Nintendo's Pikmin 4 Demo Is Now Available On The Switch eShop

I'll definitely be trying out the demo, as I'm looking forward to Pikmin 4. My oldest son is looking forward to the demo as well.

I’ll be trying the demo out this weekend!

Let's go! This is unexpected!

Downloading now—excited to see how it performs! Hopefully solid… 🤞🏼

Go ahead and take all my money Nintendo!

Just finished Tears of the Kingdom after 145 hours. Currently catching up on unlocking Smash Ultimate fighters (never got around to it when the game came out) and may get started on Persona 5 Royal, but I will gladly drop everything for Pikmin 4 next month.

My body is extremely ready.

Downloading now, but I have to wait till tomorrow to play 😑

You know, I love demos, but at the same time, if I can’t get a game that moment, I always feel sucky after playing it, because I just want to play more if it turns out I love it, which you know, is the point still.

In short give me more lol.

@somnambulance It does carry over.

I haven't played Pikmin games before so I'll try this demo later to see why people are so excited.

@TenClaws We all have to wait to tomorrow to play b)c Nintendo has the slowest servers in the history of the internet. I think they bought them from AoL. 😝

Seriously 4.8GB should be 2-3 minutes in my house and it's been over an hour. It's ridiculous. Hopefully they pre-download the game. Like starting tomorrow if it's going to be this bloody slow

I love demos when I want to try a game. I know Pikmin 4 will be a good game so I'm cool waiting for the real release.

I won't be getting the demo because I just want to wait for the full game.

@Aeralto I'm 160 hours into TOTK and I'm not even half way through it.

Currently downloading on my own and my son’s Switch! I’ll have to wait till after work, but it’ll be a nice surprise for him when he wakes up! He’s currently enjoying Pikmin 1 and 2 and we both adore Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 3 Deluxe.

A bit too much talking and I’m not a fan of them seemingly retconning everything (not a big deal for a game like Pikmin but still feels odd) but so far I’m enjoying it. Looks really nice too

Boss spoiler:

This game is such a love letter to pikmin 2 fans I love it, its perfect in every way so far, hopefully the game is as big as it sounds cause there's so many returning enemies and even an interactable piklopedia (where you can actually fight the enemies now!)

Never been more disappointed , having never been a pikmin fan since cube days, I just couldn't get into it, however fast forward to Switch day and my missus LOVED pikmin 3 deluxe and finally had a game we could play together in split screen, her barking order at me and me doing as I was told (art imitating life), and we've been excitedly looking forward to 4 for a long time, imagine how disappointed we are to see co-op mode in 4 reduced to a basic assist mode , crosshairs on screen pinging pebbles at things, about as much fun as the Cappy assist mode in Mario Odyssey. it feels very much like a massive step backwards in terms of enjoyment factor and indeed more of a afterthought in features. She may buy it for herself as she also enjoyed PM3 solo, but also feels let down with no proper co-op mode that we can enjoy together

I'm very unsure about Pikmin 4. I was always interested in the franchise, but I heard, that the Pikmin games have some sort of time limit, that you have to finish them until time runs out.

@Its_Grim_Up_North co-op isn't just limited pebble pinging. It tells you in the demo. As you play and level up, you can increase the co-op abilities to be able to do more.

@AhabSpampurse non the less, the coop mode has been suspiciously info lacking right from the word go, in promos, the direct , the landing page of the product, heck even the latest overview trailer it's mentioned almost as a mere afterthought rather than a feature. it just does not feel like a solid part of the game, more a quick tacked on feature , gone from day 1 purchase to day 'pick it up on ebay in 6 months time' purchase sadly

I just watched the trailer and... oh my lord...

THEY BROUGHT BACK THE PIKLOPEDIA, COMPLETE WITH PIKPIK CARROT FUNCTIONALITY! AND YOU CAN REMATCH BOSSES TOO!

THE MAN-AT-LEGS IS BACK! I REPEAT, THE MAN-AT-LEGS IS BACK! THOSE MADMEN BROUGHT BACK THE MACHINE GUN SPIDER, MY ALL-TIME FAVOURITE PIKMIN BOSS!

This is literally everything I've dreamed of! I CANNOT WAIT!

Edit: Given my thoughts on Pikmin 4 after having played the game, this whole comment didn't really age that well in hindsight.

Sorry for the following rant, but I just have to get this off my chest.

To all of you complaining about co-op and pointer controls being more limited this time around, I'd rather have a more intricately designed and robust single-player campaign than a barebones one designed around co-op. It's fine to be slightly disappointed, but these comments saying they're probably going to skip the game because of these minor things just come across as ungrateful. Go back to Pikmin 3 Deluxe if you like co-op so badly.

Pikmin as a series is about more than just co-op and motion controls. Between the return of treasures, caves, the Piklopedia, the introduction of nighttime expeditions, and many familiar enemies and bosses making their grand return after roughly 20 years, this game has practically everything a longtime Pikmin fan like myself could have ever asked for. You can complain about how disappointing this game looks all you want. I'll be enjoying the game I've been waiting for since childhood on Day 1.

And besides, this game is nowhere near as big a step back from the previous game as Pikmin 3 was on Wii U. That game was not worth the 9 year wait. This game, however, is looking to be more than worth the wait. Now you know how us Pikmin 2 fans felt after waiting 9 years for a game with no Piklopedia, no caves, and a story you could beat in less than 10 hours.

Once the irritating hand holding was over with, I loved the demo personally. Looks and plays like a dream. After playing 1 and 2 again in quick succession, the finesse and polish they've given to the mechanics is superb and much appreciated.

Roll on July. I'm more excited for this than I was for TOTK.

Lack of (proper) co-op is baffling after the value it added to Pikmin 3 Deluxe. The series started to go all in on multi-tasking with multiple captains, culminating in co-op, so why take that step backwards? I think they're underestimating how many siblings, partners etc. 2-player introduced to the series.

@bosh Exactly that, I've still never played PM3 deluxe solo, but co-op was great, i'm sure my missus will enjoy PM4, I just don't imagine sitting watching her play it will be that enthralling, and I thought Nintendo were all about play together, it's just baffling as you say.

Loving the first proper part after the tutorial. Wondering how the coop will be since i might play it with my faughter that way but the 1v1 seems really cool. Dog is nice. Control feels better than ever.

Is this demo only available in the US? I’m in the UK and the listing for Pikmin 4 on the eShop (when checking on my phone) doesn’t show any demo being available.

I'm not sure if not being able to choose a gender for your character is absolute insanity or a smart solution to not step on anyone's toes...

At any rate, while I do understand why some posters feel like it was very handholdy, you gotta remember that this is the beginning of the game and it will probably not be a problem further on in the game. The game does seem much easier in some aspects, but there also are some tough enemies so I don't think the game will be totally toothless and lacking in challenge.

I still maintain my opinion that adding a custom protag in Pikmin is a net negative.

@GravyThief I'm from UK and I checked the eShop this morning (on my Switch), and the demo is available. I've downloaded it so will be jumping into it this evening.

The website version of eShop isn't always 100% reliable from my experience. If you check the 'coming soon' page there, chances are Omori is still listed and that already came out last year!

Played the demo last night until 50 unobtanium. Bor-ing. I’m a huge Pikmin guy but playing fetch w/ your dog thru all that backstory probably wasn’t the way to go. And there is no co-op, it’s “second player ASSIST” that my wife rightly plainly stated “that’s Mario Galaxy”. It isn’t CO-OP if 1 player is playing the main character and the other is tagging along w/ some bare minimal unnecessary assistance. 😝

Already pre-ordered and still looking forward to the main game but the demo was a mistake. There should be, oh I don’t know, Pikmin in a Pikmin demo maybe?🤷🏻‍♂️

@OorWullie I’m also at about 160 hours in TotK and I really do think that could be about halfway w/ all the busy work. I’m on my 5th dungeon and have the master sword so my main stuff is nearly done but I’m still chasing Penn around and taking stable pics. And I’m not even counting korok seeds nobody needs all of those. I still have a few dozen shrines to do. I’m just going to be done by next week though before vacation b/c Pikmin after that.👍

@NinjaNicky Switch and Wii U downloads have always been slow but yeah this was especially slow. The Switch dock is a few feet away from the router and my wife and I were speedtesting 225 & 275 on our phones on the couch. Not everything needs to be as fast as Steam but even 10-15 minutes would be slow for 2.8GB. I just think their servers max out at 100 speed or something and the world is running on 1,000. I have 300 in my house b/c I don’t think anyone needs (to pay for) more than a GB a minute.

Oof, No Co-op like Pikmin 3 on Switch. That’s a big disappointment

I just want something as cool as bingo battles.. :/
this is funnier than campaing co-op...

@AmplifyMJ see above, in case the twitter link isn’t working for you. 😁

Are your kids still young enough to make use of that 2nd player assist mode? I think they must be too old by now but every family is different. I think my kids and I will all be playing this solo like Zelda TotK and my wife probably won’t watch any of us. I was hoping to play with her but not like this.🤷🏻‍♂️

@rjejr I've only done 2 of the Regional Phenomena, I've still got 7 Dragon Tears to collect, my shrine count is around 75 and my Korok count is around 870 short of a full house. I have unlocked all four fairies though, my side quest count is pretty high and much of the depths have been traversed.

I have taken a really peculiar path through the game. Probably far different to the one I would have taken had I never played BOTW. Becauee of the many hours I spent with that , I never expected to do so much exploring and messing around in the sequel but I think I've done even more.

I took Oatchi for a bath before he was ready. Feel bad now...

This game looks very big. I loved how Nintendo make it this game so big. You can see it.

Yikes. I absolutely adore the other three Pikmin games, but this demo makes me really not want to bother with 4. Just from the brief time I spent with it, it's stuffed to the brim with all of Nintendo's worst impulses. The screen is constantly cluttered with tutorials and useless messages, the game literally stops you every 10 seconds for sloooooooow, extremely pointless cutscenes (jfc, having to watch Poochy dig for like 30 seconds... why???), and all the characters talk and talk and talk ad nauseum while saying nothing at all (just like every single character in ToTK!). You have to press the A button 500 times just to get back to playing the game for 10 seconds before it interrupts you again--except now there's also a pause after each dialogue screen that prevents you from proceeding, so it also takes even longer to get through all that pointless nonsense. Why are so many modern games like this now? Why do they all think they need these endless cutscenes and to interrupt you constantly to slowly explain things they've already explained like five or more times? It's supposed to be a game. Why won't you just let me f'ing play it?

@OorWullie "I think I've done even more"

Well there is a whole lot more to do. I was kind of disappointed about the sky level, it's so limited if they took it out of the game I'd hardly notice, but the underground area is a lot to explore. Not much to do, the yiga quest may be about it, but it's big. The stables also seem to have a bit more w/ Penn and the poster frames as well.

NL even wrote an article about it.

https://www.nintendolife.com/features/soapbox-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdoms-busier-hyrule-is-making-me-miss-botw

I prefer it this way myself, after spending 300 hours playing Elden Ring. I think I like ER better b/c leveling up gives me purpose, and it has a much better horse, but TotK is calmer.

I’d like to say I played the demo, but I feel like all I did was hit the button to skip pointless dialogue. You’d get into the game for a minute or two, and then it stops, pulling you out of the moment for a cut-scene in which nothing but drivel is said. I gave up frustrated and bored after an hour

I played the whole demo. It starts with alot of talking and the upgrades are confusing at first.

The dungeons are a ton of fun. Somehow I was unable to enable motion controls. It seems like the option was ignored.

After getting around with the dog and into the first area, it is great. The giant area is awesome and that you can move the onion while doing progress is fun. Also neat that you enlarge the onion is a nice touch.

@RareFan They left an article saying Pikmin 4 features a rewind mechanic, so if you really want you can rewind a day. They said it's an option. I think it will be okay though.

For a lot of people though, the time mechanic works well and isn't too much to handle. You just have to learn with it but you likely will. But I'm speaking from Pikmin 1 only, and I think that one is more punishing than the others, but idk. It's not too bad or anything as long as you plan the days carefully.

It can be difficult for some people though. If that turns true for you, sounds like the rewind mechanic will work for you.

If you want to give it a go, I'd still say try the demo before buying.

I'll be giving the demo a go sometime soon. I don't mind about co-op. Hopefully it'll be fun.

Thanks for the comments, guys. Given the excessive amount of talking, cutscenes and handholding that you all described I will not be downloading. These things turn me off a game completely.

Also I'm with the IR pointer guy. I miss it so much, now that NL made an article about it it popped back into my brain. Great pointer in Switch 2 pretty plz, Nintendo...

@Spanky84 I don't agree with everything you said, but I do share a general sentiment that Nintendo needs to aim for 60FPS benchmarks with their next-generation AAA games.