Pikmin Bloom

Every time someone asks me what this game is, I tell them it’s basically Pokémon Go, but with Pikmin instead. And it is, but I actually enjoy this game a lot more than I did Pokémon Go. The biggest difference is that the main focus is on the steps you take, making it a great exercise motivator. But the other thing I like about it is that you don’t have to go to specific places to get the different Pikmin (I believe Thomas Sanders made a joke about traveling halfway across the world to get an Arcticuno…) You do have to go to different places to get some of the more special Pikmin, but it’s general places that should be near most people such as bakeries, salons, and Ramen places. The other thing I like about that aspect of the game is that you don’t have to constantly have the app open to find the Pikmin either, you simply walk around and it saves the Pikmin that you find for you to go collect whenever you have time. The one complaint that I have is that there’s only one way to earn coins, which is through planting flowers, and it’s very slow. I’d say on average I earn about 8 coins a day and the cheapest thing in the store is about 100 coins so… it takes a while to earn enough to do anything useful with them. I understand that games have to make money somehow, but as someone who really doesn’t have cash to spend on mobile games, it’s pretty frustrating. Overall though, it’s a great game and I love walking places now instead of dreading it.

I really enjoy this charming game. It’s pros are things I don’t enjoy about Niantic’s flagship Pokémon Go. Being that Pickmin have no inherent CP rating, pulling and naming Pickmin feels more rewarding, as you will never have to put any of your Pickmin in a candy blender. Additionally, there isn’t a push to play so that you don’t miss out on new content. You can tackle the quests at your own pace and interact with seedlings and Pickmin at your behest. Additionally, sending your Pickmin on fetch quests and watching them walk toward map locations in real time is quite cute. However, there is still more from the Pickmin side of things that I would like to see. One cool idea that uses previous Niantic features would be battling the series’ famous monsters. In this iteration, however, you would throw Pickmin like a Pokeball at the monster to attack. Hitting the sweet spot could mean your Pickmin takes less damage or doesn’t die. Type resistance could also be used from the main games. In reality, that is one core concept I would like to see. Eventually, I’m sure I will have the max of 300 Pickmin. I think it would really add to the game to feel a sense of responsibility for one’s Pickmin and helping them not die from monsters like the console counterparts. Just please, Niantic, whatever you do don’t give Pickmin CP.

So, i played this game expecting it to be another idle stepcounter, but it’s different. You pick up things from your Pikmin and use them to get more or change the flowers on your current ones. The game is great and i had a lot of fun with it so far, but…what prevents me from giving it five stars is the bug i encountered. See, i wanted more Pikmin so i walked until two new ones i got were ready to pluck, but i wasn’t leveling up as a friend who recommended the game to me warned about. Curious, i went to the level screen where i was given an overview of the level system and told i needed 500 total steps to do so. I had about 1000 at that point. I figured “okay, if i do 500 steps then i’ll be back to normal, right?” No matter how many steps i took, that number never went any higher. It stayed stuck at 0. I hope the devs see this; i’d really hate to need to restart and do things in a very specific order to proceed. I think i broke the sequence they wanted players to go through and that’s why i’m getting this bug. Not even restarting the app or my phone worked. Though, if you want a relaxing game to have on in the background while you walk around, then by all means get this game. It’s relaxing and fun, especially with AR mode. I just hope another bug patch is implemented to fix whatever sequence break i happened to glitch the game out with.