Pikmin 3 Message Board older than one year ago

- You can point your Wiimote at the Wii U GamePad screen
- There's a rainbow onion that allows you to produce different Pikmin types
- You collect abilities such as increased whistle range or shield
- New, nice transition-landscape sections
- Olimar, Louie have a role in the story
- Pikmin 3 is roughly 3 times as long as Pikmin 1

5GB storage space is needed, if you are planning to download it. A save is 31MB and every user has just one slot.

— Daan Koopman (@NintenDaan) June 26, 2013

Internet is used for, of course, sending over those sweet pics over Miiverse and you will be able to upload online scores of some kind.

— Daan Koopman (@NintenDaan) June 26, 2013

The following comes from a Polygon interview with Shigeru Miyamoto.

On moving from Wii to Wii U

"Well, of course back in the early days, we were working on it based on the Wii hardware. What we quickly found was, particularly for the controls in Pikmin, not just the basic Wii Remote but the Wii Remote with the Motion Plus technology really made the controls more intuitive, and much more precise and accurate for us. That was a big change when we shifted from standard Wii Remote and nunchuck to Motion Plus.

The other was, particularly when we were looking at what would be possible on the Wii U hardware, one of the big things was just the HD visuals and the ability to draw the detailed graphics. The other was, of course, the use of the subscreen on the GamePad. As soon as we saw the convergence of these different elements, we felt that we'd be able to do a much better job if we took this game and put it on the Wii U."

On the release date getting bumped back

"I did want to release it sooner. One of the big challenges was that I think that a lot of people, they hear the name Wii U, and because it shares the Wii name, the assumption is, 'Oh, it would be very easy to take whatever was on Wii and just move it to Wii U, but in fact, the jump in a hardware standpoint, both from the development structure and the chipset within the system, it was such a dramatic change from what we had with Wii that development of the game, we had to recreate it to move it over to Wii U. So that was one of the challenges. I look at it less in terms of Pikmin 3 was delayed, and more in terms of our development was shifted."

On developing Pikmin 3 alongside developing Wii U

"It's actually always like that for us. In fact, people are always telling us, 'Oh, you're so lucky because you're the first ones that get to work with the new hardware,' and our response is always, 'Well, yes, but actually trying to work with a piece of hardware that's not done yet can be quite challenging.'"

On the game's uniqueness, branching out with the Pikmin brand for movies and breadth of play

"There really isn't anything else you can compare Pikmin to. I think even the Pikmin characters are really cute and appealing, and I think there may be opportunities for them to appear not just in games, but in movies and animation or something. I really want people to get the sense that Pikmin could appear anywhere.

The other thing we've done with Pikmin 3 that we feel is very important is we've created it in a way that has a very broad entry point. So, people who've never played the game before can use the pointer controls, with the simple action of calling the Pikmin and throwing the Pikmin, and that's the basic action of the game. Using that basic action, even people who are new to the series, they can eventually get through the game using that basic technique.

Simultaneously, we've built the game so there's a tremendous amount of depth for people who are very avid and experienced gamers, and there's a tremendous amount of freedom in how you play the game — both in terms of devising your strategies in how you get through it, but also in terms of deciding what your objective is in clearing it. You can kind of set your own goals. Do I want to try to play through the game and reach the end without having a single Pikmin die, or is my focus going to be on trying to clear the game in as few game days as possible, or is it, am I going to limit myself in never going above a certain number of Pikmin?"

On the strategy genre being tough to break through with

"Even the word 'strategy' makes it seem difficult — that's why we're calling it an AI action game. Because in this game, the Pikmin essentially are thinking of half of what needs to be done. So the player is able to look at what the Pikmin are able to do, and then simply assign them tasks so they can do it on their own.

Actually, I tend to like strategy games. There were a lot of PC strategy games back in the day, but it's true that until Pikmin I never really managed to take that strategy genre and turn it into a product I thought we could release. I had worked and helped out a little bit on the early Fire Emblem games, which are turn-based strategy, and in terms of the more simulation side of strategy, there was the SimCity port that I worked on, but it's true that I had never before worked on a strategy game myself."

More on Pikmin GBA/DS experiments

"We experimented with Pikmin on the DS, and actually, we experimented with a Pikmin game on Game Boy Advance, but we really felt that the portable machine simply didn't have the capabilities to create the Pikmin gameplay in a way that we felt like it needed to be represented."

On why a portable Pikmin hasn't come together yet

"There's actually one particular facet of this game that we were very focused in on, which was building bridges in Pikmin 3. If you look at it, the bridges are made out of these little tile pieces, and each tile piece is shaped kind of differently, and each individual Pikmin might pick it up and hold the piece in a different way.

We could be able to take something like that element of the Pikmin gameplay and try to do it on a portable, probably what would end up happening is you would have to make all the pieces the same size and shape, and they'd have to carry them the same way. But just like ants, when you watch them carrying leaves, sticks and things all at different angles, that's sort of what makes it cute, and so that was an area that I really focused on in Pikmin 3, and I really tried to bring it to life in the Pikmin. Without that, it really doesn't feel like Pikmin."

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Fear not, the legendary Nintendo game-maker isn’t in any actual danger. He—along with director of product marketing Bill Trinen—are just having a laugh while talking about the new stuff in Pikmin 3. It's clips like this that make you understand just why Miyamoto is so beloved by people everywhere. While cranky views on Nintendo's offerings pile up day after day, the man still seems to be having a ton of fun.

And they're doing so adorably. D'aww. As captured by Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton, at Nintendo's E3 demo area in Los Angeles.

Explore an Alien World in a Game Like No Other

In the Pikmin 3 game, players take command of three explorers and a legion of adorable Pikmin in a fight for survival. By employing the unique abilities of these tiny Pikmin creatures, players will solve puzzles, battle dangerous predators, and recover food needed to save the explorers’ depleted home planet.

Features:

Discover the charming personalities of the plant-like Pikmin creatures as they come to life in multiple shapes and sizes. Five different Pikmin types, including new Rock Pikmin and Winged Pikmin, each offer unique abilities. Rock Pikmin are sturdy creatures who can be tossed at solid objects to break them down. Winged Pikmin have the ability to fly and can carry objects in the air.

Divide and conquer! Split your Pikmin squads among the three explorers to maximize your strategy.

Use the Wii U GamePad controller as an in-game camera to capture the alien-safari environment from a pint-sized perspective. Snap and caption photos, then share them via Miiverse.

Show off your skills in a variety of modes or challenge a friend in the wild and frenetic multiplayer battle mode. (Additional accessories are required for multiplayer mode and are sold separately.)

The intuitive controls of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers make it easy to lead your explorers and pinpoint the location where you want to throw Pikmin.

The game can also be played off the television using only the Wii U GamePad.

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I’ve played four of Nintendo’s big E3 2013 games and I’m still undecided whether to be excited or disappointed. Nintendo didn’t bring the shock of the new to E3. They brought comfort food. They brought Mario Kart 8, which is a Mario Kart like all the rest except this time you can drive on the walls and on roads that turn upside down. (Also: four player local multiplayer, 12-player online, car customization, some sort of support for video capture and sharing via the Miiverse, spring 2014.) They brought the next Mario game from the ace team in Tokyo that re-wrote the rules of Mario in the Super Mario Galaxy games and then produced a sort of 2D/3D hybrid 3DS game called Super Mario 3D Land. Now, that team brings us Super Mario 3D World, a sequel with multiplayer and some cool new power-ups. They brought a Pikmin 3 that looks as good and as rich as the Pikmin games before it, now with an interesting extra “bingo” 1 vs 1 local multiplayer mode. Nintendo brought a new game from Retro, a studio esteemed for first making three Metroid Prime games that played like nothing else and then for making a modern sequel to Rare’s classic Donkey Kong Country sidescrollers. Their new game is a sequel to that Donkey Kong game. It’s lengthily titled Donkey Kong Country Returns Tropical Freeze. It’s Donkey Kong Country Returns in HD, set during a Viking invasion of Donkey Kong’s jungle, replete with spear-wielding penguins and so many returning features. As in previous games, players can collect bananas, KONG letters and banana coins; toss Diddy at enemies; have Diddy barrel run over enemies; ground-pound. Nintendo skeptics will look at this line-up and snort about how Nintendo doesn’t seem ready to do anything new. They say they’re adding underwater levels, bringing back minecart levels and bringing back Dixie Kong, though I didn’t see any of that in what I played. One change I did see: sometimes the camera angle shifts and you’ll see at least some of the barrel-cannon sequences from a behind-the barrel perspective. And… that’s it. Well, that’s it plus Bayonetta 2 (see above...she has short hair now!). Those four Nintendo games and Platinum’s Bayonetta 2 are what I played at Nintendo’s booth in advance of E3. That surely doesn’t encompass all the games they’ll have at E3 for Wii U. I didn’t play the promised new Smash Bros., and at the time of this writing I don’t know if they’ll have games like the company’s Zelda: Wind Waker remake, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem or X or the new Yoshi yarn game. Nor do I have a feel for what they’re targeting to more casual players. They didn’t show me the new, now-delayed Wii Fit; I see no signs of the next Wii Sports, should one exist. Nintendo skeptics will look at this line-up and snort about how Nintendo doesn’t seem ready to do anything new, how they seem to mostly go with what already works. Nintendo fans, at least, might be delighted that a steady flow of well-made Wii U games are finally set to arrive from Nintendo. Or they too might be wondering where the “new” is. Nintendo execs sometimes remark that they can’t win, that they get critiqued for just doing sequels or for neglecting cherished franchises. Yet on Nintendo 3DS, they’ve struck an admirable balance, releasing new and old games, updates to classic franchises and updates to more obscure ones. That doesn’t seem to be where the Wii U is at. It’s still operating in the obvious, the predictable… the safe. It’s clear that the Wii U drought is nearly done...Better times and better games are coming very, very soon. But remember: at their worst, Nintendo still makes fun games than most other companies. That’s why I can also tell you that all of the games I played on Wii U were fun. All played well. Mario Kart 8 was smooth as can be. The upside-down driving may be automated, but I was able to manually cut around some other racers by finding and taking a shortcut that had me driving over my opponents on a wall. This August's Pikmin 3, which I played with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, looked great and was a lot of fun. It feels very similar to the old GameCube Pikmin games, but the graphics are richer and, well, I haven’t had a chance to command 100 little vegetable men around in a while. In the Bingo multiplayer mode that I tried, my opponent and I each had a four-by-four grid filled with icons representing enemies to defeat or items to collect. We raced through the same playing field with our growing, rival Pikmin armies, rushing to be the first to fill a row or column of our grid. Collecting a needed item or enemy would fill in that square in my grid and block it from my opponents. We could also use power-ups against each other’s Pikmin squads. November's Donkey Kong Country Returns Tropical Freeze plays shockingly similarly to the previous DKCR, but it’s undeniable how good it looks. Retro’s artists draw great jungles that are fun to romp through. The levels I played also seemed to be packed full of hidden areas, secrets and what have you. And then there's December's Super Mario 3D World… it seems to be brimming with new Mario formula tweaks and is probably the best thing they've got coming of what I played. You can play as Mario (regular), Luigi (long jump), Princess Peach (flutter jump) or Toad (speedy), for the first time since, I think Super Mario Bros. 2. You can transform any of them into cats and then, as cats, swipe enemies with your claws or briefly climb walls. There are all sorts of tubes to manually fly through, and there’s a neat opportunity in those tubes to spread abilities like the invincibility from a magic star to other players you contact (this might happen outside of the tubes as well; I’m not sure). There’s a piranha plant power-up that lets you hold a potted, carnivorous plant and then run at enemies with it, as it gobbles each one up in front of you. The game’s dev team filled the Super Mario Galaxy games with fun changes to the Mario series. This game seems bursting with them too. The subtext of this year’s E3 for Nintendo is that, while Microsoft and Sony bluster and hype about the possible future of their soon-to-be-launching systems, Nintendo gets to deal in the reality of actual games made for a maturing platform. They get to showcase the kind of quality games a company can make when it’s no longer rushing to hit the deadline of the console’s debut. They instead get to show us more complete games for their budding next generation. What’s so strange about their showing—what’s so bizarre in light of the repeated calls for Nintendo to do a Sega and start making games for other consoles—is that the four, fun new games I played for Wii U, barely justify the platform. Two of them, Mario World and Donkey Kong use the Wii U’s signature, the screen in its controller, to simply duplicate what is displayed on the TV. One of them uses the GamePad screen as a map. The other, Mario Kart, uses it either as a map or a horn, depending on which display you choose. Nintendo could hardly have made a weaker case for needing its own hardware to make its own games. A day ago, I talked to Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, a company that released a launch-day Wii U exclusive last November and has announced no Wii U-only games since. Ubisoft is still supporting the Wii U with Wii U versions of its big games like Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV. I asked him what it would take for Ubisoft to make a new Wii U exclusive. Nintendo has to grow the installed base of the machine, he told me. And he seemed happy that Nintendo was going to center this E3 on five of their biggest possible franchises. From that executive, system-selling standpoint, he’s got a point. Nintendo could hardly have made a weaker case for needing its own hardware to make its own games. All this tepid reaction aside, the worst Nintendo can seem to do is merely make enjoyable games. Familiar games, but enjoyable nonetheless. All four games played comfortably well. Super Mario 3D World and Pikmin 3 even appear to be potential high points in their respective series. The former seems immediately stuffed with new tweaks to Mario gameplay. The latter oozes polish. The worst Nintendo has done this year is that they've failed to surprise in huge ways (aside from announcing Mega Man for Smash Bros, that is!) and have allowed for continued doubt about what the Wii U is really good for. On the other hand, it’s clear that the Wii U drought is nearly done. If you bought the Wii U or want to buy the Wii U to play a slew of fun, well-made Nintendo games, better times and better games are coming very, very soon.

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