The Entire Game Features Co-Op
One of the most prominent new features added to Pikmin 3 Deluxe is the ability to now play the entirety of the campaign with a second player in local co-op play.
You just need to connect a second controller to your Switch, and you can immediately jump in at any time, even during a heated mission. You’ll share from the pool of Pikmin, and once you unlock more playable characters, you can switch between them with ease, making the workload much lighter.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe is already a pretty easy game, but if you’re looking for an even more relaxed experience, playing alongside a buddy will give you just that.
You Don’t Need Prior Knowledge
Pikmin 3 Deluxe starts by introducing players to three brand-new characters trying to find fruit for their home planet that’s lacking food.
There aren’t too many ties to the original Pikmin and Pikmin 2 (we don’t talk about Hey! Pikmin), but there are some nods to the series’ origins, which are nice to see.
But essentially, you can jump right into Pikmin 3 Deluxe without needing to worry about having prior knowledge or not knowing who these characters are.
There’s a lengthy tutorial section and a new hint system in place that makes things simple for newcomers and those who haven’t played a Pikmin game in a while.
Don’t Stress About Time
Do you see that sun in the top-left corner of the above image? In every mission in Pikmin 3 Deluxe, you’re on a timer. You need to achieve your goals and have all of your Pikmin with you before that timer runs out, or else you’ll have to come back the next day, wasting provisions and sometimes losing precious Pikmin.
It’s important that your Pikmin are with you before the nighttime comes, but I would not worry too much about spending the extra time exploring each level and taking things smoothly.
You do waste some fruit juice for every new day you need, but it’s so easy to rack up these juices by collecting fruit, so you’ll have plenty as a backup if you’re doing what you’re supposed to.
Just have a game plan before that timer starts counting down, and you’ll be all good to go.
There’s a Lot of Added Content
Pikmin 3 Deluxe adds a lot of content for Pikmin fans to sink their teeth into, as well as quality-of-life changes that make this game more accessible to newcomers.
There’s new difficulty options, lock-on targeting, lots of optional hints, a new Side Stories mode that features Olimar and Louie, and even all of the returning side missions, a boss fight mode, and Bingo Battle, which has you facing off against another player locally to collect certain items to fill out a bingo card.
Game Length
After leisurely playing through the story campaign, some of the side missions, and even a little bit of the Bingo Battle mode, I had only racked up a little over ten hours of gameplay in Pikmin 3 Deluxe.
The campaign took around 9-10 hours for me, but of course, if you have a different kind of playstyle, getting to the end credits can take even longer (or can even be shorter).
There are also objectives to complete in the form of badges, and you can go back to collect all of the hidden fruit in each level if you want more endgame content. And there are the other side missions as well, as we previously mentioned.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe launches for the Nintendo Switch on Oct. 30. If you would like to read more about the game, you can check out our scored review right here.
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