During the recent Nintendo Direct, Nintendo showed off just a little bit more of Pikmin
3 coming later this year to the Wii U.
And although they didn't show much, that's not going to stop us from seeing what secrets
the footage might be hiding.
But before we start, please make sure to check out our previous analysis from late last year
if you havenn't already, as we'll be sticking to only the new details here.
And with that out of the way, let's get this thing started.
So the footage opens up with our first up-close look at the new pink flying Pikmin.
called WInged Pikmin, that we first spotted in our E3 analysis
But now we can see a lot more about them, such as how their appearance seems closely
based on other flying insects, with their bug-like eyes and bee-like stripes.
But there's something else in this clip that we haven't seen before...
And that's the onion that the Pink Pikmin live within when you're not using them out
on the field.
Now although we can't see the whole thing, we can tell it's an onion by its similarities
to the ones in past games with its tripod like appearance and if we look at its shadow,
we can even makeout the spinning flower that crowns them.
And this is actually the first we've seen of the onions in Pikmin 3 at all.
But this one does look a little different from the ones from the previous games, with
its golden, arched legs that bend, instead of the stiff white ones from before.
So this probably means one of two things: Either all of the Onions have gotten a visual
overhaul to match this new style OR the Pink Pikmin's one has its own distinct look.
But there's something else that's interesting about this...and that's the fact that the
Pink Pikmin have their own onion at all.
And that's because the last time we had new Pikmin types, being the white and purple ones
in Pikmin 2, they didn't actually come with their own onions.
Instead, they hung out inside Olimar's ship.
And the reason for this is was that they weren't really a breed of their own--after all, you
didn't grow them.
Instead, you could only convert existing Pikmin into those two colors by tossing them into
the purple and white flowers found in caves.
And since they couldn't be grown, there was no need for them to have an onion, which is
where additional Pikmin spawn from.
So this strongly suggests that you will stumble across the Winged Pikmin in their natural
habitat and then grow more of them just like the other main Pikmin, being the Red, Blue,
and Yellow ones.
And we're pretty all of this will Rock Pikmin that we've seen before as well--at least if
the box art is anything to go by.
As you can see, every type of Pikmin is represented here--except for the white and purple ones,
which as mentioned, are the only ones who don't have onions.
And it's not like there's not room for themn--look, both the Blue and Red ones appear twice!
So since the Rock Pikmin does appear here, we're guessing they'll take residence in a
5th onion, but whether it'll have its own style, opr resemble the one the Winged Pikmin
have, we have no idea.
Okay, we've peeled enough away from this onion--let's get back to those Winged Pikmin, since we
actually get to see them in action.
So right off the bat, we can see that they follow our leader here very similarly to other
Pikmin, except these guys hover a few inches above the ground
And as we can see, it's not quite high enough to keep them out of the enemy's reach.
But it does allow them to fly over hazardous terrain, such as the waterway here, making
them the only other Pikmin besides the blue ones who are able to cross water safely.
In addition, we can also see them carrying objects back to homebase.
But because they're flying the objects back, we wonder how this will work if you have assigned
other, non-flying Pikmin o the task as well
As obviously, Pikmin on the ground won't be of much help if they can't reach the object
above.
Maybe they only fly something back if you only throw Winged Pikmin at it; which might
mean that they might also assist normal Pikmin carry something by flying closer to the ground.
In addition, we can tell by looking at the numbers displayed above those objects that
the winged Pikmin will have the same carry-strength as the all the others, except for the stronger
pruple ones if they retain their 10x strength,
Now we've already pointed out that the Winged Pikmin aren't immune to attack, as seen by
a couple of enemies that take a few of them out.
But if we take a look at the Japanese Nintendo Direct footage, which offered a few extended
scenes, we can see that they don't always go down like complete chumps.
In this clip, we can see the Winged Pikmin automatically fight back against the Swooping
Snitchbug here.
All without needing any input from the captain, as the cursor is clearly nowhere nearby.
And boy those Flying Pikmin get the job done!
Geeze, what do they need the Captain For?
But this does suggest the Pikmin might go to even greater lengths to help each other
out, without needing your input.
And by the way, did you notice the dark border around the screen in this scene?
What's that about?
Seems like it might be an indicator of some kind, but of what, we really have no ideas
Now let's take at the captain's cursor, as it looks different than it has in previous
footage.
For one, it's Pink, matching the flying Pikmin, and two, it has a number by it, which shows
how many flying Pikmin are currently under your control.
However, we can see here that as soon as the all winged Pikmin leave his direct control,
the cursor reverts to the blue one we've seen before
So it seems that it might appear Pink to easily show whenever you have winged Pikmin in your
command
And not only that, a number also appears next to that Pink cursor showing exactly how many
many fling Pikmin are currently following you, as we can clearly see when the Wollywog
lands on a bunch of them, causing that number to drop instantly.
And both of these attributes appears to be unique to the Winged Pikmin as the cursor
didn't appear to change with any of the other types we've seen in previous footage.
And we're guessing this is because the Pink Pikmin are, by far, the most different of
all Pikmin types, being as they are the only ones who don't walk around.
Speaking of the cursor, did you notice it now changes whenever you highlight something
you can have Pikmin interact with?
It should make it just a little clearer that the Pikmin you're throwing will hit their
target.
Speaking of targets, the footage shows off a few more returning enemies, as well as a
better look at one of the new ones.
So we have the Wollywogs and Swooping Snitchbug that we've already mentioned, but did you
notice the Wogpole in the water here, or the Water Dumple in the Japanese footage?
Finally, we get a better look at this new brown leaf enemy who seems like a more hostile
version of the Skitter Leaf.
And as we pointed out before, he has no problems snatching Winged Pikmin from out of the air.
But if you look close, you might notice that the ghost left behind even has little wings
too.
It'd almost kind of cute...if it weren't so morbid.
And with that, we're done covering everything we could dig up on Pikmin 3.
As usual, let us know if we missed anything by posting in the comments
Thanks for watching and make sure to keep an eye on GameXplain.com for more on Pikmin
3 and other things gaming too