Do we need more Pikmin types?

I liked the idea of clinging Pikmin. Pikmin that could climb up to areas that other Pikmin couldn't reach. Realistically it makes sense as well, since "clingy" plants do exist. Another perk could be that they are less likely to, or even impossible to be shook off by enemies.

The thing is that we already have Yellow Pikmin, who are thrown high, and Winged, who can fly, so this would require a bit of balancing. Yellow Pikmin's height advantage was already broken a little bit thanks to winged pikmin, but that was mostly due to engine and map design, so its an issue I feel could be addressed. Clingy pikmin wouldn't be able to just climb up anything, only certain surfaces, so a clingy wall may be to high for a yellow pikmin, or a non-clingy wall may be to high for a clingy pikmin. Winged Pikmin may have the same issue here, so I feel like they just need to balance them with map design and such.

Clingy Pikmin may also have some abilities such as not being thrown off while carrying items near things such as blowhogs, and in all, being impervious to wind based attacks. (since they stick to the ground.) As wind-based attacks are something common to the series, but no pikmin are invincible to it (I think purple might give resistance to it.)

That was one of my ideas, but in reality to answer you're question, I don't think there should be any new pikmin yet. We have plenty of strategy in types as is, and now I want to see a game based off of map design and replay-ability.

I don't see the point of any new Pikmin. Bulbmin, puffmin, etc. can return, but I don't want any brand new ones.

Maybe if they created a pikmin that could stretch its stem to solve puzzles. If there's a giant boss that takes a long time to beat up, and there's a hook in the area the stretchmin could tie their stems to, they could create a tripwire for the boss to trip over, making it easier to attack. If they don't bring winged pikmin back (which would be sad), there could be puzzles where you'd have to have stretchmin grab certain objects that can't easily be reached (like a strawberry with a cliff all around it), and pull it towards you. They could also whip enemies from a distance, but they wouldn't be able to back away fast enough for the enemy to eat them. Just a random idea.

What I loved about the 2 new Pikmin in Pikmin 3 was that they fundamentally changed how you manage Pikmin. The Rock Pikmin especially.



The simple fact that they plonk off of an enemy when thrown instead of latching on changes so much about how you fight with them.

And that's exactly what I want from any future new Pikmin types. Don't just give them an immunity to another hazard. Make them actually useful in a lot of different scenarios.



I also feel like the old types could use some more reworking.



I always felt like blue Pikmin were very uninteresting.

In the first two games blue Pikmin were just like red Pikmin, except you can take them to places you can't take red Pikmin. Their behavior was the same.

Pikmin 3 at least gave them the ability to swim through the water to reach high-floating enemies, making them essentially like winged pikmin in the water. But most of the time they still just function as keys to new areas.



If they once again scrap the 2 new types in Pikmin 4, re-use the Reds, Yellows and Blues, and come up with 2 new varieties... then the Rocks and Wings will be dearly missed.

I feel like there's still so much you can do with those 2. I feel like they have much more potential than even the Yellows and Blues.

So what if they replaced the blues instead of the new types? Or blues AND yellows? I'm not saying that I would necessarily want that, but it would be interesting to think about.


You'd need to keep the Reds. You need to have at least one type with the standard abilities.

We can't have more than 5 types though. That's just too much to manage at once.



The only way I could see more than 5 types working is if you could only take out 5 different types at once. But that would still feel needlessly complicated.
I mean at the rate that Pikmin 3 introduces new Pikmin types it would take forever to get them all. By the time you get the Blues in Pikmin 3 there's not much they can do with them anymore since it's so late in the game already.
Anyway, I digress.