Hey! Pikmin review: A walk in the park

Hey! Pikmin wasn’t the 3DS platformer we asked for, but it’s what we got, and as a laid back summer diversion, it may be worth taking for a stroll.

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: June 28, 2017

Dear Nintendo: Not everything needs to be turned into a platformer. It’s really okay. Pikmin worked just dandy as an RTS, and while it doesn’t make a bad platformer, your insistence on a steady parade of games in the genre dulls the impact of games like Hey! Pikmin, which joins a vast library of similar titles on the Nintendo 3DS. And while inklings of uniqueness sparkle along the edges, the game never goes far enough with them to distinguish itself in a meaningful way.

Hey! Pikmin sees our buddy Captain Olimar stranded on a new planet that, in a convenient and familiar twist, happens to also house both Pikmin and a host of familiar predators. Olimar sets out to obtain enough Sparklium to fuel his ship up and depart for home, but to do so, he must enlist the help of the local Pikmin to traverse the world and find some. Additionally, he will find hidden artifacts of a long-dead civilization (that should look all-too-familiar) to use for large quantities of what he needs.

Being a small space man with no special talents, Olimar cannot move very quickly, nor jump, or attack enemies on his own. He has a little jet pack that will scoot him over in the air for a short ways before giving up, but that’s it. Instead, he relies wholly on the Pikmin he finds to perform tasks such as lifting heavy objects, grabbing distant Sparklium deposits, or using their unique, color-coded talents to swim or resist electricity or break rocks. He can also throw Pikmin at enemies to fend them off.

Olimar’s slow but steady pace gives all of Hey! Pikmin a relaxed, easygoing feel that persists through the entire game. There are no complex jumping sections (as Olimar just can’t), nothing moves very quickly, and almost every puzzle you encounter can be solved as you find it, requiring little to no backtracking. In fact, Hey! Pikmin encourages you to take the time to immerse yourself in your surroundings. Many of the levels space out their puzzles, filling in the gaps with wide, traversable space bedecked with lush backdrops. Often, you’ll encounter brief vignettes of Pikmin up to silly antics in between enemy encounters, tossing in a touch of personality to color the level.

Most notably, Hey! Pikmin makes use of both top and bottom screen to display the area, and often asks the player to look up for the ideal progression path, or even for hidden secrets. To aid the player in their observations of a wider view, Nintendo simplified the controls to mere directional movement paired with the touch screen. You won’t use the buttons at all. It can take some getting used to if you like mashing through menus, but here, too, Hey! Pikmin asks you to slow down.

It’s Olimar’s innate curiosity and character shining through that make every new [log book] entry a worthwhile read.

The drawback of this overall slower pace is that Hey! Pikmin never feels especially challenging or inventive. At first, I anticipated that the use of both screens and the ability to split up my Pikmin by type as I explored would result in more creative puzzling. A few early game levels suggested a growing complexity as I tried to use Pikmin in different combinations and areas to gain access to hidden corners of the map.

But these hints of creativity quickly gave way to predictability, both in terms of obstacles and enemy encounters. Every fight in Hey! Pikmin is easily won by throwing the right Pikmin at the right spot on the enemy–yes, even boss fights. Every puzzle can be overcome in a similar fashion, and the majority of these are presented in a linear and disconnected fashion, especially in the first two-thirds of the game. It’s simple enough to unlock hidden secrets without repeating a level if you just keep an eye out and don’t break bridges too hastily. Despite plenty of room for flexibility on the large, angling maps, Hey! Pikmin never takes that next step to dazzling us with Nintendo’s normally creative puzzling.

Where the puzzles lack creativity, Olimar’s log book overflows. I rarely enjoy perusing in-game lore catalogs, but for Hey! Pikmin I made an exception. Olimar details his life and adventures here in adorably witty detail, including observations and speculations about the various items and Pikmin he finds along the way. These darling explanations offer windows of insight into the world of Hey! Pikmin and how it came to be. The log book’s unanswered questions will likely never be resolved, but we’re not here for a complete picture of the game’s lore. Rather, it’s Olimar’s innate curiosity and character shining through that make every new entry a worthwhile read.

An additional task lies back at the site of your ship’s crash, where the Pikmin you’ve gathered on your various missions gather and hang around until you assign them to clear debris from a certain area in the “Pikmin Park.” After a certain amount of in-game play, the Pikmin will find more Sparklium for you to use for your ship. Mostly, these amounts are trivial, and the entire process just seems like a silly way to get players not to ask what happened to the Pikmin they collected in previous levels. It’s also bogged down heavily in awkward menuing that provides a continual reminder of how none of the buttons do anything in this game.

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Nothing about Hey! Pikmin screams genius, or that we ever needed such a spin-off in the first place. For what it is, the game’s not bad, and it’s certainly a low-stress take on the genre that soothes in almost every aspect: gameplay, lore, time usage, and even music and visual style. Particularly for those interested in Nintendo platformers in general, or for younger fans just now getting their 2DSes, Hey! Pikmin can provide an amusing diversion until Pokemon and Metroid take over the system in the coming months.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.