Rejoice, Pikmin fans! For we finally have an announcement about the 4th game, courtesy of Nintendo Direct! Don’t believe me? Then check out their announcement trailer for yourself below, and relive your childhood glory days ordering around tiny animate plant soldiers:

A Beautiful Place for Adorable Army Formations?

I’ve been waiting to hear those cute Pikmin noises for so long.

Nintendo officially announces Pikmin 4 via that announcement trailer above on YouTube at Nintendo Direct 2022. Said trailer is pretty short. If you discount that Nintendo Switch click at the beginning, it’s only 30 seconds long. However, it’s a glorious 30 seconds. We see a beautifully rendered landscape that appears to be a post-apocalyptic scene of an overgrown park. Ignoring that aspect though, we can see some rather familiar (and cute) Red Bulborbs taking a nice snooze in the morning sun. We even see what looks like a new animal for you to toss Pikmin at in the form of a butterfly-like creature resting on a flower before flapping away.

To top it all off, the very end of the trailer features (aside from more cute Pikmin forming themselves up into a 4) the release window for this 4th entry in this game series. Apparently, Pikmin 4 will launch sometime in 2023 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. Presumably, we’ll get a more specific release date when next year rolls around. Tune back in to THS next year to find out when we do.

Pikmin: Details

"Pikmin 4" announcement trailer screenshot showing a Red Bulborb snoozing beside a ticking watch on a blue fence.
I’m already tempted to try and toss those little guys at that watch up there to see if I can knock it down.

The Pikmin series of video games are a series of sci-fi real-time strategy, puzzle, action platformer video games by Nintendo. Various studios over time have been responsible for developing the games, including Nintendo EAD, Arzest, Eighting, and Niantic. The series began with the first Pikmin game all the way back in 2001, and is now up to the 4th game mentioned in the aforementioned announcement trailer.

Unfortunately, the Nintendo eShop doesn’t have an official synopsis for the first game for you to peruse. However, they do have an official synopsis for Pikmin 3 Deluxe on the game’s page on said Nintendo eShop. Check out a sample of it below:

“Command a capable crop of different types of Pikmin™ to strategically overcome obstacles, defeat creatures, and find food for your famished home planet! You can even bring a second player along to divvy up tasks as you explore a world that seems larger than life from a pint-sized perspective.”

Source: Nintendo YouTube