Some advance information has come out for Pikmin 4 in a somewhat unlikely, but verified, source.
As revealed by Insider Gaming, Pikmin 4 download cards are now available to purchase in Japan.
A Twitter account named Tokyo Game Life shared pictures of these download cards, and shared translations of what was revealed in the card that will be coming to the game:
- Split screen multiplayer
- Player 2 can support player one by shooting with a reticle
- You can enter a house
- New treasures like fidget spinners, origami, and beach balls
Multiplayer may be a touchy issue, coming from how it was implemented in Pikmin 3. On the Wii U, Pikmin 3 had online multiplayer for both co-op and competitive modes. However, Pikmin 3 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch doesn’t have online for those multiplayer modes.
It’s not clear why Pikmin 3 Deluxe lost the online multiplayer that was present on the Wii U release. Nintendo may have simply decided these features weren’t used enough on the Wii U to make them worthwhile additions to the Nintendo Switch version.
These download cards do not specify that online multiplayer will be in the game, so it really may be the case that Pikmin 4 won’t have online features at all.
We do know that Pikmin 4 allows you to create your own player character. That feature sounds like it was made expressly so that players can play with each other.
While split screen multiplayer may be an indication that the game will make use of those player OCs, its existence certainly suggests that online was at least planned. We would be happy to be wrong here and see that Pikmin 4 has online multiplayer after all.
Aside from this, entering a house certainly hints at a considerable scale for Pikmin 4, raising the scale literally and figuratively from previous games. We don’t know how much gameplay can be taken from a house.
If we do use prior games as the frame of reference, it’s easy to imagine that a house could function as an entire dungeon, or even, the length of an entire game.
With all these details that have not yet been revealed or explained before, it certainly seems like Nintendo should be coming out with a Nintendo Direct. In fact we reported on a Direct possibly coming next week, with both 1st party and 3rd party games to be featured.
While Pikmin 4 certainly seems like it needs a Nintendo Direct, Nintendo may opt to release such a Direct closer to release date. So we’ll just have to wait it out to confirm if that Direct really is coming next week or not.
Pikmin 4 will be released exclusively on the Nintendo Switch on July 21, 2023.
