LogFAQs > #932566828

#46





Years of release: 2013 (Wii U)
Beaten?: Yes

For some people, it's Super Mario 3D World. For others, it's Xenoblade Chronicles X, or The Wonderful 101, both of which are games I have not played. But for me, the crown jewel of Wii U games that have not been ported to or received a meaningful replacement on the Switch is Pikmin 3.

It's a shame (I feel like this is becoming a cliche in my writing) because I think being doomed to the Wii U left this one as an overlooked and underrated gem, but it might be the best game in the series, and it's a good series! The original Pikmin was one of the first three games I owned on the GC, along with Luigi's Mansion and SSBM, and it was definitely the biggest surprise for me, with its beautiful, lush world and engaging, challenging tactics. The sequel was good, though I wasn't really that huge a fan of the dungeon-delving compared to doing stuff on the overworld.

Pikmin 3 finds a nice balance here - there's more linear puzzle-solving kind of areas here than in the original Pikmin, but they're mostly set outside or at least in indoor areas that don't look too samey. The level design here is great - the placement of every enemy and obstacle feels very deliberately thought out and the levels are the right mix of challenging to figure out and easy to get lost in without being too wildly intimidating. The boss fights in this game are by far the best in the series too, I used to find them frustrating in the previous games but here the difficulty feels tuned just right, and guiding my Pikmin to the places they need to be feels more intuitive than it used to be. Rock Pikmin and Winged Pikmin are both extremely nice additions to the game, better than the previous unique Pikmin we got. Having three playable characters that you can switch between is a great gameplay addition as well, really opens up your options for how to approach any given level. How do you divide up your parties and what tasks do you have them do? Makes it a lot easier to set some Pikmin to do something and then multitask with another character. So many great additions to the series here that both improve the game's strategic space while also improving its quality of life.

I'm worried that this one may be consigned to the Wii U forever, since the gamepad is a pretty big part of the game, although I think it's possible to work around it. I hope they do, because this one deserves to be lifted out of Wii U purgatory (I love the Wii U, to be honest, but it is what it is). I kinda suspect that this game will remain one of the best reasons to pick up a cheap used Wii U though.