Topic: Pikmin 3 Deluxe Thread

In the end, it's €60 for a 7-year-old Wii U game I already own. So I'm not going to buy it again for that price. I barely saw any marketing for this game, and the franchise has been dormant for way too long. This is the same problem Metroid faces. Nintendo makes a game once every blue moon, doesn't market it, concludes it doesn't sell well. As a result it doesn't get priority, they shelf the sequel, and maybe they reconsider it about decade later, and the whole cycle can restart again.

Tbh I saw a lot of commercials for this game on youtube. It felt like over half of the stuff I saw had small ads for it.

Anyone else having trouble with the gyro controls? I never once had a problem with the Wiimote, but this gyro seems borderline dysfunctional. Literally every 5 minutes it starts acting up and I have to go to the menu, switch controls, and switch back to pointer to get it back to normal again, but only for 5-15 minutes before it breaks again. Is there a way to press a button to set it back to neutral without going into the menu like this every time?

To be fair, UK sales of a physical game in 2020 is not the most useful stat for a game's success. But I will say, this time Pikmin 3 has actual Nintendo games to compete against (outside of Wonderful 101, which I'm pretty sure somehow sold less than zero units in the UK back in 2013). Nothing was going on for Wii U for months before Pikmin 3.

@kkslider5552000
Yea. Hooooooo boy, I remember those days on the Wii U. I knew I wasn't going to like Pikmin 3 but there was nearly literally nothing else for me to play so I bought it lol

I've played the demo for a bit. It's fun, but nothing too special so far. The day cycle gives me some stress though, I'm usually not too keen on time limits. On day 3 I lost a whole bunch of Pikmin because I was too busy with some kind of mini 'boss fight'. Does anyone of you recognize that? Does it become better? And how about the juice supply? Will that become a problem for a 'slow player'? E.g. will I be able to maintain a proper supply of juice?

Just a few questions to answer before I may consider buying the full game

@-Green- Problem is, those are based on your search internet history. So anyone interested in Pikmin is gonna see Pikmin ads.

@toiletduck As long as you find one piece of fruit a day, you'll be fine. But you can easily find 3, 4 or 5 a day. And some fruits are worth two bottles of juice for example. The game gives you around 100 days to beat it (if you collect all the fruit in time), but I beat it in less than 30 days on my first try I think. So I had a surplus juice left after I beat the game.

In the end it's a Nintendo game, it never gets too difficult.

@1UP_MARIO
I don’t think price has anything to do with it. For one, every other Wii U game ported could be had cheap and it didn’t phase them. I seriously doubt it’s going to all of a sudden start mattering now. For two, hardly anyone even has a Wii U anyways. And even the few people that do usually want to re-purchase on Switch for hybrid play. And for three, this Wii U port has all the DLC and more added content and upgrades than any other Wii U port to date. If DKC Tropical Freeze and NSMBU can double their Wii U numbers without anything new, it’s not a factor for Pikmin 3.

@jump
That’s not exactly true though. It’s physical-only sales, in the UK only (one of the tiniest regions for sales) were 18% lower than on Wii U. Digital sales are much higher now than on Wii U in 2013, probably 25-50% digital now versus 3-5% back then. So it’s almost a certainty it has at least matched launch sales on Wii U for the UK.

And globally it’s doing much better. #2 in US eShop, the largest market, and was top 10 on Amazon US. Even now is still pretty high. I’m willing to bet it’s total, global sales significantly exceed that on Wii U.

Having said that, even with digital accounting for a much higher proportion, and even though it’s ONLY the UK, I still expected it to do better there. After all, Switch is at 65+ million sold right now and software is selling hard. I think it’s the image the game presents that does it a disservice. When I first saw Pikmin 3 on Wii U I thought it was a kids game like Scribblenauts or something. It wasn’t until I actually did some research and watched some gameplay that I realized it was a very intriguing game. I think most people who see it don’t really understand it and thus never give it another look, and don’t really pay it any attention. It’s unfortunate because the game is absolutely incredible as we all know.

But ya. I think overall Pikmin 3 will break 2 million sold by the end of the generation. Which is good. But not as good as I’d hoped.

@rallydefault
The timer really isn’t stressful. The game gives you a warning when you’re a few minutes from the end of the day and that’s your cue to start heading back to your ship. I am on day 12 and I have 32 excess fruit juices in stock already, which means I could not collect a single piece of fruit for another 32 in game days before I saw the game over screen. The timer really is integral to the game and should not be looked at like a NSMBU timer where you have to rush to the end in 3 minutes. Take your time all you want. Explore. Look around. You would almost have to try to intentionally not average one piece of fruit a day, even moving at the speed of litigation.

@Octane
That’s true for any Wii U port. But it doesn’t seem to affect sales, presumably because 1 you’re buying the first ever handheld hybrid version of Pikmin, while the Wii U version is stuck on a non-hybrid legacy device, 2 All the DLC is included, 3 Campaign co-op has been added, 4 A prologue and epilogue campaign has been added with a full day system like the main game, 5 Countless QoL and usability tweaks that make it very hard to go back to the Wii U version, especially the gyro pointer aiming and lock on, and fact you don’t need a gamepad in the lap with Wiimote in hand while playing. For the first time the controls in a Pikmin game actually feel great. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the gamepad on Wii U with Wiimote, but it felt cobbled together.

Which, I’m not saying that’s going to be the case for you personally but for a lot of people, that’s worth buying it again. Being 7 years old doesn’t really mean anything bad, in fact it’s good because it means it’s going to feel like a brand new game again for a lot of people. Which is the icing on the cake on top of all the other benefits. Of course, it goes without saying most people haven’t played it to begin with.

@bagajr
Just press R to recenter gyro. You never have to restart or go into menus to reset the gyro aim cursor, that would be ridiculous.

Really enjoying this game. It perfectly balances resource management and player freedom. There is a very slight time pressure, but I don't feel like I've wasted my time if all I do is spend a whole in-game day solving a single puzzle just to collect a lemon. I know you can use your time more efficiently if you split up your crew to pursue multiple objectives simultaneously, but I haven't quite gotten the hang of that, so I tend to keep everybody in one big group.

One thing I was delighted to discover is that if you are running out of daylight to beat a boss, you can leave the arena and return the next day, and the boss will retain the damage from your previous encounter.

I'm an exploration type player, and I've had no problem with time management. If you're in the middle of doing something, and get the "Hurry up!" warning, then head back to the ship and recall your Pikmin. You can always pickup where you left off the next day. You can also return to previous areas and collect fruit that you couldn't reach before because you didn't have the right Pikmin, so it's fairly easy to get a good stock of juice. I'm on day 20 in my game and have 32 bottles of juice.

@Octane @JaxonH @Mountain_Man thanks for taking the trouble to explain. I'm not sure how much longer the demo takes, but I'll give it a few more days. On my 3rd day I didn't encounter any new fruit, hence the concern.

A few more questions on ending the day: only the Pikmin close to onions and ship are saved right? Does color of the onion matter? E.g. will black pikmin be saved by a red onion? And I assume that all pikmin in my character's presence will perish, if I'm not in the vicinity of my ship, but my character will be saved? Can I replay a day if I screw up badly?

@toiletduck I believe you can replay any day.

Pikmin near an onion are safe. And yes, red Pikmin near a black onion will be safe as well (the onions will merge at the end of the day, so the next day you'll start with a combined red/black onion).

The main characters are always safe, including any Pikmin under their command. So you don't have to bring them back at the end of the day, they just need to follow you.

The demo lasts until the first boss. I beat it in the first day, so the demo only lasted one day for me.

@toiletduck
You dont have to be at your ship. As long as Pikmin are in your group theyll be fine.

Onion will merge into one multi color onion soon enough. Just make sure Pikmin are in your group at the end of the day. Vicinity of ship doesnt matter as long as they're in your direct control following you. And your character cant really die. Only your Pikmin can.

You can most definitely replay days. Bottom left hand corner of the menu when you're inside the ship looking at the map to land. Not only can you replay days, you can go back as far as you want. On day 5 and want to go back to day 2? You can do that. Just be aware going back multiple days will mean you have to redo everything from that point. But ya, have a bad day and wanna redo it? Absolutely, that's one of the key features of Pikmin.

@Octane @JaxonH thanks again, that clarifies a lot. I'll probably replay day 3 a few times to get a hang with the mechanics.

@JaxonH
Yea, I mean, it's not a tight timer like you're playing a hardcore Mario Maker level or anything, but regardless it's still a timer and it frustrates me. It's fine, though, to each their own. The game is definitely very charming.

@Octane What's weird is I'm not interested in Pikmin. I still got a bunch of ads on youtube. Not very good ads, they were short, but it was weird

@-Green- Google knows better.

Just got my blue Pikmin! Yay!

And all my juice is gone! That rascally Hoctatian... darn you.

I actually got a game over screen because I didn’t realize my juice was gone, and I was trying to get the lemon at the end of the weighted lifts. Day ended with no fruit gathered. Second attempt I found the blue onion buried under water, sticking up high enough for my flying Pikmin to pull it out. I love this game.

So if you run out of juice and get the game over screen in Pikmin, do you just have to do that day again rather than go right back to the start? I've been worried about that