Nintendo and Niantic Are Working on a Pikmin AR Game for Mobile

Nintendo and Niantic – the studio behind the seminal AR game Pokemon GO – have announced that they’re currently working on another AR game, this time based on Pikmin.

Aimed at making walking more fun, the game will combine the tech behind Pokemon GO with a cast of bizarre and adorable Nintendo characters.

Details are thin on the ground right now, and it would be irresponsible for us to speculate, so we’ll just describe Pokemon GO and the Pikmin games and let you speculate for yourselves.

Pikmin GO?

Pokemon GO, in case you haven’t encountered it, is an AR app that sees players wandering the streets in search of Pokemon to capture, train, trade, and fight.

The mobile AR game will launch in 2021 and include gameplay activities designed to encourage more walking. Keep in mind the latest game in the Pikmin series is the Nintendo Switch’s Pikmin 3 Deluxe, a reworked version of the 2013 game first released for the Wii U. In our review, we said it takes all the charm and cuteness from the first two Pikmin games and adds a structured framework to those irresistible attributes. Little else is known about the Pikmin mobile AR game, but Nintendo said in a statement that Niantic’s augmented reality technology makes it possible for mobile gamers to "experience the world as if Pikmin are secretly living all around us". Based on the theme of making walking fun, Nintendo said its mission is to provide a "new experience" and it hopes that "the Pikmin and this app will become a partner in your life". Niantic, which is best known for 2016's smash-hit Pokemon Go, hasn't said which other games it will make with Nintendo, but it did mention in a blog post published on 25 March 2021 that details about additional upcoming apps will be revealed “in the coming months".

Pikmin, meanwhile, is a series of real-time strategy puzzlers in which you command a herd of strange, small creatures.

You can pre-register on the game’s official website to get updates as they roll in.

Reference:

• Maggie T. (March, 2021), Nintendo and Pokemon Go's Niantic announce a new Pikmin mobile AR game, Retrieved from: https://tinyurl.com/mzs2sxxs
• Ash M. (March, 2021), Nintendo and Niantic Are Working on a Pikmin AR Game for Mobile, Retrieved from: https://tinyurl.com/yjyu7u66