Is the Deluxe version an upgrade worth picking up?
I’ve played each Pikmin game from the original GameCube entry to 3 on the Wii U and have loved my time controlling my army of little Pikmin with Captain Olimar, so I was so confused when 3 rolled around and you weren’t actually playing as the Captain of the S.S. Dolphin but as 3 new characters from a different planet who just happen to cross paths with him and Louie from Pikmin 2.
Pikmin 3 launched on the Wii U, so it makes sense for it to be ported over to the Switch for a new audience. Personally, I loved the original Pikmin 3 and considered it the best in the series when it came out, but what’s so new about Deluxe? Well, you get the game with all the DLC, co-op play in both story and mission modes as well as new Side Stories where you can play as Olimar and Louie. There’s also a mode called Bingo Battle where you can compete with another player, which changes things dramatically and is really fun overall.
The new Side Stories are time-based missions on previous levels to grab as much treasure and fruit as possible. It can be challenging to start from a handful of Pikmin to nabbing everything in sight within the time limit, but it’s definitely fun. The Story Mode itself is fairly short, I managed to grab everything after playing for a few hours a day, so it’s not as long as Pikmin 2 was with it’s sub-level caves and while it introduces new types of Pikmin, it leaves a few from Pikmin 2 on the sidelines until you play the Side Stories.
There have been some quality of life improvements as well, which include a more functional lock-on system, rebalanced enemies, hints and multiple difficulty modes if you feel it’s not tough enough. You also don’t have to give yourself neck pain looking down at the Wii U Gamepad during comm chats anymore, which I found highly annoying back when it was released.
The visuals haven’t had a huge upgrade for Switch but having said that, it still looks brilliant and it does look and run smoother while having very little in terms of loading. The soundtrack is also still as impressive as it was in the original.
The Verdict
Pikmin 3 Deluxe is an amazing improvement over the original Wii U game and whether you played it before or not, I personally feel it’s needed in your Switch library. The new content and QoL changes really make it worthwhile for fans or newcomers, I just hope that one day we get Pikmin 4…