Review: Pikmin 4 is a brilliant entry point for new players, but takes a while to bloom

videogameschronicle.com:

Pikmin 4 is a smart and content-packed refinement of one of Nintendo’s most underrated series, but long-time fans may be put off by how long its generous campaign takes to get going.

Nintendo claims the Nintendo Switch instalment has been built as an ideal entry point for newcomers to the series – and in that, it’s absolutely succeeded. For first time players, this may be Pikmin’s greatest standalone entry, but for veterans, there’s also quite a lot of repetition to get through until its best content sprouts and blooms.

Previous Pikmin games offered frequently demanding strategy gameplay, where every second not spent micromanaging your six different species of Pikmin – and later, other squadmates too – marched you closer to sundown, when everyone left unaccounted for would be munched by giant bugs.

There’s no denying that previous entries were not particularly accessible, which is likely why the series has never sold amazingly well. However, fans will be glad to learn that the myriad tweaks Nintendo has made in Pikmin 4 are subtle and carefully considered.

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Controls now subtly lock-on to enemies, and the camera is zoomed much closer to the action, but otherwise you’ll still spend the opening 15-or-so-hours following the conventions of the previous games; collecting treasure, growing more Pikmin and fighting enemies during a day cycle which ends at sundown.

There’s no overbearing 30-day time limit or food supply like in earlier games, but the most challenging content is still there, walled off from the main story, which makes for a less stressful experience overall.

The game starts with Captain Olimar, the hero from the original games,