Pikmin 4 | Games of the Year 2023

gamesindustry.biz:

A decade ago, I wrote a story for the USgamer calling Pikmin 3 "the greatest war game I've ever played."

While USgamer is sadly no longer with us, that particular piece was moved over to VG247, if you feel like reading the case for that.

If you'd prefer the short summary, I loved Pikmin 3 because it illustrated the morally untenable nature of military command. The game puts you in charge of hundreds of almost unfailingly obedient Pikmin that you will be responsible for, that you will order to attack and kill enemies, that you will from time-to-time unintentionally throw into instantly fatal situations, sometimes by the dozens.

And it will keep count of how many of these incredibly cute creatures you've killed. When you retreat from the surface of the alien planet each night, it will show you any Pikmin you failed to bring back with you as they run from (and ultimately fall prey to) the local wildlife.

What's worse, it also gives you the option to return to previous days so you can always theoretically do it better and save them all, but that task is so daunting and difficult you will almost certainly hit a point where you accept a certain number of casualties, admitting that it is not worth your while to protect their lives because like all soldiers, they are simply tools their commanders use to accomplish their goals.

It's harrowing.

Pikmin 4 is sort of the opposite.

Previous games in the series seem to advertise a certain kind of experience with their adorably joyous exterior and then sucker punch the player with the harsh realities of combat and the traumatic death rattles of the impossibly cute and trusting plant creatures you let down. Pikmin 4 struck me as an attempt to bring the gameplay of the series more