmin from all four main titles will be available to find and take pictures of. So don’t be afraid to dive in and see what happens when you play!
As for the franchise as a whole, the latest mainline entry has been doing incredibly in Japan. It topped the physical game charts for five weeks straight and is getting ever closer to selling one million units in the country. No word on the game’s success in the US or UK, but many speculate that it will be over one million, if not two million, by the time reports drop.
Plus, one of the heads of the project admitted that they aren’t going to “wait too long” to deliver a fifth entry.
