Game Review #5
Pikmin Bloom is a mobile game that was released in late October of this year. Its augmented reality features and location-based activities resemble Pokemon Go, which Niantic had created as well. When starting the game, you slowly unlock each different color and type of Pikmin by planting seedlings obtainable from walking a certain number of steps to level up and from expeditions. Depending on where you obtain a Pikmin, the decor it picks up in the form of a gift at max friendship changes. The expeditions can also include fruit and mushrooms. Fruits contain nectar for the Pikmin to eat and grow flowers on their heads, picking those flowers from your Pikmin allows petals to form in your flower jars in order to plant flowers on the ground.
Like gyms in Pokemon Go allowing for obtainable currency, planting flowers allows players to obtain free coins that can be used for in-app purchases, but getting just 1 coin requires 1000 steps. After playing since launch, I have only obtained 27 coins, but the battery-draining nature of keeping the app open does not make it any easier to get more. I have seen my phone battery go from 20 percent to 2 percent in seconds while planting flowers since it can only be done while keeping the app open. The shop also does not allow coins to be used on expanding the Pikmin storage number, or the nectar storage number, rendering the use of coins just to obtain more nectar for 100 coins almost useless. I am often overflowing with the 200 caps on flowers and nectar, so using the coins to buy more without that option being available to expand the amount I can carry feels very cheap.
The mushroom expeditions unlock at level 6, and you and a group of 4 other players can use your Pikmin to destroy mushrooms that pop up around the map and obtain fruit. Without another player, it is almost impossible to get a perfect score on these mushroom expeditions. There is also a flower planting mechanic that allows players to plant flowers visible on a shared map of the world, which encourages players to plant flowers together and cover the world in flowers. This makes the experience feel much more collaborative especially without a true meta to grind towards, making the game well suited to casual community play. Large flowers can bloom on certain landmarks around the world much like where gyms and Pokestops appear in Pokemon Go, however, it takes 300 flowers planted within their fixed radius to make the flowers bloom. Those flowers drop fruits with flower nectar matching the flower that bloomed. I enjoyed walking around campus to these different flower planting areas to make different kinds of flowers bloom, though I wish it was more clear as to how many of each flower is necessary to get the rarer types like blue roses or blue pansies.
Overall, Pikmin Bloom is a decent gateway into the Pikmin franchise, considering it did get me to try out the Wii port of Pikmin 2. The only real changes I would like to see are a way to plant flowers without the app open since it drains battery life way too quickly and a better way of obtaining different types of decor Pikmin.
