Prior to the release of the Pikmin 4 demo, we were of the mindset that Pikmin 3 (and its Deluxe Switch port) was the most polished that the series had ever been. The environments were gorgeous, the multiplayer was heaps of fun and the new Pikmin types added even more ways to play. In short, we loved it.
It has now been ten years since the game first launched on Wii U and it turns out that for all this time, there was a scrapped section of the game that we never knew about. Ever noticed how Pikmin 3 seems to end very suddenly? This might just explain why.
In a new documentary by YouTube channel VantageEmblem, a team of Pikmin fans have managed to uncover data from a sixth story area hidden in the game's files (above). The data itself is reasonably vague — some path maps from Pikmin 3 and some unused enemy sprites from 3 Deluxe — but the team has managed to take everything available and recreate the layout of the level to match the original, scrapped design as closely as possible.
This area was used to showcase the game back in the initial Pikmin 3 reveal at E3 2012. During Shigeru Miyamoto's announcement, the accompanying footage showed Pikmin travelling down an unknown river and crossing a pillar obstacle by throwing the captains — neither of which appear in the final game. With VantageEmblem and co.'s work, we can get an idea of what this reveal footage would have actually looked like — Bulborbs and all.
The project has clearly been a huge task that the team notes took months to complete, but the finished recreation of the area is undeniably impressive. We'll likely never know quite how accurate the build is compared to what Nintendo originally had planned, though for an artist's interpretation, this has a ridiculous level of detail.
Be sure to check out VantageEmblem's complete documentary at the top of this article to see how the team managed to uncover and rebuild this scrapped area. It is a pretty long watch at just over an hour, so get yourself comfy and grab a hot beverage, it's time for some Pikmin history.