Despite Niantic's recent wave of layoffs, which saw the company cutting 8% of their workforce, it appears that things are on the move at the studio which made Pokémon GO.
Their latest Nintendo mobile game, Pikmin Bloom, came out in late 2021, and invited players to catch, raise, and manage a horde of Pikmin in an AR setting on their mobile phones. As of 11th July, Pikmin Bloom is getting a host of new features as part of its latest update, which includes new weekly challenges, friend invites, and the promise of physical events (US only).
Below is the information from the Niantic website on the update:
New Flower Planting Weekly Challenges
With today’s release, we’re adding a new kind of Weekly Challenge where the goal is focused on the number of flowers planted instead of steps. Now users can choose between these two types of challenges weekly, or participate in both at the same time!
Additionally, all users who join a challenge and complete it before 7/24 can receive special outfits for their Mii avatar as rewards: an “Explore” T-shirt when they join and complete a step-based challenge before 7/17, or a “Flower” Print T-shirt when they join and complete a flower planting challenge before 7/24.
Invite your loved ones to join in on Weekly Challenges
We’re excited to release the invite feature for Weekly Challenges today! With this update, you won’t need to wait for other players to join your challenge anymore. Instead, challenges now include an “invite” option that allows users to invite specific friends to join their challenges, making it easier to gather particular friend or family groups.
Physical events coming to select locations in the US soon
Community is at the heart of Pikmin Bloom, and we can’t emphasize enough how important connection is for us. Connection with friends and family, of course, but also connection with the real world, your immediate environment and your fellow users! We cannot wait to meet as many of our users as possible, so we can directly hear from you about your Pikmin Bloom experience, and we can enjoy walking together.
In order to achieve this, we are planning physical events that will take place in the US soon. Stay tuned to our official channels for more information!
In celebration of this new update, there's even a hashtag: #WalkOnGameOn. Better than #TouchGrass, we suppose.
To access these new features, make sure that your app is updated to the latest version (v48).
Comments 28
I was almost mugged last night when I went outside, I think I'm good Pikmin
It's dangerous to go outside here in America. Not getting shot for some pikmans.
Rolling this out when we are entering the hottest time of year for the Northern Hemisphere, real smart thinking. Not to mention it's the hottest year on record already by a few degrees and it's not even August. I think I'll stay indoors.
The thing is, when I go outside I really don't want to look at my phone, I just want to enjoy nature
Let me guess not a lot of people are playing it
I haven't touched this game in months, mostly because it got stale after a while.
@Royalblues No thank you, I'll just pretend I'm outside while playing on my Oculus Quest until I eventually die a humorous death full of cartoon sound effects.
Tried it at launch - but the battery usage was insane! 50% of my battery used in 4 hours (I usually go 2-3 days between charges).
Is the battery usage on Android better now?
I've been taking walks to stay in shape anyway, and Pikmin Bloom is a good way to handle that "this is nothing but a total waste of time" feeling I get when I go exercising. Now at least I get Pikmin and points and stuff.
@cyrus_zuo You can let it run in the background and it doesn't consume nearly as much, even when planting flowers. You just need to have the GPS on.
@Pak-Man great stuff. I’ve been a big walker the last few years to do the same. I’m averaging 5 miles a day now that it’s warmer out
I got bored using the app for walks. I still do the walks, but live without the constant battery drain.
I played Pikmin Bloom for a few months and enjoyed the cuteness of it all. But at the end of the day, there’s just not enough to do in the game and everything feels pointless.
How about they just port the first two Pikmin games to the mobile phone. Touch screen controls would work just fine for these games. I'm not sure why Nintendo has always got to come up with goofball ideas for their mobile games.
You're not my real mom, Pikmin! You can't tell me what to do 😠😭
@SteamEngenius it’s also a heat stroke risk…. 104 rn.
Who plays this..
@steventonysmith Because Nintendo doesn't want you to play mobile games, they want you to play games on the Switch.
It’s absolutely crazy to see the middle age white boomer paranoid fear of public safety invade the Nintendo Life comment sections. What is this, the local news Facebook comment section?
I walk around a lot outside as part of my job, so you'd think Pikmin Bloom would be a great fit for me, but no. It stopped feeling like it was rewarding me like Pokémon GO! does every week the moment I reached the max friendship level for 40 of each Pikmin, the highest number you can put into a team to send out to attack a mushroom.
As such, it also feels like there's no incentive to pay money for any of the in-app purchases, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Pikmin Bloom was the next mobile game on the chopping block for Nintendo.
I went outside once, i didn't like it.
Nintendo, call me when you announce Pikmin 4... 😔
This game was fun at first...but...I was expecting more big features to happen...like...I don't know...more expedition types...bring enemies into the game?...More pikmin types? Ugh, whatever...
Still playing, in fact I’m just back from a lovely late night walk, taking my steps today to almost 29,000. I’m Level 72, less than 4000 flowers away from 73, and I have 25 badges.
I'm sadly not returning to this game for a daily routine until Nintendo and Niantic decide to add My Nintendo Platinum Points to this. I've been spending time on Super Mario Run and ACPC
@Royalblues
Sure, there is no such thing as absolute safety. But there sure is such a thing as risk assessment!
I spend hours walking in Okayama, to the point where I legitimately get lost and people have to help me get home. When I'm in Canada, I go on midnight walks with zero fear. In the UK, other then when I have to stay in London, I walk around streets I barely know and feel safe.
When I'm in the US, where you are (this is not hyperbole, you can look it up) more likely to be shot then in almost every ACTIVE WAR ZONE on earth ... I stay inside. With the door locked. And the lights out. Shaking.
I like the updates and weekly challenges. Incentivizes people to form groups and work towards a goal. The thing I really like about this app is you don’t really need to play a game during walks. That’s how I play it anyways and I normally ignore the big flowers and stuff. I reap the rewards and manage my Pikmin after the walk.
I use the app when I go for walks. It’s an interesting way to “try” and get people moving. I’ve always been into fitness so I just run this in my background but I want Pikmin 4! So when I want to be lazy, I have something new Pikmin related to play.
Can’t go out now it’s too hot. Can’t go out when it’s cool as you might get mugged/shot.
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