Nintendo Confirms Pikmin 4 Switch 2 Edition

Nintendo has announced Pikmin 4: Switch 2 Edition, an enhanced version of the brilliant real-time strategy game with new content and upgraded visuals launching on November 12.

You can use voice commands to chat and move Oatchi. A new mode, Dandori Academy, will see you racing against the clock to complete treasure hunts before time runs out. This offering is all about high scores, with three difficulty options and weekly challenges every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 72 Dandori Academy stages will be available over time.

The brilliant Pikmin 4 originally launched for the original Switch back in July 2023, and was greeted by a warm response from fans and critics alike. Still, the game never received any additional post-launch content, even though it sold well in comparison to its predecessors (particularly in Japan, where Pikmin 4 beat the launch sales of the series' previous three installments combined).

Once again, Pikmin 4 follows a team of explorers setting foot on an alien world (that's actually Earth), aided by a horde of helpful creatures (that's your Pikmin). This fourth major game adds indoor and night-time gameplay, as well as a useful dog-like companion (named Oatchi) who smoothes over some of the series' fussier gameplay.

In short, Pikmin 4 revives and enhances the series' best features to provide the best and most complete-feeling Pikmin game to date, with the return of Pikmin 2's dungeon-like caves and the inclusion of every major Pikmin species all very welcome. It's also a very generous game already in terms of content, with unlockable side-modes and a fun story campaign, that will now become more generous still.

Catch up on all of the big announcements in our roundup of everything announced in today's Nintendo Direct broadcast, as well as everything announced in The Legend of Zelda Nintendo Direct that aired yesterday.