I’ve played a bit more pikmin bloom than pokémon go (and I’ve stopped playing both), but avatars show player locations on the GPS-like map, related to each other and game elements. Sure they could be generic markers instead but it’d lose a bit of charm.
What I didn’t understand was why don’t those use the aesthetics of the universe they’re based on. Like, it’s Pikmin. At least let me put a fish bowl helmet and a space suit on my avatar.
How does that one work? Do you solve puzzles like the original games by gathering different plant guys or is it just collecting and hitting checkpoints and basically the same as Niantic’s other outdoor games?
Nothing like actual puzzles or (obviously) roadblocks, no. Basically by moving with the app you can scan your surroundings and, using a limited resource, plant flowers on your path. Along the way you level up seedlings and eventually pluck out new pikmins to accompany you, and you discover stuff around you (fruit, big sprouts).
You can then send your pikmins in expeditions to retrieve fruits. If you notice them after the fact, it means your Pikmin may have to travel from where you are now to get those, and come back to you. You can follow them on the map, It gets a bit crazy when you’ve traveled a few hundred kilometers in between. The type of Pikmin will help, colour compatible-ones will work faster, purple Pikmin are strong like a bunch of normal ones, pink are very fast if they’re the only type (since they can fly) etc.
The collaborative part is mostly around big sprouts (corresponding to landmarks like in other Niantic games, so real life monuments, parks, curiosities etc). You’re supposed to plant a lot of flowers in a radius around them to make the plant bloom and then everyone can send an expedition to the giant flower to get a bunch of resources.
It doesn’t have a lot of depth really, but it makes for fun interactions. Your Pikmin all come with their place of origin, and get decorations depending on stuff around that place (seashells on beaches, acorns and beetles in forests, lots of random junk for specific buildings, like stores, train stations, parks, restaurants,…), and the app also incorporates pictures you may have taken in those places to make a diary of sort.
Add comment