The brainchild of Shigeru Miyamoto, Pikmin tasks you with growing and managing little vegetable creatures who aid you in battle, help solve puzzles, and collect treasure for you. In one game you only have 30 days to live, and in another you have to gather food for your home planet, but usually you end up crash landing no matter the circumstances. Pikmin first released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2001 and has grown from there.
Pikmin has only had three mainline entries so far, aptly named Pikmin, Pikmin 2, and Pikmin 3, but the franchise isn’t limited to just those three games. There’s a 3DS spin-off titled Hey! Pikmin, as well as a series of Pikmin Short Movies on YouTube, while series mainstay Captain Olimar has appeared in multiple Super Smash Bros. entries. There’s also a possible Pikmin 4 on the way, with Miyamoto confirming its existence twice.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe, an enhanced port of the original Pikmin 3 on Wii U, is headed to Nintendo Switch with a new prologue and epilogue along with other additions like new difficulty modes and the Piklopedia. Pikmin 3 Deluxe will release on October 30, 2020.