Pikmin

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Video game fandom
NamePikmin
Japanese nameピクミン
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Reveal date2001
Release dateOctober 26th, 2001 (Japan)
Platform(s)GameCube
Wii
Wii U
3DS
Switch
Smartphone
External link(s)https://pikmin.nintendo.com/
Related articles on Fanlore.

Pikmin is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and published by Nintendo. It is centered around the adventures of one or more explorers, higher no more than 3 cm, that arrive for various reasons on an unknown planet with a toxic atmosphere. Their job is to explore the planet and to recover everything important that they found, which can range from ship parts to castaways, thanks to the help of the Pikmin, a local species incredibly loyal, which is smaller than every captain and look like a carrot.

Canon

The Pikmin franchise is composed by 4 mainline games and 2 side-ones.

Many advergames, or minigames based on the franchise have been created by Nintendo.

Main series

  • Pikmin (2001[1]-2002[2] original Gamecube release, 2008[3]-2009[4]-2011[5] Wii re-release as New Play Control! Pikmin, 2023 Switch re-release as Pikmin 1). It has Olimar, from the planet Hocotate, as a protagonist. He crashed on the mysterious planet, and he has to find all the pieces of the missing ship in 30 days before the security system of his spacesuit shuts down.
  • Pikmin 2 (2004 original Gamecube release, 2009[6]-2012[7] Wii re-release as New Play Control! Pikmin 2, 2023 Switch re-release). It has Olimar and Louie, both from Planet Hocotate, as protagonist. Their job is to hunt for all the treasure in the mysterious planet, to save the company they work for from dept. Its President becomes a playable character in post-game.
  • Pikmin 3 (2013 original Wii U release, 2020 Switch enhanced re-release as Pikmin 3 Deluxe). It has Alph, Brittany and Charlie, all explorers from the planet Koppai, as protagonists. Their mission is to gather fruit on the mysterious planet, which they name PNF-404, to save their home one from a famine crisis. They also have to rescue Olimar, who has been kidnapped by a mysterious force and has a fundamental piece of the Koppaites' ship.
  • Pikmin 4 (2023 original Switch release). It has a rescue rookie, a player-created character (default name Pom), a space-dog named Oatchi, and a rescue squad from all around the galaxy, as protagonists. The rookie, on their first rescue mission, finds themselves stranded on PNF-404 after an S.O.S sent by Captain Olimar. With the rescue squad shattered and the ship badly damaged, the rookie, with the help of the Captain Sheperd's dog, must find enough sparklium to get the ship back up, find Olimar, find other people who are lost there, and find the rest of the rescue crew besides the captain (Erma Sheperd) and the communication responsible (Collin).

Side games

  • Hey! Pikmin (2017[8]-2018[9] 3DS release). It has Olimar as a protagonist. After crashing on a mysterious planet[10], he must gather the source of energy found there to return back to his home.
  • Pikmin Bloom (2021 Smartphone release). It has a player-created avatar as a protagonist. The main objective is to walk around the world to grow Pikmin, and send them to do various tasks.

Fandom

Seen as a low-priority franchise for Nintendo, with an unlucky release history, it started to gather momentum in the West from the 2020's onward, thanks to the reccomendation of youtubers and various memes about it. The Pikmin series held always a great degree of popularity in Japan.

In the first days of fandom, it was common to either prefer 1's or 2's playing style, and for fans of the 2 to disagree over their preference. This animosity died down during the pause between the games, and the following ones that expand the formula (3 of 1, 4 of 2).

Hey! Pikmin is often the butt of jokes for its percieved low quality, for its different gameplay (it's a platformer), and for releasing in a down period of the franchise.

Pikmin 4 was decleared "very close to completion" by Eurogamer in 2015, 1 year after the release of Pikmin 3 and 9 years before the actual release of the game[11]. The phrase "very close to completion" became a meme in the fandom.

Fiddlebert is a fan-created character that supposedly appeared in the first game, then being removed because of various obscenities he commits in game and politically-incorrect speech. The character, a badly-photoshopped Olimar that is green and smaller than him, is often ironically referenced in discussion, either by people pretending to not know what the controversy around him is, or to ironically declare him "The best character in the series". He's also lithuanian according to the fandom.

Another meme on this line of thought is "Moss is homophobic", where the space dog in the fourth game that accompanies Olimar is depicted as homophobic because her normal stare in game looks disgusted. The meme died out when it started being used by actual homophobes.

In the same vein as the term “skill issue,” fans took the term “dandori” that appeared in the fourth game and made the term “dandori issue.” The meaning is generally the same as “skill issue”: dismissing people who are perceived to not be skilled enough in video games, except it’s specific to the Pikmin series. Usage outside of the Pikmin series do exist, however.

Fanfiction

Fanfic was primarily published on Fanfiction.net until the third game release. From the fourth one, AO3 and Wattpad started to be the archives of reference. OCs, both for Captain and Pikmin, are common, as the creation of a new type of Pikmin (the most popular is Orange).

There are recourring themes found in Pikmin fanfiction, such as

  • Pikmin 1 Bad Ending: The stories follow up from the ending, when Olimar doesn't manage to get the ship parts in time and he becomes similar to Pikmin in shape. The fanfics focus on his thoughts, his sadness at not being able to go back to his family, and in more dark!fic the loss of his humanity
  • Louie left behind: Stories set in Pikmin 2, focused on the normal ending of the game where Olimar leaves the planet, forgetting Louie behind. They usually follow Louie's feelings and journeys on the planet, or Olimar and the president's efforts to bring him back
  • Hocotatians and Koopaites become friends: Stories where the main crew of the first and second game interact and become friends. Can happen on PNF-404[12] or on their home planet. With the release of the 4, the rescue squad and the interactions between them started to be included as well.
  • Pikmin-POV: Fanfics that follows the adventure of one or more Pikmin from their point of view.
  • Steve the Trooper: Stories that talk about a Red Pikmin, which is pretty clumsy. Popularized by a Chuggaaconroy Let's Play. More common on Fanfiction.net
  • Wraith!Character: One of the captains become a Wraith, a big type of monster

Common headcanon in fandom include Louie being on the autism spectrum, and for the sons of Olimar to be named after or similar to "Libra" (for the girl) and "Sagittarius" (for the boy). The names come from two essential ship pieces in the first game, who were gifted to Olimar by them (the one named Libra was given by his daughter, the Saggitarius by his son)

Shipping

By far the most popular ship is Olimar/Louie. Other ship which recieve a good amount of attention are the slash Alph/Louie and Dingo/Yonny, and the het Alph/Brittany.

Canon relationships, such as Olimar/Olimar's Wife, President/President's Wife and the one-sided Brittany/Charlie, are usually in the background, used as a source of angst or ignored.

Mods

Modding focus mostly on the first 2 main-line games, especially Pikmin 2.

Notable Fanworks

Fanart

Fanfics

Fanvids

Mods

Video essay

Wikis

External links and resources

Notes

  1. ^ Japan and North America
  2. ^ Europe
  3. ^ Japan
  4. ^ North America and Europe
  5. ^ South Korea
  6. ^ Japan, Europe and Australia
  7. ^ North America
  8. ^ Worldwide
  9. ^ South Korea
  10. ^ Different from PNF-404
  11. ^ https://www.eurogamer.net/pikmin-4-in-development-and-very-close-to-completion
  12. ^ More common
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